Tahoe’s two-month gain is four times Reno area’s annual water use

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Together, they dumped a record 232,760 acre-feet of water into Lake Tahoe - nearly four times the amount that flows through every home, hotel and outdoor sprinkler in the Reno-Sparks area each year.

December sent 78,160 acre-feet gushing into the lake. The heavy, warm rain the first week in January added another 154,500 acre-feet. Last month was a record and combined with December for the wettest two months ever.

By comparison, Sierra Pacific Power Co. estimates the Truckee Meadows' consumption at a little more than 60,000 acre-feet a year.

Tuesday's figures complied by the National Weather Service and the federal Water Master's office underscore the balancing act Water Master Garry Stone had on his hands during the two months.

The 62-year-old Truckee River Agreement fixes the lake's maximum level at 6,229.1 feet above sea level.

Stone's dilemma was to try and send enough water over the spillways to conform with the federal mandate while reining in the river enough to avoid major flooding.

Nature laughed in his face.

A record 101,400 acre-feet glutted the lake in just two days - Jan. 2 and 3 - sending the level above its maximum for the first time since July 1917. It crested at 6229.39 feet on Jan. 5 after adding 10 inches in the first days of the new year.

It would have increased by still another inch except for the millions of gallons of water Stone sent surging through the floodgates.

That sent the river churning into whitecaps as it surged through downtown Reno, inundating homes from its source at Tahoe City, Calif., into Truckee, Calif., and east into Nevada through Reno, Sparks, Wadsworth and Nixon.

And statistics aren't optimistic for either the water master or the people who live near western Nevada rivers.

Of the 25 greatest rises in Lake Tahoe's level as the water master's office has calculated them since April 1900, five have occurred in the past 11 months.