LAS VEGAS (AP) - Seasonal fluctuations have further reduced water flows in a century-old canal supplying parched farmlands east of Reno, a government lawyer told a federal judge Tuesday in an ongoing dispute between farmers and residential flood victims.

But Justice Department lawyer Gregory Addington urged the judge not to block the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation from increasing flows again this fall and winter through Fernley, where earthen walls of the Truckee Canal collapsed in January and flooded nearly 600 homes.

"Fixing the amount of water flowing in the canal consistent with decreed water rights is a matter within Reclamation discretion," Addington said.

U.S. District Court Senior Judge Lloyd George kept in place a temporary order, issued last month, limiting flows in the Truckee Canal to no more than 350 cubic feet per second. He said he intended to consider a preliminary injunction next week.

Lawyers Robert Hager and Treva Hearne, representing more than 100 homeowner plaintiffs, want George to force the Bureau of Reclamation and Truckee-Carson Irrigation District to limit flows in the canal to 150 cubic feet per second. That would be one-fifth the 750 cfs capacity at which water was rushing through the canal when aboveground earthen embankments burst Jan. 5.

In previous arguments, Hager and Hearne argued for limiting flows to 250 cfs. They focused Tuesday on cutting maximum flows to 150 cfs, citing the findings of a 12-member team of experts the bureau commissioned to study the canal in the weeks after the failure.

Hager said the faster flow rate would put water higher up the embankment than is safe.

"The height of the water above ground level is the issue," Hager told the judge. "The embankment is not suitable to hold water."

George made no immediate ruling on their request during a telephonic hearing from his courtroom in Las Vegas. He instructed both sides by Monday to submit proposed orders on the preliminary injunction.

Addington urged the judge not to substitute his review for Bureau of Reclamation technical and engineering expertise. He said federal courts were not the proper venue for property claims resulting from flooding, and said the court had no jurisdiction to override agency administrative decisions.

Hager derided government findings blaming the January flood on rodents burrowing holes and weakening canal embankments, and noted
that the standards for building the canal through uninhabited desert in 1903 were far below those in use today.

"The embankment does not meet current minimum construction standards ... and over the last 105 years it has deteriorated so that it is even worse," Hager said, adding that Fernley is now "an urban area where 20,000 people live."

There was no mention during the two-hour hearing of another canal failure last week in Fallon. The break in the V Canal alongside a concrete spillway tore out an access road and bridge, but didn't flood any homes. No one was injured.

George seized a chance to resolve the Truckee Canal issue when Addington volunteered that water flows in the Truckee Canal were no
more than 260 cubic feet per second on Monday, and were expected to
drop to below 200 cfs this summer.

"If that's going to happen naturally, do you really have any objection to the court ordering something that will happen anyway?" the judge asked.

Addington responded that the bureau will need to increase flows in the winter to fulfill its role getting water from the Truckee River to the Lahontan Reservoir for storage and delivery to farmers in Lyon and Churchill counties. Between 2,000 and 3,000 farms and
ranches are dependent on the irrigation system.

"The purpose of the project is to deliver water, even in reduced quantities, to those who depend on the water for their livelihood," the government lawyer said, adding that there was "unanimous interest in avoiding an embankment failure."

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)