Officials: Wet winter crucial to Reno water

RENO -- Reno-area water officials say a wet winter in the Sierra Nevada is crucial to restoring diminished water supplies.

Back-to-back skimpy winters have left reservoirs along the Truckee River watershed low.

"This winter is everything," said Chad Blanchard, chief deputy in the federal water master's office in Reno.

Officials say unless the fall brings unusual wet weather, Lake Tahoe, the river's largest water source, could drop below its natural rim by early December.

While officials say the Reno area won't run out of drinking water, another dry winter might mean minimum flows in the Truckee River set by law would not be met.

"It's getting real hard to sugarcoat things," said Bill Hauck, water supply coordinator for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. "We will be entirely dependent on a good winter this year."

What will be affected is the ability to meet the so-called "Floriston rates," a century-old law designed to guarantee a minimum flow in the Truckee River.

That flow is measured at Farad, Calif., just upstream from the Nevada line. The law designed to ensure municipal, agricultural and power generation demands from river water can be satisfied requires that flows of at least 500 cubic feet per second be maintained through the summer, dropping to between 300 and 400 cubic feet per second over the winter.

"If we have another bad year, we'll just get to the point we won't make Floriston rates over the summer," Blanchard said. "We haven't been in that situation for some time."

The last time was in 1994 at the height of a lengthy drought.

Even with another dry winter, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority will continue to be able to provide water demanded by the 93,000 homes and businesses the utility serves, Hauck said.

It would do so by drawing more on its 33 groundwater wells and by tapping water stored for times of drought at places such as Independence Lake and Donner Lake.