[env-trinity] (no subject)

[Byron Leydecker]

Lake Shasta rising

Redding Record Searchlight-10/25/10 

By Dylan Darling 

 

Lake Shasta is again on the rise following a wet weekend in the north state.

 

The lake level rose almost a foot after storm clouds steadily dropped more
than 5 inches of rain onto the lake from 3:30 p.m. Saturday until 1 p.m.
Sunday said Sheri Harral, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclamation at
Shasta Dam. The lake went from being 48.65 feet below its high water line
Friday to 47.82 feet below Monday.

 

"That's not a whole lot of room at all," she said.

 

Depending on whether rainstorms continue at the lake, the bureau may have to
start letting increased flows out of Lake Shasta and down the Sacramento
River for flood control, she said. If the rains return soon, the lake also
likely already has hit its lowest level for the year.

 

Last year, which saw a mostly dry November, the lake didn't bottom out until
Nov. 18, when it hit 130.5 feet below the high water line. A year earlier
the lake dropped to its lowest level since 1991 when it fell to 157.77 feet
below the top of Shasta Dam on Oct. 13, 2008. The record low for the lake is
230.32 feet below set in 1977.

 

At Lassen Volcanic National Park, the same storm that brought rain to Lake
Shasta and Redding delivered more wintry weather. The storm dropped 8 inches
of snow at Lake Helen, 8,200 feet above sea level near the base of Lassen
Peak, said Karen Haner, spokeswoman at Lassen.

 

"It kind of surprised us Saturday," she said.

 

Cold temperatures then turned the snow to ice, prompting the closure of the
road through the park over the weekend. The 33-mile-long road remained
closed for 22 miles - between the Devastated Area and Sulphur Works - Monday
and likely will be closed until it warms up in the park, Haner said.

 

She said she didn't think the road was closed for the season yet. Last year
the road closed Nov. 18.

 

While last weekend's storm closed Lassen's road, it opened burning season
around much of the north state.

 

The rain prompted the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
to lift open burning bans in Shasta, Siskiyou and Trinity counties. The ban
remained in Tehama County.

 

The storm is also spurring the state's Regional Water Quality Control
Board's Redding office to check for heavy sediment runoff at construction
sites around the north state. Robert Crandall, the office's assistant
executive officer, said the office received two citizen's complaints about
runoff one at the Salt Creek development by Sierra Pacific Industries in
west Redding and the other at the city's overpass construction on Interstate
5 at Oasis Road.

 

He said an inspector from the office is set to visit both sites today.

 

At the Antlers Bridge project in Lakehead, where a similar storm last year
prompted runoff concerns, there was no sign of sediment pouring into Lake
Shasta, said Mark Darnall, a resident engineer for Caltrans.

 

He said the storm did shift dirt around within the 14-acre site and crews
are bracing for more rainstorms after the weekend's douser.

 

"It was a good warm-up for the season," he said.

 

 

Byron Leydecker, JcT

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 land

415 519 4810 mobile

 <mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net> bwl3 at comcast.net

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

 <http://fotr.org/> http://www.fotr.org 

 

 

 

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