Consumer Law
A Rural Nevada Town Clashes With the U.S. Over a 1905 Irrigation Canal
Lawyers for the government and a rural Nevada town clashed Wednesday over western water law in a legal battle over the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s plan to renovate a 115-year-old earthen irrigation canal with changes that would eliminate leaking water local residents long have used to fill their own domestic wells.
Lawyers for both sides argued in U.S. District Court in Reno where last year a judge denied Fernley’s bid to delay plans to line parts of the Truckee Canal with concrete to make it safer after it burst in 2008, flooding nearly 600 homes.
Judge Miranda Du said she intended to rule in the coming weeks on the bureau’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit Fernley filed in March because it has no legal standing under federal law.
