Another wet winter bodes well for Pyramid, Walker lakes

Thursday, Sept. 3, 1998 | 4:18 a.m.

Each remains far below its level earlier this century before extensive diversions of the Truckee River into Pyramid and the Walker River to Walker Lake began siphoning off their life blood.

Fed by a mountain snowpack that mounted to nearly twice average in places, this year's runoff added 5.2 feet to Pyramid Lake and 4.1 feet to Walker Lake, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Thursday.

In Pyramid, that's equal to 200 billion gallons.

An equally large snowpack last year, combined with January's flooding, added 9.5 feet to Pyramid Lake and almost 7 feet to Walker Lake.

Systematic measurements of both lakes began 70 years ago.

In the intervening years, farms and ranches soaked up more and more of the water. Pyramid fell too far to let the cui-ui fish make spawning runs. Walker Lake nearly died.

The greatest runoff during the 70 years came in 1983, when Pyramid Lake swelled by almost 13.5 feet and Walker Lake by about 12 feet.

A decade later, the Walker River didn't even reach the dwindling lake.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., convened a summit in Hawthorne in March 1994 to explore ways to save the river and to renew the lake just north of town.

"Since 1900 the lake has dropped over 100 feet and the surface area of the lake has decreased by over 50 percent," Reid said at that meeting. "As the entire water body of the lake decreases, water quality deteriorates, creating the specter we are faced with today."

Wednesday's USGS report said that in the 70 years of measurement, Walker Lake had declined by 95 feet. Pyramid's drop was less than one-third that amount at 31 feet.

For Pyramid Lake, that's an improvement of 29 feet above its lowest point, reached in 1967. Walker Lake was 14 feet lower than its current level just four years ago.

Both lakes rely solely on rainfall and snowmelt for their survival. Neither has an outlet, so evaporation is their only enemy.