Folsom Dam, located on the American River above the city of
Sacramento, is part of the Central Valley Project. It includes
water storage (Folsom Lake), power generation and conveyance
facilities.
Although the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and the near failure
of the Lower Van Norman Dam have given rise to construction
improvements … the overwhelming majority of California dams
are decades past their design life span. And while earthquakes
still loom as the greatest threat to California’s massive
collection of dams, experts warn that these aging structures
will be challenged further by a new and emerging hazard:
“whiplashing shifts” in extreme weather due to climate change.
Scientists expect flooding to get worse because weather
extremes are growing as the climate crisis worsens globally,
said UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain. … Waiting to
systematically address flooding issues, like California’s done
with wildfire, could mean breaching of levees, Central Valley
wide flooding and even flooding in areas like Los Angeles as
the climate crisis worsens, said Swain.
The water level at Folsom Lake is dropping by nearly half a
foot each day, and soon boaters who rent a slip at Folsom Lake
Marina will have pull their boats out. Marina managers told the
tenants they should plan on removing their boats from the water
by around Aug. 16…
It’s the early 1990s, and Park Williams stands in the middle of
Folsom Lake, at the base of the Sierra Nevada foothills in
Northern California. He’s not walking on water; severe drought
has exposed the lakebed. “I remember being very impressed by
the incredible variability of water in the West and how it’s
very rare that we actually have just enough water,” said
Williams, who went on to become a climate scientist at Columbia
University.
The intake, a pump house at the edge of the lake in El Dorado
Hills, was built in 1958, and got additional pumps installed in
1994. Both systems are at the end of their useful life and have
become unreliable in recent years. The intake … plays a
critical role in supplying drinking water to El Dorado Hills.
Amidst much anguish and gnashing of teeth, the El Dorado
Irrigation District Board of Directors unanimously approved a
$42.7 million dollar project on Monday that’s been on EID’s to
do list since 2011. Called the Folsom Lake Intake Improvement
Project, EID plans to replace the existing pump station that
has been in service since the late 1950s and considered to be
at the end of its useful life.
The Folsom Lake Intake Improvement Project delivers district
water supplies available at Folsom Lake to the El Dorado Hills
Water Treatment Plant and is critical to service reliability
for the El Dorado Hills service area. In service since the late
1950s, significant portions of the pump station have reached
the end of their useful life.
Partnering with the state of California and the Sacramento Area
Flood Control Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers is overseeing
a $383 million project to raise the height of Folsom Dam. At a
site along Folsom Lake, Rocklin-based Odin Construction
Solutions is tackling the first phase of that effort, raising
what’s known as Dike 8.
Combined with a safer spillway completed in 2017, federal dam
officials say the flood-prone region is on its way to 300-year
or more flood safety, meaning there will only be a one-in-300
chance in any given year that the combination dam and
downstream levee system will fail.
Federal crews have begun a five-year effort to raise the height
of the dam by 3.5 feet to increase flood protection for 440,000
downstream residents in metropolitan Sacramento,
The American River is seeing an increase in native fish nests
following a fall project carried out by federal, state and
local agencies to re-establish natural spawning habitats.
The annual opening of the hatchery’s ladder provides a window
into the wonders of science, but also shows the key role the
hatchery system plays in keeping California’s salmon fishery
healthy.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
In recent weeks, two separate incidents of possible
cyanobacteria poisoning in dogs have been reported at Moony
Ridge (Folsom State Recreation Area) and Oregon Bar (Auburn
State Recreation Area).
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
Participants joined us as we guided them on a virtual journey into the foothills and the mountains to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state.
Eldorado Irrigation District staff said the proposed
improvements and replacements are needed because the existing
equipment does not allow selective temperature withdrawal at
multiple elevations for the benefit of downstream fisheries. In
addition the existing pumps and boosters have reached the end
of their useful life, having undergone multiple repairs over
the years.
Water managers are shifting from flood control to water storage
at reservoirs across California. Folsom Lake is at roughly 70
percent capacity, with about twice the amount of inflow as
outflow. “Some of the challenges we have — there are water
demands that are always increasing at Folsom, we have snowpack
that’s large, we have weather storms that come in,” said Todd
Plain with Bureau of Reclamation.
The city currently has six groundwater pumping stations that
were used during the drought. But the stations have the ability
to pump water back into the aquifer as well. The Folsom Dam
currently has three gates open to release enough water so it
has room to capture flood water. Roseville Utility officials
say it’s just the right time to do a larger scale test of its
water injection strategy.
With another potential government shutdown on the horizon,
President Donald Trump remains coy about whether he’ll declare
a national emergency to fund the border wall he promised during
his 2016 campaign. This week, he told reporters that he
could use that power and divert money from the Army Corps of
Engineers. Democrats worry that could mean taking money away
from ongoing projects in Northern California, like raising
Folsom Dam.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Rep. Doris Matsui’s office
announced that the [Sacramento] region has been allocated
nearly $1.8 billion to strengthen levees and raise Folsom Dam.
… In total, the Army Corps allocated $17 billion for
flood projects around the country Thursday, as part of a
congressional appropriation in February.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
are currently testing Folsom Dam’s auxiliary spillway, part of
the official commissioning of the newly constructed structure.
The Corps, in cooperation with Reclamation, are testing all of
the major systems in the structure, ensuring that the facility
operates as intended in the design. The tests, underway this
week and next, include operating and releasing water from all
six new auxiliary spillway radial gates.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
The flood risk in the Sacramento metropolitan area is greatly
improved now that a 12-year project to build a back-up spillway
at Folsom Lake is complete.
Environmental advocates are calling on state officials to
notify the public about past tests showing high levels of E.
coli in Folsom Lake and Lake Natoma, two of the region’s most
popular areas for open water swimming and boating. But
officials responsible for recreational use on the lakes say the
test results cited are too old, while the agency that conducted
the tests says it has no responsibility for public notices.
Where there aren’t large stacks of debris, people are sure to
crowd the beaches at Folsom Lake in what is likely to be the
lake’s busiest weekend of 2017.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
The company that built one of greater Sacramento’s most
important flood-control projects in years will fix the damaged
spillways at Oroville Dam, site of a near catastrophe two
months ago. … Kiewit has considerable experience with dam
projects, including the decadelong, $900 million upgrade of
Folsom Dam.
Twelve years ago, widespread destruction from Hurricane Katrina
on the Gulf Coast helped compel federal engineers 2,000 miles
away in California to remake a 1950s-era dam by constructing a
massive steel-and-concrete gutter that would manage surging
waters in times of torrential storms.
The critical document that determines how much space should be
left in Lake Oroville for flood control during the rainy season
hasn’t been updated since 1970, and it uses climatological data
and runoff projections so old they don’t account for two of the
biggest floods ever to strike the region. … Most
recently, the issue of outdated dam manuals came up in the
context of California’s five-year drought.
As a test run at the Oroville Dam spillway commenced Wednesday
afternoon, the director of the Department of Water Resources
said at a press conference in Sacramento he expected the bottom
of the spillway to be eroded away by spring, with a replacement
completed by fall.
Northern California is on track to break rainfall records. …
But you wouldn’t know the region has experienced an
exceptionally wet winter looking at the steep, dry shores
ringing the Sacramento region’s largest reservoir, Folsom Lake.
The timing of increased water releases from Folsom Lake has
been moved up and is expected to reach 15,000 cubic feet per
second by 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Fire
Department.
Increased flows from Folsom Lake and the anticipation of a
gully washer of a storm Thursday mean that the American and
Sacramento rivers will be rising.
Outflow at Folsom Lake will more than double from 3,000 cubic
feet per second (cfs) to 8,000 cfs by Wednesday, according to
Justin Moore with Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region.
Starting Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will increase
flows below Folsom and Nimbus dams from 4,000 cubic feet per
second to 4,500. The flows will increase to 5,000 cfs on
Tuesday.
Despite its dramatic rise from a record-low level last fall,
water managers said Tuesday that Folsom Lake will likely not
fill to capacity this year. … Now, Reclamation officials are
developing a plan for what could be a critical third year of
salmon protection.
After years of drought, the Sacramento region’s rivers
Wednesday were flush with water as a result of recent storms
and increased water releases from Folsom Dam.
With El Niño rains returning in earnest, dam operators ramped
up water releases Monday from Folsom Lake as a precaution
against flooding. They will double the intensity of the
releases early Tuesday.
Even with unseasonably warm temperatures and little to no rain
in the forecast for at least the next seven days, the operators
of Folsom Dam are going to more than double the flows in the
lower American River to protect against flooding.
Folsom — which dwindled to 14% of capacity last year and became
a global image of the California drought — has more than
tripled in size since December, thanks to a series of storms
that has brought above-average snow and rainfall to Northern
California.
This week crews have been pumping water from Folsom Lake
through a temporary levee at a rate of 32,000 cubic feet per
second and into a basin adjacent to the new spillway.
A significant milestone toward completion of the $900 million,
years-long undertaking to improve flood control and the safety
of Folsom Dam was reached Tuesday.
A temporary cofferdam that kept crews and construction areas
dry during the construction of a new spillway at Folsom Dam
began leaking Wednesday, forcing crews to evacuate.
Crews are investigating reports Wednesday morning of a possible
leak at the new spillway construction site next to the Folsom
Dam, according to Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies.
California regulators set a minimum level of water that should
be held behind Shasta and Folsom lakes Tuesday in an effort to
avoid another catastrophic die-off of Sacramento River salmon,
but they reserved the right to change the limit if El Niño
rains fill up the reservoirs.
It’s shaping up as the biggest snowstorm to hit the central
Sierra in two years. … After four years of drought, its
reservoirs are dry: Folsom Lake last week hit its lowest point
since record-keeping began 40 years ago.
The 60-year-old reservoir held 140,501 acre-feet of water at
mid afternoon [Nov. 14], or roughly 14 percent of capacity,
according to California Department of Water Resources data.
It will take dozens of rain storms to alter the effects of
California’s four-year drought. … With Folsom Lake now
at just 15 percent of capacity, water experts are once again
urging Californians to conserve.
Even as Sacramento waits for the soaking El Niño forecast to
hit this fall, Folsom Lake continues to lose water and will
almost certainly fall Thursday to its lowest level in more than
20 years, government data show.
The state’s ninth-largest reservoir, the main water source for
the Sacramento suburbs, is currently at 18 percent
capacity. The historical average for this time of year is
30 percent.
Plastic pipes that will go over Folsom Dam and connect to pump
barges were rolled out Thursday as the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation continues to work on a temporary emergency floating
pump system. … Currently, Folsom Lake is at 19 percent
capacity and has dropped 3 feet this month.
Taxed by years of drought, the lake [Folsom Lake] is currently
filled to 19 percent of its total capacity, with officials from
the federal Bureau of Reclamation foreseeing it may yet drop
below the 1977 record-low of 150 acre feet. Low water levels
change more than the lake’s aesthetics.
More than 200,000 rainbow trout suffocated in a matter of
minutes Tuesday at the American River Hatchery near Rancho
Cordova due to an unexpected release of gunk from Folsom Dam
that clogged water intakes.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation has leased ten pumps for four
months so the city of Folsom will have water if Folsom Lake
levels fall below the intake of existing pumps.
As water regulators continue to rapidly drain Folsom Lake to
bolster supplies downstream, crews have begun construction of a
floating barge that could keep water flowing to the city of
Folsom this fall. … At current outflows, Folsom Lake would
reach record-low depths within weeks.
Water regulators are easing off on plans to draw down Folsom
Lake, responding to concerns from Sacramento-area water
agencies about the availability of supply, officials said
Tuesday.
Four years of dry, hot weather have raised lake temperatures
and depleted many of the state’s reservoirs. In response, the
state has cut flows from Lake Shasta to protect an endangered
species of salmon and raised flows from Folsom Lake to prevent
salt water from intruding into the Delta.
Folsom Lake water levels will likely drop to historic lows by
summer’s end, possibly hovering just above the point where
cities and water agencies can still draw water from the
reservoir, according to interviews with federal and local
officials.
Though Sunday is expected to feature the most pleasant
conditions in the middle of a stretch of hot weather, it marks
the end of boating season on Folsom Lake.
It happened last February, in year three of what state
officials are now calling California’s millennial drought. …
The [Folsom] lake was within months of becoming a “dead pool.”
California’s drought has made it abundantly clear how important
it is to know exactly how much water is available. …
Scientists from the Desert Research Institute in Reno, the
California Department of Water Resources and the US Bureau of
Reclamation are placing a floating weather station in the water
at Folsom Lake.
The Bureau of Reclamation has released the final environmental
documents on a Safety of Dams project at Folsom Reservoir’s
Dike 1 in the Granite Bay Recreation Area. The Dike 1
improvement modifications are being performed under
Reclamation’s Safety of Dams Program to address water seepage
through the Dike 1 embankment.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the history of the project, the guide
describes the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the
benefits the CVP brought to the state, and the CVP Improvement
Act (CVPIA).
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
Devastating floods are almost an annual occurrence in the west
and in California. With the anticipated sea level rise and other
impacts of a changing climate, particularly heavy winter rains,
flood management is increasingly critical in California.
Compounding the issue are man-made flood hazards such as levee
instability and stormwater runoff.
