Truckee River slowly recovering from century of neglect

Monday, Oct. 20, 1997 | 9:32 a.m.

Those involved in its restoration offered a generally positive assessment of the future in a 28-page special report on the river in Sunday's Reno Gazette-Journal.

"Things are changing," said Kim Toulouse, a Nevada Division of Wildlife aquatic resource coordinator. "People are becoming aware of the river as a resource. They're paying attention, and the future is actually bright."

"That little river is making a comeback," Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said. "That little river is required to do so much, we should pay more attention to it."

The Truckee flows down the east side of the Sierra for 100 miles from its origin at Lake Tahoe to its high-desert terminus at Pyramid Lake, 30 miles northeast of Reno.

The river provides the Reno area with 75 percent of its drinking water and handles all of its waste. The river also is popular with rafters, anglers and wildlife.

Officials said the Truckee is far better off than at the turn of the century when mining, mills and a paper plant turned it into an open sewer. Anti-pollution laws are stricter than at any time in history.

"I think it was (former U.S. Sen.) Patrick McCarran who said the Truckee once had the consistency of oatmeal," Toulouse told the Gazette-Journal. "There was a typhoid epidemic in Sparks in 1877."

The turn-of-the-century Newlands Reclamation Project at the river's lower end nearly killed off its Lahontan cutthroat trout and Pyramid Lake's cui-ui fish. It also threatened Pyramid itself, lowering its water level by 80 feet.

Among other things, the Reid-initiated Truckee River Negotiated Settlement will provide more water for cui-ui rejuvenation and ensure a continual flow of water in early autumn so river life may flourish.

"We will one day have a very large population and that population will be able to enjoy Pyramid Lake," said Tina Nappe, head of the Nevada Wetlands Coalition. "The (settlement) freed us from our past and gave us a window of opportunity to design our future."

Efforts also are under way to undo damage caused by a 1960s U.S. Army Corps of Engineers flood-control project on the lower Truckee, officials said.

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe has replanted thousands of cottonwoods that the Corps cut down. The move has reduced erosion, stabilized banks and helped restore the fishery.

The tribe also is working to restore a deep, meandering channel on the lower Truckee. The Corps straightened countless bends into an unnatural straight line.

"The Truckee has been managed to control flooding in Reno," said Paul Wagner, tribal fisheries director. "We've got to remember that rivers are not just conveyance devices for water. Life wants to come back."

Conservationist John Champion said Reno officials need to do more to protect the river in the downtown and make it a tourist attraction.

He was a pioneer in the battle over the Truckee, speaking out when Reno was lining the river with casinos, garbage dumps and flood walls.

"We get millions of visitors here, and (downtown) is their only touchy-feely with the river," Champion said. "It should be in absolutely the best shape there."

Mervin Wright Jr., chairman of the Pyramid Paiute Tribe, said development in the Reno area poses a major threat to the river's future.

"Every problem has hope," he said. "But decisions have to be made (that require) sacrifices. My hope is that folks upstream realize that in order for them to have a good quality of life, those sacrifices need to be made."

Susan Lynn, founder of the Truckee River Yacht Club, is optimistic different sides on the issue can reach a compromise.

"I am hopeful," she said. "I have seen other rivers restored. We're doing what we can. I hope we can have maybe not a perfect river, but a much better river."