Tribes criticize lack of consultation for water pipeline in Nevada

Thursday, May 24, 2012  

Tribes from Nevada, Utah and California say they haven't been consulted about a water pipeline that stretches across their ancestral territory in Nevada.

The eight tribes issued a joint statement that said they weren't approached by the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs until the very end of the process. And the agencies didn't send decision-making officials to the meeting, which took place yesterday in Las Vegas.

"They're making decisions on our behalf without consulting the tribes," Ed Naranjo, the chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation in Utah, said at a press conference, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. "It doesn't take that much to ask."

The BLM and the BIA negotiated mitigation agreements with the Southern Nevada Water Authority and conducted an environmental review of the pipeline without tribal input, Naranjo said.

Get the Story:
Tribes say feds haven't protected them from Las Vegas pipeline project (The Las Vegas Review-Journal 5/24)