The Nevada Irrigation District lost nearly 1 million gallons of raw, untreated water back into Wolf Creek Sunday morning.
According to Public Information Officer Tomi Riley, the district learned that the Tarr Ditch, an irrigation canal used to transport raw water for 115 customers in the Penn Valley and Wolf Mountain area, was going dry around 7 a.m. Sunday.
Riley said upon investigation, an operator found damage to a spill structure used to uptake water along the canal.
“We definitely had vandalism at Tarr Ditch, which caused the water to go out from intake back into the creek,” Riley said.
Riley said the district currently categorizes the incident as vandalism as opposed to water theft, although 1 million gallons of water was “lost” over the four hours between learning about the damage and repairing it.