Nevada’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) recently launched a pilot program that would allow water managers and conservation groups to use $25 million in state money to buy groundwater rights in certain areas of that state and retire them.
One of the groups selected to administer the program is the Walker Basin Conservancy — an organization dedicated to restoring life to the now brackish waters. Nevada Public Radio recently caught up with the group’s executive director, Peter Stanton, to learn more about how it would work. An edited excerpt of the conversation follows.
Your organization is about a decade old. What have you, as an organization, learned during that time?
Over the last ten years, we have seen the driest decade on record in the Walker River Basin, and in the last year, the wettest year on record. So, we're seeing increasing climactic variability. And you know, a decade into the project, we've seen a couple of things really proven out. First, farmers and ranchers want to work with the Conservancy to increase the flow of the river. The second is we've shown that we can get water to Walker Lake, and it can rise.
To do that, we’ve worked with farmers and ranchers to increase the flow of the Walker River through a combination of permanent transactions and temporary leases to keep that water in stream on its way through the Walker Basin and on to Walker Lake.
So, what exactly is the goal? How much more water is needed to bring life back to the lake?
We’re shooting for the goal of restoring the lake to a level that will support a trout fishery. That's an elevation of about 3,950 feet. That's about where the lake was in 2001. So, after this year's rise of 15 feet at Walker Lake, we've got about 25 feet to go.
Let’s talk about the DCNR’s groundwater rights retirement program. How would that work?
Through this program, the Conservancy will work with agricultural water rights owners in the Walker River Basin to buy groundwater rights and take those rights off the books. We're going to stop pumping that groundwater particularly in Smith and Mason Valleys. In 2015, it was the first region in Nevada subject to groundwater curtailment. Basically, the state came in and told people that they can't pump their full groundwater. This program stands in marked contrast to that. We're putting together a market mechanism to purchase water rights and discontinue pumping that water long-term.
Are other states pursuing similar programs?
We've seen different variations of this across the western U.S., but this is the first time that the state of Nevada has made funding available to address declining groundwater tables directly. We've seen everything from agricultural water supply to municipal industrial water supply and even domestic water supply, all based on groundwater threatened in the Walker River Basin. And we’ve been approaching this problem without any resources to respect the private property rights that the state has recognized in water rights, while also addressing over-pumping. So, this is the first time the state of Nevada has taken a real stance on this. It’s also one of the first states in the western U.S. to actively pursue buying out groundwater rights with state funding.
Have you gotten any interest in those communities?
Definitely. We know that there's interest from farmers and ranchers through our work to increase the flow of the Walker River. We have multiple potential deals on the table that will be brought forward to DCNR and considered for inclusion under this program.
How long do you have to do this?
There's a very short timeline with it. The state wants folks to basically be in contract in the next 12 months. That's a very short timeline for a willing seller’s program, but we’ve worked with 155 ranchers and farmers on temporary and permanent water acquisitions in the region. We just closed on another permanent acquisition back in November.
Tell me about that.
We acquired 320 acres on the West Walker River in Smith Valley, along with storage water rights for that property, and 3.6 cubic feet per second of surface water rights from a different property. The rights are for the long-term for the benefit of the Walker River and Walker Lake.
I’m also super excited about the property because it’s contiguous with a ranch that we own across the river. With those two properties, we now have protected both sides of the West Walker River in Smith Valley for about two miles. In all, that accounts for a little more than two percent of our overall acquisition goal.
So, what happens to that land now?
These parcels, along with most of the river corridor through Smith Valley, is privately owned. So, when you're living in Smith there are very few places that you can actually access the river, unless you’re the landowner. So, as we protect these properties, long-term, we're excited to work in our local community on plans to create sustainable, reliable public access to the river corridor.
Your organization has been at this for a decade now. What’s your takeaway?
I'm really excited to see the state of Nevada stepping in to begin addressing this problem comprehensively. If we're going to respect water rights as private property and address declining groundwater tables and over-appropriated surface water levels in our region, then it's going to have to be through the acquisition of water rights. That's a hard solution. Everybody wishes there was a more creative or easier way to do it, but we've been doing that head-on in the Walker River Basin for 10-plus years and we’re excited to see that model beginning to catch on throughout the rest of the state.
