Truckee’s drinking water is clean, cold and delicious, naturally filtered by the same rugged mountains the area is known for. It is pulled from the Martis Valley Groundwater Basin, which sits hundreds of feet underground, sheltered from life on the surface by layers upon layers of bedrock, silt, clay and granite. Truckee pumps water daily; very little time passes from when it hits our pipes to when it fills your glass. When you turn on your tap, the water that flows out could be seeing the light of day for the first time in hundreds of years! Since it’s pulled from deep underground, Truckee’s water does not have to be treated like surface water does. You’re drinking the purest version of what water is meant to taste like. And Truckee Donner Public Utility District tests frequently to make sure it stays that way.
The Martis Valley Groundwater Basin is our underground drinking water source. It is a highly sustainable resource; we use less than a third of the water that recharges annually, and the basin’s full capacity is nearly 70 times that!
The three public water agencies that utilize this basin (Truckee Donner Public Utility District, Northstar Community Services District and Placer County Water Agency) formed a partnership in 2013 to monitor the basin year-over-year to track its health and yield to ensure that this high-quality resource is not compromised.
Truckee’s water filters through many layers of purifying sediments as it journeys down to the underground basin. Silt, andesite and cobble act as natural mountain filters, purifying the water as it moves through layers of earth. The majority of Truckee’s wells pull from 600–800 feet deep. The deepest well goes down about 950 feet, but the water in the aquifer is even deeper in places.
Truckee’s water is hundreds of years old, and can be greater than 1,000 years old, proven by isotope dating. When you turn on your tap, the water that flows out could be seeing the light of day for the first time in hundreds of years!
Truckee’s water supplier, Truckee Donner Public Utility District, takes over 1,000 samples per year to ensure it is providing the community with extremely high-quality water. And Truckee Mountain Filtered does not need to be treated like all surface water resources do. The only thing that is added is the minimum amount of disinfectant required by state law, nothing else.