{"id":3903,"date":"2021-09-25T17:27:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-26T00:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/?p=3903"},"modified":"2021-09-25T17:27:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T00:27:43","slug":"a-possible-chance-to-save-some-sacramento-river-salmon-in-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/?p=3903","title":{"rendered":"A Possible Chance to Save Some Sacramento River Salmon in 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Problem<\/h2>\n

The 2021 target upper water temperature limit for salmon spawning and gravel-bed egg incubation below Shasta\/Keswick dams on the Sacramento River near Redding was 55o<\/sup>F.\u00a0 It is a little late for that now.\u00a0 Since September 1, Keswick releases have been greater than 56.5\u00baF, and are now approaching 58\u00baF.\u00a0 That\u2019s too warm for the winter-run salmon who have finished spawning (Figures 1 and 2).<\/p>\n

But what about the far larger run of fall-run salmon during their peak October spawning?\u00a0 Can water temperatures downstream of Keswick be lowered back to 55o<\/sup>F in October? \u00a0The answer is a qualified yes.<\/p>\n

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Figure 1. Daily average water temperature of Sacramento River near Redding (SAC gage), September 1-21, 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Figure 2. Daily average water temperatures from Shasta Dam powerhouse (TCD), immediately below Shasta Dam (SHD), and from Keswick Dam (KWK) to Sacramento River, September 1-21, 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Solution<\/h2>\n

A \u201cqualified yes\u201d means it would be a complex undertaking involving two actions possible under Reclamation\u2019s operation of its Shasta\/Trinity Division:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Switching most or all of Shasta releases to the cold-water lower river outlets of the dam and ceasing warm-water hydropower releases from the dam\u2019s powerhouse.<\/li>\n
  2. Minimizing warm-water hydropower releases from Whiskeytown Lake to Keswick Reservoir.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Much of the remaining cold-water pool in Shasta Reservoir is being used to overcome warm-water hydropower releases into Keswick Reservoir (~60o<\/sup>F or higher) before water is released to the Sacramento River below Keswick Dam.\u00a0 Cutting hydropower releases and rationing the available cold-water-pool supply through Shasta Dam\u2019s lower river outlets is therefore a potential solution to warm water releases to the river.\u00a0 Though this would reduce hydropower in the short-term, it would save storage in the long-term.<\/p>\n

    The solution would require a substantial reduction in Shasta Reservoir releases to ensure the cold-water-pool is not exhausted over the next month or more.\u00a0 However, reducing releases would lower river water levels and strand salmon redds or reduce egg-embryo survival of remaining active winter-run redds or any newly spawned spring-run and fall-run redds.<\/p>\n

    A possible resolution is to drop flows after the vast majority of winter-run fry have left their redds and before most of the fall-run salmon have spawned.\u00a0 This has been the standard management approach in many years to save storage \u2013 sometime in late September or in October.<\/p>\n

    Further Context<\/h2>\n

    Under present conditions in late September 2021, access to the cold-water pool in Shasta Reservoir occurs primarily during the afternoon\/evening, during peaking-power releases (Figures 3-5) from the penstocks via the Temperature Control Device (TCD) on the face of the dam.\u00a0 Side-gate openings on the TCD (Figure 6) are able to pull cold water from below only during peak releases.\u00a0 This pattern indicates that a modified solution might be to reduce warm-water power releases during non-peak operations, while retaining some peaking power releases from Shasta Dam in combination with lower level dam outlet releases.<\/p>\n

    \"\"

    Figure 3. Hourly flow releases from Shasta Dam September 18-23, 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

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    Figure 4. Hourly water temperature of water releases from Shasta Dam September18-23, 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"

    Figure 5. Hourly water temperature of water releases from a Shasta Dam penstock September18-23, 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"

    Figure 6. Shasta Dam conditions and operation on September 15, 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Problem The 2021 target upper water temperature limit for salmon spawning and gravel-bed egg incubation below Shasta\/Keswick dams on the Sacramento River near Redding was 55oF.\u00a0 It is a little late for that now.\u00a0 Since September 1, Keswick releases … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinook","category-water-quality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3903"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3910,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3903\/revisions\/3910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}