Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation
E560537
The Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation is a legal system for allocating water rights in the state based on the principle of “first in time, first in right,” giving priority to earlier users during times of shortage.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5999154 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation Context triple: [Nevada Division of Water Resources, subjectTo, Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation]
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A.
Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990
The Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990 is a U.S. federal law that resolves long-standing water allocation disputes in the Truckee, Carson, and Pyramid Lake basins, particularly balancing tribal, agricultural, and environmental water rights in Nevada and California.
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B.
Nevada Division of Water Resources
The Nevada Division of Water Resources is the state agency responsible for managing, allocating, and overseeing the use of Nevada’s water resources, including rivers, groundwater, and water rights administration.
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C.
Nevada state mining law
Nevada state mining law is the body of state-level statutes and regulations that governs the exploration, development, and operation of mineral resources within Nevada’s mining districts.
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D.
Lower Colorado River water management system
The Lower Colorado River water management system is an integrated network of dams, reservoirs, canals, and related infrastructure that regulates river flow, supplies water and hydroelectric power, and supports agriculture and urban areas across the arid southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
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E.
Mono Lake water rights litigation
Mono Lake water rights litigation refers to the series of landmark legal battles over Los Angeles’s diversion of water from the Mono Basin, which reshaped California water law by strengthening public trust protections for environmental resources.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation Target entity description: The Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation is a legal system for allocating water rights in the state based on the principle of “first in time, first in right,” giving priority to earlier users during times of shortage.
-
A.
Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990
The Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990 is a U.S. federal law that resolves long-standing water allocation disputes in the Truckee, Carson, and Pyramid Lake basins, particularly balancing tribal, agricultural, and environmental water rights in Nevada and California.
-
B.
Nevada Division of Water Resources
The Nevada Division of Water Resources is the state agency responsible for managing, allocating, and overseeing the use of Nevada’s water resources, including rivers, groundwater, and water rights administration.
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C.
Nevada state mining law
Nevada state mining law is the body of state-level statutes and regulations that governs the exploration, development, and operation of mineral resources within Nevada’s mining districts.
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D.
Lower Colorado River water management system
The Lower Colorado River water management system is an integrated network of dams, reservoirs, canals, and related infrastructure that regulates river flow, supplies water and hydroelectric power, and supports agriculture and urban areas across the arid southwestern United States and northern Mexico.
-
E.
Mono Lake water rights litigation
Mono Lake water rights litigation refers to the series of landmark legal battles over Los Angeles’s diversion of water from the Mono Basin, which reshaped California water law by strengthening public trust protections for environmental resources.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
legal doctrine
ⓘ
water rights doctrine ⓘ |
| administeredBy |
Nevada Division of Water Resources
ⓘ
Nevada State Engineer ⓘ
linked to:
Nevada Division of Water Resources
|
| allocates | rights to use water rather than ownership of water ⓘ |
| appliesDuring | drought conditions in Nevada ⓘ |
| appliesInJurisdiction |
State of Nevada
ⓘ
linked to:
Nevada
|
| appliesTo |
interstate river systems within Nevada subject to compact allocations
ⓘ
intrastate rivers and streams in Nevada ⓘ lakes and springs in Nevada ⓘ underground water basins in Nevada ⓘ |
| beneficialUseIncludes |
domestic use
ⓘ
industrial use ⓘ irrigation ⓘ mining use ⓘ municipal supply ⓘ recreation and wildlife uses as recognized by statute or policy ⓘ stockwatering ⓘ |
| conditionForRight |
application to appropriate water
ⓘ
permit issued by Nevada State Engineer ⓘ proof of beneficial use ⓘ |
| corePrinciple | first in time, first in right ⓘ |
| distinguishedFrom | riparian water rights doctrine ⓘ |
| doesNotRequire | riparian land ownership ⓘ |
| effectDuringShortage | junior rights curtailed before senior rights ⓘ |
| enforcedThrough |
adjudication proceedings in Nevada courts
ⓘ
administrative orders of the Nevada State Engineer ⓘ |
| governs |
groundwater rights in Nevada
ⓘ
surface water rights in Nevada ⓘ |
| historicallyInfluencedBy | western United States prior appropriation systems ⓘ |
| includesConcept |
abandonment of water rights
ⓘ
change applications for place or manner of use ⓘ forfeiture of rights for nonuse ⓘ |
| legalSource |
Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 533
ⓘ
linked to:
Nevada Revised Statutes
Nevada Revised Statutes Chapter 534 ⓘ
linked to:
Nevada Revised Statutes
|
| legalSystemType | prior appropriation ⓘ |
| priorityDeterminedBy |
date of priority
ⓘ
seniority of water right ⓘ |
| priorityRule | senior rights satisfied before junior rights in times of shortage ⓘ |
| prohibits | wasteful use of water ⓘ |
| publicPolicy | water is a public resource subject to state control ⓘ |
| recognizes |
separate water rights from land ownership
ⓘ
vested rights established before comprehensive statutory regulation ⓘ |
| requires | beneficial use of water ⓘ |
| requiresApprovalFor |
change in manner of use
ⓘ
change in place of use ⓘ change in point of diversion ⓘ |
| subjectTo |
environmental and resource considerations under Nevada law
ⓘ
public interest review by Nevada State Engineer ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation Description of subject: The Nevada water law doctrine of prior appropriation is a legal system for allocating water rights in the state based on the principle of “first in time, first in right,” giving priority to earlier users during times of shortage.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.