Bill limits power of Nevada natural resources chief

Kiley Russell

Tuesday, Feb. 16, 1999 | 9 a.m.

CARSON CITY - A bill to restrict Nevada's environmental protection efforts would hamstring those efforts and cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars, lawmakers have been told.

AB41 would force the state Division of Environmental Protection to conduct its own probes into federal or even other state agency reports of water pollution before ordering the pollution to stop.

The state DEP director said the bill, introduced by Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, will severely impair his ability to enforce clean water laws in Nevada.

"It is impossible for our staff to provide full coverage of the entire state," Allen Biaggi told the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on Monday.

If he can't rely on information from the U.S. Forest Service, for example, Biaggi said he'd have to send people all over the state to confirm reports of stream-bed destruction or other problems - at a cost of up to $740,000 a year.

Biaggi also said that the scientific information provided to his agency from the U.S. Department of Energy and other federal offices is excellent and reliable.

"Nevada cannot begin to duplicate the information of these agencies, even with a substantial increase of funds," Biaggi told the committee. "We rely on the federal government to tell us if the ground water (at the Nevada Test Site) is contaminated. We don't have the resources."

But some committee members were unconvinced and questioned why his agency can't do more of its own investigations.

"If we don't do this as a state agency, we'll lose an enormous amount of credibility," said Carpenter. "We don't trust the feds."

But Carpenter added that if the bill is too restrictive in regard to the test site, he would be happy to amend it.

Carpenter introduced the bill at the request of Elko County officials who tried to rebuild a damaged road near the south fork of the Jarbidge River.

Forest Service officials called Biaggi's office to say construction equipment had been driven through the river and its banks were damaged. As a result of that call, the state environmental office ordered the road work to stop.