Water Flows Drop Everywhere

[Tony Buzolich]

Okey, let's hear a good reason for this.

It seems like every river in the state has cut back to almost minimum. The Sac, The American, Feather, Yuba, Etc.

The Feather is right in my backyard so to speak and I'm on it almost daily so these sudden changes are very apparant to me. The Feather on Monday was running at 12K cfs which is fairly high but it was clearing nicely and full of fish of every kind from stripers to shad to salmon. By Tuesday afternoon it had dropped to 6K cfs, by Wednesday it was at 5Kcfs, 4K yesterday, and now at 3300cfs. One report I heard said it was scheduled to drop to 2500cfs in the next couple of days.

The Sac is the same way, and so on.

So lets hear a good reason for this. Is it to save people from drowning on a holiday weekend? I don't think so. Is it to fill the lakes behind all the dams because the snow melt is over? I haven't been over the summit lately so I don't know how much is up there but I still see them skiing on the news.

Anyone out there have a good answer?

With all this low slow flowing water the temps are going to climb way up and start another season of gill rot for all the salmon in the rivers. The Feather last year had some, Nimbus is having problems now with something killing the smolt. What next, the Klamath disaster again?

I'd like to hear some comments,
TONY

[Darian]

Hi Tony,.... On the lower American, I'm sure that the river was lowered to accomodate rafting as that activity, in time with the Jazz Festival, attracts a lot of people who buy a bunch of stuff in support o local business and produce a lot of revenue for local governments.... Smart buiness. The flows on the American are scheduled to go back up next week.

[Katz]

I bet most of them will all go up after the Holiday tomorrow. I would guess it is for the safety of boaters, etc.

Katz

[2short]

I check the Sqaw valley web page for the snow report they're posting 110-120 @ 8200 ft el. Also last week I made a scouting trip to check out the MF Feather (nice steep hike) my friend and I came back through the pass from Quincy to Downieville still lots of snow up there.
2short

[fredaevans]

Here the water flows (like several in Cal.) are fairly well controlled by the Warm Spring dam. It's been 'water in/water out' now for the past several weeks.

That said, snow pack or no, we've had a couple of weeks of cool to down right COLD weather. This appears to have slowed the snow pack melt down considerably.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/or/nwis/uv...cd=00065,00060

That the web address for Dodge Bridge which is about half way between the dam and Medford. To get the actual dam numbers you have to call the fishing 800 #.

[bubzilla]

Here the water flows (like several in Cal.) are fairly well controlled by the Warm Spring dam.

Not sure where you're coming up with that name, Fred. There's a Warm Springs dam on the Russian in California and one on the Malheur in Oregon, but not on the Rogue. Of course, Warm Springs is a place on the Deschutes as well.

To answer the original question, while there are several irrigation and flood-control projects on the Rogue, the flows are most affected by William L. Jess Dam--which most of us still refer to by it's original name: Lost Creek Dam. Because it's a federal flood-control project, they have a formula which they follow regarding storage in the reservoir and flows. Not sure about the dams in California, but any of them that are primarily flood-control dams that are operated by the Army Corp of Engineers may be subject to the same kind of regulation. And, because the Rogue is subject to a pre-determined flow regime, there are dates on the calendar that trigger major changes in flow. I don't know, but it may be the same case on the California rivers in question. That is, something about the date requires them to begin storage. On the Rogue, there is a plan which is viewable online in graph form which indicates when flow changes are required. Sometimes that is tied to inflow and reservoir level, but sometimes it is date specific as well. That could potentially explain why all the flows would change at once irrespective of other issues, e.g., inflow.

Also, for those interested in the Rogue, all of the information related to current flows (including hourly outflow data), reservoir levels, etc., are available online. While a person can call the dam for outflow information, it's only updated once a day (at 12:00 A.M.), and therefore is highly unreliable at the times when you need to be checking on flows the most, i.e., when things are changing a lot. I guess what I'm saying is be careful about relying on the 1-800 number, as it can be off by several hundred c.f.s. during the late fall, winter, and spring.

Here's a link to one of a several sites that have hourly or realtime inflow or outflow data for Lost Creek. This one is nice for those, like myself, who prefer numbers to graphs.

http://www.nwd-wc.usace.army.mil/report/los.htm

[Tracy Chimenti]

I've been watching the CDEC site for the last month and the flows in Nicholaus have stabilized for the last five days at 24- to 25-feet elevation. Last week I fished from Star down to below the bridge and the river looked primo. Problem was, the water had been dropping every day and the it really screwed up the fish. It should be back up to par now with the stable flows.

I have a chart at home that shows water storage readings on the CA water project. In a nutshell, with the exception of the burgeoning spring salmon run, system storage increases at either the beginning or middle of each major run of fish-- this includes stripers, shad, fall salmon, fall steehead. We used to get gorgeous sea-run steelies in the Nicholaus area, fresh with lice, right about Oct 15th. In the evening the river there would be alive with steelhead feeding on caddis and minnows. But we haven't seen that for about 10-years. On about October 15th, they ramp up the Oroville storage program, and the river drops and heats. Real nice thing to do to migrants during an Indian summer. Guess it's just the way it is these days.

Tracy

[Tracy Chimenti]

I meant to say "... the flow regimes, in a nut shell, are bad for all migratory fish other than spring salmon...." (we'll cook them in the fall!)