Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2003NV41B

Quantifying Potential Economic Impacts of Water Quality Modeling Uncertainty for the Lower Truckee River, Nevada

Institute: Nevada
Year Established: 2003 Start Date: 2003-03-01 End Date: 2006-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $71,672 Total Non-Federal Funds: $144,293

Principal Investigators: Alan McKay, John Tracy

Project Summary: Tens of millions of dollars are spent annually to treat municipal and industrial (M&I) wastewater within the Truckee River Basin (Figure 1, Sec. A11). In the Nevada portion of the watershed, the Cities of Reno and Sparks, in conjunction with their partner Washoe County, jointly operate the Truckee Meadows Wastewater Reclamation Facility (TMWRF). In order to achieve water quality objectives, particularly as they relate to Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), TMWRF operators are faced with additional infrastructure improvements and/or non-structural watershed improvements (i.e., river restoration) that will cost additional millions of dollars. In addition to the considerable resources expended on wastewater treatment, the Cities, County and State support extensive water quality monitoring activities within the river basin. Currently, there is only a cursory understanding of the relationship between water quality benefits associated with incremental infrastructure improvements (and associated costs) and the information gained from ongoing water quality monitoring (and the costs associated with those activities). The proposed project will help address these issues.