Notice of Intent (Notice) To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and Hold Public Scoping Workshops on Water Resource Management Proposals in Churchill, Douglas, Lyon, Storey, and Washoe Counties, Nevada

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Office of the Secretary

Notice of Intent (Notice) To Prepare an Environmental Impact

Statement (EIS) and Hold Public Scoping Workshops on Water Resource

Management Proposals in Churchill, Douglas, Lyon, Storey, and Washoe

Counties, Nevada

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary--Water and Science, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Department of the Interior plans to hold four public

scoping workshops to gather information that can be used to prepare an

EIS on actions related to water resources in the Truckee and Carson

Rivers. The purpose of this EIS is to review, in a comprehensive

manner, four proposed actions and consider the environmental effects of

those and other actions. The Truckee-Carson Coordination Office, acting

on behalf of the Department of the Interior, will serve as lead agency

and supervise preparation of the EIS. Cooperating federal agencies

include Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, and U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service.

DATES: Public scoping workshops will be held at the following locations

beginning at 7:00 pm and ending no later than 9:00 pm on the dates

indicated:

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Date Location

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March 11, 1997........................ Fallon Convention Center,

Fallon, Nevada.

March 13, 1997........................ Fernley Town Building, Fernley,

Nevada.

March 18, 1997........................ U.S. Geological Survey

Conference Room, Carson City,

Nevada.

March 20, 1997........................ Washoe County Commissioners

Chambers, Reno, Nevada.

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Interested persons are encouraged to attend the workshops to

identify and discuss major issues, concerns, opportunities, and

alternatives that should be considered in the EIS. The workshops will

begin with a brief presentation describing the proposed action followed

by an opportunity for interested citizens to provide information

relevant to the EIS preparation process. The primary purpose of the

scoping workshops is to identify issues and information related to the

proposed project rather than to debate those issues.

These meetings supplement scoping meetings held in September 1995

on three of the four proposed actions. Scoping comments submitted

following those meetings will also be considered in preparing this EIS.

The scoping period will begin on the date of the first scoping

meeting and remain open through preparation of the EIS. Interested

agencies, organizations, and individuals are asked to submit written

comments on the scope of the environmental document on or before April

28, 1997.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are requested to send their written

commnets on the scope of the environmental document, significant issues

that should be addressed, and alternatives that should be considered to

the following address: EIS Scoping Comments, Truckee-Carson

Coordination Office, 1000 William Street, Suite 100, Carson City,

Nevada 89701.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Truckee and Carson Rivers flow eastward

out of the Sierra Nevada mountains and drain to interior basins. The

Truckee River terminates in Pyramid Lake; the Carson River terminates

in the Stillwater wetlands and Carson Sink. Water rights disputes over

waters of the Truckee and Carson Rivers date back to the 1860's during

a period of booming regional mining and lumbering activity. Consumptive

use of water from the two rivers increased significantly during the

late 1880's and early 1900's with the advent of various irrigation

developments, including the Newlands Irrigation Project, one of the

first Federally funded irrigation projects. With the increasing growth

and urbanization of the 20th Century, additional demands were placed on

the Region's water supply. In addition, issues brought forward by the

establishment of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Reservation in 1859,

and the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribes Indian Reservation in 1902 played

a major role in the evolution of water-rights disputes in the region.

Before the mid-1800's, all water in the Truckee River flowed into

Pyramid Lake with overflows forming Winnemucca Lake, supporting fish

populations essential to the life and economy of the Pyramid Lake

Paiute Tribe. In Lahontan Valley, the Carson River flowed into vast

wetlands that sustained major populations of waterfowl, shorebirds and

other wildlife. A substantial population of Native Americans inhabited

the wetlands and were dependent on its resources. Gradually, upstream

consumptive use and changes to water quality in the two rivers

contributed to the degradation of wetland and lake habitats and the

species that depended on them. Substantial change was caused by the

development of the Newlands Irrigation Project, authorized by the

Reclamation Act of 1902.

A majority of the Newlands Project acreage, known as the Carson

Division, is located in the Carson River watershed. However, in most

years, water entitlements in the Carson Division cannot be satisfied

solely by Carson River flows. Varying quantities of Truckee River water

are annually diverted out of the Truckee River watershed and away from

Pyramid Lake to serve agriculture, wetlands, and other water rights in

Lahontan Valley and in the Truckee Division of the Newlands Project.

Primarily as a result of diversions for the Newlands Project, the level

of Pyramid Lake began to decline and today, the lake is more than 65

feet lower than it was 100 years ago. In addition, primary wetlands in

Lahontan Valley, which historically fluctuated between 100,000 and

300,000 acres in size, were reduced to a current average of 9,800 acres

as a consequence of water use on the Carson River and prolonged

drought. Today, remaining wetlands are primarily sustained by

irrigation return flows, a portion of which can be of poor quality.

Public Law 101-618, the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights

Settlement Act, was enacted in 1990. The Act assigned numerous diverse

responsibilities to the Department of the Interior for initiating

actions addressing, in part, wetlands, endangered species, and water

resource management. The Department of the Interior also has

responsibilities to satisfy settlement agreements, meet Newlands

Project water rights, and properly protect resources held in trust for

Indian tribes in the region.

Proposed Actions

The EIS will consider the potential impacts of the proposed water

resource management actions described above and the interrelationships

of these waters.

[[Page 12246]]

1. The Secretary is authorized and directed by Section 206(a) of

the Act to acquire water and water rights to sustain, on a long-term

average, 25,000 acres of primary wetland habitat in Lahontan Valley.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is preparing a wetlands

management plan detailing actions necessary to best manage water being

acquired to sustain 25,000 acres of wetland habitat, including the

timing of water applications to wetlands, and the volumes of acquired

water to be applied.

2. Section 207(a) directs the Secretary to expeditiously implement

plans for the conservation and recovery of endangered cui-ui, a fish

species found only in Pyramid Lake and the lower Truckee River. Section

207(c)(1) authorizes the Secretary to acquire water and water rights to

assist the conservation and recovery of the species. General recovery

actions are authorized under the Endangered Species Act. The recovery

objective stated in the Cui-ui Recovery Plan, completed by the Fish and

Wildlife Service in 1992, is to improve the status of cui-ui so that

the species has at least a 0.95 probability of persisting for 200

years. This objective necessitates securing spawning habitat in the

lower Truckee River and rearing habitat in Pyramid Lake as well as an

avenue of passage for spawners and larvae.

3. The Secretary is considering modifications to the Newlands

Irrigation Project Operating Criteria and Procedures (OCAP). The OCAP

were most recently modified in 1988 and in the intervening years,

several factors which affect water management in the Project have

changed. For example, the number of water-righted, irrigated acres in

the Project has not expanded to meet predicted levels. Also, formulas

used to calculate allowable diversions of Truckee River water to the

Project need to be revised to reflect current and expected conditions

within the Project. Short-term OCAP adjustments within the framework of

the existing criteria and procedures are currently in preparation to

account for changes in water demand assumptions and operational

experience gained since 1988. The Department of the Interior will

examine more fundamental potential revisions to OCAP in order to

optimize the use of Project water to meet competing uses and legal

responsibilities, including serving agricultural water rights, meeting

trust responsibilities to the Pyramid Lake Paiute and Fallon Paiute-

Shoshone Tribes, conserving and recovering endangered fish species,

restoring and protecting Lahontan Valley wetlands, and meeting other

water demands.

4. In October 1996, the United States signed the Truckee River

Water Quality Settlement Agreement with the cities of Reno and Sparks,

Washoe County, the State of Nevada, and the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

The agreement resolves litigation over approval and operation of the

Reno-Sparks water treatment facility brought by the Pyramid Lake Paiute

Tribe against Reno, Sparks, the State of Nevada, and the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency. Under terms of the agreement, the

Department of the Interior will allocate $12 million over five years to

acquire Truckee River water rights and dedicate them to a joint program

to manage an equal quantity of water rights to be acquired by Reno,

Sparks, and Washoe County for the purpose of improving water quality

and instream flows in the Truckee River from Reno to Pyramid Lake. In

addition, the Department of the Interior agreed to aid Reno, Sparks,

and Washoe County in meeting water quality goals by storing acquired

water in federal Truckee River reservoirs and timing releases to

improve instream flows during normally dry periods of the summer and

early fall.

Other Actions To Be Considered

In addition, the EIS will consider an extensive list of proposed

and active projects that may have cumulative impacts within the scope

of this document. Two actions authorized under P.L. 101-618 are being

reviewed in separate EISs. These are: (1) Modification of reservoir and

river operations on the Truckee River as described in the Truckee River

Operating Agreement draft EIS currently being prepared by the Bureau of

Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and expected

to be released in the spring of 1997; and (2) acquisition of water for

development of wetlands at the terminus of the Carson River as

described in the Lahontan Valley Wetlands Water Rights Acquisition

Program final EIS released by the FWS in September 1996.

Additional projects and actions to be considered include the new

Operation and Maintenance contract for the Newlands Irrigation Project;

possible agreement between the Department of the Interior and the

Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe regarding water and water-rights

management, acquisition, and protection; efforts of the Fish and

Wildlife Service to acquire water from the Upper Carson River;

implementation of the agreement with the Department of the Navy to

conserve and transfer water from the Fallon Naval Air Station to the

Fish and Wildlife Service; and possible water storage agreements for

Lahontan Reservoir. The EIS proposed in this Notice will, as part of

its analysis, consolidate and review the effects of these and other

water management actions identified during the scoping process.

This notice is being published, and the environmental review of

this project will be completed, in accordance with Council on

Environmental Quality Regulations for Implementing the National

Environmental Policy Act (40 CFR 1508.22).

Tentative Schedule

Estimated dates for completion of activities for an environmental

impact statement evaluating the potential impacts of water resources

management in the Truckee and Carson Rivers program are:

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Milestone Date

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Public Scoping Period..................... April 1997.

Identification of Alternatives............ May 1997.

Draft EIS Published....................... December 1997.

Public Hearings on DEIS................... January 1998.

Final EIS filed with EPA.................. June 1998.

Implementation of Decisions............... August 1998.

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Dated: March 7, 1997.

Patricia J. Beneke,

Assistant Secretary--Water and Science.

[FR Doc. 97-6471 Filed 3-13-97; 8:45 am]

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