Week of rain filling up Lake Mendocino

UKIAH -- A week of on-and-off heavy rain has Lake Mendocino rising, easing droughtlike conditions that had sent reservoir levels plunging to near-record lows.

If forecasts for more rain over the Christmas holiday are correct, lake levels could soar dramatically, said water officials.

"It's a very positive situation at the moment," said Pam Jeane, deputy director of operations for the Sonoma County Water Agency. The agency owns the bulk of water stored in the man-made reservoir behind Coyote Dam, located about two miles upstream from Ukiah on the Russian River.

Jeane on Thursday was cautiously optimistic the worst may be over, citing high flows of stream runoff into the lake. At the peak early Thursday, the inflow was nearly 20 times what it had been during dry fall months.

Hours after heavy rain Thursday stopped pelting the watershed, the inflow was four times the volume of water the Sonoma agency is releasing downstream.

Jeane noted that once soils throughout the Lake Mendocino watershed are saturated, the reservoir can fill quickly, even though its current level is just one-quarter of storage capacity.

"If we get three or four more good rainstorms, lake levels should soon start returning to normal," Jeane said.

The rising lake level is an encouraging sign for a Redwood Valley water district where about 6,000 users have been asked to slash their consumption by 40 percent. The Redwood Valley County Water District is the only entity to tap directly into the reservoir for water supplies. Fast-dropping lake levels during the dry fall had raised fears the district might lose its ability to pump water.

Even with the storm runoff from this week's rains, a huge mud ring still wraps the lake's 15-mile shoreline.

The boat ramps at the north and south ends of the lake are closed, and a popular gathering spot for mud-loving four-wheel vehicle drivers is still off-limits.

The current level of Lake Mendocino water storage is just 51 percent of a 10-year average, according to state records, compared with 92 percent for the much larger Lake Sonoma west of Cloverdale.

The county Water Agency generally reserves Lake Sonoma water to supply 600,000 commercial and residential users in Sonoma and Marin counties, while relying on releases from Lake Mendocino to maintain adequate downstream flows between Ukiah and the ocean for late summer and fall fish runs.