Reservoirs feeding Lake Oroville are filled to brink as more rain rolls in
BY JANE BRAXTON LITTLE
SacBee.com
FEBRUARY 20, 2017
CHESTER
Lake Almanor is full. So is Antelope Lake.
In fact, all of the nine reservoirs in the Feather River watershed that feed directly into Lake Oroville are brimming with water from recent storms.
With more rain falling and another even heavier storm predicted for Monday and Tuesday, Plumas County officials are anxiously watching both the sky and the reservoirs above their communities.
“I’m watching, and I’m worried,” said Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss.
The last set of storms flooded his Indian Valley district, pinning Goss in his home 20 miles from Greenville, isolating Greenville and Taylorsville from one another, and blocking travel out of the area in all directions. Flooding damaged sewer systems and roads all over Plumas County, an expanse of rugged terrain that sits to the northeast of Oroville and includes part of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
Poised alongside reservoirs managed for hydropower and water users as far away as southern California, community leaders throughout the rural region wonder how the combination of additional rain and full-to-the-brim reservoirs will affect their districts as well as Oroville, where managers are trying to unload as much water as possible down the dam’s damaged main spillway to make room for more coming in.
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