Nevada ranchers, environmental groups and American Indian tribes are sounding the alarm over legislation they say could drain the water supply from rural areas throughout the state.

They’re worried about Assembly Bill 30 in the Nevada Legislature after negotiations over arcane language in the bill broke down in recent days.

Backers say the bill is an attempt to make it easier for the state engineer to impose monitoring, management and mitigation plans, called 3M plans, on people applying for water rights throughout the state.

But opponents say the wording of the bill would tilt the balance of power when it comes to interpreting Nevada water law in favor of urban and suburban developers and against ranch communities, American Indian tribes and ecological resources.

In a hearing on the bill before the Senate Natural Resources Committee, Bradley Crowell, director of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said 3M plans would give state officials more tools to manage the water supply in one of the nation’s driest and fastest growing states.

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“We don’t want to reject applications outright if they can be legitimately managed,” Crowell said.

A version of the bill passed the Democratic-ran Assembly on April 23 by a 31-9, party line vote. But at that point ranchers and environmentalists expected negotiations over language would continue as the bill worked its way through the Senate.

Those negotiations, which include the state’s Department of Conservation and Water Resources and Southern Nevada Water Authority, broke down in recent days.

The busted talks prompted fears among the opposition that SNWA was seeking to push through a version that would make it easier to develop a controversial, $15 billion pipeline from northeastern Nevada to Las Vegas.

“If AB30 can’t have the right language then we need to scrap it and come back next session,” said Laurie Thom, chariman of the Yerington Paiute tribe.

Thom said she traveled to Carson City on Thursday to oppose the bill to ensure that tribes, whose interests have historically been pushed aside, have a voice when it comes to Nevada’s natural resources.

“There was no consultation with the tribes on how this was going to happen,” Thom said. “I’m trying to tell the state and the state engineer that those consultations need to happen.”

She said tribal members have already endured water problems on their reservation. For example, she said the land no longer supports taboosi plants which were once so closely associated with tribal people in the Walker River basin that they were known as “root eaters.”

“We’ve lost our namesake,” she said. That’s important to us, that’s who we are as a people.”

The bill is now on the Senate clerk’s desk and could be amended, voted on or left to expire at the next bill deadline on Friday.

“What we’ve got on the desk in the senate today to most of the stakeholders is unacceptable,” said Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, who joined the coalition of typically Democratic-leaning environmentalists at a protest in Carson City. “At this point we’re probably better off saying leave the bill on the desk.”

Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro, D-Las Vegas, did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment on the bill. Assemblywoman Heidi Swank, D-Las Vegas, chair of the Assembly Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining Committee, where the bill’s legislative journey originated, also did not respond to a request to talk about the bill.

Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, which has been fighting against the proposed Las Vegas pipeline, said he’s hopeful Nevada’s urban lawmakers won’t overlook the state’s rural communities or the environment when it comes to managing water.

“I don’t think we want any part of this state to be a water colony for another part of this state,” said Roerink. “We’re all Nevadans, we’re all in this together.”

Benjamin Spillman covers the outdoors and environment in Northern Nevada, from backcountry skiing in the Sierra to the latest from Lake Tahoe's ecosystem. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.