The State - News from Oct. 2, 1986
A 15-year-old agreement between California and Nevada dividing water from Lake Tahoe and the Truckee, Carson and Walker rivers has lost its chance of ratification in Congress, officials said. Both state legislatures approved the California-Nevada Interstate Compact in 1970 and 1971, but it requires congressional approval to take effect. However, Sen. Paul Laxalt, (R-Nev.), withdrew a bill to ratify the agreement after negotiations between the states collapsed. Nevada backed out because the bill added unacceptable provisions not contained in the original compact, its chief state engineer said. Decades of legal battles over conflicting water needs among users of the river system spanning the two states now appears headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, Laxalt said, predicting that California would sue Nevada over the water.
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