The Nevada Supreme Court on February 25th issued an Advance Opinion reversing the district court’s decision, which invalidated Order #1293A issued by the State Engineer that required the relinquishment of two acre-feet of water rights for every new domestic well drilled.
AB5 & AB6 to be heard by Assembly Natural Resources Committee Monday March 1
Assembly Bill (AB)5 and AB6 which were requested by the Division of Water Resources will heard by the Assembly Committee on Natural Resources on Monday March 1st. The Committee hearing begins at 4 p.m. AB5 makes various changes to provisions relating to judicial review of orders and decisions of the State Engineer. CNRWA is concerned that it would reduce affected water users’ ability to challenge decisions of the State Engineer in Nevada state courts. AB6 revises provisions governing an application for a temporary change relating to appropriated water. Specifically, AB6 makes the holding of a hearing on an application for a temporary change to the place of diversion, manner of use or place of use of water application discretionary which CNRWA does not oppose.
Information on how you can watch the Committee hearing and also provide testimony can be found here.
Nevada Supreme Court to conduct a public hearing on March 3rd to consider the creation of a Commission to Study the Adjudication of Water Law Cases in Nevada’s Courts
The Nevada Supreme Court will conduct a hearing on the petition filed by James W. Hardesty, Chief Justice requesting that the Nevada Supreme Court consider creating a Commission to Study the Adjudication of Water Law Cases in Nevada’s Courts. The public hearing will be held March 3, 2021 at 3:00 pm. Click here to see the Order and information on how to participate in the hearing and how to submit written comments.
Proposed draft regulations relating to administrative hearings and other proceedings before the State Engineer are available for review
Proposed draft regulations of legislative Council Bureau (LC File No. R125-20) relating to administrative hearings and other proceedings before the State Engineer are available on LCB’s website at:
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Register/2020Register/R125-20P.pdf
The Division of Water Resources has not set a date for a public workshop on this proposed regulation, and the Division does not plan on setting any additional public workshops until after the conclusion of the (2021) legislative session.
Statewide Groundwater Pumpage Inventory for 2017 is published
The Division of Water Resources published on January 28, 2021 the Statewide Groundwater Pumpage Inventory for 2017. The report presents an estimate of the total amount of groundwater pumped in the State of Nevada for calendar year 2017.
As Sisolak administration abandons move to upend legal system for water rights cases, Supreme Court may study new specialty court
By Daniel Rothberg, The Nevada Independent, February 7th, 2021
On Monday, the first day of the legislative session, the state’s top water regulator sent a letter to the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Melanie Scheible: Gov. Steve Sisolak’s administration was backing away from a request that state lawmakers, then the voters, change the Constitution and alter the judicial branch’s system for how often-complex water cases are litigated in court. Click here to read the full story.