Growth in south Reno taxing water supplies

February 2002

U.S. Water News Online

RENO, Nev. -- Anticipated growth in the south Reno area could severely
diminish or deplete groundwater supplies unless new water sources are found,
experts warn.

A new report to be presented to regional planners says growth called for under an
updated 20-year plan for the entire Truckee Meadows could outstrip water
supplies in some areas and overtax existing water distribution systems, the Reno
Gazette-Journal reported.

``Water is the lifeblood here,'' said Washoe County Commissioner Jim Galloway.
``I don't want to see golf courses going dry and people having less than they need
for their gardens in their backyards.''

The problem, perhaps, is nowhere worse than in South Truckee Meadows, a
roughly 80-square-mile area served mostly by municipal or domestic groundwater
wells.

Last summer, some shallow domestic wells in the Galena area began going dry, a
problem officials tied to drought conditions that lowered the groundwater aquifer
and increased pumping by deep municipal wells.

The study by a consultant hired by Washoe County confirms that groundwater
supplies in the South Truckee Meadows cannot alone supply enough water for
growth already planned. 

According to projections, the number of homes in the south area could someday
more than triple to about 18,500. Apartments could number 2,800, while 2,000
acres could be covered by commercial or industrial projects.

That growth would require some 18,790 acre-feet of water, but groundwater
supplies can only be counted on to provide about 10,424 acre-feet, or about 55
percent of needed water at complete build-out, according to the report.

That means Washoe County must develop water sources other than groundwater
amounting to more than 8,000 acre-feet. 

Several proposals to provide extra water are being considered by county officials
and include contracting with the Truckee Meadows Water Authority for Truckee
River water and drawing water from Whites, Thomas and Steamboat creeks,
which previously were used for irrigation in areas now covered by concrete.

``We can make up the difference,'' said John Enloe, principal engineer for
ECO:LOGIC, the firm hired to do the study. ``There are issues but they are
solvable issues.'' 

Other's aren't so sure.

``My feeling is right now we are stretching ourselves beyond our ability to provide
water,'' said Heidi Oleson, a director of the South Truckee Meadows General
Improvement District, a primary water provider in the area.

Water planners want the Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency to ensure
that its update of a 20-year growth strategy does not include more development
than water supplies can handle.

The plan is expected to determine how the region will accommodate 135,000
more people expected to live in the Truckee Meadows by 2020.

With its existing water problems, the South Truckee Meadows could become an
ideal example of a place where additional growth called for by the new regional
plan should be limited, said Diana Langs, a member of the Regional Water
Planning Commission.

``What I hear is this is a plan for vision and that's good, but resources have to
follow,'' Langs said. ``In the South Truckee Meadows, it's already serious before
we make it worse.''

Echoing that concern, Galloway, in a letter to the regional governing board, urged
``great caution'' in intensifying land use in the area until more is known about water
supplies and ways to increase them.

He has proposed a policy of ``no net increase'' in the South Truckee Meadows.
That means that if increased development is allowed in one spot, it should be offset
by ensuring that another area of the same size remains undeveloped.

``We are resource-limited there,'' Galloway said.