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Letter from Jamie Mills
Regarding the Orr Ditch Decree
I have just
been informed that the
United States
was Ordered to send legal Notice to each and every water right owner
in the Newlands Project that they filed a motion to amend the Orr
Ditch Decree. These notices were mailed by the
United States
on December 9th, 2009 and should be hitting the mailboxes today.
In his argument before the Court, Justice Department Attorney Fred
Disheroon told the judge that WATER RIGHT OWNERS IN THE NEWLANDS
PROJECT DON'T CARE ABOUT THEIR WATER RIGHTS. NO ONE WILL RETURN
THIS MAILER, SO WHY SHOULD WE MAIL IT?
NWPA
believes Mr. Disheroon is WRONG. We DO care about out water
rights.
1. Decide
whether you want to continue to be involved in the case or if you just
want to give up on your interest in the Truckee Division water rights
(which supplement Carson Division water rights).
2. If
you want to continue to be involved in the case, you can either choose
to represent yourself (called "per se") or hire an attorney
to represent you.
3. If
you choose to represent yourself, be advised that you may need to take
other action in the future to protect your interests (like going to a
hearing or joining in a motion filed by one the the other attorneys
for TCID, the City of Fallon, the City of Fernley or Churchill
County). NWPA and others will be available to help you if you
can't figure it out on your own or if you have any questions.
4. If
you choose to represent yourself, all you have to do is notify the
Court by filling out the Notice of Appearance that came in the packet
and mailing it back to the Court, but to be fully informed, you should ask the Court to require the United States to send
you a copy of all of the documents they have filed so far, because you
can't possibility represent yourself properly if you don't know what
the United States has said. The packet refers to locations
where copies of the motion can be obtained or viewed. It is
recommended that you contact Mr. Rieker and request a copy of the
motion. You, also, will likely need to get a copy of the
Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA) itself, in order to
understand how it affects you. The document is available on disc
for those of you who have computers, but for those of you who don't,
you will need to request a hard copy. The packet doesn't say
where to get the hard copy of TROA, so I believe you would need to
make that request of Mr. Rieker as well.
5. If
you chose to hire an attorney to represent you, that attorney will
handle all of this.
Call
Jamie at (775) 423-7774 if you have any questions!
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