The City of Redding will install a new water pumping plant in the Sacramento River just upstream of the old pumping house near the trail restrooms starting sometime in 2025. This project will have some beneficial and detrimental effects on the environment and the Draft Environmental Impact Report which is now under revision before the Final EIR is approved.
Some of the benefits include the fact that Jenny Creek, which has both salmon and steelhead trout in the stream, will have the corroded culverts removed and the stream will be allowed to follow its natural course under a bridge, which will allow salmon to make it up the creek when the A.C.I.D. Dam is removed in the fall. As it is, once Lake Redding is lowered, fish cannot make it up Jenny Creek until river flows increase in the winter because the culvert outlets are above the creek level. Also, once the new pumping station is installed, it will have more effective fish screens to keep out the smallest of fish from being sucked into the water intakes.
Unfortunately, though, this install will remove 230 trees in the riparian area to make a 16-foot wide, (18 feet including the grave) service road from Overhill Drive to the pumping station for repairs and maintenance. It will also require making infill into the river for the new building and pump inlets.
Overall, this will be a benefit when considering that at times Lake Redding is so low it limits the amount of water that can be pumped out of the river due to the low lake level in the fall. The new plant will be located where the river is deeper.
It is encouraging that Jenny Creek will convert back to its original streambed level so it is accessible by fish year-round. Now the only question is will the City put in a huge wide, lighted trail in the biologically important Jenny Creek Open Space which could detrimentally affect the terrestrial wildlife and the fish in Jenny Creek?