The Truckee Carson Irrigation District held its monthly board meeting last week. Watermaster Kelly Herwick reported on the current conditions of the rivers and Lahontan Reservoir, which at this time of the year are ever-changing.
On January 4, Herwick reported that Lahontan Reservoir was at 68,127 acre-feet of water, up from a 40,363 level in December. Inflows into Lahontan were flowing at 580 cubic feet-per-second, resulting in 1,148 af of inflows in 24 hours. The end-of-month storage target was 140,400 which Herwick said would require quite a bit of inflow and more water from the Truckee Division than he thought would be available. He said the projection for end-of-month storage in Lahontan was 87,646. At capacity, the reservoir will hold nearly 300,000 af of water.
Herwick also reported on the December 27 stream forecast, saying there was a 70% chance of receiving 124,000 acre-feet. Storm season is generally January through April, but things are ahead of the curve right now because of the December snowfall.
Project Manager Rusty Jardine reported that he had discussed water supply with Federal Water Master Chad Blanchard, and one of the main differences this year is the soil conditions. “We are seeing soil conditions markedly different than last season. It is well saturated, and we can expect runoff to occur with that condition,” said Jardine.
Board Secretary Bob Oakden presented the annual assessment book for approval by the board, which contains the full description of all the land in the district along with a list of owners and the number of acres listed to each person. Noting he was amazed at the number of small parcels, many of which are an acre or less. The book was approved by the board.
Board members approved a resolution entering into a contract with the Bureau of Reclamation for repayment of the costs of Extraordinary Maintenance on the Truckee Canal. Jardine explained that a special election must be held by the district for the water rights holders to vote on the contract for repayment. The costs of the project are estimated at $35 million. With this contract, the district is situated to search for and apply for possible grant funding to assist in covering the cost of the maintenance. The question will be added to the regularly scheduled board election ballot in April, where four of the seven seats will be decided.
A presentation was made by Mark Limbaugh and Lane Dixon from the Ferguson Group in Washington D.C. who proposed representing the district in efforts to pursue potential funding to cover the costs of implementing the Truckee Canal Extraordinary Maintenance project. Limbaugh said there are many options for funding the $35 million project including asking for a no-interest repayment. It would be the job of TFG to look for all possible options and assist the district in deciding the best path for discovering options and what would be most likely to work. The cost of retaining TFG would be $8,000 per month. The discussion was held, but no decision was made.
Board members held a public hearing to consider the inclusion of lands into the district that was petitioned by Craig and Debra Schank. The land is 1.3 acres and located at 650 Indian Lakes Road and was approved by the board.
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