# Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council (2025) > Briefs, arguments, decisions, and more. URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/tribal%3Apyramid_lake%3A07ecc9c5b90830a4 ## 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 January 15, 2025, WTM Members Present: Steven Wadsworth, Tribal Chairman Edward Ely III, Vice Chairman Loren Decker, Councilmember John Guerrero, Councilmember Nicholas Cortez, Councilmember Georgina Wadsworth, Councilmember Judith Davis, Councilmember Ceira Sampson, Councilmember Nathan Dunn, Councilmember Members Absent: Della John, Councilmember CALL TO ORDER Chairman Wadsworth called the January 15, 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. Councilmember Della John was absent. All other Councilmembers were present at roll call and a quorum was established for this meeting. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chairman Wadsworth presented the agenda with the removal of #2 under Consent Agenda, Stetson Engineers Invoice, and the addition of #6 under New Business, Request for Approval Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) Grant Submission FY25 BIA Invasive Species Program Grant presented by Adrienne Juby. Vice Chairman Ely requested to add a discussion of Junk Car Removal. Councilmember Cortez motioned to approve the January 15, 2025, WTM agenda with changes. Councilmember Decker seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED CONSENT AGENDA The following items were listed under the Consent Agenda: 1. Approval of Kemp Jones December 2024 Invoice Vice Chairman Ely asked if Kemp Jones could start tracking the Sparks Apartment Sewage Spillage incident separately for possible Tribal litigation on their invoices. Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the Consent Agenda. Vice Chairman Ely seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED MINUTES: 1. Approval of Minutes: November 20, 2024, WTM Councilmember Wadsworth had a correction with Councilmember Genevieve John’s spelling of her name on page 3. Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the November 20, 2024, WTM Minutes. Councilmember Cortez seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED PRESENTATION 1. DODGE FLAT II SOLAR PROJECT UDPATE. Kim Dow, District Manager Carson City District Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Sierra Front Office Ms. Dow introduced Kevin Kunkel, Acting Sierra Front Field Manager. Also introduced John Calvi, a Realty Specialist, Carson BLM, who will continue with the presentation. Mr. Calvi provided a brief overview of the Dodge Flat Solar II Project which is proposed to be three miles northwest of Wadsworth. It’s adjacent to the existing Dodge Flat I Project located on private lands. The area includes 1,571 acres with 500 of those acres being BLM land, the remaining land is private that would be developed. NextEra’s proposed project would generate 200 megawatts of solar electricity and have a 200- megawatt battery storage system associated with it. NextEra chose this location because of its proximity to the Olinghouse Substation and because of the existing site. Their proposed schedule is to begin construction in the fourth quarter of 2025 and then reach commercial operation in third quarter of 2027. The application was received in 2020 then went through a variance process in 2021, that process is required based on solar guidance they had at the time. It is a review prior to proceeding with the application. During that review BLM completed a 30-day comment period. They received input from various Tribes and the public during their presentations April and May 2021. This engagement and early coordination indicated minimal opposition, and it identified few resource concerns at the time, concurrence from their headquarters office was received in 2021 to proceed with the application. The next step was for the proponent to complete baseline surveys and reports to be reviewed and accepted by their specialists. They then held two scoping periods including virtual public meetings for this project with the first in January-February of 2024and received 23 comments during that scoping period. The other scoping period was October-November 2024, which received only three comments. All the comments are used in the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) that is being prepared now. The public review and comments for the draft EA is slightly behind schedule but they are anticipating it will be published in the next few weeks. Their goal is to reach a decision on this project by Spring and be in compliance with their NEPA policy that requires the EA to be completed within six months from the start date in October. BLM’s purpose is to -2-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes respond to the Title V Federal land Policy and Management Act right-of-way application for the construction, operation & maintenance, and decommission of the dodge Flat II Solar Energy Center Project by NextEra Energy on 699 acres of BLM administered lands in Washoe County. The need is to fulfill BLM’s responsibility under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to manage public lands for multiple users. The cooperating agencies for this project are the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Nevada Department of Wildlife, and Sagebrush Ecosystem Technical team. Throughout this process the design footprint was altered slightly, and some acreage was removed which resolved potential conflicts with mining claims that were identified, the Gen-tie alignment was refined and shortened in accordance with NVE guidance for Project interconnection at Olinghouse Substation. They are working through Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, and it is ongoing. Tribal Consultation is a required component, and they have reached out to several Tribes about the project in May 2021 and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe is currently the only Tribe actively consulting with them on this project. Vice Chairman Ely asked how big is this project in comparison to Dodge Flat I? Ms. Dow said it is comparable in size. NATURAL RESOURCES. Donna Noel, Natural Resources (NR) Director 1. Request for Approval to Extend the Air Quality Station in Wadsworth. Tanda Robers, Air Quality Specialist Ms. Roberts explained she is requesting permission to extend the Air Quality Station fenced area in Wadsworth to 30 feet on the west side of the station. Councilmember Davis confirmed it was the west side because the packet information said east side. Ms. Roberts said it was a mistake on her paperwork it’s on the west side towards the Daycare Center. Councilmember Davis asked if a NEPA was needed. Donnal Noel, Natural Resources Director said they will be doing archeology and a categorical exclusion according to the Regional BIA office. Councilmember Davis asked Richard Frazier, Tribal Land Manager, if this encroached on the two land assignments that are in the area. Mr. Frazier said those land assignments are further North closer to the road, there is nothing around the existing fenced area of the site at this time. This request went before the Inter-Disciplinary Team (IDT) with recommendation to the Council. Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the request to extend the Air Quality Station Fence Area 30 Feet on the West Side. Councilmember Decker seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED -3-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes 2. Request for Approval of Water Quality Field Trip. Larry Maurin, Water Division Tribal Clean Water Division, EPA Region Nine Mr. Maurin explained they are having a Tribal Clean Water Act Workshop in Fallon Nevada on May 19-23, 2025 and is co-hosted by the Fallon Paiute Tribe, Richard Black, Environmental Director. As a part of the workshop, they are proposing a full day field trip to the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation which would consist of a tour of Numana Fish Hatchery, Numana Wetlands, Truckee River bioassessment and macroinvertebrates and the Pyramid Lake Water Quality Monitoring. There will be approximately 150 participants which will be split into groups of 35 consisting mostly of staff from other Tribes in the region, their Water Quality Program staff, EPA Staff, and personnel from other Federal Agencies. The date would be May 22, 2025, and they would be working closely with the Natural Resources Department for logistics and coordination. This request went before the IDT with recommendation to the Council. Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the EPA’s Water Quality Workshop Field Trip to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Reservation to include coordination with the Pyramid Lake Fisheries and Natural Resources Department. Councilmember Sampson seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. 3. Request for Approval Film Request for International Truck. Patrick Ranahan Mr. Ranahan explained he is requesting a film permit to film an International Truck on the road between the junction of State Route 445 and Nixon. They will be filming from inside the truck only with a handheld camera. They would like to film on January 29, 2025, from 6am to 9am with the lake in the background. This is a documentary style shoot which may be cut into a commercial. Betty Aleck, THPO said when she has archeological firms come onto the Reservation they must pay for a business license. They are willing to pay an extra $1,000 besides the $1,000 filming fee and purchase a business license as requested. They have liability insurance and add the Tribe for credits. This request went before the IDT with recommendation to the Council. Councilmember Guerrero motioned to approve the Film Request for International Truck for a fee of $2,000 and they must purchase a Business License. Councilmember Decker seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED 4. Request for Approval of the General Assistance Program (GAP) Grant with Resolution. Donna Noel, NR Director Ms. Noel explained this grant pays for half her salary plus the Environmental Assistant and Executive Assistant. It covers reviews of projects on and off the Reservation, recycling program, and portions of the Air Quality and Water Quality programs. They have received this grant for approximately 30 years. Vice Chairman Ely asked if there were funds in this grant to cover the junk car removals. Ms. Noels said it is included in this grant. In the last grant, planning was included in how they would address the junk cars. Vice Chairman Ely said when he was a part of the Housing Board there was a plan initiated by the -4-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes collaboration team. Ms. Noel said this grant is for 2026 and she can contact her grant officer to see if it’s allowable. Vice Chairman Ely motioned to approve the FY25 GAP Grant submission with Resolution. Councilmember Guerrero seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 003-25 FY25 GAP GRANT 5. Request for Approval of Horse Gathering Equipment Contract. Donna Noel, NR Director Ms. Noel explained they received a Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) grant for a portable horse gathering unit to place onto the range for gathering wild horses and burros. There are not a lot of people who provide this type of equipment. She provided bids from two vendors. The first bid was a vendor from Wisconsin, he can provide the equipment but didn’t provide delivery, setup, or training. His bid was $138,000. The second vendor was higher in cost, can deliver, set up, and provide training. His bid was $145,000. This setup will hold 80 horses or burros. This vendor also buys horses, so there is that opportunity once the cattleman gathering the horses they also have this contact for selling them. Vice Chairman Ely asked how they would gather the horses. Ms. Noel said it’s a trap type corral, it's passive gathering. Councilmember Davis said an email from the second vendor states the trailer comes with the package but on his proposal the trailer isn’t listed or is it listed on the contract. Can it be added? Ms. Noel said she emailed him on this and in his email, it does state the trailer, training and delivery were included, these were things she wanted to be clarified also. She did amend the contract to include the unit in a trailer, delivery to the Reservation and the training. Councilmember Guerrero reiterated this set up is a bait and trap water system. Vice Chairman Ely added the horses out there are skittish and wondering how long it would take for them to wander into them. Vice Chairman Ely asked if they were leasing or purchasing this system. Ms. Noel said they are purchasing the system. The Cattleman’s Association can request it to be set up and they can put it wherever they want. Councilmember Davis motioned to approve CSS Ranch and Rodeo to purchase the portable horse gathering system. Noted the price including the delivery charge and setup would be approximately $149,000-$151,000, which is higher than the bid price. Councilmember Sampson seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED 6. Request for Approval to submit the BIA Invasive Species Program Grant with Resolution. Addrienne Juby, AIS Program Ms. Juby explained there are errors she found in the documents and will address those. This grant is through the BIA, there is no indirect. They will be contracting a research study for the golden mussel for survivability in Pyramid Lake and the Truckee River. In 2000 to 2022 there was the quagga mussel study that was conducted, and this will be similar to that one. The golden mussel is a new invasive species that is in the -5-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes Sacramento and San Joaquin Delta and it’s a concern. It has a much wider tolerance than the quagga mussel and this study will help with their program in planning and distributing resources moving forward after they get the results back from the study. Councilmember Davis said the grant application says it will be for contract work and the budget is for contract, but it says the work plan deliverables under this contract include reporting and hiring new staff to increase the WID hours. Ms. Juby said that it is one of the errors, the complete paragraph needs to be removed, it was formatting saved from a previous document. Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the submission of the BIA Invasive Species Program Grant with Resolution. Councilmember Dunn seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 004-25 BIA INVASIVE SPECIES PROGRAM GRANT 7. For Discussion Junk Car Removal. John Guerrero Ms. Noel explained through their GAP grant they proposed removing junk cars from the Reservation. The easiest ones to deal with are the cars with titles. Phase One was getting vehicle information for cars with titles. There is a company that came in and removed cars from PUD and Realty, if you have the title, it will be towed at no charge. Options for cars with no title, the tow companies said they can still take them and apply for a replacement title with DMV. If they remove a vehicle and “the owner” doesn’t sign off, then they will be billed a towing charge and they will return it. Another option, for example, up at Quail Canyon there were a bunch of cars with no titles, a contractor was hired and they went up there and removed all the wheels, emptied the solutions from the systems and ripped the car apart so it doesn’t look like a car anymore, take the metal and smash the pieces and what is left of the cars and recycle for metal. For this year, they are going to try and remove vehicles that have titles. They plan on starting during summer when the weather is better. WATER TEAM 1. Kemp Jones LLP Attorneys at Law Monthly Report. Chris Mixson. Report Submitted Mr. Mixson requested an Executive Session for a discussion on CEMEX. Navy Water Litigation. Mr. Mixson said they met with the federal negotiating team several times now. The Council sent them to offer an 80% 20% split of the water and surprisingly they came back with a general approval from the negotiating team, but they still must get approval through their chain. There are some details about the old settlement that he will discuss in closed session. CEMEX Lease Extension. Cemex agreed to the rent payments the Council told the Water Team to take back to them and they have the signed lease extension agreement. It’s been sent to the BIA for approval. It’s $300,000 for 2025, $350,000 for 2026, $420,000 for 2027 and then it jumps up to $750,000 in 2028, that’s if they are still here. CEMEX doesn’t think they will be here for more than two years. Time will tell how long it takes them to reclaim their mine. They do owe rent for this quarter and will also be paying in quarters, but again, the BIA hasn’t yet approved the contract. The Chairman will be getting an invoice over to CEMEX from the Finance Department and CEMEX is ready to make that payment once they receive the invoice. -6-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes There are parts of the mine that have already been reclaimed. That is Areas B and D, which are on the east side of Hill Ranch Road. They did a site visit with Mr. Richards, Tribal staff, BIA, and CEMEX for about an hour looking at what they reclaimed. From the people that were out there, everything looked good. They will be setting up a meeting with BIA and BLM to have one final sit down without CEMEX present to go over all of that and if everyone is on the same page, CEMEX will get the sign off as to reclamations in those areas and they can try to get some of their bond money back which is what he thinks they are seeking. Joint Program Fish Credit Water Under TROA. This is where the Tribe and the State of California have some share fish credit water up in the California Reservoirs on the Truckee River. It was agreed in TROA that the Tribe and California would manage this water jointly under TROA but instead, California has been managing it however they want and not listen to the Tribe. So last year, they stopped creating it and said if they aren’t going to do this how the Tribe wants to do it, then they are not going to have any water at all. They have been in discussions with the State of California on a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to set forth the conditions of how that water is going to be managed to benefit both California and the Tribe, which was the original intent. They have a draft MOA which is in the hands of California now and they are working on it. Expect to have some revisions or edits back from them this month and depending on what they come back with, they may have something new to report in February. There are no worries for the Tribe unless California is mismanaging water which they are not doing because there is not much for them. Vice Chairman Ely said didn’t the Tribe give them fish credit water to sit at the table? Mr. Mixson said he wasn’t there when TROA was negotiated but that is what he was told by Ali Shahroody, that California was the last holdout in TROA because they didn’t have any goods in there, and the reason is because they don’t have any water rights, so they weren’t going to sign, or they were making noises like they weren't going to sign TROA, so the Tribe said, “we will create a joint program, fish credit water that is carved out of the Tribe’s fish credit water and it sits up in California and they can manage it but the idea was it would still come down to Pyramid Lake. There was no consumptive use of the water, they were going to use it for fisheries and recreation only, so they could have some water flowing into those tributary creeks between the reservoirs. But again, the idea was that it would still come down to Pyramid Lake. But instead, what they were doing was recirculating it among the reservoirs and it was evaporating away instead of coming down to Pyramid Lake. ATRIUM APARTMENTS IN SPARKS. In the news back in November 2024, is when the story broke about the 300-unit apartment complex in downtown Sparks, where they allegedly accidentally hooked up the raw sewage to the storm water drain instead of the pipe to take it out to the water treatment facility. It was dumping raw sewage into the Truckee River for a long time. The City of Sparks was notified, and they worked with the apartment owner to get it fixed, but nobody reported it to Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) for a year. The fix occurred in October 2023, this information coming from news reports. For possibly a year, they were dumping raw sewage into the river. They are watching this closely and have a meeting with NDEP, who is now aware of this, and will take enforcement action. They've opened consultation with the NDEP, the Tribe and the State and will be having a meeting with them. They have started sharing information, but they are in the information gathering phase. They will start tracking their time for this item separately because if this ends up in litigation, they want to separate time tracks so they can insert that as one of the Tribe’s claims. Joe Hart, a reporter with Channel 4 news, is -7-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes the reporter who broke the story back in November, there was a follow up story last night or the night before and Will Adler told him about it. He hasn’t seen the show yet. Chairman Wadsworth noted it was reported there was two and a half million gallons of sewage. Mr. Mixson said the Natural Resources Department is gathering data to look at the water quality that was in the river during those months they admitted they were discharging sewage. Proving the harm to the Tribe and Pyramid Lake is going to be key to this. Councilmember Dunn said they should reach out to the Health Clinic for any incidents in those time frames. Dan Mosely noted his grandson was working with Natural Resources on the lower Truckee River when the effluent was being discharged and were doing aquatic invasive species surveys. He drank some of that water and got sick, so did Justin Jackson, who also works with Natural Resources. He relayed that information to him, and he didn’t know this was going on. He did not see coli bacteria that is in the river if they are discharging effluent directly into the river. He can provide more information if you would like to talk to him. TRUCKEE CANAL XM EIS LAWSUIT. The Truckee Canal XM EIS Project was the Truckee Canal Lining Project, and the lawsuit is when the City of Fernley sued the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) for permitting Truckee Carson Irrigation District (TCID) to line the canal on the basis that it would reduce the amount of Truckee River water that seeped into the aquifer. Fernley relies on the aquifer for their municipal purposes, so they sued. They didn’t seek an injunction, the canal got lined but the lawsuit is still alive. There is a hearing on January 23, 2025, on what they call the cross motions for summary judgment. Summary judgment is a motion that is filed in a lawsuit that says they don’t need to go to trial, they know what all the facts are and what the lawis, so their side should win. In a NEPA lawsuit that is how it goes, there is nota trial, the judge usually decides NEPA cases through summary judgment motions. Him and Ms. Noel will both be in attendance. He will not be providing any argument, the Tribe is just an intervener on the side of the United States, they intervened, primarily to make sure the Feds didn’t settle with Fernley in a way that would harm the Tribe, and they were successful in doing that. He will tell the judge he is there, if they want to hear the Tribe’s interests. The judge is Judge Du for this case. 2. Stetson Engineers Inc. Allan Richards. Mr. Richard’s progress report is for the month of December 2024. CEMEX. CEMEX conducted what they call a phase two environmental assessment on their site, in the vicinity of some oil and gasoline tanks and the shop they used to have. The environmental assessment was conducted during the week of December 9, 2024. There was Tribal representation and a member of his staff there for a day or two. They used ground penetrating radar techniques to try to detect the presence or absence of any buried storage tanks. CEMEX was unaware of any buried tanks, but they asked them to do that in certain areas and they did and there were no voids found or no detected underground tanks. They also collected soil and water samples from seven different locations around their old tank sites and around their operations shop. Still waiting on the results from those samples which he expected to see by now. It makes him suspicious thinking they might have some trouble explaining the results to them, but they will see. Mr. Richards and Ms. Noel had a couple check-in meetings with CEMEX every other week for the past -8-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes year to get regular updates on the various things they have been doing primarily related to reclamation activities. On December 20, 2024, they had a meeting at CEMEX which he attended with Mr. Mixson, BIA, and Tribal representatives. It was to walk around and provide a non-formal sign off that they conducted the reclamation obligations that were required to be done in Areas B and D, east of Hill Ranch Road. They will have a follow-up meeting with BLM and BIA to talk about what they saw on December 20*, In general, it looked good to him, they did a lot of earth moving, a lot of grading, filling in low areas, took the top twothree feet off of the berm that runs along the east side of Hill Ranch Road which they asked them to do and to clean it up a bit so it didn’t look like a long piles of spoils. CEMEX suggested and they agreed to leave the natural vegetation on the berm because it’s native and takes a long time to come back. They took the top down seven feet above the paved Hill Ranch Road, all the way east along the road. NEWLANDS PROJECT. They had a meeting with BOR on December 17, 2024, the Chairman attended this meeting. They will start having coordination meetings with BOR every three months. They have had questions on potential ways water can be used more efficiently in the Newlands Project, specifically the Truckee Division where the TC 12 lateral goes off to the Hazen area. TC 12 comes off the Truckee Canal and runs miles through the desert to irrigate a couple of 100 acres on Swingle Bench, it used to be 1,000 acres out there, but they have been buying a lot of water rights and transferring them into instream flows. It takes a lot of water to get it all the way out to the bench and they have been talking with BOR about potential ways to get the bench off of the canal, if possible, or at least line that irrigation ditch so it doesn’t lose so much water. SAN EMIDIO. There has been activity in San Emidio Desert Basin. They have been looking at water quality data collected from springs on the Reservation up near San Emidio. (Mr. Richards provided a map of the Hydrographic Basins on the Reservation) These are various basins on and near the vicinity of the Reservation that they monitor closely for activity, water right applications, and water change application that are filed around the Reservation. San Emidio Basin is up in the northeast part of the Reservation anda portion of the basin underlies the Reservation. Ormat has a big geothermal project up there in the San Emidio Desert Basin and they are expanding the production of geothermal water where they inject water to replace the geothermal. Ms. Noel and Mr. Bill had some equipment installed on the springs there and they have been looking at the water quality data from the springs to see if Ormat activities might be adversely impacting the water quality of those springs. This monitoring activity is ongoing. There are a lot of basins that underly the Reservation, Smoke Creek Desert Basin to the north, Winnemucca Valley Basin and in the Wadsworth area three hydrographic basins all touch each other at a point in downtown Wadsworth. The Fernley Area Basin 76 is where Fernley has all its wells drilled, and it’s drinking water wells, and they have recently filed some change applications to move water rights from it wells to another which will increase the pumping from one well and decrease it from another. The Fernley Basin is over committed, previous State Engineers have over allocated ground water within the Fernley Area Basin. There is a high probability that wells that pump water in the Fernley Area Basin are going to deplete the stream flow of the Truckee River. This is something they are looking at. The Dodge Flat Basin 82 is where NextEra Project is located. WATER RIGHTS. There has been a lot of water rights activity recently. Great Basin Land and Water (GBLW) has been acquiring water rights on behalf of the Tribe and there have been several water right acquisitions for water rights out of the Fernley area and there’s been a big water right acquisition in the -9-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes Hazen Area. GBLW acquires the rights, then Stetson Engineers gets involved with reviewing the water right transfers that they file. They acquire the water rights; the irrigation water rights in the Truckee Division and then they file to transfer those water rights to instream flow back to the Truckee River above Derby or below Derby Dam. There has been a lot of activity with the water right acquisition program. His staff have been assisting GBLW, they file the change applications with the State Engineers Office and then those applications become permits and then they call for the water to be delivered instream. They work with Ms. Noel to file an annual call for those water rights and then when the water is used or delivered, they report to the State that it was beneficially used, they file the forms, and the permits become certificated water rights. ATRIUM APARTMENTS SEWAGE. Mr. Richards provided a map of the area for the Atrium Apartments and Truckee River. The discharge came through the North Truckee drain, which runs north, and it used to be surface water drain but is now a pipe that discharges to the Truckee River which is approximately 3.6 miles away from the apartments. He was surprised because he thought the discharge location was closer to the Truckee River. It’s relevant where the discharge is because the discharge location is downstream from the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility (TMWRF). The TMWRF discharges wastewater into Steamboat Creek. It flows a short distance north then ends up in the Truckee River. Further downstream, is where the Atrium Apartments discharged occurred. Stetson has been brainstorming on information they want to collect to be better informed about what happened and the magnitude of it. They will be looking at water quality data, the volume of their discharge relative to the stream flow at the time and just sort of thinking of what they may hear from Atrium and how they might be prepared to address those things they hear from them. The discharge occurred between June of 2022 and October of 2023, a total of 484 days. It was more than a year, along time for raw water to be discharging right into the river from the apartments. Sparks has estimated the daily discharge was 5,445 gallons a day or 2.6 million gallons total during that whole period. They don’t know if it was continuous but on average, that’s about four gallons a minute. During that period the river was flowing, on average, about 800 cubic feet per second. They are looking at their estimates, how much they say was discharged, it was based on certain number of apartments. They say it was only half the number, half the apartments. The complex is divided into two halves with one pipe, they are looking at that to come up with our own estimates for what they think the actual flows were for comparison. They are gathering water quality data from all monitoring stations on the river, from upstream to downstream, on the Reservation too, so they can see what kind of points they can make about water quality in the river during that period. Chairman Wadsworth noted this was also during the time when the Truckee Canal was closed, so it was all coming down the river to the Lake. Mr. Richards said they are doing an analysis about that; the Canal was off during January through October 2023. TROA MOA MEETINGS. Mr. Richards said they had their TROA MOA scheduling meeting, which is where Stetson works with Ms. Noel to put together information for the Tribe’s water scheduling under TROA on how much water is to be released from reservoirs to meet the fish flow targets in the lower river. Sometimes during the summer season, they will have multiple TROA meetings during a month because things change quickly, especially during spawning. When the fish start moving, they adapt and make decisions about how much to release to help support the spawning. Mr. Richards provides charts every month to track the nature of the flow to the Lake overtime. The first chart shows the Truckee River flow at the US Geological Survey (USGS) Nixon Gauge, it represents how much Truckee River water flowed to the -10-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes Lake on a daily. It shows the Truckee River flow and fish flow regime targets. They always try to make sure that enough water is being released to be above those fish flow targets. During the month of December, the average flow in the Truckee River was about 560 CFS. Noted it dropped off starting in January and that is when the Truckee Canal started taking water to meet Lahontan Reservoir storage targets and the flow at the Nixon gauge dropped off when they started diverting off to Lahontan. At the Nixon gauge it is about 240 cubic feet per second, and they are diverting 270 through the canal to meet the Lahontan storage targets under the Operations, Criteria and Procedures (OCAP). The OCAP for the Newlands Project determines how much water is needed or how much water the Carson River supplies to meet the Lahontan Reservoir targets which supply water to the Carson District. If the Carson River isn’t predicted to supply enough water to meet the Lahontan storage targets, then under the OCAP, BOR diverts water from the Truckee River through the canal to help meet those storage targets. The Carson River was flowing big up until this last month, so it was meeting those Lahontan storage targets but as of January 1, it wasn’t enough to meet it, so they started diverting Truckee River water to meet the Lahontan storage targets. Councilmember Guerrero asked if he had looked at the snow percentages. Mr. Richard said he hasn't looked recently but knows they were a little above normal, until January it’s been dry and we're going through an inflection point where January is not looking good, and it’s supposed to be a good month. January is starting to go down and we are trending below normal. Who knows what February will bring? The next chart on Mr. Richards report is the water level in Pyramid Lake. The USGS measures the water level in Pyramid Lake at the end of every month. At the end of December, the Lake level was at 3,803 feet elevation, 3803.4 is starting to rise. The Lake goes through cycles up and down and it just turned and is starting to rise again. The Truckee flows to Pyramid Lake for water years going back to 2015 shows the monthly total flow into Pyramid Lake, based on the stream flow gauge at Nixon, which is about a mile upstream of Numana Dam, represents the total flow into the Lake. 2015 was very dry, only 75,000-acre feet went to the Lake, this was the driest years on record. 2017 was very wet, one of the wettest years on record, almost 1.4-million-acre feet went to the Lake. 2020 through 2022 were the three drought years and then 2024 was representative of what they would say was a normal year in terms of stream flow at the Nixon gauge. EXECUTIVE SESSION Vice Chairman Ely motioned to move into Executive Session. Councilmember Dunn seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. Tribal Council moved into Executive Session at 7:44 p.m. Vice Chairman Ely motioned to move out of Executive Session. Councilmember Guerrero seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. Tribal Council moved out of Executive Session at 8:22 p.m. After the Council came out of the Executive Session the following motion was made. -11-|Page Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council January 15, 2025, Water Team Minutes Councilmember Davis motioned to approve Donna Noel, Natural Resources Director, as a representative for the Western Regional Water Commission and Chris Mixson, Water Attorney as the alternate. Councilmember Cortez seconded the motion. Votes were eight (8) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. MOTION PASSED. Mr. Mixson will coordinate with the Chairman on getting a letter drafted for the appointments. ADJOURNMENT With no further business before the Tribal Council, Councilmember Cortez made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Vice Chairman Ely. Votes taken were all in favor, motion carried. The meeting adjourned at 8:23 p.m. Submitted by, Brenda A. Henry Han Tribal Council Secretary Fund ul 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 19% day of March 2025, having ten (10) members present, constituting a quorum, by the vote of nine (9) FOR and zero (0) OPPOSED, with zero (0) ABSTENTIONS. Minutes attested and concurred by: AAA Za 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%3A07ecc9c5b90830a4. Public record. Not legal advice.