Staff Gage Replacement Project

The El Dorado Irrigation District (District) proposes to replace staff gage equipment at three locations in El Dorado County in the communities of Pleasant Valley (Clear Creek), Cameron Park (Deer Creek), and Quintette (Slab Creek). Staff gages are rulers that provide a visual measurement of water surface elevations that are used to calculate stream stage and/or streamflows. The existing staff gages at these three sites were damaged by high streamflows during heavy storm events and cannot provide accurate creek elevation data. The damaged staff gages will be removed from the bed of the creeks using an excavator picking claw tool or hand tools to extract the damaged gages without disturbing the bed or bank of the stream. The new staff gages will be 4-6 inch wide and 6-8-foot-long steel I-beams with a ruler attached that will be driven into the creek bed approximately 1-2 feet deep either using a combination of an excavator claw from dry land, hand tools, or attached to an adjacent boulder using rock anchor bolts. District staff will use an excavator outside of the wet channel of the creek. All work within the wet channel would be performed by hand crews. Work activities will be scheduled during the dry season to take advantage of annually low creek flow conditions. The project is scheduled to begin in late summer of 2026 and is estimated to be completed within 10 weeks.