Operators increase water releases from Shasta Reservoir
(FOX40.COM) — The Bureau of Reclamation has announced that it will be continuing releases from Shasta Lake into the Sacramento River on Wednesday.
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Since Tuesday, dam operators have been picking up outflow levels at Shasta Lake from 11,559 cubic feet of water per second (CFS) at 5 a.m. to 16,055 cfs of water by 7 a.m.
By 11 p.m. on Tuesday, outflow releases peaked at 18,904 CFS until release levels jumped at 1 a.m. on Wednesday to 22,631 CFS.
These are some of the highest release levels that Shasta has seen in February and outflow levels are expected to increase into Thursday morning.
The bureau shared that it will be elevating the current outflow rate of 25,000 CFS to 35,000 CFS by 7 a.m. on Thursday.
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The reason for the rapid increase in releases is due to anticipated incoming flows from recent storms.
The bureau is alerting the public that the upper Sacramento River will be cold and fast as these larger release levels continue.
Shasta Reservoir is the largest above-ground water storage facility in California and holds over 4 million acre-feet of water.
The lake is currently holding more than 3.9 million acre-feet of water with a current max depth of 1,046 feet.
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