As of June 14, 2006 Lake Tahoe's elevation above sea level is 6,228.90 feet, a little over two tenths of a foot from "the top", 6229.1 feet, as defined by Federal court order. Many are wondering what will happen when it gets there. A week ago, the Federal Watermaster opened part of two more gates at the Truckee River dam, taking the flow from a mere 'trickle' at 60 cubic feet per second (cfs), to 300cfs, and triggering the start of rafting season on the Truckee River.

Assuming the levels continue to rise, within the next several days major decisions will be made that have impacts near and far. If more, or all, of the gates are opened in order to mitigate the lake level as quickly as possible, what will happen downstream?

On January 2nd, 1997, following a period of torrential rains and massive snow runoff, the gates were opened bringing the water flow in the Truckee to the maximum recorded discharge level, 2690cfs. This resulted in major problems with flooding along the Truckee river and into downstream areas of Reno.

Some reports claim that even with all 17 gates full open, the lake will only fall by a quarter inch a day. If this is true, how long will it take to get it back to an acceptable level?

The history of Tahoe's water shows that in more recent years, the courts decided what course of action would be taken. While Tahoeites wait and see, the following story by Leo Poppoff, run on Tahoetopia in late May '06, gives some perspective on the situation.
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By Leo Poppoff.
Before Anglos came on the scene, water levels in Lake Tahoe were much lower. The lake level couldn't exceed, by more than a few inches, the lake's natural rim at 6,223 feet above sea level, even in wet years. Low water levels were determined by various drought conditions.

Until 1870 there was a continuous balancing act between what more than a hundred streams poured water into the lake and what spilled out through the only outlet, the Truckee River. In effect, the level was controlled by Mother Nature. Then things changed.

A Tunnel Through the Sierra
In 1870 a Russian engineer with a German-sounding name obtained water rights in Lake Tahoe. His intention was to siphon off some of the lake's 40 trillion gallons of cool, clear water for the City of San Francisco and other customers along the way.

Alexey Waldemar von Schmidt believed that he could drill a tunnel through the mountains, somewhere near Palisades Tahoe, and then divert water from the Truckee River into the tunnel and down to The City by the Bay. Von Schmidt built a log dam near the lake's outlet to impound the water he would need for his venture.

Water for the Desert
Nevada folks had other ideas, however. They believed that water from Lake Tahoe and the Truckee River was Nature's gift to their parched lands. They sent a delegation to Sacramento, where they emphatically and colorfully opposed Von Schmidt's proposal.

California's legislators weren't much interested in the water project and didn't want to tick off the Nevadans. So Von Schmidt's dream was never realized. Still, his memory lives on with a roadside plaque on Highway 89 near Alpine Meadows Road.

Von Schmidt's timbered dam in Tahoe City was taken over by the Donner Lumber and Boom Company. They impounded water behind the dam until there was enough to shoot logs down the Truckee River to mills in Truckee. The impoundments raised the lake level intermittently, upsetting shore zone property owners.

Electricity for Reno
Meanwhile, the Truckee River General Electric Company was installing hydroelectric generators downstream near Floriston, east of Truckee. They required additional flows in the Truckee River to spin the generators and supply electricity to Reno's denizens. The company acquired the dam, impounded even more water, and continued to annoy lakeside property owners.

Precise records of lake levels didn't become available until the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BuRec) was tasked in 1903 with making the desert bloom with their Newlands agricultural project near Fallon, Nevada.

Newland Project
BuRec engineers had diverted water from the Truckee River near Derby, Nevada for the Newlands project. But, they had badly overestimated the amount of water flowing in the river. To make up for the shortfall, the federal government negotiated with the General Electric folks, took over the Tahoe City dam, and completed the dam that is there to see today. In 1907, efforts to maximize water impoundments raised the lake level to 6231.26 feet above mean sea level. That experiment undermined lake banks, toppled lakeside trees, flooded property, and angered lakeside residents once again.

In 1913, together with the U. S. Forest Service, shore zone property owners sued the Bureau of Reclamation. They lost, but it was the first of many court actions about the control of the Tahoe City dam and the Truckee River.

Fighting Shifts to Courts
The lawsuits produced a series of court orders that allocated water rights and set a maximum lake level. The maximum legal lake level was set at a level of 6229.1 feet above sea level, allowing a maximum impoundment of 6.1 feet. Low lake levels are still affected by climate, but even at their lowest, they are much higher than they were before the series of dams were built at the lake's outlet.

The space between the natural rim and the legal maximum level is known as the Tahoe reservoir. When it's full it contains some 744,600 acre feet, enough to supply between 1.5 and 3 million homes, depending on whose conversion factor you believe. The reservoir is not always full, but this year it's heading rapidly toward the legal limit.

Lake Tahoe's water levels are basically controlled by a federal watermaster in Reno, carrying out the orders of a federal court. He orders the 17 gates in the dam to be opened or closed to control flow in the Truckee. Still, Mother Nature continues to show who is utltimately in charge, sometimes generously filling the lake to its legal limit and sometimes, under drought conditions, refusing to allow lake water to flow into the Truckee River.

(c) 2006 by Leo Poppoff

For related feature stories, go to the tahoetopia.com archive on the Home Page and cllick on Timeless Tahoe.