Washoe County, NV Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

308. Item 14 declares that "the discharge of pollutants into receiving waters or into the county's stormwater management system" is a public nuisance, without exception for the source of the discharge. The same list pairs this with two adjoining stormwater-related nuisances: item 12 covers land altered so as to cause or contribute to erosion, subsidence, or surface water drainage impacting public or private property, and item 13 bars grading land except as authorized under WCC 110, section 438, unless the grading is incidental to an existing farming operation.

280, which is charged with the planning, management and operation of utilities including sewer, reclaimed water, and stormwater drainage, as assigned by the Board of County Commissioners. 306, maintaining any nuisance described in the Nuisance Code, including a prohibited stormwater discharge, is unlawful within the unincorporated county, and violations cited by a county enforcement official are subject to the remedies and enforcement provisions of WCC Chapter 125. The stormwater-discharge nuisance is a general unincorporated-county rule administered by code enforcement and the Department of Utility Services; a small number of the Nuisance Code's animal-related categories, by contrast, are separately extended into Reno and Sparks by interlocal agreement.