Report: No chem residue found in Truckee River

By Jenny Goldsmith, Bonanza News Service
May 21, 2008

Results from an analysis on the purity of the Truckee River are back and confirm what Truckee wastewater treatment plant officials have been saying: The major water supply for Reno and Sparks is not contaminated.

In March, the Truckee Meadows Water Authority decided to sample the Truckee River after reports surfaced in an Associated Press investigation into pharmaceutical remnants in major metropolitan water supplies, said Paul Miller, manager of operations and water quality for Truckee Meadows Water Authority.

“The data shows that no pharmaceuticals or endocrine disrupting compounds were detected in the raw or finished water samples,” Miller said in a statement.

There are no direct discharge of treated wastewater into the Truckee River like there are in other municipal areas that are under investigation, but there is an indirect discharge.

The Tahoe-Truckee Sanitation Agency’s wastewater treatment plant — located east of the 267 Bypass and just one mile from the Truckee River — discharges an average of 4.5 million gallons of treated water a day into a disposal field by spray irrigation, said Jay Parker, chief engineer and assistant general manager of the plant.

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