Wednesday, March 12, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
The fund created in 1973 provides matching funds for projects along state-controlled rivers. But Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, said the fund has only $50,000 in it.
AB190, Dini told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, will increase that fund to $250,000.
State Engineer Mike Turnipseed said the small size of the fund was dramatically pointed out after New Year's flooding in western Nevada. He said repair and reconstruction work is needed on long stretches of the Walker, Truckee and Carson rivers.
Turnipseed said he also would like to see the law changed so that the money in the fund could be used to match federal dollars. Right now, only local dollars can be used to match the money.
Lyon County Commission Chairman David Fulstone, a rancher along the Walker River, said the need for the matching money is growing as more people move closer to the river. He said in the past, Lyon County has used money from the fund on projects that have significantly reduced flooding problems in Yerington.
Terry King, a resource specialist from Churchill County, said the fund is also valuable because it allows projects by small districts and other entities without a lot of capital to get the money up front instead of bills for repayment after the work is done.
She too said that, after this year's flooding, "there is an exceptional amount of work that needs to be done" along western Nevada's rivers.
Turnipseed said there's a lot of competition for the fund's limited resources and that increasing it to $250,000 would enable much more work to be done clearing river beds and repairing banks damaged in the New Year's flooding.
Dan Kaffer of the U.S. Department of Agriculture added the fund is a valuable tool for getting needed repairs done along the Carson and Walker rivers.
"Ranches are literally washing away," he said, pointing out that some ranches in the area lost acres of land.
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