"The court ruled that the state can restrict new groundwater pumping if it will impact other users and wildlife, a decision environmentalists are calling a major win in updating the state’s water law."
"The Nevada Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the state can restrict new groundwater pumping if it will impact other users and wildlife, a decision that strikes a blow to the plan of a developer that at one time hoped to build a new city of 250,000 people in the Mojave Desert and could shift how groundwater is managed in the driest U.S. state.
The court’s ruling paves the way for Nevada’s water regulators to manage groundwater depletion throughout the state, an issue of increasing importance as flows from the Colorado River and the levels of many of the region’s aquifers decline. State regulators can now view surface water and groundwater as a single source—something that has not historically been done in the state or elsewhere in the Southwest. They can also make changes to how the boundaries of groundwater basins are drawn up and divided as new studies reveal how much water they actually have and how they are interconnected with other sources of water.
Thursday’s decision is the latest in what has been a decades-long dispute between proponents of a real estate development, Coyote Springs, that has proposed building more than 150,000 homes 50 miles outside of Las Vegas and currently consists of one golf course, and environmentalists and the state’s various water agencies that argued the construction would impact other water users and wildlife throughout the region."
Wyatt Myskow reports for Inside Climate News January 31, 2024.
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