Yellow Sludge Fouling the Yuba River!

[bedrock bubba]

NEVADA COUNTY, Calif. — The South Yuba River is yellow -- yes, yellow -- in Nevada County, prompting officials to issue a no swim advisory on Friday for the waterway.
The discoloration and high opacity are apparent in the river from below the town of Washington to Englebright Lake, Nevada County officials said.
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The river “appears to have high level of sediments of unknown origin suspended in the water creating potentially unsafe river conditions for all people and animals,” county officials said in a statement.






The cause is under investigation.
Due to the possibility of unsafe swimming and recreation conditions, officials issued the no swimming advisory.
Nevada County Environmental Health officials took water samples from several locations in the river for testing. Test results are expected in three to four days.





No swim advisory in place after South Yuba River turns yellow

See: KCRA3 https://www.kcra.com/article/nevada-county-south-yuba-river-yellow-no-swim-california/29158319

What in the world is causing this? Any ideas?

 

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[Tahoegold]

First they called it "Yellow"... Anyone here looking at that photo see yellow? Or does it look muddy instead? So, when they initially started the story, it sounded like they were hoping that there is some story to be uncovered. Instead, they still have no answers, and are saying a "property" "somewhere" is not "up to code" what ever that code is we may never know. And, another public scare. However, Ecoli is nothing to mess with... Pun intended. Regardless, a family pet may want to run into a muddy river that could make it sick. That would have been the way to tell the story. Yes, please watch your pets, the water has got some cattel scat in it that will make your pets ill. And you too. Just a nice public safety warning please would suffice. I wonder how much, if any material made it to the river.

 

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[roygpa]

Loess: a loosely compacted yellowish-gray deposit of windblown sediment of which extensive deposits occur, e.g., in eastern China and the American Midwest.

Maybe Loess was washed into the river?

 

[bedrock bubba]

Here’s what I can find as the latest news....and there’s just not a whole lot of information. Bringing the property up to code? What code? What violations? What did they actually find on the property?



https://www.kcra.com/article/south-yuba-river-california-yellow-cause/29245048

The Killham Mine area is old, exposed hydraulic diggings. And we did have two early fall rains recently in September!

This has lessened the fire danger, at least temporarilly.

 

[mofugly13]

The latest.....

Lots if words....not much info

https://yubanet.com/regional/investigation-on-south-yuba-river-plume-continues/

 

[arizau]

It seems to me that a helicopter recon ride could pinpoint where the murky water begins or just confirm that it is caused by a gradual buildup of dirty runoff water from several or many feeder creeks or arroyos, etc.

 

[Tahoegold]

So, I've been raking pine needles. The pollen that usually gets washed away after the season in May never happened. This last rain when this incedence happened was our first good rain since then. Still, it wasn't enough to wash the pollen into the ground. Folks here are still complaining about the polleb being everywhere. Folks with allergies, yellow dust on things. I'm getting clouds of it when I rake. Ever see pine pollen? It's solid yellow. It cloats on water and collects around the edges of a puddle.
I suspect that they find a land slide. And pine pollen that finally washed into the river. These photos are pine polken in water and blowing off the trees in Tahoe.