Nation's driest state proposes dismantling of water planning agency

CARSON CITY - Nevada's new conservation chief has fired his water planner and dismantled her division - producing a flood of criticism that the move is a bad one for the nation's driest state.

Mike Turnipseed, named in mid-July by Gov. Kenny Guinn to run the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, told Naomi Duerr this week he was firing her and eliminating her office to save money.

Duerr, whose initiatives in her seven years as state water planner included the first update of a Nevada water plan in 25 years, said Thursday she was caught off guard by Turnipseed's decision.

''I'm very disappointed that the state would give water planning such a low priority - since we're the fastest growing state and the driest state in the nation, and my office put in such a terrific effort,'' Duerr added.

Leaders of environmental and government watchdog groups scolded Turnipseed and Gov. Guinn, saying the administration should cancel the move and the governor should apologize to Duerr.

''To eliminate the division now in order to save a couple of dollars is outrageous,'' said Kaitlin Backlund of Citizen Alert.

Bob Fulkerson of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada added that the move shows Guinn's ongoing review of various government agencies ''is flawed and lacking direction.''

Representatives of the two groups, plus Trout Unlimited, Sierra Club, Alliance for Workers' Rights, Nevada Wilderness Project, Great Basin Mine Watch and the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability scheduled a news conference Friday in Reno to denounce the move.

Turnipseed defended his decision and said he's confident that much of the work done by Duerr's office will continue - but in state agencies other than her division.

''I knew there would be a backlash,'' he added. ''But I was given instructions from the administration when I became director, and one was to streamline government. That's what I think I'm doing.''

The Water Planning Division has a state general fund budget of about $650,000 a year, but Turnipseed said he didn't know exactly how much money would be saved by closing it down. The division is authorized 11 staffers, including Duerr at $68,000 a year, but several of those slots are funded by federal dollars.

Turnipseed said water planning will continue within the state Water Resources Division, which he headed before Guinn made him state conservation director. And the division's grant program for small water systems around Nevada will be shifted to another agency and continued.

But he said state efforts to help save Walker Lake near Hawthorne will diminish. Duerr had headed a multi-agency team that has been trying to save Walker Lake fisheries and tackle the century-old problem of getting enough water to the shrinking desert lake.