High court asked to save Walker Lake

The Walker Lake Working Group, joined by Mineral County, contends the lake is running out of time and that state and federal efforts to find more water for the endangered desert lake are taking too long.

The request for intervention follows separate state and federal efforts started last year to explore ways to get more water to the lake, along U.S. 95 in Mineral County.

The lake is home to the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout and hundreds of thousands of resident and migratory birds, including common loons, American white pelicans and white-faced ibis. It is a popular place to boat and camp, and the lake's visitors are a significant source of revenue for Mineral County.

"We put this (court action) off for as long as we could, until we could see what state and federal officials came up with," working group chairman Lou Thompson said. "There's nothing that's going to happen for at least two years."

Walker Lake's problem is that it doesn't get enough water. In 1994, the last full year of the most recent drought, the lake was within a year or two of losing its fishery because its water had become so saline. A year later, the drought was replaced by a five-year wet spell that pushed the lake up.

This year, the lake will get no water from the Walker River. Because the state issued far more water rights for the river than there is actual water in most years, the lake gets water only during floods or when the snowpack high in the Walker River watershed exceeds 150 percent of average. This year, the Walker River snowpack was 83 percent of average.

If the lake doesn't get any water for the next three or four years, it will be right back where it was in 1994 - on the edge of losing its Lahontan cutthroat trout fishery.

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