Auburn Ravine Salmon Have Reached the City of Lincoln, Califronia, Some 22 Miles Upstream from the Mouth at Verona on Sacramento River

In October of this year, Salmon reached Auburn Ravine Park in Lincoln, California, and started dying banging themselves to death trying to negotiate the Nevada Irrigation District's Lincoln Gauging Station, a quarter mile downstream from Highway 65 that passes through the heart of Lincoln. They are still dying as we write. Ron Nelson, General Manager of NID, assures critics that the LGS will be retrofitted for fish passage with a fish ladder by Fall of 2011, which does little to pacify the angry many who cannot understand why fish who have swum thousands of miles in the Pacific Ocean, grown to maturity over three to five years and then returned to Auburn Ravine to complete their Salmon Life Cycle are being treated to the ignoble death of dying trying to get over this manmade barrier,the Lincoln Gauging Station Dam and concrete apron, after completing their miraculous journey.

SARSAS has worked with NOAA Special Agent Don Tanner, to see that all flashboard dams downstream of the City of Lincoln are in compliance with NOAA regs; that is, the dams are removed from October 15 through April 15 to accommodate returning salmon returning to spawn. As a result salmon have clear passage to the city of Lincoln, Why is NID surprised that their three barriers, the Lincoln Gauging Station, the Hemphill Dam, and the Gold Hill Diversion Dams are the only unretrofitted barriers left on the Auburn Ravine preventing fish from reaching Wise Powerhouse, one mile downstream from the City of Auburn ... why is NID surprised when public outrage and anger are directed at them. The knew the salmon were coming since at least 2008 and yet the barriers still exist and still kill salmon. So the salmon run in Auburn Ravine is forced to die while NID works to provide passage for fish over its three remaining barriers in the Auburn Ravine.
Auburn Ravine will become a major spawning tributary for Fall Run Chinook when NID provides fish passage over its three remaining barriers.

Water Supply Forecast Boosted After Wet Fall

By Matt Weiser

mweiser@sacbee.com
Published: Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 - 10:15 am

Last Modified: Friday, Dec. 17, 2010 - 11:25 am

The state on Friday boosted its water supply forecast to 50 percent for water contractors who draw water from the Delta.

The move represents a large increase so early in the winter, a measure of confidence in water supplies thanks to a very wet fall in California.

"We don't want to be overly optimistic with most of the winter ahead of us, but recent storms have given us the best early season water supply outlook in five years," said Mark Cowin, director of the California Department of Water Resources.

The forecast indicates to agencies that buy water from the State Water Project that they can expect to get half of the maximum amount of water available to them under existing contracts with the state, which total about 4.2 million acre-feet.

These contractors include 29 public agencies, including urban water agencies in Southern California and the Silicon Valley, and the Kern County Water Agency. Collectively, they serve more than 25 million Californians and close to a million acres of irrigated farmland.

The forecast does not affect water availability in the Sacramento area, which holds its own water rights in the Sacramento and American rivers. It does, however, serve as a general measure of water availability statewide. Thanks to a wet fall, the statewide snowpack stood at 122 percent of average as of Friday.

The State Water Project stores water in Lake Oroville on the Feather River and delivers it to customers primarily via pumps and canals that extract from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The forecast is usually updated monthly in winter and spring as hydrologic conditions change. The season's first forecast in November indicated a 25 percent supply.


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