Record snowpack leads county to declare emergency

Churchill County commissioners have approved a precautionary emergency declaration in preparation for any flood mitigation due to the record snowpack in the Sierra Nevada.

According to the county, the declaration is activating the Emergency Operations Center to handle any flood mitigation. Furthermore, as it did in 2017 with the preparation for flooding, the declaration will allow local governments to declare a state of emergency so local agencies are able to maximize resources available from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

City of Fallon must separately declare a precautionary emergency declaration.

The two local governments along with the Truckee Carson Irrigation District are repeating a scenario from the first week of March 2017 when stored water in the Lahontan Reservoir was released to allow more room for water from the Carson River. TCID has begun releasing water from Lahontan Reservoir to allow the additional room.

The county is also notifying residents to expect increased water levels in the Carson River which began Monday. There is no immediate threat of flooding.

“Residents along the river are being asked to remove any fences or other personal property that is within the high water mark to allow for the unobstructed flow of water,” the county said in its notification.

Any drawdown of the Lahontan Reservoir will provide more storage for snowmelt. The flow of the Carson River heads toward Diversion Dam where the water is then diverted to the V-line canal, the major source feeding into the other canals in the system.

This year’s snowfall and totals are beginning to measure up to 2017.

“We have lots of storms in the forecast,” said Jeff Anderson, hydrologist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Nevada. “Drought conditions have shown a lot of improvement. The reservoir storage is going to improve greatly once it starts to melt.”

More storms are predicted for this weekend, which will lead into Tuesday’s TCID meeting. At the March meeting, the Board of Directors will look at the water season and allocations. The board voted in December to have their March meeting on the second Tuesday beginning at 9 a.m. at 2666 Harrigan Road.

The water year began Oct. 1 when the region was in severe drought category, and now the mountains around Lake Tahoe are no longer listed in drought but still “abnormally dry.” Based on the yearly charts, this year’s wet winter is making up a huge water deficit from the preceding three years.

As of March 5 when the latest data was released, 11 sites in the Lake Tahoe Basin put the total snowpack at 185 percent of median.

Consecutive storms have battered the Sierra Nevada with the latest weekend storm dropping upward to 4 feet at the highest elevations. Although Churchill County didn’t report any significant precipitation, Carson City received anywhere from 1 to 2 feet.

The heavy storms have frequently closed both Interstate 80 from the Nevada state line to Applegate, Calif., and U.S. Highway 50 in California.

The snowpack tells the real story going into March. The Carson River Basin, with 12 sites, was at 218 percent of median for the date, totaling 40.6 inches of snow water equivalent. Seven sites in the Walker River Basin produced a reading of 42.8 inches of snow water equivalent, or 231 percent of median for the date.

There is good news for central Nevada from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Most of the counties are mostly in moderate drought, an improvement from moderate-to-severe drought at the same time in 2022. Because of the storms six years ago, all of Nevada was in a no-drought status except for portions of Nye and Lincoln counties which also had abnormally dry.

Anderson had more good news for the Lahontan Reservoir, saying the runoff from the Sierra should fill up the lake.

“It’s a pretty big volume of water,” he said.

Anderson pointed out prolonged high flows throughout summer are possible because “there is a lot of snow to melt.”

Sunday’s recording shows the reservoir holding 133,670 acre-feet of water with each acre-foot consisting of 326,000 gallons of water. One year ago on the same date, the reservoir had 111,235 acre-feet. In the two heavy water years, the reservoir recorded 243,442 acre-feet in 2017 and 245,590 acre-feet the following year.

Steve Ranson in Fallon and Scott Neuffer in Carson City contributed to this report.