Want to know why they increased the flows from Shasta Dam from 5000 cfs to 20,000 cfs

[jerry from sac]

They had a spill from Spring Creek Reservoir and they have to dilute the spill and they are not telling the public.
Here's some info about why they created Spring Creek Reservoir in the first place.
-
Spring Creek Debris Dam is an earthfill dam on Spring Creek, a tributary of the Sacramento River, in Shasta County in the U.S. state of California. Completed in 1963, the dam, maintained by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, serves primarily to collect severe acid mine drainage stemming from the Iron Mountain Mine.[1] The dam forms the Spring Creek Reservoir, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) long. Spring Creek and South Fork Spring Creek flow into the reservoir from a 16-square-mile (41 km2) watershed.[2] The dam is directly upstream from the city of Keswick, California and the Keswick Reservoir.[3] The operation is part of the Trinity River Division of the Central Valley Project.[1]

The primary purpose of the Spring Creek Dam was to collect acid mine drainage from the old Iron Mountain Mine, which was heavily polluting Spring Creek and its tributaries. The dam was built in response to these pollutants that were contaminating the Sacramento River, the primary water supply for millions of Californians. Although the watershed is small in comparison to that of the Sacramento River, the stream is among the most polluted and acidic in the world.[4][5]

The dam and reservoir, along with other treatment structures built at and below the mine, have successfully reduced the dry weather pollution of Spring Creek by up to ninety-five percent. Problems, though, still occur mainly in the form of large uncontrolled spills from the reservoir. Several concerns about the structural integrity and safety of the dam, both physically and biologically, arose in the 1990s. Emergency releases from Shasta Lake, often in the value of thousands of acre feet of water, have occurred from time to time to dilute massive acid spills from the Spring Creek drainage

[Randy Lee]

Comforting!

[KJE]

Jerry, where'd you hear that? My understanding is that this is a three day-ish pulse to clean gravel beds that haven't seen high flows in years, and also that Shasta is so likely to fill that we may see more high flows this spring.

[jerry from sac]

I was scheduled to fish Wed, Thru and Friday. Fishing on Wednesday the river continued to get more colored as the day went by without an increase in flows and my guide was wondering why. Went back Thursday and the river was worse without any increase in flows, certainly unfishable. My guide and some guide buddies decided to investigate and came up with above info.They did not increase the flows until 2:00 am Friday morning.

[jerry from sac]

Did you know you can fish Spring Creek Reservoir. One of the the most polluted pieces of water in the world.

[SeanO]

Wow! Would be interesting to know more about the potential spill.

Thanks,

[Awood]

Looks like this is coming from the Kennedy Brothers here:
https://fishkennedybrothers.wordpress.com

[SeanO]

Bump it up for any updates.

I don't see any news about this so far, anything else?

[Awood]

This was indexed by Google
March 9,2016:
https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/OSPR/NRD...in-Mine-CERCLA

The issue was also reported in the Redding Searchlight December 14,2015:
http://www.redding.com/news/local/la...362077931.html

[James W]

It's a normal release of water from Spring Cr Res (after it had been treated to remove heavy metals and its ph raised) to correspond with winter flows in the main river for additional dilution. There has not been an uncontrolled spill here in decades.
Yes the water looks bad, but it's not a Gold King Mine incident.