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TCID Water Supply Conditions

Updated Dec. 7, 2008
Submitted by Truckee-Carson Irrigation District to Lahontan Valley News

As of December 7, storage in Lahontan Reservoir was 27,352 acre-feet. Storage in Lahontan is expected to increase to about 37,200 acre-feet by the end of December.

The maximum Truckee Canal diversion allowed by the Bureau of Reclamation is 350 cfs, which is more than what is available of the Floriston Rates water that arrives at Derby Dam. For December the reduced Floriston Rate is 300 cfs, because Lake Tahoe is below elevation 6225.25.

On November 22 the Truckee Meadows Water Authority requested a further reduction in the Floriston Rates to 160 cfs pursuant to a supposedly never before used provision in the Truckee River Agreement. This provision allows Sierra Pacific to reduce Reduced Floriston Rates during the non-irrigation season not to exceed 6,000 acre-feet since the signing of the Truckee River Agreement in 1935. The Federal Water Master is not aware of this provision being used before.

The reasoning given by TMWA was that Floriston Rate water in Boca would be exhausted by about December 8. This change would extend the release of Floriston Rate water until about January 8.

Later, on December 5, TMWA requested Reduced Floriston Rates be increased from 160 cfs to 200 cfs. The reason given for this was to avoid increasing releases when the 6,000 acre-feet was reached and then reducing the releases after all Floriston Rates was exhausted.

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Lake level low

Daily Tribune: In the works for the weekend
Staff report
12/5/08

When the water in Lake Tahoe falls below the natural rim, at 6,223 feet, water stops flowing into the Truckee River. At midweek, Lake Tahoe measured 6,223.25. If the lake level drops below the natural rim, Tahoe turns into an enormous bathtub.

Lake level nears natural rim

Annie Flanzraich / North Lake Tahoe Bonanza
Dec. 4, 08

With Lake Tahoe’s water level nearing the natural rim, water authorities are hoping for record-breaking precipitation to bring the level up.

“We desperately need a big winter and a big snowpack to bring Lake Tahoe back up again,” said Federal Water Master Garry Stone.

When the water in Lake Tahoe nears the natural rim, at 6,223 feet, water flows more slowly into the Truckee River. At midweek the lake measured 6,223.25. Under normal conditions, the flow into the Truckee is about 250 cubic feet per second. The current rate is about 12 cubic feet per second, Stone said. If the lake level drops below the natural rim no more water will flow into the Truckee.

“We can’t get any more water out of it,” Stone said. “It’s like a bathtub, we do not have the ability to release water through the natural rim.”

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Truckee Carson Irrigation District indicted

Truckee Carson Irrigation District indicted
The Associated Press
Posted: 12/03/2008

RENO, Nev.—A federal grand jury in Reno has indicted the Truckee Carson Irrigation District and four of its employees for allegedly falsifying records to secure additional water supplies from the U.S. government.
The four indicted include David Overvold, project manager for the irrigation district based in Fallon. He and the three others are charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, falsification of records, false claims and false statements.

U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott in Sacramento says they allegedly inflated data from 2000 though 2005 regarding the efficiency of the district's water deliveries as part of a scheme to secure additional water credits from the bureau to boost supplies primarily for Nevada farmers and ranchers.
***

Panther Valley embezzlement case could reach $2 million in losses

By FRANK X. MULLEN JR. • fmullen@rgj.com • December 21, 2008

A former treasurer of the Panther Valley Water Users Association is being investigated in connection with siphoning water for profit and embezzling as much as $2 million, according to investigators and utility officials.

The man allegedly sold water rights that the company didn't have to developers and is being investigated in connection with construction of an illegal valve that siphoned at least $140,000 worth of water by bypassing the Truckee Meadows Water Authority mainline meter. He allegedly took out a bank loan and bought heavy equipment and other items with water company funds without the knowledge of the company's board of directors, officials said.

Although the company's board is required to approve purchases of more than $100, the treasurer was able to misappropriate hundreds of thousands of dollars unbeknownst to other company officials, according to company documents and board members.

Washoe County sheriff's detectives confirmed they have been looking into the financial activities of former Panther Valley water utility treasurer Robert Klein since May, but no arrest warrants have been issued.

Klein could not be reached for comment.

"Mr. Klein has fled the area and this is an ongoing case," Detective Morgan Jaeck said. "Once there's a warrant, we'll seek him out then. It's a complicated case. This guy had carte blanche for eight years."

Jaeck said the case involves a tangled web of documents, with still many records to receive.

"We're not sure how long it will take to get to the end of this road," he said.

Illegal valve installed

The missing money came to light after Truckee Meadows Water Authority engineers in August 2006 discovered a partially open valve that allowed water to bypass a TMWA meter that keeps track of deliveries to about 400 Panther Valley customers. The engineers shut down and "double locked" the valve, officials said, but by December 2006, Panther Valley's metered water use was again lower than expected.

In September 2007, after monitoring the area's water use for months, TMWA workers checked the pressure on the water lines feeding Panther Valley. They discovered water was flowing beyond the supposedly closed and locked valve. They dug down to the main line and found the TMWA valve had been disconnected, replaced with a dummy valve, and someone had installed an illegal wide-open valve below ground next to the disabled device.

That meant that for nearly a year, Panther Valley customers were paying their local water company for the water they used, but TMWA was paid only for the small percentage of water that flowed to Panther Valley through its main meter. TMWA officials said the Panther Valley utility eventually owed $250,000 in fees and late charges for water that bypassed the meter.

"In 20 years, it's the most elaborate bypass I've ever seen," TMWA distribution manager Pat Nielson said. "We were truly shocked when we dug up that dummy valve and found the illegal one.

"(The illegal valve) probably cost $1,200 to $1,400 and was buried in the ground, while the dummy valve at ground level looked fine. The problem was (the perpetrator) got greedy. If that underground valve was only partially opened instead of wide open, I don't know how long it would have taken us to find out."

Water and money

But investigators and utility officials said the dummy valve was just a part of multiple frauds against the water company.

The Panther Valley Water Users Association, a nonprofit cooperative, was founded 46 years ago to bring water to an enclave of north valleys residents far from city water service. The company got water from Sierra Pacific and later from TMWA, the area's current water provider. The company serves about 400 customers in the Panther Valley area north of Reno and is self-regulating.

Dennis Richards, Panther Valley utility president, said TMWA informed the company in April that it owed at least $139,000 for water delivered to Panther Valley before October 2007.

Richards said Klein told him he knew nothing about any "misappropriated water."

"TMWA threatened to turn off our water, but as far as I knew, we had paid for what we received," Richards said. "But things were being kept secret by Bob (Klein). He was operating in a different reality."

He said the board treasurer usually handled all business activities and the other board members took the treasurer's word for all financial matters.

"This cooperative was founded 46 years ago by honest people and managed by honest people," Richards said. "We trusted Bob (Klein) for eight years. We took his word for everything. Nobody but board members come to our meetings, and the board members left the finances in (Klein's) hands."

As board members began looking at the association's books, Richards said, they discovered Klein allegedly sold water rights that the company did not have and made commitments to sell additional nonexistent water rights. Klein also allegedly collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in "connection fees" from developers, and those funds are no longer in the association's accounts, officials said.

Board members also found a bank loan had been taken out and equipment purchased without their knowledge.

Dreaming of a wet winter at Lake Tahoe

By Annie Flanzraich
Bonanza News Editor

With Lake Tahoe’s water level nearing the natural rim, water authorities are hoping for record-breaking precipitation to bring the water level up.

“We really desperately need a big winter and a big snowpack to bring Lake Tahoe back up again,” said Federal Water Master Garry Stone.

When the water in Lake Tahoe nears the natural rim, which is 6223 feet, water flows less quickly into the Truckee River. As of Wednesday night the lake measured at 6223.25. Normally there are about 250 cubic feet per second running into the Truckee. Right now the rate is about 12 cubic feet per second, Stone said. If the lake level drops below the natural rim no more water will flow into the Truckee.

“We can’t get any more water out of it,” Stone said. “It’s like a bathtub, we do not have the ability to release water through the natural rim.”

After that water from Boca Reservoir and smaller natural streams will flow through the Truckee. Stone said there is enough water in Boca to supply the river until sometime in December.

While the level of the lake does not affect water supply at the towns and villages in the Basin, it does affect other areas like Reno, Stone said.

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Officials: Wet Winter Crucial to Reno Water

Source: KOLO-TV8
Written by: AP
Oct 13, 2008

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 water shed 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 - something that hasn't happened since January 2005. While officials say the Reno area won't run out of drinking water, another dry winter likely would mean minimum flows in the Truckee River set by law may 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 of Truckee River water.

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 cfs over the winter, depending on available storage at Lake Tahoe.

The Lake Tahoe dam at Tahoe City allows for the storage of up to 6 feet of water above the lake's natural rim. Most of that water is now gone, with the lake level at less than a foot above the rim. Depending on factors such as fall precipitation and evaporation rates, Tahoe should drop below its rim this year by early December, Blanchard said.

At that point, water managers will depend almost exclusively on water stored at Boca Reservoir to maintain minimum river flows. Boca's currently at roughly two-thirds capacity but once it is tapped to maintain Floriston rates, "it will drop dramatically," Blanchard said.

Without added precipitation, achieving the desired rates of river flow will be impossible come mid December. A big winter would help fill Tahoe and other reservoirs and allow water managers to again meet the Floriston rates, hopefully through next summer and fall.

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Watershed impacts irrigation

By Merry Thomas, Fallon Star Press, via RGJ.com
October 3, 2008

If the dry weather conditions continue into fall and early winter, the region could face a slower water release than usual and create the possibility of diverting water from the Truckee River in December, according to TCID Project Manager Dave Overvold.

Releases from Lahontan Dam resumed Wednesday after having been curtailed for nearly two weeks. As of Friday, Sept. 19, which is the latest numbers available, storage was 28,361 acre-feet. The amount of water and rate at which it is released from Lahontan depends on inflow from the Carson River, Overvold said.

The Lahontan Dam is down this season by about two-thirds the average, historically. This means it's likely area farmers will receive deliveries short by about 2,000 acre-feet this season. The maximum Truckee Canal diversion allowed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is 350 cubic feet per second, which is more than will be available by the time the flow reaches the Derby Dam, the TCID Web site stated.

"We want to keep water diverted from the Truckee River at a minimum," Overvold said.

Water gets diverted from Lake Tahoe or from Prosser or Boca reservoirs to make up the difference when there isn't enough naturally occurring water, such as rain. Tuesday, for instance, the water arriving at Derby Dam was released at 133 cfs below the dam. The rate of release from Tahoe is about 189 cfs, and the rate of flow below Derby is expected to drop this month to 113 cfs.

Lake Tahoe dips to its natural rim

By Greyson Howard / Sierra Sun

Now fall, Lake Tahoe and other area lakes and reservoirs are dipping, and may leave the Truckee River a comparative trickle before snow recharges the water supply again. Two slow winters in a row — feeding 31 percent and 32 percent of normal runoff into Tahoe — mean the lake could drop below its natural rim unless precipitation shows up this fall. This means the top of the Truckee River could go dry, and other water stores will have to be leaned on more heavily to supply the Reno/Sparks area.

“At this point it looks like we will get very close to Tahoe’s natural rim,” said Chad Blanchard, chief hydrologist for the U.S. District Court Water Masters Office. Currently the lake is at 6223.80, within 8 inches of the natural rim and down to just 15 percent of the dam’s total storage capacity, he said.

“As the lake drops, the amount going over the dam drops and the amount going down river drops, so we have to supplement that with others. We’re using Boca right now,” Blanchard said. “By the end of the year Boca could be very low also.”

Bill Hauck, the water supply coordinator for the Truckee Meadows Water Authority, said Boca Reservoir could empty to 5 percent of its top capacity.

Prosser Lake will dip down to about one-third its total capacity, and Stampede will be about half its normal volume, Blanchard said.

Donner Lake is being drawn down as usual this fall, emptying the top 9 feet of the lake into Donner Creek, Hauck said. Windy weather has played a major role in lake levels, especially on the enormous surface area of Tahoe, Blanchard said.

“If it is windy it creates huge amounts of evaporation off the lake,” Blanchard said.
Right now, the Truckee is meeting the minimum required rate of 500 cubic feet of water per second, called the Floriston rate, Blanchard said. Blanchard said the flow could slow beyond that minimum rate, but said water demand in Reno and Sparks also drops significantly in the winter, so supplies should be all right.

“We’re hoping for a great winter, but even if we don’t have a great winter we have adequate drought supplies in place,” Hauck said. And as for predicting what winter will bring, Blanchard said it’s too early to make any meaningful predictions. The real forecasting for water supply happens when precipitation is actually on the ground, he said.

“I talk to the weather service and the California Nevada River Forecast Center regularly,” Blanchard said. “There’s nothing concrete but we’re hoping for a wet winter.”

Very wet winter needed to reverse drought trend for Tahoe, Northern Nevada

By Jeff DeLong, Reno Gazette-Journal
September 5, 2008

Nevada continues to suffer through drought conditions, with experts saying nothing is likely to change until the arrival of winter storm season. The federal government's Climate Prediction Center forecasts persisting drought conditions through November. Western Nevada and the Sierra are experiencing moderate drought, while northeast Nevada is "abnormally dry" and east-central Nevada is in severe drought, the center reports.

Long-term weather forecasts offer little in the way of expected change with above-normal temperatures and below-normal precipitation expected for at least the next month.

"As we are right now, things are pretty bleak," said Gary Barbato, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. "We don't expect any real improvement until at least Thanksgiving or after." That means flows of rivers and streams will continue to drop, Barbato said in a recent drought statement. Some springs and wells in the hardest-hit areas have dried up, while the region continues to face extreme wildfire danger.

Nevada officials have not declared a drought, but California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did in early June. On Aug. 27, 53 of California's 58 counties were given disaster declarations as the result of continued drought conditions, including those nearest to Reno: Lassen, Plumas, Sierra, Nevada, Placer, El Dorado, Alpine and Mono counties.

Lake Tahoe was at 1.2 feet above its natural rim Thursday and unless some unusual storm activity arrives this fall, and none is expected, it will drop to its rim by early December.

Last weekend, cool and strong winds accelerated the evaporation rate at the lake. Over four days, .18 feet evaporated, said Chad Blanchard, chief deputy water master.

"We had a huge loss over the weekend. The evaporation rates were unbelievable," Blanchard said. "It was definitely one of the worst four-day periods I remember."

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