📌 THE GIST:
ELKO COUNTY, NV — Mining companies operating in the Humboldt River Basin — including Nevada Gold Mines, Elko County’s largest employer — complained to Gov. Joe Lombardo’s office about Nevada’s top water regulator in the months before he was fired, according to an investigation by the Nevada Independent. A draft plan to manage groundwater pumping in the basin, which runs through Elko, Carlin, and Battle Mountain, has been on hold ever since.
🔍 THE DETAILS:
The Investigation: The Nevada Independent reviewed nearly 200 emails, letters, and meeting records showing mining companies, developers, and other groups complained to Lombardo’s office about then-State Engineer Adam Sullivan. The complaints centered on a draft order to reduce groundwater pumping in the Humboldt River Basin — a 330-mile watershed that drains entirely within Nevada and is overappropriated, meaning more water rights exist than water available.
The NGM Connection: A lobbyist representing Nevada Gold Mines wrote to Lombardo’s chief of staff on Nov. 12, 2025, calling the draft curtailment order “coercion masked as collaboration,” according to the Nevada Independent. The email said NGM had “offered bona fide solutions” that were “ignored by the agency.” NGM operates the Carlin Trend complex and other major mines in the basin and employs more than 7,000 workers, with the vast majority living in Elko County and surrounding communities.
The Firing: Sullivan was terminated in early December 2025 — the first state engineer fired since 1981, according to the Nevada Independent. His personnel file contained no prior reprimands. Sullivan told the Nevada Independent he faced “pressure to rescind decisions or accelerate decisions, or withhold decisions.” He was fired by then-DCNR Director James Settelmeyer, a Lombardo appointee who later said in a deposition that Sullivan was “not a great leader” and that the draft order was not based on “the strongest science.” Settelmeyer acknowledged in the deposition that he is not a hydrologist and the hydrologists he consulted on the science had been hired by mining companies.
NGM’s Position: Barrick executive Christina Erling told the Nevada Independent that all personnel decisions are in the governor’s purview and that it is “incumbent on affected parties to bring their concerns to the Governor’s office.” None of the emails reviewed by the Nevada Independent directly requested Sullivan’s removal, though certain records — including details of a meeting between Lombardo and NGM representatives — were redacted. NGM contributed $500,000 to a Lombardo-supportive PAC in 2024, according to the Nevada Independent.
The Local Angle: Elko County had been engaging constructively with Sullivan’s draft order. Zach Woodbury of Elko County Natural Resources said in September 2025 that the county was “pleased that the state engineer incorporated many of our concerns,” noting the order exempted wells pumping less than 5 acre-feet annually — protecting more than 3,400 domestic well owners and most stock water wells from mitigation requirements.
The Freeze: After Sullivan’s firing, the acting state engineer emailed members of a Humboldt River working group confirming that the state would postpone the draft curtailment order indefinitely. The process to develop the order involved years of groundwater modeling by the U.S. Geological Survey and Desert Research Institute. That work remains unresolved.
What’s Next: Joe Cacioppo, a licensed civil engineer and Army veteran, was appointed as the new state engineer effective March 30, 2026. Conservation groups have questioned his ties to Resource Concepts Inc., a consulting firm involved in water rights applications across the state. Settelmeyer resigned from DCNR in March 2026 to run for the open U.S. House seat in Nevada’s 2nd Congressional District, where he has received endorsements from Lombardo and retiring Rep. Mark Amodei. The governor’s office did not respond to the Nevada Independent’s requests for comment on Sullivan’s firing.
Editor’s Note: The Elko Brief is pursuing additional reporting on the status of the Humboldt River Basin water management process and its implications for Elko County residents, ranchers, and mining operations. Tips: tips@elkobrief.com.
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⚡ THE SPARK: The Humboldt River Basin has more water rights on paper than water in the ground. Should the state prioritize protecting senior water rights holders — including ranchers and domestic well owners — or avoid curtailment to protect mining jobs and economic growth?
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