BLM considers water rights purchases for threatened Walker Lake

Sunday, Sept. 7, 1997 | 10:48 a.m.

John Singlaub, BLM district manager, said the agency is in the preliminary stages of developing a program for the purchases, which would involve willing sellers only.

"We're looking at opportunities and challenges before us," he said. "This is action that can be taken to prevent the dewatering of the lake without destroying the agriculture of Lyon County."

The desert lake, located 100 miles southeast of Reno, is the outlet for the Walker River that begins high in the Sierra Nevada. It's an important stop in spring and fall for thousands of migratory birds, including loons, grebes, pelicans and cormorants.

Since the turn of the century, the lake's level has dropped more than 125 feet and its surface area has decreased more than 50 percent as competition for water intensified among upstream users.

Singlaub said the BLM is interested in water rights acquisition since it manages most of the land around the 12-mile-long by six-mile-wide lake.

"I think it shouldn't come as a surprise," he said. "There is interest by all branches of government that are concerned with Walker Lake."

Singlaub said he has heard it would take anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent of the Walker River's flow to keep the lake at sufficient levels, but the figure is uncertain.

Funding for the purchases could be made through a water conservation fund or some other congressional bill, he added.

He outlined his agency's plans at a recent joint meeting of the Walker River Irrigation District and Walker River Basin Water Users Assocation, the Mason Valley News reported.

Association lawyer Stewart Somach said he's concerned about how the plan would affect upstream water users.

"The threat from federal government making decisions that we feel should be local decisions is what we're trying to avoid," he said. "More of that type of stuff is going to happen unless we come up with a solution."

The lake just north of Hawthorne received little or no water during eight years of drought that ended in 1994. But even when river flows make it to the lake, much water is lost each year from evaporation under the sweltering desert sun.

A third straight wet winter and severe flooding along the Walker River Basin in January provided a reprieve for the diminishing lake.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who convened a summit in Hawthorne in 1994 to explore ways to save the lake, said its fish would have died without the wet winters.

Reid agrees the lake's survival hinges on providing a continuing water source.