Category Archives: Keep it clean

Cities and town sewer plants, development, farm, and ranch runoff runs back to the river for use of downstream users before (hopefully) ending up in Pyramid lake. Sometimes that returned water isn’t as clean as it should be

Support for the “Nature Park Concept”

Nature Park Concept for Rock-McCarran river restoration and flood project

The Truckee Meadow Floor Management Authority released two park concepts for a portion of the Rock to McCarran flood protection and river restoration project. One provides for a Nature Park Concept and the other a Sports Complex Concept. We believe that there should be a park which would benefit the community and be completely consistent with the “living river” concept that the community has embraced since the early 2000s. You can check out the link above on the project and the park proposals and read our comments on the park selection to the Flood Managers below:


The Club participated in the “living river” design of the Flood Management Project during its early development. The Rock to McCarran portion was quickly envisioned as a large, flood-able park which was essential to help reduce flood flows and to provide a restored, healthy Truckee River connected to its floodplain. The public benefit of a flood-able, open space park was applauded by everyone at those meetings – now 2 decades behind us. The purchase of the property by the Flood Project was the result of the early flood modeling and public involvement.

Nature Park Concept for Rock-McCarran river restoration and flood project
Nature Park Concept


The current restoration plan to reconnect the river to its floodplain and provide a broad public benefit still resonates with the community. Certainly, the Club enthusiastically supports the Rock-McCarran Blvd plan to reconnect the Truckee River to its flood plain as depicted on the Rock-McCarran Reach Project Conceptual Recreational Designs. Our support for the park is also strong; however, we believe that the benefit to the public will be best served by the Nature Park Concept.


The Nature Park offers an opportunity to provide a large, Truckee-River-connected Park, close to thousands of residents for the enjoyment of an outstanding natural area that will not be possible in the future. 


The Nature Park Concept offers opportunities for enjoyment of the river environment that nearly everyone in the community can benefit from. This concept is less structured, less roaded, less paved, and less crowded space – an increasingly rare commodity in a community where many of the existing parks are crowded with sports playing fields – which while needed – are not appropriate to meet the vision of the “living river” concept that the community supported long ago. [From the original Goals and Objectives: “Promote a living river concept by preserving and enhancing fish and wildlife habitat, water quality, and natural geomorphic characteristics of the river.”] We also note that there could be adjustments to the Nature Park Concept that would likely lower the cost for implementation although we support the Concept as proposed.


The Sports Complex Concept with 10.5 flat playing fields and 4 large and 3 smaller parking lots and a significant amount of paved roadways does little to complement the adjacent restored Truckee River. It seems more than likely that the sports fields and extensive parking will detract from the restored river, be less attractive to the those wishing to see a restored river, and crowds of people at games could result in trash – however unintended – throughout the area.

Sports Complex Concept


There are already plans for 10 large soccer fields at Veterans Parkway and Pembroke Lane which allow for a more compact configuration and access for large gatherings and regional events. This land is also in the 100 year flood area, but would likely be much easier to design and protect than the proposed Sports Complex within the Truckee River’s 100 year floodway. While I understand that the Veterans Parkway-Pembroke Lane sports complex plan is funded for its final design with a $450,000 grant from the City of Reno, funding is not available for the estimated cost of $23 million for the project’s construction. Sports complexes are very expensive -both to build and maintain- and there are questions about how they can be funded.


The Club suggests that the main consideration should remain that the TMFMA flood project objective is to “minimize and mitigate” flood damages to the communities and the best way to do that is with a Nature Park to complement the restored Truckee River. We believe Nature Park Concept is more cost effective, has far fewer hardened surfaces, provides opportunities that are now missing in the Truckee Meadows, and has a wider benefit to its citizens. Finally, we believe that it would also be completely consistent with the original “living river” concept which was a design principal of the flood management project to begin with. 

Truckee River Flood from 2005 shown in downtown Reno. The Restoration and Park at Rock and McCarran will help to prevent flooding at the airport, the Reno & Sparks industrial area, and is a critical part of the overall project.
Rock & McCarran a key part of the Truckee Meadows Flood Protection Project. Today, it is largely inaccessible from the south with a trail on the north bank and the river is channelized retaining little connection to its flood plain during extreme flood events.

Truckee River Trail – scenic and troubled

The Truckee River Trail through Reno attracts residents and visitors alike. The river environment can be a source of peace and rejuvenation. It is more than just a water supply for the cities; it is a true recreational resource providing a scenic trail throughout urban Reno and Sparks all along the clear, flowing waters of the Truckee River. The community has invested to make this trail a treasure for all.

Trouble in river city

The Truckee River Trail is also the default location for many of the area’s homeless and graffiti taggers. Many of us who advocated for creating and expanding the recreational trail along the river to connect the urban environment to the natural environment of the Truckee River never foresaw the extent to which the trail would become a literal semi-permanent campground with ever increasing graffiti tagging. People I’ve spoken to tell me they avoid the Truckee River trail downriver of Idlewild Park due to the urban troubles intruding into and taking over the natural environment with trash and camps and tagging. The encampments, when “cleared out” quickly return in the same or new locations. Some trash often remains scattered across the banks of the river – bottles, wrappers, bags, blankets, baskets, etc. – regardless whether the site is occupied by the campers or not.

Encampment along Truckee River Trail
Encampment along Truckee River Trail (Jan’18)

I’m revisiting the issue of encampments, trash and graffiti again in the hope that we can change our approach to keeping the river clean and stop pollution from the encampments. Right today there is not much reduction in the encampments, trash and graffiti that I observed and wrote about 3 years ago. Below are scenes along the Truckee River from downtown Reno to Greg Street taken in late September of last year. [I’ve digitally edited the graffiti so that it is not identifiable; this reduces the “in your face” aspect of the tags, but prevents advertising it.]

Homeless camp (Sep’21)
Brick Park in downtown Reno occupied daily with homeless seeking temporary place to sleep or hangout
Broadhead Park (Sep’21)
Truckee River at Lake Street bridge (trash covers both banks of the Truckee River for miles along the Truckee River Trail.
Encampment (Oct’21)
Temporary occupation of Riverwalk
Some homeless are disabled (Oct’21)
Just west of Wells Avenue (graffiti digitally altered)
Bridge to Champion Park (graffiti digitally altered)
Bridge to Champion Park (graffiti digitally altered)
Homeless Camp
Temporary occupation of trail
Temporary occupation of trail

Truckee River Trail needs help

As the City Council’s and County Commissioner’s try to deal with the issue of homelessness, the Truckee River Trail impacts continue to mount. The river environment becomes an unfortunate camping ground and restroom for hundreds of people seeking temporary or permanent shelter along it. The issues that surround homelessness likely leads to much of the trash found along the river banks. The lack of regular pickup of trash and cleaning up discarded items of clothing, food containers, makeshift shelters also encourages graffiti taggers to add to the atmosphere of neglect and abandonment. An Insufficient number and desperately inadequate restroom facilities throughout the urban trail portion contribute to the pollution and inhumane conditions.

Can our Council’s and Commissioner’s focus their attention to the daily negative impacts to the Truckee River – throughout its urban reach – by funding new staff for clean up efforts? How about if the community funded the installation of more restrooms? And clean and refresh those restrooms 3 or more times per day and keep them open at least from 6AM to 10PM everyday?

The Truckee River is the community’s lifeline for our water supply but so much more. It deserves more attention from our elected leaders to fund clean up crews on a daily basis – not just when a homeless “clear out” is in the works.

Draft TMWA 2020-40 Plan: Leaves Out Water Efficiency…Again

Water Wasted

Conservation and drought management ranked high by 90% of respondents to TMWA’s (Truckee Meadows Water Authority) survey of topics of importance to be addressed in the 2020-2040 TMWA Plan 5 year update. And, as before, TMWA talks generally about conservation but has no definitive goals and no new actions to achieve water efficiency to reduce per capita demand for its customers.

Fly fisherman on Truckee River in mid-November 2018
Fly fisherman on Truckee River in mid-November 2018

TMWA’s update, like the previous plan, doesn’t look to water efficiency instead calling for “enhanced conservation” by its customers only during drought. TMWA’s “Enhanced conservation” asks customers to reduce water use by 10% during level “2” to “4” droughts for between 3 months to a maximum of 5 months. In a level 1 drought or non-drought, TMWA’s plan update calls for “standard conservation”. But standard conservation offers no incentives, strategies or goals to reduce per person water use and appears to rely exclusively on an even-odd address, 3 days per week outdoor watering. TMWA has no plan to implement programs to help its customers be more water efficient over the next 20 years of the plan during all conditions. Hardly forward looking for a desert community with less than 7″ average annual precipitation, long, hot, dry summers, and rising temperatures year-after-year.

This year Reno saw just 3.81 inches of precipitation in the form of rain and snow since October 1, 2019 – over 10 months. And, Reno’s summer temperatures are hot and likely for overall average annual temperature to approach or even top those of the past. Indeed, we live in a desert and need to be efficient and conserve the little water the region has to support people and the environment.

A Chart in TMWA’s plan update shows that for the past five years water use in its service area has been right around 150 gallons per person per day (GPD). That’s more than many other western cities including Las Vegas where customer water use has declined to 120 GPD. And, Las Vegas expects to continue to lower the GPD through its water efficiency programs. TMWA should be doing the same to lower its need for expensive engineering solutions and new groundwater sources.

water runs down gutter from lawn sprinklers
water runs down gutter from lawn sprinklers

Too often water runs down the gutter from over-watering and inefficient or broken outdoor sprinkler systems. Once water is running down the gutter it will eventually end back up in the Truckee River with contaminants of all kinds – discarded waste and oil being common. Water waste becomes more common with ineffective incentives for customers to conserve. People-unfriendly, grass-fronted roads in business districts send water spraying into adjacent streets. These water wasteful spaces offer little to the public and could and should be replaced with appropriate water conserving landscapes, instead. With proper water efficiency incentives adopted, TMWA’s plan update could encourage appropriate low-water landscaping that offers more interesting plantings that offer more shade and function. TMWA needs a plan update that identifies implementing better options for customers to save water and lower overall demand.

The 2020-2040 TMWA Plan update doesn’t contain any new initiatives or changes to its water pricing structure. While TMWA’s website promotes the plan as an call to action, the plan update contains no new direction regarding water use.

Of the customer insights collected so far, the top concerns are related to two topics: population growth and extreme climate variation. TMWA’s approach to these issues are woven throughout this plan.

(https://tmwa.com/article/tmwa-seeks-public-input-for-draft-2020-2040-water-resource-plan/)

TMWA, however, continues its past approach of drilling wells, diverting more water, and pumping water underground just like its previous plan. Other cities have consistently seen the error in this approach and have found customer friendly ways to reduce demand and delay or eliminate the need for expensive new water infrastructure. Further, TMWA’s own projections show that its approach will lead to shortages under climate change scenarios. Nevertheless, the plan essentially ignores these results saying that the problem will only occur in-the-future and outside of the planning horizon. Such an approach lacks credibility and puts the entire plan in doubt.

Dry time along the Truckee River walk
Low flows along the Truckee River Trail near Idlewild Park

You can still comment on the plan here. Or write to your Reno or Sparks City Council Representative or Washoe County Commissioner.

Quitting the bottled water habit (save $ and the planet)

Cascade of plastic water-filled bottles

Plastic water-filled bottles are everywhere. They line grocery and convenience store isles and wait for you at checkout stands. From ski hills to ocean beaches to executive board rooms, people haul around their no-calorie elixir wrapped in plastic. The stats tell us just how addicted we are to our bottled ounces of the essential liquid in shiny clear plastic containers wrapped helpfully with plastic brand labels – DaSani™, Aquafina™, Fiji™, Evian™, Nestle™, etc. According to a recent analysis in Consumer Reports (https://www.consumerreports.org), water bottled in plastic containers is the #1 consumer beverage – 42 gallons per average American a year or 336 sixteen ounce bottles – at an annual consumer cost of $31 billion and growing.

Why would the average American spend hundreds of dollars for water when it is available at the tap for just pennies? Many people say it is convenience, but 40% of Americans believe that water bottled in plastic is “safer than tap” according to CR. Some of that concern comes from the nationally reported lead-contamination in Flint, Michigan in 2014. Flint, however, is an extreme exception and not the rule. Ninety percent of Americans get their water from municipal suppliers who provide their customers with exceptionally high quality water mandated by drinking water standards set by Federal and state laws. Those municipal suppliers (like TMWA and the Las Vegas Valley Water District) “have no reported health-based quality violations” according to the EPA as reported by CR. 

TMWA's Chalk Bluff Water Treatment Facility can treat 90 million gallons of water a day.
TMWA’s Chalk Bluff Water Treatment Facility can treat 90 million gallons of water a day.

That’s good news for bottled water buyers because 64% of the water sold in plastic containers comes from municipal water systems across the country. Drinking water standards for municipal supply are part of federal law and you can check the quality of your municipal supplied water in annual reports*. Drinking your 8 glasses of clean water a day needn’t include creating plastic waste. Drinking your 8 glasses of clean water a day needn’t include creating plastic waste.

*TMWA customers: https://tmwa.com/article/2019-water-quality-report-now-available/

The US Food and Drug Administration does inspect bottling facilities and requires quality testing by the company selling water in plastic containers. However, the water in plastic doesn’t have water quality standards in federal law and the FDA isn’t required to conduct its own water quality tests. And, there are concerns about the plastic container itself potentially contaminating the water – either prior to sale or afterward once purchased by the consumer.

Its such a waste …

What happens to all those plastic bottles emptied of their water? Unlike an aluminum can that can be recycled indefinitely into another can, plastic water bottles cannot be recycled into more plastic water bottles. Rather, recycled plastic bottles are mostly used for some other “down-cycle” product – like a plastic bag or pen¹. Inevitably, though, nearly all plastic ends up in a land fill (a better outcome) or finds its way into a water body near you. As consumers, we need to kick the plastic water bottle habit to help minimize the impact on the environment from plastic waste.

Microplastics-UC-Santa-Barbara-Image
Microplastics-UC-Santa-Barbara-Image

¹ https://www.headstuff.org/topical/science/plastic-bottle-oceans/

Plastic bottles and other plastic too often ends up in our rivers, lakes and oceans. Plastic gradually breaks down, but never goes away. Instead, plastic breaks up into pieces that get smaller and smaller over time eventually forming micro plastics that can be ingested by fish and other wildlife (humans too!). The problems created by discarded plastic containers extends beyond the ocean and also threatens water quality in lakes and rivers. Micro plastic has been found in Lake Tahoe2.

2 https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-08-26/lake-tahoe-microplastic-pollution-detected

So, what is a consumer trying to cut down on plastic going to land fills – or worse to the rivers and lakes and oceans – to do? Yup, buy a non-plastic container for water that you can fill from the tap and use that. Keep one in your car, your pack, and for your bike. Cutting out plastic water bottles makes both environmental and economic sense. 

Check out PBS’s “The Plastic Problem”: https://tinyurl.com/sf8eghk

KTMB: Truckee River Cleanup September 28

clean up

Sign up and show up for the Truckee River Cleanup on September 28 sponsored once again by Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful. You can sign up for the cleanup here.

Check out other activities when you visit the KTMB website.