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Dried Up Coyote Creek and Lake, 7/12/21 by Ronald Horii
On 7/12/21, I went for a bike ride on the Coyote Creek Trail, starting at Silver Creek Valley Road, with the destination of Coyote Creek Lake north of Metcalf Road. Coyote Creek was dried up in most places, except for a few scattered stagnant ponds. It's not dry because of the drought. It actually has more to do with flooding. This part of Coyote Creek gets its water from Anderson Reservoir. In 2017, Anderson Reservoir spilled, causing flooding downstream. One of the problems is that Anderson has a very small outlet pipe, so they could not drain the reservoir fast enough to prevent flooding. A bigger problem is that geological studies showed that the dam was built on soil that could liquefy during an earthquake, causing the dam to fail. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered the reservoir to be drained. Valley Water drained the reservoir to its minimum capacity of 3% and are starting the process of building bigger outlet tunnels and totally removing and replacing the dam. The project will take about 10 years. Here's more information about the Anderson Dam project:
https://www.valleywater.org/project-updates/c1-anderson-dam-seismic-retrofit
In the meantime, with little to no water flowing out of Anderson Reservoir, Coyote Creek is drying up. This is what it looked like. Coyote Creek Lake, a large percolation pond on the creek north of Metcalf Road, is drying up. Fish are trapped in drying ponds, attracting lots of birds. This is a good, though temporary, opportunity for seeing these large fish-eating birds.
Here's the map of the Coyote Creek Parkway:
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/Coyote%20Creek%20Parkway%20Guide%20Map.pdf
For more of my pictures of the Coyote Creek Parkway, see: http://www.rhorii.com/#CoyoteCreekParkway
If you want to find out more about our water systems, take a virtual tour: https://valleywater.volunteerhub.com/lp/watersupplytours/
In tour #1, they will talk about the Anderson Dam retrofit project.
On 7/12/21, I went for a bike ride on the Coyote Creek Trail, starting at Silver Creek Valley Road, with the destination of Coyote Creek Lake north of Metcalf Road. Coyote Creek was dried up in most places, except for a few scattered stagnant ponds. It's not dry because of the drought. It actually has more to do with flooding. This part of Coyote Creek gets its water from Anderson Reservoir. In 2017, Anderson Reservoir spilled, causing flooding downstream. One of the problems is that Anderson has a very small outlet pipe, so they could not drain the reservoir fast enough to prevent flooding. A bigger problem is that geological studies showed that the dam was built on soil that could liquefy during an earthquake, causing the dam to fail. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered the reservoir to be drained. Valley Water drained the reservoir to its minimum capacity of 3% and are starting the process of building bigger outlet tunnels and totally removing and replacing the dam. The project will take about 10 years. Here's more information about the Anderson Dam project:
https://www.valleywater.org/project-updates/c1-anderson-dam-seismic-retrofit
In the meantime, with little to no water flowing out of Anderson Reservoir, Coyote Creek is drying up. This is what it looked like. Coyote Creek Lake, a large percolation pond on the creek north of Metcalf Road, is drying up. Fish are trapped in drying ponds, attracting lots of birds. This is a good, though temporary, opportunity for seeing these large fish-eating birds.
Here's the map of the Coyote Creek Parkway:
https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/Coyote%20Creek%20Parkway%20Guide%20Map.pdf
For more of my pictures of the Coyote Creek Parkway, see: http://www.rhorii.com/#CoyoteCreekParkway
If you want to find out more about our water systems, take a virtual tour: https://valleywater.volunteerhub.com/lp/watersupplytours/
In tour #1, they will talk about the Anderson Dam retrofit project.
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