At its July 19 meeting, Churchill County Commissioners adopted resolution 24-2024 terminating the State of Emergency in Churchill County due to the threat of flooding.
Since early March when the State of Emergency was initially declared, Churchill County, the City of Fallon, Truckee-Carson Irrigation District and the Bureau of Reclamation took significant steps to prevent, mitigate and manage the spring run-off, working tirelessly to ensure the safety and well-being of county residents in face of the potential for flooding due to high snowmelt upstream on the Carson River.
Several major construction projects resolved the threat including the Big Berm on Carson Pasture Lake and a new, larger weir on the V-line canal. Additionally, filled sandbags were available to county residents and businesses to use in protecting their property, a high-water call center was established to help address citizen concerns and regular high-water information distributed to local media and posted on local government websites and social media to keep the public informed of mitigation efforts and available resources.
These extraordinary efforts were instrumental in ensuring that no major property damage occurred due to the excess run-off.
With the snowmelt decreasing in the summer months and returning to manageable levels, the need for emergency mitigation efforts is over. Commissioners praised the efforts of all involved in the mitigation efforts to protect the local area.
At this time, no further emergency management operations are needed to control the flows into and out of Lahontan Reservoir, which TCID is working to fill.
Photo: Early stages of ground preparation for the new weir on the V-line canal back in April 2023.