Nevada buys groundwater rights from willing owners when money allows

The director of Nevada’s State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources buys eligible rights from willing owners. The State Engineer permanently retires purchased or donated rights. The Nevada Voluntary Water Rights Retirement Program covers groundwater rights recognized by a court or certified by the state. Purchases require available money and a basin where new groundwater permits are blocked or retirement protects natural resources, addresses falling groundwater levels, or addresses conflicts with water rights or protected household wells. The program account pays for administration, purchases, and required matching money. Unused balances carry into the next fiscal year. These rules took effect July 1, 2025. Applications and donations close after June 30, 2035. The program account expires June 30, 2035, and purchase provisions end July 1, 2035.

The Board for Financing Water Projects may award water-conservation grants to permanently retire groundwater rights through the retirement program. Eligible applicants include Nevada local governments and public districts, plus nonprofit water associations or cooperatives serving only their members. Retirement must protect natural resources, address falling groundwater levels, or address conflicts with existing water rights or protected household wells. The board chooses grant recipients. Retirement requires the conservation director’s approval of the purchase or donation on or before June 30, 2035. The grant provision took effect July 1, 2025.

The Board for Financing Water Projects uses customers’ median household income—the middle income—to set certain public water providers’ share of project costs. This rule covers water-system improvement grants for the Lincoln County Water District and currently publicly owned community or nontransient water systems that existed on January 1, 1995. Nontransient systems regularly serve the same people. The provider’s required share ranges from 15 percent to 75 percent of total project costs. The board adjusts the income-based scale for customers’ financial hardship, an immediate public health risk, and other factors it considers relevant. The income-based cost-sharing rule took effect July 1, 2025.