13-05-2025
For legislation to retire water rights, political support is ample. Funding, not so much.
More than 22,500 acre-feet of groundwater were retired under the water rights retirement pilot program — enough to cover annual water usage for about 45,000 homes.
After years of setbacks, a program that would authorize the sale and permanent retirement of water rights over the next decade in order to reduce groundwater overuse in the driest state in the union is moving forward.
But a sketchy economic outlook and accompanying reduced state revenue estimates means a funding source to implement the program might have to wait.
Assembly Bill 104 would establish the Nevada Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program, which would allow willing landowners to sell their water rights back to the state through the year 2035. The bill would direct the state engineer to permanently retire those rights from future allocation to address Nevada's dwindling groundwater supply.
Last week, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources heard the bill, which will need to pass through the committee by Friday to move forward. The bill passed the Assembly unanimously last month.
Legislation to create a voluntary water rights retirement program was first introduced in 2023 by former Republican Sen. Pete Goicoechea, but stalled in the Legislature.
For more than a year, lawmakers, conservation groups, mining interests and local water managers worked together to craft the bill's language and ensure its passage, an effort reflected by the bill's bipartisan passage in the Assembly and wide support.
'Establishing a water rights retirement program in statute would be simply a step forward in our state in addressing over-appropriation and over pumping,' said Democratic Assemblymember. Natha Anderson of Sparks, who chairs the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and presented the bill to the Senate panel last week.
During the hearing, representatives from several rural counties spoke in support of the measure, including officials in Washoe, Humboldt, Eureka, and Churchill counties.
'It's a really, very well thought out bill that has lots of support, and we just appreciate that this bill is before your committee,' said Jeff Fontaine, representing the Central Nevada Regional Water Authority and Humboldt River Basin Water Authority.
Several conservation groups also spoke in support of the legislation, including the Great Basin Water Network, the Walker Basin Conservancy, the Nevada Conservation League, and the Nevada Environmental Justice Coalition.
Assembly Bill 104 builds on a pilot program launched in 2023 that used a one-time allocation of $25 million in federal funds to purchase groundwater rights from private Nevada landowners in over-pumped and over-appropriated basins.
More than 22,500 acre-feet of groundwater were retired under the pilot program — enough to cover annual water usage for about 45,000 homes — at an average cost of just over $1,000 per acre-foot.
The pilot program proved more successful than anticipated, attracting offers from water rights holders to sell a total of $65.5 million in rights in a matter of months — about $40 million more than available funding.
Despite wide support, the establishment of the voluntary water rights retirement program has faced some difficulties during this year's legislative session.
One drawback discussed during the hearing was the lack of any funding to implement the Nevada Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program, if passed.
A bill with similar language was introduced in the Assembly, but faced challenges due to the addition of a fiscal note as lawmakers face challenging budget cuts.
'While we don't have any money to fill the coffers right now, if we build it, they will come,' said Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, which was part of the working group that shaped the bill.
'What we are asking you all to do is, let's build this statutorily. Let's figure out ways to get the money,' he continued.
The bill authorizes the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to apply for and accept any gift, donation, grant, federal money, or other source of money for the Nevada Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program. If established, the program would be administered by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Groundwater is vital in Nevada, where it supplies about 30% of the state's total water use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In fact, in many rural communities, it's the primary or sole water source for homes, farms, and ecosystems.
Prior to the 1960s, Nevada experienced relatively minimal development of groundwater sources. Now significantly more groundwater is extracted than is returned to Nevada's aquifers each year.
As a result, more than half of Nevada's 256 groundwater basins are over-appropriated, meaning the volume of water listed in the rights exceeds the amount of actual available water.
A little more than half the groundwater withdrawn is used for agriculture with another 30% used for mining operations.
Mining and farming representatives agreed Nevada's dwindling groundwater supply is an issue that must be addressed.
During the hearing, Doug Busselman, the executive vice president of the Nevada Farm Bureau, spoke in support of the bill. The Nevada Farm Bureau was part of the working group that helped develop the bill.
'Nevada Farm Bureau also has a policy which supports a voluntary purchase of water and retirement to bring basins back into balance,' Busselman said.
The Nevada Mining Association was also heavily involved in the creation of the bill, and helped present the bill during the Senate hearing.
'We all know groundwater is a critical resource in Nevada, and it's facing pressures like none before, including an increasing population base in Nevada, climate change and the need for reliable and up to date resource information,' said Alan Biaggi, a representative for the Nevada Mining Association.
