# Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council (2025) > Briefs, arguments, decisions, and more. URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Apyramid_lake%3A03eaf88a70cf28e7 ## Record - **Collection:** Tribal code - **Document type:** Tribal code ## Text Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council Post Office Box 256 Nixon, Nevada 89424 Telephone: (775) 574-1000 Fax (775) 574-1054 WATER TEAM MEETING MINUTES Tribal Chambers ~ Nixon, NV February 19, 2025, WT™M Members Present: Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Edward Ely II], Vice Chairman Loren Decker, Councilmember Nicholas Cortez, Councilmember Judith Davis, Councilmember John Guerrero, Councilmember Nathan Dunn, Councilmember Della John, Councilmember Georgina Wadsworth, Councilmember Ceira Sampson, Councilmember CALL TO ORDER Chairman Wadsworth called the February 19, 2025, Tribal Council Water Team meeting of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council to order at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL Brenda A. Henry, Tribal Council Secretary, took the roll call. All Councilmembers were present at roll call and a quorum was established for this meeting. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the January 15, 2025, WTM agenda with changes. Councilmember Cortez seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED CONSENT AGENDA The following items were presented on the Consent Agenda: 1. Approval of Kemp Jones January 2025 Invoice 2. Approval Stetson Engineers Inc December 2024 Invoice #1336-2412 and #1336-01-2412 3. Approval Stetson Engineers Inc January 2025 Invoice #1336-2501 and #1336-01-2501 Councilmember Guerrero motioned to approve the Consent Agenda. Councilmember Cortez seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED PRESENTATION Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes 1. DODGE FLAT II SOLAR PROJECT UDPATE. Michael Xavier, Renewable Energy Project Manager, Carson City District Office. Mr. Xavier said most of what is in the briefing is the same as last time with only one change on the timeline. They are finishing the review of the draft and are hoping to send it to the State Office and their solicitor by the beginning of March. This will trigger their review stage and after that is the 30-day comment period. For the Tribe, they will take the comments all through the process, but for the public comment they are expecting to start in July. Chairman Wadsworth said Ms. Dow was supposed to bring Microsoft to this meeting, but she emailed him earlier to let him know that she were still working through some things and they would present at a later date. Mr. Xavier said she also emailed to let him know that with the review period there won't be a lot of updates occurring so they could send updates to the Secretary every month for the Water Team meetings but then they will come and present major milestones right before the comment period starts and when it ends. Councilmember Della John asked if the comments they make at the Council level, do they record them. Mr. Xavier said they do; it all gets captured in a matrix with the comments. Chairman Wadsworth asked the Council if they would like them to present at every other meeting with milestones. Councilmember Cortez said the original intent with the previous interim was to have information for any ongoing projects within the vicinity of the Reservation boundaries and that was the reason for the monthly meetings, but he noticed the last few times they have been focused on the Dodge Flat project. If there are any projects in the starting phases it would be nice to know about them. Mr. Xavier said they can build a presentation that shows what is going on within and close to their districts. Councilmember Della John said with the first project they didn’t consult the Tribe and didn’t do a NEPA because it was all private land and with the federal property right next to the Tribe, they have a chance to be heard and that is the reason they wanted them here every month. The Tribe has the migratory bird path, archeology sites and other things that were impactful and we were not given a chance to comment. Mr. Xavier said they are more than willing to come every month. The public comment period starts in July and then following that, incorporating the comments, they will go into the final environmental assessment. Councilmember Della John asked if they would have an opportunity to see the comments. Mr. Xavier said they will be publicly available. Vice Chairman Ely was concerned whether they will see updates if they don’t come every month because since this has started, they have seen five different BLM representatives. Mr. Xavier said he is permanent and so is Ms. Dow, unfortunately the field office that covers this area is an interim and now they are in a hiring freeze, but the intent is to fill that position and make it permanent. Councilmember Wadsworth said if the information is basically the same she is fine with every other month. Councilmember Davis feels comfortable if they could present this information and then start coming back monthly come July. Chairman Wadsworth confirmed they will do every other month and then monthly after July. -2-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes 1. Request for Approval of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Air Grant with Resolution. Tanda Roberts, Air Quality Specialist, NR Ms. Roberts explained this is for the 2026 Base Grant which runs the Air Program. The grant proposal starts the negotiations with EPA in the amount of $144,659. Work to be done in 2026 starts October 1s through September 30* of every year. The EPA authority awarding this grant is Section 103 of the Clean Air Act that helps to support Tribal Air Quality activities related to air pollution. This yearly competitive grant proposes to continue the particulate matter monitoring project for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe at both the Wadsworth and Nixon Air Quality Stations. This grant does not require a cash match; and 100% indirect costs are covered. The grant proposal which begins negotiations with USEPA, is due before Friday, February 24, 2025. Funding decisions will not be announced until May or June 2025. When reviewing her work plan, she noticed she didn’t include the deposition project, but the cost is included in her budget. The deposition project is a monitoring project to help collect precipitation and to send the samples for testing for mercury. They received approval for the equipment last year and EPA also included the annual cost to rent it. This year they are installing the equipment, and the network cost is a one-time fee. This is just a proposal to EPA, then EPA comes back with an actual award amount where she will have to go through and prioritize based on the amount she is awarded. Councilmember Della John asked what would she do with the data? Ms. Roberts said they keep the data for information purposes but after they review and find anything of concern they will take action. Councilmember Cortez motioned to approve the submission of the proposal for the USEPA Air Grant with Resolution. Vice Chairman Ely seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 009-25 USEPA CLEAN AIR GRANT PROPOSAL 2. Request for Approval to Purchase Truck for the Water Resource Department. Donna Noel, NR Director Ms. Noel provided the 3-bid quotes and explained they selected the Ford F150 for $57,000 which is the lowest bid for the Water Resource Department. It’s funded through the NFWF Grant, and they were allocated $90,000 for the purchase but they found something significantly less. Councilmember Guerrero motioned to approve purchase of a Truck for the Water Resource Department in the amount of $54,000. Councilmember Davis seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. 3. Request for Approval to Purchase Truck for Irrigation Program. Donna Noel, NR Director Ms. Noel provided the 3-bid quotes and explained they received funding from BIA to purchase a truck for the Irrigation Program. They purchased a backhoe, now they need a vehicle to tow it with a gooseneck trailer. They were allocated $72,000 for this purchase. They selected a GMC, which was priced at $62,000 -3-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes which would leave enough funds to install the gooseneck trailer and was powerful enough to haul a trailer with the backhoe. It wasn’t the lowest bidder, but the others didn’t have the power to haul a trailer with a backhoe. Vice Chairman Ely motioned to approve the purchase of a Truck for the Irrigation Department in the amount of $72,000. Councilmember Decker seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED 4, Request for Approval of the Rock Contract with Gopher Construction. Donna Noel, NR Director Ms. Noel explained this is the final contract for the Fish Passage Project at Numana Dam. This includes all the base rock for the ramp to go over the dam. There are three, four different sizes of rock that will be delivered separately in separate piles. They will be storing it at the CEMEX site. When the project starts, they will be able to mix the rock according to the specifications on site instead of mixing at the quarry and then hauling it over. They received bids from Reno Rock and Gopher Construction. Reno Rock was $400,000 more at $1.3 million, and Gopher was at $909,000, so they selected Gopher Construction. At first, they wanted to haul through November, but she called them to let them know the project starts in August and they didn’t have any issue with that. The reason for the price difference was because Reno Rock was going to be hauling the rock from Spanish Springs and Gopher Constructions is a lot closer. Councilmember Davis said the project is starting August 1st, when does the contract start? Ms. Noel said it will start when they get all the signatures on the contract which they are hoping is March 1s. Councilmember Wadsworth asked about the taxes? Ms. Noel said there are no taxes because the grant is paying for it, not the contractor. Councilmember Wadsworth said it doesn’t matter, they still pay taxes, for $900,000 it’s approximately $47,000 in taxes. If they don’t pay the Tribe, they pay the State. Ms. Noel said they don’t pay the State because she has a letter. Councilmember Wadsworth said when they purchase the aggregate they must pay taxes, anything purchased through a grant can be taxable, that is the reason to coordinate through the Tax Department. The Tax Department is aware of this because the company contacted them. Councilmember Davis noted that Councilmember Wadsworth was speaking on behalf of the Tax Department. Ms. Noel said because these cost estimates were done in 2018, the price has increased but it is still $400,000 less than going with Reno Rock but she is currently working on another grant for the construction of the fish screens and can add some funding there. If the Council instructs her to add taxes she can pay the Tax Department out of a grant directly instead of filtering it through the company. Councilmember Wadsworth said the only issue she can see with this is if Gopher Construction is audited by the State on their taxes, which does happen, they're going to ask where’s your letter from the Tribe exempting you from sales tax and it could get them in trouble with the State. Ms. Noel said she can amend the contract to say $909,000 plus Pyramid Lake taxes. Councilmember Guerrero asked about the approval from CEMEX for the land use. Chairman Wadsworth said the land belongs to the Tribes, but there may be someone interested in leasing, but they are still developing a plan and if that happens, they will be coordinating with Ms. Noel about the different areas that -4-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes is being used. Councilmember Guerrero said he doesn’t see moving the rock twice for this project cost wise, hopefully they don’t amend the contract as they go. Councilmember Della John asked about the rock that is already in Little Nixon, it’s been there for a long time. Ms. Noel said they must get all the rock there because they are only allowed in the river from August to February. Once they are allowed in the river, all the rock must be ready onsite to be put in. Councilmember Della John said her point is with the CEMEX area, it’s not a secure site, there are all kinds of people parking there. Chairman Wadsworth said hopefully that changes soon if they get some tenants in there. Councilmember Guerrero asked if the permits are ready to go. Ms. Noel said the 404 and 408 are both submitted, waiting for the US Army Corps. They've answered three rounds of questions and should be ready for their environmental assessment (EA), the Fining of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was submitted. The BIA’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) contact left and she is currently working with a contact out of Oklahoma and she will be submitting the Record of Decision (ROD). They will be doing a SWIP with the contractor, just received the package and are reviewing it and hoping to get it out by the beginning of March and have a contractor by April. Councilmember Guerrero motioned to approve the Rock Contract with Gopher Construction in the amount of $909,150 to include taxes. Councilmember Decker seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED WATER TEAM 1. Kemp Jones LLP Attorneys at Law Monthly Report. Chris Mixson. Report Submitted Mr. Mixson will be requesting an Executive Session. ATRIUM APARTMENTS SEWAGE DISCHARGE. Mr. Mixson said the Water Team including the Chairman met with the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection on January 23" to open consultation with them. They are investigating the sewage discharge and are open to sharing information with the Tribe. They are in the information gathering phase and are trying to determine how much sewage was discharged, who was at fault and the State will issue a fine over the sewage discharge but they’re not sure who the fine will be levied against. Technically, it was a violation of the storm water discharge permit, which was held by the City of Sparks, but the discharge was caused by the apartment complex being plumbed incorrectly. They are trying to decide who they will be issuing a fine against, whether it’s the owner of the building, the construction company, the plumbing contractor, or the City of Sparks. In his opinion, the permit was held by the City of Sparks and that’s what was violated ultimately so that is who he is looking at. They were informed the fine won’t be very large, the statutory fine is $25,000 per violation per day which is under the Clean Water Act and to not expect a multi-million dollar fine. The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) Administrator, Jennifer Carr said that would be crazy, they never do fines like that. Mr. Richards will talk about background investigation that Stetson Engineers is doing on their own. Councilmember Dunn said they should hold them all accountable because they are all at fault, instead of pointing fingers, to take responsibility. -5-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes The following will be discussed more in depth in Executive Session. The State of Nevada has a water rights storage and use permit for 3,000-acre feet of water stored in Marlette Lake. The Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMW4A) has been trying to find creative ways to get their hands on that water and the latest is they filed an application to temporarily change the Marlette Lake water right to an instream flow water right in the Truckee River for purposes of the effluent return flow replacement they must do when they send effluent up to Tahoe Reno Industrial Center (TRIC). The Marlette Lake water technically is owned by the State of Nevada; the beneficial interest is held by Carson City and Storey County. There is an old school pipe system that takes the water down through Washoe Valley and over to the Carson Valley and it’s used in Carson City and in Virginia City, historically. TMWA said they are not using it. He talked to an attorney for Story County who says he is not sure where TMWA got that information, they are definitely using that water, So there is a little bit of dispute there. The Water Team decided to protest TMWA’s change application because it is not clear how that water is going to be managed. There is a dam that releases water into Marlette Creek which flows into Lake Tahoe and there are a lot of questions about how TMWA is going to get that water from Marlette Lake over to the Truckee River where they want to use it for instream flow. Once the Council comes out of Executive Session they will be asking for a vote to ratify the filing of the protest. TRUCKEE CANAL XM ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT (EIS) LAWSUIT. The lawsuit is now over until someone files an appeal which may happen. There is supposed to be a hearing in Federal Court in front of Judge Du on January 23"4 on these cross motions for summary judgment filed by the United States as a defendant on behalf of the Tribe, they filed a joinder with the United States and then Fernley and David Stix filed their motions for summary judgment. When he contacted DOJ Attorney on January 22"4 to let her know he would be in attendance in case Judge Du had any questions from the Tribe; that is when she let him know her clients. The Department of the Interior directed her to seek a 30-day postponement of the hearing so the new administration can review the case. She sent an email to all the lawyers and was asking for a formal position on behalf of their clients about this motion to postpone the hearing she was about to file. He told her the Tribe takes no position on the motion. The lawyers for Fernley and Sticx said they couldn’t get an opinion on such short notice. The DOJ files the motion to postpone the hearing for 30-days and within 45 minutes of the motion getting filed, Judge Du issued an order that said he didn’t need a hearing, read all the briefs and has the authority as the Judge to say there is no need to have a hearing, not cancelling the hearing, not postponing it, the motion to extend the hearing for 30-days is denied because it’s moot, there is not going to be a hearing and he will issue a written order on the motions for summary judgment within one week and for summary judgment and granting the United States motion for summary judgment. It basically says, this is a NEPA lawsuit, the United States did all the information gathering they were required to do under NEPA, that information led them to the conclusion that lining the Fernley Canal will result in less water seeping into the Fernley aquifer. There is no legal basis to stop them from doing that, can’t force the United States to have a leaky canal. They did everything they were required to do under NEPA, United States wins, and Fernley loses. They could still appeal; they have 60 days because the United States is a party to the case. They have until late March to appeal. Councilmember Davis asked if they appealed, do they appeal back to Judge Du? Mr. Mixson said it would go back to the Ninth Circuit but if they win their appeal, the Ninth Circuit would send it back down to Judge Du -6-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes with instructions for half the factor she should consider that she allegedly didn’t consider. He doesn’t think that David Stix would appeal, he is just losing money on this case. He doesn’t think he will take it any further unless the City of Fernley appeals, which they may do, and Stix may ride on their coattails. He’s said frorn the beginning that Fernley is not going to win this case, and they have lost every time but it’s their decision. NEXTERA WATER LEASE. There is still a pending request from NextEra to the Water Team and Tribal Council to consider Jeasing some water to them for their construction of their Dodge Flat II Project. His memory from the January Water Team meeting was that the Council was not in approval of doing that, but NextEra has continued to ask, and the Water Team has continued to brainstorm and so they have come up with some ideas to present to the Council. If the Council thinks the ideas are worth pursuing, then they will pursue them, or stop if they are asked. Councilmember Della John said the Council did approve a resolution that says they can’t sell water. Mr. Mixson said it would be leasing water; they wouldn't sell the water rights. He would like to have a copy of the resolution regarding not selling water. NAVY WATER LITIGATION. They are still in settlement discussion with the DOJ and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and have a conceptual settlement that they are considering. They are requesting 30 days to review. This case is under a stay for settlement purposes meaning the judge allowed the Water Team to push the pause button on the litigation so they could try to settle it. That stay has been extended twice already, and the current stay is mid-March. They will probably do another stay to continue the litigation but given what is going on in Washington right now, he will not be willing to continue to wait for them. He thinks we have a strong case on the merits of this that he would be happy to take to court. Vice Chairman Ely asked, didn’t they give them a number, a percentage number? Mr. Mixson said they accepted it as a negotiation team but had to take it back to their client, which is the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice as a whole. It’s taking longer than expected because of the transition in Washington. The settlement is a good deal for them and for the Tribe but with time and money could get a better deal but if they are going to sit on this forever over time, he might just advise the Council to not agree to any more stays and to just litigate. CEMEX. More information regarding the pond repair and reclamation in Executive Session. There is a change to his memo, they are still waiting for the BIA to approve the new lease which the Finance Department needed approval by BIA so they could open an account and issue an invoice. Chairman Wadsworth finally connected with the Superintendent of BIA to get the signature earlier this week. Once the invoice is issued to CEMEX, the Tribe will get its first $75,000 quarterly lease payment. 2. Stetson Engineers inc. Allan Richards. Report Submitted. Mr. Richards said his report covers the month of January 2025. With CEMEX, they received the long awaited, limited site investigation report they prepared, summarizing the groundwater and soil samples they collected at their office, near the above ground storage tanks, near the diesel storage tank, the gasoline tank, and the oi! tank. A copy is included for the Council to review. The report was only eight pages, but it had 80 pages of appendices which were mostly logs from the soil, boring and laboratory results from the water in the soil sampling. They had seven bore holes where they collected both soil and water samples. -7-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes They say the site investigation has confirmed that petroleum hydrocarbons are present in the soil at the site and those hydrocarbons that were detected are mostly limited to less than 10 feet, and that they are likely result of surface infiltration from normal fueling operations. He would have expected this since they were fueling their vehicles out there and transferring fuel into the storage tanks. They did not find any hydrocarbons in the groundwater samples they collected, which is good, but they also state in the conclusions they did not define the lateral extent of the petroleum hydrocarbons that were detected in the soil. When they made their soil boring, they detected the hydrocarbons in those boreholes, but they didn’t extend the area of their investigation beyond those boreholes, so the lateral extent of the contaminants was not determined. They concluded by saying, if it is determined later the release exceeds the reportable quantity of three cubic yards, then they must report the release to NDEP, but they also say based on the results of this investigation and the minimal petroleum hydrocarbons detected in the soil, no further action is warranted. That was the conclusion BIA gave to CEMEX. Mr. Richards summarized the tables in the report, the lab results for the hydrocarbons and the boreholes. There were seven boreholes, soil samples were collected at varying depths in the boreholes. Concentrating on boreholes five (1,000-gal gasoline tank), they only collected one sample at five feet and borehole six (10,000-gal diesel fuel tank), they collected three samples, one at three feet, six feet and a half foot and one at 20 feet. These boreholes had the concentration of diesel fuel, oil and gasoline were the highest. The result of the groundwater analyzes all the levels of benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylene were all below the lab reporting limits and below the state action levels. The issue is with the contaminated soils at boreholes five and six locations and the recommendation would be that they direct them to conduct additional analysis of the soils at those two locations to determine the lateral extent. Vice Chairman Ely added they should include the removal also. Ms. Noel said she didn’t think they identified the vertical extent either at five and 20 feet at the highest range and they should have identified where it is. Mr. Richards said that is a good point, because they collected soil at 6 and a half feet and then another sample at 20 feet and the sample at 20 feet shows less than 10 milligrams ver kilogram but doesn’t tell them what is happening between those two ranges. The same is true with borehole five, it doesn’t tell them anything about the soil at greater depths. Vice Chairman Ely commented even though they voluntarily chose to excavate, remove and replace with clean soil, they still wouldn’t know how far out laterally they would have to go or how deep they would have to go without further testing. Mr. Richards said CEMEX’s recommendation was no further action required based on their consultants, Geo Consultants. This is the same Geo Consultants they had been working with on the issue of their de-watering affecting the Tribe’s wells five years ago. Vice Chairman Ely asked how expensive it would be to hire the Tribe’s own independent analyst. Mr. Richards said the samples were collected as they should have been and taken to a laboratory and you have to assume the laboratory is going to give real results, so he thinks it’s a matter of directing them on defining the lateral extents but he is not sure of the method for it, but they make reference to the State Statute, Nevada Administrative Code and there is also federal rules for collecting and analyzing the soil samples for remediation. The first step would be to inform them the Tribe disagrees with their consultants’ conclusions and request more analysis to be conducted. Councilmember Guerrero said they need to make sure which regulations they are going by. -8-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes Mr. Mixson said the State regulations don’t apply on the Reservation, and they talked about this earlier to figure out what federal regulations to follow. Ms. Noel said there are other methods than drilling, she will be looking into what methods they used at the S-Bar-S to see how much contamination there is. She noted their conclusions were ridiculous. Mr. Richards said CEMEX submitted a report on February 3, 2025, regarding Area A, south pond, which was historically used, when they were de-watering and pumping water over to it and it would obtain a certain level and overflow into the ditch and out to the river. He doesn’t think CEMEX mined the south pond, but the Water Team’s position is they are required to perform reclamation activities because it was part of their overall operations. CEMEX utilized the south pond to mine in other parts of their leased area. They put together this report, which he hasn’t had time to study in detail, but they did some two-dimensional modeling of slop stability based on assumptions they used for the soil holes and used it for potential slope failure. Robert Cutter, CEMEX Project Manager, emailed the report to him and included seven key takeaways and concluded by saying, overall, they believe this proposal would leave the south pond in a safe and stable condition. This report, which is a draft, describes what they are proposing to do for the north, south, east, and west walls of that south pond area. They are proposing some significant level of grading above the water and are not proposing to do anything to the pit walls that are below water, but they are attempting to improve the safety and the stability of the pit walls in that south area. He makes reference to the lease agreement, which requires 3:1 slopes, and the mining plan, which requires less than 3:1 slopes. It’s been admitted; the lease agreement prevails. All the proposed improvements won’t meet the 3:1 requirement of the lease agreement but they do for the mining plan. They will prepare a formal response to the report. There are a lot of details that go into their assumptions for modeling and how they are quantifying the factors of safety and stability that are troubling to him. Councilmember Guerrero said the new slopes in the new water pond that they reclaimed are already filling, they have no cormpaction, they just pushed in the dirt and now the banks are already falling in. Mr. Richards said during Mr. Cutter’s introduction he talked about evaluating the stability of the walls on the south pond in six different sections, but this is misleading, he is actually talking about six different cross sections labeled SP1 through SP6. They modeled the stability of these cross sections using a soil failure type of model under a pseudo static load not a seismic load and based on the results off that they said no more analysis neecs to be done. On a map that represented their proposed improvements, they are proposing about 80,000 cubic yards of cot to improve the slopes around the perimeter of the pond above water and the worst-case area or cross section is the SP3 area which is close to Richard James Road driveway. They are alleging that it is difficult to get in there to do work on that slope but on the map, it shows a proposed road which will allow them to get into the area to do some work. It includes a turnaround elevation to give them access to the area. They should comment on the north part of the lake where they are going to repair the west pit wall, they will be pushing rock in using the conveyor systems to get the rock out into the lake to fix the wall. His question is why couldn’t they make the same type of improvements with which they have proposed in Area A. He will have more next meeting when he has time to put responses together. They had a check-in meeting with them the day before, they received three bids to repair the west wall of the pit -9-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes lake. They're looking to reject the low bidder because they didn’t have the qualifications that were required to place rock sub aqueous underwater. They required experience with the subaqueous placement of rock and the low bidder, who was somewhere near $13 million, didn’t have the qualifications. They are looking at either Granite or Q&D Construction as the next bidders who both had bids of $15 million to fix the west wall on Area A. They want to get the notice to proceed with the contractor, whomever they select, early in March so they can get started on it. They didn’t get any of the bid details but all three of the contractors are proposing to start from the northwest corner of the lake and push rock in to create a roadway along the west bank area where they will bring in a hopper and conveyor belts to further push rock into the water and extend the conveyor belt a couple hundred feet out into the lake resting on a pontoon. The idea is to put rock onto the conveyor belt, then onto another conveyor belt to take the rock further out into the lake to where the toe of the underwater bank will be located. This is the general idea of how they will be getting the rock out into the lake. The rock is going to be six inch minus, which is smaller than six inches and around 400,000 tons. A question was asked if Geotech was done on the rock for stability underwater. Mr. Richards said they had a consultant complete an analysis of the stability which was shared with the Council last year. Councilmember Guerrero feels the Tribe should get their own Geotech of the rock because they are just trying to use the minimum to get the project done. Mr. Richards said they admitted it will settle after placement, and they have a two-year monitoring program where the contractor is required to adjust for any settlernent that occurs over the first two-three years of monitoring. Where the water is lapping up against the bank anc eroding, they are going to be putting enough rock out there to create a 100-foot-wide road and then beyond that it’s going to slope 3:1 underwater out another couple of 100 feet. Part of the contractor's work is they will do a bathymetric survey every 20,000 cubic yards to confirm that the 3:1 slope is achieved along the whole length. Currently the slope varies but it’s near vertical in some places. Councilmember Davis said in the discussion she remembers the Vice Chairman’s question about whether they will be using gabions to hold the rock in place, but nobody knows the answer. Mr. Richards said there will be no gabions installed. Vice Chairman Ely asked if it will be 3:1 down to the deepest part of the pond, will they be keying it down? Mr. Richards said there will be no keying, but they are extending out to the deepest part of the lake. Continuing with his report, Mr. Richards said water rights activity was pretty busy, they filed a proof of beneficial use on one of the Tribes instream water right transfers, filed the Tribe’s temporary claims one and two transfers so they can use the claims one and two water instream later this year in the summertime for help with the spawning flows. And as Mr. Mixson mentioned, they filed a protest against TMWAs temporary transfer application for Marlette Lake water which was filed by the State of Nevada, Building and Grounds but it was filed for TMWA. The key protest grounds are they don’t know how the water is going to be managed with the TROA after they release it through the outlet works of the dam at Marlette Lake where it will go into Marlette Creek and into Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side. They can’t store it in Lake Tahoe which is another concern, then the Water Master, in theory, would release it into the Truckee River from Lake Tahoe, flow downstream and the proposed place of use is instream from the state line down to the Vista Gage which is Steamboat Canal to TMWA. They have a meeting with TMWA and the Federal Water Master on Monday to get the Water Masters input since the TROA administrator is going to -10-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes have to figure out how this can be accomplished without potentially harming the Tribe or other parties. It’s complicated and they should see if anybody else protested this application. Mr. Richards said they had their regular TROA MOA conference call on January 7, 2025, and another call with the Federal Water Master to look at the snowpack forecasts and flood control operations in the upper reservoirs and they had their TROA scheduling meeting on January 16, 2025. Updates for his attached graphs, the hydrograph of the Truckee River showed flow at the Nixon gage average around 260 CFS. Due to a storm in early February which brought the flows up above 1200 cubic feet per second and they are back down to 200 cubic feet per second as of today. Lake levels are coming up typically for this time of year. Currently tracking on a normal year but will see what happens in the next couple of months. On January 29, 2025, he gave a presentation, with the Chairman’s approval, to the Nevada Water Resource Association’s annual conference in Sparks regarding how the TROA has benefited the Tribe since it took effect in 2015. A copy of the presentation is included for the Council to review. He was asked to present on TROA matters as part of a panel which summarized the benefits to the Tribe. Other parties benefited from TROA as well, it required coordinated scheduling of water and priorities and created a more predictable and regimented management of the Truckee River and storage in the Truckee River reservoirs. It allowed the creation and accumulation of fish credit water in Lake Tahoe and other Truckee River reservoirs prior to the TROA with the Tribe’s fish water being in Stampede Reservoir which was the limiting location where the Tribe could store and use water for fish. The TROA expended and created the means to exchange and create and trade waiter for the Tribe to have flexibility to store fish water and create fish credit water to store in other reservoirs. For example, the Tribe had fish credit water in Lake Tahoe which was historically reserved just to provide the Floriston Rate Flows at the state line which are the flows that are required to serve all the Orr Ditch Decree water rights. The TROA created this concept of fish credit waters and allowed it to be stored in multiple Truckee River reservoirs and particularly it provides for Prosser Project and Stampede Project water to be used by the Tribe for Pyramid Lake fishes. It enhances the Truckee River flows to Pyrarnid Lake, prornotes conservation of the Pyramid Lake fish, improves seasonal Truckee River water quality with these additional flexibilities that were created with storing water, releasing it and establishes a habitat restoration fund. Councilmember Della John said it recognizes the ownership of the bottom of the Truckee River to the Tribe, as well as the bottorn of the Lake because normally the State takes it and in the Settlement Act, they recognize the Tribe owns the bottoms of the Lake and the river. EXECUTIVE SESSION Councilmember Dunn motioned to move into Executive Session. Counci!member Sampson seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. Tribal Council moved into Executive Session at 7:37 p.m. Councilmember Cortez motioned to move out of Executive Session. Councilmember Sampson seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. Tribal Council moved out of Executive Session at 8:09 p.m. -11-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council February 19, 2025, Water Team Minutes After exiting Executive Session, the Tribal Council made the following motion. Councilmember Cortez motioned to ratify the Water Teams protest filing of the Change Application for TMWA’s use of water from Marlette Lake. Councilmember Davis seconded the motion. Votes were nine (9) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. ADJOURNMENT With no further business before the Tribal Council, Vice Chairman Ely made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Guerrero. Votes taken were all in favor, motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m. Submitted by, “and ul+\ wy Tribal Council Secretary CERTIFICATION The foregoing minutes were adopted by the Pyramid Lake Tribal Council, governing body of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, at a meeting duly held on the 21st day of May 2025, having seven (7) members present, constituting a quorum, by the vote of six (6) FOR and zero (0) OPPOSED, with zero (0) ABSTENTIONS. Minutes attested and concurred by: LF fj Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council // // -12-|Page --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Apyramid_lake%3A03eaf88a70cf28e7. Public record. Not legal advice.