You are viewing ARCHIVED content published online before January 20, 2025. Please note that this content is NOT UPDATED, and links may not work. For current information, visit https://www.usbr.gov
California-Great Basin Region's first title transfer authorized by the Dingell Act
Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton (right) is joined by U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto while signing the Old Lahontan Power Plant title transfer on Feb. 18, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
CARSON CITY, Nev. - Reclamation’s California-Great Basin Region transferred the Old Lahontan Power Plant’s ownership title to the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District on Feb. 18, 2022. This is the region’s first title transfer authorized by the Dingell Act of 2019.
This new streamlined title transfer process allows for appropriate transfers, such as diversion dams, canals, laterals, and other water-related facilities, to take place without congressional legislation in a more timely and cost-effective manner.
This transfer benefits TCID by providing income from power generation; establishing ownership of part of the Newlands Project which the water users have paid for; and the power plant becomes an asset which could serve as collateral for future loans.
The federal and taxpayer benefits include no more inspection and oversight costs and reduced federal liability from ownership of the power plant.
Located 60 miles east of Reno, Lahontan Dam and Reservoir store the natural flow of the Carson River along with water diverted from the Truckee River. The dam was built in 1915; it provides irrigation water from the Truckee and Carson rivers for about 57,000 acres of cropland in the Lahontan Valley near Fallon in Churchill County and bench lands near Fernley in Lyon County.
The power plant, a stone-and-concrete structure containing three generators, was completed in 1911 to facilitate the construction of Lahontan Dam and has a capacity of 42,000 kilowatts. It is on federal lands acquired for the Newlands Project and is 650 feet downstream of Lahontan Dam, on the left bank of the Carson River.
Authorized by Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock on March 14, 1903, the Truckee-Carson Project was one of the first Reclamation projects and was renamed the “Newlands Project.” TCID is the non-federal operating entity for the Newlands Project, including the Truckee Division near Fernley and the Carson Division near Fallon, both in western Nevada.
