With the continued growth of our area, and the continued reluctance of area legislators to move towards building the Auburn Dam, this scenario is an accurate future portrait for Folsom Lake, and could get worse.
We are the only American River Parkway advocacy organization to call for the building of the Auburn Dam, which will have a great beneficial effect on the Parkway, and Folsom Lake’s water storage and recreational sustainability throughout the year, with the huge added bonus of providing the 500 year gold standard in flood protection for the Sacramento region.
Folsom Lake a ghost town
Low water level keeps holiday crowd away
By: Cheri March
Monday, September 3, 2007
It was holiday traffic as usual on Highway 50 this Labor Day weekend, but the same couldn't be said for Folsom Lake.
Save for a few fishing boats, the lake's waters were deserted Monday.
And though the parking lot was lined with row after row of watercraft, the marina below was empty and dry.
Boaters were required to pull watercraft from the Folsom Lake Marina by Aug. 1 this year due to abnormally low water levels, courtesy of a dry winter.
"This is ridiculous," said Tony Samery, who was at Folsom Lake with his wife Sandy on Sunday. "We bought a jet ski at the end of summer last year and we can't use it here."
The lake's level as of Saturday was 398.9 feet, down 43 feet from 442.5 feet for the same time last year, according to the California Department of Water Resources' Web site.
"The problem is that I don't know what to expect, but our charges stay the same," said John Speight of Roseville, who had already parked his Catalina 25 sailboat ashore though he has a slip for the marina.
Because of the low levels, only one Folsom Lake launch ramp - Brown's Ravine in El Dorado Hills- was open over the weekend. State park officials had also enacted a 5 mph maximum speed limit on the lake starting the Friday before the holiday, to reduce the chance a boat would scrape rocks brought closer than usual to the surface.
The extra restrictions likely factored into the bare recreation area, Speight said.
"Normally there's no speed law," he said. "It doesn't affect guys like me much, but the power-boaters can't use the lake. I think the only people here today are the ones at the gate."
Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, told the Telegraph in August that the last time Folsom Lake was lowered in mid-summer was 2004.
