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El Dorado Irrigation District's Press Release

Fish rescue at Caples Lake reservoir succeeds in relocating more than 6,300 fish: 80 volunteers work side by side with Fish and Game and EID

September 3, 2008 -- Placerville, CA . . . "For me, this was truly an experience of a lifetime!" That statement by one of the volunteers in the August 26–29 fish rescue at Caples Lake reservoir was echoed by many other hard-working individuals. Nearly 80 volunteers from around the region took time out of their regular schedules and joined California Department of Fish and Game to save as many fish as possible and transport them from the reservoir to nearby compatible habitat.

The result? More than 6,300 fish are now making new homes in Silver and Red lakes, just a few miles from Caples. The total includes large fish up to 36 inches in length. Brown, rainbow, and lake trout—the latter also known as Mackinaw—comprised two-thirds of the total fish captured; they were released in Silver Lake. The remaining third were brook trout, and they are now in Red Lake. The fish were separated because brook trout are not part of the mix that is stocked at Silver Lake.

The volunteers were organized by Chris Shutes with the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Barbara Bania with Trout Unlimited.

The District’s Board of Directors authorized the rescue and funding for it during their August 25 meeting, and the rescue began the next day. Two Board members, George Osborne, who serves as Board president, and Bill George, immediate past Board president, were on hand for day one of the project to explain to reporters the reasons for drawing down the lake and thus the need to rescue the fish.

"When we were presented with evidence of badly deteriorated outlet works at the Caples main dam, we knew we had an emergency on our hands," Osborne said. "We soon learned that to fix the problems, we would need to draw down the water in the reservoir to protect the repair crews. And we knew that the drawdown could affect the fish populations in the reservoir and downstream of the dam. So we were very pleased when Fish and Game determined it would conduct this rescue."

"This couldn’t have been accomplished without the volunteers," said Bill George. "We thank them very much for working long shifts through the night and for their hours on the fishnet brigade to move the fish from the holding pens to the hatchery trucks as quickly as possible. This helped make sure that countless numbers of fish safely made the trip from Caples reservoir to Silver and Red lakes."

See the photo gallery and captions included with this update for more information on the fish rescue.

As background, the District began the drawdown at Caples reservoir in mid-July to provide safe working conditions for crews that, according to the current schedule, will begin in late September to replace the two slide gates at the Caples main dam and complete other needed repairs to the outlet works. The District is proceeding under an emergency declared by the District’s Board of Directors on July 1, after a mid-June underwater investigation revealed major deterioration of the outlet works, including the slide gates.

Caples Lake is part of Project 184, the hydroelectric power generation system that the District acquired from Pacific Gas and Electric Company in 1999. Under conditions of the federal license to operate the system, the District must assure safe operation of the dam.

In addition to the safety concerns, the District is seeking to balance a number of competing interests, including fisheries in the reservoir and downstream of the dam. The District proposes to construct a temporary "bladder" dam, when the water level is low enough, to store some of the reservoir’s water while protecting workers. Consultations with Fish and Game indicate that the amount of water that can be stored behind the bladder dam may not be sufficient to sustain the reservoir fishery over the winter. Therefore, the District has developed a fisheries management plan that includes restocking the reservoir with catchable and trophy-sized fish, beginning next spring. Water stored by the temporary dam will be released for the fisheries downstream of the dam.

Future project updates will provide more details on these and other issues related to the emergency project. District staff continues to brief the Board of Directors during the Board’s regular meetings. The public is welcome to attend the meetings. The meeting schedule is posted on the District’s website at www.eid.org, or can be obtained by calling 530-622-4513.

Jesse Saich
Public Information Specialist
El Dorado Irrigation District
Tel: 530.642.4127
jsaich@eid.org