Raising Rollins Dam preferred option, proposed Centennial Project is abandoned

(Grass Valley- Sept. 25, 2024) Citing the fundamental responsibility to provide a reliable future water supply to the community, the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) is moving forward with the storage alternatives evaluated in the Plan for Water process.

The District’s Board of Directors approved a resolution during its Sept. 25 meeting in support of increasing storage at Rollins Reservoir. It also provides direction to withdraw NID’s State-filed application to build the proposed Centennial Reservoir Project. Also, the District will discontinue all feasibility, environmental and other analyses in support of a Centennial project.

“Wednesday’s decision was based on nearly three years of extensive work through the Plan for Water process, which has identified, in addition to storage alternatives, strategic scenarios that seek to determine how to meet NID’s future water supply needs of our community for the next 50 years,” said NID General Manager Jennifer Hanson.

Since November 2021, the Plan for Water process has involved community participation and input at monthly public workshops.

Seven strategic alternatives were modeled and vetted with the goal of determining how future supply and demand scenarios may be integrated into the District's water management practices. NID’s Board of Directors considered the scenarios and evaluated each alternative, including cost, feasibility, benefit analysis, environmental considerations and fiscal responsibility.

The Plan for Water analysis determined the proposed Centennial Reservoir was not the most advantageous storage alternative for the District and its customers. The proposed location of a new dam between Rollins and Combie reservoirs is at a lower elevation in the watershed; this lower elevation limits the customers that would benefit from the reservoir. Increasing storage at Rollins Reservoir would beneficially impact a greater number of customers with less impact to the environment.

“The Plan for Water process has been highly successful,” Hanson said. “Working with the community for nearly three years and enlisting the best consultants to provide modeling and research, we are confident of a path going forward and that NID’s water management practices will reflect that. The goal since Day One has been to determine the best ways to reliably and feasibly meet the community’s demand for water in the coming decades.