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Our View: Bravo, Ashland voters ... Welcome Center plans can proceed ... Ashland fire torches woodshed, greenhouse ... Our View: Bravo, Ashland voters ... Welcome Center plans can proceed ... ENVIRONMENT Long drought, big storm make for a dirty Bear Creek Comment By Mark Freeman For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Mark Freeman For the Tidings Posted May. 15, 2015 at 6:29 PM By Mark Freeman For the Tidings Posted May. 15, 2015 at 6:29 PM What do you think? --> Have an opinion on this issue? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter. » Read more X What do you think? Have an opinion on this issue? Send a letter to the editor at www.dailytidings.com/sendletter . » Social News Bear Creek is rolling through the south Rouge Valley even dirtier than it's normal spring self thanks to the remnants of a February storm and a fistful of other factors that might keep the creek this way indefinitely. The Feb. 7 storm that hammered southeastern Jackson County with winds and rain sent a torrent of water into the parched reservoir southeast of Ashland, where it stirred up the mass amounts silt exposed by the drought-triggered low water levels, authorities said. And the silt has yet to settle out, so releases from the reservoir that eventually make their way into Bear Creek are a caramely froth that are overpowering clean tributary flow and threatening to harm water quality in the already struggling urban creek grappling with the early effects of drought. "We have a big pool of very dirt water in that reservoir, and I don't think it's going to go away any time soon and it's nobody's fault," says Dan VanDyke, the Rogue District fish biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Nowhere is this dirty water more prevalent than at the confluence of Emigrant Creek and Walker Creek, which is the origin of Bear Creek as it flows below Dead Indian Memorial Road near the Ashland airport. About 20 cubic feet per second of Emigrant Lake water released into Emigrant Creek for irrigators roils in mud as it meets the clear but trickling Walker Creek, whose flows are down because of the low, drought-plagued runoff. Bill Meyers, the Rogue Basin coordinator for the state Department of Environmental Quality, discovered that watery paradox there while investigating the source of the creek's excessive turbidity despite no recent rains at the time. "There's not much you can do about it, except not to add to the problem," Meyers said. "We certainly don't want to add to that from stormwater input." More than an eyesore, it's also a little tough on the gills of young salmon and steelhead trying to eke out a living in this major Rogue River urban tributary. VanDyke says the young salmon and steelhead can have trouble feeding and even breathing in the dirty water, so they likely will seek out cleaner tributaries of Bear Creek as refugia until the silt settles in Emigrant Lake. "It certainly isn't helping fish in Bear Creek this year," VanDyke says. During the Feb. 7 storm, water cascaded down the upper stretches of Emigrant Creek and tributaries like Tyler Creek, adding mud to the flows as it washed out lower portions of Tyler Creek Road. Flows peaked into Emigrant Lake at nearly 6,000 cubic feet per second, or 10 times what the maximum out-flow can be, says Jim Pendleton, manager of the Talent Irrigation District. The lake rose 11 feet over four days, churning up silt as water quickly inundated exposed mud flats to the chocolate-brown it became and has remained. As the sediment persisted, Pendleton says and other TID employees walked the reservoir banks in search of potential sources of undue levels of sediment, but none were discovered. While other reservoirs that grappled with high turbidity during the storm since have cleared, the problem is exacerbated by the Emigrant Lake's actual design. Though the lake has a maximum depth of 110 feet, most of the lake's roughly 900 acres of surface area are significantly more shallow. It, therefore, doesn't provide much deep water into which the silt can settle into like it can at deeper environs such as Lost Creek Lake on the upper Rogue River. "Now, every time it gets windy, it stirs everything up again," Pendleton says. Also, the dam's water intake tower has one port that sucks water near the reservoir's bottom — where silt levels can be their highest. It differs from intake towers like the one at Lost Creek Lake, which has multiple portals to siphon water from several different strata of water at any given time. For much of the late winter and spring, the muddy contribution of Emigrant Lake water to the Bear Creek system was minimal. But that changed in recent weeks as water releases from Emigrant have been increased seven times their previous flows for irrigation deliveries, making the stretch worthy of the "Mr. Yuck" signs that warned of poor creek water quality in the 1980s. "It's been really noticeable in Ashland and now it's being noticed in the Medford area," VanDyke says.  Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 541-776-4470 or [email protected]. Follow him at www.twitter.com/MTwriterFreeman.   By Mark Freeman For the Tidings DailyTidings.com By Mark Freeman For the Tidings Posted May. 15, 2015 at 6:29 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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