Site search
sponsored by
Home
News
RENO, Nev. (AP) - A lawyer for flood victims said Friday that this week's failure of another canal provides more ammunition in the legal battle to slow water flows in a century-old northern Nevada irrigation system because it shows "these ancient embankments are not as strong as they appear to be."
The break in the V Canal alongside a concrete spillway on the west edge of Fallon late Wednesday night tore out an access road and bridge, but didn't flood any homes. No one was injured.
In January, the Truckee Canal burst and flooded nearly 600 homes in Fernley, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage and leading to state and federal disaster declarations.
Robert Hager, a lawyer representing more than 100 of the Fernley flood victims, said the V Canal's earthen embankment appears to have been constructed with the same type of materials and at approximately the same time as when the Truckee Canal was built in 1903.
"The water was running at a height of 32 inches below the top of the embankment, which shows that these ancient embankments are not as strong as they appear to be," Hager said.
"The embankment that failed has numerous roots and rodent holes, the same condition that exists in the canal in Fernley," he told The Associated Press.
Hager is trying to persuade U.S. District Judge Lloyd George to grant a preliminary injunction to force the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Truckee-Carson Irrigation District to restrict water flows in the Truckee Canal for fear it will fail again.
A third day of testimony in the federal case concluded Wednesday but the judge has not scheduled a teleconference for closing arguments.
Hager said he intends to file more court documents with photos of the Fallon breach and an affidavit from an expert who inspected the site Thursday.
"This is clearly another wake-up call for the Bureau of Reclamation to take their responsibilities more seriously and to stop putting more water through this century old canal than it is capable of handling safely," Hager said.
Lynette Wirth, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Mid-Pacific regional office in Sacramento, said agency engineers were assessing the latest canal failure, but would not comment on pending litigation.
"Reclamation and TCID are working to complete temporary repairs of the canal so we can deliver water as quickly as possible to affected farmers and wetlands," said Kenneth Parr, deputy area manager of the bureau's Lahontan Basin Area Office in Carson City.
"We will complete a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the breach, and we are beginning design construction plans for long-term repair," he said in a statement Friday.
The Jan. 5 breach on the Truckee Canal was blamed primarily on burrowing rodents. There's been no cause established for the failure in Fallon.
Both canals are part of the Newlands Project, a series of dams, canals and reservoirs built in the early 1900s as part of an effort to "make the desert bloom" in a part of northern Nevada that receives less than 10 inches of precipitation a year.
The 32-mile-long Truckee Canal takes water from the Truckee River - through an 11-mile section known as the Fernley Reach about 30 miles east of Reno - and delivers it to the Lahontan Reservoir for storage.
The reservoir, which receives most of its water from the Carson River, is about half way between Fernley and Fallon. The 27-mile long V Canal originates at the Carson River Diversion Dam, below Lahontan Dam, and provides water to the Fallon area for agricultural and wetlands purposes.
The irrigation district provides water to as many as 3,000 farmers and ranchers, more than 1,000 of those dependent on the V Canal, said Dave Overvold, the irrigation district's project manager.
At the time of the breach in Fernley, water was traveling through the Truckee Canal at capacity, 750 cubic feet per second.
Since then, the Bureau of Reclamation has capped flows at 350 cfs, but flood victims are pressing for a reduction to 250 cfs.
Overvold said that even at 350 cfs, farmers and ranchers won't get all the water they have rights to this year because of a relatively dry winter and spring.
He said dropping flows to 250 cfs would require the expense of pumping water out of the canal, which typically relies on gravity to drain water into lateral irrigation ditches.
Overvold said he was hopeful temporary repairs to the V Canal could be completed to allow water deliveries to resume within 10 days.
"It provides water to about half of the valley, so we need to get this fixed," Overvold said. "It's their livelihoods."
The break in the V Canal alongside a concrete spillway on the west edge of Fallon late Wednesday night tore out an access road and bridge, but didn't flood any homes. No one was injured.
In January, the Truckee Canal burst and flooded nearly 600 homes in Fernley, causing tens of millions of dollars in damage and leading to state and federal disaster declarations.
Robert Hager, a lawyer representing more than 100 of the Fernley flood victims, said the V Canal's earthen embankment appears to have been constructed with the same type of materials and at approximately the same time as when the Truckee Canal was built in 1903.
"The water was running at a height of 32 inches below the top of the embankment, which shows that these ancient embankments are not as strong as they appear to be," Hager said.
"The embankment that failed has numerous roots and rodent holes, the same condition that exists in the canal in Fernley," he told The Associated Press.
Hager is trying to persuade U.S. District Judge Lloyd George to grant a preliminary injunction to force the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Truckee-Carson Irrigation District to restrict water flows in the Truckee Canal for fear it will fail again.
A third day of testimony in the federal case concluded Wednesday but the judge has not scheduled a teleconference for closing arguments.
Hager said he intends to file more court documents with photos of the Fallon breach and an affidavit from an expert who inspected the site Thursday.
"This is clearly another wake-up call for the Bureau of Reclamation to take their responsibilities more seriously and to stop putting more water through this century old canal than it is capable of handling safely," Hager said.
Lynette Wirth, a spokeswoman for the bureau's Mid-Pacific regional office in Sacramento, said agency engineers were assessing the latest canal failure, but would not comment on pending litigation.
"Reclamation and TCID are working to complete temporary repairs of the canal so we can deliver water as quickly as possible to affected farmers and wetlands," said Kenneth Parr, deputy area manager of the bureau's Lahontan Basin Area Office in Carson City.
"We will complete a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the breach, and we are beginning design construction plans for long-term repair," he said in a statement Friday.
The Jan. 5 breach on the Truckee Canal was blamed primarily on burrowing rodents. There's been no cause established for the failure in Fallon.
Both canals are part of the Newlands Project, a series of dams, canals and reservoirs built in the early 1900s as part of an effort to "make the desert bloom" in a part of northern Nevada that receives less than 10 inches of precipitation a year.
The 32-mile-long Truckee Canal takes water from the Truckee River - through an 11-mile section known as the Fernley Reach about 30 miles east of Reno - and delivers it to the Lahontan Reservoir for storage.
The reservoir, which receives most of its water from the Carson River, is about half way between Fernley and Fallon. The 27-mile long V Canal originates at the Carson River Diversion Dam, below Lahontan Dam, and provides water to the Fallon area for agricultural and wetlands purposes.
The irrigation district provides water to as many as 3,000 farmers and ranchers, more than 1,000 of those dependent on the V Canal, said Dave Overvold, the irrigation district's project manager.
At the time of the breach in Fernley, water was traveling through the Truckee Canal at capacity, 750 cubic feet per second.
Since then, the Bureau of Reclamation has capped flows at 350 cfs, but flood victims are pressing for a reduction to 250 cfs.
Overvold said that even at 350 cfs, farmers and ranchers won't get all the water they have rights to this year because of a relatively dry winter and spring.
He said dropping flows to 250 cfs would require the expense of pumping water out of the canal, which typically relies on gravity to drain water into lateral irrigation ditches.
Overvold said he was hopeful temporary repairs to the V Canal could be completed to allow water deliveries to resume within 10 days.
"It provides water to about half of the valley, so we need to get this fixed," Overvold said. "It's their livelihoods."
