After praying for rain over five dry years, Californians are now praying for a break. The state is being soaked. Its biggest reservoirs, once at record lows, are at capacity or overflowing from record-setting rain and snow. That includes the Oroville Lake reservoir behind the Oroville Dam, where nearly 200,000 Northern California residents were evacuated … Read more
California officials have ordered the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream from the Oroville Dam because overflowing waters could erode the dam’s two spillways and cause devastating flooding. Yet when public interest groups warned of such a threat in 2005, state and federal officials rejected their call to line one spillway with concrete, saying it … Read more
OROVILLE, Butte County — Nearly 200,000 people downriver from Lake Oroville were ordered to evacuate Sunday night after an emergency spillway next to the reservoir’s dam appeared in danger of collapse. While the integrity of Oroville Dam is not at risk, officials said a catastrophic amount of water was in danger of bursting through the … Read more
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ramped up flows on the lower Klamath River on Friday morning in an attempt to reduce the risk of threatened fish from contracting a deadly parasite as had occurred in years past. The move came just over a day after a federal judge found that the bureau’s past dam operations … Read more
DeSabla >> Operating the hydroelectric plants on Butte Creek just isn’t worth it to PG&E anymore, and that’s a potential threat to a rare strain of salmon. The electric company is going to withdraw its application for a license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission later this month, said PG&E corporate relations representative Paul Moreno. … Read more
With a break in the weather and increased outflow from Oroville Dam’s heavily damaged spillway, state officials said Friday morning they no longer believe the swollen reservoir will breach the dam’s emergency spillway. After a grim assessment late Thursday, officials announced Friday morning they think they can avoid using the dam’s emergency spillway, which they’ve … Read more
A federal judge today ruled that federal regulators must push more water down the Klamath River in order to combat a deadly parasite that kills juvenile salmon in the springtime. Specifically, Judge William H. Horrick ruled that the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dams and diversions on the river, must provide two sorts … Read more
Tommy Williams—a fisheries biologist whose enthusiasm bubbles forth so swiftly, he’s often interrupting himself mid-sentence—is pacing on the banks of the Carmel River. “Amazing,” he says, snapping pictures of newly formed sandbanks and twigs wedged in between white alder, black cottonwood and willow trunks. It’s not the trees or twigs that delight him. It’s the thundering flow … Read more
Thursday, February 2, 2017 NCIP Comments Bureau of Land Management via email to NCIP_comments@aecom.com RE: Friends of the Eel River Scoping Comments on the Northwest California Integrated Resource Management Plan Dear BLM Staff: Thanks for the opportunity to provide scoping comments to help shape the preparation of alternatives for the Northwest California Integrated Resource Management … Read more
Tuesday, January 31, 2017 California State Coastal Conservancy 1515 Clay Street, 10th Floor Oakland CA 94612 RE: Friends of the Eel River Letter of Support for the State Coastal Conservancy’s Certification of the Final Environmental Impact Report: Eel River Estuary and Centerville Slough Enhancement Project SCH#: 2014122040 Dear Coastal Conservancy staff et al; Friends of … Read more