H.R. 972: Sloan Canyon Conservation and Lateral Pipeline Act

H.R. 972 updates the legal map for the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area and increases its size from 48,438 acres to 57,728 acres. On paper, that is a significant conservation expansion. It means thousands of additional acres in southern Nevada would fall under the rules for this protected landscape, which is known for desert habitat, recreation, and cultural resources.

But the bill is not just about preservation. It also requires the Interior Department, through the Bureau of Land Management, to grant a right-of-way to the Southern Nevada Water Authority within one year for the Horizon Lateral Pipeline and related facilities. That includes temporary and permanent pipeline infrastructure and, outside the conservation area boundary, related powerline, facility, and access road rights-of-way. The bill also waives rents and other charges that would normally apply to those rights-of-way.

The measure tries to balance those two goals by setting some limits. The pipeline cannot be located through or under designated wilderness, and construction cannot permanently harm surface resources in the conservation area. The Interior Secretary can add reasonable terms to protect conservation resources. Still, the bill overrides some normal land-use planning processes and gives the water authority a more direct path than it would otherwise have.

Another important piece is that the bill protects existing utility corridors and previously approved rights-of-way inside the expanded conservation area. It also allows new utility rights-of-way in existing transportation and utility corridors if environmental review and other legal requirements are met. In plain terms, the bill expands protected land but keeps the door open for infrastructure in places the government has already identified as utility routes. That makes this a compromise bill: more conservation acreage, but also more certainty for water and utility development.