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Flows Allowed To Increase Again In Nevada Canal That Breached In January

Source: KOLO TV-8
May 19, 2008

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has authorized another increase in flows in an irrigation canal that breached on January 5 and flooded hundreds of homes in Fernley, 30 miles east of Reno.

Bureau officials on Friday allowed the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District to increase flows in the 31-mile Truckee Canal from 250 cubic feet per second to 350 cfs - about one-half of the canal's typical maximum flow.

Bureau officials say the move was approved after the irrigation district implemented a special rodent control program and took earlier corrective and safety steps.

In March, a team of scientific experts concluded in a report for the bureau that burrowing rodents caused the century-old canal to fail and damage nearly 600 homes in Fernley.

Bureau officials have said any boost in flows beyond 350 cfs will require significant modifications of the canal, something the bureau does not anticipate this year or possibly even next.

The canal takes water from the Truckee River near Fernley to farms and ranches around Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Nevada Tribe Assumes Leadership Role In Managing Water For Fish

RENO (AP) - A northern Nevada tribe has assumed a leadership role in managing the waters of a reservoir used for the purpose of maintaining and protecting two native species of fish.

The "team lead" for management of Stampede Reservoir's waters was transferred Friday from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

The move gives the tribe the top role in scheduling releases of water from the Sierra reservoir located east of Truckee, Calif.

The water is stored solely for the endangered cui-ui (kwee-wee) fish and Lahontan cutthroat trout in the Truckee River and Pyramid Lake.

Fish and wildlife officials hailed the transfer as a "significant event."

A 1999 agreement signed by the fish and wildlife service, tribe, Bureau of Reclamation and Bureau of Indian Affairs called for the tribe to assume leadership status upon completion of a plan to protect fish in Pyramid Lake.

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Disaster prompts review of canals

By SCOTT SONNER • Associated Press • April 7, 2008

The failure of an earthen embankment on a century-old irrigation canal that flooded this growing town has federal water managers concerned about the safety of nearly 8,000 miles of similar aging canals across the West.

The January breach of the Truckee Canal flooded nearly 600 homes, making Fernley a state and federal disaster area.

"As a result of this, we are taking a look at our canals with a little more scrutiny," said Jeffrey McCracken, regional spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento.

The review is no small task. The bureau owns 7,911 miles of canals in 17 Western states, the vast majority of them managed and operated by local irrigation and water districts.

And the review is made more urgent by the change in demographics across much of the West from rural to urban. Hundreds of Fernley homes sit along the Truckee Canal, which just a decade ago primarily ran through farm fields.

"Fernley is the perfect example. The canal has been here 100 years, and all the sudden 500 homes get constructed next to it," McCracken told the Associated Press.

Crews started digging the Truckee Canal in 1903 with mules and steam shovels. In 1960, Fernley's population was only 654; today, the town serves as a bedroom community of Reno, 30 miles to the west, and the population is about 20,000.

That change will control the priority of the canal surveys. "We will focus initially on canals in those urbanized areas. There's a lot in the Phoenix area," McCracken said. "The other real old one out West is up in the Klamath Basin" in Northern California and southern Oregon.

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Fernley residents seek to control canal water flow

Lahontan Valley News
April 4, 2008

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Lawyers for scores of residents flooded when an irrigation canal failed in January said Thursday they are seeking a federal court order to restrict water flows in the canal to prevent another flood.
They also said in an amended motion filed in U.S. District Court in Reno on Wednesday that the canal break was caused by poor maintenance and greedy water managers trying to maximize water storage for farmers, not burrowing rodents, as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation concluded.
"Rodents had nothing to do with the flood," said Robert Hager, one of the Reno lawyers representing about 175 flood victims in Fernley, about 30 miles east of Reno.
"It's an easy excuse to blame it on animals that are unable to say `It is not our fault,' and it appears to minimize their culpability," he said at a news conference.
Hager and Lee Hotchkin filed the motion seeking an emergency injunction that would limit flows in the 32-mile canal to one-third of the maximum legal operating level, 250 cubic feet per second.

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Making moves on the Sierra checkerboard

Conservation groups and the Forest Service have been left with a land-ownership legacy left by the railroad
By Greyson Howard
Source: Sierra Sun
February 1, 2008

Draped like a net across the northern Sierra Nevada, a distinct pattern, imperceptible to the casual viewer, could play a vital role in the future of the Truckee-Tahoe area. Called the Sierra checkerboard, the pattern of land ownership divides every-other square mile into public and private ownership, hence the name.

Created more than a century ago to help the Transcontinental Railroad develop a route over the mountains, it now leaves the U.S. Forest Service and other government entities in a difficult place for land management and fire fighting.

“This is a really looming and daunting environmental threat,” said Perry Norris, executive director of the Truckee Donner Land Trust.

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End foreseen to longtime dispute over Truckee River water

Source: Lahontan Valley News
By MARTIN GRIFFITH, Associated Press Writer
January 27, 2008, 7:00 PM

RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Federal officials said they foresee an end to a longstanding dispute over the Truckee River's waters with the release of a document that finds no significant adverse environmental impacts from a proposed agreement between various parties.

The final environmental study by the U.S. Department of Interior and California Department of Water Resources concludes the Truckee River Operating Agreement would provide a major boost to the river's water quality and fishery.

The operating agreement negotiated by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 1990 is designed to end decades of conflict over the Truckee's water by balancing the interests of Fallon-area farmers, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe's fisheries and upstream urban users.

...
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Truckee River Operating Agreement EIS/EIR (final 1/2008)

Final EIS/EIR Summary:

The action considered is implementation of the Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA) in accordance with Public Law 101-618, Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act of 1990. The primary purpose of TROA is to modify operation of Federal and selected non-Federal reservoirs in the Truckee River basin located in northeastern California and northwestern Nevada, enhance conditions for threatened and endangered fish species, increase drought protection, improve river water quality, and enhance instream flows. Signatories to TROA are U.S. Department of the Interior, States of Nevada and California, Truckee Meadows Water Authority, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

To access pdf's of all sections of this document, please visit website.

Agencies outline fix to Fernley canal after flooding

Christy Lattin, Bonanza News Service
January 9, 2008

FERNLEY - "We have had a difficult weekend." That was how Ernie Schank, board president of the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, began Monday's board meeting.

The board viewed a slideshow showing the damage to the Truckee Canal above Fernley, which broke in the early morning hours on Saturday, sending water down a small hill and into several subdivisions.

Walt Winder, operations and maintenance foreman with TCID, said he was on scene at 5:30 a.m. At that time, the hole in the canal was only 20 feet wide at the top.

The break in the canal wall was patched by about 3:15 p.m. Saturday, with the fill coming from a state dirt pit conveniently located adjacent to the canal.
***
TCID officials are in constant contact with Bureau of Reclamation officials to determine how to make a permanent fix to the canal. Engineers and a geologist from the bureau, which oversees the Newlands Project, were on scene Sunday and Monday to assess the situation. TCID held a conference call with bureau officials from all across the West on Monday afternoon to determine the next step.

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TCID seeks permanent fix for Truckee Canal

By JOSH JOHNSON
Lahontan Valley News
January 6, 2008

The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District is looking to construct a permanent fix early this week for the breach in the Truckee Canal that caused widespread flooding in Fernley Saturday, district President Ernie Schank said Sunday afternoon.
The break in the earthen canal was plugged as of 3:15 p.m. Saturday and a pipe installed by evening to evacuate any residual canal water from the site, he said. The width of the break in the canal was measured Sunday morning and found to be 40 feet long. TCID crews were also on site Sunday to shore up and monitor the repaired area.
A geologist and engineers from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which overseas the Newlands Project, were in the area Sunday to assess the situation and provide technical supervision for a permanent repair, for which construction will begin this week, Schank said.

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County, Minden discuss water

by Sheila Gardner, sgardner@recordcourier.com
January 2, 2008

Douglas County and Minden officials are to kick off the new year with a long-awaited meeting Wednesday to discuss water issues.

"We had requested this a long time ago," said Minden vice chairman Dave Sheets. "Then, it got delayed, the agenda wasn't what people wanted. We kept pushing and saying we have a lot of things that have a common interest that may be coming to a head at this point."

Minden recently hired a California law firm to represent the town's vast water holdings from a challenge by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe which seeks to halt all water transfers.

"The majority of what I perceive this meeting to be is wrapped around water," Sheets said. "We're not going to say, 'We're hiring a law firm. Do you want to participate?'

"For me, it's to try to figure out, 'Do you, as a county, see this as a serious threat? Of paramount importance?' Or, 'this, too, shall pass.'"

Tribal lawyers argued Carson Valley's groundwater is "severely over-appropriated," and more groundwater use means less flow in the Carson River to Lake Lahontan.

...
Joint meeting between Town of Minden and Douglas County, 5 p.m., Wednesday, CVIC Hall, Esmeralda Avenue, Minden; 6:30 p.m., staff reports; 7 p.m. regular agenda including discussion of U.S. Postal Service process to procure new Minden post office site; bid review of sign at Jake's Wildlife and Wetland Meadow; discuss installation of calliope on 1937 La France Fire Truck for use at town events. Information, 782-5976.

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