Feather Going Down & Turning Brown

[Tony Buzolich]

This morning I got on the water right at 5:30 and the firt thing I noticed was the drop in flow. It seemed to be several feet lower than just the day before. I had a father and daughter coming from Walnut Creek to fish stripers and shad. The water looked good with quite a few fish dimpling and breaking the surface as you looked out across the water.

After a short casting lesson at the dock we began heading downstream toward our first stop. Before going very far we suddenly got shallow fast. Three feet, two feet,,,,WHEW!,,One foot!!!!! Pull it in to neutral, and turn off the key. I was expecting it to be a bit shallow with the water drop but not like this. I trim the motor up and use the electric trolling motor to get us into some slightly deeper water next to shore. Yes, the deepest water is right against the bank.

We motor upstream toward Shanghai and get into some deeper water and start working our flies without success. We move and move again but still nothing. I thought this was going to be an easy fun day? As the sun starts to come up we can see the water is off-color but keep the temperature is good an there's no wind, and there ought to some fish here somewhere.

We continue moving on upstream until we're within sight of what used to be the Shanghai Bend Falls. Only now there's a great big backhoe driving across the top of the clay and digging in to the water doing repair on a broken sewer line that happened several months before. Uugh! No wonder the water is brown.

There has been talk about dropping the water level so repair work could be done, but NOT NOW! Not in the middle of striper and shad season!

The Feather has been producing very good but not today. How long will this go on? I don't know but it looks like they just started the project and you know how fast government work goes.

This is sure DAMN poor timing to screw up some more of the river.
Tony

[Dabalone]

Sewage has been dumping into the river? Not sure if you were kidding or not.

[JAWallace]

Will Feather River guides now become Lower Sac guides? No extra effluent in the Feather, just more concentrated. S**t happens.

[Tony Buzolich]

No, I wasn't kidding about the broken pipe. Back in Feb. or March the mid-section of Shanghai Bend Falls gave way during the high water. As it broke through it also ruptured a sewer line that runs from Yuba City on the west side of the river to holding ponds on the east side. The main pipe runs directly under the Feather River at Shanghai.

For a while sewage was being released into the river but was down played by the water district as being partly treated.

As for the falls, the clay bottom is bone dry where water used to run over it. The water now runs through the break like a channel without the obstruction of the sewer pipe. This is a plus for migrating fish that want to move upstream, but, it took away a great holding area below below the falls.

Two questions I have are (1) How long will this repair take to fix?, and (2) Will the repair create a damming affect again and let the falls return?

Here's a picture I took just after the falls broke. Note the white water in the distance is where the break occured creating the channel.



Yesterday there was a large back hoe working on the clay just to the left of that white water. I'm sure they will be digging out the old broken pipe and this is going to create a constipated mess for quite a while.

Yes, I will be fishing the SAC a little more .
Tony

[Dabalone]

A quick google turned this up http://www.appeal-democrat.com/artic...ter-river.html Article says it will take about two months to fix, so I guess that countdown starts after bidding process and red tape are out of the way, gives no start date for repairs.

[OceanSunfish]

It appears that wastewater will continue to be released until the break is fixed?!

It seems to me that the pipe needs to be rerouted out of the river bed or the river itself. The collapse of the falls was a natural occurance.... let it be.

[booneshaya]

I live right there at Shanghai Bend. They have already been working on both sides of the river for at least three months. Why in the hell would your route a sewer line through a river falls? Upstream or downstream is calm flat water.

[Dabalone]

I live right there at Shanghai Bend. They have already been working on both sides of the river for at least three months. Why in the hell would your route a sewer line through a river falls? Upstream or downstream is calm flat water.

Easy question. Its why we pay big bucks, provide gold retirement and medical plans with no job accountability to attract the best and brightest into govt. service so we can be assured of the best and brightest decisions. I read that somewhere.

[ycflyfisher]

This pipe does not run under and across the river as has been stated in this thread. From my understanding, the pipe that broke is the discharge pipe that leads to the diffusion structure. This pipe carries what is known as final effluent. Final effluent is fully treated wastewater. It is not raw sewage or partially treated (primary) effluent. It is the discharge that would normally be discharged to the river via the diffusion structure. The only thing this break has caused is that some of the final effluent is entering the river via the break rather than the DS. These types of projects are emergency projects that are usually expedited with no red tape, no delays, and truncated open bid periods to expedite completion of the work. If not handled expeditiously, the control board usually levies fines which are entirely at their own subjective determination.

[Dabalone]

This pipe does not run under and across the river as has been stated in this thread. From my understanding, the pipe that broke is the discharge pipe that leads to the diffusion structure. This pipe carries what is known as final effluent. Final effluent is fully treated wastewater. It is not raw sewage or partially treated (primary) effluent. It is the discharge that would normally be discharged to the river via the diffusion structure. The only thing this break has caused is that some of the final effluent is entering the river via the break rather than the DS. These types of projects are emergency projects that are usually expedited with no red tape, no delays, and truncated open bid periods to expedite completion of the work. If not handled expeditiously, the control board usually levies fines which are entirely at their own subjective determination.

The pipe runs about six feet under the river to a diffuser. "Yuba City’s secondary treated sewage outfall diffuser sits in the middle of the pool atop
Shanghai Falls".