page_title: Reno, Nevada
section_title: Environmental considerations
hierarchical_section_title: Reno, Nevada / Geography / Environmental considerations
caption_attribution_description: English: Image taken September 1, 2016 One of the last images of the Wild Mustangs in the Truckee Meadows prior to a rapid expansion of homes. Steamboat Creek in the foreground with Carson City to the south. Construction is underway for 2000+ homes within the Truckee Meadow of east Reno Nevada.
context_page_description: Reno is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, about 22 miles from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the county seat and largest city of Washoe County and sits in a high desert river valley at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. Its downtown area occupies a valley informally known as the Truckee Meadows, which due to large-scale investments from Seattle and Bay Area companies such as Amazon, Tesla, Panasonic, Microsoft, Apple, and Google has become a new major technology hub in the United States. The city is named after Union Major General Jesse L. Reno, who was killed in action during the American Civil War at the Battle of South Mountain on Fox's Gap.
  Reno is part of the Reno–Sparks metropolitan area, the second-most populous metropolitan area in Nevada after the Las Vegas Valley. Known as greater Reno, it includes of Washoe, Storey, and Lyon Counties, as well as the state capital, Carson City.
context_section_description: Wetlands are an important part of the Reno/Tahoe area. They act as a natural filter for the solids that come out of the water treatment plant. Plant roots absorb nutrients from the water and naturally filter it. Wetlands are home to over 75% of the species in the Great Basin. However, the area's wetlands are at risk of being destroyed due to development around the city. While developers build on top of the wetlands they fill them with soil, destroying the habitat they create for the plants and animals. Washoe County has devised a plan that will help protect these ecosystems: mitigation. In the future, when developers try to build over a wetland, they will be responsible for creating another wetland near Washoe Lake.
  The Truckee River is Reno's primary source of drinking water. It supplies Reno with 80 million U.S. gallons (300 Ml) of water a day during the summer, and 40 million U.S. gallons (150 Ml) of water per day in the winter. Before the water goes to the homes around the Reno area, it must go to one of two water treatment plants, Chalk Bluff or Glendale Water Treatment Plant. To help save water, golf courses in Reno have been using treated effluent water rather than treated water from one of Reno's water plants.
  The Reno-Sparks wastewater treatment plant discharges tertiary-treated effluent to the Truckee River. In the 1990s, this capacity was increased from 20 to 30 million U.S. gallons (70 to 110 million liters) per day. While treated, the effluent contains suspended solids, nitrogen, and phosphorus, aggravating water-quality concerns of the river and its receiving waters of Pyramid Lake. Local agencies working with the Environmental Protection Agency have developed several watershed management strategies to accommodate this expanded discharge. To accomplish this successful outcome, the DSSAM model was developed and calibrated for the Truckee River to analyze the most cost-effective available management strategy set.  The resulting management strategies included measures such as land use controls in the Lake Tahoe basin, urban runoff controls in Reno and Sparks, and best management practices for wastewater discharge.
  The Reno area is often subject to wildfires that cause property damage and sometimes loss of life. In August 1960, the Donner Ridge fire resulted in a loss of electricity to the city for four days. In November 2011, arcing from powerlines caused a fire in Caughlin in southwest Reno that destroyed 26 homes and killed one man. Just two months later,  a fire in Washoe Drive sparked by fireplace ashes destroyed 29 homes and killed one woman. Around 10,000 residents were evacuated, and a state of emergency was declared. The fires came at the end of Reno's longest recorded dry spell.
caption: Reno Nevada and the Truckee Meadows south west of the Reno Tahoe International Airport has a large herd of Mustang horses. These horses nurse and range around the runoff of Steamboat Creek. The Mustang is a notable iconic image of the Nevada range land which includes Reno.
exif: {}