By Will Houston Recent high tides and brief mid-September rains gave some Eel River salmon a fleeting chance to move closer to their spawning grounds. But a lack of adequate flows on the river is causing many fish to fall ill as they crowd within small pools for weeks at a time, according to a … Read more
“In our fourth year of this historic drought, we have to find ways to protect our fisheries from the impacts of the driest years on record, and the devastating impacts of rogue marijuana grows. The combination of the drought and rogue grows have resulted in unprecedented damage to our state’s watersheds, they have put endangered … Read more
At the Potter Valley Water Project, owned and operated by PG&E, water is not wasted. It is waste. That’s because the two dams, the manmade lake, the reservoir, the tunnel and the Archimedes Screw, are all parts of a facility that produces between three and 8.4 megawatts of hydroelectric power. The water is just a … Read more
Though humans have lived along the bountiful shores and rivers of the far North Coast for tens of thousands of years, the span of our now-dominant civilization’s history here has only begun to exceed a century and a half. Looking particularly at the environmental history of the Eel River, it’s striking that some of the … Read more
The Eel was once one of the largest salmon-producing rivers in the state, and much of the delta’s river system was deep enough to host hundred-ton shipping vessels carrying goods from San Francisco and beyond. A hundred and fifty years ago, the delta’s river system would drain naturally with the rains and tides. But in … Read more
A YouTube video posted yesterday to SFGate.com claimed that the Eel has stopped flowing altogether, which is not strictly accurate. The video above, which was shot this morning, shows that the Eel simply goes underground for a stretch, running beneath the surface of the gravel riverbed before reemerging about 100-200 yards north. Regardless, this is … Read more
BENTON FALLS, MAINE — “Look underneath you,” commands Nate Gray, a burly biologist for the state of Maine. He reaches down to the grate floor of a steel cage perched on a dam straddling the Sebasticook River, and pulls back a board revealing the roiling river 30 feet below. “All you see is fish.” Below, undulating in … Read more
A state appeals court has restored the authority of California water regulators to direct reductions in cold-weather sprays by grape growers and other waterfront farmers along the Russian River that have led to deaths of endangered species of salmon. A Mendocino County judge previously ruled that the state Water Resources Control Board lacked authority to … Read more
By: Scott Greacen Originally published by Econews, February 2014 See detailed timeline of correspondence and media coverage. Utility cites risk of sediment collapse; drained reservoir may run dry. A few people in the Russian River watershed still have a greater claim to the Eel’s water than do the river’s own salmon. After draining its reservoir … Read more
In drought-hit California, marijuana growers are feeling the heat, accused of using too much water for their thirsty plants and of polluting streams and rivers with their pesticides and fertilizers. … Nevedal and other pot backers said the ultimate solution was for Congress to fully legalize the drug, which she said would eliminate the need … Read more