Saving Stillwater: A Tribute to Rick Heaney
NWA Loses Founding President
By: Jim Guidici, NWA Treasurer
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Nevada Waterfowl Association’s founding President, Rick Heaney. Rick was the victim of a tragic traffic accident on June 5, 2024. He played a critical role in the efforts to save the Lahontan Valley Wetlands (Stillwater and Carson Lake). In fact, without him the entire Northern Nevada Water Settlement Act (PL 101-618) might never have been signed into law. It is such an important part of the efforts to save Nevada’s unique desert wetlands that it is worth telling.
In the early to mid-1980’s Northern Nevada was in the grips of a severe drought along with the rest of the West. The Federal Government was under pressure by the Pyramid Lake Tribe, and its supporters in Congress, to decouple the Truckee River from the Newlands Project in order to get more water to the Lake for its fisheries. That would have caused the long-term destruction of the Lahontan Valley marshes, which had predated the Newlands Project and were just as sacred to the Northern Paiutes as Pyramid Lake. Of course, the marshes were also critical habitat for multiple species of migratory birds, especially waterfowl and shorebirds.
The Federal Government took the position that the marshes had no right to exist because they had not been allocated any water rights when the Newlands Project was built. The Stillwater Refuge Manager, at the time (Ron Anglin), was ordered to prepare to shut the refuge down. The refuge was going to be decommissioned and abandoned as a National Wildlife Refuge. It would literally be allowed to dry up and blow away in the wind.
A small group of duck hunters, including Rick and the late Ken Taber, decided that something had to be done to save the marshes. The bottom line was that water rights had to be acquired and transferred to the marshes. The cost of buying enough water rights was estimated to be some $30 million dollars. No private organization would be able to raise that amount of money in time to save the marshes. It would require the Federal Government’s involvement with both the financing and legislation. Since the Newlands Project only authorized the use of water for agricultural purposes, Congress would have to amend the existing law to authorize transfer of water rights to the marshes for wildlife purposes.
At that time, Ducks Unlimited declined to get involved in any local matters that would also require getting legislation passed through Congress. So, Rick and the other founding members created Nevada Waterfowl Association. Rick was elected as the first President and served several years in that capacity. One of the key things NWA did under his leadership was reach out to other groups interested in saving the marshes such as Sierra Club and Audubon Society to form the Lahontan Valley Wetlands Coalition. NWA would raise the money necessary to buy the first water rights for the marshes and bring test cases to transfer the water to the marshes. At the same time, the Coalition pursued the political support needed to get the necessary legislation through Congress and enacted into law.
With the support of the late Senator Harry Reid and the late Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich, the water rights purchase program was added to the Water Settlement Act as Section 206. The Water Settlement Act (PL 101-618) passed through both the Senate and House. At first, PL 101-618 was part of a larger bill that included California and the re-authorization of the Central Valley Project. That part of the legislation would allocate water rights in that federal project for fish and wildlife purposes. There was such strong resistance to that part of the legislation from large California agricultural interests that the entire legislative package was at risk of not passing the Senate. That caused Senator Reid to pull the Nevada provisions out of the original bill and got PL 101-618 alone through the Senate.
Congresswoman Vucanovich then agreed to support the narrowed-down bill and got it through the House with the requirement that water rights bought for the marshes had to be treated the same as agricultural water rights so as not to increase any burden on existing farmers. PL 101-618 then went to President Bush for his signature.
Section 206 would be the first time ever that agricultural water rights within a Federal Reclamation Act Project would be acquired and used for supporting wildlife habitat. The same California agricultural interests that had blocked the California legislation, pressured the White House not to sign Pl 101-618 because of the precedent Section 206 would create.
Dave Livermore was the Nature Conservancy official who had helped the Coalition get Section 206 added to Pl 101-618. He had also played a key role in getting the legislation through both houses of Congress. About an hour before the midnight deadline for President George H.W. Bush (Senior) to sign PL 101-618 before it expired, Dave got a phone call from his contact in the White House. He was told that staff had recommended to President Bush not to sign the legislation because of the opposition from the California agricultural interests. Dave was further told that the President had agreed with the recommendation, and was not going to sign PL 101-618.
Dave Livermore called Rick Heaney, told him that the President was going to let PL 101-618 expire at midnight, and asked Rick if there was anything he could do.
As Rick told me years later, he responded: “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.”
Rick then called his boyhood friend and duck hunting buddy Sig Rogich, who was President Bush’s Press Secretary. Rick and Sig had hunted ducks together at Stillwater while in school. Sig had been kept informed about the pending legislation as it worked its way through Congress. Rick explained the situation to Sig: if the President did not sign the legislation by midnight that night, it would expire just as if the President had vetoed it.
Sig went into the President’s office and said: “Mr. President, you owe me and I am calling in my chips. You need to sign this legislation for me because part of it will save Stillwater where my good buddy Rick Heaney and I hunted ducks as kids. Rick is the President of Nevada Waterfowl Association. They raised private money to buy the first water rights for Stillwater. You need to save Stillwater.”
After some further discussion between them and the President’s staff, President Bush said: “Okay Sig. Just for you.”
The bill was signed literally minutes before midnight. That is how PL 101-618 and the water rights program that saved the Lahontan Valley marshes became law. Without Rick Heaney, and his duck hunting buddy Sig Rogich, it would not have happened.
