Advisory panel backs motion opposing curtailment of domestic and stock water rights

The Elko County Natural Resource Management Advisory Committee voted to ask the county commission to oppose any curtailment by the state engineer of domestic or stock water rights and to oppose creation of a Humboldt River conservation district that would include Elko County.

Commissioner Woodbury, reporting from the Humboldt Stakeholder Working Group, summarized recent modeling and economic analysis. He said the upper basin pumps about 23,600 acre‑feet per year and that roughly 11,000 acre‑feet is currently being retained in the upper basin rather than flowing downstream, with projections rising toward 14,000 acre‑feet in the future. He cited an economist’s high‑end damage estimate of about $350 per acre‑foot over a 10‑year period and said, "that means what Elko County users might owe is around $4,900,000." He said the USGS and Desert Research Institute models are still being refined.

Woodbury moved the formal recommendation, stating he wanted to "encourage the Elko County Commission to direct members to the Humboldt State Water Working Group that Elko County will not support any curtailment measure of the state engineer to curtail domestic or stock water rights" and that "Elko County does not support the establishment of a conservation district." The motion received a second, saw brief discussion about whether irrigation and other categories should be added later, and was approved by voice vote.

The committee’s motion is procedural guidance to the county commission and not a change in law; Woodbury said further technical work on the hydrologic model is expected and that the group will continue meeting as the modeling and economic analyses evolve. No litigation steps or new curtailment actions were authorized by the advisory committee at the meeting.