I’ve got celery in the refrigerator smart enough to know this was going to happen as soon as the weather warmed; the Pit River is about to start spilling (from PG&E):
PG&E is observing rapidly increasing inflows into Lake Britton and as a result anticipates that Pit 3 Dam will spill. PG&E has taken careful steps to manage the increasing inflow into Lake Britton by monitoring reservoir level, maintaining a low water surface elevation, and has increased water diversion through Pit 3 and Pit 4 powerhouses to maintain appropriate storage capacity.
The increased water diversion at Pit 3 and Pit 4 powerhouses will result in spill conditions today in the Pit 5 bypass reach. The current flow release from Pit 5 Dam is approximately 500 cfs, which will increase over the course of today to approximately 1000 cfs to 1500 cfs. As inflow to Lake Britton continues to increase over the coming days, PG&E will increase the instream flow release at Pit 3 Dam from about 300 cfs to 540 cfs.
Shortly after the instream flow in the Pit 3 reach is increased, Pit 4 dam will begin to spill approximately 50 to 150 cfs. Subsequent inflow increases into Lake Britton will spill over the Pit 3 Dam at a natural rate of increase, and will affect the downstream spill magnitude in the Pit 4 and Pit 5 reaches.
At this time PG&E is unable to accurately provide an estimate of the anticipated spill magnitude in the Pit 3 and Pit 4 reaches, as inflow to Lake Britton continues to increase daily and record snow pack remains in the Warner Mountain Rage.
Following the snow melt runoff period, which may extend for several weeks, PG&E will allow the spill flows to recede naturally to the license required seasonal minimum instream flow.
With our snowpack running hundreds of percent above normal for this time of year, don’t expect this to end anytime soon.
Frankly, the Pit River — which is under a new flow regime (though who can tell given the wild snowpack) — could use a gully washer, widening the channels a bit and moving back some of the encroaching riparian habitat.
See you going over Lake Britton Dam in a barrel, Tom Chandler.
Let’s hope they keep sending as much of the McC’s runoff there as possible, too.
Kevin(Quote)
I wonder how long the McCloud is going to last. Since I’m no longer allowed to recommend the McCloud to my readership, I have no further comment
beyond suggesting you fish it this weekend if the flows look even remotely fishable.Tom Chandler(Quote)
I was talking about the, er, McCleary. Never even heard of the one you mentioned, much less how good it was even at 460 a few weeks ago.
Kevin(Quote)
My mistake. I was thinking about that one in Antarctica.
Tom Chandler(Quote)