FERNLEY, Nev. (AP) — A conflict emerging on northern Nevada's high desert marks an unusual crossroads for a pandemic, a relic of American westward expansion and 21st-century technology.
The rural townspeople of Fernley are fighting government plans to renovate a century-old earthen irrigation canal that failed and flooded hundreds of homes in 2008.
They say the Bureau of Reclamation's plan would leave 450 people without access to domestic wells they rely on for water. Citing restrictions on public gatherings prompted by the coronarvirus, they're asking a judge to order an extension of the public comment period on the bureau's environmental review.