Winter snowpack well below normal

The bad news is the Sierra snowpack that provides western Nevada the majority of its drinking water is pathetic this year.

From the Truckee River basin to Lake Tahoe, the Carson and Walker River basins, the water content of the snow is 30 percent of normal or less.

The good news: Because of last year's record snows, area reservoirs have more than enough water to get the area through the coming summer. And groundwater in both the Carson and Eagle Valleys is plentiful.

"We've had one big storm in January and that's it," said Dan Greenlee, the hydrologist who runs the snow survey program for the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service.

He said a small storm is expected Monday, but after that, "There's nothing really coming through."

"Not the Sierra slammers we need to get," he said.

He said this year and last are polar opposites. A year ago, western Nevada had snow all the way into June and finished in the top seven or eight years for total snowfall.

"This year we're bounding along the bottom," he said.

Greenlee said that according to his most recent analysis, done just a week ago, the Sierra would need 381 percent of what it normally gets between now and April 1 just to get to average conditions.

April 1 is when the snowpack is normally at its peak.

"Hopefully we have a miracle March," he said. "But we'd all be whining about too much snow by the end of the month if we were to catch back up."

But both he and Carson Public Works Director Andrew Burnham said there will be more than enough water from area reservoirs and wells to supply municipal, industrial and agricultural needs through the summer.

Burnham said Carson City brought on a new well last year and owns all the groundwater rights it needs to supply the city. That and the other city wells, he said, are in good shape because of last year's ample snowfall. Carson City also gets water from Marlette Lake, whose level is above normal, and, if necessary, the city can take some from the Carson River, he said.

The Carson Valley in Douglas County, he said, "is like a big bathtub full of water."

He said the alluvial soils there are more than 3,000 feet deep in places.

"It's not the same here, but we've got wells that go 400-500 feet down. Last year was so great, everything is filled up," said Burnham.

The Reno area, Greenlee said, is also in good shape because of Truckee River reservoir storage. Total storage in Boca, Prosser and Stampede reservoirs is at 134 percent of normal. And Lake Tahoe - the biggest reservoir serving Reno/Sparks - is at 130 percent of normal.

"Tahoe's got enough water in it right now to see Reno through the summer," he said.

The same is true of reservoirs across western Nevada. Lahontan, fed by the Carson River, is at 115 percent of normal. Together, the Walker River's reservoirs at Bridgeport and Topaz are at 152 percent of normal. Rye Patch, on the lower Humboldt River, is at 136 percent of normal, according to the end-of-January survey by Greenlee and his crew.

According to a recent story by the Associated Press, the story is pretty much the same on the western slope of the Sierra. Although the snowpack there is as low as 25 percent of normal, California reservoir storage is at 110 percent. With the huge demand for agricultural water in the central valley, however, California water officials are more concerned about whether they will be able to meet the need.

Burnham said Carson City has taken a variety of steps to ensure there will be enough water not only to sustain the capital but to support its continued growth. First, the city spent the last 15 years buying up all available water rights in Eagle Valley.

The city is preparing to sell revenue bonds to pay for the $2 million upgrade to the supply pipe from Marlette Lake. Virginia City depends on that water supply, but he said the Comstock needs only about 250 gallons per minute of the more than 2,000 gallons a minute the Marlette/Hobart system can supply.

But the biggest addition to the available supply will be the regional line from Minden, which he said will be completed in 2013. That pipeline has reached Indian Hills at Carson's southern border. When it comes on line, Burnham said, it will be able to supply up to 2,500 gallons per minute if needed.

"We won't take that much except in the summertime," he said. "We own the water but we have to pay for the cost of getting it to us."

He said he expects that water will be less costly than producing water from the city's wells and will give the capital a comfortable cushion during peak summer demand.

"In the past, we turned on everything we had, and it was still hard to meet our peak," he said. "In the future, we're going to be turning on the stuff that's cheapest."

Greenlee said one bad winter won't hurt the area. But he said that if western Nevada suffers multiple dry years in a row, that's a different story.