Order 1293 & well deepening in Pahrump, plainly explained

What Order 1293 actually says

On December 19, 2017, the Nevada State Engineer issued Order 1293, addressing new domestic wells in the Pahrump Artesian Basin (Basin 162). The core requirement: an application for a new domestic well permit must relinquish 2.0 acre-feet of water rights in good standing before the well can be permitted.

That relinquishment requirement is separate from — and in addition to — the existing annual usage cap that already applies to every domestic well in Nevada: 2 acre-feet per year, roughly 1,800 gallons per day, under NRS 534.180. Order 1293 didn’t change how much water an existing well can pump. It changed what it takes to get a permit for a brand-new one.

Order 1293A: the narrow amendment

On July 12, 2018, the State Engineer issued Order 1293A, adding two narrow exceptions after landowners who were already mid-process pushed back:

• Property owners who filed a Notice of Intent to Drill between December 15–19, 2017 — the four days immediately before the original order — could proceed without the relinquishment requirement. Roughly 22 parcels reportedly fell into this category.
• Property owners who could show a zoning or building permit application filed with Nye County before December 19, 2017 also qualified for the exception — about half a dozen properties.
• Landowners who had already purchased and relinquished water rights under the original order were given a path to recover that investment by reselling the 2 acre-feet as an asset.

These exceptions were narrow and time-boxed to late 2017 — they are not relevant to a parcel bought or developed today. For essentially every current Pahrump homeowner, the operative rule is the plain one above: new domestic well = 2 AF relinquishment, unless the parcel’s water rights were already dedicated when the parcel was created.

What is NOT restricted — the part everyone misses

This is the distinction that trips up the most homeowners — and, we’ve seen, the occasional contractor who should know better. “Deepening” or “rehabilitating” a well you already own is treated as maintenance on an existing water right, not a request for a new one. The practical effect: nearly all of the well work that actually happens in Pahrump — covered in our pump repair & service guide and replacement cost guide — proceeds completely outside Order 1293’s reach. Be wary of anyone who cites Order 1293 as a reason your existing well project needs extra permitting or water-rights costs it doesn’t actually require — see the red flag list in our no-water triage guide.

The legal fight, briefly

Order 1293 wasn’t uncontested. A group of landowners, organized as Pahrump Fair Water LLC, sued, arguing the State Engineer lacked authority to restrict domestic wells this way and that the order violated due process by issuing without adequate notice. In late 2018, a Nye County district court agreed and ordered the State Engineer to reverse the order — which the State Engineer did on December 13, 2018, while noting the reversal was subject to the pending appeal, and obtained a stay.

The case reached the Nevada Supreme Court as Wilson v. Pahrump Fair Water, LLC, 481 P.3d 853 (Nev. 2021). On February 25, 2021, the court reversed the district court and reinstated Order 1293A, holding that NRS 534.110(8) — which lets the State Engineer “restrict the drilling of wells” where additional wells would cause undue interference with existing ones — plainly authorized the restriction. The court also rejected the argument that domestic wells were exempt from this authority, noting the legislature had progressively brought domestic wells into Nevada’s water-rights system over time. The court remanded one narrower issue — whether the order amounts to an unconstitutional taking — back to the district court; we found no public record that this separate claim has since been resolved.

Bottom line for a homeowner today: Order 1293A has been in continuous force since February 2021, and there is no live legal challenge we could find that puts its core requirement — 2 AF relinquishment for new domestic wells — in doubt.

Why this exists at all

The Pahrump Artesian Basin is over-appropriated: roughly 11,000 domestic wells draw on a basin where water levels have been declining since the 1950s. The Nye County Water District’s own Estimated Effects of Water Level Declines analysis projects 400+ domestic well failures by 2035 and 3,000+ by 2065 if the trend continues. NCWD also runs an ongoing Water Level Measurement Program tracking conditions across the valley. Against that backdrop, the State Engineer’s stated rationale — and the one the Nevada Supreme Court upheld — is straightforward: every new well added to an already over-drawn basin makes the interference problem for existing wells worse.

Your decision path: rehab, deepen, replace, or new well

In practice, most homeowners calling about a well problem fall into one of the first four rows — meaning Order 1293 simply isn’t part of their project. It only becomes relevant for genuinely new construction on land that never had a well.

Checking your parcel’s water rights

If you’re evaluating raw land or unsure what your parcel already has, start with your APN (Assessor’s Parcel Number, on your Nye County property tax bill or the county assessor’s site). From there:

• The Nevada Division of Water Resources maintains public water rights and well-log records searchable by parcel or location — this tells you whether water rights were already dedicated to your parcel and pulls up any existing well log with depth, casing, and historical static water level.
• Nye County Water District (nyecountywaterdistrict.net) is the local authority on Order 1293/1293A specifics and can point you to current exception status if you believe your situation is unusual.
• For anything beyond a quick lookup — buying land specifically to drill, or a dispute over what your parcel is entitled to — this is worth a conversation with the Division of Water Resources or a water-rights attorney before you commit money.

Sources & further reading

• Nevada State Engineer, Order 1293 (original order, PDF)
• Nye County Water District — Domestic Wells, Order 1293
• Wilson v. Pahrump Fair Water, LLC, 481 P.3d 853 (Nev. 2021)

Related guides

• Well pump repair & service in Pahrump
• Well pump replacement cost in Pahrump (2026)
• No water from your well? Triage guide
• Best well & pump companies serving Pahrump