Nye water board pushing 2-1 water rights relinquishment ordinance.

Will the Nye County Commission be willing to address an ordinance proposed to require a 2-to-1 relinquishment of water rights for all new subdivisions?

It’s a question that the Nye County Water District Governing Board is eager to have answered as the new year gets underway and a new iteration of the county commission takes over. After having read its proposed Nye County Water District Ordinance 001 into the record during two consecutive water board meetings, the water district sent the item off to the Nye County Commission, which is the only body that can enact the ordinance. However, the item has yet to be taken up by the commission, a fact that was part of the water board’s discussion during its last meeting of 2024.

“We went through the whole process with our legal team, we ran in through all available Grand Poobahs, everything looked great. It went to the county commission, where it didn’t go any further,” Nye County Water District General Manager Dann Weeks reported on Dec. 10. “After the water district reads an ordinance and it gets forwarded to the county commissioners, if they – or the DA – choose to pigeonhole it and not bring it back for ratification, that’s where it dies.”

As detailed in the proposed ordinance, applicants for any new subdivisions, commercial or industrial development projects in Pahrump’s Basin #162 would be required to submit, “…a water rights mitigation plan that includes relinquishing valid water rights to the Nevada Division of Water Resources in an amount of two acre-feet annually for every one acre-foot annually of planned use for said project…”

Weeks said in conversations with Nye County District Attorney Brian Kunzi on the matter, Kunzi had expressed hesitation with bringing the ordinance to the county commissioners for fear it would constitute a “taking.” The water board’s legal counsel, Schroeder Law Offices, on the other hand, issued its own opinion refuting that belief.

“Considering the proliferation of wells in Nye County and the magnitude of over-allocation in the Pahrump Groundwater Basin, the 2-1 (relinquishment) proposal is a reasonable accommodation for prospective water-reliant developments that, in reality, should be statutorily proscribed,” Schroeder Law stated in a letter directed to Kunzi. “It is supported by substantial evidence as reflected in the Groundwater Manager Plan, would be neither arbitrary or capricious in its application and is consistent with Nevada law and notions of public welfare.”

The letter also highlights Nevada State Engineer Order #1293A, which requires private property owners to purchase and then relinquish water rights in order to drill a new domestic well on their land, unless water rights have previously been dedicated to that particular lot. As members of the water board pointed out, the Nevada Supreme Court upheld that order, which provides a clear precedent for what the water district was proposing.

“That (order) could have been construed as a taking of water rights from a property owner,” water board chair Ed Goedhart asserted. “We came up with a way to be equitable and make sure that those water rights adjustments are held uniform across all classes of folks (domestic and commercial users)… At this point in time, the responsibility for the action, or lack of action, will have to rest with the Nye County Board of County Commissioners.”

Water board member Michael Lach, for one, did not appear to have an optimistic outlook on the situation. “I hope that other commissioners and/or the DA will address this but it’s my belief that it’s certainly not going to happen in a timely manner,” Lach remarked. “Like most things, this is a pretty big political football… This thing will probably never see the light of day.”

“This is the most important thing we have done as a board, by far,” water board member Bruce Holden protested, suggesting the water district draw public attention to the proposed ordinance in an attempt to push it forward.

“I don’t see great wisdom in reading another ordinance until we get this one either approved or killed,” Weeks noted as the discussion drew to a close. “If there is a problem with the ordinance as we passed it, the best possible result would be for the ordinance to come before the county commission and have it be rejected. It sitting in a pigeonhole, I don’t think sends a great message for my board members and it doesn’t send a great message to me, because we spent a tremendous amount of work on it.”

Nye County Commissioner Frank Carbone, acting as liaison to the water board, assured them that the commission was well aware of the proposal.

“We’ve asked the DA to give us an answer and we haven’t received one yet,” explained Carbone, who officially retired from the county commission as of the start of the year. He also noted that Kunzi has many items he is currently handling so it may take time for that opinion to be rendered.

“I know there are several of us up there, that are board of county commissioners, who are ready to move forward with it,” Carbone had said. “But again, we need to make sure that we are not going to get ourselves into a lawsuit right off the bat.”

The water board will bring the proposed ordinance back in either February or April, by which time Weeks said he was hopeful that Kunzi would be able to provide a formal legal opinion.

To view the proposed ordinance visit NyeCountyNv.gov and click on “Meeting Center.” The ordinance is included in the Nye County Water District Governing Board’s Dec. 10, 2024 meeting agenda.

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com