Carson River weathered storms well

The Carson River weathered the recent storms well, according to Paul Kolp, district manager for the Dayton Valley Conservation District.

"It came through without any big event," he said. "We were lucky in that the predictions for minor flooding didn't happen."

Kolp said there would probably be some additional problems to the areas that suffered damage in the New Year's Eve flooding, but not a significant amount.

Ed James, general manager for the Carson Water Subconservancy District, said the river didn't rise as much as expected

"It rose to about 3,000 cubic feet per second at the Carson Gauge," he said. "Flood stage is over 8,000 or 9,000 so we were way below. But we will probably see a higher runoff in spring this year."

Paul Pugsely of the Carson Valley Conservation District said he had no reports of damage in the western section of the river and that some projects to repair flood damage have been completed, including repairs to the Cottonwood and Virginia diversions and the opening of the river channel near the Carson Valley Golf Course.

He said it looks like the Mexican Dam damage can be repaired before the spring runoff, but the river would have to go down to 400 cubic feet per second, 2,000 less than it is currently running.

"If we're fortunate, and the weather gets cold and stays cold it will drop to that level next week," Pugsely said.

He added that funding for river repair was expected from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state Division of Water Resources and the Nevada Conservation Bond, but couldn't give an amount.

Kolp said efforts were continuing to repair damage to the river and diversions in Lyon County.

"Our focus has been removal of debris before spring runoff and we're in the process of doing that right now," he said. "We are going to get that done before spring runoff."

-- Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.

River

levels

The levels of the Carson River at Dayton

Gage height: 18.21 feet at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday

Discharge: 2,810 cubic feet per second at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday

On the Net

To check the level of the Carson River, go to the U.S. Geological Survey site:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov