DCNR responds to Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial

CARSON CITY — The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources responded today to the editorial posted in the Las Vegas Review-Journal regarding state consulting contracts.

In the case of water rights negotiations for the Truckee River, the federally funded contracts deal with millions if not billions of dollars worth of water rights important to northern Nevadans. The contractors in place have decades worth of experience on this specific issue, and the current workload of the Division of Water Resources – especially following rounds of significant budget reductions – does not allow this work to be done by the agency. No savings would be achieved by altering the current contractual relationship.

We invite the public to review these contracts, and the reasons for them, online at the DCNR site: http://dcnr.nv.gov/documents/documents/contracts-2008-09/

It should be noted that in each instance, these contracts are approved through established state procedures. The Department is committed to working within state rules and regulations for its contracts and takes seriously these approved procedures.