Tony Buzolich
07-07-2016, 07:36 AM
Yesterday my wife and I went up to Oroville for lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant Tong Fong Low's. After lunch I wanted to see how many (if any) salmon were coming up the Feather River and we stopped by the hatchery and dam.
The water at the hatchery dam was roaring (literally) over the top like I've never seen it before. We couldn't see any salmon like we usually do because of all the whitewater turbulence.
There was a crew of Fish and Wildlife guys working in the fish ladder while we tried to look for salmon at the viewing area. Upon leaving I stopped to ask one of the workers if there were any early salmon showing in the river. "Yes, there are quite a few in the river now" he said. He also said that was what they were working on. With the water so high it is already filling the lower part of the fish ladder and salmon are getting piled up in the ladder. They go in and turn the salmon around daily and send them back out into the main stream of the river. "Some turn around and come right back" he says, while others stay out in the main flow for a while longer.
I asked what the flows were and why so high now? He said he didn't know the CFS in the low-flow section but the combined flow below the Thermolito outlet was running at 11,000 CFS. Geez! Why so high? " It's not to flush out the delta like they say", he says. "All they're doing is sending that water SOUTH and filling the lakes and swimming pools in Southern California!"
This is coming right out of the Fish & Wildlife worker's mouth. With all this extra water the salmon will arrive too early and when they need this water in the fall for spawning it won't be available for them then. And the same is happening on the American River too which is running at 5000 CFS at Nimbus.
What a guise this is of flushing the delta when it fact it's been bought by southern California interests. Like Bill says, "Follow the Money". DISGUSTING, FRUSTRATING, and SAD for all of us that live here in Northern Calif.
Tony
The water at the hatchery dam was roaring (literally) over the top like I've never seen it before. We couldn't see any salmon like we usually do because of all the whitewater turbulence.
There was a crew of Fish and Wildlife guys working in the fish ladder while we tried to look for salmon at the viewing area. Upon leaving I stopped to ask one of the workers if there were any early salmon showing in the river. "Yes, there are quite a few in the river now" he said. He also said that was what they were working on. With the water so high it is already filling the lower part of the fish ladder and salmon are getting piled up in the ladder. They go in and turn the salmon around daily and send them back out into the main stream of the river. "Some turn around and come right back" he says, while others stay out in the main flow for a while longer.
I asked what the flows were and why so high now? He said he didn't know the CFS in the low-flow section but the combined flow below the Thermolito outlet was running at 11,000 CFS. Geez! Why so high? " It's not to flush out the delta like they say", he says. "All they're doing is sending that water SOUTH and filling the lakes and swimming pools in Southern California!"
This is coming right out of the Fish & Wildlife worker's mouth. With all this extra water the salmon will arrive too early and when they need this water in the fall for spawning it won't be available for them then. And the same is happening on the American River too which is running at 5000 CFS at Nimbus.
What a guise this is of flushing the delta when it fact it's been bought by southern California interests. Like Bill says, "Follow the Money". DISGUSTING, FRUSTRATING, and SAD for all of us that live here in Northern Calif.
Tony