Stakeholders affected by the U.S. Navy activities in western Nevada met recently, as directed by Congress when that body passed the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), extending the Navy lease of the ranges around NAS Fallon.
In response to the directive, the Navy has created an Intergovernmental Executive Committee (IEC) to address the activities and the request by the Navy to modernize and expand the footprint of the ranges attached to NAS Fallon.
In the NDAA, Congress extended the current Navy lease for 25 years, without approving the expansion requested in the Fallon Range Training Complex (FRTC) plans after Navy staff worked for the past two years on a public environmental review process.
In light of Governor Sisolak’s directives relating to COVID, representatives from five area county commissions, several federal agencies, and 19 Native American Tribes, met virtually on April 20 in the first IEC meeting.
During the three-hour-long meeting, attendees elected Amber Torres, Tribal Chair of the Walker River Paiute Tribe to serve as Chair of the IEC group, and Pete Olsen, Churchill County Commissioner to serve as Vice-Chair.
According to Zip Upham, Public Affairs Officer for NAS Fallon, the group discussed the proposed Memorandum of Understanding, the proposed Charter, and the Scope of the Committee. During the meeting, it was decided the Navy staff will send out a Version Two of those documents in the next week for comment by those who attended.
The actions of the committee will be governed by Nevada's Open Meeting law.
The most substantial issue of the meeting was a decision to talk about current and future issues, and other related ideas. There was talk in the initial proposal about structuring the group, in which there would be no consideration of any issues that were not current. Members of the committee decided that the scope of their tasking from congress is to look at not only what exists today, but also what is being proposed in the FRTC expansion process.
The committee also decided that the Navy will continue to provide administrative support however, it was made clear that the Navy is not driving the process. The members of the committee are to provide direction in addressing issues.
The Navy has recently hired Toni Burton, a local Fallon Paiute Shoshone tribal member as the Tribal Coordinator to enable more effective communication with the local tribes. Additionally, the Navy has hired Kish LaPierre as the Tribal Liaison, who is an archaeologist by training.
Upham said, “The opportunity from our perspective then is to work directly with the tribes in a much more interactive manner that builds a positive relationship and allows us to work through any issues and details or challenges we create for the tribes.”
The next meeting of the IEC will be scheduled for late June or early July. The public can follow the progress and be involved in the IEC process by visiting the website: https://frtcmodernization.com/iec
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