Reservoir capacities, river levels

Current reservoir conditions (per California Data Exchange Center):

Shasta Lake is currently at 74 percent of its capacity – or 104 percent of its historical average.

Lake Oroville is currently at 53 percent of its capacity – or 77 percent of its historical average.

Bullards Bar Reservoir is currently at 78 percent of its capacity – or 123 percent of its historical average.

Englebright Lake is currently at 99 percent of its capacity – or 105 percent of its historical average. River Levels (per California Nevada River Forecast Center):

The Sacramento River at the Colusa Bridge has been declining since its high of 68.1 feet on Saturday. The river level is expected to continue declining through the weekend.

The Feather River at Yuba City peaked at 51 feet last Thursday and has been on the decline since. Levels are expected to stay around 39 feet through the weekend. Monitor stage on the Feather River is 65 feet.

The Yuba River at Marysville reached 75.1 feet last Thursday – about a foot above monitor stage – before dropping down 10 feet over the weekend. The river level is expected to stay around 64 feet through the weekend.

flood control system happened along the Sacramento River.

The land side of the east levee along the Sacramento River just north of Grimes experienced some sloughing last Thursday. The crack stretches about 400 feet, but experts with the Department of Water Resources have since investigated the area and determined that the levee is stable. DWR was unable to identify what caused it to happen.

“With getting over 5 inches of rain in 36 hours, anything can happen. We are going to investigate what caused it, and when the time comes and everything dries out, we will get in there to make repairs,” said Andy Duffey, general manager of Reclamation District 70, which manages that stretch of levee.

The land side crack isn’t too much of a concern moving forward as there is adequate space on the waterside of the levee for water to rise without compromising the levee’s integrity, he said. A plastic covering has been placed over the top of the area and sand bags have been put down to prevent further erosion throughout the rest of the winter.

The higher river levels also caused displaced trees to gather at the Reclamation Road Bridge pilings.

Over the weekend, public works crews were at the bridge, which is in the Meridian Basin and spans the Tisdale Bypass, using heavy machinery to remove the branches. A similar incident occurred in 2017, according to Sutter County spokesman Chuck Smith.