Category: Central Valley

-April 7,2023-

Kaweah Health expected to move forward on Sequoia Gateway project

pictured:
Hwy 99 clinic in Fowler -a JV between Adventist Health and Valley Children’s

Despite tough financial times, Kaweah Health will likely move forward on a joint venture with private investors/physicians to build a new clinic complex at the Sequoia Gateway center on Caldwell and Highway 99. CEO Gary Herbst says they expect to close escrow soon on 7 acres the district hospital is buying near the proposed Valley Children’s clinic. The Fresno children’s hospital has closed escrow on their land confirms a spokesperson.Valley Children’s has a similar joint venture clinic with Adventist Health in Fowler along the 99 corridor (pictured). Adventist Health is a competitor to Kaweah -about to take over operation of the 49 physician strong Visalia Medical Clinic.

Herbst says when the new 99 complex is built “we would be able to move some of the district units out of crowded Downtown Visalia to the new site.”

Herbst adds that their agreement would not require more district investment other than the land and the investors would build and operate the clinic.

In 2020 Kaweh Health announced they would purchase the land but until now they did not move forward. At that time, they announced “Kaweah Health is purchasing land in the Sequoia Gateway project, at the corner of Caldwell Avenue and Highway 99, using a portion of the proceeds from its sale of 80 of 100 acres in southeast Visalia last year to Visalia Unified School District. Valley Children’s Hospital, Kaweah Health’s long-term partner in providing care to children in its Neonatal Intensive Care and Pediatrics units, has previously announced its plans to develop a pediatric specialty care clinic in the Sequoia Gateway development.”

The larger Sequoia Gateway project has been slow to develop with only a drive-thru coffee place operating as of now.Recently a major anchor tenant Great Wolf pulled out of plans for a hotel resort at the site.

BIG TULARE INDUSTRIAL WAREHOUSE GETS PERMIT

Chicago-based CA Industrial purchased 76 acres of open land in Tulare last year announcing they would build up to 1.1 million square feet of logistics space and perhaps double that in a future phase.
Now the City of Tulare has Issued a grading permit to build the firm’s first spec building ,a 545,000 sf warehouse at the southwest corner of Paige Avenue and South I Street. Construction of the project will likely take a year.It is Tulare’s first big logistics spec building, constructed before a tenant is identified. By contrast, Visalia has permitted several million square feet to big logistic firms like Amazon and others.

Visalia permits slide by two thirds

So far this year, the City of Visalia is seeing a decline by about two thirds in both the number of new homes permitted and the value of all permits. Multi-family permits are also down through March in Visalia after a big run up in 2022.High interest rates and tighter bank financing may be slowing the pace of all building activity in town this spring.Existing homes sales are also way down.

 

 

Less runoff from latest storm than past two March events

-March 30,2023-

The two huge atmospheric river storms earlier this month sent flood water barreling down the mountain and foothills of Tulare County.

But despite fears of a repeat performance, the latest storm March 29 barely moved the needle on runoff DWR and other flow charts show.

The county’s two reservoirs- Lakes Kaweah and Success – have vacated a combined 80,000 acre feet under the direction of the Corp of Engineers since the March 15 storm, the second one.. The Corps wanted to reduce chances the dams could be overwhelmed by another potent warm storm or sudden hot weather melting what is a record snowpack. They will continue to do that with the hunch that a break in the weather is likely.

But these real time charts posted March 30 clearly show only minor impact on flows from this week’s storm compared to the two earlier events, particularly the first scary event.

Of course saturated soils on the Valley floor continue to impact small communities in the basin as flood water continues to stream down hill to Tulare Lake from channels including the St Johns and Tule Rivers.

While a number of towns like Woodlake and Allensworth continue to struggle with rising water, Visalia has clearly dodged a bullet so far when it comes to impacts.

“Staff at the City of Visalia have been on it” says Mayor Brian Poochigian noting that they have been monitoring embankments and removing debris that could have spread flooding across city streets. “The bottom line is that we were prepared” says Poochigian even though some social media posts erroneously reported problems, he says.

charts pictured: Top: Corps vacates some 40,000af from Lake Success between March 15 and 29

bottom chart: runoff on the Kaweah River is huge on March 11 peaking near 43,000cfs but registers just 5000cfs from the March 29 storm. Tule River records a similar trend

“We prayed for rain and did a good job of it” Doug Verboon.

-March 23,2023-

After a week of both rising water and concerns that the town of Corcoran could soon be under water – coordinated actions led by Kings County has reduced at least some of the impending doom and gloom.So says Supervisor Doug Verboon who with his fellow supervisors ordered a levee maintained by the Boswell company- into Basin 749- be cut, relieving some pressure on the network of protective control embankments around the community.

“On Friday the Tule River broke through and filled up what had been a walled-off basin helping to reduce the emergency” Verboon says. After a tense stand-off in the Board of Supervisors chambers over the weekend “the County and the Boswell company are now cooperating even though they would rather we were not involved” suggested Verboon.

”We both figure it’s better than us fighting in public.”

On March 16 the supervisors ordered:
1 Public Works is instructed to reestablish cuts between Excelsior and Flint on the 2000-3000 block designed to relieve flood flows.
2. Corcoran Irrigation District will be allowed to repair its breaches.
3. There will be no damming of the Highline Canal at this time.
4. In the event any person or entity considers damming the Highline Canal or modifying any flood plan path, they will be required to notify Kings County dispatch one hour prior to commencing work.

Press accounts

Indeed the public got a rare glimpse of the battle over how to direct flooding coming from an overflowing Tule River in press accounts in the past week including an LA Times article that detailed how representatives of the Deer Creek Flood Control District tried to reach an unnamed large property owner wanting to ask them to allow flooding of their orchard so homes could be saved.

Instead the company placed a large piece of equipment blocking a road that impeded flood control efforts, says the paper. The low income towns of Allensworth and Alpaugh have been flooded and roads made impassable, the flood control district alleged, putting the blame on the company.The Times was unable to get a comment from the company.

On March 18 the blog San JoaquinWater.Org detailed a middle of the night raid by someone who cut a portion of the bank of Deer Creek 3 miles northeast of Allensworth wanting to move water in a different direction but toward Allensworth in Tulare County.

Those Tulare County towns were not the only community affected by water being held back and not allowed to move to the lakebed. Tulare has been impacted as well and lobbied the Kings Board of Supervisors to move more Tule River water by opening more channels.

In the end Doug Verboon says no-one is to blame despite all the arm wrestling over what land is flooded. “There is just to much water,”

Today all rivers and creeks in the southern Sierra are flowing out of the foothills and heading as fast as they can for old Tulare Lake simply because water moves downhill.

One saving grace may be this week’s 12th Atmospheric River storm may not be as huge as feared, says Verboon. Plus it looks like the region will catch a break with no rain for perhaps a week – a chance for blue sky and a period of drying off.

A look at flows at press time demonstrate this week’s storm was not as warm, strong or impactful as the two previous storms that sent a torrent of water into reservoirs and uncontrolled creeks below and west to Kings County.

Pictured: inflows into Terminus Dam from  the Kaweah River. This week’s storm was tame

Some good news

The good news is as of Wednesday March 22 at 6 PM inflow into both lakes are tame.On the Kaweah the inflow from the March 21 storm is about 5000 cfs compared to 42,000cfs March 11 and 30,000cfs on March 15. Both those warm and big storms hammered Springville and Three Rivers and started all this flooding.

Pictured: temperature chart at 6500-feet in Giant Forest today and during the last 2 destructive storms when
temps reached 44 degrees.This weeks storm was cold and did not met snow.

Now the lower incoming flows will allow the Corp of Engineers to slowly drain both lakes to give them room for that big melt in a month or so.

As for the Kings, this week Pine Flat and tributaries floodwater is being steered both to the north impacting the town of San Joaquin and heading to the ocean as wells flowing south to the lakebed. The latest flow releases will put the Clark’s Fork-South Fork system flow at 1,500 c.f.s. by Thursday evening with the North Fork-James Bypass to the San Joaquin River at its 4,750 c.f.s. capacity says spokesperson Randy McFarland.

Flows into the lake will likely mean the return of Tulare Lake – once the largest body of water west of the Mississippi.The lake re-appeared from a dry basin in drought years to a real lake in 1969 and 1983.

One theory is that today water heading west does not flow where it has in the past.That is the point of view of Doug Verboon’s cousin Jim Verboon who argues ” this time it’s different” He claims the big ag interests like Boswell have cordoned off basins and blocked channels where water had flowed before.

Jim Verboon fears for Corcoran, arguing that “there is a 95% chance” Corcoran will be flooded.

Jim Verboon suspects one factor affecting flood patterns is the scale of subsidence in the Corcoran area where studies have shown land sinking from 12 to 24 feet One study says there is a “Corcoran bowl” of sunken landscape in a wide circle around Corcoran and east toward Highway 99. The California High Speed Rail has engineered for the drop.It happens that the Amtrak station in Corcoran was closed this week due to fears of flooding.

The impact of subsidence on flood patterns may be complicated but lower grounds obviously attract water seeking the lowest point -making them more vulnerable to flooding.

View on the return of Tulare Lake

While some fear the return of Tulare Lake, others see a benefit.

Dairyman Joaquin Contente says he thinks Tulare Lake will be big this year and it’s a good thing. He figures it keeps more populated and intensely developed areas of basin less prone to flooding.Plus it could provide a source of stored water when it turns dry again.The flood water as a nuisance today but would turn to a valuable commodity.

Fresno Bee writer Marek Warszawski argues the return of Tulare Lake is not good news since the livelihoods of those who work in the lakebed will suffer. The other side of the coin is that if water flows downhill, the upstream towns and farms are spared where there is a far bigger economy.

Figure the lake will indeed come back. Just one the rivers that feeds Tulare Lake -the Kings River now has an estimate of April-July runoff that should be over 2.6 million acre feet compared to 400,000af the year before.

March 16,2023,6AM

Southern Sierra has biggest snowpack ever

MORE COMING

NWS says next week expect more rain events ( see map end of story)

The Southern Sierra now has the largest snowpack in recorded history (as measured by snow water equivalent, or SWE). Not just for March 15, but any time. As of press time, snowpack is 271% of normal and 260% of April 1 average.

Amply supplied by multiple warm atmospheric river storms, as of now all creeks and rivers are heading for the Tulare Lake Basin propelled by gravity. Flows are evident from Deer Creek to the Tule River and from the Kaweah – all with more volume than can be handled in the eastern part of the Valley.

That includes flows from the Kaweah River says Mark Larsen who heads up the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District. ”These storms have been huge events” and water from the Kaweah” has been heading to the lakebed for some time now”.

Larsen says he expects Kaweah Lake to fill with storm runoff “in the next 24 hours.” The question will be – how much does it spill?”

UPDATE: Kaweah Lake fills

As of March 16 at 6AM both dams have filled in a matter of 6 days -the result of two vigorous Atmospheric River events where warm temps helped the rain melt snow at high elevations.

Kaweah Lake(Terminus Dam) went from 50,000AF to 185,000AF from March 10 to March 16. That’s full. Lake Success went from 25,000AF to 98,000AF- more than full- in 6 days.

“So far it is only part of King County to be impacted is in the south part of the county” in the Corcoran area where “we have problem but the Boswell people are managing most of the flood flows” says Kings County Supervisor Doug Verboon.

On the Tule, the Schafer Dam on Lake Success has been spilling since Saturday as the lake is full and more is coming every hour.The volume of the spill is increasing as the sheriff is ordering evacuation of residents in the area.

Flows has impacted areas along Highway 99 at Earlimart and Teviston as the water heads west.

As far as the northern part of the county so far the Corp of Engineers is handling flows on Kings River from Pine Flat Dam. For a while, releases from the dam were halted temporarily to allow for the tributary Mill;Creek to flow and fill the riverbed but now those flows have died down. The Corps is again releasing water from of the dam to make room for continued high runoff into Pine Flat.

So far the Corps has managed the water to keep it out of the lake bed believes Verboon so as to not to compound what is coming from the Kaweah and Tule from the south he says.”They are doing a good job” but for how long?

Bigger problems

Even as this week’s storm is abating, Kings River watermaster Steve Haugen notes that we will likely have considerably bigger potential problems in the future.

“What we’ve gone through is just the beginning,” Haugen said.

“We can expect these large amounts of Kings River flows or more for the rest of the season.” The series of potent storms since Christmas has created—despite recent warm rains to fairly high elevations—what may be the biggest Kings River watershed snowpack ever observed.

At least one agency is predicting April through July peak season runoff to Pine Flat Reservoir is likely to be near or above all-time record runoff amounts. Those marks were established in 1983.
Kings River flows into Pine Flat Reservoir were very high during the recent storm event but Haugen said the inflow has been steadily dropping.

The reservoir is likely to reach 800,000AF by Friday March 17 -The reservoir can hold 1 million acre feet.

Rainfall amounts in Giant Forest

One measure of the latest storm that ended March 15 is look at one Kaweah weather station at 6500ft – Giant Forest.

First note that the weather station has gained about 26 inches of rain since late February now totaling nearly 80 inches for the water year -probably close to a record

As of March 12, the warm storm that caused the most havoc with heavy runoff in the region where Giant Forest was hit with about 15 inches was from March 10 -12! Lots of that high elevation rain melted the snow and it came down the Kaweah River to help fill Terminus Dam this week.

Source says some rain fell at the top of the Sierra at 10,000 feet!

Then on March 14 in the second rain event – Giant Forest-received 6 inches – not as much as the previous warmer storm.
The impact has been at least so far today (10:30AM), there is less runoff into the lake as we gear up for a well-deserved break in this crazy weather for a few days.

However the NWS Hanford is predicting another 4 to 6 inches next week in the Southern Sierra. Here is the latest  map.

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-March 15,2023-

 

Lake Success update:

Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux issued new evacuation orders and began visiting homes Wednesday along the Tule River in Porterville.

The order was announced just before midnight due to water levels rising in Success Lake to the point it was running over the spillway at Schafer Dam, the sheriff’s office said.

People were ordered to leave any structures on Tule River from Schafer Dam at Lake Success in Porterville to the east side of Road 284.

Boudreaux said in a video on social media deputies and firefighters would be going to about 100 homes in the area to notify people.

“We realize it’s late at night,” he said after midnight Wednesday. “Social media is not going to be the way to get to them.”

He said the waters were about eight hours from becoming unsafe for those in the area, which would be about 8 a.m. Wednesday.

 

Debris  impacts flooding on Valley floor

Cotton Centert dairyman Tom Barcellos posts  a video on Facebook near his dairy close to Cotton Center  in Tulare County. The picture shows Barcellos’ heavy equipment removing logs and debris  on a creek next to his farm. Debris is clogging stream beds forcing flood water to overflow channels and spreading destruction.

 

 

 

Giant Forest gets 76 inches rain

 

Take a look at a key weather station at 6500f in the Kaweah watershed mountains  -famous Giant Forest in Sequoia National  Park.

Here are rainfall numbers for that station for the past few weeks in the chart below.

Notice first that the weather station has gained about 26 inches of rain since late February now totaling nearly 80 inches for the water year -probably close to a record

Now notice the March 10 storm that caused the most havoc with heavy runoff in the region where Giant Forest was hit with about 15 inches  from March 10 -12! Lots of that warm rain melted snow and came down the Kaweah River to help fill Terminus Dam this week.

Notice now that yesterday- in the second rain event – Giant Forest-received  6 inches – not as much as the previous storm.

The  impact has been at least so far today (10:30AM) there is less runoff into the lake as we gear up for a well deserved break in this crazy weather for a few days.

-March 14,2023-

UPDATE:

March 15-from NWS :

The Sacramento River at Red Bluff is forecast to reach 259 feet between 3 am and 6 am this morning. This stage would be within one foot of the highest on record, which is 260 feet in 1997. #CAwx

 

Shasta filling faster

Now northern California is also getting some serious precip this week with Shasta Dam recording over 5 inches of rain yesterday. The inflow into the lake today is impressive at 75,000cfs! (see chart) For now the dam has 1.5 million AF of space available so California’s king reservoir may yet fill this year after all.Here is an article in a local paper.

Pictured chart of inflow into Lake Shasta

 

From Redding Record Searchlight

“It may be hard to believe after all the snow and rain that fell ― and keeps falling ― on the North State this winter, but Lake Shasta water levels are still lower than normal for this time of year.
That could change with more storms on the way this week. Predictions about the amount of water released through Shasta Dam later in the year, as snow melts, could also change.
So far in 2023, the North State has had a good soaking.
Since Dec. 1, 2022, Lake Shasta went up 90 feet, said Donald Bader , area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam. “We have 59 feet left to go” before the lake is completely full.
With more storms expected this and next week, hydrologists expect the lake to rise another 22 feet by March 23, bringing it just 37 feet from the top ― 78% full, Bader said.”

 

-March 14,2023-

pictured: floater in Woodlake

Southern Sierra has biggest snowpack ever

Southern Sierra now has the largest snowpack in recorded history (as measured by snow water equivalent, or SWE). Not just for March 12, but any time. Snowpack is 257% of normal and that is before this week’s storm.

 

All creeks flow to Tulare Lake

It does not look so much like a lake but more holding basins but with the Sierra dams overflowing and uncontrolled foothill creeks roaring water is moving by gravity to where Tulare Lake was found-near the community of Corcoran.

PBS photo above Springville: An aerial view of landslide on Highway 190 during heavy rain in Springville, California on March 11, 2023 as atmospheric river storms hit California. Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Since Saturday Success Lake (Schafer Dam) above Porterville has been spilling its overflow  and is expected to increase to  10,000 CFS reported the Army Corp of Engineers Monday .”Schafer Dam began spilling approximately 2,400 CFS on Saturday, and has gradually increased to around 4,200 CFS as precipitation continued. We estimate the combined outflow of the dam outlet and the spillway to increase to approximately 10,000 CFS within the next 48-72 hours, based upon current weather forecasts. That increase may result in limited localized flooding downstream of the dam, but we are unable to estimate the degree of possible damage.”

The lake filled in matter of days after  a huge rainstorm and melting snow caused damage in Springville reportedly impacting the town’s wastewater treatment facility. Tule River water will flow to Tulare Lake. Overflows on the Kings River as well as Kaweah tributaries will have no place to go but the Tulare Lake area.

Rain on the Sequoia Crest

Water expert Dennis Keller says the last warm storm actually resulted in rain at 10,000ft with steady rain at 8000ft – melting snow that rushed down the mountain filling Lake Kaweah with 100,000 AF as of today and bringing the lake to 145,000AF  in  just a few days. The dam’s capacity is listed  at 184,000AF. But Keller offers this note  of hope that the dam might not overflow in that the spillway and fuse gates of Lake Kaweah allow the reservoir to handle about 44,000AF in additional capacity. Second note of hope – this latest storm today is a little colder than the last one so it might not melt as much high elevation snow. But  the expected predicted volume per hour is concerning, he adds.

Photos show impact of storm in the past few days

 

Roads were flooded from Highway 99 near Earlimart, Yohokl Creek along 198 near Badger Hill to Sand Creek in Cutler, in Woodlake and also along the Kern River where homes were damaged an even destroyed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_March 11,2023-

This week’s  warm Atmospheric  River storm targeted the South Valley from Yosemite to Kern County dropping huge volumes of water now impacting the Valley below. On the upper San Joaquin, Nature Point received 8.2 inches in the past 24 hours. On the Kaweah  Giant Forest got 9.67 in. and on  the Tule, Springville  received 8.3 inches the past day and 11.24 inches since March 1.Figures from DWR this morning.

Porterville Dam expected to spill

A Corp of Engineers report shows us the volume of water flowing into key South Valley reservoirs – led by Pine Flat that added 63,000 Acre-Feet in 24 hours as of midnight March 10.

Terminus added nearly 50,000AF on the Kaweah River bringing the total to over 108,000AF (as 7AM). The dam holds 185,000AF. Much smaller Schafer Dam above Porterville added 42,000AF.As of that reading it is holding  more than 71,000AF but can handle just 82,000AF. The Tulare County Sheriff as said residents near the dam should evacuate and that the water levels are expected to top the spillway.

Work has been underway to widen the spillway and raise the lake, which will increase the lake’s storage capacity  by 28,000 acre feet, and bring total storage of the supply to 110,000 acre feet. This includes adding a 10-foot-tall ogee weir to the dam, a wall-like concrete structure that widens the dam’s spillway.But that work  is not complete.

CNN this morning reported that

“Evacuations orders were expanded in Tulare County to include the community of Teviston as well as parts of Cutler and Exeter because river flow had increased, according to the county sheriff’s office Friday night. Officials urged residents to stay clear of waterways and avoid all unnecessary travel.

“Due to the amount of added water to Lake Success from the rain and runoff, the water levels are predicted to reach the spillway,” the sheriff’s office said.”

Fraint Dam also took in lot of water adding over 60,000AF by 7Am this morning bringing the  total  to 301,439AF.It can hold 550,000AF.

As for what is yet to come down,Giant Forest at 6500ft received  almost 10 inches in additional rain in the past 24 hours bringing the annual total to 70 inches-likely   a record pace.