CENTRAL NEVADA REGIONAL WATER AUTHORITY UPDATE

By Jeff Fontaine | Executive Director | CNRWA | ccjfontaine@gmail.com

This BDR will be one of the more complex and controversial water issues debated this Session. The Central Nevada Regional Water Authority’s policy is that conjunctive management of hydrologically connected water resources is generally appropriate and warranted but may not be in select cases and should only be implemented after a complete vetting with local and public coordination of how issues and impacts will be worked through. The policy also states that conjunctive management is important to protect existing water rights and the integrity of the prior appropriation system and should occur at the most local level possible where the unique set of conditions is well understood and where interested water users can efficiently and fully participate and remain informed.

Another conjunctive water management measure, BDR #208, authorizes the State Engineer to create, modify, and jointly administer basin boundaries. BDR #208 is in response to the 8th Judicial District Court ruling on State Engineer Order 1309 for the Lower White River Flow System (LWRFS). The ruling now on appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court states that the Nevada State Engineer had no authority based in statute to create the LWRFS superbasin out of multiple distinct, already established hydrographic basins and that the Nevada State Engineer lacked the statutory authority to conjunctively manage this LWRFS superbasin. The threshold issue that will need to be addressed is how the priority of water rights in individual hydrographic basins would be managed in a combined basin, i.e., a senior right water right in a single basin may no longer have the same priority in a superbasin.

Groundwater management planning in Critical Management Areas (CMA) is another important water issue that will be considered. Diamond Valley in Eureka County is the only basin in Nevada that has been designated as a CMA. BDR #595 is in response to the Nevada Supreme Court ruling last spring that the State Engineer has the discretion to approve a groundwater management plan (GMP) that departs from the doctrine of prior appropriations. The State Engineer’s approval of the Diamond Valley GMP was appealed to the District Court, which found that the approval was unlawful. The District Court’s finding was then appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court which opined that Nevada statutes give the State Engineer discretion to approve a GMP that does not strictly comply with Nevada’s statutory water scheme or strictly adhere to the doctrine of prior appropriation. While the Diamond Valley GMP is specific to Diamond Valley it is possible that other CMA’s will be designated in the future prompting the need for clarification on the parameters of a CMA.

CNRWA has also requested the following BDR’s for the upcoming Legislative Session: funding for counties to prepare and update water resource plans, authority for a board of county commissioners to establish a groundwater board for areas designated as a groundwater basin by the State Engineer, assuring that special groundwater assessments are being used for administration of designated groundwater basins, and funding for the voluntary retirement of water rights in overpumped groundwater basins.