Monitoring

In 2002, the Washoe County Department of Water Resources... initiated a Watershed Management and Protection Plan. The first Watershed Assessment study was needed to establish baseline conditions. In Spring 2002, this first study on tributaries to the Truckee River was conducted, with a broad range of information. Since 2005, the Truckee Meadows Storm Water Permit Coordinating Committee has authorized and funded watershed assessments for tributaries to the Truckee River. As such, study funding has provided annually by the three entities who coordinate under the storm water permit: City of Reno, City of Sparks, and Washoe County. In 2010, The Northern Nevada Water Planning Commission began to dedicate funds to storm water protection as well, to offset economic burdens facing the three local entities in the current poor economy.

The City of Reno, Washoe County, and City of Sparks share a municipal Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) discharge permit for the Truckee Meadows region. These three entities also have an Interlocal Agreement for watershed protection throughout the region. City of Reno acts as coordinator and administrator for the Truckee Meadows Regional Storm Water Permit Coordinating Committee, which has been dubbed "the Truckee Meadows Watershed Council" (TMWC). 

The TMWC meets monthly, and monitors surface water quality in streams throughout the region quarterly per the Sample Analysis Plan. Storm events are monitored annually, to better understand water quality effects of urbanization and monitor first flush of pollutants leaving the land surfaces. See SAPs attached below.

This project listed includes monitoring of Chalk Creek for TDS, N and P; Watershed Characterization performed by JBR consultants, Technical treatment feasibility performed by EcoLogic Inc, and Community Outreach completed by Olsen & Associates.

Attached find the JBR Characterization split into three pieces.

Attached find the Olsen Chalk Creek Watershed Survey and Results after community feedback and collation, as well as the Reno-Gazette Journal article resulting as community outreach.

Washoe County monitors water quality in South Reno at mulitiple points along White's Creek and its associated branches, one location on Galena Creek and one on Steamboat Ditch. Several water quality parameters are gathered in the field i.e. dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, pH, etc. Grab samples are taken for turbidity, TOC and total coliforms & E.coli.

The Tahoe-Truckee Sanitation Agency, or TTSA, is committed to a policy of energy and natural resource conservation. Our goal is to discharge the treated wastewater in the Truckee River Corridor in such a manner as to retain the integrity of ground and surface waters, while ensuring the quantity of water downstream is not diminished.

The following datasets are site specific data providing biological and chemical concentrations along the Truckee River.

The City of Reno and the City of Sparks cooperatively monitor data on Chalk Creek. An instream sonde probe meter collected WQ parameters including flow every 15 minutes starting from 3/21/07 while weekly grab samples are collected and analyzed for constituents at the TMWRF lab.

Bioassessment Monitoring in Surface Waters of the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation

The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe monitors for benthic macroinvertebrates in tributaries feeding into Pyramid Lake and the lower Truckee River. Benthic communities are instream for many months and even years, and have varying sensitivities to pollutants which may run off land or be discharged to the waterways. Standardization is key to ensure non-biased sampling and sample handling, as well as data analysis. Attachments include all standard operating procedures and quality assurance protection plans as approved by EPA, Region IX. Any questions or comments on these methods or QA/QC may be directed to John Mosely, Environmental Director for PLPT.