Major Upcoming North Lake Events
Last modified on: Friday, 25-Jul-2014 01:49:51 EDT
Trinity Lake Report and Drought Watch
7/24/14 -The lake is at 2,244', or 126' below the spillway. The lake has receded 17' since the Bureau began dumping the
lake on July 1, ostensibly to push seawater out of the Sacramento Delta.
They are also considering a "fall release" for fish. It seems ridiculous to release water that will
entice fish into the river, just to kill them when their release is over. Both actions are previously unplanned and unannounced,
and are once again, an outrageous waste of water in a drought year. They will sorely miss the water they are dumping
if this drought continues into next year.
Furthermore, by sending excess water down the river, we lose power generation. When we've lost enough power generation,
Trinity County will lose its preference to hydro power, and we'll be paying PG&E rates. The Bureau is irresponsible
considering that if next winter continues the drought, Trinity County will be in emergency status.
Drought Information:
Agriculture accounts for 80% of the non-enviromental water use in California. And Calif grows almost half
of the produce consumed in the US. Here are some interesting articles about ag water use:
CONSERVE WATER !!
No matter where you get your water, please be VERY mindful of your water usage. We are in a
severe drought. Measured
rainful in June was ZERO in Trinity Center. Whether you are on your own well, or on one of the mutual water companies, this
year will stress and test our water sources. Some wells have already dried up. Swift Creek and Coffee Creek have well below
normal flows. This will likely become critical over the next several weeks.
The remaining water meters are now being installed in Trinity Center. Soon we will have an idea how much water we are using
and can use this data to determine the effectiveness of conservation efforts. The water company will also be able to identify
users who are wasting vast quantities of water on needless irrigation.
The water meters read cubic feet of water. To understand your water use, take a meter reading. When you take the next meter
reading, subtract the first reading and multiply the result by 7.48 gallons per cubic foot. Use all the digits (white and black)
and don't bother with the dial gauge (which reads fractions of a cubic foot.) This calculation will tell you how many gallons you
used between the meter readings. Try doing it daily for awhile to get a sense of how much you use per day. Make a point of doing
the calculation when your outdoor sprinklers have run, and another calculation on a day when your sprinklers have not run.
That will let you know how much water you are using outdoors.
Some ideas that will help:
- Minimize your outdoor irrigation. You don't need to water your lawn for hours every day, or even every other day. Do NOT
water in the afternoon. The heat of the day is the WRONG time to irrigate. That is the maximum time of evaporation, and you
are just wasting water. Set your sprinker timers for 15 minutes at 4am. In any case, avoid watering between 9am and 7pm.
- Reduce your irrigation by 1/2. Most systems we see around town are over-watering the gardens and lawns.
- Convert gardens to drop systems.
- Do not water on weekends. That is when peak domestic usage occurs as our visitors and part-timers come to town. Set your
sprinklers to water twice during the week.
- Don't water needlessly. You are not preventing fire or reducing your risk by watering pine needles. Removing the pine needles
is FAR more effective than keeping them wet.
Burn Permits Are Now Suspended
Effective June 1, 2014
all burn permits have been suspended. No yard debris burning!
It doesn't matter if the Air Quality phone line says it's a burn day.
NO BURNING!!
Contact Cal Fire for details at 623-4201. Cal Fire's press release is
here.
Turnouts Coming to Hwy 3 !
Trinity County and Caltrans have signed a Project Study detailing where turnouts can be installed on Highway 3 between
Weaverville and Trinity Center. Here is a map of the identified sites.
On the second and third pages the specific turnouts to be constructed in each phase are identified. It anticipated
that the first phase of turnout construction will be in the summer of 2018. The long term objective is to connect successive
turnouts into full passing lanes sometime in the future.
Bowerman Barn and Ranch Work Party
The "Bowerman Gang"
has already had a couple of very productive work days. A number of great projects have made progress, including
installing and painting a picnic table and log bench seat, cleaning up the cemetery, whacking wild rose bushes in the pasture,
clearing tree limbs
and rocks from the future temporary parking lot, and more! Well over a dozen people from all over the North Lake Area came to
help bring back this important historic site and tourist attraction.
- A proposal has been submitted for funding for the required NEPA for a new interpretive trail at the barn.
- See the project website.
If you're interested in helping with some of the projects, contact Carol Fall at 286-2855, cjfall@ucanr.edu
Caltrans 2014 Plans for Hwy 299
Here is a map of all of Caltrans project plans for Hwy 299
for this year. You will note the "Twin Gulches" work on Buckhorn (the double hairpin turns near the bottom)
is scheduled to continue through October. Several other projects will cause traffic delays along the highway as well.
Paving operations on Hwy 299 began Monday, May 5 between Weaverville
and Lewiston Road, and will run though much of the summer.
This will add another delay to the Buckhorn delay on the trip from Weaverville to Redding. This is Item 11 on the Caltrans map.
Discover Hiking and Jeeping in the Trinity Alps
Hiking in the Trinities will leave you with life-long memories of alpine lakes, fresh air, and amazing wilderness.
You can start your exploration with our growing collection of hike writeups. The Granite Lake hike was recently added.
Jeep trip writeups are starting to appear on the
North Trintiy Lake Info page!
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TPUD Community Workshop 3/3
Trinity PUD's General Manager Paul Hauser presented TPUD's very early plan to move
TPUD power lines out of the forest to the Highway 3 easements. The plan has "first glance"
concept approval by CalTrans and USFS.
Those attending the workshop had a lot of questions. The consensus from the group was
to move forward to the next step of the plan, which is serious discussion with the USFS.
Where appropriate and economical, sections of lines would be moved as a section
"ages out" or is in need of major repair. The entire project county-wide could take 15 years.
Here are links to large PDF maps of the power lines in the Trinity Lake area:
Existing: South Lake (3MB)
Existing: Highway 3 (4MB)
Existing: Coffee Creek/East Fork (3MB)
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Trinity County Code Enforcement
Here are a few quick links to documents on the Trinity County website:
Bay Delta Conservation Plan and Delta Tunnels
Controversy continues
as more people become aware of the Governor's proposal to divert Northern Calif water south through
two 32-foot diameter tunnels under the Delta. You can read much about this plan on our Stop
the Tunnels page. Below are some recent articles and news:
