Nevada Water Rights Sales and Transfers

Learn the advantages and pitfalls of selling and transferring water rights in Nevada.

As a precious commodity on the planet Earth and one that is in limited supply, water is vital to life, the economy and to growth. As we struggle in one of the most arid states, Nevada, to ensure that water is placed to the most productive beneficial uses to protect Nevada's infrastructure and citizens, the ability to alter how and where water is used is more important than ever. In this topic, you will learn the advantages of selling and transferring water rights but also its pitfalls. Selling water rights from an unproductive use and reimagining it in a better and higher use can have nothing but a beneficial effect on both the buyer and the seller. The process of transferring that water right, however, can expose weaknesses in the validity of the water right, including its very right to exist. Moreover, the transfer process can open the water right to an attack based on claims of superior rights, historical limits on the quantity of water that can be transferred and limits on the transfer based on public interest or public trust principles. Not only will this material expose you to the processes for selling and transferring water rights, but it will also expose you to the perils you may face when you expose your water rights to such processes.

Faculty

Michael J. Van Zandt

Hanson Bridgett LLP