In Nevada, all water belongs to the public, and what you can own is a right to use it for a defined purpose under a permit issued by the State Engineer. Nevada water rights run on a prior appropriation system — first in time, first in right — so the date your right was established matters more than almost anything else about it. The rules split by source: surface water and groundwater have different permitting histories, different forfeiture rules, and different practical risks. This overview walks through how a right is created, how it transfers with land, how it can be changed, and how it can be lost or curtailed.1NRS 533.025
Who Owns the Water and Why Priority Dates Rule
The public owns Nevada’s water, whether it flows on the surface or sits underground. A permit gives you the right to put a defined quantity to a beneficial use, and beneficial use is the basis, the measure, and the limit of that right.2NRS 533.035 In practice, your right exists only to the extent you are actually using the water productively.
Priority dates create a rigid hierarchy. When a source cannot satisfy everyone, the State Engineer cuts off junior rights holders before senior ones lose a drop. A rancher holding an 1890 irrigation right receives a full allocation while a 2005 permit holder may get nothing until supply recovers. That harshness is the point: it gives existing users certainty and prevents a race to pump during shortages.
Nevada law also splits water into two regulatory categories. Surface water covers everything naturally flowing in streams, springs, and lakes. Groundwater refers to water beneath the surface. Both generally require a permit, but as explained below, the rules for losing a right diverge sharply between them.
When You Do Not Need a Permit
The main exception to permitting is the domestic well. You do not need a permit to drill a well for household purposes as long as your annual draw stays at or below two acre-feet, roughly 651,700 gallons per year.3NRS 534.180 Domestic use includes cooking, drinking, bathing, watering a family garden and lawn, and watering livestock or household pets at a single-family dwelling. Anything above that threshold, or any commercial purpose, falls back under the standard permitting process.
How Water Rights Move with Land
Water rights are appurtenant to the land where the water is used.4NRS 533.040 When you buy Nevada property, the law presumes that all water rights, permits, certificates, and pending applications appurtenant to that land transfer to you automatically unless the deed says otherwise.5NRS 111.167
That presumption protects buyers and traps the careless. A seller who wants to keep a water right while selling the underlying land must reserve it explicitly in the deed. A buyer who assumes water is coming with the property should verify the claim before closing. The Division of Water Resources maintains searchable records by location, right number, or owner name. Checking those records before a real estate deal closes is far cheaper than litigating a disputed right afterward.
A right can be severed from its original land and moved to a new place of use, but only through a formal change application approved by the State Engineer. Once an approved change has relocated a right before the property sells, the right no longer passes silently with the deed.
Applying for a New Water Right
Anyone who wants to appropriate public water must apply to the State Engineer before doing any work on a diversion.6NRS 533.325 The application identifies the applicant, the water source, the point of diversion described by legal subdivision, and the intended purpose, with additional details depending on whether the use is irrigation, mining, municipal supply, or storage.7NRS 533.340
Every application must include a map prepared by a licensed State Water Right Surveyor showing the proposed point of diversion and place of use, and maps that do not comply with the Division’s mapping guidelines are rejected. The filing fee for a new appropriation application is $360, which includes $50 toward publication of public notice. A change application for an existing right costs $240. Corrected applications or maps cost $100 to refile.
Publication and Protests
After accepting an application, the State Engineer publishes a notice in one or more newspapers circulating in the area of the diversion or use. The notice runs for four weeks. Any interested person has 30 days after the last publication date to file a written protest explaining why the application should not be granted. Filing a protest costs $30.
What the State Engineer Must Find
The State Engineer must approve a properly submitted application when the fees are paid, the use would not harm other rights holders within an irrigation district, and the applicant demonstrates both a good-faith intention to build the necessary works and the financial ability to follow through.8NRS 533.370 The State Engineer must reject the application when:
- No unappropriated water exists in the proposed source. If prior rights already consume the available supply, new permits cannot issue.
- The proposed use conflicts with existing rights or with the protectable interests of existing domestic well users.
- The use threatens the public interest, a standard applied case by case.
From Permit to Certificate
An approved application becomes a permit, but the permit is not the finish line. The holder must complete all construction of diversion works within five years and apply the water to beneficial use within ten years.9NRS 533.380 The State Engineer can grant extensions of up to five years each for good cause, but sitting on a permit without progress invites cancellation.
Once the works are built and the water is put to its intended use, the holder files proof of beneficial use.10NRS 533.400 This sworn statement includes actual measurements of the water diverted, taken by a licensed State Water Right Surveyor or a Division employee, along with details about the works, the months of use, and the quantity applied. The State Engineer may also require an updated map.
After reviewing the proof, the State Engineer issues a Certificate of Appropriation.11NRS 533.425 The certificate names the holder, records the priority date, identifies the source, states the purpose and amount, and, for irrigation rights, describes the specific land to which the water is appurtenant. A certificate represents a perfected water right and is the strongest form of appropriation Nevada issues.
Changing an Existing Right
A rancher who retires from agriculture might want to convert an irrigation right to municipal supply for a subdivision. A landowner might need to move a point of diversion to a more efficient location. Nevada allows these changes through a formal application to the State Engineer covering the point of diversion, manner of use, or place of use.
The change application runs through the same publication and protest process as a new appropriation. The State Engineer evaluates whether the change would harm other rights holders or the public interest, and may consider the consumptive use of the existing right against the proposed new use.12NRS 533.3703 If the change moves a point of diversion to contiguous property already owned by the applicant, the State Engineer must act within six months after the protest deadline. Permanent changes cost $240; temporary changes cost $180. If approved, the holder must still demonstrate beneficial use under the new parameters and ultimately obtain an updated certificate.
Losing a Right: Groundwater Versus Surface Water
The rules for losing a Nevada water right depend on whether it is groundwater or surface water, and confusing the two leads to expensive mistakes.
Groundwater Can Be Forfeited
Failing to put groundwater to beneficial use for five consecutive years triggers forfeiture.13NRS 534.090 This happens automatically by operation of law, regardless of the holder’s intent. The forfeiture applies to the extent of the nonuse: if you hold a right for 100 acre-feet but only use 60, the unused 40 acre-feet are at risk after five years of that pattern. The State Engineer must give notice before declaring a right forfeited, allowing the holder to show why the right should survive or to seek an extension.
Surface Water Cannot Be Forfeited
Surface water rights are different. By statute, a surface water right “shall not be deemed to be lost or otherwise forfeited for the failure to use the water.”14NRS 533.060 No matter how many years pass without use, a surface water right cannot be stripped through forfeiture. The only involuntary way to lose one is abandonment.
Abandonment Applies to Both
Abandonment is intent-based and reaches both groundwater and surface water rights. A party claiming abandonment must prove the holder meant to give up the right permanently. For surface water, the law creates a presumption against abandonment if, within the ten years before the claim was made, any of the following occurred: water was delivered, maintenance costs were paid, capital improvements were made to diversion works, or maintenance was actually performed on delivery infrastructure.14NRS 533.060 Keeping receipts, contracts, and records of water-related activity on the property is cheap insurance against abandonment claims.
Curtailment in Over-Appropriated Basins
Some Nevada groundwater basins carry more permitted rights than the aquifer can sustainably supply. When the State Engineer determines that average annual recharge cannot meet the needs of all permit holders and vested-rights claimants, an investigation can lead to an order restricting withdrawals in priority order.15NRS 534.110 Junior rights get curtailed first while senior rights keep pumping until the water table stabilizes.
Curtailment does not destroy the right. A curtailed right remains on the books, can still be transferred or changed, and can resume pumping once the conflict is resolved or mitigation is in place. The practical impact is still severe: a junior holder ordered to stop pumping may have no water for years. Anyone evaluating property in a basin under active curtailment should check the priority date against the curtailment cutoff before assuming the associated right has real value.
Federal Limits on a State Right
A valid Nevada permit does not insulate you from federal law. Section 401 of the Clean Water Act requires any activity that may discharge into waters of the United States to obtain a water quality certification before a federal permit can issue. If your diversion project needs a federal permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, that permit cannot be granted until certification clears.
The Endangered Species Act adds another layer. Where a listed species depends on a water source, federal agencies must ensure that permitted activities do not jeopardize the species or destroy critical habitat. A state-issued right can be curtailed or conditioned if its exercise would harm a protected species, even if the right is otherwise valid under Nevada law. These federal overlays are most relevant for large diversions, interbasin transfers, and projects touching rivers or wetlands with sensitive ecosystems.