… [A] 2008 legal mandate means the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA) is required to align regional growth with its two main critical water resources: the vibrant, snow-fed Truckee River and the deep, silent aquifers lying beneath the valley floor. … Adam Sullivan, the former state engineer for Nevada, confirms the scale of the problem. He notes that about half of Nevada’s 256 groundwater basins are “over-appropriated,” meaning more water rights exist on paper than the land can yield, and 25% are already being over-pumped. The fear that development will outpace the aquifer isn’t hypothetical; other western cities have already hit the wall.

Other water rights and development news:

• The Denver Post (Colo.): Opinion: As cities gobble up water rights, we can’t let Colorado fields become wastelands