News Release Archive

Reclamation to Open Red Bluff Diversion Dam Gates

Media Contact: Pete Lucero, 916-978-5100, plucero@usbr.gov

For Release: August 29, 2011

The Bureau of Reclamation will begin opening the Red Bluff Diversion Dam gates and lowering Lake Red Bluff on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service's Biological Opinion requires that the gates are opened no later than Sept. 1 to help migration of winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon and green sturgeon past the dam site. 

With the opening beginning at 7 a.m. on Sept. 1, the lake level is expected to decrease approximately 3 to 4 feet the first day; with lake level adjustments continuing until the lake is reduced back to the river channel by Sunday, Sept. 4. All boats affected by the changing levels should be relocated before 6 a.m., Sept. 1. 

Red Bluff Diversion Dam is on the Sacramento River about 2 miles southeast of Red Bluff, Calif. Water from the Sacramento River is diverted to the Corning and Tehama-Colusa Canals, which serve approximately 150,000 irrigated acres south of Red Bluff. Diversion of water from the Sacramento River into the Corning and Tehama-Colusa Canals will be done by the existing pumping plants until the new Red Bluff Pumping Plant comes online in 2012.

For more information, please contact Paul Freeman with Reclamation’s Northern California Area Office at 530-529-3890 or pfreeman@usbr.gov.

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