The headwaters of the South Yuba begin along the rim of Donner Summit, including the slopes of Sugar Bowl and in the crags of Castle Peak.

The South Yuba headwaters meander through Van Norden Meadow, flow along and under Interstate 80, and drain into the deep canyon that is now filled by Spaulding Reservoir.

The South Yuba headwaters are threatened by highway pollutants, ailing sewage treatment plants and septic leaks, private water-bottling operations tapping natural springs, watershed degradation associated with ski resort operations, and irresponsible development in fragile alpine ecosystems.

Launched in 2006, SYRCL's Protect Yuba Headwaters campaign is aimed at building a constituency in Donner Summit that is actively engaged in projects and programs that support the protection and restoration of the South Yuba headwaters over the long-term.

Our activities include:

• Expanding our citizen monitoring program for water quality and meadow health, adding monitoring stations at upper Castle Creek and along the South Yuba river downstream of the Donner Summit wastewater plant. [link to water quality monitoring program]
• Develop scientific approaches to protecting and restoring headwater meadows, especially the historic and iconic Van Norden Meadow (aka Summit Valley).
• Supporting Donner Summit residents and businesses to develop community goals protective of source drinking waters, river health and meadow restoration.
• Secure funding for streamside restoration and mitigation from water-quality impacts due to roadway operations
• Educate local and downstream communities of existing water quality conditions
• Build partnerships and community capacity to protect headwaters from new sub-divisions that are incompatible with the fragile alpine ecosystem.

Protect YUBA Headwaters Reports

Wastewater in the South Yuba River, Sept 2008 (200k)

Related Stories from KMVR News:

January 28,
2009: KVMR Evening Newscast Wednesday,
Jan. 28th, 2009 (iTunes Radio). - A Discussion about Sewage Treatment and how
it Affects Water Quality. Brian Bahouth takes listener calls for a conversation
with Tom Skjelstad, Donner Summit PUD General Manager and sewage treatment
consultant Dr. Bob Emerick.

January 17, 2009: KVMR Evening Newscast, Monday, Jan. 12th, 2009 (iTunes audio) -
Donner Summit Public Utility District Fined $49,000.00: After repeated
warnings, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has fined the
Donner Summit Public Utility District $49,000.00 for violation of water quality
standards in the Yuba River. Paul Emery spoke with Control Board spokesperson
Bill Ruckheiser and began by asking if this is a severe fine. Quote from the
Regional Control Board Control Board spokesperson Bill Ruckheiser:
"Every sewage treatment plant has its
own particular situation, everyone has limitations that they have to meet to
keep the rest of us safe and keep California's
water clean. There are similar sewage treatment plants up in the mountains, at
similar elevations, with similar cold temperatures, and they meet their
requirements ... In other counties there have been situations where the
operator sewage treatment plant has not been able to get it together, and the
county is taking over."

Related Stories and Opinions Posted on YubaNet.com

Jan 10, 2009 - Regional Op-Ed: Kathryn Gray: Donner Summit and the South Yuba River - Stewardship or Sewership?

The South Yuba River is a Sierra Nevada treasure. A few miles past Emigrant Gap, eastbound travelers on Interstate 80 can see inviting glimpses of a boulder tumbled river. Those who exit onto old Highway 40 at Cisco Grove and follow the course of the river up to it's Donner Summit headwaters are rewarded with views of the granite reaches, and twisting and turnings of the South Yuba, a river rich in history and beauty. Those same travelers should think twice before picnicking on the river bank, though, and under no circumstances should they allow their children to play in the water, because for some months, the upper South Yuba River is treated more as a convenient conduit for sewage effluent than as a living, flowing river.


Jan 6, 2009 - Donner
Summit PUD Fined Again For Polluting the South Yuba River

Today, the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) posted
comments in response to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control
Board's (Regional Water Board) Administrative Civil Liability Compliant against
the Donner Summit PUD for failure of their treatment plant to meet limits for
nitrate and ammonia in their effluent discharged to the South Yuba River. The Administrative Complaint,
dated November 26, covers violations from the period January 2007 to September
2008, and assesses a fine of $49,000. SYRCL's comments cite water quality
monitoring data that suggests that thresholds for coliform, turbidity and total
suspended solids were also exceeded, and requests that the Regional Water
Board's Complaint include an accounting of these possible violations.

Aug 8, 2008 -Violation Notice
Issued to Donner Summit PUD for South Yuba River pollution

The Regional Water Board regulates the Donner Summit Public
Utility District (PUD) under Waste Discharge Requirements Order No.
R5-2002-0088 (NPDES No. CA0081621), which includes effluent limitations and
other requirements regarding the treated wastewater discharged to the South Yuba
River. On 30 June 2008,
Regional Water Board staff responded to a complaint regarding algae growth by
inspecting the Donner Summit PUD Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and the South Yuba
River upstream and
downstream of the discharge point. A copy of the inspection report is enclosed.
The report makes the following findings:

Jul 11, 2008 - Regional
Op-Ed: Kathryn Gray: Royal Gorge LLC's Water Supply: Is It "Grounded"
In Reality
 
At a June 10 Placer County Planning Commission hearing, Royal
Gorge LLC's attorney, Randall Faccinto, in regards to Rainbow Holding
Company/Royal Gorge LLC's Conditional Use Permit for the bulk sale of drinking
water to bottling companies, and to use wetting down dust on Highway 80
construction, made some very interesting statements.

Jul 8, 2008 - Regional
Op-Ed: Kathryn Gray:The South Yuba River, One of California's Rivers of
Constant Sorrow
 
The South Yuba River
has long been a fully paid up member on California's
sad roster of Rivers of Constant Sorrow. It has been dammed, diverted,
hydraulically mined, and used for a place to dump mountains of mine tailings,
and later, streams of sewage effluent. Despite having a valiant and resolute
defender, the South Yuba River Citizens League, who have successfully fought,
and who continue to fight against seemingly overwhelming odds to protect it
from further dams, and who have had bright victories, such as the designation
of a portion of the South Yuba as a California Wild and Scenic River, it's
nevertheless a river that has to take each day as it comes, for each new day
can bring with it a whole load of troubles.

Apr 25, 2008 -Regional
Op-Ed | Kathryn Gray: Water Rights And Water Wrongs In The Sierra Nevada

Water law in the state of California can best be described as one of
those incredibly complex multiple level chess games, with varying and not necessarily
consistent rules for each level. In the crazy California water game different
norms control, depending on whether ground water, riparian rights,
appropriative rights, or prescriptive rights are involved (and this is short
form-there are many other variations), and even whether rights were acquired
before or after 1914. Add in all the various water projects, which divert water
far away from its mountain origins, and its one-time inevitable flow towards
the sea, to provide water for agricultural interests and urban needs, and you
get an even more layered, confusing system, with consequent over appropriation
of surface waters, and overdraw of groundwater.

Nov 12, 2007 - Regional
Op-Ed | Kathryn Gray: A Poisonous Development At Donner Summit

Royal Gorge LLC, in their relentless drive to secure adequate
water supplies for their proposed development on cross country ski terrain at
Serene Lakes and Donner Summit, have pushed the Sierra Lakes County Water
District to agree to immediate water capacity and quality tests on district
wells number one and two. Four water board members agreed; one voted against
the hurried testing.

These two wells are not currently used for water supply at the
Summit. Well
number one has arsenic levels that exceed the new federal standards, and is
allowed to be used only in emergencies. Well number two is not hooked up to the
SLCWD system; there is no evidence that is was ever fully operational.

Jul 23, 2007 - Regional
Op-Ed | Kathryn Gray: A Sewer Runs Through It
 
That the upper South
Yuba River
still exists in its stunning, bouldered beauty, is a bit of a miracle. In the
gold rush, rivers were diverted,channeled through canals, and dammed in order
to provide water for the hydraulic mining that so scarred the northern gold
country, and the South Yuba was no exception.
Minerals were the prize most desired in the gold rush, but lumber and water ran
them a close second, both in utility to the mining enterprises, and profit to
the clever entrepreneur. The South Yuba and
it's watershed were cruelly used to provide for all these needs. The scars, and
mercury and arsenic contamination consequent to mining remain to this day,
mixed testament to the benefits and perils of development in the Sierra and its
foothills.