Lower American River going up a little more

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Project: Nimbus Dam

Please make the following release changes to the American River:

Date Time From (cfs) To (cfs)

06/20/2015 0100 2500 2750

Comment: Delta Requirements

Issued by: Randi Field

[Mark V]

Saw that they raised the flow a little more yesterday to 3,750 cfs.

On the CDEC website, believe it says by the US Bureau of Reclamation... Does that mean the decisions are by the Feds and out of the hands of our state govt?

3,750 cu. ft/ sec x 60sec = 225,000 cu. ft/ min

225,000 cu. ft./ min divided by 43,560 cu ft/ acre foot = 5.16 acre feet per minute, x 60 mins = 310 AF per hour, which is 7,400 AF per day.


Is anyone else scratching your head watching the water flow get raised more over the last several weeks?

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/jspplot/jsp...cookies=cdec01

Folsom Lake is currently holding 351,000 AF or about 36% of it's capacity. In the last 10 days it's dropped by about 44,000 AF from 40% of capacity.

Don't get me wrong-- I've really enjoyed the good schoolie striper action we've had for several weeks now because of the higher flow, but wondering what is the long term plan for the remaining AF in Folsom?

[ZWhit]

A volunteer at the lake told me it was mandated by law and that Folsom lake isn't really a lake, but a resevoir which is meant to be drained. To which I said, I will put my blinders back on and stop questioning.

[Tony Buzolich]

Stay on it Mark. Maybe somebody else will wake up and figure out how to seine the fish out of the mud hole they'll be leaving.

The real quandary is not who decides these actions, but whose pockets are getting padded the most. They're all crooked as hell and not one of them really cares about the other. Break a law? Ignore hundred year old water rights? Save the delta? Save the salmon? Push back the saltwater intrusion? Build temporary dams and then tear them down?

It's all a bunch of crap decisions made by too many "concerned" politicians that are simply "following the money".
Tony

[winxp_man]

Tony,

Pretty much summed it up! Not much more that can be added....

[Mark V]

Well Maury called me the other day, were both bummed about the bite shut-off since the latest kickup in flow. He says he has a good friend who's a water lawyer who is very smart and he trusts not to be biased for the farm ind.

His friend explained why the flows are, it's kinda complicated. Federal mandates designed to protect the chinook smolts in the river below Shasta have made them release a smaller amount of colder water from the bottom of the lake to maintain cooler river water temps in the mid 60s. So then they kicked up the flows in the American & Feather to make up the volume needed to prevent saltwater backwash in the delta. His friend said the farm export pumps in the delta are not even turned on right now.

I hope that covers the explanation. I asked, 'but why such higher AR flow this year than last', and... I think that was already in the explanation. Anyhoo, I bet they'll have to keep stepping down the flows because of the math on Folsom storage. And it seems like when they make a sizeable step change, it takes several days for the stripers to acclimate.

What's your bet on how much longer numbers of schoolies will hang out in the lower river this year?

[Idadon]

Same crap goes on up in Idaho. Policy for a dam's operation is set when the dam is built, flood control, irrigation, recreation (low priority), etc. Once set it is very difficult to change. The dam close to me, BLM facility, has to draw down to 50% pool by winter to be ready for flood control the following spring. We haven't had a big snow year in the last decade so even if the outflow is shut down to the minimum this lake can't get above about 75% in the spring. To complicate things that 75% appears to be "Owned" by agriculture 150 miles down river, most of which is now corporate farms. Net result is dry, ugly shore lines, bad fishing in the lake and river below it, and angry boaters. But we have potatoes and barley (chips & beer). Our local BLM is in the midst of doing a multi-year study to determine if it would be safe to hike the drawdown % higher instead of just flushing the water down the river in late fall.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Everyone who fishes and has a smart phone needs this cell phone app..

FishHead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hndgd-5cbTs

Lower American River is at 2450 right now.....

How many of you have this already?

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