Sacramento Canals Unit Project
General
The Sacramento Canals Unit of the Central Valley Project was designed to provide irrigation water in the Sacramento Valley, principally in Tehama, Glenn, and Colusa Counties. Authorized in 1950, the unit consists of Red Bluff Diversion Dam, Funks Dam, Corning Pumping Plant, Tehama-Colusa Canal, and Corning Canal. At the upper end of the Tehama-Colusa Canal are the Tehama-Colusa Fish Facilities, which Reclamation constructed and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) operates. Full and supplemental irrigation service is provided to about 98,000 acres. In 1963, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished building Black Butte Dam as a separate project. The Black Butte Integration Act of October 23, 1970, brought Black Butte Dam and Reservoir under the auspices of the Sacramento River Division as the Black Butte Unit.
Construction
Before construction of the Sacramento Canals Unit, over 45,000 acres in the Division`s future service area received irrigation. In 1989, Tehama-Colusa and Corning Canals provided water for 100,019 acres, on which $88,529,000 worth of crops grew; the Tehama-Colusa Canal supplied water for 20,000 acres of the Sacramento Valley (wildlife) Refuges. http://www.recreation.gov/detail.cfm?ID=39 Located north of California`s state capital, Sacramento, the Sacramento Canals Unit supplies irrigation water to lands in the Sacramento Valley. Tehama, Glenn, and Colusa Counties are the primary recipients of water from the Unit, but the Tehama-Colusa Canal extends a short distance into Yolo County. The Unit consists of Red Bluff Diversion Dam, Corning Pumping Plant, Tehama-Colusa Canal, and Corning Canal. Reclamation planned Stony Canal, but canceled construction of that feature. Red Bluff Diversion Dam and Corning Canal are in Tehama County. The Tehama-Colusa Canal travels through Tehama, Glenn, and Colusa Counties, into Yolo County. The Black Butte Unit, consisting of Black Butte Dam and Lake, lies across the border of Tehama and Glenn Counties, southwest of Corning Canal`s terminus.(2) Several groups of Native Americans inhabited northern California prior to the arrival of European settlers. Yahi, Maidu, and Wintun groups inhabited the region around the Sacramento River, now in the Sacramento River Division. Spanish settlers, arriving in the eighteenth century, concentrated their missions along the coast of California. Sparse settlement started in the early 1800s, when the Spanish, and, later; Mexican governments gave large land grants to settlers in the interior of California. Colusa and Glenn Counties had six land grants totaling 156,262 acres. Tehama County had 131,379 acres awarded in seven land grants, but the Sacramento River Basin remained largely unexplored. The first settlers from the United States entered California in the 1840s. The discovery of gold at Sutter`s Mill in 1848, brought more American immigrants to the area, especially around Sacramento.(3) The advance of Americans into northern California eventually resulted in an agricultural boom. The Sacramento Valley attracted many farmers, and many became virtual land barons. Individuals owned farms containing 10,000 to 20,000 acres, and water soon surpassed gold as the most precious commodity in northern California. Sacramento became the capital of California, gaining a certain amount of prominence for the community, and in 1850, the new government wasted no time in turning its attention to the excitement surrounding water.(4) The original authorization of the Central Valley Project in 1935, initiated construction of Shasta, Delta, and Friant Divisions. The Sacramento River Division`s authorization came a decade and one-half later. Four California Congressmen and Senators pushed for inclusion of the Sacramento Canals Unit in the project. Representative Clair Engle introduced H.R. 163 in January 1949, 81st Congress First Session, initiating a series of legislative maneuvers. The bill supported inclusion of the Sacramento Canals Unit in the Central Valley Project. Representative Hubert Scudder introduced H.R. 126 for the same purpose. Jumping on the bandwagon, the California Legislature passed a resolution asking the Congress and President Harry S. Truman to pass the `Engle-Scudder Bill.` Afterward, Senator Sheridan Downey submitted bill S. 693 in support of the Sacramento Canals. The California Water Project Authority later joined the fray by endorsing the canals.(5) In February 1949, Senator William Knowland introduced S. 860 into the Senate, advocating the addition of the Sacramento Canals to the CVP. The California Chamber of Commerce endorsed the Engle-Scudder Bill during the same month. California Governor Earl Warren approved the legislature`s resolution in March 1949. The House of Representatives Public Lands Committee unanimously approved H.R. 163 in May. However, the Bureau of the Budget held up the Engle-Scudder Bill in June, until completion of an engineering analysis of the project. The Bureau of the Budget allowed the project, and the House passed the bill in August 1949. President Truman authorized the addition of the Sacramento Canals Unit to the CVP on September 29, 1950.(6) After authorization of the Sacramento Canals Unit, Reclamation moved toward construction of the Corning Canal to supply water to Corning County. Reclamation awarded the contract to Somers and Stacy of Klamath Falls, Oregon, for $632,698. The company started construction of Corning Canal in November 1954. Workers completed the canal`s first section and 70 percent of the second section by the end of 1955. Corning Canal reached 85 percent completion at the end of 1956. Workers finished the main sections of the Corning Canal on May 2, 1957, except the inverted siphon under the railroad and main highway, and the pumping facilities, for lifting water from the Sacramento River to the headworks of the canal. Workers finished the latter features in July 1959.(7) After completion, the Corning Canal travelled south from the Corning Canal Pumping Plant to the vicinity of Corning city. The Canal is twenty-one miles long and twenty-two feet wide. Corning Canal has a capacity of 500 cubic feet per second.(8) Reclamation awarded the contract for construction of Red Bluff Diversion Dam to Vinnell Corporation in 1962, for $3,465,155. The dam diverts water from the Sacramento River to the Corning and Tehama-Colusa Canals. The company moved quickly and completed 38 percent of the dam by the end of the year, in spite of a labor strike in June 1962. No further strikes hampered construction. Vinnell had the dam 85 percent complete after the 1963 work season. The contractor completed Red Bluff Diversion Dam on August 9, 1964, 143 days ahead of schedule.(9) Red Bluff Diversion Dam diverts water to the Tehama-Colusa and Corning Canals. The dam is a gated, concrete, ogee weir with embankment wings located two miles southeast of the city of Red Bluff. The dam stands fifty-two feet high, with eleven gates, and raises the Sacramento twenty-one feet. The crest length of the dam is 5,985 feet.(10) Reclamation awarded contracts for construction of Tehama-Colusa Canal to Frederickson and Watson Construction Company and Lord and Bishop, Inc. in 1965. Wittman Contracting Company, American Pipe Company, and Hydro Conduit Company subcontracted the Tehama-Colusa distribution system. Subsequent contracts went to United Nations Constructors, Inc., Rivers Construction Company, Westo Construction Inc., and Purtzer and Dutton. The initial contracts totalled over $11 million. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the canal took place July 31, 1965. The work schedule called for the completion of the canal, with a total length of 122 miles, in 1979.(11) Reclamation awarded the contract for fish facilities on the Tehama-Colusa Canal to Gibbons and Reed Company, Jelco, Inc.; and Clyde W. Wood and Sons, Inc. in 1969. The facilities consisted of a drum screen complex, to keep fish out of the dual-purpose canal, and a single-purpose spawning channel traveling parallel to the main canal for a short distance. The contractors completed the fish facilities on July 8, 1971. The canal contractors completed Reaches Six and Seven on Tehama-Colusa on April 20 and July 3, 1979, respectively. Reclamation accepted Reach Eight, the final section of the canal, as complete on May 30, 1980. Upon completion the canal stretched 111 miles, 11 miles shorter than originally intended. The Tehama-Colusa Canal travels south from Red Bluff Diversion Dam through Tehama, Glenn, Colusa Counties, and into Yolo County.(12) Six pumping plants eventually operated on the Sacramento Canals Unit (see Table. I). Five of the plants fed water to the Colusa County distribution system from the Tehama-Colusa Canal. The Corning Pumping Plant diverted water from the Sacramento River to the Corning Canal at Red Bluff Diversion Dam. Reclamation awarded the contract for the Corning Pumping Plant to Hood Construction Company and F.W. Case, Corporation, of Whittier, California, on June 19, 1959. Construction of the plant began shortly after. During the work season the contractors excavated and laid the foundation, raised the concrete walls, and installed the discharge lines. The contractor continued making good progress on the pumping plant in 1960, and completed the pumping plant and intake channel in November 1960.(13) Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to construct Black Butte Dam, on Stony Creek, in the Flood Control Act of 1944. The project virtually disappeared until Table I. Pumping Plants and capacities on the Sacramento Canals Unit-Sacramento River Division. Source: Water and Power Resources, Project Data, 202. A flood on Christmas Day 1955, and another in 1958. Residents of Butte, Tehama, and Colusa Counties joined with residents of Glenn County in clamoring for flood relief from the California government. California guaranteed money for the project`s repayment, appropriating several million dollars, and the Corps of Engineers proceeded. Initial work started in March 1960, and work on the dam concluded in December 1963. The Black Butte Integration Act of October 1970, made Black Butte Dam part of the Central Valley Project. Black Butte Dam mainly provides flood control, but does supply some surplus water to the Sacramento Canals Unit and the Orland Project for irrigation.(14) The Sacramento Canals Unit primarily receives its water supply from the Sacramento River through releases from Shasta Dam and its afterbay, Keswick Dam and Reservoir. Some water comes from the Trinity River, in the Klamath River Basin, via the Trinity River Division. Water diverted from the Trinity River enters the Sacramento River Basin at Keswick Reservoir, from which Reclamation releases it into the Sacramento River. Red Bluff Diversion Dam diverts water from the Sacramento to the Corning Pumping Plant and into Corning and Tehama-Colusa Canals for distribution in Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, and Yolo Counties. Supplemental water from Black Butte Lake enters the Sacramento River in Glenn County via Stony Creek. The Sacramento River Division through its Sacramento Canals Unit added two canals and a dam to the Central Valley Project (CVP). Begun in the 1950s, the Unit included the Corning Canal, Tehama-Colusa Canal and Red Bluff Diversion Dam. The Army Corps of Engineers finished building Black Butte Dam, as a separate project, in 1963. The Black Butte Integration Act of October 23, 1970, brought the dam and reservoir under the auspices of the Sacramento River Division as a the Black Butte Unit.(1)
Plan
Red Bluff Diversion Dam, a concrete gated weir structure 52 feet high and 5,985 feet long, including earth wings, is on the Sacramento River about 2 miles southeast of Red Bluff, California. It diverts water from the Sacramento River to the Corning and Tehama-Colusa Canals. Work began on the dam in 1962 and it was completed on August 9, 1964. The diversion capacity of the first sections of the two canals totaled 3,030 cubic feet per second. Red Bluff Diversion Dam blocks the Sacramento River and interferes with fish moving upstream to their normal spawning grounds. Fish ladders at each abutment and subsurface openings in the dam alleviated the migration problem, but the subsurface openings led to a problem with predatory fish. Environmentalists equated salmon traveling through the subsurface openings, downstream through the dam, to putting the fish in a washing machine, disorienting the salmon when they get clear into the river. The disoriented fingerling salmon became easy prey for squawfish, which often lined up on the downstream side of Red Bluff Dam to feast on the small fish. The population of winter-run chinook salmon at Red Bluff Diversion Dam peaked in 1969, numbering about 118,000. After 1969, the populations of migratory salmon and steelhead trout on the Sacramento steadily declined and eventually dropped to less than 5 percent of the 1969 total. Construction of a drum screen structure, begun in 1969 and completed in 1971, was intended to prevent fish that passed through the headworks from entering the canals. A bypass system returned the fish to the river. In accordance with an agreement with FWS, Reclamation placed gravel beds along the upper 3.2 miles of the Tehama-Colusa Canal to simulate natural spawning beds. The artificial spawning beds failed to work as planned, and the canal headworks still trapped young fish. In 1987, Reclamation began opening Red Bluff Dam`s gates yearly, from December 1 until April 1, for the winter-run salmon returning to spawn at spawning grounds below Keswick Dam. Inclusion of the winter-run chinooks on the listing of threatened species by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) prompted Reclamation to take further action. Reclamation completed a $17 million renovation of the dam in March 1990. The improvements included a temporary fish ladder in the center of the dam for passage when the gates remained closed. Renovations did not immediately boost the chinook population. In 1991, the adult, winter-run chinook count reached a record low of only 191 at Red Bluff Diversion Dam. The population increased in 1992 and 1993, with counts of 1,180 and 341 respectively. The NMFS redesignated the winter-run chinook as endangered in December 1993. The Corning Canal diverts water from the Tehama-Colusa Canal settling basin about 0.5 mile downstream from the Red Bluff Diversion Dam. The water is lifted 56 feet at the Corning Pumping Plant and delivered to lands in Tehama County that have elevations too high to be served from Tehama-Colusa Canal. The canal is 21 miles long, terminating about 4 miles southwest of Corning, California. The initial diversion capacity is 500 cubic feet per second, gradually decreasing to 88 cubic feet per second at the terminus. Construction started in November 1954, and most of the main sections were completed on May 2, 1957. The inverted siphon under the Southern Pacific Railroad (now known as the Union Pacific) and Highway 99 and the facilities for pumping water from the Sacramento River to the headworks of the canal were finished in July 1959. The Tehama-Colusa Canal receives water from the settling basin at Red Bluff Diversion Dam. The facilities consist of a drum screen complex to keep fish out of the dual-purpose canal and a single-purpose spawning channel that parallels the main canal for a short distance. The fish facilities provide 1.6 million square feet of special gravel-bottomed canal as a spawning area for salmon. These facilities are the largest of their kind in the world. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the canal took place July 31, 1965. The fish facilities were completed on July 8, 1971. Reaches Six and Seven were completed on April 20 and July 3, 1979, respectively. Reach Eight, the final section of the canal, was complete on May 30, 1980. The canal is 110.9 miles long, 11 miles shorter than originally intended. It travels south from Red Bluff Diversion Dam through Tehama, Glenn, Colusa Counties, and into Yolo County, and terminates about 2 miles south of Dunnigan, California. The initial capacity of the canal is 2,530 cubic feet per second, diminishing to 1,700 cubic feet per second at the terminus. Funks Dam is located along the canal; the primary purpose of Funks Reservoir is to regulate canal flows. Six pumping plants operate on the Sacramento Canals Unit. Five of the plants feed water to the Colusa County distribution system from the Tehama-Colusa Canal. The Corning Pumping Plant diverts water from the Sacramento River to the Corning Canal at Red Bluff Diversion Dam. Work was completed on the Corning Pumping Plant and intake channel in November 1960.
Other
Cory, Henry Thomas. `Sacramento Valley: Early Efforts at Development.` Irrigation in California. San Francisco: 1918? Department of the Interior. Bureau of Reclamation. `Central Valley Project: North Half, California.` Map No. 214-208-4174, Bureau of Reclamation, Mid-Pacific Region, Sacramento, May 1988. Water Education Foundation. Layperson`s Guide to the Central Valley Project. Sacramento: Water Education Foundation, 1994.
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