Folsom Lake Too Low

A couple of months ago, I recall reading an article that said Folsom dam was releasing water into the river due to excess snow melt. Does nanyone remember that?

The reason I bring it up is because there was an artcle in the Sacbee which said,

"A record-breaking dry spring will shorten the boating season at Folsom Lake.....the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is predicting the lake level to plummet 25 feet lower than the agency previously predicted.

Lake levels will drop to about 400 feet in August, so low that some of the marinas will be dry...

This spring was the second-driest since 1924, according to the bureau.

Because of plentiful rains before March, the bureau released water for flood control, but then the rain stopped.

Folsom Lake and the surrounding area is one of the state's most popular recreation sites with 2.3 million visitors annually."

Talk about being premature.

Too much water, now none!!!!!

It can be tough this summer - water rationing is possible.......

they do this every year... I could have told them months ago that the rain wasn't going to happen....

I don't know the details but they are required to use the water for things other than recreation. They usually flush the delta when salinity is a problem and also to aid in salmon and steelhead / water temps etc.

I saw the extra gates open at nimbus for a couple weeks and heard from someone that it was for salinity in the delta. I know it is not haphazard. They have minimum flood control requirements that are more severe than necessary because of 0 room for error because of our pathetic levee sysytem - they simply can't risk overloading the system. The warm temps combined with heavy rains, which obviously didn't come, could overwhelm the system. They have had a couple close calls where they were forced to release more water from Folsom than they wanted to and with a well placed thunderstorm at those times there could have been serious flooding. If they ever get the flood protection up to the 200 year level then they will be able to keep more water in the lake. This year they guessed wrong and the rains didn't come. They simply can't guess and have to think worst case scenario.

If Doolittle hadn't held up legislation on flood protection for so long we'd be well on our way to recreation late into the summer in Folsom Lake.

Think Snow - for next year anyway. We're already screwed this year.

QUOTE (folsomBlondie @ May 24 2004, 10:23 AM)

Too much water, now none!!!!! It can be tough this summer - water rationing is possible.......

How does one ration water when we dont have water meters in operation- ?
Just turn the timer for 3 am

Apeman: Good description of the conflicting goals the water managers at Folsom Dam need to deal with (although you didn't mention the demands for power generation, which further complicate life). The 7' mini-raise and the expansion of the low-level outlets, along with downstream levee improvements will allow them to hold the water much longer and release it quicker in the face of potential storms. Fact is, there really is no "normal" rainfall pattern in Sacramento (except for the part about it not happening in the summer), only an average of lots of abnormal years.

Its aShame Folsom Lake has gotten so bad the last few years. Just 7 or 8 years ago it was a great lake to go to with ample room for all those using it and whatnot. Now you go out and its more like Folsom Ocean. Started going out to the delta a few years back and havent gone out to Folsom Lake since. It seems like there is more that could be done..

If you want to keep an eye on the water level at the lake, here's a link:

http://cdec.water.ca.../queryDaily?FOL

For those who haven't been out West all their lives, this sort of thing is cyclic and not really a reflection on growth or anything like that. We simply have some dry years then a lot of wet ones.

That is correct. Been on most of the central valley and nor Cal lakes for years and we go through this every few years.
If we can get our boats in, we are OK. In fact it makes an interesting time when the water is very low, as there are often treasures in the dirt that was once the bottom. Remember Lake Don Pedro a number of years ago. I found all kinds of things that seemed to be from the 30s or 40s ( cast rail car toys., silver utensils, old glass power insulators, other relics from the past)
On shasta one year- I found an old wallet during low water on one of the arms and it had $300 in failry good shape still in it.
Often on a couple of lakes- saw cars and even a semi that had gone off the road and sat in what used to be 50 feet or water, but were totally exposed.
What I really liked was some of the old bridges that were exposed in low water. Interesting places to go.

It will all come back in a year or two, but until then- enjoy what we do have.

The lake was lowered a couple months back due to state mandates in regards to salt water contamination in the delta. There was a story on this on all the news channels a couple of weeks ago. The operators of the Folsom Dam have no say in the matter and must comply with these regulations. Yes it sucks but don't blame the dam operators. Blame the tree-hugging environmentalists.