Bill Hauck
TMWA Senior Hydrologist

TMWA customer demand averaged 36 million gallons a day (MGD) for the week ending March 16. For the year-to-date, consumption is down by about four percent compared to 2013. Demands are right about where they should be for this time of year and are now beginning to climb with the onset of spring-like weather. Customer demands are still only about one third of what they will be during the summer months when the weather is hot and sprinkler systems are running.

Recharge of ground-water wells averaged 5 MGD for the week. TMWA’s recharge program, known as Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR), is where we inject treated surface water from our Chalk Bluff water treatment plant into existing wells located throughout TMWA’s service area. This practice helps to replenish our local aquifers and maintain the health our ground water supply.  Water that is recharged can also be extracted (pumped back out) at a later date during exceptionally dry periods to help meet customer demand when there is insufficient flow in the river.

Truckee River flow at the CA/NV state line was running at 420 cubic feet per second (cfs) this morning. Snowpack in the Truckee River Basin is now 30% of average for this time of year, and 43% of average in the Lake Tahoe Basin, respectively.