Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-05-18
THE RIGHT TO TAHOE.

The people of Nevada have very prop
erly protested against taking Tahoe for
the benefit of California ranches and cities.
One of our esteemed contemporaries says:
"If the waters of Lake Tahoe would be
most useful if they were drawn off west
wardly, and made to fertilize Ell Dorado,
Placer and Sacramento, Government en-
gineers would be justified in draining
them in that direction" Now, by a test
of this kind, California has certainly lost
all right TO the lake. Ell Dorado county
cannot be irrigated by the waters of Tahoe
Beside that, she has unlimited quantities
of water for irrigation in the smaller lakes
west of Tahoe and in innumerable streams
which are available for that purpose.
Placer county has more water running to
waste through her streams and at eleva-
tions making them applicable to her lands,
than will ever be used Sacramento
county has water in abundance in the
American river, taken at Folsom, in
the Costumes or in the Mokelumne. So
that the waters of Tahoe are not needed
in these localities for that purpose at all
but even if they were, there is more irri-
gable land along the line of the Truckee,
from Tahoe to Pyramid Lake, than in all
the California counties named, and, when
under irrigation, it is equally valuable
with the land in California. Beside this,
there is no other water than that of Tahoe
available for the fertilization of these
lands. The test, therefore, stands strong
ly in favor Of Nevada. Take away
the waters of the Tahoe, and you
relegate the lands of the Truckee basin to
perpetual aridity; bring the waters OF
Tahoe to the western side, and you simply
reinforce an already existing superabund-
ance. From the standpoint, therefore, OF
the greatest good to the greatest number,
and the greatest fertilization to the great
est possible acreage, Tahoe should not be
interfered with. Moreover, there is neither
the quantity of water in Tahoe, nor the
watershed area around that lake to Justify
the belief that the water can be brought
this way proftably. 1t is all well enough
for engineers, who have in view great
water schemes, to postulate the existence
of vast watersheds, but the cachment area
of the Tahoe is already we'll known. Be
side the surface of the lake itself, its west
ern shore is as thin of cachment area as
tin-pan. Its eastern line has about
twelve miles of cachment area, with
about ten inches of precipitation tc
be depended upon to fall annually
With this ten inches of precipita
ton on the east side, and the cachmen
area once ascertained, it is very easy to de
termine how much water the lake affords
1t is simply basin into which the precip
itation has fallen, and it is at last aues
ton of the volume of precipitation. There
is vast accumulation of water in Lake
Tahoe, and if it were emptied to-day there
would be nothing left but the precipitation
upon its cachment area, and that would
not be sufficient to fill it again for many
years. Estimates of this kind have already
been made, and while they will not be
presented here and at this time, they
are entertainments which satisfactorily
prove that there is not, taking
one year with another, sufficient
precipitation on the cachment area o.
Lake Tahoe to supply, as Mr.. Won Schmidt
claims, sixty million gallons a day, the
amount which will be necessary 70,
economic use in this State The people o.
Nevada should be sustained in their oppo
sition. There is natural easement O.
that water through the Truckee. They
have the first and best right to that water
Their opposition to having Tahoe inter
fered with will receive the commentator
Of all just minds.