TRUCKEE RIVER GENERAL ELECTRIC DECREE (CALIFORNIA)

Represented the resolution, through a 1915 federal court consent decree, of a lengthy series of conflicts, litigation, and negotiations between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the Truckee River General Electric Company (predecessor to the present-day Sierra Pacific Power Company), which, in 1902, through a complicated series of real estate transactions had obtained title to the Lake Tahoe Dam, surrounding lands, and the hydropower plants on the Truckee River. The USBR was in desperate need of Lake Tahoe water for its Newlands Project, then nearing completion near Fallon in Churchill County. This decree granted the USBR an easement to operate the Lake Tahoe Dam and to use surrounding property owned by the power company. On its part, the USBR was required to provide certain year-round flow rates (the Floriston Rates), measured at a stream gage near the state line, to support hydropower generation. These rates, in fact, dated back to a 1908 river flow agreement among the Truckee River General Electric Company, the Floriston Land and Power Company, and the Floriston Pulp and Paper Company and required that "...there shall be maintained a flow of water in the said Truckee River at Floriston (California) of not less than 500 cubic feet per second from the First day of March to the 30th day of September inclusive, in each year, and of not less than 400 cubic feet per second from the 1st day of October to the last day of February, inclusive, in each year." While this decree did dictate how the Lake Tahoe Dam would be operated, it did little to solve the concerns of residents of the lake and lessen California's concerns over the apportionment of Lake Tahoe waters.