Friday July 10, 2026
Maven’s Notebook —
In spite of a relatively wet winter, late rains, and high reservoir levels—conditions that generally benefit aquatic ecosystems—California’s ailing chinook salmon are facing unexpected peril in the main river system where they spawn. State officials and environmental groups have warned that an aggressive water delivery plan by federal reservoir managers has temperatures in Lake Shasta and the Sacramento River on track to kill vast numbers of salmon this fall.
The bleak outlook comes as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation rapidly spills water from Lake Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir and the infrastructural headwaters of the federal Central Valley Project. This system of canals, dams, reservoirs, and pumps supplies water for about 1 million households and 3 million acres of farmland.
In its 2026 Sacramento River Temperature Management Plan, finalized May 29, the Reclamation outlined its intention to finish the irrigation season with about 2.2 million acre-feet of water in Lake Shasta. State officials and salmon advocates have challenged the plan, saying that recent hydrologic conditions have triggered a legal requirement that Shasta contain 200,000 acre-feet more water by the end of this September than the bureau’s target. They’ve also said such rapid releases as the bureau is planning violate state law and federal endangered species protections embedded in rules adopted in 2024 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (the Biological Opinion for the Long-Term Operation of the Central Valley Project).