Hello All, 

I have just been info rmed 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. 

 Here is what you do:

 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 info rmed, 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!