Groups want derelict dam removed after 100 years as a Truckee River hazard

A Truckee River irrigation dam at Ambrose Park that was operative for only two years has been a hazard to river users for a century.

Kayakers, rafters and government agencies are getting together to facilitate removal of the concrete and steel ruins, a project that would cost about $500,000. First, advocates of the plan have to navigate a patchwork of local, state and federal stakeholders.

“So many agencies have a say on what happens along the river,” said Charles Albright, a kayaker and advocate for the Truckee River. “The first step is to get all the agencies and groups talking and getting everyone on board. Then we’ll have to get the money and the permit.”

The City of Reno, Washoe County, state departments and commissions, irrigation groups, a public utility, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others hold sway over decisions affecting the river. Although a 2001 Truckee River planning document recommended the Ambrose Dam be removed, no action has been taken since. In the meantime, the concrete blocks and twisted iron rebar have been hazards to navigation, Albright said.

The massive blocks cross the river like giant stepping stones and water craft go between the obstacles.

Hazard to navigation

Experienced kayakers usually can navigate the ruins without getting in trouble, Albright said, but many river users are novice rafters or adults and children who just grab an inner tube and start floating down the stream. Often, he said, rafters and tubers tie their floating devices together. When they reach the concrete blocks, one tube may go to one side of a block and another tube to the otherside, with the rope hanging up on the concrete.

James Leonesio, a Reno firefighter who has been a part of the Swift Boat Rescue Team for 20 years, said river rescues are common in the spring and summer. In 2017, which was a high-water year, the team responded to 123 calls for river rescues. he said, The Ambrose Dam, he said, “is defiantly a hazard.

“People get hung up and trapped in the middle of the river,” he said. “Younger kids pop their inner tubes, panic and then we have to go out in the water to get them… A lot of kids go floating down the Truckee; this (dam) could be a death trap.”

Built in 1918

The Ambrose Dam was built in 1876 to divert water into an irrigation ditch. The wooden gates of the dam have long been swept away, leaving the concrete and steel portions standing like columns across the Truckee. Kayakers can paddle between the obstacles, but rafters and tubers have a tougher time avoiding the concrete blocks and rebar.

“Man-made obstacles are always a problem.” Said Theresa Lorejo-Simsiman of American Whitewater. “You just don’t know what’s under the water.”

While river groups and agencies favor the removal of the dam, there’s been some push-back from residents who use the deeper water near the structure as a swimming hole.

“And it is a good swimming hole, but it’s also dangerous,” Albright said. “There are a lot of sharp edges out there.”

This story was edited on Dec. 13, 2023, to correct the date when the Ambrose Dam was built. The dam at Ambrose Park was built in 1876 as part of the Southside Canal diversion, which continued to deliver water to users until 1946, according to several contemporary sources found in archives. The dates of the dam’s operation presented at the press conference in January 2022 and initially quoted in this story were incorrect.