The Churchill Valley Groundwater Basin is just one of hundreds of groundwater basins in our state. The basin lies within Churchill, Douglas, Lyon and Storey counties. It's also home to water sources like the Carson River, Truckee Canal and Lahontan Reservoir.
Members of the Silver Springs community that this basin serves are worried that future development could make their groundwater run dry.
Doug Frenton is a business owner and president of the Nevada Wells Cooperative. The long-time Silver Springs resident says if a housing boom comes to his town, the water table will certainly take a hit.
Frenton says if the town's wells dry up, borrowing water from other sources will likely result in higher water bills.
"The water runs to the point to where people can neither afford it or the well owners can't pump water, properties are useless at that point, if you don't have water,” said Frenton.
Jason king, the state engineer, says there's no concern of water running out anytime soon. King says the ground water rights do exceed the basin's 1,600 acre feet limit, however the consumptive use of ground water that's being pumped, doesn't exceed the basin's limit.
King says each subdivision lot in Silver Springs is allowed to use more than 1 acre feet of water per year, however each lot only uses about a half an acre feet of water. This over allocation of water is a net benefit for the groundwater basin.
"Water that's being pumped for agriculture, some of that water gets back into the basin and goes back and helps recharge the aquifer,” says King.
If development does take off in Silver Springs, other options may need to be explored to increase water availability. King says that could include injecting Carson River water into the ground for future pumping, or bringing in groundwater from a different nearby basin. Regardless of the route they may choose, a definitive plan will be in place before development is signed off.
"We have throughout the state in those basins where we have concerns not signed off subdivisions until the developer can find other water availability or other options to serve those developments,” said King.
