Trout talks may not stop Weber Dam project

The talks are required by the Endangered Species Act but they won't necessarily halt reconstruction of the northern third of the 1,950-foot-long earthfill dam 90 miles east of Carson City, said Bob Williams, fish and wildlife's Nevada field supervisor.

The Walker River Paiute Tribe is accepting construction bids for the dam work until March 18 with hopes to start the 300-day project in April. One end of the new dam will swing 600 feet to the east of the current dam to avoid an earthquake fault.

"It's clearly up to them if they want to start without completing the consultation process," Williams said.

Tribe Vice Chairman Jonathan Hicks said the Paiutes are moving ahead with the dam.

"Until we get something official to stop the project, we're continuing as planned," he said.

Ideally, dam plans would be redrawn to incorporate a method to transport fish but the dam can be built as designed with a conveyance added at a later date, Williams said.

"That's a scenario and an option," Williams told the Nevada Appeal.

Until now, the tribe has incorporated no method, such as a fish ladder, to allow the trout from Walker Lake to move upstream to spawn. Hicks said only dam safety funding was available and a fish ladder does not qualify for such federal funding.

However, with Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's visit last week to Weber Dam and U.S. Sen. Harry Reid's interest in the Walker River system, Williams believes funding for a fish ladder or similar device could become available in the next year or two.

"Reid is clearly watching this," Williams said. "It's a question of when can the funding be pulled together."

Reid, D-Nev., is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The Lahontan cutthroat trout discussions started in 1994 as the Paiute filed an environmental assessment on the dam projects, but have never been completed. The trout issue has gained increasing interest after four consecutive wet winters that have suddenly upgraded the trouts' chances for breeding naturally in the Walker River rather than at fisheries.

When Walker Lake was its lowest in 1995, water conditions barely allowed the survival of trout in the lake. Trout have more than doubled in size since then.

"Conditions have changed," Williams said.

And once $10 million in federal funding became available in October, the tribe was eager to start the dam work that was nine years in the planning.

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