Water claims bill sent to Nevada Assembly

The Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to require those who hold vested interests on water rights to begin submitting proof of their claims or lose them.

SB270 applies to water rights that predate the statutes that regulate those rights.

Sen. Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka said those with vested rights would have 10 years from the end of 2027 to submit those proofs of claims to the state engineer. He said failure to submit proof of the claim will result in an order that deems the claim abandoned.

“We’ve got to get people to start submitting these proofs so we can adjudicate them,” said Goicoechea.

Nevada’s history is replete with battles over water rights claims dating, in many cases, to the 1800s. The issues are particularly complicated when the claim predates the passage of statutes regulating water rights for surface water (1905), artesian ground water (1913), and percolating groundwater (1939).

SB270 goes to the Assembly.