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Officials hope for snow to fill up Lake Tahoe

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 30, 2008 at 7:55 am

From the Nevada Appeal:

With Lake Tahoe’s water level nearing the natural rim, water authorities are hoping for record-breaking precipitation to bring the level up.

“We desperately need a big winter and a big snowpack to bring Lake Tahoe back up again,” said Federal Water Master Garry Stone.

When the water in Lake Tahoe nears the natural rim, at 6,223 feet, water flows more slowly into the Truckee River.

At midweek the lake measured 6,223.25. Under normal conditions, the flow into the Truckee is about 250 cubic feet per second. The current rate is about 12 cubic feet per second, Stone said. If the lake level drops below the natural rim no more water will flow into the Truckee.

“We can’t get any more water out of it,” Stone said. “It’s like a bathtub, we do not have the ability to release water through the natural rim.”

The picture of the dam at Lake Tahoe is from last Friday. There is very little water flowing through it into the Truckee River. The dam is operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, and was built in 1913 as part of the Newlands Project.  The Newlands Project was one of the very first Bureau of Reclamation projects.

Of course, Lake Tahoe is a natural lake; the dam raises the level of the lake six feet, which creates a reservoir on top of the lake of 732,000 acre-feet. The dam also controls releases into the Truckee River.

As the level of the lake drops further, there won’t be any water flowing into the Truckee River. Flows for the river will then be made up from Boca Reservoir; according to the article, there’s enough water in Boca to last through December. The picture on the right is Boca Dam last Friday.

Read the full text of the story from the Nevada Appeal by clicking here.  You can find out more about the Newlands Project by clicking here.

November 30, 2008 · Filed Under Lake Tahoe & the Sierra's

Comments

One Response to “Officials hope for snow to fill up Lake Tahoe”

  1. Ray Walker on November 30th, 2008 8:45 am

    Hope in one hand and pour water in the other… see which one fills up the fastest !

    CA, NV and the Bureau of Reclamation have been offered ( confidential disclosure to any attorney of their respective choices) a truely new fresh water Source of a million acre feet a year ( 325,900,000,000 gallons). They would all rather hope… evidently the 30 million people they “service” are OK with the hope method too.

    Ray Walker ( Retired Water Rights Analyst) waterrdw@yahoo.com

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