Feds want to fix canal, but Nevada town lives off the leaks
Water flows through an irrigation canal in Fernley, Nev. about 30 miles east of Reno Thursday, March 18, 2021. Safety aside, the bureau says the loss of federally owned water from the dirt canal is a waste of U.S. taxpayers’ money. Ad“Fernley has a right to continued recharge from the Truckee Canal under the public use doctrine because the seepage conditions have continued for 115 years,” the lawsuit stated. AdBuilt in 1905, the Truckee Canal was part of the Newlands Project named after the Nevada congressman whose legislation led to creation of the Bureau of Reclamation three years earlier. “The city’s use of canal seepage is not a valid project water delivery.”