Changes to water releases from Lake Mendocino helping

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A change in releases at Lake Mendocino is helping water suppliers hold back precious reserves as the region’s dry spell wears on and threatens to cut historically low reservoir stores to critical levels.
The new protocol could prevent as much as 5,000 acre feet of water — one-sixth of Lake Mendocino’s current supply — from slipping down the Russian River before the end of November, an official with the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District said.
“Five thousand acre feet is going to be about what we used for the entire year this year, so it’s a meaningful amount for us,” the district’s general manager, Sean White, said. “It’s our whole annual budget.”
Savings projections supplied by the Sonoma County Water Agency were closer to 3,600 acre feet, with the potential for salmon migrating upstream triggering additional releases after Nov. 1.
via Changes to water releases from Lake Mendocino helping | The Press Democrat.