Did You Know...

. . . that a system of reservoirs along the upper Truckee River in Nevada, "saved the city of Reno from extreme disaster," according to Kyle House, a researcher at the Desert Research Institute? The flood that struck the Nevada cities of Reno and Sparks during early January 1997 would have been in the magnitude of a 1,000 year flood, without the benefit of managed releases from upstream reservoirs, according to a DRI study.

The peak flow of the Truckee River reached 18,200 cubic feet per second at a U.S. Geological Survey gaging station in Reno. A subsequent report by the USGS projected that without upstream reservoirs, the flow would have topped 42,000 cfs, resulting in an additional 52,600 acre-feet of water flowing through the cities.

DRI scientists studying the paleoflood hydrology of the Truckee River have determined that there have been at least three extremely large floods in the last 4,500 years, in addition to the 1997 flood. Flood control measures taken during the 20th century, including three reservoirs built in the 1960s and 1970s, will undoubtedly continue to prevent or lessen the incidence of property damage and loss of lives due to floods.

Information for this Benefits of Dams was taken from an Associated Press article by Sandra Chereb, published in the Fort Collins, Colorado, Coloradoan, Friday, April 17, 1998, page A11.

More information about the Desert Research Institute, and the study cited in this article, may be obtained from the DRI web page:.www.dri.edu.

(reprinted from the USCOLD Newsletter, March 1998, page 3)