[env-trinity] Reservoir causing faster flow

[Josh Allen]

Reservoir causing faster flow

 

Trinity Journal

Weaverville, CA

Wednesday April 19, 2006

 

Concerns about a rapidly filing reservoir have superseded the Trinity
River flow schedule recommended by the Trinity Management Council for
now.

 

On Tuesday, the release from the Lewiston dam to the river was 1,500
cubic feet per second rather than the 300 cfs recommended in the
(Trinity Record of Decision of December 2000) schedule. This higher flow
is being implemented by the federal Bureau of Reclamation to meet
"safety of dams" criteria for how high Trinity Lake can get given the
time of year.

 

"We have a very full reservoir," said Trinity River Restoration Program
Director Doug Schleusner. "What they're trying to do is keep some
cushion in there in case we do have a storm come through."

 

Releases over the next couple of weeks depend on the weather and are
difficult to predict.

 

Meanwhile, the Trinity River Management Council has recommended a flow
schedule to the Bureau of Reclamation based on this being an "extremely
wet year" for the Trinity River. As noted, the high flow being released
now differs from that schedule. 

 

Assuming that the Bureau accepts the council's recommendation, the river
will peak on May 23 with a release of 8,500 cfs, which will continue for
13 days through June 4 before beginning to ramp down. 

 

 

Moderator's Note: 

 

In an "Extremely Wet Water Year", the prescribed flows within the
Trinity ROD would have a volume of 815,000 acre feet with a peak flow of
11,000 cfs for 5 days. The reason why such peak flows can not be
implemented this is due to infrastructure impact concerns to property
owners adjacent to the river. 

 

The following is from the public record of the Trinity Management
Council's minutes of December 14, 2005:

 

There are 109 properties between Lewiston Dam and Weaver Creek that
represent 22 issues for the release of full ROD flows; there are 15 well
pumps, 3 decks, one mobile, and a detached garage that needs to be
addressed before the 11k cfs + 10yr tributary flow in May can be
achieved.

 

 

The recommended hydrology graph for the TMC's Water Year 2006 is shown
below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20060420/f2d7d45b/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 16159 bytes
Desc: image002.gif
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20060420/f2d7d45b/attachment.gif>