San Luis Obispo County is appealing a court decision requiring increased water releases from the Lopez Lake Dam.

The order aims to improve habitat for threatened steelhead trout, but it “has put us on the path to draining Lopez Lake,” one farmer said.

Raising B.F. Sisk Dam will expand San Luis Reservoir by 135,000 acre-feet. (photo: Department of Water Resources) The Bureau of Reclamation and San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority have ...

A solution may be in the works. After four years, the San Luis Valley Irrigation District — which owns and operates the reservoir — on Dec. 1 applied for state grant money to study how the dam ...

The reality, though — especially after heavy “atmospheric river” rains in mid-November and December drenched Northern ...

In December, the U.S. District Court ruled in their favor, issuing a preliminary injunction requiring the county to increase ...

It’s much the same a few dozen miles to the southwest where the water project’s largest man-made lake, the San Luis Reservoir, is chock full. Sand-colored margins that grew steadily larger during the ...

San Luis Obispo County is fighting a court ruling to discharge more water from Lopez Lake to protect steelhead trout.