TRUCKEE, Calif. — The Truckee Meadows Water Authority is slowly releasing more water from Donner Lake in preparation for winter.

While a minimum flow through the dam is kept all summer, the authority opened the gates on the lake's dam slightly on Tuesday. The idea is to keep the lake up through Labor Day, said Bill Hauck of the water authority, but to make space by winter for potential flooding, as the authority does every year.

“We're not releasing as aggressively as last year — the elevation should be maintained a little higher than last September,” Hauck said.

Looking a week ahead, by Friday, Sept., 11, Donner Lake should be down roughly 1 foot, Hauck said, and another foot by Sept. 18.

Long-time Donner Lake resident Charlie White said this is good news for people who use the lake.

“This means people get to continue to use the piers and have access to their boats for another couple weeks,” White said.

He said it starts to get difficult once the lake drops 3 feet or more.

While Donner Lake isn't used specifically to contribute to water supplies running down the Truckee River except as emergency drought supplies, Hauck said the overall water picture from Tahoe and other reservoirs is still bleak.

“The outlook hasn't changed, we're winding down the third below-average stream runoff year ... Tahoe could be to its natural rim by October, and other reservoirs will be about bone dry,” Hauck said. “We're hoping when we role the dice this winter we come up big.”