More Proposed Water Law Changes in Nevada Legislation

by Lisa Kane and Therese Ure

The 2017 Nevada Legislative Session is currently in motion; the 79th legislative session began on February 6th and will continue through June of 2017. Meetings are being held daily by the senate and assembly committees as they review proposed changes to Nevada legislation. There are several already-proposed bills on water law that may affect water rights users in the state (click here for a more comprehensive list), however, a couple of new bills have been introduced in the past week that seek to address different water-related matters.

Assembly Bill 209 (AB 209), proposed by Assemblyman James Oscarson of Nye County, is drafted to address issues with extensions on groundwater rights and forfeiture prevention. The bill seeks to revise provisions concerning water law in the State of Nevada that would require the State Engineer to, under certain circumstances, extend the time necessary to work a forfeiture of certain water rights. The full text for this proposed bill can be found here.

Senate Bill 134 (SB 134), proposed by Senator Pete Goicoechea of Eureka County and Senator Aaron Ford of Clark County, was also newly introduced in the past week and focuses on providing legislative direction to the State Engineer in regards to water applicants and conflicts with existing water rights. Specifically, SB 134 would authorize the State Engineer to determine if such a conflict exists and if so, to impose a monitoring, management and mitigation plan upon applicants whose requested use conflicts with existing rights. The bill also requires that conflicts be eliminated in order for the water use application to be permitted. The full text for this proposed bill can be found here. While the current water law already requires the State Engineer to evaluate and not approve applications that conflict with existing rights, this legislation add the ability to impose monitoring, management, and mitigation plans (aka “3M Plans”) as a way to offset conflicts.

The Nevada State Legislature’s website provides session information as well as bill draft requests, fact sheets, bill text and further information. The Legislature’s calendar also provides links to daily meetings and allows the public to view live sessions across the state. To keep apprised of bill progress or view active work session agendas visit the legislature website at https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Calendar/A/.