The sputter of whirling blades was the soundtrack for the days
following the 1986 flood for Chuck Smith, now spokesman for
Sutter County, who was then a reporter at the
Appeal-Democrat. Smith worked through the night on Feb. 20
after the flood waters burst through the levee into Linda. …
“The stories are part of the legacy of life in a floodplain,
where the strength of structures — the levees, dams, bypasses
and weirs — bends the natural flow of water to people’s
unnatural whims. Every so often, that strength fails.
“Homeowners in a Lake County have filed a lawsuit alleging
leaks in the county’s water system caused the ground to shift,
destroying and damaging some homes and devaluing others.
“The county ‘water system was improperly maintained and
controlled in a way that caused it to leak and, in turn,
destabilize the land/hillside,’ according to the lawsuit filed
Friday in Lake County Superior Court by Santa Rosa attorney
Michael Green.”
“Proponents of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan — the
multibillion-dollar effort to both restore the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and replumb it to pipe Sacramento River water
south — frequently claim the project isn’t about taking any new
water from the North State, but merely ensuring the existing
supplies flow more reliably and predictably.
“Well, maybe. But if they ever get those predictable flows, the
next thing folks down south will want is more water.
“Land, water and access to broadband Internet services will be
among the items going before the Butte County Board of
Supervisors Tuesday.
“Water and land come together in an agenda item that refers to
“4,000 to 5,000″ parcels in the county that were created by
deed, and do not conform to either the state or local
subdivision requirements.”
“Something about this region – perhaps the looming presence of
Mount Shasta itself, often shrouded in both mystery and
lenticular clouds – seems to either attract or cultivate all
manner of contrarians and curmudgeons, free-thinkers and the
fiercely independent. …
“Little surprise, then, that the Mount Shasta Sisson Museum is
in the midst of a three-year tribute to a larger-than-life
figure who so embodies the wild contradictions that seem
inherent in these parts.
“California Water Service’s proposed water rate increase for
Marysville customers has dropped from 34.8 percent to 10.16
percent for 2014, according to a settlement agreement filed
late Wednesday afternoon.
“The decline was a result of a detailed review of Cal Water
operating expenses during settlement discussions with the state
Division of Ratepayer Advocates, Cal Water spokesman Justin
Skarb said.”
From the California WaterBlog, posted by UC Davis Center for
Watershed Sciences:
“They spook the faint-of-heart every Halloween. Ghoulish,
hollow-eyed creatures stumble about like they’re half-dead.
Their skin is mottled from open sores. Rotting lips peel back
to reveal horrific grins.
“But enough about California’s spring-run Chinook salmon.
“Come autumn, these fish become the real-life living dead.
From the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW):
“The salmon ladder at Nimbus Hatchery in Rancho Cordova will open
Nov. 4, signaling the start of the spawning season on the
American River. California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
hatchery workers will open the gates in the ladder at 10:45 a.m.
“Three environmental groups say new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
documents ignore the Corps’ responsibility for the effects of two
Yuba County dams on fish habitat. … The assessments
were required under a judge’s ruling that tossed out an earlier
National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion on Yuba
River fish restoration.”
“The destructive environmental legacy of Gold Rush mining in the
Sierra Nevada could last for thousands of years in the form of
ongoing erosion of mercury-laced sediments, according to new
research.
“California’s gold rush may long be over, but
mercury-contaminated soil from mining activities in the foothills
of the Sierra Nevada continues to flow downstream, impacting fish
and the environment, a new study suggests.”
“Landowners will soon be tasked with new rules for groundwater
monitoring being finalized by the Central Valley Regional Water
Quality Control Board. The program will include new
reports and monitoring managed by water quality coalitions.
“Since 2003, growers have been under a program for monitoring
surface water runoff, including water testing to determine if
land use is impacting waterways.”
“Researchers who fattened young chinook salmon in flooded
fields after the rice harvest last winter reported Thursday
that the fish grew fast and to record sizes, offering a
promising new way to improve survival of the long-threatened
salmon.
“As youngsters, those rare but delectable fish of the
Sacramento River swim to the ocean each spring and reach
adulthood there before returning to spawn in the river’s
tributaries. But each year, predators kill millions of the
young fish as they reach the sea because the fish are too small
and helpless to
“When the Sacramento River runs high after a big storm,
floodwaters rush into the Yolo Bypass, which carries them away
from California’s capital city to the river’s downstream delta.
“In most years, the floodwaters quickly drain away. But what
would happen if the bypass was full of water for longer periods
when migrating salmon could use it?
“Use of the boat ramp at Beckwourth Riverfront Park in
Marysville has mostly depended on the level of the Feather
River.
“When it’s up, fishermen are able to access the river through
the lagoon between the river and ramp, and reach the seasonal
salmon and striper runs. When the river is down, the silt
that has accumulated over the years prevents boats from
reaching the river for anybody other than intrepid fishermen
willing to drag their vessels over the blocked entrance.”
“With temperatures dropping and the fog rolling in, it may be
hard to believe Humboldt County is still in a drought. …
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture named Humboldt, Del Norte,
Siskiyou, Trinity, Shasta and Mendocino counties as primary
natural disaster areas for severe to exceptional drought levels
in August.
From the California WaterBlog, in a post by William Fleenor and
Robyn Suddeth:
“The Yolo Bypass presents one of the most promising opportunities
to restore floodplain habitat for native fish in the Central
Valley. The 57,000-acre floodway protects Sacramento and the
southern Sacramento Valley from floods in wet winters and is
farmed each summer.
“Shasta County was in the midst of the second of its big boom
times. In the fall on 1938 thousands of men had poured
into the northern end of the Sacramento Valley, setting up
lean-tos and shanty towns on the outskirts of Redding, near the
Diestelhorst Bridge and further north.
“Just as the hunt for gold brought scores of men north in the
hopes of striking it rich, the prospect of finding work on the
last of the Great Depression’s major reclamation projects
marked the start of another economic boom for the area.”
“Each fall for millenia, tundra swans have arrived by the
thousands to spend winters on Sacramento Valley wetlands and
rice fields. They travel thousands of miles along the Pacific
Flyway from their summer breeding grounds in the Alaskan and
Canadian Arctic.
“Now, the cities of Marysville and Yuba City are laying
ambitious plans to honor the majestic snow-white bird with an
annual festival. On Nov.
