As we are wrapping up the calendar year for 2023 it seems like looking ahead to 2024 might be a normal thing to do.
Before we polish up the crystal ball it would also be appropriate to take a quick look in the rearview mirror and the major items of the 2023 year we’re closing out.
The Winter of 2023 might be on the top of the list to remember about this year. Coming out of a drought and dealing with weather as well as high hay prices, the challenge of getting through the heavy snows and eventually flood waters from run-off in some areas made for a miserable winter/spring. It was also unusual for the amount of rain many areas in Nevada received in 2023 and how that impacted attempts to get a cutting of hay up without washing it more than anyone would have wanted.
While we know that there isn’t much anyone can do but deal with the weather, 2023 was also a legislative year and those 120 days after Feb 6 included a number of highlights to add to the diary for this year. The 82nd session of the Nevada Legislature featured a record number of water related legislative proposals. Unlike past sessions, a good number of the proposals were positive ideas that would have been great additions to add to Nevada’s Revised Statutes.
Unfortunately, not all the good ideas that were proposed made it through the gauntlet of becoming law. Senate Bill 112, Senate Bill 176 and Senate Bill 180 were a few of the notable ideas that would have been positive additions, but fell short of gaining passage.
Senate Bill 112 was intended to deal with the special assessment fees that are raised by the State Engineer to fund groundwater management activities in some designated groundwater basins. If the measure would have gained passage it would have created a more transparent system for those who are paying the assessments to understand how the funds are being expended. It also was intended to better limit the way collected funds could be used and attempted to restrict the amount of increase that might be assessed from one year to the next. The bill went to Senate Finance Committee where it failed to gain any further action.
Senate Bill 176 offered an opportunity to respond to the many over-appropriated and over-pumped groundwater basins in the state. It sought to establish a program for the Nevada to purchase water rights from willing sellers in groundwater basins which are over-appropriated and over-pumped and then retire those purchased water rights. Despite wide support the bill also was sent to the Senate Finance Committee where it was placed in a desk drawer to end the session un-passed.
On a side note – the concept of SB 176 was appreciated enough by the Lombardo Administration to get another chance, using funds from the Nevada Water Conservation and Infrastructure Initiative that were established by the interim Finance Committee in 2022 that earmarked $100 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. $25 million from the $100 million were set aside for a project to buy groundwater rights from willing sellers to retire water rights from over-appropriated and over-pumped basins.
Senate Bill 180 might be one of the more interesting bills that failed to gain passage. It was proposed to provide for establishment of groundwater boards to locally consider possible solutions for water issues and advise the State Engineer. SB 180 passed the Senate on a 21-0 vote. It was passed by the Assembly on a 41-0 vote (with one person absent and not voting). An amendment was added in the Assembly and sent to a conference committee to work through the differences. Because of the management of the legislative process the conference committee didn’t have an opportunity to meet until nearly the ending time of the Legislative Session and it died because of this inept operation of the legislative process.
Senate Bill 113 is one of the water bills that did gain passage and was signed into law. SB 113 deals with groundwater basins that have been designated as a critical management area. The provisions of SB 113 are oriented for protecting senior water rights within the framework of the operations of a critical management area. This will only require senior water rights to participate in a groundwater management plan on a voluntary basis when locally developed groundwater management plans seek to bring over-pumped basins back into balance with available water resources.
What Lies Ahead In 2024?
Over the course of the coming months Nevada’s interim Joint Legislative Committees will be appointed and hold meetings to consider relative matters that fall into the jurisdiction of the respective Senate and Assembly committees. Issues raised and discussed during interim committee meetings could be outlined for legislation that will come before the 2025 Session.
We will be able to see what water or other natural resources proposals might come forward for either the Senate or Assembly Natural Resources Committees. If things unfold as they did during the last interim session, the Nevada Legislature’s Committee on Public Lands will again be handled as a sub-committee of the Joint Interim Natural Resources Committee.
Another predictable matter to keep a sharp eye on involves the “Conservation” rule that the Bureau of Land Management launched this past year. The agency is attempting to re-create what multiple use means, regardless of what Congress defined in the law. After wading through an incredible mountain of public comment responses, at some point BLM is likely to declare that they’ve listened to the input from the public and then return with what they wish to bring about as the right way for them to manage and operate on the lands that they have under their control.
Although foretelling the future might be a bit beyond a skill that I can claim, it will more than likely take the courts to iron out whatever will be the future for this set of regulations.
There also is something on the horizon in 2024 which will unfold, leading up to November. (We once could have identified election day as being when the outcome would be determined but given the manner in which the election process takes place now, figuring out the outcome by the end of November might be considered a miracle on its own.)
Against the backdrop of campaigning and electioneering we’re also supposed to try to rewrite a new Farm Bill – that couldn’t get done this year, when it was supposed to be completed, because of the sharp differences in views already in place during a non-election year.
Who knows, as these things play themselves out, the weather might be the best thing to write about when this article is drafted in December of 2024?
By Doug Busselman | NFB Executive Vice President