Truckee Carson Irrigation District gets new manager
RENO -- An Arizona real estate broker and tribal planner has been named manager of a troubled irrigation district in Nevada.
Jack Conovaloff will assume his duties as project manager for the Truckee Carson Irrigation District by month's end, the district's board of directors announced Tuesday.
He has worked on water, power, land development and agricultural issues in Arizona for more than 26 years, including projects with irrigation districts and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.
His predecessor in Nevada, David Overvold, agreed to step down after the Justice Department dropped charges in October accusing him, the district and others of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by falsifying records documenting delivery of water to area farmers and ranchers. Overvold had pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence.
The district operates the Newlands Project, which was built in 1902 and is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The project provides water to more than 2,500 ranchers and farmers for livestock, alfalfa and other crops in Northern Nevada's high desert, which averages 5 inches of precipitation a year.
