8009

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8009
• Author: Natural Resources Law Center.
• Title: Restoring the Waters.
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: Boulder, CO.
• Copyright Material: YES

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Settlement Act Water Right
Transfer Conditions:
^ Water rights can be purchased
only from willing sellers.
^ Water rights, lands and related
interests may be acquired by
purchase or other means.
^ Purchases may be targeted to
areas deemed most beneficial to
the overall program.
^ Water rights must be transferred
consistent with state law,
applicable decrees and
regulations.
^ Concurrent environmental and
socio-economic reviews must be
performed.
Lahontan Valley Wetlands, Nevada
The Truckee and Carson Rivers flow east
from California's Sierra Nevada mountains
into historically expansive closed-basin
lakes and marshes at the western edge of
the Great Basin desert in Nevada. At the
end of the Truckee River lies Pyramid
Lake, home of the endangered cui-ui, the
threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout, and,
at the Anaho Island National Wildlife
Refuge, what was once the largest white
pelican rookery in North America. The
Carson River ends up in the Carson Sink,
supporting at its delta the Stillwater
National Wildlife Refuge, the Carson Lake
Wildlife Management Area and other
Lahontan Valley wetlands. The wetland
ecosystem, an island stepping-stone on the
Pacific Flyway, is among the most impor-
tant of the western Great Basin.
Although naturally distinct, the two rivers
have been linked since 1905 by the
Truckee Canal, which carries significant
portions of the Truckee's flow to Lahontan
Reservoir near she end of the Carson River.
There diversions supplement Carson River
supplies for the federal Newlands Project,
the first large-scale irrigation project
initiated following enactment of the federal
Reclamation Act in 1902.

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As the single largest diverter of water from
both river systems, the Newlands Project
has caused or exacerbated a host of
environmental problems at both Pyramid
Lake and the Lahontan Valley wetlands.
These include:
^ Dramatic reductions in flow and
substantial modification of the natural
hydrologic regime;
^ Significant declines in Pyramid Lake
volume and elevation with resulting
delta formation that inhibits cui-ui
migration;
^ Extirpation of the native strain of
Lahontan cutthroat trout;
^ Destruction of the Winnemucca Lake
and Fallon National Wildlife Refuges;
^ Severe water quality deterioration
from depleted flows and agricultural
drainage; and
^ Extreme loss of shaded riparian,
instream, wetland and other Great
Basin aquatic habitats.
Ironically, the plight of Pyramid Lake and
the Lahontan Valley wetlands was long
seen to be rooted in an inherent conflict
between the environmental health of the
Carson and the Truckee rivers. Finding
more water for one was assumed to result
in less water for the other. But the origins