Lake Oroville Community Update: January 24

California Natural Resources Agency to Host Third Oroville Dam Citizens Advisory Commission Public Meeting in February

The California Natural Resources Agency is hosting its third Citizens Advisory Commission meeting on Friday, February 21, 2020. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will take place at the Southside Community Center located at 2959 Lower Wyandotte Road. Additional information about the Commission can be found here. The agenda and other meeting materials will be posted in the coming weeks.

California Conservation Corps Helps Construct Fish Habitat from Recycled Christmas Trees

The California Conservation Corps (CCC) continues to construct fish habitat structures at Lake Oroville and the Thermalito Afterbay using recycled Christmas trees collected by Chico and Oroville Boy Scout troops and the Biggs 4-H Club. To create the habitat, 15 members of the CCC team will bundle the recycled holiday trees together using a system of wire rope to anchor them in various locations on the lakebeds. These structures provide juvenile fish safe refuge, improving fisheries and recreational fishing opportunities for largemouth bass, spotted bass, channel catfish, bluegill and green sunfish. For over 25 years, DWR has worked with local groups to construct fish habitat structures, which is one of the longest continuously running fish habitat improvement programs in the State of California. The project is anticipated to be completed by January 29.

Loafer Point Boat Ramp Project is on Track for August 2020 Completion

As winter precipitation results in rising water levels in Lake Oroville, DWR’s contractor K.W. Emerson, Inc. is currently on track to successfully construct concrete slabs for the new three-lane boat ramp at Loafer Point. Eight slabs have been placed so far, completing the bottom 200 feet of the 60-foot wide boat ramp. Now working at an elevation of 830 feet, the efforts to out-distance rising lake levels appears to be succeeding. The $5 million Loafer Point Boat Ramp Facility Stage One project includes construction of a 92-stall parking area with lighting, a new restroom facility, three new boat launch lanes to 800 feet and one boarding float lane. The project is anticipated to be completed by August 2020. A project to construct a second stage parking lot and boat ramp, for launching at lower water levels, is also being planned. The Loafer Point day use area is currently closed to the public due to construction activities. Loafer Creek areas remain open.

Current Lake Operations

The elevation of Oroville’s reservoir is about 795 feet and storage is more than 2.1 million acre-feet. Daily average inflows to the lake have ranged between approximately 3,370 cfs (cubic feet per second) to 4,690 cfs over the past week.

Cloudy conditions and chances of rain and snow are forecasted this weekend through the early part of the week of January 27 with dry conditions predicted for the latter half of the week. Currently, in the Northern Sierra Basin rainfall is below average, at 64 percent of normal, and snowpack is also below average, measuring 81 percent of normal for this time of year.

Water is being released from Lake Oroville at a rate of about 1,900 cfs. Water from the reservoir is being used locally for rice stubble decomposition and to support waterfowl habitat and is also being used to meet Feather River flow and environmental requirements in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  Releases to support waterfowl habitat are expected to cease by the end of the month.  Total releases to the Feather River are 1,750 cfs, with about 800 cfs flowing through the City of Oroville and 950 cfs being released from the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet.

All data as of midnight 1/23/20

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