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Federal official says users responsible for levee fixes

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 18, 2008 at 5:40 am

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

The government has only a limited responsibility to repair or replace aging dams, canals and levees that were contracted to local authorities years ago, a top federal official said Thursday.  On projects transferred to local control, “in most cases the arrangement calls for those costs to be the responsibility of the water users,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Robert Johnson said at a Senate hearing that focused in part on the collapse of the Truckee Canal in January.

The breach in the 100-year-old levee flooded 590 homes in Fernley. The earthen embankment has been managed by the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District since the 1920s.

Fernley Mayor Todd Cutler testified the Bureau of Reclamation as the owner and the irrigation district as the operator should share repair costs of the levee “with the idea that it provides us life.”  “The canal feeds a great deal of people. With that said, it is a federal facility,” he said.

Depending on the level of repair deemed necessary, the costs could range from $28 million to $390 million, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.

Read the full text of this story from the Las Vegas Review-Journal by clicking here.

April 18, 2008 · Filed Under Levees

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