Little Truckee Almost Dry, followup email from Ralph Cutter

July 1998

The recent issue with water cut off precipitously to almost nothing below Stampede Reservoir (Little Truckee) resulted in Ralph Cutter discovering that the water master was caught between two hard places. Editor

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Forwarded from Ralph Cutter:

Little Truckee River Alert Update 7/10/98

Last Thursday the Little Truckee flows were abruptly cut resulting in fish stranding and a significant loss of aquatic insects. I was on the river atthe time and spent the morning picking fry off the gravel bar and out of the streamside puddles. When I got home I sent the Action Alert and you guys responded with a very loud "get your act together" to the Federal Watermaster. (A few people got a bit out of hand. I absolutely understand your anger and frustration, but it still isn't an excuse to yell and cuss the guy out).

The facts are in. The drawdown was required to make repairs on a turbine and a bypass channel on Stampede. It was a planned event that was timed to keep damage to the Little Truckee at a minimum. It was done after spawning and hatching time and occured while the maximum amount of water was running over the spillway. Because the bypass channel was out of commission, the cutoff from 98 cfs to 35 cfs couldn't be ramped but spillway flows helped soften the blow. As nasty as it was, the flow reduction was still within the legal limits.

The Powers-That-Be were between a rock and a hard spot and did the best they could at the time. In the future, the bypass channel will be available to help prevent stranding should these type of drawdowns be needed.

Thank you very, very much for taking the time to make your voices heard. We left no doubt in the Watermaster's mind that we are watching and will react immediately should our rivers and streams be threatened. Again, I think the Watermaster did as good a job as possible under the circumstances. . . next time he'll have the tools at hand to do even a better job.

Wild waters,

-Ralph

Oh yeah, little yellow stoneflies are hatching and the trout are all over 'em -tight lines!

California School of Flyfishing <http://www.flyline.com>