Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council (2022)

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

July 20, 2022

Members Present

Janet Davis, Tribal Chairwoman Edward Ely III, Councilmember

Harriet Brady, Councilmember John Guerrero, Councilmember

Judith Davis, Councilmember Della John, Councilmember

Nathan Dunn, Councilmember James Phoenix, Councilmember

Members Absent: Steven Wadsworth, Vice Chairman Natalia Gonzales, Councilmember

Meeting available via zoom for viewing only. Tribal members wishing to attend may request zoom access by

contacting the Tribal Secretary.

Chairwoman Davis called the July 20, 2022 Water Team meeting of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

to order at 6:00 p.m.

ROLL CALL

Roll call was taken by Brenda A. Henry, Tribal Council Secretary. Vice Chairman Wadsworth and

Councilmember Gonzales were absent. All other Tribal Councilmembers were present at roll call and a

quorum was established for this meeting.

APPROVAL OF AGENDA

Following changes were requested: Water Team requested an Executive Session, add remove #7 under New

Business, and add Cottonwood Streamflow Research on Lower Truckee River. Noelle Patterson, PhD

Candidate UC Davis under presentation.

Councilmember Guerrero motioned to approve the agenda with changes. Councilmember Davis seconded the

motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried.

CONSENT AGENDA

1. Approval Kemp Jones LLP June 2022 Invoice

2. Approval Stetson Engineers Inc. June 2022 Invoice

Councilmember Davis motioned to approve the Consent Agenda. Councilmember Guerrero seconded the

motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried.

PRESENTATION

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1. Cottonwood Streamflow Research on Lower Truckee River. Noelle Patterson, PhD Candidate UC

Davis

Ms. Patterson said she is studying the interactions and ecological responses and a big part of her study is

looking at Derby Dam, the diversion dam which has historically removed half or more of the water from the

Truckee River leaving the lower Truckee River dried out during many summers. The environmental flow

policies that have been put in place because of the Tribes starting in the 70s and currently today make it an

interesting place to study how ecosystems have responded to the streamflow changes. Being out in an arid

region, the cottonwood forests along the lower Truckee River are a really ecologically important

component of the watershed and the health of the river and the lake are all connected. So, understanding a

health Truckee River is important for understanding the health of Pyramid Lake. The cottonwoods provide

a lot of benefits such as shading the stream for the Cui-ui and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (LCT), which

lowers the water temperatures for the fish, bank stabilization, to keep the river in place during high flows,

habitat for birds and wildlife around the river as well as serving as the base of the food chain. The research

questions she came in with for this project started almost three years ago was how have flow policies

affected stream flow on the lower Truckee River and following up with that, how has cottonwood trees

responded to these streamflow policies and thirdly, what kind of environmental influences streamflow or

otherwise are most important for cottonwood growth. There has been previous research done on the

growth of new cottonwood seedlings on the river but she wanted to take the next step and see how have

mature trees that have already been there have responded to these flow policies over the last few decades.

The methodology she has been using is combining hydrologic data, primarily streamflow data with

EqualLogic data from tree cores of cottonwood trees along the river and combining the two and searched

for relationships. This involved field campaigns going out and taking tree cores, both on tribal land,

upstream and then upstream of Derby Dam. She has five total sites and included a map for Council for

review. At each of the sites she took cores from between 17 to 22 trees. She first approached the Tribe

asking for permission to do the project just at the onset of the pandemic in 2020 and credits the Tribe for

allowing her to conduct this research and it was during the summer of 2020 that she gathered most of the

tree cores for this project. She had two sites on tribal land at Big Bend and near the Numana Fish Hatchery

and three sites upstream either on or near the Nature Conservancy’s land. She was able to compare the

growth differences between all of these sites. The process is manual with a hand operated drill. She was

escorted on tribal land with folks from the Natural Resources Department. To make the cores more visible

she glued them down on wooden mounts and sanded them down which allowed the tree rings to be more

visible and then counting and measuring the tree rings under a microscope. Again, her research questions

were: how the flow policies have affected streamflow on the lower Truckee River, how cottonwood trees

who have responded to these policies and what influences cottonwood tree growth. Summer time flows on

the Truckee River for the last 100 years, there has been a dramatic change in flow right at 1973, this is in

line with policy that released more water downstream of Derby Dam. This was following litigation for the

protection of the Cui-ui in 1973, enacted by the Tribe, this had enormous impacts on the streamflow below

Derby Dam. For most years, with exception of dry spells, flows during the summer have been much higher

than the decades before that. What they saw was that growth wasn't really well matched between the

upstream and downstream sites before about the 1970s. After that point, the growth of the upstream trees

is higher in general but some of these patterns track better between trees upstream and downstream and is

likely because flows are better match. There is less flow being taken out from Derby Dam that essentially

made it like two different rivers. With downstream, looking at trees that were really old and had a long

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record, they compared across decades, most trees saw a large amount of growth, 157%, almost three times

as much and just one tree had decreasing growth. It’s a pretty clear sign that something changed and

caused more growth in these trees. In the upstream sites, there is a good amount of growth increases, there

is more flow policies at Stamped Reservoir that also changed flow somewhat for the upper river and may

have something to do with the change seen in the upper upstream trees. Another analysis she did with the

tree rings is a carbon isotope analysis, it shows how water stressed trees are, trees have a different

proportion of carbon in their tissues based on if they are stressed or not. When trees are water stressed for

a prolonged amount of time it can be the first step for tree mortality. At the Numana Fish Hatchery, looking

at four of the oldest trees at the site, looking at both their growth and isotopes, growth was slow for most of

the decades leading up to 1973 and after that point it’s higher indicating the changes in the streamflow that

occurred during that time which benefited the mature cottonwood trees along the lower Truckee River.

When she mentioned the streamflows in Stampede Reservoir, she started to think this might have an

influence on those trees because there was a big reoperation of Stampede Reservoir affecting all of the

river below. At that point a couple trees she studied experienced much less water stress. Individual trees

can have individual responses which can do with how much their roots access the water table. The last

thing she investigated was what influences cottonwood growth looking at different aspects of streamflow,

average annual flows during different seasons of the year, different metrics of climate as well as

temperature, precipitation and vapor pressure deficit which is a measurement of how dry the atmosphere

is, how much water it’s requiring from plants. The metrics describing volumes of water during different

seasons had the most effect on trees with the most important one being the dry season. This is a link

proving it has an impact on cottonwood tree growth, in addition, annual precipitation actually had a fair

amount of influence as well, even though the precipitation is low on the lower Truckee River, it still does

have some effect on cottonwood growth. One major take-away is that management for streamflow on the

lower Truckee River that was enacted starting in the 1970s and 80s has improved growing conditions for

mature cottonwood trees. Second, is that flows during the dry season are important for cottonwood growth

but that might only be when they are very limited and thirdly, not all trees on the floodplain respond

equally to the changes in these flow patterns, and for these there could be a lot of different reasons why but

she hasn’t tracked them down yet, this would require more research. It’s likely that site specific conditions,

like tree competition and predation are probably also affecting tree growth. In addition to streamflow,

precipitation is also important for tree growth. She has started discussing these project considerations with

Aaron Bill and the Inter-Disciplinary (IDT) Team a couple weeks pass, she would like to share the results

through publication in a way that is appropriate and asked if it was okay to show the location of the sites

that she studied on a map as part of collecting tree core data sometimes includes those growth records on a

public database so that other researchers can use them if needed. If approved she would like to share those

highlights in the future.

Councilmember Brady said when looking over the material on the tree growth especially in the dry season

made her wonder if possibly there was a genetic reaction, like let’s hurry up and grow, like a feast or

famine. She also wondered about the impact since there has been several floods during the 80s, 90s and

2000s. In looking at the data, it reminded her of something she said earlier to the Water Team, it just

seemed because the stopping point for the upper stream was by USA Parkway and even though the Tribe is

supposed to get a certain amount of water; to Ms. Patterson it demonstrated that the Tribe gets less and

Councilmember Brady’s graphs have proven what she stated that they are last to get anything. Its

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disturbing with Reno’s “uncontrolled growth”, even though they say it’s controlled, but in reality, it’s not.

She attended a meeting that day at Reno-Sparks and they were talking about housing needs and they are

still getting affected by Reno’s controlled growth.

Ms. Patterson said she hopes her research will show that the trees need a certain amount of water to thrive

and that the amounts that are currently being delivered need to be protected to protect the groves and any

chance of restoration.

Councilmember Ely said when he goes down into the field areas, there are areas on the reservation that have

1,000s of cottonwood trees that are so crowded together. It seems they only get about 20 or 30 feet to grow

and he would think that if they had room to grow they would grow much higher than a regular cottonwood

tree should grow. It is so thick in some areas you can’t even walk through.

Ms. Patterson said if he was talking about agricultural areas where they get settle of agricultural water, the

trees probably take and run with it. When they are along the river, there is intense growth that happens when

cottonwoods get established, they are sort of feast or famine, as mentioned earlier, they take hold, like 1000s

of little seedlings. In the areas that she has studied, she has noticed the older trees tend to self-thin especially

by Numana. The trees are well spaced when they are older and eventually just competition or out-shading

does over time, sort of allows that to happen, cottonwoods are really dependent on sunlight and they will

out-shade the other. She hasn’t seen studies or management for thinning of cottonwoods to speed that along

but it be a possible management strategy.

When asked if she was asking for permission for something. Ms. Patterson said she is doing her due diligence

with being a research project, she plans on publishing the results of the research. She has been working with

Mr. Bill to ensure it happens appropriately but not at this point.

NATURAL RESOURCES. Donna Noel, Natural Resources Director

1. Request for Approval National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Grant Aquatic Invasive

Species (AIS) with Resolution. Adrienne Juby, Environmental Specialist

Ms. Juby said this grant is for a four-year period. The total they are requesting is $1,787,835. and there is a

cash match of $13,409 from the Native Americans in Philanthropy and in-kind from the Pyramid Lake

Fisheries and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for contract work. With this grant they will be able to hire

more technicians to spend more hours at the watercraft inspection station and will allow for continued

early detection monitoring for any new infestations, specifically focusing on the lake and the river but

knowing the mussels specifically can survive in the river, definitely focusing there also. They will also work

to remove the invasive plant species from the lower Truckee River in the spawning habitat to increase the

habitat quality for the Cui-ui and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout (LCT) that spawn in the lower river.

Councilmember John asked what invasive plants were they looking at. Ms. Patterson said the main one is

the Eurasian Watermilfoil that is throughout the river. They don’t see it established in the river mouth, just

maybe fragments floating by, none established in the river mouth area or any out in the lake. There is also

curly leaf pondweed, but the milfoil is the established one, it would be a really large feat to try and remove

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it completely because the tiniest little fragment can create a whole new population. There are so many

sources upstream but through this project they want to focus on spawning habitat for removal and try to

make the habitat better for the fish. It would be in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service

(USFWS). They do their red surveys which look at spawning habitat and where the fish are spawning. They

want to work in coordination with them so they are not duplicating efforts.

Councilmember Brady mentioned a possible correction where she probably meant philanthropy but it said

polly. Ms. Juby said yes, it was an autocorrection, she saw it and corrected it.

Councilmember Guerrero motioned to approve National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) Grant AIS with

Resolution. Councilmember Brady seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with

zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 085-22 2022 NATIONAL FISH AND

WILDLIFE FOUNDATION GRANT AIS

2. Request for Approval NFWF Native Wildlife Recovery and Corridor Grant with Resolution. Emily

Hagler

Ms. Hagler said there are multiple NFWF grants coming to Council this evening which offer opportunities

under the foundation who giving out $86 million. They are having a big emphasis on giving the funds out to

tribes with multiple year grants. Native Americans in Philanthropy has dedicated themselves to allocating

the cash match for all tribes, then the 2.25% that is required for match in-kind were being met through other

programming within the Natural Resources Department. Specifically, for this grant is the wildlife program

going forward with a solid foundation of four-years of funding which would help with the development of

the program and not having to go after small grants every year. They would be able to hire full-time

employees for the program and for long-term collaring of the bighorn sheep, not only on the lake range but

in the Virginia Mountains. A lot of community members and staff in the Natural Resources Department see

them in the Sutcliffe area in the winter time and they want to know how much time they are spending on the

reservation. They would include those into their models and numbers. Looking at movement models they

are using the GPS data they are collecting to see what parts of the reservation they are using at different

times. Then developing a population growth model within the project period, they are hopeful to be able to

get the 100 individuals which is their target for sustainable numbers. In the State of Nevada, there is only

10,200 bighorn sheep in the entire State. When they are talking about a sustainable population within the

lake range, they are looking ata very small number 100+30 or 40 that move within different mountain ranges

like the fox and lake range and throughout the area. Another component is outreach with local wool growers

to improve the management of domestic sheep. They had an incident last spring where a staff member in the

Natural Resources Department found a domestic sheep that had been left by a wool grower on the

reservation and they can spread diseases to the wildlife. They are trying to have the capacity to engage with

that community and come up with some adaptive management of how they are bringing their sheep in and

out of the Winnemucca Lake region so they don’t end up on the reservation. Additionally, they want to have

outreach and education with the high school students like in the past and to do community events to share

information about the program. They are going for $1.3 million over four years.

Councilmember John asked if she had talked to the stakeholder, the grazing permit people that are using the

range as well. Ms. Hagler said they are not moving additional individuals onto the range as they did in the

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past when they communicated with the stakeholders that hold grazing permits. This is for data collection, so

they did not work with those stakeholders on the development of this proposal, they just want to be able to

continue to collect data over the next four years.

Councilmember John asked when the state or feds drop their animals on the borders of the reservation and

they utilize the reservation which is supposed to be designated for tribal members only beneficial uses. How

come they are telling the Tribe to feed them and let them walk around, wandering as wildlife. Is there some

type of MOU or MLA that lets them do that? Why is the state able to do that with this type of program?

Ms. Hagler said to her knowledge with the state programs, they reintroduce bighorn sheep into the Virginia

Mountains in 2001. She believes it was mostly on the west side of the area and they inhabit mostly the

Virginia Mountains that aren’t on the reservation but they do occasionally see them on the reservation. They

move just like mule deer and antelope, through the areas, they don’t migrate like other animals to large

distances. It’s shared net native wildlife resources.

Councilmember John said they are native to Southern Nevada and her opinion is she doesn’t like it. Once you

let the USFWS or the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) onto the reservation, they are going to start telling

them what to do with our own resources and it’s not a good thing. When they do projects like this they need

to consult the stakeholders because it does impact them. What ever is introduced on the reservation is

staying here and they have to deal with it years into the future. The resources are limited and they don’t have

extra water or feed. What is going to happen to the stakeholders that are there now, they will be the first

ones to get cut off, her herds are going to have to be reduced because of wildlife needing food too. It’s unfair

to tribal members to be having to share their beneficial uses for their own property with other people or

other entities. It’s not proper but it was approved and they have to live with it.

Councilmember Ely asked if there was going to be fencing on the interior boundaries of the reservation for

this project. Ms. Hagler said there is no fencing activities being done.

Councilmember Brady asked if she was going to look at the range lines also because she remembers reading

during her graduate work, in the Yosemite Valley area when sheep were introduced in that area and how

they were competition even for the other wildlife, they actually ate the food down to the nubs and left barren

areas and caused friction between the Basque sheep herders and ranchers in the area. Will they looking at

that as well?

Ms. Hagler said in their range program within the Natural Resources Department mainly focuses on working

with our cattlemen. Currently Aaron Bill is working closely with the cattleman to try and work towards

restoration of water troughs, previous to that, then Range Specialist, Marisa Weasleboy, did range surveys to

calculate AUM which was then taken to a third party for analysis, then they did an analysis on her plan

surveys and gave their recommendations for AUMs to the BIA. BIA handles all the range activities because

they are the permittee as far as the work that the wildlife program is doing. They have cameras at a majority

of the water sources they use and they are not seeing any degradation to those springs. The populations are

at low densities and they will continue to move throughout the landscape. There is no scientific literature

that she has reviewed, even in her graduate studies that says all native wildlife obviously has some levels of

competition, they are not wild horses where they grab the plan and pull it out roots and all and eat it where

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that plant can’t regenerate. As they graze and move, they will continue to utilize the range but mostley at

high elevations.

Councilmember Phoenix motioned to approve the NFWF Native Wildlife Recovery and Corridor Grant with

Resolution. Councilmember Dunn seconded the motion. Votes were six (6) for and one (1) opposed (John)

with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 086-22 NFWF NATIVE WILDLIFE

RECOVERY AND CORRIDOR GRANT

3. Request for Approval NFWF Water Management Grant with Resolution. Donna Noel, NR Director

Ms. Noel said this grant is to cover the Stetson Engineers and attorneys, the match is her salary using the BIA

638 grant. They are asking for $2.6 million for four years.

Councilmember Dunn motioned to approve the NFWF Water Management Grant with Resolution.

Councilmember Davis seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0)

abstentions. Motion carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 087-22 NFWF WATER MANAGEMENT GRANT

4. Request for Approval NFWF Fish Screen Grant with Resolution. Donna Noel, NR Director

Ms. Noel said this grant is to construct the fish screen on the Nixon ditch. They were approved and received

funding for the design and to purchase and build the screen. This grant will be the installation, to install the

pipe that goes to the gate to screen to where the fish goes over the horizontal screen and then back into the

river. The match is her salary.

Councilmember Ely motioned to approve the NFWF Fish Screen Grant with Resolution. Councilmember Brady

seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion

carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 088-22 NFWF FISH SCREEN GRANT

5. Request for Approval Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Trust Land Environmental Grant with

Resolution. Donna Noel, NR Director

Ms. Noel said S Bar S, Beasley and Lagarza Property are in line to move down the process of being approved

for trust, but they need an updated Phase I Environmental because they were held for so long. They want to

make sure the environmental issues they had or didn’t have are still there. This came about with the Lagarza

property because it had a gas station on it. With the original Phase I that was submitted they did a trench

where they thought everything was supposed to be and did sampling and found no petroleum products. It

went through but then when it came back around again and they want to make sure there are no tanks there.

It was only $1,200 to do ground penetrating radar on the front area where the gas station was and came up

with the conclusion there was no tank but did find some type of disturbance which was probably something

there when it was dug the first time. The regional office wasn’t sure there wasn’t some type of contamination

so they requested them to write a grant to do a full core sampling testing of the area, ground penetrating

radar on the whole property to make sure there is no tanks or petroleum products in the soils. That is what

this grant is and she added funding for Phase I updates for both S Bar S and Beasley properties. These will be

contracted out to probably Broadband who has done this before but they will still go through the

procurement process.

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Councilmember Brady motioned to approve the NFWF BIA Trust Land Environmental Grant with Resolution.

Councilmember Davis seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0)

abstentions. Motion carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 089-22 BIA TRUST LAND ENVIRONMENTAL

GRANT

6. Request for Approval United States Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) Grant Fish Passage with

Resolution. Donna Noel, NR Director

Ms. Noel said this grant is for $8,292,215 and is to put in a ramp that goes from bank to bank, about 1,000

feet down from Numana Dam and then all the way up to the bottom of Numana. Design is 90% which is how

they got the cost analysis but that was two years ago which is why there is such a big contingency because it

is not the same. They will look into hiring a larger company so they make sure they are within a timeframe

so they don’t interrupt spawning and the irrigation season. Those will be two parameters for the construction

project, they will go through the procurement process but are leaning towards Granite since they did Derby

Dam. When she contacted references, she was told they saved them funding. There is no match for this one.

Councilmember Dunn motioned to approve the USFWS Grant Fish Passage with Resolution. Councilmember

Ely seconded the motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion

carried. RESOLUTION NO.: PL 090-22 USFWS GRANT FISH PASSAGE NUMANA ROUGHENED RAMP

CONSTRUCTION GRANT

WATER TEAM

1. KEMP JONES LLP. Chris Mixson, Kemp Jones LLP. Report Submitted.

Mr. Mixson requested an Executive Session at the conclusion of Stetson Engineers LLP Brief.

Truckee Canal Extraordinary Maintenance EIS Appeal by Fernley. Judge Du, Federal District Court

Judge, dismissed Fernley’s frivolous lawsuit with prejudice, meaning they are not free to refile it. Fernley

appealed the dismissal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. They had two mediation conferences with

Ninth Circuit mediator, the most recent on July 13". There was no settlement and they are doing two

written briefings on that case. The mediation conferences mean they have a briefing, the main parties are

Fernley, who sued the United States Department of Interior (DOJ) for approving the EIS and then on behalf

of the Tribe, they intervened on the side of the United States because Tribe supports the lining of the

Truckee Canal. They will be filing some sort of joinder in the United States answering brief at the Ninth

Circuit. Opening brief are due in August and answering briefs from the United States and tribal are due in

September and there may be extensions.

Recoupment Lawsuit. This is where TCID owes approximately 350,000-acre feet of water to Pyramid

Lake. They are still in the tedious process of analyzing TCIDs application they filed back in 2016 for water

they claimed to have paid for a period of 2008 through 2016. There has been a lot of hydrologic modeling

done to try to look back in time to figure out how much water TCID didn’t divert when they shut off the

canal for maintenance. They provided another round of written comments to the Federal Water Master

who job it is to do a final certification of the repayment and he submits that to the District Court. Then there

will be additional written briefing in front of the District Court and the Court will make the final decision.

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They filed written comments to the Water Master last Friday after this memo was submitted so Council will

see their written comments at the next Water Team meeting in August. The latest number for the ten-year

period includes some Donner Lake water, the modeling is showing about 35,000-acre feet that maybe

eligible for credit for repayment but they don’t like the modeling number so they think it should be

something closer to 20,000-acre feet. The Tribe’s technical people did participate in the modeling but they

also maintained the Tribe’s legal position the whole time that it should be something closer to 20,000-acre

feet and not 35,000-acre feet. Hopefully by the August Water Team meeting the Water Master will have

certified a number to be in front of the Court.

CEMEX. Ms. Noel had a meeting with BIA and the BLM who the Water Team has asked for technical

assistance on CEMEX ‘s proposal for repairing the pit wall on the western side of Paiute Pit in Pit A. Stetson

Engineering can help with the hydrologic modeling and a little bit of the hydrogeology but he will allow

Alan Richard speak on that since he is hydrologist and his expertise isn’t with soil issues which is the

reason they are using BIA and BLM. They are working with them to provide comments back to CEMEX on

how they are proposing to fix the wall. He hasn’t spoke to Ms. Noel since she had the meeting with the BIA

but they will be providing written comments back to CEMEX with input from the feds and will provide the

comments to Council by the next water team meeting.

Councilmember John asked when CEMEX redid the lease in 2016 who approved the deep pit mining and if

it was the Tribe’s department they are paying the price for it. Mr. Mixson said it didn’t go to the Water

Team but because of the issues in the Paiute Pit the Tribe told them to stop dewatering They did but hen

they moved over to Area D on the other side but they have agreed to not go that deep, the maximum depth

is 40 feet that they agreed to mine on that site. They were down to 70-80 feet deep already when the Tribe

told them to stop and they agreed not to go that deep. The Tribe agreed to let them go deeper but they have

a difference of opinion with CEMEX about whether the Tribe agreed to let them dewater the pit to the

extent they were declaring. CEMEX said when the Tribe agreed to let them go 200 feet, it meant they also

agreed to let them dewater 200 feet. As a legal matter, he disagrees with them because the lease doesn’t say

they can dewater 200 feet. They will have to dewater the pit if they do the pit wall repair the way they

proposed to do it that is why he needs to see what the BIA and BLM had to say about the dewatering for the

repair. CEMEX has agreed they are not going to dewater down to 100 feet anymore just to mine the ground.

Councilmember John asked if it is in writing and Mr. Mixson confirmed it was.

Truckee Meadows Effluent Pipeline / Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC). Truckee Meadows Water

Authority (TMWA) filed applications with the Nevada State Engineer to expand their use of the effluent so

they piped it out to the TRIC and they also filed different applications for instream flows to mitigate the loss

of water in the river because they were removing effluent and they protested. They are in preliminary

settlement discussions with TMWA, there have been no proposals submitted by them or the Water Team at

this point but they are talking to them. They recognized that with the Nevada State Engineer if you have a

big project like they are proposing and someone protests, like the from the Pyramid Lake Tribe, the State

Engineer tends to put it on the shelf to try to force the two parties into settlement discussions. They have

now come to the table and are having discussions but it is early and there is nothing yet to note they are

talking. There was a new issue discovered by TMWA as they were putting together a presentation to give

the Water Team for the settlement of the effluent pipeline, they discovered an issue with their existing

permits for the effluent reuse which they will discuss further is closed session.

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Truckee River Flood Management Authority. The Executive Director of TRFMA came before Council last

year and gave a presentation on their current flood management project which is the main part of for the

Tribe’s concern is the VISTA Narrows Terracing where they are going to expand the Vista Narrows

bottleneck in the river and do terracing so when the flood occurs the water gets spread out but also move

much faster and come to the reservation. Even back then they recognized their project will cause additional

flood flows to come to the reservation and they are willing to mitigate that by proposing to create a

mitigation fund so the Tribe can use the funds to do its own mitigation projects so they don’t have TRFMA

telling the Tribe what to do. They are still working on it. They are waiting on a response from the Water

Team for how it should be structured and then they will start getting into how much funds should be in the

mitigation fund. Their original proposal was $7 million, which is not enough and they were told it’s not

going to be enough so they are still in negotiations on the number. He would like to take some work that

the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) previously did where they looked at bank stabilization, he

wants to look at their studies and they put some funding numbers on it and he will use those numbers in

responding to TRFMA’s proposal.

Councilmember John asked how old the EPA study was. Ms. Noel said it was actually FEMA and the study

was done last year in the spring.

Councilmember Ely asked if this is going to be an on-going issue where it will keep increasing for long-term

maintenance. Mr. Mixson said the one of the primary limitations, they would have to justify the numbers

where they would have to take to their board. That’s why he wants to use the FEMA numbers since they are

real numbers and can add contingencies or future maintenance costs.

Washoe County Lands Bill. He doesn’t have anything to report on this.

Chairwoman Davis said she spoke to Arlen Melendez, Reno Sparks Indian Colony Chairman and he said

they were going to write a letter to Senator Rosen’s office to follow-up and they will share with the Tribe.

2. STETSON ENGINEERS LLP. Allan Richards.

Mr. Richards said his report covers work performed by Stetson during the month of June.

2021 Irrigation Determination for the Newlands Project. The Bureau of Reclamations (BOR) released

this report in June. This is their annual determination of irrigated acreage of the Newlands Project and

Stetson reviews their determination every year sort of as a checks and balance to make sure that the

amount of irrigated acreage they calculate is accurate. Stetson has been reviewing BORs annual irrigation

determination for over 20 years or at least since he has been involved with it for 20 years. Back then they

used to use a low-level aircraft which would take photographs. Back then there were a lot of errors in their

determination of irrigated acreage. Now things have been refined and they don’t find a lot of fields that they

say were irrigated. The reason this is important is because the irrigated acreage for last year determines

what the storage targets in Lahontan Reservoir would be in 2023. They want to make sure they are not

overestimating how much land the Newlands Project is irrigated because it will act to increase the storage

targets in Lahontan for next years season and the storage targets in Lahontan are met by Truckee River

diversions through the Truckee Canal. The total water rated acreage in the Newlands Project for 2021, the

preliminary determination is just under 50,000-acres. Looking back to 2004 the irrigated acreage was

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Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

July 20, 2022 Water Team Minutes

almost 60,000-acreage acres. The irrigated acreage in the project has decreased significantly, about 17% in

the same number of years. The Truckee division in 2004 had almost 4,000 irrigated acres, and for the 2021

irrigated determination there is only 1,570 acres, so the irrigated acreage in the Truckee division is about

40% of what it was 20 years ago. It’s a significant reduction in Newlands Project irrigation and it’s a good

thing because that means less water is diverted from the Truckee Canal.

Recruitment. They had a meeting in Carson City in June to discuss the Federal Water Master spending

certification of the TCIDs application for recruitment credit. Nothing more to add other than what Mr.

Mixson summarized.

Truckee Basin Water Management Options Pilot Project. They participated in three workshops in June

for this project. The Tribe’s participation in this project is important because the project will directly affect

the Tribe’s management of water in Stampede and Prosser Creek Reservoirs by enabling more flexible

storage criteria. As mentioned before the reservoirs are currently operated in the winter season or prewinter season, they have what are referred to as flood control rules that require drawing down the

reservoirs by a certain amount to make room for flood flow storage. For example, the US Army Corps of

Engineers flood control rule for Prosser Creek Reservoir requires that the reservoir be drawn down by

20,000-acre feet by November 15, to make room for flood flow storage, the problem with their curves, their

current rules for that reservoir in particular is that they require that room for storage be available all the

way through mid-April of the following year. The rules don’t allow the reservoir space to be filled until mid-

April and they found that even in wet years like 2017 they couldn’t fill Prosser Creek Reservoir because of

the flood control rule that required so much available storage space.

They had two TROA MOA conferences in June and on TROA scheduling meeting to discuss and coordinate

fish water releases and reservoir operations. During the month of June, the average flows in the river at the

Nixon gauge was about 226 CFS and are currently at 150 CFS. They are currently operating under the fish

flow regime number six which has a target of 120 CFS in the lower river and it’s planned to drop to 110 CFS

in August and then 100 CFS by September. The instream flows help to reach those fish flow targets. The

Pyramid Lake elevation is at 3803 feet at the end of June which is about two feet lower than the last time

last year. Pyramid Lake, compared to last year was very dry, doing a little better this year but still below

average which is generally represented by water year 2018. Will probably end the year around 160,000-

acre feet flowing to the lake by the Nixon gauge. We need 400,00-acre feet of inflow each year roughly,

depending on the elevation of the lake but need about 400,000 -acre feet of inflow each year just to offset

evaporation losses.

EXECUTIVE SESSION

Councilmember Ely motioned to move into Executive Session. Councilmember Guerrero seconded the

motion. Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried. Tribal

Council moved into Executive Session at 7:48 p.m.

Councilmember Ely motioned to move out of Executive Session. Councilmember Brady seconded the motion.

Votes were seven (7) for and zero (0) opposed with zero (0) abstentions. Motion carried. Tribal Council

moved out of Executive Session at 8:54 p.m.

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Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

July 20, 2022 Water Team Minutes

ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Tribal Council, Councilmember Dunn motioned to adjourn the meeting.

The motion was seconded by Councilmember Guerrero. Votes taken were all in favor, motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 8:54 p.m.

Submitted by,

(ound

Brenda A. Henry

Tribal 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 16 day of December 2022, 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: At Rune

Janet Davig, Tribal Chairwoman

Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council

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