The Truckee River, which runs for some 120-miles from Lake Tahoe to Pyramid Lake, has been one of the most fought over waterways in the country.
But for the last 30 years, negotiations and some litigation has been ongoing about how the water would be used.
Now a landmark agreement reached by federal, state, tribal and local officials is promising better management of the region’s precious resource.
The Truckee River Operating Agreement, called TROA for short, was officially implemented on Dec. 1. The agreement also settles allocations between California and Nevada, with Nevada getting 90 percent of the Truckee’s water.
“The Truckee Meadows Water Authority, which is the main supplier to the Reno-Sparks metropolitan area has already been able to store almost 3,000-acre feet of water in upstream reservoirs,” said Jason King is Nevada State Engineer with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
King said the immediate benefits are having the water during a drought cycle. As for it taking almost 30 years to reach a deal, King was not surprised.
“There has always been this conflict … you have these very different parties that have very different and distinct interests on how that water is to be used,” King said. “So that has been a constant conflict since the beginning of the 20 th Century, perhaps even before then.”
King emphasized that the agreement provisions required in both Nevada and California were "subject to intense deliberation and scrutiny" to assure the Truckee River was protected "today and in the future."
The parties included in the agreement are: Nevada, California, the United States, Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and the Truckee Meadows Water Authority.
Jason King, Nevada State Engineer, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources