Roger Adam: Opposition to assault on domestic wells

Senate Bill 47 has already been proposed and submitted to the Nevada Senate Committee on Natural Resources, even before it meets on Monday.

In addition, several other water-related bill draft requests have been or may be considered. My opinion and concern, based on these and other proposals considered last year by an interim committee, is the Legislature may delegate the unelected, appointed state engineer expanded dictatorial authority to unilaterally severely limit or destroy private domestic well-owning citizens’ rights to their own water, including but not limited to, directing government assistants and authorized agents to:

Trespass on your private property and force you, against your will, to have a meter installed on your domestic well at your expense.

Spy on your well use and prohibit you from using your own water anywhere on your own property that’s outside your house for your grass, trees, flowers, plants, animals, or any other outside watering.

Trespass on your private property, plug your domestic well, and force you, against your will, to connect to government or private water pipes, if water can be furnished to the site by a political subdivision of the state or certain public utilities, with no limit on the cost to you of this connection or the expense of the metered water service. Section 13 of proposed SB 47 removes the prior legal requirements in order for the state engineer to require the plugging of a domestic well, the domestic well must have been drilled on or after July 1, 1981; and the charge for making the connection to the water service must be less than $200.

Trespass on your private property, read the meter installed against your will, and fine you if your domestic well pumps more than one half acre-foot annually (down from 2 acre-feet).

Limit the depth of any domestic well, even if a new or reconditioned well needs to be deeper to access water.

Prohibit the reconditioning or re-drilling of any domestic well.

Do these and other, in my opinion, draconian, atrocious provisions of SB47, additional BDRs, and legislative proposals remind you of the assault on private citizens’ rights by the oppressive governments of Nazi Germany or the former Soviet Union? Are you considering emailing/writing your state senator, representative and governor in opposition to SB 47 and any other BDRs limiting your rights to your own water? Would you like existing laws limiting your rights to your domestic well water eliminated? Can you attend the rally in front of the Legislature (401 S. Carson St., Carson City) at 9 a.m. on Monday (nevadawellscooperative.org)?

Roger Adam is a Douglas County taxpayer, resident and voter.