Only 41 adult salmon had been counted in Putah Creek by mid-December – a sharp decline officials blame on a pump failure in the Yolo Bypass that caused a delay in releasing water into the creek through the Los Rios Check Dam.

The Los Rios dam is located within the bypass about 3 miles east of Davis.

Rich Marovich, the streamkeeper for the Solano County Water Agency and Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee, had actually hoped that the delay in opening the dam would benefit the creek since the fall season had been so dry.

However, it appears when looking at other river data that the winter chinook salmon run came early and Putah Creek missed it.

 “Our salmon experts at UC Davis concluded the salmon run was earlier than normal,” Marovich said Tuesday.

Rich Marovich, the streamkeeper for the Lower Creek Coordinating Committee, photographed above Putah Creek. (Robinson Kuntz/Daily Republic)

After the pump failure, the Los Rios dam was kept closed so the bypass could be flooded for waterfowl habitat. That is a decision made in consultation with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Solano County Water Agency and the Los Rio farming operation.

“We let them (state Fish and Wildlife officials) know that this was an infrastructure failure that they couldn’t anticipate . . . but we let them know we were disappointed that we missed the peak salmon run,” Marovich said.

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