Low Shasta Lake

[Ron61]

Ernie,

I just got back from over at city hall and was talking to a guy from the Bureau and he said the lake is now officially 122' down. I have never seen it anywhere near like this. Many of the arms that go up the canyons are now closed to boats as all there is coming down is a small stream. They have cut back as much release as they can and are trying to get people to stop using water so they can stabilize the levels, but that isn't going to happen. We need rain and snow in the mountains, but they are saying it is going to be another dry Winter. If so, next summer you will be able to walk across the lake. Several of the boat docks are closed and Bridge Bay has extended their floating docks over 300' just to keep them in water. And come next Summer when the farmers need water, it is going to be bad if we don't get some rain.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

We were getting pretty bad here over the last couple of years, but this spring into Summer was so wet, all our lakes are full again. We actually had flooding issues. I hope you guys get some of what we had this year.

[Ron61]

Joe,

So do I. That old tail tower was cut off again years ago when the lake was at a low time and they cut off about 15 to 20 feet of it which was at the water level then. Now you can see how much is out of the water. I don't think that part of the base has ever been seen since they filled the lake except by divers and it is now above the water.

Ron

[Joe Wicked]

Luckily for us, we weren't that bad I don't think. Our lakes are not as deep, but there are a lot of small ones around. I live right on Lake Lavon and there is an old bridge that used to cross one of the streams that were there before the dam. Once the dam was put in, the streams completely disappeared and the bridge was submerged. It was normally about 15' below the surface. Last fall a boat struck the bridge and sunk. This spring the bridge was exposed for the first time since it was flooded. Then the rains came. At first it was a blessing, but after so much and the lakes all filled up, and began to flood. The rivers could not carry enough water away fast enough to prevent the flooding. Lakes had to be closed around the 4th of July due to flooding of campgrounds, access roads, etc... the dam at Lavon had to be shut and allow it to flood over because the lake it feeds, was so high that they were going to have to shut down I30 (one of the 2 primary East-West arteries into Dallas) because the water was only 5-10' below the bridge and rising. lots of farmers crops were lost to flooding.