Figure 1: NASH 2006 participants at Devil’s Hold NM

Figure 2: NPS Hydrologist at Devil’s Hole National Monument

Figure 3: Devil’s Hole Pupfish

Fish and Wildlife Service hydrologists and water rights/navigability specialist from Alaska participated in the 2^nd workshop of the National Assembly of Service Hydrologists held in Las Vegas, Nevada October 10-12, 2006. The three day meeting brought together Service hydrologist and water resource specialists from all over the country to discuss regional water issues, share areas of expertise, and exchange ideas.

Programs, and important water issues covering a broad range of water topics included: water rights issues, stream restoration, ground water monitoring and modeling, maintenance of natural flow regimes, and ecologically based decision making applications. Guest speakers included a representative from the Southern Nevada Water Authority discussing the water supply challenges faced by Las Vegas, and Adel Amos, Professor of Law at University of Oregon Law School. Ms. Amos provided case studies that questioned the viability of protecting federal water right interests using individual state water programs.

A field trip to Devil’s Hole National Park, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, and the Desert National Wildlife Refuge closed the meeting. The Park Service hydrologist at Devil’s Hole NP led a discussion of the issues facing the only naturally occurring population of endangered Devil’s Hole pupfish. The pupfish’s existence were threatened by low water levels in the Hole associated with ground water pumping in 1971. A federal court issued an injunction to halt pumping in August 1971 and litigation eventually resulted in the landmark Caeppert vs US Supreme Court decision of 1976. The decision recognized the Federal Reserved water right of Devil’s Hole National Monument as a senior water right and limited ground water pumping to a level that guaranteed sufficient water in Devil’s Hole to protect the critical habitat of the Pupfish.