AN ACT relating to water; revising provisions relating to the establishment, membership and duties of a groundwater board; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
Sponsored By: Assembly Committee on Natural Resources
Failed
Personalized for You
How does this bill affect your finances?
Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.
Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
4 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 1 costs, 2 mixed.
Public groundwater meetings and required advice
Beginning July 1, 2025, groundwater boards must hold public meetings and elect a chair and secretary for their terms. Meetings take place in the county seat; jointly requested, multi-county boards can meet in one of the participating counties. A majority of the board must attend, and decisions need a majority of those present. The State Engineer must consider the board's written advice on reducing groundwater overpumping, but the advice is not binding. The law also removes language barring courts from reviewing disagreements between the board and the State Engineer.
Groundwater board members lose state-funded support
Beginning July 1, 2025, groundwater board members serve without pay. The law removes the State-funded operating account for member per diem, travel allowances, consultants, and other assistance. No dollar amount is stated.
Basin property can fund groundwater oversight
Beginning July 1, 2025, the State Engineer can appoint a well supervisor and assistants, set their salaries, and exempt them from State civil-service rules. If well-license fees fall short, counties can assess all taxable property in the basin to cover salaries and expenses. Those expenses include the Well Drillers' Advisory Board. In designated areas dominated by agriculture, charges go to permit holders and holders of established water rights, based on their rights. The minimum charge is $1. Counties can exempt owners when collection costs exceed the charge and can cover the shortfall from general funds. Assessments become liens on property and are collected like other special assessments. Collections go to the State Treasurer's Water District Account and are tracked in basin well accounts. The Engineer can use the Water Distribution Revolving Account while waiting for collections. The law adds no authority to spend basin funds on work outside the basin.
Counties can request limited groundwater boards
Beginning July 1, 2025, counties can ask Nevada's State Engineer to create a board for a designated groundwater basin. For a basin crossing county lines, one county or several counties together can request a board. The State Engineer decides whether to establish it, and each basin can have only one board. The Engineer appoints seven voting members who hold water permits or certificates in the basin. Initially, four seats go to holders with older priority dates, two to holders with newer dates, and one to the largest groundwater-rights holder. If the largest holder already has a seat or cannot serve, the next largest holder may be selected. Counties can suggest eligible nominees and appoint one additional, nonvoting member. Boards end after four years unless the Engineer approves a county request for another four-year term. A board can also end itself by majority vote at a meeting.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Assembly Committee on Natural Resources
Affiliation unavailable
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
Actions Timeline
(No further action taken.)
6/3/2025HouseFrom printer. To engrossment. Engrossed. First reprint. To committee.
4/17/2025HouseTo printer.
4/16/2025HouseRereferred to Committee on Ways and Means. Exemption effective.
4/16/2025HouseTaken from General File.
4/16/2025HouseRead second time. Amended. (Amend. No. 259.)
4/16/2025HouseFrom committee: Amend, and do pass as amended.
4/15/2025HouseNotice of eligibility for exemption.
3/17/2025HouseFrom printer. To committee.
3/5/2025HouseRead first time. Referred to Committee on Natural Resources. To printer.
3/4/2025House
Bill Text
As Introduced
Reprint 1
Related Bills
AB397, AN ACT relating to higher education; revising provisions governing certain waivers of fees provided by the Board of Regents of the University of Nevada; revising the criteria of eligibility for a waiver of fees by the Board of Regents for certain persons who are or were unaccompanied for a certain period of time; revising the criteria of eligibility for a waiver of fees by the Board of Regents for certain Native American students; providing for the continuity of waivers previously provided for certain Native American students; repealing certain provisions requiring the Chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education to cause to be analyzed certain natural materials upon the request of a resident of this State; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
AB259, AN ACT relating to health care; prohibiting certain actions related to pricing and reimbursement for certain drugs; creating a cause of action for violating such prohibitions; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
AB188, AN ACT relating to the Public Employees' Benefits Program; requiring the Board of the Public Employees' Benefits Program to report certain information relating to the costs of health insurance for certain retirees; revising provisions relating to the subsidy paid for certain health and welfare benefits for certain state employees who have retired with state service; revising requirements for certain retired public officers and employees to reinstate insurance under the Program; revising provisions relating to certain subsidies paid to the Program for the 2025-2027 biennium; requiring the Joint Interim Standing Committee on Government Affairs to conduct an interim study on the Program; making an appropriation; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
SB217, AN ACT relating to health care; prohibiting a governmental entity from substantially burdening certain activity relating to assisted reproduction under certain circumstances; authorizing a person whose engagement in such activity has been so burdened to assert the violation as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding; authorizing a court to award damages against a governmental entity that substantially burdens such activity in certain circumstances; providing certain immunity from civil and criminal liability and administrative sanctions for certain persons and entities involved in the provision of assisted reproduction; providing that a fertilized egg or human embryo that exists before implantation in a human uterus is not a person for legal purposes; requiring certain health insurers to authorize a pregnant person to enroll in a health plan during a specified period; requiring certain public and private health insurers to provide certain coverage for the treatment of infertility and fertility preservation; providing a penalty; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
AB499, AN ACT relating to elections; requiring, with certain exceptions, a registered voter show photo identification to vote in person; requiring the Department of Motor Vehicles, under certain circumstances, to issue identification cards at no charge; requiring the Secretary of State to issue digital identification cards; requiring a county clerk in certain counties to establish a certain number of locations for a voter to return his or her mail ballot to a mail ballot drop box during the period between the last day for early voting and the day before the date of the general election; authorizing a county clerk in certain counties to establish such locations; authorizing a person, under certain circumstances, to return a mail ballot to a mail ballot drop box established at such a location on behalf of a voter; requiring the Secretary of State to establish and maintain a voter services portal on the Internet website of the Office of the Secretary of State; requiring the county clerk to include certain information relating to the voter services portal on any communication to a registered voter; requiring the Department of Motor Vehicles to submit electronically to the Secretary of State certain information relating to each person who has a driver's license or identification card issued by the Department; requiring the Secretary of State to include certain information received from the Department in the centralized, top-down database that is established by the Secretary of State for purposes of creating the statewide voter registration list; requiring certain information to be included on the return envelope for a mail ballot; revising provisions relating to curing mail ballots; requiring mail ballot drop boxes to be monitored and secured; providing that certain information on the statewide voter registration list relating to a voter is confidential and not a public record; making various other changes relating to elections; making appropriations; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
AB388, AN ACT relating to employment; requiring certain public and private employers to establish certain procedures and forms relating to paid family leave; requiring the Human Resources Commission and Labor Commissioner to establish certain regulations relating to paid family leave; requiring certain public and private employers to provide notice relating to paid family leave; revising provisions relating to paid family leave for certain state employees and employees of private employers; repealing certain provisions relating to leave; providing penalties; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.