The Nevada Division of Water Resources is responsible for administering and enforcing Nevada water law, which includes the adjudication and appropriation of groundwater and surface water in the state. The appointed administrative head of this division is the State Engineer, whose office was created by the Nevada Legislature in 1903. The purpose of the 1903 legislation was to account for all of the existing water use according to priority. The 1903 act was amended in 1905 to set out a method for appropriation of water not already being put to a beneficial use.
It was not until the passage of the Nevada General Water Law Act of 1913 that the Nevada Division of Water Resources was granted jurisdiction over all wells tapping artesian water or water in definable underground aquifers. The 1939 Nevada Underground Water Act granted the Nevada Division of Water Resources total jurisdiction over all groundwater in the state.
The 1913 and 1939 acts have been amended a number of times, and Nevada's water law is considered one of the most comprehensive water laws in the West. The above-mentioned acts provide that all water within the boundaries of the state, whether above or beneath the surface of the the ground, belongs to the public, as referenced in NRS 533.025 and is subject to appropriation for