Alva Review-Courier -

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada's top water official has authority to decide how underground supplies are allocated, the state Supreme Court said this week, in a ruling that could kill a long-stalled proposal to build a sprawling master-planned city north of Las Vegas and boost chances of survival for an endangered species of fish native only to natural springs in the area.

The unanimous ruling Thursday by the state high court followed oral arguments in August about whether the state engineer could protect the Muddy River drainage basin and habitat of the endangered Moapa dace by considering several a...