Senate bill would give $240 million to Nevada projects

"This bill will give Nevada the tools we need to take us into the 21st century," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday in a news release. "Under this bill, Nevada will have the resources we need to preserve, protect and expand our water supplies and continue to diversify and expand our use of the Nevada Test Site."

The Senate passed the 1999 Energy and Water Appropriations bill Thursday evening. The measure now goes to the House.

Some of the water projects that would receive funding under the bill include work on the Las Vegas Wash, the Lake Tahoe Basin and a flood warning system for Reno and Sparks.

Reid, ranking Democrat of Energy and Water Committee, said that in the past, the House has removed funding for state and county oversight of Yucca Mountain, the only site being studied by the Energy Department as a potential permanent disposal site for the nation's high-level nuclear waste.

Reid said restoring those funds is one of his top priorities.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy froze $691,000 in federal funds that the Nevada Nuclear Waste Projects Office intended to spend. That left the state office with only about $92,000, enough to operate only until July.

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