Advocates for the Public Trust
“Repairs to a damaged tunnel inside the power plant at the base of Isabella Dam were completed Saturday, just seven days after the project began, according to an attorney for Water Audit California, a public interest group suing to keep water in the Kern River. Releases from the dam had been reduced to about 100 …
Continue reading “Repairs to Isabella Dam power plant completed; Kern River flows to ramp back up”
“Engineers with Isabella Partners, which operates the power plant at the base of Isabella Dam, believe they’ve found a way to make repairs to the plant without drying up the lower Kern River for weeks on end. If successful, water levels will drop from where they are now, but the river won’t go totally dry. …
“The Army Corps of Engineers approved a request by operators of the power plant at the base of the dam to drastically cut water releases between Dec. 18 and Jan. 7 for a planned repair project to the plant. Under the approval, releases would drop from between 500 and 700 cubic feet per second down to …
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has approved a request from Isabella Partners to reduce Isabella Dam water releases following a review and analysis by the USACE Sacramento District. Isabella Partners made the request so that they can safely perform maintenance within their power plant property at the base of the dam. USACE’s approval provides …
Continue reading “USACE approves request to temporarily reduce Isabella Dam flows”
“The Lake Isabella Dam is operated by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. However, the power plant that is directly south of it, which is powered by the water released by the dam, is owned by a separate entity, Isabella Partners. Recently, Isabella Partners put in a request to the Army Corps of Engineers to …
Continue reading “Significantly Reduced Flows Could Impact Kern River Soon”
“Anticipated repairs to the power plant at the base of Isabella Dam could cause a “massive fish kill” along the length of the Kern River as flows would have to be cut to almost nothing for weeks. Isabella Partners, which operates that power plant, submitted a request to the Army Corps of Engineers to cut …
“The Lake Marie reservoir, created in the late 19th century as part of a Napa State Hospital water mini-empire, might in the 21st century help locally rare steelhead trout. Water Audit California has used lawsuits to try to gain more water from local reservoirs for downstream fish habitat. In this case, the California Department of …
Continue reading “Napa’s Lake Marie dam to release water for fish under 1915 law”
“ST. HELENA — The City Council has approved a short-term plan to bypass more water from Bell Canyon Reservoir into Bell Creek, in response to a lawsuit claiming that the city has degraded fish habitat in the creek by historically capturing too much water in the reservoir. The council also approved contracts to install equipment …
Continue reading “After environmental lawsuit, St. Helena agrees to bypass more water into creek”