The first time I heard talk about raising the Shasta Dam, the number was six feet. Not that much, and frankly, I was puzzled why they’d go to the trouble.
A while later, I started hearing bigger numbers–up to 18.5 feet.
Westlands–the Fresno-based irrigation district that recently bought the Bollibokka Club on the McCloud–made it clear what they really want: Shasta Dam raised up to 200 feet.
From the Redding Record Searchlight Web site (frankly, it’s an awful story, but here’s some key information):
While the bureau is looking at possibly raising the dam 6½ feet to 18½ feet, the dam’s base could support a raise of up to 200 feet. Tourists often hear that when they visit the dam, which was built between 1938 and 1945. The original plans called for an 800-foot dam, but the lack of supplies and labor cut it to 602 feet.
Birmingham said Westlands bought the extra 6-1/3 miles of McCloud shoreline to make room for a potential dam raise of more than 18½ feet, perhaps as much as 200 feet.
Imagine how much of the Upper Sacramento, McCloud and Pit Rivers would disappear if they raised the lake only 50 feet. But 200 feet? Holy crap.
We knew there was a darker motive to Westland’s acquisition of the Bollibokka Club.
[tags]westlands, shasta dam, bollibokka, upper sacramento river, mccloud river[/tags]
sick sick sick, just plain sick. my stomach is all jumbly. i think i’m going to throw up
isaac roman(Quote)
Please keep us posted on this topic. Lots of kayakers & rafters like to boat on those rivers in the winter when the flow is too high for flyfishing.
BRT Whitewater
brthomas(Quote)
More and/or higher dams mean more people and more industrial
demands for water. Enough is enough! Let’s get rid of those
water-intensive crops, like cotton and rice, and grow what survives
best in the Central Valley’s natural environment. Let the rivers
flow free and wild as they were once. We need to re-think and
reconstruct our entire production and consumption systems within
ecological limits.
barbara Bonadeo(Quote)
When do we reach our limits? The Delta’s in collapse, so I’d guessing we’re already reaching its limits…
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Reply to T. Chandler
Perhaps it is more correct to say: When do we attend to our limits?
barbara Bonadeo(Quote)
Irrigation should be prohibited on the selenium-poisoned toxic soils of the Westlands Water District!!
Yolo County is becoming another battleground in the California Water Wars
brthomas(Quote)
Yeah, a study done prior to the Westlands project predicted the selenium poisoning, and you’ve gotta chalk the whole thing up as one of those projects that should have never been started, shouldn’t be continued, yet wields enough political power that it not only won’t die, it keeps getting more government handouts.
Tom Chandler(Quote)
Oh, dear. Only a portion of Westlands has selenium in the soil (and that portion has been permanently retired), and cotton is a desert plant that grows better in the San Joaquin valley than anywhere on earth. For other reasons, it has practically disappeared as a crop in California. I agree that the Bollibokka idea sounds a little…fishy, however.
Tom is right, Westlands should probably never have been developed, certainly to the size it is now. Bear that in mind as all the marvelous new infrastructure projects emerge from our fresh, bright young saviors in Washington. It is the sainted JFK who is shown in the newsreels setting off the dynamite for the San Luis reservoir.
Philip(Quote)
We warned people of this eventuality back when Westlands bought Bollibakka from the Hills family…no one believe us!! The damage to the McCloud’s “free flowing nature” is what the CRMP was to prevent. We need people to mobilize and stop this desecration of the river and the potential destruction of Winnemem Wintu sacred sites.
Personally, I like Tom Birmingham, but, putting aside personal feelings, I hope people will donate funds to the tribe so that we can pay for litigation to stop the dam raise and stop the madness. Comments related to changing the water use habits of the state are needed, we also need comments to Senators Feinstein and Boxer to help protect the Winnemem Wintu as well. Please, help us, help you all.
Mark Franco(Quote)
I’m a little ‘late’ responding to this ‘timely’ topic, but here goes. I worked at one of those “Corporate Agricultural Concerns” within the Westlands Water District and after 8 years I left in disgust at the wasting/ gaming of the highly tax-payer subsidized water. It wasn’t until I read “Cadillac Desert” years later, that I really understood what was going on…Those ‘farms’ are NOT what they propine themselves to be. They are actually long term ‘schemes’ whose ultimate ‘game’ is send their legal water allotments legally to the ‘Southland’ at scandalous profit. They are prepared and willing to buy and sell our State, our representatives, our very form of government to assure their success in this matter.
They’ve definitely purchased their share of the media! It has to be realized that not only is the soil high in Selenium, boron and other alkali minerals, but that there is an ‘Adobe clay’ layer that impedes water penetration, so upon excessive irrigation, the top layer of soil becomes more non-productive (saline) each year that it is farmed. The ‘drain’ that was proposed in the 70′s was not completed (it would not have worked very well anyway).
Besides those problems, the lower end of the district (in the vicinity of Huron) is a natural sink where water from Los Gatos Creek (running near Coalinga)naturally drains to in the heavier rain years. One of the largest Asbestos & Mercury ‘stupor’-fund sites on the West Coast, has it’s location in the watershed for Los Gatos Creek. White Creek drains into Los Gatos Creek and it’s called that for a reason! You can simply bring up the area on Google Earth and follow the silt plumes from that creek. Those corporate farmers have a ‘habit’ of using this silt as low-cost material for projects on their farms, after it periodically floods and leaves it on ‘productive’ farmland, thus spreading this toxic silt throughout the Irrigation District. Think about that the next time you have a tomato on a Big Mac, or eat some nutritious good tasting dish at home that contains garlic grown in that area…Is there any wonder that the cancer rate is growing exponentially?
Dave Decker(Quote)