Tribe: Truckee River diversions could kill Nevada fish

SPARKS, Nev. (AP) -- Water managers began releasing Truckee River waters for irrigation farmers in western Nevada Wednesday despite tribal concerns the diversions could kill fish in Pyramid Lake.

Tribal leaders said they had not expected diversions from the Truckee so early in the season given significant snowfall in the Sierra in April.

But officials for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation told the Daily Sparks Tribune the diversions began Wednesday from the Truckee to the Lahontan Reservoir to supplement meager flows from the Carson River.

As much as 6,000 acre-feet of water from the Truckee River will be diverted to the reservoir this month, with more to follow in June, said Roger LaSuer, manager of the bureau's field office in Fallon.

"The actual amount will be determined in conjunction with the (U.S.) Fish and Wildlife Service," he told the newspaper. "If we don't need of all the water, we won't take it."

A month of storms in April brought seasonal precipitation in most the area to 100 percent of normal. But the Carson River -- the reservoir's primary source of water -- is running at only 60 percent of normal.

Under federal law, monthly storage targets for the Lahontan Reservoir must be met to ensure adequate water for farmers tied to the Newlands Project in Churchill County, LaSueur said.

Jack Johnson, water resources director for the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, said the diversions could not come at a worse time because the spawning run for the endangered cui-ui fish is just beginning.

May 25 is projected to be the peak flow for the season.

"We're concerned that if diversions are authorized, it's going to interfere with our spawning run," Jackson said. "If they divert too much water, they will leave the fish high and dry."

If that happens, it could kill the spawning fish upstream and ruin the spawning run for this year, Jackson said.

If diversions don't meet projections in June, water stored in Stampede Reservoir in California will also be diverted to Lahontan, otherwise it will be released for the fish.

Decades of water diversions for the Newlands Project resulted in a dramatic drop in the water level of Pyramid Lake. Since the 1900s, the lake level dropped by 85 feet making it impossible for the ancient cui-ui to move upstream for their annual spawning run. That trend was reversed after the enactment of the Endangered Species Act.

"The big hammer we had came about in the 1960s with the Endangered Species Act," Jackson said.

The tribe has been working to restore flows to the Truckee River by buying up water rights and the lake level has risen by about 30 feet. However, evaporation at Pyramid Lake amounts to 400,000 acre-feet a year and the tribe's allocation barely replaces that.

Congress passed the Negotiated Water Settlement in the early 1990s that would resolve water disputes between California, Nevada, local governments, the tribe and the Fallon farmers.

A draft environmental impact statement on the resulting agreement was released in February, but Jackson said the tribe wants to stop water diversions to Fallon altogether, something that won't happen under the current agreement.

A final EIS is expected in two years. When that happens, the Truckee River Operating Agreement will go into effect and, in theory, put an end to decades of litigation that is costing the tribe about $500,000 a year.

"We could do a lot for the tribe with that money," Jackson said. Jackson said water diversions are less likely in the future as more and more farms in the Fernley area are converted into subdivisions.