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SACRAMENTO — Sacramento County supervisors Tuesday approved a preliminary pact with the East Bay Municipal Utilities District that could end a decades-old dispute over American River water rights. 

The county, the district, the city of Sacramento and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will spend six months working out details of the agreement to build and operate a joint pumping station to take water from the Sacramento River near Freeport. 

The dispute dates to a 1970 federal agreement giving the East Bay district the right to take nearly 49 billion gallons of water annually from the American River for its 1.2 million customers. Environmental organizations, along with Sacramento officials, successfully fought the district with a series of lawsuits, claiming the diversion would hurt recreation and fishing. 

Under the new agreement, the utility would pump up to 100 million gallons a day from the Sacramento River and divert it to the Folsom South Canal through a new pipeline. 

Sacramento County would take up to 70 million gallons a day for the southern part of the county, and the city of Sacramento 10 million to 15 million gallons a day for residents in the southern part of the city. 

The cost of the project will depend on size of the pipeline, said Keith Devore, the county’s water resources director. The county and city also will build a joint water treatment plant nearby, he said. 

Environmentalists want to make sure the diversion doesn’t hurt the Sacramento River or the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in dry years, said Jim Jones, who filed the first lawsuit 27 years ago on behalf of the Save the American River Association. 

“We have a lot of hard work ahead,” Jones said. However, he added, “I feel good about this.” 

The agreement comes after eight months of talks. Details were hashed out during a meeting last month in the Washington, D.C., offices of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. 

The utility district board will consider the preliminary agreement at a Jan. 23 meeting.