Support
Local Stewards of the Basin
Groups already on the ground. The links go to how to show up, not a ranking, and not an endorsement of every program.
The river
One Truckee River
Works toward a healthy, sustainable Truckee River connected to the community: cleanup, restoration, and river-friendly living programs.
The lake
Keep Tahoe Blue (League to Save Lake Tahoe)
A 501(c)(3) since 1957 preserving Lake Tahoe's clarity and health. Volunteer via the Tahoe Blue Crew, beach cleanups, and citizen science.
The lake, hands-on
Tahoe Resource Conservation District
Runs invasive-species prevention and watershed monitoring programs (Tahoe Keeper, Pipe Keeper).
Water rights
A Nevada 501(c)(3) that buys Truckee River water rights and dedicates them to instream flow, the lower river, and Pyramid Lake for cui-ui and Lahontan cutthroat trout. Ongoing work under the 1996 Water Quality Settlement Agreement.
The terminus· tribal department
Pyramid Lake Fisheries
A department of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe: hatchery and ecosystem programs protecting cui-ui and Lahontan cutthroat trout. This is not a volunteer-driven nonprofit.
Schedule a tour during spawning season (March–May).
The lake, bi-state
The bi-state regulator whose environmental threshold standards, including a water-clarity target for the lake, govern development across the Tahoe basin. Its Code of Ordinances was most recently amended June 24, 2026 (effective August 23, 2026), on a four-year threshold-evaluation cycle tied to its 2012 Regional Plan.
Restoration
Completed $8 million of restoration in 2024: 22 acres of wetland and 1 mile of stream at Coldstream Canyon, and 400 acres and 1 mile of stream at Lower Lacey Meadow, with 2025 work planned near Boca and Stampede.
The lake, California
California state agency leading the Upper Truckee Marsh South restoration (the former Motel 6 site, South Lake Tahoe), with USFS, the Army Corps, and TRPA as partners. Public workshops were held December 8-10, 2025.
Show up this weekend
Its 2025 Great Community Clean Up removed 63.5 tons of trash and 79 tons of invasive weeds and green waste from the Truckee corridor with 801 volunteers. It also runs an annual dedicated Truckee River Cleanup, most recently September 13, 2025, across 25-plus sites from Verdi to Sparks.
TMWA funding
TMWA's charitable fund, established 2004, run by a 9-member advisory committee (three each from Washoe County, Reno, and Sparks) and administered by the Community Foundation of Northern Nevada. It funds the Great Community Clean-Up, the Truckee River Clean-Up and Adopt-A-River Program, and the One Truckee River coalition.
Tahoe projects
A nonprofit financing Tahoe basin restoration and trail projects, typically $5,000 to $1,000,000 per project, alongside TRPA and the California Tahoe Conservancy. Its 2025 slate includes wetland restoration with Barton Health and the Tahoe East Shore Trail; past work includes restoring 19 miles of trail in Desolation Wilderness.
PFAS monitoring
Running UCMR 5 monitoring for 29 PFAS compounds plus lithium across Nevada public water systems through 2026, ahead of a federal PFAS compliance deadline extended to April 2029.
The river fishery
Manages roughly 40 miles of the Truckee River fishery between the California line and the Pyramid Lake reservation, and stocked 68,129 Lahontan cutthroat trout in 2024 (batches of about 5,000 or more every 4-7 days each spring). That river fishery is NDOW. Pyramid Lake itself is managed by the Tribe and the federal Lahontan National Fish Hatchery Complex, which separately stocked 60,802 Lahontan cutthroat into the Truckee in 2024.
Get involved
TMRPA's data-center engagement is the live regional process right now. Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful is the volunteer cleanup you can actually join. The rest are public meetings, a comment form, and a free bill tracker. None of this is a script for what to say. Marks are from each agency's own site, used for identification, not endorsement.
Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful
The 2025 Great Community Clean Up took 63.5 tons of trash and 79 tons of weeds off the Truckee corridor with 801 volunteers. KTMB also runs a dedicated Truckee River Cleanup, most recently September 13, 2025, from Verdi to Sparks. This is the closest thing on this page to something you can do this weekend.
TMRPA data-center engagement
The Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency is running a live public process on data centers in this region: a short English/Spanish survey, feedback on draft themes and recommendations, posted public comments, and a mailing list. Survey and forms live on TMRPA's site, not here. Contact: [email protected], 775-321-8385.
Comment to TMWA’s board
Truckee Meadows Water Authority holds regular public Board of Directors meetings, typically on Wednesdays, with agendas posted as PDFs and a public-comment form.
Western Regional Water Commission
WRWC is a Joint Powers Authority of Reno, Sparks, Washoe County, TMWA, and other Truckee Meadows agencies. It does regional water planning, distinct from TMWA operations, and posts a 2026 meeting schedule with agendas. Public comment is in person or virtual; instructions are on each agenda.
Truckee River Flood Management Authority
The joint Reno, Sparks, and Washoe County flood agency on this same river reach. Its Rock-McCarran Flood Project reached a 30% design milestone presented publicly in June 2026. The Vista Narrows Floodplain Terracing Project is in final design: channel widening plus habitat restoration. Agendas and minutes are on the meetings page.
Track Nevada water bills
The Legislature’s NELIS tool is free. Personalized Legislative Tracking sends email alerts on bills, keywords such as water, or committees. The 2027 session is the 84th. Testimony can be in person in Carson City, remotely from Las Vegas, or in writing from the hearing agenda.
Protesting a water-right application
Nevada law lets any interested person protest a new water-right application, not only the neighbor next door. Under NRS 533.365, any person interested may, within 30 days after the date of last publication of the notice of application, file with the State Engineer a written protest against the granting of the application, setting forth with reasonable certainty the grounds of such protest, verified by the affidavit of the protestant or an agent or attorney. The filing fee is listed on the NDWR fee schedule (currently $30). The notice itself is published once a week for four weeks (NRS 533.360). That last publication is what starts the 30-day clock.
The statutory newspaper notices also appear on nevadapublicnotice.com. This site does not pay for that outlet's Smart Search email alerts. Search there by county and keyword if you want the notice feed as a backstop. Look up the application number on NDWR's Hydrographic Abstract.
How these rights became a fight
The Newlands Project was one of the first works under the 1902 Reclamation Act. Construction began in 1903 with Derby Dam, finished in 1905, the Bureau of Reclamation's first construction project (USBR, Derby Dam). It still diverts Truckee River water toward farms near Fallon. Irrigated acreage is published as a range, not one number: roughly 60,000 to 75,000 acres, depending on whether you read the Bureau or the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (USBR, Newlands Project).
That diversion blocked Lahontan cutthroat trout from their spawning run and helped empty them from Pyramid Lake by 1943, along with a 1907 fish-ladder failure, poorly timed diversions, overharvest, and non-native fish (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Lahontan cutthroat). Cui-ui, found only in Pyramid Lake, was listed endangered in 1967. Lahontan cutthroat was listed endangered in 1970 and downlisted to threatened in 1975 (USFWS, cui-ui).
Operating Criteria and Procedures, the rule on how much water Newlands may divert, first appeared in 1967. The version now in the Code of Federal Regulations took effect in December 1997 (43 CFR part 418).
Congress passed the Truckee-Carson-Pyramid Lake Water Rights Settlement Act in November 1990 (Public Law 101-618). It is the statute that divides rights among the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, Fallon-area irrigators, Reno-Sparks municipal users, and fish and wildlife (104 Stat. 3289). The Truckee River Operating Agreement implements that 1990 deal in detail. It was signed in 2008 and did not take effect until December 2015 (TMWA on TROA). The filings list below is that same contest, still moving one application at a time.
New Truckee-basin applications
A water-rights change application is a request to Nevada's State Engineer to move or retitle an existing right: a different point of diversion, place of use, or manner of use. It is not a building permit and not an approved project. Large industrial users, including data-center campuses, go through that State Engineer queue because the river and the groundwater are already decreed. An application can sit here for months or years before a ruling, which is why these numbers show up long before anything is built.
This list is pulled weekly from NDWR's published Points of Diversion GIS for Truckee River region basins, the same application numbers as the Hydrographic Abstract. New cards appear when an application number is first seen. If the GIS later changes that application's status (ready for action, protested, permitted, denied, withdrawn), the existing card updates. Storey County commissioners have acknowledged a series of Truckee River change applications tied to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (CitizenPortal.ai). This site does not subscribe to the paid Nevada Public Notice Smart Search. The statutory notices themselves stay on nevadapublicnotice.com for anyone to search by county and keyword.
The 2027 Legislature is on NELIS (84th session). An omnibus water bill has been discussed for that session. Point to a bill number once one is filed, not before.
What this is not
The Truckee River Operating Agreement is how reservoirs are operated under federal regulation (43 CFR Part 419). It has no public comment board. Read TMWA's TROA explainer as operations, not as a place to weigh in.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has said it will update the 1985 Truckee River Water Control Manual over several years. There is no open federal comment period today. Watch for one. Don't treat a future docket as live.
Leaders to follow
Only accounts and author pages confirmed against a primary source. A wrong handle is worse than none, so unverified personal social accounts are left off. Marks are organization logos from each outlet's own site, used for identification, not endorsement. No personal headshots.
Peter Gleick
Pacific Institute
John Fleck
Water journalist and author, Colorado River
Brett Walton
Circle of Blue, Federal Water Tap
Richard Bednarski
Sierra Nevada Ally
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Vanesa de la Cruz Pavas
Sierra Nevada Ally
Great Basin Water Network
Organization
Desert Research Institute
Institutional accounts, not individual scientists
Water Over Data Alliance
Indigenous-led campaign co-founded by Pyramid Lake Paiute tribal member Autumn Harry
Great Basin Land & Water
Website only. No social accounts found.
I build and maintain this site myself, in my free time. It is not affiliated with the groups, agencies, or people named here, including Local Stewards, Get involved, and Leaders to Follow.
I'm Rhett. I built this on my own so we can watch this basin's water in one place, without ads. If it is useful to you, a Ko-fi tip is optional and helps me keep the gauges running.