The Desert Terminal Lakes Program, enacted in Section
of the
2002 farm bill
The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, also known as the 2002 Farm Bill, includes ten titles, addressing a great variety of issues related to agriculture, ecology, energy, trade, and nutrition. This act has been superseded by the 2 ...
(P.L. 107-171, Sec. 2507), authorizes the transfer of $200 million from the
Commodity Credit Corporation
The Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is a wholly owned United States government corporation that was created in 1933 to "stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices" (federally chartered by the CCC Charter Act of 1948 (P.L. 80-806) ...
(CCC) to the
Bureau of Reclamation
The Bureau of Reclamation, formerly the United States Reclamation Service, is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency under the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees water resource management, specifically as it ...
to provide water to "at risk natural desert terminal lakes."
The legislation provided $200 million to the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation "to provide water to at-risk natural desert
terminal lakes" but prohibited leasing or purchasing water rights.
A series of subsequent modifications have specifically directed funding for the acquisition of water rights from willing sellers to benefit Walker Lake, including Public Law 108–7, enacted February 20, 2003, specified that funding was to be used to provide water and assistance only for
Pyramid
A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...
,
Summit
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous.
The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...
, and Walker lakes in the state of
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
.
Public Law 109–103, enacted November 19, 2005, allocated $95 million, as follows:
* $70 million to the University of Nevada to 1) acquire from willing sellers land, water appurtenant to the land, and related interests in the Walker River Basin, and 2) to establish and administer an agricultural and natural resources center to undertake research, restoration, and educational activities in the
Walker River Basin;
* $10 million for a water lease and purchase program for the
Walker River Paiute Tribe;
* $10 million for
tamarisk eradication, riparian area restoration, and channel restoration efforts within the Walker River Basin to enhance water delivery to Walker Lake; and
* $5 million to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Walker River Paiute Tribe, and the
Nevada Department of Wildlife
The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) is the state agency responsible for the restoration and management of fish and wildlife resources, and the promotion of boating safety on Nevada’s waters. NDOW has responsibility for the wildlife resourc ...
to complete the design and implementation of the Western Inland Trout Initiative and Fishery Improvements in the State of Nevada with an emphasis on the Walker River Basin.
Public Law 110–161, enacted December 26, 2007, allocated $68.25 million, as follows:
* $2.5 million to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to analyze the impacts of low water flows on reproduction at the Walker Lake fishery, including an analysis of methods to prevent permanent effects on the fishery from low water flows;
* $4 million to the State of Nevada to prepare watershed inventories, with a particular focus on the Walker and
Carson River
The Carson River is a northwestern Nevada river that empties into the Carson Sink, an endorheic basin. The main stem of the river is long although the addition of the East Fork makes the total length , traversing five counties: Alpine Count ...
Basins;
* $500,000 for the Walker River Paiute Tribe for legal and professional services in support of settling tribal water claims in the Walker River Basin and to Walker Lake;
Public Law 110–234, Section 2807, enacted May 22, 2008, appropriated an additional $175 million, “to provide water to at-risk natural desert terminal lakes.“ It also specifies that when there are willing sellers, the funding can be used:
* To lease water; and
* To purchase land, water appurtenant to the land, and related interests in the Walker River Basin.
Public Law 111–8, Sections 207 and 208, enacted March 11, 2009, made minor changes to previous allocations and added 2 allocations to be funded from the original $200 million appropriation:
* $300,000 to the
Desert Research Institute
Desert Research Institute (DRI) is a nonprofit research campus of the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE) and a sister property of the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), the organization that oversees all publicly supported higher educatio ...
for
LIDAR
Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...
acquisition data in the Walker River Basin;
* $300,000 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assess and monitor the ability of west central Nevada lakes to support migratory loons, and identification of wintering areas and annual range of loons using Walker Lake during migration. Public Law 111–85, Sections 206 through 208, enacted October 28, 2009, modified previous Desert Terminal Lake legislation and allocated $80.7 million, including:
* $66,200,000 to establish the Walker Basin Restoration Program, to be administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation;
* $1 million to the
U.S. Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geography, geology, and hydrology. The agency was founded on March ...
for Walker River Basin water monitoring program;
References
*{{CRS, article = Report for Congress: Agriculture: A Glossary of Terms, Programs, and Laws, 2005 Edition, url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110810044532/http://ncseonline.org/nle/crsreports/05jun/97-905.pdf, author= Jasper Womach
United States Bureau of Reclamation