PG&E announced this week that the spillway gates on top of Scott Dam will remain open, which will lower the level of Lake Pillsbury by about a quarter, and curtail flow into the East Branch of the Russian River to those of dry years like 2020 and 2021.
It’s an arcane system of water law that dates back to the birth of California — an era when 49ers used sluice boxes and water cannons to scour gold from