Two recent snowmakers have left additional snow in the Sierra, bringing snowwater levels along the Carson River to 107% of normal. its 95% along the Walker, 97% of normal around Lake Tahoe, and 95% along the Truckee River watershed which serves Reno and Sparks.
Although the snow keeps coming, it’s really up to Mother Nature to keep it up on the mountains rather than rain on it and bring it down early which does farmers, ranchers and city municipal customers not much good. There are no dams along the Carson River so there are no artificial ways of keeping the moisture in the mountains and to release it more gradually over the Spring and Summer months as is done along the Truckee River. Carson City groundwater wells have been pulled down hard over the past few years, tryhing to cope with low flows in the river. And over that time some of those wells have been pulling naturally occurring arsenic and uranium from the soils that have proven a growing problem to Carson’s Water Utility Department. This week, City Supervisors approved a joint-venture with Douglas County to pipe relatively pure groundwater from the Minden area to Carson City where it can be used to “down-blend” arsenic and uranium tainted water drawn from Carson City’s westside wells, to bring those levels below federally mandated maximums. The downside of course is the cost. Carson City’s share of the pipeline will run millions of dollars requiring a customer water rate hike of up to 32% sometime this summer.
Utility officials say although the rate hike is substantial the city has no choice but to comply with federal drinking water laws and make the improvements. They say the down-blending strategy is the best one because the new pipeline will enable Carson City, Douglas and Lyon counties to move water up and down the region in a way that more effectively distributes water to where its needed most, especially in the even of a major wildland or structure fire.
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