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AB 9 Nevada Assembly · 2025 Regular Session

Revises provisions relating to water. (BDR 48-391)

AB 9 modifies Nevada's rules for temporarily converting agricultural water rights. It extends the maximum duration for such conversions from 3 to 5 years (with 5-year extensions) and gives the State Engineer new authority to deny applications or limit durations if conversions don't serve public interest or wildlife goals. The bill also prohibits approving conversions for groundwater rights after 4 consecutive years of nonuse and exempts water rights under specific federal or state conservation programs from forfeiture rules. These changes directly affect agricultural water right holders and the State Engineer, who now has more oversight over temporary water use.
Issues: ✓ EnvironmentSupports EnvironmentBill explicitly protects wildlife goals via State Engineer authority to deny conversions and prohibits groundwater nonuse, aligning with conservation and resource protection indicators.90% confidence
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Oct 2024
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Oct 29, 2024 Last action Jun 3, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

As Introduced → Reprint 1 · 4 edits
MODERATE
This bill revises Nevada's agricultural water conversion rules, extending the maximum duration from 3 years to 5 years for both initial conversions and extensions. It also adds new authority for the State Engineer to deny applications or limit durations based on public interest, and creates an exception for federal/state program water rights from forfeiture rules.
Scope change
The bill expands the scope of temporary water conversions by allowing longer durations and adds new enforcement discretion for the State Engineer.
TIMELINE

Maximum duration for temporary agricultural water conversions increased from 3 years to 5 years, with extensions also capped at 5 years instead of 3 years.

ENFORCEMENT

State Engineer now has authority to deny conversion applications or limit durations if they don't meet public interest or policy purposes.

SCOPE

New exception added to prevent forfeiture and abandonment rules from applying to water rights participating in federal or state programs.

REQUIREMENT

Water rights can now be converted to improve water quality, quantity, or flow, not just wildlife purposes or flow improvements.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
7
Key actions
1
Committee
2
Apr 15, 2025
Committee
From printer. To engrossment. Engrossed. First reprint. Notice of eligibility for exemption. Taken from General File. Rereferred to Committee on Ways and Means. Exemption effective. To committee.
lower
Apr 10, 2025
Lower · Passed
From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended.
lower
Oct 29, 2024
Introduced
Prefiled. Referred to Committee on Natural Resources. To printer.
lower
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.