White Pine County v. Wilson
Nevada District Court for the Seventh Judicial District
Case No. CV-1204049 (2020)
- Written by Curtis Parvin, JD
Facts
The Las Vegas Valley Water District, later known as the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), filed multiple applications with the state engineer, Tim Wilson (defendant), to appropriate and divert large amounts of groundwater from multiple basins for use in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hundreds of interested parties filed protests, including White Pine County (plaintiff). After hearings, Wilson approved an appropriation of over 80,000 acre-feet to the SNWA. White Pine County and other protestors appealed the decision to the district court, arguing that the additional appropriation would interfere with their existing appropriative water rights. The district court reversed Wilson’s approval, finding that the affected water resources were already fully appropriated to longstanding water rights and that the resources would never reach equilibrium—water outflows matching water inflows—under the new plan. The district court found Wilson’s approach arbitrary and capricious and remanded the issue back to Wilson. After further hearings, Wilson denied SNWA’s applications. While Wilson reversed himself and rejected the applications, he and the SNWA also sought a rehearing of the district court’s earlier decision.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Estes, J.)
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