American River murkiness attributed to King Fire
By Gus Thomson, Auburn Journal
The American River in the canyon below Auburn was taking on an unfamiliar shade of mud on Wednesday.
While the north fork was keeping its clear blue hues, the middle fork was running murky – and mixing with the clearer water at the confluence to create a chocolate-brown flow under the Mountain Quarries Railroad Bridge and on to Folsom Lake.
Blame the 2014 King Fire, a Placer County Water Agency official said.
The fire scorched 97,000 acres of mountainous terrain, much of it in the American River and Rubicon River watershed. The water from that area eventually moves into the middle fork American River and down past Auburn.