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The Nevada Supreme Court on July 7th issued an order adopting rules that provide for the specialized education and designation of district court judges adjudicating Nevada water law cases in a fair, just, and timely manner. The rules become effective six months from the date of the order. Click here to read the order.

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The Central Nevada Regional Water Authority (CNRWA) and Humboldt River Basin Water Authority (HRBWA) were recently granted $15 million to purchase and retire groundwater rights from willing sellers. 

Applications are now open for willing sellers to apply to voluntarily retire their water rights in these basins.

The program, the Nevada Water Conservation and Infrastructure Initiative, is meant to purchase and permanently retire groundwater rights from willing sellers in groundwater basins with insufficient water supply to serve all water rights and domestic wells. 

Funding is to be used for over-appropriated and over-pumped groundwater basins in the Central Hydrographic Region and Humboldt River Basin. 

Applications for the Humboldt River Basin are available here: https://hrbwa.com/grrp/

Applications for the  Central Nevada Hydrographic Region are available here: https://cnrwa.com/grrp/

Applications are also available in most member county administrative offices.

The deadline to apply is January 22, 2024. 

A list of over-pumped and over-appropriated basins is online here: https://cnrwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Over-pumped-and-over-aproppriated-groundwater-basisns-11_22_23.pdf

Over-pumped basins are allocated $900 per acre-foot, and over-appropriated basins that are not over-pumped are valued at $350 per acre-foot. Water rights in the Diamond Valley Basin are valued at $800 per acre-foot. 

“The program addresses and avoids conflicts with existing rights or detriments to the public interest and natural resources,” said Jeff Fontaine, the Initiative’s director. “Retiring groundwater rights will help stabilize groundwater levels.”

Funding priorities are for retiring irrigation rights in over-pumped basins subject to curtailment. Purchasing groundwater rights in other over-appropriated basins will also be considered if such purchases mitigate conflicts with existing rights or if there are detriments to natural resources.

Groundwater right holders in the portions of the Humboldt River Basin and Central Hydrographic Region located in CNRWA and HRBWA member counties are eligible to apply. Those counties include Churchill, Elko, Esmeralda, Eureka, Humboldt, Lander, Nye, Pershing and White Pine.

“We encourage those interested in retiring their water rights in these basins to apply sooner rather than later, as it is expected that available funds will exceed the program’s demand,” Fontaine added.

Additional information is available online: https://cnrwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Water-Rights-Retirement-Program-FAQ-final11_14_23.pdf

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There are new forms for Application for Extension of Time for Filing Proof of Completion of
Work (POC) and Application for Extension of Time for Filing Proof of Application of Water to Beneficial Use (PBU). The new forms for Application of Extension of Time for filing PBU are differentiated by manner of use (MOU). Additional questions requesting more information have been added to fulfill the requirements of NAC 533 and to provide Nevada Division of Water Resources (DWR) with the necessary information to consider an Application for Extension of Time for Filing Proof of Completion of Work and Application for Extension of Time for Filing Proof of Application of Water to Beneficial Use. For any water right requiring a totalizing meter or measuring device as part of the terms of the permits, the Permittee will be expected to submit accurate measurements of water placed to beneficial use, and this information is necessary for any PBU extension form to be considered. Please use the correct form based upon the MOU of the Permit you are seeking to extend. Previous forms will no longer be accepted after December 31, 2022.

The new forms can be found in the Forms page on DWR’s website http://water.nv.gov/waterforms.aspx?water=Water%20Right or at the DWR office. You can also contact DWR at (775) 684-2800 with questions about which form to use.

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The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (Division) has decided to not present Proposed Regulation R119-20 which sets forth a process for the State Environmental Commission to classify a surface water of the State or segment thereof as a water of extraordinary ecological, aesthetic or recreational value (EAW) and establishes provisions for antidegradation protection of Nevada surface water resources, to the SEC for adoption as a permanent regulation at the June 15^th hearing.  Instead, the regulatory petition will be changed to an Information Item on the June 15^th hearing agenda to provide exposure and seek input from the commissioners related to the overall intent of the proposed regulation.

According to NDEP comments provided during the workshops and submitted later indicate further revisions and clarification are necessary to resolve several outstanding issues.  NDEP has started to revise certain aspects of the proposed regulation in response to those helpful comments and suggestions that were provided.  A couple of significant preliminary revisions that have been made by NDEP are:

EAW Nominations

Petitions to nominate a water as an EAW will follow one process which is to file the petition with the SEC pursuant to NAC 445B.886.  NDEP will be seeking advice from the SEC at the June hearing on the extent and level of detail of information and material that would need to accompany a nomination petition.  The nominating party would be responsible for assembling all information necessary to nominate a water for classification as an EAW and be responsible for any associated costs.

NDEP will also be seeking input from Commissioners as to what information and material would be expected to be included in a regulatory petition that would be developed if the SEC decided to initiate rulemaking proceedings on the nominated water.  A LCB prepared regulation to classify (designate) the nominated water as an EAW would be heard at a subsequent SEC hearing.  Although not explicitly stated in the regulation, the petition would follow the administrative rule-making process as is currently done for all water quality related regulations.

Antidegradation Provisions  

NDEP is still proposing to retain tiers of antidegradation protection with the following changes:

Tier 2 – High quality water levels will be maintained and protected using the existing RMHQ program.  The process of developing RMHQs would be adopted into the proposed regulation as a way for NDEP to satisfy antidegradation protection requirements when the level of water quality for a parameter is better than the water quality standard.

Tier 1 – Would be applicable to effluent-dominated waters (on a parameter-by-parameter basis) except when RMHQs exist for certain parameters.  A definition for effluent-dominated water has been developed for inclusion in the proposed regulation.

Incorporating the concepts behind RMHQs into the regulation will allow some other major issues to be addressed such as: developing a threshold that defines a better water quality level (e.g., a certain % below the water quality standard level); evaluating the impacts of a discharge from the perspective of how the levels of water quality in the receiving water may be altered.

Other issues planned to be discussed internally before making revisions to draft regulation include:  what situations trigger an antidegradation review during a permit renewal; who should do the antidegradation review for efficiency reasons; and how to address situations where water quality data may need to be collected to develop a RMHQ.

NDEP will also address other issues and matters as they work through the process of revising and refining R119-20.  NDEP will be requesting a time extension from LCB for adoption of the draft regulation and will organize and schedule a meeting to discuss the changes as well as responses to comments submitted.

Proposed Regulation R119-20 is available at: https://hrbwa.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/NDEP-R119-20P.pdf

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The Administrator of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (the Division) has decided to issue renewed Water Pollution Control Permit NEV0095112 to Marigold Mining Company.  This Permit authorizes the construction, operation, and closure of approved mining facilities in Humboldt and Lander Counties, Nevada.  The Division has been provided with sufficient information, in accordance with Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) 445A.350 through 445A.447, to assure that the waters of the State will not be degraded by this operation, and that public safety and health will be protected. Click here to read NDEP’s notice, permit and fact sheet.

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The Administrator of the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (the Division) has decided to issue renewed Water Pollution Control Permit NEV0095111 to Nevada Gold Mines LLC.  This Permit authorizes the construction, operation, and closure of approved mining facilities in Eureka and Lander Counties, Nevada.  The Division has been provided with sufficient information, in accordance with Nevada Administrative Code (NAC) 445A.350 through 445A.447, to assure that the waters of the State will not be degraded by this operation, and that public safety and health will be protected. Click here to see the Division’s notice, permit and fact sheet.

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