Phase I completed on Araujo Dam

Jamie Gentner
Siskiyou Daily News
12/10/2007

A tractor destroys an agricultural flashboard dam near the Antonio Ditch as part of the Araujo Dam Fish Passage and Water Quality Improvement Project. On Tuesday, Nov. 27, members of the Shasta Valley Resource Conservation District accompanied Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist Ed Burton to the Araujo Dam site to see the current status of the Araujo Dam Fish Passage and Water Quality Improvement Project.

Originally built in 1856 for mining work, the Araujo Dam began as a boulder weir.

In the early 1900s, cement replaced many of the boulders, creating an agricultural flashboard dam - where boards are inserted into slots on the dam to limit the gravity-fed flow.

According to RCD Board Chairman Don Meamber, the plan to retire the dam was written into the 1997 Svott River Watershed Plan.

In 2002, a feasibility study was launched, and about a year ago, the RCD received enough grant money to begin the project.

Goals of the project, according to a NRCS newsletter, include:

* Removal of an agricultural diversion dam from the Shasta River to improve fish passage and water quality in the river while ensuring that ranchers are still able to get irrigation water to their lands; and

* Ensuring that ranchers are able to meet water quality requirements in the Shasta River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and receive Incidental Take Permit (ITP) coverage.

Partners for the approximately $2.7 million project include the California Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, California State Water Resources Board, NRCS and Siskiyou County.

Fish and Game determined that the cement structure was creating a lake effect near the Antonio Ditch, which is causing algae to grow. In addition, the velocity at which the water flows down from the dam is impeding juvenile salmon passage.

Therefore, the structure had to be removed. It is just the first of five similar flashboard dams scheduled for eventual removal in the mainstem Shasta River.

Also included in the project and now completed are:

* Building a new boulder weir to pond water so irrigation pumps can pump water from the river;

* Putting in a new pumping station to convert the current system from a gravity-fed system to a pump/electric system. Testing of the system to get it up and running should be completed by Christmas, according to Araujo Dam Project Manager Amy Hansen; and

* Installing a fish screen to protect fish and other aquatic life from getting sucked into irrigation pumps.

Phase 2 of the project - which consists of installing seven miles of piping for earthen irrigation ditches - is going out for bid now, will begin in mid-January 2008 and should be complete by the April irrigation season.

The existing system is leaky, which means the water doesn't reach the ranchers.

Local contractors interested in placing a bid, Hansen said, should contact the RCD.

Once the piping is completed, the RCD will work with ranches to do on-farm improvement projects to upgrade and improve irrigation systems on their land. That process, Hansen said, will likely occur over a two-year time period.

For more information about the Araujo Dam project, call Hansen at 859-3814 or RCD District Manager Adriane Garayalde at 842-6121.

Look for part two of this story, which will talk about what the state conservationists and landowners think of the Araujo Dam project, in Tuesday's edition of the Siskiyou Daily News.