Southern Nevada Water Authority’s holdings in Spring Valley now include more than 23,000 acres, 4,000 sheep, 1,700 cows, a working hay farm, and the rights to more than 13 billion gallons of surface water and groundwater each year. The authority also has acquired more than 1 million acres of federal grazing rights, including a sheep range that stretches more than halfway to Las Vegas, some 250 miles away. The purchases were made to support a plan to tap groundwater across eastern Nevada. By as early as 2013, the authority hopes to start sending water south through a pipeline that is expected to cost from $2 billion to $3.5 billion. 

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