After the Nevada Legislature reconvenes on Feb. 3, lawmakers will consider Senate Bill 36, which aims to conserve groundwater by allowing water rights to be bought—and retired.
Nevada is the driest U.S. state, receiving the least yearly precipitation. Most of the state—including much of Washoe County—is abnormally dry or in a drought, according to data from the National Drought Mitigation Center.
To get the water they need, Nevada industries look below ground. Groundwater is pumped and often used for farming, according to 2015 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data. Although all Nevada water formally belongs to the public, per Nevada Revised Statute 533, non-domestic uses must be accounted for by a contract known as a water right.
Today, in our growing state, there may be too many water rights for too little water. In 2023 testimony to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Jeff Fontaine, executive director of the Central Nevada Water Authority, said that 56 of the state’s 256 groundwater basins are over-pumped—used faster than they are replenished.
When groundwater is pumped at a higher rate than nature returns it, the water level decreases. Pumps must use more energy and reach farther down to haul the same amount of water to the surface. This makes groundwater use more costly—or infeasible.
SB 36 was propelled by the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Natural Resources. To combat over-pumping, SB 36 establishes the Nevada Water Buy-Back Initiative to buy existing water rights in over-pumped basins, and retire them.
The bill was recommended by members of the committee and members of The Nature Conservancy, a large environmental nonprofit. At an Aug. 23, 2024, meeting, there was no debate on it, and all committee members voted in favor. In fact, the bill was based on a 2023 bill from committee member and former Sen. Pete Goicoechea that didn’t progress to a floor vote.
The initiative follows in the footsteps of the Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program, a buyback program that ran in 2023 and 2024. The program was funded by the U.S. American Rescue Plan Act and sought to retire water rights in central Nevada and the Humboldt River Basin. (The program could be revived this year by Assembly Bill 104, another natural resources bill.) SB 36 differs by being statewide, not regional.
Laurel Saito, Nevada water strategy director at The Nature Conservatory, said that when groundwater is depleted, surface water can dry up, damaging ecosystems and endangering species that rely on it. Saito and a colleague filed a recommendation supporting the bill.
One largely successful Nevada buyback program, run by the Walker Basin Conservancy, was spurred by environmental catastrophe. Since 2014, the organization has been buying water rights in the Walker Basin, located southeast of Reno and the home of Walker Lake.
Well before Nevada’s founding, the livelihoods of the Walker River Paiute Tribe and other locals centered around the lake, particularly its native Lahontan cutthroat trout. But by 2009, the fish in Walker Lake had died out. Decreased inflow from the Walker River and from groundwater, caused by excess agricultural water use, resulted in the river shrinking by hundreds of feet, and the level of total dissolved solids (TDS) increasing tenfold since 1882, according to the USGS. The environmental collapse also decreased tourism, a main element of the community’s economy.
“Most of the economic drivers of the area just don’t exist anymore,” said Kat Dow, the organization’s water program manager.
With federal funding, the Walker Basin Conservancy now buys back and retires water rights in the area, increasing the volume of water that can make it to the lake. As of November 2024, this initiative has decreased the lake’s TDS level by nearly 30% from a 2017 high, according to data provided by the USGS. Dow hopes that cutthroat trout may be introduced soon.
In an FAQ, the Walker Basin Conservancy says it prioritizes buying water rights that are actively used. SB 36 makes no such requirement, so it is possible the initiative could buy water rights not in use, making an impact on paper, but no real change in water consumption—but the bill does not make buybacks automatic, leaving sales to the discretion of the director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which has a vested interest in water conservation.
Dow said that many of the Walker Basin Conservancy’s buybacks come from family farms that the younger generation doesn’t want to inherit.
“A lot of our sales are driven by people who are nearing retirement and who do not have anybody to pass these rights out to, and they would like to see the land and water taken care of if it can’t be put to that same historic use anymore,” Dow said.
Given the costs of other buyback programs, it may be difficult to get enough money for substantive action. As of May 2024, the Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program had received $25 million in funding—and still couldn’t afford to buy most of the water rights it was offered. The Walker Basin Conservancy, an ongoing project with a narrower reach, had around $35 million in expenses from 2015 to 2023, according to tax returns.
The most severely over-pumped basins are in central Nevada, like those near Eureka and Austin, according to a report by the Nevada Division of Water Resources. But the report shows basins all over the state where the groundwater level is declining, including basins in Spanish Springs, south Reno and Fernley.
One large claimant is the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA), which uses groundwater to provide water to homes and businesses. The TMWA has no intentions of selling groundwater rights to the state, said Eddy Quaglieri, a resource services manager at TMWA. Quaglieri said the authority uses other methods to conserve.
“If we have excess surface water rights to use, we try to use those first in order to (reduce use of) our groundwater rights,” Quaglieri said.
Addressing the over-pumping crisis will require multiple strategies. In addition to buybacks, voluntary water conservation strategies and other state policies could play a role.
“We see voluntary groundwater rights retirement as a potential tool that we could have in that toolbox,” Saito said.