Truckee Carson Irrigation District’s (TCID) winter hours are now in effect.   The District office will be open from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

Even though water season is over, there is a good deal of winter work to be done.  The Operations and Maintenance (O & M) crew will be repairing, replacing or cleaning culverts, structures, bridges, and ditches.  Some of the drains can only be cleaned in the winter months when the flow is down.  New continuous flow measuring devices at turnouts will be installed during the winter season at sites that were surveyed and planned during the water season when flows and levels could be observed. 

With the help of the Shop and Hydro teams, the O & M crew will begin a winter long inspection and maintenance process of the gates, valves, penstock, and tower at Lahontan.  The crew will inspect, sandblast, and provide preventative maintenance and painting of the portion of the Irrigation Project that includes the six hydro generators that make electricity during the irrigation season. 

The ditch riders, who work very hard for seven months delivering water to users in the District, take a well-deserved vacation prior to the burning season but will also help the O & M crew prepare their districts for the upcoming water season.

 The TCID office personnel continue with their never ending job that includes compiling end of water season reports for the Bureau of Reclamation, operation criteria and procedures (OCAP) reports, budgets, land transfers, water transfers, and verification of lands to be watered in the coming season.  All of this is done in preparation for the release of water into the ditches around April 1, 2005.

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A big “Thank You” goes out to the TCID Board of Directors and to all of the personnel who work so hard to keep the water running in the Newlands Project. 

WATER 2025 CHALLENGE GRANT PROGRAM

 The Bureau of Reclamation announced that the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Water 2025 Challenge Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2005 is now available online at www.grants.gov.

 The Challenge Grant Program is seeking proposals from irrigation and water districts that want to leverage their money and resources in partnership with the Bureau of Reclamation, to make more efficient use of existing water supplies through water conservation, efficiency and water marketing projects. 

The program is focused on achieving the outcomes identified in Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s Water 2025:Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West, particularly through water conservation and efficiency, water markets and collaboration, with an emphasis on projects that can be completed within 24 months and that reduce future water conflicts. 

“The goal of Water 2025, and these challenge grants, is to support realistic, cooperative approaches and tools that have the most likelihood of successfully addressing water challenges in basins where crisis and conflict are preventable, “Secretary Norton said.  “Water 2025 is focused on local solutions in partnership with local water users.”

 Additional information about the Challenge Grant program is available at www.doi.gov/water2025.

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