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RENO, Nev. (AP) —

A Nevada Supreme

Court ruling on T

hursday has set new

precedent for how the st

ate can manage groundwater

in areas with severe drought.

In a 4-3 ruling issued Thursday to settle a water dispute in Diamond Valley, a rural Eureka County farm area, the court said groundwater management plans established in areas that are losing groundwater supply quickly can deviate from the longstanding senior water rights doctrine.

• Nevada’s top water official, the st
• ate engineer, has authority to regulate
• water in the Diamond Valley area of E
• ureka County under a groundwater ma
• nagement plan approved by local farmer

1. s and water users even if the plan de
2. viates from existing state water law,
3. he state high court said.
4. In reversing a decision by a Eureka
5. County District Court judge, the just

ices ruled that in some cases, water-use plans c

an deviate from longstandin

g “priority doctrine,” which give

s premium rights to senior water u

sers who’ve owned their land the longest.

The West is experiencing a more than 20-year meg

drought. Scientists say the region has become much warmer and drier in recent decades and that climate change will continue to make weather more extreme, wildfires more frequent and destructive, and water supplies less reliable.

In the agricultural Diamond Valley, severe drought and decades of water overuse have led to battles over a groundwater supply depleted because it is unable to recharge

Because the goal of the groundwater management plan is to erase the area’s “critical” status, the court said the state engineer can take action in ways that deviate from the “priority doctrine,” the court said.

The deviations are allowed only if the plan has bee

Because the goal of the groundwater management plan is to erase the area’s “critical” status, the court said the state engineer can take action in ways that deviate from the “priority doctrine,” the court said.Χn approved by both the engineer and a majority of water-users within the critically designated area, the court said. It called the management plan approved in Diamond Valley a community-based solution to long-term water shortages in the valley.

“We recognize that our opinion will significantly affect water management in Nevada,” Justice James Hardesty wrote for the majority. The court ruling was first reported by the Nevada Independent.

“We are of the belief, however, that — given the arid nature of this State — it is particularly important that we effectuate the plain meaning of a statute that encourages the sustainable use of water,” Hardesty wrote.

Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, said the ruling underscored ongoing tension over water use in the West, where doctrines long have separated junior and senior holders of water rights.

“This ruling puts a magnifying glass on that tension,” Roerink said.

It comes as farmers in many parts of the state are refiguring which and how many crops they can grow amid drought and rising costs due to inflation.

“We’re risking a lot more when we go and put in a seed in the ground than we were last year,” said Eric Hull, general manager of Winnemucca Farms, a Humboldt County operation that he called the largest irrigated farm in the state. “And in a tougher environment with a lot less water,” he added.

Stern is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Stern on Twitter.

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