Walker Lake, also known as Mountain Meadows Reservoir, is owned by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, which uses it for hydroelectric power.

Only the night before, locals had been fishing on it, and said there was weeks of water left in the lake which would have allowed for the safe transfer of its fish population.

Now thousands of fish are dead and those used to relaxing near the water near the city of Susanville face a putrid stench.

“It’s the situation we worked hard to avoid”, he said, “but the reality is we’re in a very serious drought, there’s also concerns for the fish downstream”.

Vanished: California Department of Fish and Wildlife said that they were notified about the fish problem at the lake only days before it went dry, and that it was too late to do anything at that point.

He said there’s no question that water concerns are still a serious issue across the state. It’s not the first time the lake has gone dry, but never to the extent that it disappeared overnight.

PG&E admitted that an outlet valve at the dam had been continuously clogging, requiring maintenance twice daily to release water downstream. Mountain Meadows Conservancy chairman Ron Lunder says the utility provider chose not to stop outflows from the reservoir when the water level reached a minimum.

Residents of Lassen County, California, are baffled after an artificial lake dried up, seemingly overnight, leaving thousands of dead fish across 5,800 acres of mud. After consultation with government agencies, they decided not to prevent further flows out of the dam.

But the role of the government agencies in the final outcome was uncertain.

The incident has raised concerns about other reservoirs in the state hit by the prolonged drought.

Regardless of who is to blame for the disappearance of the local fishing hole, officials with the Department of Water Resources warn most reservoirs are below normal levels because of the drought.