If you follow regional water issues closely, you’ve undoubtedly heard the name OneWater Nevada (OneWater). This is a collaborative effort by regional organizations to move toward a more comprehensive approach to water resource management. The idea is to improve water resource resilience and sustainability in the face of challenges presented by drought, growth, and climate variability.
How is this done? By taking a closer look at the ways water is used—in various applications and by different agencies and jurisdictions— and then finding places where progress can be made by working collaboratively. OneWater participants include the City of Reno, the City of Sparks, Washoe County, TMWA, the University of Nevada Reno, the Northern Nevada Water Planning Commission, the Western Regional Water Commission and the Truckee Meadows Water Reclamation Facility. There has always been regional collaboration, but the OneWater effort takes it to a new level.
Currently the OneWater team is working on various feasibility studies and projects. One of these is the possibility of storing large amounts of drinking water in the Palomino Valley aquifer. Hydrogeological modeling has demonstrated a potential holding capacity the size of Boca Reservoir (40,000 acre-feet), which could have significant value in terms of increasing area drought reserves.
Conceptual Architectural Rendering
A second project is the Advanced Purified Water Facility at American Flat in north Reno. This effort will use a sophisticated, multistep process to purify recycled water to supplement our potable groundwater reserves. This widely used resource management approach produces hundreds of millions of gallons of drinking water daily for the drought challenged regions of our neighboring states. This technology has been adapted by OneWater researchers to meet the needs of our arid, inland geography and will eventually produce two million gallons of drinking water daily.
To learn more about OneWater Nevada, the Palomino Valley feasibility study or the Advanced Purified Water Facility at American Flat, visit onewaternevada.com.