Ahead Of Super Soaker, Officials Upping Water Releases Below Nimbus Dam
NIMBUS (CBS13) – The Bureau of Reclamation is getting ahead of this weekend's storm by incrementally releasing 3,500 cubic feet of water per second to 15,000 cubic feet per second below the Nimbus Dam to manage potential Sierra runoff.
"The reservoir can come up quite quickly," said Louis Moore, deputy of public affairs with the bureau. "So we're making some adjustments today to increase our releases to accommodate that new water coming."
With this super soaker expected to drench Northern California, water levels will no doubt rise.
"A lot of that water is going to affect the local areas, and you will see the rivers rise based on all that runoff and drainage into those rivers," Moore said.
This storm has also prompted Sacramento County Regional Parks to close areas like the American and Dry Creek parkways along with the Sacramento and American Rivers.
"We do a notification to make sure people are aware of that and work with our first responders to insure that they're aware," Moore said.
The Bureau of Reclamation says releases can be adjusted depending on how big this storm gets.
"Our goal is to protect the downstream communities and that's by managing the inflow versus the outflow," Moore said.
The National Weather Service is comparing the potential flooding we could see Sunday into Monday, to the situation we had back in December of 2005.