Kara Steeland, Senior Hydrologist & Watershed Coordinator at Truckee Meadows Water Authority was our speaker this morning. The theme of her presentation was water availability in the Truckee Meadows.
The quick take away is that there are no issues with water availability. 80 - 85% of our water comes from the Truckee River. The balance comes from wells. TMWA has 85 ground wells in 9 aquifers. Kara presented a number of statistics which helped to understand why we are not having the water issues that Southern Nevada has.
In a normal year TMWA takes 4% of Truckee River water, and in a dry year they take 8% of the river's water. TMWA also stores water in Lake Tahoe, and in several other lakes and reservoirs in the Sierras. New construction requires that the developer provide water rights for the project.
In the fall of 2025 TMWA released the 2025-2045 Water Resource Plan. To read the full plan, or a summary of the plan go to: https://tmwa.com/article/2025-2045-at-a-glance/