Opinion ID: 2461173
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mineral County v. State, Department of Conservation

Text: The most recent case dealing with issues connected to the public trust doctrine, Mineral County v. State, Department of Conservation, 117 Nev. 235, 20 P.3d 800 (2001), was an original writ proceeding concerning rights to withdraw surface or groundwater from Walker River and Walker Lake. Id. Although this court denied the petition on procedural grounds, Justice Rose issued a concurring opinion expressing his belief that this court should finally affirmatively address the existence and role of the public trust doctrine in the State of Nevada. Id. at 246, 20 P.3d at 807 (Rose, J., concurring). Citing the seminal Supreme Court case, Illinois Central, Justice Rose emphasized that the state holds all land beneath Nevada's navigable waters in trust for the benefit of the state's citizenry, as an incident of Nevada's statehood. Id. Justice Rose further asserted that the public trust doctrine in Nevada is contained in NRS 533.025, which provides that `[t]he water of all sources of water supply within the boundaries of the state whether above or beneath the surface of the ground, belongs to the public.' Id. at 247, 20 P.3d at 808. Regarding NRS 533.025, he wrote: This court has itself recognized that this public ownership of water is the most fundamental tenet of Nevada water law. Additionally, we have noted that those holding vested water rights do not own or acquire title to water, but merely enjoy a right to the beneficial use of the water. This right, however, is forever subject to the public trust, which at all times forms the outer boundaries of permissible government action with respect to public trust resources. In this manner, then, the public trust doctrine operates simultaneously with the system of prior appropriation. Id. (quoting Desert Irrigation, Ltd. v. State of Nevada, 113 Nev. 1049, 1059, 944 P.2d 835, 842 (1997), and Kootenai Environ. Alliance v. Panhandle Yacht, 105 Idaho 622, 671 P.2d 1085, 1095 (1983)). Justice Rose noted that every Nevada citizen has a vested interest in the water from Walker River and expects the state's natural resources to be preserved. Id. at 248, 20 P.3d at 808. Finally, he described this court's vital role of ensuring the continuance of this stewardship: If the current law governing the water engineer does not clearly direct the engineer to continuously consider in the course of his work the public's interest in Nevada's natural water resources, then the law is deficient. It is then appropriate, if not our constitutional duty, to expressly reaffirm the engineer's continuing responsibility as a public trustee to allocate and supervise water rights so that the appropriations do not substantially impair the public interest in the lands and waters remaining. [T]he public trust is more than an affirmation of state power to use public property for public purposes. It is an affirmation of the duty of the state to protect the people's common heritage of streams, lakes, marshlands and tidelands, surrendering that right of protection only in rare cases when the abandonment of that right is consistent with the purposes of the trust. Our dwindling natural resources deserve no less. Id. at 248-49, 20 P.3d at 808-09 (alteration in original) (quoting Illinois Central Railroad v. Illinois, 146 U.S. 387, 452, 13 S.Ct. 110, 36 L.Ed. 1018 (1892), and Nat. Audubon Soc. v. Super. Ct. of Alpine Cty., 33 Cal.3d 419, 189 Cal.Rptr. 346, 658 P.2d 709, 724 (1983)). [1]