In an April 27, 2020, ruling, the Eureka County District Court rejected Nevada’s first groundwater management plan (GMP). See Bailey v. Tim Wilson, P.E., Nev. State Eng’r, No. CV-1902-348, slip op. (Nev. 7th Jud. Dist. Ct. Apr. 27, 2020) (findings of fact, conclusions of law, order granting petitions for judicial review). The ruling was the result of a petition for judicial review of State Engineer Order 1302 (Jan. 11, 2019) filed by multiple senior groundwater right holders in Nevada’s heavily overappropriated Diamond Valley. Despite Judge Gary Fairman’s “empathy for the plight of the ranchers and farmers” of the affected hydrographic basin, he ruled that the GMP approved by the State Engineer in Order 1302 violated Nevada’s prior appropriation doctrine, and was therefore arbitrary and capricious. Id. at 39.
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