The Mountain Meadow reservoir, also known as Walker Lake, was a popular spot for fishing before its 5,800 acres dried up the weekend of September 12. The incident has left local residents perplexed and they are demanding answers from the company that manages the reservoir.
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None of the reservoir’s fish are listed as species of concern to state or federal wildlife agencies, but a shocking video has been posted showing gasping fish heads exposed above the water line. Others blame the use by ranches of the creeks that normally flow into the lake, rather than bringing more water to the reservoir as water supply trickled down. PG&E spokesman Paul Moreno said the flat, shallow reservoir was going to go dry at some point.
Bauer tells CBS Sacramento there should have been at least two weeks of water left. “They had plenty of time to do something about this, years,”Everybody gets in a fuss when it’s too late, when we’ve lost our fish”.
But PG&E officials deny allegations that they deliberately opened the dam, saying that the water simply ran out after the company stopped efforts to fix the outlet valve that was persistently clogged by accumulation of dead fish over many years.
“This makes me feel like (electric company officials) didn’t want to do a fish rescue and that it was easier to open that sucker up Saturday night”, resident Eddie Bauer said to CBS13. Bauer pointedly accused the company of refusing to take action to save the fish, whose lifeless bodies were reportedly strewn across the dry lakebed by Friday morning.
The lake has run dry before, but never so quickly. The Mountain Meadows Conservancy is now discussing Walker Lake’s disappearance.
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“The reservoirs are all continuing to be far below normal”, Doug Carlson, a member of the Department of Water Resources, said to CBS13.
