I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 972
To amend the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area Act to adjust the
boundary of the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Ms. T
ITUSintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area
Act to adjust the boundary of the Sloan Canyon National
Conservation Area, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sloan Canyon Con-4
servation and Lateral Pipeline Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:50 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H972.IH H972
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•HR 972 IH
(1) CONSERVATION AREA .—The term ‘‘Con-1
servation Area’’ means the Sloan Canyon National 2
Conservation Area. 3
(2) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 4
the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Di-5
rector of the Bureau of Land Management. 6
SEC. 3. SLOAN CANYON NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA 7
BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENT. 8
(a) B
OUNDARYADJUSTMENT.— 9
(1) M
AP.—Section 603(4) of the Sloan Canyon 10
National Conservation Area Act (16 U.S.C. 460qqq– 11
1(4)) is amended by striking ‘‘map entitled ‘South-12
ern Nevada Public Land Management Act’ and 13
dated October 1, 2002’’ and inserting ‘‘map entitled 14
‘Proposed Sloan Canyon Expansion’ and dated May 15
20, 2024’’. 16
(2) A
CREAGE.—Section 604(b) of the Sloan 17
Canyon National Conservation Area Act (16 U.S.C. 18
460qqq–2(b)) is amended by striking ‘‘48,438’’ and 19
inserting ‘‘57,728’’. 20
(b) R
IGHT-OF-WAY.—Section 605 of the Sloan Can-21
yon National Conservation Area Act (16 U.S.C. 460qqq– 22
3) is amended by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(h) H
ORIZONLATERALPIPELINERIGHT-OF- 24
W
AY.— 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:50 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H972.IH H972
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 3
•HR 972 IH
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding sections 1
202 and 503 of the Federal Land Policy and Man-2
agement Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712, 1763) and 3
subject to valid existing rights and paragraph (3), 4
the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Di-5
rector of the Bureau of Land Management (referred 6
to in this subsection as the ‘Secretary’), shall, not 7
later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this 8
subsection, grant to the Southern Nevada Water Au-9
thority (referred to in this subsection as the ‘Author-10
ity’), not subject to the payment of rents or other 11
charges, the temporary and permanent water pipe-12
line infrastructure, and outside the boundaries of the 13
Conservation Area, powerline, facility, and access 14
road rights-of-way depicted on the map for the pur-15
poses of— 16
‘‘(A) performing geotechnical investigations 17
within the rights-of-way; and 18
‘‘(B) constructing and operating water 19
transmission and related facilities. 20
‘‘(2) E
XCAVATION AND DISPOSAL .— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Authority may, 22
without consideration, excavate and use or dis-23
pose of sand, gravel, minerals, or other mate-24
rials from the tunneling of the water pipeline 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:50 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H972.IH H972
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 4
•HR 972 IH
necessary to fulfill the purpose of the rights-of- 1
way granted under paragraph (1). 2
‘‘(B) M
EMORANDUM OF UNDER -3
STANDING.—Not later than 30 days after the 4
date on which the rights-of-way are granted 5
under paragraph (1), the Secretary and the Au-6
thority shall enter into a memorandum of un-7
derstanding identifying Federal land on which 8
the Authority may dispose of materials under 9
subparagraph (A) to further the interests of the 10
Bureau of Land Management. 11
‘‘(3) R
EQUIREMENTS.—A right-of-way issued 12
under this subsection shall be subject to the fol-13
lowing requirements: 14
‘‘(A) The Secretary may include reasonable 15
terms and conditions, consistent with section 16
505 of the Federal Land Policy and Manage-17
ment Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1765), as are nec-18
essary to protect Conservation Area resources. 19
‘‘(B) Construction of the water pipeline 20
shall not permanently adversely affect conserva-21
tion area surface resources. 22
‘‘(C) The right-of-way shall not be located 23
through or under any area designated as wilder-24
ness.’’. 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:50 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H972.IH H972
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 5
•HR 972 IH
(c) PRESERVATION OF TRANSMISSION AND UTILITY 1
C
ORRIDORS ANDRIGHTS-OF-WAY.—The expansion of the 2
Conservation Area boundary under the amendment made 3
by subsection (a)— 4
(1) shall be subject to valid existing rights, in-5
cluding land within a designated utility transmission 6
corridor or a transmission line right-of-way grant 7
approved by the Secretary in a record of decision 8
issued before the date of the enactment of this Act; 9
(2) shall not preclude— 10
(A) any activity authorized in accordance 11
with a designated corridor or right-of-way re-12
ferred to in paragraph (1), including the oper-13
ation, maintenance, repair, or replacement of 14
any authorized utility facility within the cor-15
ridor or right-of-way; or 16
(B) the Secretary from authorizing the es-17
tablishment of a new utility facility right-of-way 18
within an existing designated transportation 19
and utility corridor referred to in paragraph 20
(1)— 21
(i) in accordance with the National 22
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 23
U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and other applicable 24
laws; and 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:50 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H972.IH H972
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 6
•HR 972 IH
(ii) subject to such terms and condi-1
tions as the Secretary determines to be ap-2
propriate. 3
(d) M
ANAGEMENT OF THE CONSERVATIONAREA.— 4
Except as provided in the amendment made by subsection 5
(b), nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 6
Act shall modify the management of the Conservation 7
Area pursuant to section 605 of the Sloan Canyon Na-8
tional Conservation Area Act (16 U.S.C. 460qqq–3). 9
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:50 Mar 03, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H972.IH H972
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS