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

H.R. 972 would expand the Sloan Canyon National Conservation area in Nevada by about 9,000 acres, subject to valid existing rights. The bill also would direct the Department of the Interior (DOI) to grant the Southern Nevada Water Authority rights-of-way for the construction and operation of a water pipeline and related facilities within and outside the conservation area. The rights-of-way would be provided at no cost to the water authority, subject to environmental laws, and would include the right to excavate and dispose of sand, gravel, and other materials resulting from building the water infrastructure project.

The public land that would be added to the conservation area and used for the rights-of-way is currently withdrawn from mineral leasing, and any recreational activities that currently take place would not be affected; thus, under the bill the federal government would not forgo any receipts from those activities.

Using information from DOI, CBO estimates that the department would collect about $90,000 in fees from the water authority for a required analysis of potential effects on endangered species in the area. Those fees are recorded in the federal budget as offsetting receipts (that is, as reductions in direct spending) and would be available to spend without further appropriation for land management activities within the conservation area. On that basis, CBO estimates that enacting the bill would have a negligible effect on net direct spending over the 2025-2035 period.

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Lilia Ledezma. The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.