Feds reviewing Nevada land deal

Brendan Riley

Wednesday, June 19, 2002 | 10:31 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Bureau of Land Management in Washington is reviewing a land swap with a private company because the agency allowed a company employee to arrange the deal.

The man handling the trade, David Buhlig, works for Nevada Land Resource Co., the largest private landowner in the state.

Buhlig works in the BLM office in Carson City, though he isn't on the agency's payroll. However, his employer is in line for a credit from the BLM that reflects his pay and expenses while working on the land swap.

Buhlig is providing all the data the agency will use in deciding whether to approve or reject the swap.

"Even if it's somehow allowed, it's a horrible practice," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. "The BLM has gone completely over the edge. Now they're hiring the other side and giving them access to private files and confidential information."

Miller said he is asking the Interior Department's inspector general to look into the deal, which was first reported by The New York Times on Monday.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: "I'm not saying it's illegal. I just don't like the way it looks."

In response to congressional criticism, Ray Brady, the BLM's Washington-based lands and realty group manager, said he will review the deal.

But he defended the practice of basing decisions on such deals on data from companies promoting a swap, saying such methods are authorized by Congress.

"I do disagree that we've violated any procedures and authorities," he said. "I clearly will take a second look and make sure we are following the appropriate procedures and regulations."

The BLM has the responsibility for managing more than 260 million acres of federal land, mostly in the West. That includes nearly 50 million acres in Nevada. Much of the land had been set aside for homesteading in the 1860s, but was never bought or claimed because it was so barren or remote.

Nevada Land Resource has purchased more than 1.3 million acres in the state since the mid-1990s. The company sells land to developers.

Under the deal, Nevada Land Resource would trade a hilly site in the Pah Rah Range east of Reno for flat desert land owned by the BLM about 75 miles north of Las Vegas. The company wants a power plant on its new land.

BLM-approved appraisals ordered by Buhlig and paid for by his company give the Pah Rah land a value of $101,500 and the remote southern Nevada site a value of $128,000. Each site is a square mile. The swap is expected to be completed by October.

John Singlaub, who runs the BLM's Carson City office, said the swap will benefit the public by increasing public holdings in northern Nevada, and helping booming southern Nevada with a needed power plant.

He said the swap would be delayed without Buhlig's help.

"If we didn't have help from the proponents and other people we deal with, we wouldn't be able to do a whole lot of the work we are doing," he said. He said there are a number of review steps "to ensure there's no impropriety."

Buhlig said his type of work with the government is not unusual and takes place only because the BLM doesn't have the resources to do the work.

"I'm not managing this land exchange," he said. "I'm the grunt. I'm doing the paperwork, trying to coordinate and facilitate things."