AP File/Brad Horn - Reno rescue team members search a neighborhood in Fernley in this Jan. 5 file photo, after a canal levee ruptured from heavy rainfall. Burrowing rodents caused a century-old irrigation canal to fail and flood a rural Nevada town in January, a team of scientific experts concluded in a report for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. On Friday, the bureau allowed another increase in flows in the canal that breached and flooded hundreds of homes.
Bureau officials on Friday allowed the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District to increase flows in the 31-mile Truckee Canal from 250 cubic feet per second to 350 cfs — about one-half of the canal's typical maximum flow.
The move was approved after the irrigation district implemented a special rodent control program, bureau officials said, and earlier corrective and safety steps were taken.
In March, a team of scientific experts concluded in a report for the bureau that burrowing rodents caused the century-old canal to fail and damage nearly 600 homes in Fernley.
Muskrats, beavers, gophers and other rodents dug holes as deep as 25 feet into the earthen canal embankment over the years, according to the report.
Bureau officials have said any boost in flows beyond 350 cfs will require significant modifications of the canal, something the bureau does not anticipate this year or possibly even next.
The estimated cost of such repairs ranges from $28 million to line one-half of the canal with riprap to $390 millioon to replace the canal with a 16-foot diameter pipeline.
The canal takes water from the Truckee River near Fernley to farms and ranches around Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno.
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