Firefighters pulled two men from the American River on Wednesday in a water rescue.
One of the men was taken to the hospital.
Sac Metro Fire said one person was on the north side of the El Manto access area and the other was on the south side, near New York Avenue.
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The time for slip renters to pull their boats out of the water at Folsom Lake has come earlier than usual, due to the drought.
As of Sunday, the water level was at 413 feet, one foot away from the lowest point at which boats are permitted in the slips. After that level, it becomes dangerous to try to pull boats out.
Over the weekend, Jason Rutherford set out to enjoy the clear sky weather out on the water with his family for the last time this summer.
“We’re going to go out and come in this evening and pull it out this evening and wrap it up for the season in Folsom Lake,” Rutherford said.
And they were just getting started.
The Rutherfords got to use their slip for just one week before they had to take their boat back home.
“We’re two minutes from the lake so it’s great to come out on the evenings when you get off work,” Rutherford said. “It’s a bummer but we have a water issue. What are you going to do?”
On Sunday, the wind was perfect for sailing which made for a good father’s day for the Benjamins.
“It’s my husband’s special day and sailing is his passion,” Laura Benjamin said.
Even when they can’t use their slip they will continue to bring their boat to Folsom Lake, it just won’t be as convenient.
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In this heat, everyone could use a nice cold swim to cool off, animals included.
An El Dorado Hills man was on Folsom Lake Saturday morning when he spotted an animal swimming in the water.
It wasn’t a dog. Or a coyote. Or a pig for that matter. Swimming casually in the cold lake water was a bear!
Tony Mygatt said he was sitting in his boat in a little cove and reading his book when he saw something swimming toward him. He grabbed his phone, snapped a photo and then began to film the bear.
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Sacramento Metro Fire Captain Randy Gross was about to lead News10 on a tour of the American River and it’s potential dangers when a call for an injury at a rope swing suddenly sent his four-man crew of Rescue Boat 65 into action.
“The rope swing’s a very popular spot. We go there probably every weekend for a call,” Gross said. “Just last Sunday, we went for a pretty severe fracture of the arm.”
In minutes, his low-draft rescue boat is skimming the water at nearly 40 miles an hour, as his engineer deftly dodges rafts, kayaks and swimmers.
“People are adventurous. They want to try things that aren’t the smartest thing to do,” Gross said. “And here’s a perfect example, 21-year-old male who had not had anything to drink.”
The man lost his grip on the rope swing, plunging onto the river bank and nearly slipping into the water before a friend was able to pull him back.
“If somebody wasn’t there and he would have slid off into the water, even though it seems pretty calm, he could be gone – they’re not going to find him,” Gross said.
The young man was clearly in shock, but resisted having a C-spine neck collar put on. Firefighters left it off, explaining that trying to force one on can do more harm.
“Not exactly knowing what’s going on, we provide whatever care we can,” Gross explained, pointing out the man does not seem to have head or next injuries. But, internal injuries are not yet ruled out.
“Very tough impact. And we don’t know what kind of impact on him for the next month or the rest of his life,” Gross explained.
In minutes, the young man is taken across the river to a waiting ambulance for a trip to the emergency room.
“This river is extremely dangerous,” Gross reflects. “Snags, slips, people hitting their head — it just takes your ankle getting twisted with the force of the water against it and, you know, you’re gone.”
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A 21-year-old man was injured Friday afternoon when he fell from a rope swing into the American River.
The incident occurred about 3:30 p.m. near Hollister Avenue in Carmichael. Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District boats responded and found the man, who had suffered injuries to his head and torso, according to a district news release.
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A water regulator is warning Roseville and Folsom could run out of water in just a few months if officials continue to allow water releases from Folsom Lake.
Andrew Fecko with the Placer County Water Agency is concerned and frustrated after learning the Bureau of Reclamation has increased releases from Folsom Lake. He warns those increased releases won’t just expose ruins where water should be.
“If this lake behind me goes below 100,000 acre feet, in the September time frame, that’s a you-can’t-turn-on-your-tap moment, and that’s something we haven’t faced here before,” he said.
He says about half a million citizens use water from Folsom Lake, including the cities of Folsom and Roseville, as well as the San Juan Water District.
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At its June 4 meeting, the Placer County Water Agency Board of Directors expressed grave concern over the projected drop in water levels at Folsom Lake.
Reacting to an order last week by the State Water Resource Control Board to conserve cold water supplies in the Shasta Reservoir system, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is releasing water from Folsom Reservoir at a rate that could drop lake levels within a few feet of the water supply outlet that serves the City of Roseville, City of Folsom, and San Juan Water District.
“If the current plan remains unchanged and we experience a dry fall, we could see half a million people in the region without water,” PCWA General Manager, Einar Maisch said. “This could, in effect, destroy the entire region’s economy.”
By holding cold water supplies at Shasta Reservoir now, it is expected cold water will be available for winter run Salmon in the Sacramento River. Releases at Folsom Lake increased from 1,500 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 2,000 cfs (approximately 4,000 acre-feet per day). Under current modeling, Folsom Lake levels could drop to approximately 118,000 acre-feet by the end of September. By comparison, in January 2014 Folsom reached its recent record low of 162,000 acre-feet, just before near record high February rains. 118,000 acre-feet would be 16 feet lower than the level reached in January 2014.
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A wave of lightning strikes swept across parts of Northern California Thursday, touching off flames and causing concern more fires could erupt as temperatures warm next week.
“We’ve had over 500 lightning strikes in Northern California in the last six hours,” Cal Fire spokesman Brice Bennett said early Thursday evening, as dispatchers monitored lightning strikes at the Amador-El Dorado Unit’s joint operations center in Camino.
“Butte’s had a couple strikes and the fire has actually grown to over 20 acres,” Bennett added.
The biggest concern is that strike-caused fires would keep burning, even as rain continues to fall.
“So, we’re seeing lightning-sparked fires, with rain, grow. And that’s a cause of concern for us,” Bennett said. “Some of the units in Northern California have activated their lightning plan due to the number of strikes and the fires they are finding from these strikes.”
Up the South Fork of the American River to the east, camper Rebekah Huitema recalled the arrival of thunder and lightning there.
“I screamed like a little girl,” Huitema said. “It was right here. You could almost feel the pulse from it.”
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Scientists have found new ways to reduce mercury in wetlands, providing hope that Sacramento-area waterways can be decontaminated of the potentially toxic element that dates back to Gold Rush-era mining activities.
The new research, published recently in Environmental Science and Technology, found that dosing wetlands with two chemicals, iron or aluminum salts, was successful in removing mercury from wetlands.
Researchers spent two years on the project and built nine wetlands on public land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta at Twitchell Island. They applied water with aluminum salts to three wetlands, water with iron to another three and regular water to the last set of three, according to Tamara Kraus, a research soil scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and a co-author of the study.
To determine the effects, researchers introduced mosquitofish. They found mercury levels in the mosquitofish decreased by 62 percent in wetlands dosed with aluminum salts and by 76 percent in wetlands where iron was used.
The mercury lingering in area rivers, creeks and wetlands dates back to the 19th century, when miners used the element to help extract gold in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Controlling mercury levels in area rivers, creeks and wetlands is a key health issue because many people continue to eat fish they catch from mercury-contaminated waters, despite advisories.
“The mercury levels are of concern to us because people are still fishing regularly out of the Delta,” said Sonney Chong, chairman of Capital, an umbrella organization representing the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
A 2013 assessment by the California Department of Public Health found that Hmong, Laotian and Cambodian residents are avid fishermen in the Delta, but that some have low awareness of the mercury issue.
“They’re feeding their family. It’s an outright source of food, so they’ve ignored the advisories,” Chong said.
Ingestion of mercury can lead to problems that include mental impairment and other developmental abnormalities, especially in fetuses and young children.
Mercury bioaccumulates in fish tissue and is passed up the food chain in greater quantities as larger fish eat small fish.
In 2011, a survey of 16 species of sport fish from 63 locations done by the State Water Resources Control Board found that fish caught in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed had higher concentrations of mercury than anywhere else in the state. The highest contamination was in fish high up the food chain – smallmouth and largemouth bass, striped bass and the Sacramento pikeminnow.
Contaminated river sites included the American River at Discovery Park and the south fork of the American River at Coloma. Fish tested from the San Joaquin River pier at Point Antioch and at Louis Park in Stockton also showed high mercury levels.
Pressure is mounting for Sacramento County to do more about illegal camping and potential fire danger along the American River Parkway.
“Move the homeless population out of the 12th Street corridor,” said Mike Rushford of the American River Parkway Preservation Society.
Rushford was inspecting the charred-out remains of a fire in Sacramento’s urban forest, the American River Parkway.
Illegal homeless campsites “threaten this big open preserve here,” Rushford said.
“A month from now, this would just burn all the way to the Woodlake area,” Rushford said. “This year, because it’s the fourth year of a very bad drought, could be the year that we get that catastrophic fire that we all fear so much.”
Preservationists like Rushford are increasingly concerned about illegal campsites and the growing risk of fires caused by transients.
Last year a KCRA 3 investigation revealed the Sacramento Fire Department fought 85 fires over a four-mile stretch along the American River between Discovery Park and Cal Expo.
On Tuesday along the American River Parkway, KCRA 3 discovered a wide array of tents, camping gear and even barbecue grills in open display.
Sacramento County park rangers on patrol told one illegal camper to move out. “I just got here,” said the homeless man.
Park rangers last year discovered more than 1,100 illegal campsites and issued 756 citations.
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