View from the fray

The report presents a pleasantly damp picture with our conservation efforts (installing water meters!) paying off over the next few years, reducing our reliance on water rights from the Truckee River, groundwater and streams. In fact, there’s so much water (and not just in this nice, wet year with 157 percent of our annual precipitation already and two wet months to come) that local water folk aren’t pumping up the groundwater—they’re injecting surface water back to recharge the groundwater to save for a not-so-rainy day.

And the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, which serves most of Reno and Sparks—minus the troubled fringe areas north and south of town—has managed to double the amount of water held in its reserves at Independence and Stampede reservoirs. About a decade ago, only about 22,000 acre-feet of water was stored. Now it’s about 40,000 acre-feet. To put this in perspective, the Truckee Meadows uses around 100 acre-feet a day during winter and approximately 200 acre-feet a day in summer.

“Even at maximum build-out, we never deplete our reserves,” said John Erwin, TMWA manager of water resources, who presented an update on the Truckee River Operating Agreement to the Reno City Council Tuesday. “Even with an eight-year [drought], we never deplete our reserves.”

The TROA, an agreement between the many users and potential users of Truckee River water, moved forward last month to the stage where an environmental-impact statement will be crafted over the next two years. The negotiated settlement would give TMWA an extra 30,000 to 40,000 acre-feet of water storage, and it’s also intended to appease Californians who may want more of the water in the future. These days, Nevada gets 90 percent of the water from the Truckee—most of it, in a non-drought year, ends up in Pyramid Lake. California, where the river originates, diverts only about 10 percent for its own uses. The TROA has been long in the works, though Erwin said it wouldn’t go into effect until December 2009.

At the request of Councilman Dave Aiazzi, Erwin described TMWA’s groundwater recharge program, which injects treated surface water into the ground.

“That way we’re able to build up our bank account of groundwater,” Erwin said.

But make no mistake. If TMWA makes a deposit, it may someday also need to make a withdrawal.

Aiazzi, who noted that “a lot has been written about water” in recent weeks, reminded the rest of the council that the dry-well difficulties in Spanish Springs, the North Valleys and South Meadows aren’t TMWA’s fault, as they are not in the TMWA service area.

“Growth isn’t taking this water,” he said. And of plans to inject water into such areas as Golden Valley, Aiazzi said he foresees future front-page headlines complaining when Reno pumps water from there—water that it deposited in the first place.

“We’ll have to pump it out some day, and I want people to know that we’re putting it in.”