Send Jury Blames Irrigation District for 2008 Fernley Flood

Posted: 4:01 PM Jul 11, 2012
Reporter: AP

YERINGTON, Nev. (AP) - A northern Nevada jury has found a rural
irrigation district liable for damages in the collapse of a entury-old canal that sent a wall of water into the town of Fernley four years ago.

A judge in state court in Yerington set a status conference for Aug. 30 to discuss potential damages for hundreds of flood victims.

Flood victim lawyer Patrick Leverty says justice was done by Monday's jury verdict finding the Truckee Carson Irrigation District negligent in its maintenance of the earthen canal dug in 1906.

An ex-district employee in a related federal trial in Reno testified that inspectors warned in 2005 that a stretch of the canal was at a "high hazard" level and needed significant repairs to avoid an "impending embankment failure." It burst Jan. 5, 2008.

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