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Thread: Future state of Feather River this fall?

  1. #1
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    Default Future state of Feather River this fall?

    The lowest water levels ever reported in Lake Oroville happened this week. The tunnels are empty, and no power is being made. Scary stuff.

    My questions are:

    With the current lake levels, is the low flow feather going to be flowing until we hopefully get late-fall or early-winter rains?

    Will the water temps be too warm in the low flow?

    Is there a backup water source that can be provided for the low flow?

    Is it ethical to fish for the steelhead this fall, if the salmon make it up?

  2. #2
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    Default Low Flow Feather??

    Not as informed as I should be on this but if even if the flows from the dam are continued, they're probably going to be too warm for spawning/fishing of Salmon/Steelhead (given how hot the weather has beens so far). To my knowledge there are no back-up sources of water for the low flow section.

    By the fall, the dredging project on the Feather may be up in the low flow section.
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  3. #3
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    It's my understanding that the "low flow" section (the historical river channel) is fed directly by the dam's outlet (normal dam release directly into river below dam) The Forebay and Afterbay may actually be fed by the water released by the hydroelectric production, hence, no hydroelectric production, no water divereted into the Afterbay/Forebay. IF this is the case, then I would believe the "low flow" section becomes the "higher flow" section supplied by colder water direct from the dam, not the warming conduit known as the Afterbay and Forebay.

    I may be inaccurate with my understanding, so feel free to provide other references, etc.

    Not having fish fooled and stacked up at the Thermalito outlet for months may not be such a bad thing.
    Last edited by OceanSunfish; 08-06-2021 at 11:12 PM.

  4. #4
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    It's unclear if the water level has dropped below the level of the penstock inlets to the power plant or if there just isn't enough head pressure to turn the turbines. There is also another outlet at the base of the dam that can provide cold water. The press release from yesterday should answer some of your questions: https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Relea...yatt-Statement

    The state should know how much cold water is left in the reservoir and can predict how water temperatures will be in the river through the fall. You can contact DWR directly and they should be able to answer your question. The Feather River Hatchery Manager should also have an idea too.
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  5. #5
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    The future of the west coast is upon us....
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  6. #6
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    Scary stuff going on right now.

    All the water for the river comes out from the bottom of the dam. Then it splits and the low flow starts and the other split goes into a canal that runs north of Oroville itself and goes into the Forebay and then the water that comes out of that goes into the Afterbay and then joins the low flow water again at the outlet to create the high flow section of the river.

    The Forebay and Afterbay are for flood control for Oroville and there is multiple generations plants on the canals.

    The water comes off the bottom of the lake. It is cold.

    For daily info you can call the recording line at 530-534-2307 it will give you the cfs coming into the lake, the cfs leaving the lake and the cfs in the low flow and the high flow. It will also give you temperatures.

    The lake has been this low before in the past. It will still be okay to fish in the Fall. At least that is my experience. The issue we are going to have is a high amount of silt. The rain drops hit all that exposed banks on the lake and create a dirty lake which eventually will make its way into the river.

    We need shit load of rain and snow this coming year. If not we will be in extreme trouble.
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  7. #7
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    Great clarification. Thank you.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lance Gray View Post

    We need shit load of rain and snow this coming year. If not we will be in extreme trouble.
    This...the problem (at least on the Feather, different story on the Sac w/r/t salmon) is less so this fall, it's next fall.

    If we do not get an incredible winter, ideally together with a very long slow melt next spring, next fall our fishing opportunities in CA will be virtually non-existent.

    I'm waiting to see what happens...between the low flows this fall and the Monument Fire, my mood is sour toward CA right now, if we don't get a solid November-December wet pattern, I might forgo a CA fishing license altogether next year.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by fishing&beyond View Post
    The lowest water levels ever reported in Lake Oroville happened this week. The tunnels are empty, and no power is being made. Scary stuff.

    My questions are:

    With the current lake levels, is the low flow feather going to be flowing until we hopefully get late-fall or early-winter rains?

    Will the water temps be too warm in the low flow?

    Is there a backup water source that can be provided for the low flow?

    Is it ethical to fish for the steelhead this fall, if the salmon make it up?
    I think you're asking good questions, that everyone should be asking. With respect to some opinions expressed in this thread, it is going to be far from 'business as usual' on the Feather this fall. That's just not gonna happen IMO.

    You're correct that Oroville storage is lower than it's ever been, but that only tells half the story. We're lower than ever before and it's early AUGUST. Prior seasonal lows have occurred in the winter just before storms hit and caused storage to rise.

    Here's some historic data back 31 years:

    https://cdec.water.ca.gov/jspplot/js...cookies=cdec01

    At what I'd anticipate to be daily storage drop between now and OCT, given that pre '14 diverters are on 5% allocation, and demand typically drops going into the fall and the state has been attempting to meet as much southern demand from sources downstream, I'd expect storage to be around 650,000af on Oct 1.

    Oroville hits dead pool, the point where the lake cannot be drawn down any further at 604'. I expect it to hit dead pool sometime shortly after Oct 1. As the lake approaches dead pool, it will rapidly lose what little cold water pool potential it has left, and at dead pool, outflow is essentially warm surface water and best case scenario total flow to the river = inflow to Oroville- evap loss.

    I'm not seeing how this escapes disaster. There will be water in the river but I'm seeing much lower than normal flows that are much warmer than normal with probably all flow volume being sent via the LF with the exception of gate seepage at the Outlet.

    I think this will severely impact all aspects hatchery operation, release schedules etc. I can see the Annex where the raceways are fed by ground water from deep wells not supporting Mykiss development, but chinook production.

    When we do get that first storm, I think we'll see massive deposition of fine sediments also.

    Also Hyatt shut down due to lack of head pressure @640, but the Thermalito Complex can still generate power at the Diversion Pool dam and at the Robie facility and Robie I THINK has pumpback capability to the Diversion Pool, and that could be used to augment river flows, but storage for the entire complex is pretty minimal.

    https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Web...ed-Storage.pdf


    Just my take on a pretty dire situation.
    Last edited by ycflyfisher; 08-09-2021 at 11:43 AM.

  10. #10
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    By "pre '14 diverters" you mean pre-1914 or Senior water right holders?

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