During the dry season 98% of the Eel River flows are diverted to the Russian River

In a last ditch effort to save crashing salmon and steelhead runs, the Friends of the Eel River have brought legal action before the State Water Resources Control Board to get the state to significantly cut back on the diversion of Eel River water to the Russian River. Conversely, the resulting elevated flows on the Russian are also threatening the State and federally listed Russian River’s endangered salmon and steelhead.

Prior to the diversion project the Eel used to get a run of 500,000 salmon and steelhead....the run today averages 15,000 fish.

LINK (Via: The Times Standard)