After hearing from the concerned public, Assemblymember Selena La Rue-Hatch introduced AB109 to ensure that all industrial uses of water in Nevada undergo a review by the state’s top water regulator and receive a permit for their use.
Currently, certain industries avoid a review by state water regulators. This oversight ignores impacts on senior water rights and the public interest while undermining due process for Nevadans. The bill ensures fairness and equity for all water users in the state, accounting for the growing need to carefully manage resources for the long-term as emerging industries use water in novel ways.
La Rue-Hatch’s proposal closes loopholes and carveouts for large-scale groundwater pumpers that extract the water, remove minerals or generate geothermal power, and return the water to the source of supply.
Geothermal operations and emerging mining techniques require pumping large quantities of water from aquifers. But those select industries do not currently apply for permits with the Division of Water Resources. Even though companies return those waters to the source, overwhelming scientific and on-the-ground evidence shows that water supplies, existing rights holders, and the natural world can all be harmed if conducted in the wrong places.
Pumping large quantities of water changes the equilibrium of water tables. This means that reinjection does not mean the water returns to its original location even if it goes back into the aquifer, causing springs to go dry and other problems underground.
Water-use permits for non-consumptive uses like hydropower on the Truckee and Carson Rivers and Ruby Mountains have been common practice since the turn of the 20th Century. However, geothermal energy companies and mining companies that employ large-scale pumping practices and claim to be non-consumptive can sidestep the bedrock permitting provisions of Nevada water law thanks to a law passed in 2017 (AB52).
AB109 requires that all entities claiming to be non-consumptive water users undergo the standard review and permitting process conducted by the State Engineer for appropriation under Nevada water law in NRS 533 and 534
- The majority of water users in the state (including hard rock mining, hydropower, agriculture and more) already undergo a process of review by the State Engineer and this bill will not change that process
- Currently some large-scale groundwater pumpers don’t have to undergo permitting for geothermal and mining operations at the Division of Water Resources.
- The bill requires the State Engineer to consider if water is available, if an appropriation will impact senior rights, and if an appropriation will harm the public interest.
- This important statutory safeguard will ensure that Nevada is better accounting for potential impacts to private property rights, due process rights, and public interest rights.