In the months before Nevada’s top water regulator was fired, major mining companies and others complained about him to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office, accusing him of “coercion” and slow-walking communications as the state inched to a nuclear option in water policy — curtailing rights in Nevada’s largest basin. The complaints, which came in the form of nearly 200 emails, letters, attachments and meetings reviewed by The Nevada Independent, largely centered around a draft order to reduce groundwater pumping in the Humboldt River Basin. It’s an overappropriated watershed in Northern Nevada where the state is undertaking its first major, large-scale application of conjunctive water management; a strategy to coordinate surface and groundwater use. 

Other mining and water news:

• High Country News (Paonia, Colo.): ‘Energy dominance’ agenda sidelines tribes
• Invisible Waters: Blog: Digging to mine, digging into groundwater