More Feather River Mysteries

[roywest]

1750 CFS into the low flow. Is there a plan that anyone is privy to?

[DAVID95670]

It is Damn hard to wade in it. The flow is extremely high. I could barely hold my ground

[Larry S]

Maybe they'll pump the extra water over to the Trinity!
Makes as much sense as some of their other schemes.
Best,
Larry S

[DLJeff]

... or pump it down to La La Angeles to replace the billions of gallons they lost trying to fill up Paulie Pavilion when that ancient water main burst. "Inspection? Maintenance? Corrosion protection? Naw, we don't need any of that stuff. If it breaks we'll just build another one and syphon more water from up north. They got plenty."

[Larry S]

DL,
I'm a big pusher for desal. I know it's expensive; but look at the hidden costs of water now when you factor
in the fish and such. We have "limitless" water available and plenty of solar possibilities. Forget the
bullet train! We do recycle some down here; but, that's not enough.
Best,
Larry S

[dpentoney]

Drove by Pyramid Lake at Castaic Tuesday and it is absolutely full.....

[DLJeff]

DL,
I'm a big pusher for desal. I know it's expensive; but look at the hidden costs of water now when you factor
in the fish and such. We have "limitless" water available and plenty of solar possibilities. Forget the
bullet train! We do recycle some down here; but, that's not enough.

Right on, Larry. A bunch of desal plants sure makes one heckuva lot more sense for California than a bullet train that will never achieve the usership that Gov. Jerry thinks it will. Smart people prioritize where they spend their money when they don't have a lot of it. And the message has been clear for many many years that California needs more water than it needs more trains.

[tcorfey]

I am with Larry and Jeff, always thought that the fallow farm land could be made in to solar collection farms and use the energy generated as credits to offset the cost of desal water. So the solar part of the farm generates power which is used to lower desal water costs and the organic part of the farm receives the benefits through lower cost water. Might work? I definitely think that desal water generation is a much better spend than a bullet train and/or a tunnel project would be.

[Dave E.]

A wild guess.. Raise the flows while dropping the temps.

The Thermalito unit is a multi stage release and pump back hydro system, in addition to being a holding basin the last stage ( which empties into the Feather and marks the end of the low flow section ), the shallow Theramilto afterbay warms the water prior to it’s release for ag use.
Releasing more of that warm water into an already low flowing and warm river wouldn’t have been advantageous for ascending salmon. Thus and here’s my wild guess. They are releasing cooler water directly from Oroville dam, which will provide cooler water from the hatchery on downstream, right through the low flow section.

http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/facilities/Oroville/thermalito.cfm


So why do it this year?
Because we're in a drought. If you've been watching the out flow of the Yuba into the Feather and the Feather's flow throughout it's course this year, not just in the upstream areas where you like to fish, then you're aware that it's been pretty grim throughout the remainder of the rivers course.

The greater stone fruit harvest has started, the rice is up, the row crops that are in are at or nearing harvest, meaning lesser demand for warm ag water....the walnuts, lesser stone fruits which are still a ways out and orchard nurseries will still need water.

So If there was ever a moment in time to give any downriver fish a good flush of cold water, now might be that time.
The thinking might be, let's get as many upstream as early as we can, while we still have some cool water to do it with.
As opposed to what went on earlier this year with the Nimbus hatchery..

I'm just spitballin' here, maybe someone a little closer to Oroville than I am, can stick their nose in at the hatchery or at the DWR office and ask.

Dave

[roywest]

Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Dave.

[Larry S]

Roy,
Sorry about hi-jacking the thread. Blame it on frustration with the Trinity flows.
Best,
Larry S

[roywest]

No worries. It's all relevant.

[monahan100]

I kind of remember hearing that they can also pump water from Thermalito to Oroville, and they sometimes move the water around for power production. I could be way off base though.

[Dave E.]

I kind of remember hearing that they can also pump water from Thermalito to Oroville, and they sometimes move the water around for power production. I could be way off base though.

Hi Mike, You're not off base at all, but you did miss this earlier on in the thread.

http://www.water.ca.gov/swp/facilities/Oroville/thermalito.cfm

Dave

[Darian]

I just came back from a couple of days in L.A. The canals along I-5 are running right up to the top of their banks but it's not all making it down SoCal as Piru Lake (a water supply reservoir near Pyramid) is very low, according to news media. Also, Pyramid is showing some shoreline as it's being drawn down.

I'd guess the increased flows are due to increased pumping to give growers a chance to slow down on pumping groundwater. If growers keep pumping groundwater at the current rate, the lower San Joaquin valley might subside enough to re-fill Tulare Lake.... ;)