Nevada
Dams in quake-prone Nevada are vulnerable. Near Tahoe, the state is shoring one up – Carson Now
By Amy Alonzo — Dwarfed by drought, the warming climate and other, more immediate environmental threats, earthquakes aren’t at the forefront of most Nevadans’ minds.
But through the mid-20th century, Nevada was known as an earthquake state. While the state has experienced few sizable quakes since then, recent temblors have caught the attention of those who monitor earthquakes.
On Dec. 5, waves of water in the cave that houses rare Devil’s Hole pupfish in Death Valley National Park sloshed nearly 2 feet high after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of California.
Just four days later, a 5.8 magnitude quake struck on an unnamed fault between Yerington and Silver Springs, shaking Northern Nevada and sending objects flying in some buildings.
Neither of the earthquakes resulted in any substantial damage — the California earthquake was too far offshore, while the Nevada quake had its epicenter in a remote area — but they are reminders that seismic activity could result in significant damage to the state’s aging infrastructure. It’s why state officials are proactively shoring up some of Nevada’s oldest earthen dams that, if shaken to the point of breaking, could cause water supply contamination for tens of thousands of people and deadly floods.
Earthquake magnitude is measured on a scale of 1 to 10, with damage starting to be visible around magnitude 5; by magnitude 6, buildings could see structural damage requiring repairs. Nevada experiences about one magnitude 6 earthquake per year, said Christie Rowe, director of the Nevada Seismological Laboratory at the University of Nevada, Reno, but almost always in a remote portion of the state.
If a magnitude 6 or greater earthquake were to occur in Las Vegas, Reno or another densely populated portion of the state, “there’s going to be a lot [of] impact,” Rowe said.
In the case of the recent earthquakes with epicenters in Yerington and off California’s coast, urban areas such as Reno were “pretty lucky,” Rowe said. “If either one had happened in a city, it would have been bad news.”
Inspections around the epicenter of the Lyon County earthquake revealed cracks in irrigation ditches and collapses on the banks of the Walker River but no damage to roads or bridges.
The quake was also a reminder to officials of the state’s seismic history and the need to beef up some of the hundreds of dams across Nevada, most constructed in the days before statewide engineering standards and made of dirt and other natural materials.
Damage from earthquakes is “definitely a concern,” said Keith Conrad, chief of dam safety at Nevada’s Division of Water Resources.
The state recently received federal funds to upgrade the dam at Marlette Lake, one of the oldest dams in the state. Marlette Lake perches on the rim between the Lake Tahoe Basin and Carson City, a popular mountain biking and hiking destination renowned for its fall colors and views down to Lake Tahoe. Its reservoir, restrained by an earthen dam estimated to be more than 150 years old, serves as the water source for multiple Northern Nevada counties and cities.
The state purchased the lake and its surrounding land in 1963, but now its aging infrastructure, combined with its location in an area of high seismic activity, makes it a “high hazard dam.” Annual inspections of the dam indicate a “high probability” of a breach if an earthquake of 6.5 magnitude or greater were to occur. If it breached, it could easily flood State Route 28, which runs between the dam and Lake Tahoe, and, with a sewage pipe running beneath the highway, damage to the highway could release sewage and debris into Lake Tahoe.
The seismic retrofit being done at Marlette should cover a lot of vulnerabilities that could affect the lake, caused by earthquakes or other events, Rowe said.
“If they know that dam is vulnerable, I’m really glad they’re doing preventative work,” she said. “It’s going to be way less expensive than if the dam failed.”
High hazard dams and federal emergency declarations
In 1915, the state experienced its largest earthquake, a 7.3 shaker near Winnemucca.
But there has been little high-magnitude shaking in urban areas since 1960, the exception being a magnitude 6 earthquake in the Wells area in 2008. But earthquake faults are still being discovered across the state (the Yerington-area quake occurred near no known faults) and there is still serious potential for earthquakes, especially in western Nevada.
In Lake Tahoe, there are multiple major fault lines that run beneath the lake, Rowe said, and the area is considered at high risk for earthquakes. While the state has been relatively free of any large quakes during the last few decades, Nevada has had the third most frequent number of large earthquakes in the last 150 years.
Lake Tahoe was created by seismic activity — earthquake faulting caused a portion of the mountains to drop, creating a giant bowl, and volcanic deposits dammed the bowl on its north side.
About 5,000 years ago, Lake Tahoe’s west shore experienced an earthquake large enough to produce a tsunami — and a tsunami-producing fault in the basin is overdue for an earthquake, scientists said more than a decade ago at an annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Earthquakes occur every 3,000 to 4,000 years along the West Tahoe Fault that runs from beneath the lake up to the Echo Summit area. That fault last saw a major quake 4,500 years ago. The Incline Fault, located in the northeast portion of the lake, saw a quake of roughly magnitude 7 about 575 years ago.
During earthquakes, concern first focuses on injury and loss of life, said Rowe. But after that, effects to basic services and communications are of utmost concern, she said.
“The resilience of a community relies on the resilience of the water supply and the food supply,” she said. “It can take days or weeks to restore those kinds of services.”
It’s that focus on infrastructure that prompted the state to apply for a $10 million federal grant to upgrade Marlette Lake Dam to reduce the risk of a dam breach during an earthquake. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) agreed the dam, listed as “high hazard,” warrants the work and issued the funding.
Nevada’s Division of Water Resources, the department Conrad staffs, oversees about 660 dams across the state; additional dams, such as those operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Indian Affairs, do not fall under the division’s purview.
Few are concrete or rock masonry dams — most are earth embankment dams. Many of them are part of stormwater detention basins in Las Vegas or are small, privately owned structures used for irrigation in rural portions of the state (nearly half of the state’s dams are privately owned) but some are larger and in areas that could have substantial downstream effects if they failed, such as the dam at Marlette Lake.
The dams are categorized into “low,” “significant” and “high” hazard by how catastrophic their failure would be on downstream residents and infrastructure. While failure of low hazard dams are unlikely to have any substantial economic effects or cause death, failure of significant hazard dams are likely to cause substantial economic effects; failure of a high hazard dam is likely to lead to death.
Nearly a quarter of state-monitored dams, primarily in the Reno/Tahoe and Las Vegas areas, are considered “high hazard.” (The designation does not reflect the safety or condition of the dam.)
Nevada didn’t start regulating dams until 1955; “anything prior to that, we don’t know a whole lot about these dams, and chances are they were never engineered,” Conrad said. When it comes to Marlette Lake’s dam, built nearly a century before the state started regulating dams, “Who knows what techniques they used to build it. There’s a big old question mark on that portion of the dam.”
But the general state of dams within Nevada is pretty poor, Conrad said.
A 2018 report from the American Society of Civil Engineers ranked Nevada’s dams with a lowly grade of “D+” or “Poor: At Risk.”
A separate report issued by the National Inventory of Dams in 2023 echoed the 2018 findings, with the condition of the bulk of the dams included in the report listed as “fair” or “poor.”
“It’s hard to say exactly what the likelihood of failure is,” Conrad said.
In 2003, the state began drafting emergency action plans for all high and significant hazard-rated dams in the state.
“We are kind of ahead of the curve” compared with some other states, Conrad said.
Those plans have been activated occasionally, Conrad said, such as earlier this year at Angel Lake near Wells when cracks were found in the roughly 150-year-old dam. The seeping cracks created sinkholes on top of the dam, complicating repairs.
There has never been a federal emergency declaration in Nevada because of a dam failure in the state, but Nevada has seen multiple dam failures throughout the years.
The earliest documented dam failure in Nevada occurred in 1876, when an irrigation dam across the Humboldt River 22 miles east of Battle Mountain failed, releasing a large volume of water through the canyon and flooding several downstream ranches.
In 1955, an intense December storm dropped between 10 inches and 13 inches of rain in Northern Nevada, causing flooding along the Walker, Carson and Truckee rivers. Derby Dam on the Truckee River failed, and Hobart Dam outside Carson City failed and released water that severely damaged U.S. Route 395. Nearly $4 million in damages (roughly $44.2 million in 2022 dollars) was incurred and one person died.
Hobart Reservoir, also part of the Marlette Lake Water System, is next on the state’s list of dams to be repaired with federal funds, Conrad said.
— This story is used with permission of The Nevada Independent. Go here for updates to this and other Nevada Independent stories.
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The Trump administration announced new guidelines on June 6 for a national internet program that scuttles $416 million already approved for Nevada.
As part of the Biden administration’s infrastructure act, $42.5 billion had been allocated for the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment program to expand high-speed internet in rural areas.
Nevada, one of the few states to jump through the hoops to qualify, had hoped to break ground in summer 2025. But in April, the U.S. Commerce Department put the program under a 90-day review. That review is now over.
“Today we proudly announce a new direction for the BEAD program that will deliver high-speed internet access efficiently on a technology-neutral basis, and at the right price,” said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in a statement.
The marquee changes are removing diversity requirements in hiring and eliminating “extraneous and burdensome obligations to conduct climate analyses,” according to a factsheet released by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, part of the Commerce Department that oversees internet projects.
Now, Nevada must reapply for the BEAD funds. States were given 90 days to comply with the new guidelines.
In response, Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, vowed to put a hold on all nominations for Commerce Department positions related to broadband policy until Nevada gets its BEAD funding.
“I’m beyond outraged that the Trump administration has moved the goal post yet again and rescinded Nevada’s approval to get the BEAD funding I secured to connect the hardest-to-reach communities in our state to high-speed internet,” she said in a statement.
“This decision will put Nevada’s broadband funding in jeopardy, and it’s a slap in the face to rural communities that need access to high-speed internet.”
The broadband team with the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology told the Reno Gazette Journal it was still digesting the news.
“Our office is still reviewing the updated guidance from NTIA and does not have further comment at this time,” a spokesperson said.
Mark Robison is the state politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, with occasional forays into other topics. Email comments to mrobison@rgj.com or comment on Mark’s Greater Reno Facebook page.
Britney Ujlaky was a free spirit.
The beautiful 16-year-old loved riding on horseback through the picturesque hills of Spring Creek, Nevada, where she lived. She was close with her friends, wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself, and had an exceptionally tight bond with her gold-miner father, according to Dateline: Unforgettable.
But on Sunday, March 8, 2020, Britney mysteriously vanished, leaving her family desperate for answers.
“Some stories are memorable for their twists, or their characters, or where they happened,” correspondent Josh Mankiewicz said in the “Open Desert” episode of Dateline: Unforgettable. “This one checked all three boxes.
“Spring Creek is in Elko County, Nevada, a place I’d never been,” he added. “It’s genuine cowboy country and its natural beauty is stunning. It’s also where the Ujlaky family came face to face with a cold hard truth: You can do everything possible to keep your child safe and sometimes that still won’t be enough.”
Who was Britney Ujlaky?
Growing up in the rural wilderness, Britney was a girl who loved horses and the rodeo, and often displayed her own blend of cowboy bravado.
“The way that she carried herself was very like you don’t want to mess with me, like she stood up straight and she squared her soldiers. She never slouched,” her best friend Saquarra Ashby remembered.
The high schooler loved to spend time with her friends and had a close relationship with her father, Jim Ujlaky, whom she lived with after her parents divorced.
“From the day she was born, she kind of saved my life,” Jim told Mankiewicz through tears. “I was on drugs and I was single, lived a party life and everything, making really good money and just living it up and (the) first breath she took, (I) looked at it, and straightened my life up, sobered up and devoted my life to raising my kids.”
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The day Britney Uklaky disappeared
Sunday, March 8, 2020 started out just like any day for the Uklaky family. Britney, a self-appointed music critic of her dad’s heavy metal band File Not Found, accompanied him to his weekly band practice.
“She’d storm in like she owned the place,” Jim remembered of her frequent advice, telling the band members every time they missed a note or didn’t sing something right.
But she was also a typical teen and eventually tired of the middle-aged musicians. Britney arranged for her friend Bryce Dickey to pick her up at a nearby park in the mid-afternoon, promising her dad that she’d be home later, likely even beating him home from practice.
Jim grabbed dinner with the band and then drove home, calling Britney along the way. But his calls went unanswered, something that was highly unusual for the teen.
“After the third time, [I] started getting a little panicky,” Jim said.
It was now nearly 7 p.m. and Jim hadn’t heard back from Britney. He called her mom, Alisha, thinking maybe she’d gone to visit her, but she hadn’t heard from their daughter either.
Britney’s younger brother James Jr. called Dickey to find out what time he last saw her.
“He told me he’d dropped her off with some new friend at the high school,” James Jr. said.
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Bryce Dickey tells story of cowboy
Dickey later told the same story to the Elko County Sheriff’s Office, insisting that after hanging out with her for about three and a half hours that afternoon, he dropped Britney off at the school.
“He said that she wanted to get dropped off at the Spring Creek High School because she was going to meet a new friend and he saw her get into a truck with an unknown cowboy,” Nick Stake, then a detective, told Dateline.
Dickey — who had been a close friend of Britney’s since middle school and acted as a big brother of sorts — described the truck as an older model green Ford F-150 and said the man was a tall, white cowboy, adding that Britney never told him the stranger’s name.
As news of Britney’s disappearance began to spread, her mom got a tip on social media that her daughter may have been out with a man named JT.
That tracked with what Ashby knew about her friend.
“She had started talking to a guy named JT,” she recalled. “She had told me about him.”
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Detectives set out to try to track down the mysterious stranger driving a green pickup truck, who possibly went by JT. But after combing through databases and DMV files and chasing down false leads, they weren’t able to find anyone that appeared to match the description.
They also knew that Britney had been bullied by a group of girls at her high school and found video of Britney getting into a physical altercation with two of them at a rodeo about a year before she disappeared.
They considered the possibility that Britney had been the victim of foul play at the hands of one of the girls, but that theory didn’t pan out either.
Search widens for Britney Ujlaky
Investigators and Britney’s family launched an extensive search effort through the vast Elko County wilderness. Britney’s friends, including Dickey, came out in droves to try to find any sign of the missing teen.
Jim took his truck, driving through the remote woods looking for any sign of her. By then, he had a sense that his daughter was no longer alive.
“We’re looking in the sky for birds cause we were out looking for a body,” he said. “We couldn’t see anything, couldn’t find anything.”
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Britney Ujlaky’s body found
But on the third day of the search, someone stumbled on a blue tarp and discovered the teen’s body hidden underneath it. She’d been strangled, had a single knife wound to the neck and there were signs of a possible sexual assault.
Britney’s mom Alicia was at the sheriff’s office when Stake got the news.
“I couldn’t walk,” she said. “My legs didn’t work and he just had this look on his face, just this, such tortured look on his face and he’s like, ‘I gotta go, I gotta go, are you ok?’”
For Jim, it brought a sense of relief, knowing his daughter wasn’t out in the elements any longer, but he also deeply grieved the loss of his daughter.
“I lost the only person who ever truly loved me, without any conditions, nothing,” he said. “My son loved me too, but she was the first born and you know living the life I led didn’t think anyone ever cared. She did.”
At the crime scene, detectives found what looked like chewing tobacco on the ground and recovered a used condom about 60 feet away from the body.
Investigators shift focus back to Bryce Dickey
After still finding no sign of the mysterious stranger that Britney allegedly went off with, detectives turned their attention to the last known person to see the teen alive: Dickey.
Dickey was two years older than Britney and had been a close friend for years.
“He’s kind of just one of those geeky kids, just a shy little cowboy kid that would kick his feet and look at the ground when you talked to him,” Britney’s mom, Alisha, recalled. “He’d come sit over at the house while Britney was getting her makeup on to go to the rodeos. He was always her ride to places.”
The family had no reason to worry when Britney left that day with Dickey, since she had done the same thing so many other days. Britney even posted a picture of the pair smiling from Dickey’s truck on the last day of her life.
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Investigators noted that the desert landscape in the photo was eerily similar to their crime scene. They called Dickey in for more questioning and he agreed to hand over his phone and give a DNA sample. It turned out to be a match to the condom and the chewing tobacco left at the scene.
Surveillance footage also confirmed he’d been lying to investigators about where he was that day and put his truck going in the direction of the crime scene, not the high school.
Confronted with the information, Dickey admitted to having sex with Britney, but said they both immediately regretted it. He insisted he didn’t kill her.
Bryce Dickey charged in Britney Ujlaky’s murder
Dickey was arrested and charged with sexual assault and murder.
Authorities were never able to determine exactly why Dickey turned on his friend that afternoon, but those who knew him suspect he may have been tired of being relegated to the friend zone.
“You know, unfortunately, or maybe even fortunately, we’ll never know exactly what happened, but I know that the evidence supported that Britney and Bryce went out there willingly,” Elko County District Attorney Tyler Ingram said. “I think Bryce didn’t get what Bryce wanted and he took it into this own hands.”
Dickey went on trial in May of 2022 and was found guilty of murder and sexual assault. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole at the age of 64 years old.
For Jim, it could never be enough of a punishment.
“There’s no justice,” he said. “She’s not coming back.”
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