U.S. Water News Online
FALLON, Nev. -- An effort to settle a massive water rights dispute between local farmers and the Pyramid Lake Pauite Tribe will likely not be complete by a 2006 deadline, the Fallon City Council was told.
A state-negotiated agreement calls for the tribe to drop protests against more than 2,000 water rights claims if the Carson Water Subconservancy District purchases and retires 6,500 acres of water rights, so that less water from the Truckee and Carson rivers is allocated to Lahontan Valley farms.
"Where we are now, it doesn't look like we'll be able to reach that goal," CWSD director Ed James told Fallon officials.
The 1993 protest of local farmers' water rights came amidst lingering concern over the endangered Cui-ui fish that live in Pyramid Lake. The tribe's attorney, Robert Pelcyger, said the protests were in response to a "concerted, systematic effort to revive dormant water rights that had not been used in a long time."
Local growers listed in the protest deny their water rights were dormant and many have proceeded with litigation.
The agreement to retire more water in exchange for dropping the protest was penned in 1999 with the help of the Nevada State Legislature.
Officials from the tribe, the city of Fallon, Churchill County and the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District felt it would give litigation-weary farmers a way out of expensive court battles and still get paid market value for their challenged water.
Before the program began, James said, he was concerned too many people would want to participate and there wouldn't be enough money to buy all the water.
That didn't happen.
After about five years, the CWSD has purchased about 2,400 acres of water rights. There is now less than two years to go before the program, which was already extended from a 2004 deadline, ends. But CWSD hasn't abandoned the program, James said.
"We're still pushing hard because we still believe this is a good program," he said.
More than 500 acres of Lahontan Valley farmland have been put back into production as a result of the program, James said, and that success will stick whether the program reaches its goal or not.
City Attorney Mike Mackedon, who represented Fallon during negotiation of the agreement known as the AB 380 program, said the program succeeds with every water right purchased and retired.
"Even if you only purchase 3,000 acres, you've succeeded in settling 3,000 acres worth of litigation," Mackedon said.
James is looking to persuade people to sell water they don't use into the program before the 2006 deadline.
"Our goal is to buy water that cannot be served, water that can't be used right now," he said.
Some city residents own small amounts of water rights, James said, but there are no longer canals running up to their property. While the residents can't use the water, they still pay operation fees to the local irrigation district. They could sell their small water right to a farmer but transfer fees and a possible challenge to the water right's validity would make it a less than worthwhile for most buyers, James said.
But the CWSD will buy it.
The district increased the price it's willing to pay for an acre foot by $600 last month. It now pays $3,800 per acre foot in the Truckee River division and $2,200 in the Carson River division.
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