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Old 08-25-2015, 10:42 AM   #1
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Default The Drought in California

I'm in the midst of a Road Trip from Phoenix to Seattle and back and made a bit of a detour on the way up.

I decided to check out one of my favorite lakes to see how the current drought has impacted it. The detour to Trinity Lake was mostly uneventful but there was some smoke in the sky from the current wildfires.

When I made my way to the Dam I was shocked to see how low the water level is - officially the level of Trinity Lake was 151 feet below the spillway when this picture was taken:

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Old 08-25-2015, 10:49 AM   #2
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Default Boat Launch out of water....

Here's a picture of one of the many boat launches that can no longer be used.

The level of the lake is so low that the end of the boat launch is above the water level. If you look closely you can see that there are tumble weeds growing at the end of the launch.

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Old 08-25-2015, 10:55 AM   #3
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Default Tumble weeds at the end of the boat launch

Here's a better picture of the tumble weeds at the end of the boat launch.

I'd guess the water level is still about 80 feet below the end of the ramp and the drop-off is at an angle of about 60 degrees. (There are warning signs at the top of the ramp indicating that the ramp is closed.)

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Old 08-25-2015, 11:02 AM   #4
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Default Boat docks resting on dry land

Here's a picture of another boat launch that it no longer in use.

If you look closely you'll see some "floating" boat docks that are now resting on dry land.

Back in 2008 I remember walking out to those docks as they were floating in the water and tearing up the water in that cove with my SeaDoo RXP.

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Old 08-25-2015, 11:13 AM   #5
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Default Drought exposes old tailings piles

Here's a final picture that shows how low the water level is at Trinity Lake.

If you look carefully on the right side of the photo you'll see the gravel on what used to be the bottom of the lake has a pattern to it.

If you watched any of last season's episodes of Gold Rush then you're likely familiar with dredge mining. I've been told the pattern that you see in the gravel is from the tailings of the dredges that mined this area for gold over 100 years ago.

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Old 08-25-2015, 01:12 PM   #6
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One thing I SURE don't understand. Niagara Brand water (sold at Sam's and Wal-Mart as a store brand) is bottled in CA, and shipped all across the US. Why in the world would the government in CA allow this????

Nestle has a plant here in TN at Red Boiling Springs, and that's the water I personally buy. There is no way I'd would purposely buy water from CA.
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Old 08-25-2015, 03:43 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tnpartsguy View Post
One thing I SURE don't understand. Niagara Brand water (sold at Sam's and Wal-Mart as a store brand) is bottled in CA, and shipped all across the US. Why in the world would the government in CA allow this????

Nestle has a plant here in TN at Red Boiling Springs, and that's the water I personally buy. There is no way I'd would purposely buy water from CA.
I think Starbucks stopped bottling water in California for exactly the reason you mention. While the amount of water that's used for bottled water may only represent a small fraction of the total water consumed it makes for a poor PR image.

On a positive PR note, I'm in Seattle as I type this message and Anheuser-Busch is providing water in aluminum beer cans for the firefighters who are battling the forest fires in Eastern Washington. Two different TV stations carried the news story last night - great PR and advertising for Anheuser-Busch.
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Old 09-04-2015, 04:13 PM   #8
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Default Here are a few pictures from Lake Shasta

On the way back from Seattle I took a different route so I could check out Lake Shasta.

Lake Shasta is suffering from the drought too - the lake level is down 123 feet from the top of the dam.

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The asphalt that you see just beyond the big tires is the end of the boat ramp that's used when the lake is full.
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The first time I went to Shasta I remember launching my SeaDoo RX-DI from that ramp with my Jeep TJ. Good times....
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Old 09-04-2015, 04:18 PM   #9
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Here's a picture of the boat launch that's currently being used due to the lower water level.
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Old 09-04-2015, 04:22 PM   #10
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There's a small resort at the lake that provides a dock so their guests can leave their boat in the water overnight. When the lake is full the dock is almost at street level.
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This is what their docks looks like when the lake is 123 feet below the dam:
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Old 09-04-2015, 04:28 PM   #11
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Here's a final picture of Shasta Lake with a railroad trestle in the background.
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