Schematic of components of conjunctive use and managed aquifer recharge (MAR) to enhance reliability of water supplies in response to droughts and floods. Bridget R Scanlon, Robert C Reedy, Claudia C Faunt, Donald Pool and Kristine Uhlman Published 8 March 2016 • © 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd at: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/3/035013
On June 9, 2017, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval signed into law Senate Bill 47 (NRS 533.024). That legislation required the State Water Engineer to prepare a “water budget,” for groundwater and manage that water source “conjunctively” with surface water. According to Jason King, Nevada’s chief water engineer for Nevada’s Division of Water Resources, conjunctively also includes effluent.
During the 2019 legislative session The Committee on Natural Resources, Agriculture and Mining, on behalf of Nevada’s Division of Water Resources will consider two bills dealing with conjunctive management and one bill extending water construction activities. Â King retires before the session begins and Democrat Steve Sisolack will take over the governors position. Â
Assembly Bill 51 (A.B. 51) allows the employees of the Nevada Division of Water Resources to adopt regulations for the conjunctive management of groundwater and surface water. They propose to determine the amount of conflict that might exist between groundwater and surface water users or resolve such conflict. They also propose to create a program for conjunctive management in hydrographic basins and enact other provision necessary to conjunctively manage the water. Section 4 of the bill authorizes the State Engineer to levy certain special program assessments. Section 7 provides that the partial abatement’s of property taxes will not apply to any such special assessment. Section 5 of the bill provides that a right to groundwater or surface water that is not being used under a conjunctive management program not become the subject to forfeiture or abandonment for as long as the program is in effect.
Recognizing that conjunctive management does not eliminate conflicts the State Water Engineer propose Assembly Bill 30 (A.B. 30). That bill authorizes the State Engineer, to “if water is available” and “under certain circumstances” resolve conflicts through agreements, or planning efforts designed to avoid or eliminate the conflict.
Assembly Bill 62 (A.B. 62) revises the time for which the State Engineer may grant an extension for the completion of work for the diversion of water. Currently, the State Engineer may grant a single extension to exceed six years. This Bill allows the granting of one or more extension not to exceed 15 years. Non-municipal permits involving the diversion of 2 or more cubic feet of water per second or the cultivation of at least 100 acres of land, may receive one or more extensions not to exceed 10-years.
