The water board powers that be, Sonoma County Chamber of Commerce rich kids I think, who are on the water board did not raise the gates on our dam and the lake stayed at the same level during the rain. Meantime, Lake Sonoma is over 90% full. Pillsbury remains around 60%, and by what I've heard, Lake Mendocino is down to around 50%. It's one of the more complex water systems there is.
Lake Pillsbury, the lake where I live, is on the Eel River. Down stream from our dam here, called Scott dam, (a miniature Hoover dam that was built as a practice for the Hoover dam engineers), feeds down the Eel river. About 15 miles downstream is a diversion dam, where some water continues down the Eel, but other water enters a 4 mile long tunnel made of Redwood conduit back around 1915, sunken underground, and it goes to the main start of the Russian river, which eventually supplies water for Sonoma County. It does that by first going down the upper Russian river to Lake Mendocino to supply Mendocino county. From Lake Mendocino's spillway, the water goes down the main central portion of the Russian river to Lake Sonoma. That lake is also fed by some smaller streams, and is much larger, and feeds water to Sonoma County, even down to the north part of Marin county. Once filled back around 1980 after construction of the dam there, it has never gotten lower than 75% full, even during the worst drought years. They only feed enough trickle to keep the water inlets 15 miles downstream of it with enough water during those times, the rest held as some kind of huge reserve.
So why did they not raise the gates on our dam here at Lake Pillsbury? My best guess is the chamber of commerce folks don't want Lake Sonoma to become a bit unsightly. Tens of thousands of tourists go there. Meantime up here, with a few regular visitors...oh well. This is where the real beauty is though.
Before Scott dam was built around 1924, where lake Pillsbury now is stood a dusty little almost ghost town called Hullville, population 24 or so, mostly aging pioneers. It was where 2 forks of the Eel came together, along with a lot of other streams, and the groundwater then, and still is, awesomely flowing at a lot of places. Including springs that still flow that are under the lake, visible as occasional bubbles. It was a gravely valley that often flooded. During the Ice Ages it was a natural lake off and on.
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I sure enjoyed our little rain today. The ground darkened more colorfully, the moss greened, Hull Mountain stood pretty in the clouds, seeds sprouted in my garden, frogs made their croaking sounds, Lizards were hiding somewhere...
Looks like the contractor is going to have a considerable amount of dirt to dig out before he can continue pouring concrete. :/
