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Four indicted in Truckee-Carson Irrigation District water scam

Posted by: Maven on December 7, 2008 at 7:16 am

From the Reno Gazette-Journal (hat tip to Water Wired):

The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District and four of its Fallon employees were indicted Wednesday on 10 charges of conspiring to defraud the federal government, making false claims and falsifying records in a scam to secure Sierra water and gain credits from the federal government.

David Overvold, 58, project manager for the irrigation district based in Fallon; Lyman McConnell, 64, the district’s lawyer; Shelby Cecil, 65; and John Baker, 63, manipulated or disabled water meters, changed numbers on water-use reports and submitted inflated figures from 2000 to 2005 to secure additional water credits from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the indictment said.

Part of the money earned through their alleged water diversion scheme was used to pay a civil lawsuit won by the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe, which had sued the district in 1995 for illegally diverting water that should have gone to Pyramid Lake and caused it to drop by 70 feet, the indictment said.

“Water is a precious commodity in Nevada and throughout the West,” U.S. Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney said in a statement. “The behavior alleged in this indictment undermines the integrity of the water system and cannot be tolerated.”

Read more from the Reno Gazette-Journal by clicking here.

December 7, 2008 · Filed Under Water Agency News

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