Monday Top of the Scroll: Dead salmon wash up near $6.3 million passageway designed to protect them. Why didn’t it work?
An automated gate was supposed to open once water levels got high enough to overflow into the bypass, allowing fish to swim back into the Sacramento River. But in February … too much water was pouring through the passage, eroding the structure. Officials had to close the gate almost entirely, meaning fewer fish could escape. The Department of Water Resources is now facing an expensive upgrade to an already multimillion structure to make it ready for the next rainy season.