TCID Taking Orders Now for Spread Water

District Enters Into Flood Operations by Rachel Dahl — The Truckee-Carson Irrigation District received a letter today from the Bureau of Reclamation directing implementation of precautionary measures to prevent potential flooding in the Lahontan Valley. In order to implement community safety measures and keep the Carson River flowing at less than 800 cubic feet per second, the district will start immediately delivering spread water. Farmers can place orders to irrigate both water-righted and non-water-righted lands effective immediately. If water is needed for non-water righted lands, the district should be consulted to examine take-outs to make sure that it is physically possible to deliver water to the property. Due to heavy rains through the month of March, and unusually wet soil conditions, there have been no water deliveries yet this year, resulting in high reservoir levels. Lahontan is currently at 209,800 acre feet; it can hold 289,000 acre feet at the crest. In order to make sure Lahontan Reservoir has room to hold run-off that normally happens in late May and early June, the district is implementing spread water. The BOR said Tuesday that the water year is currently at 205 percent of average for water content, and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration estimates there is close to 350,000 acre feet of run-off still to come down from the Sierras. TCID is confident that through implementing spread water deliveries and wetlands delivers, there will not be the need to use the weir that was created during the 2017 flood event. However, the weir is available in case of emergency. Water orders can be made by calling 775-423-6511 or online at www.tcid.org