From jclements at trinitycounty.org Fri Jan 30 13:21:19 2004 From: jclements at trinitycounty.org (Janet Clements) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 13:21:19 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Test Message and Info for New env-trinity list serve Message-ID: <000701c3e777$01a8ccb0$3f543442@trinitycounty.org> Welcome to the env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org mailing list! The env-trinity list is a public information list sponsored by the Natural Resources Division of the Trinity County Planning Department. Its purpose is to advance communication and information sharing around the issue of Trinity River restoration, especially the ongoing effort to implement the Trinity River Record of Decision (see >). This list is open to all for civil discussion and for posting of background information, news articles, press releases, meeting agendas and other relevant material. Relevant materials may also include information regarding water resources in California as they relate to the federal Central Valley Project and the larger Klamath-Trinity watershed. This list is un-moderated which means that any subscriber can post messages to it. To make this work well will require self-discipline among those who post messages. Please honor the spirit of the list when posting. To unsubscribe, send an e-mail message (give instruction to unsubscribe)to Tom Stokely at tstokely at trinityalps.net or Janet Clements at jclements at trinitycounty.org or call 530-628-5949. To post to this list, send your email to: env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org General information about the mailing list is at: http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity You can also make such adjustments via email by sending a message to: env-trinity-request at mailman.dcn.org with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions. Below are more details about good net ettiquette and effectively using the listserv. List Groundrules 1. Don't post off-subject messages to the list. Do include an appropriate subject line as many will read or delete by that is written here. 2. Do not send attachments with your email. Do not send photos, maps, executable files, or any other non-text material to the list directly. Most people won't be able to "read" them. Just paste this text into the body of your e-mail. 3. Be sure to include your name and email address/signature below your message. 4. DO NOT SEND FLAMES to the list. Send them directly to the person you have the problem with. Messages to the list should be respectful and polite. Remember, flames on a list are universally disliked and the person sending the flame is more looked down upon than the original poster being attacked. If you want to disagree with someone that's fine but do it in a friendly manner, or do it off the list. 5. Explicit advertising messages are SPAM and unfortunately are difficult to totally stop. If/When SPAM hits this list, DO NOT RESPOND to the list!! There are plenty of on line guides for how to respond effectively. But if you respond to the list, it just duplicates the original problem the Spam caused. 6. It is best to use plain text and not send HTML e-mail or use formatting such as bold, italic, or font. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Jan 30 17:07:04 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 17:07:04 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Test Message-ID: <01d001c3e796$8ac3bc20$0c6b3940@V51NH> This is a test. Please do NOT respond. Tom -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Feb 6 17:22:36 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 17:22:36 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] KLAMATH RIVER BASIN FISHERIES TASK FORCE MEETING-REVISED DRAFT AGENDA Message-ID: <01c701c3ed18$df739d80$a86c3940@V51NH> REVISED DRAFT AGENDA KLAMATH RIVER BASIN FISHERIES TASK FORCE MEETING February 18-19, 2004 Best Western Beachfront Inn Brookings, Oregon February 18, 2004 9:00 am 1. Convene and opening remarks. John Engbring, Chair. Vice Chair is Steve West, Klamath County. Vice Chair for next meeting will be Allen Foreman, Klamath Tribes. 9:15 2. Business a. Adoption of agenda b. Potential joint meeting with Trinity Management Council c. Action on proposal to require that all handouts include date, author, and authority under which they are submitted 9:30 3. Introductions of Congressional staff in attendance 9:45 4. Brief review of last meeting actions/general correspondence/program update (Laurie Simons) 10:00 5. Brief Updates and Announcements a. Update on State recovery process (Phil Detrich) b. Update on NOAA recovery planning (Irma Lagomarsino) c. Status of lamprey petition (Phil Detrich) 10:15 6. Updates on anadromous fishery restoration efforts (all members who wish to contribute) 11:15 Break 11:30 7. Progress of Klamath Basin Federal Working Group (Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Department of the Interior) 12:30 pm 8. Public Comment 12:45 Lunch 2:00 9. Report from Klamath Watershed Coordination Group Klamath Basin Compact Commission (Alice Kilham) Upper Klamath Basin Working Group (Jim Carpenter) Trinity Management Council (Mike Orcutt) 2:30 10. Report from Technical Work Group (Peter Brucker) 3:00 11. Report from Budget Committee (Phil Detrich) a. Final FY 2004 Budget b. Proposed FY 2005 Budget c. Proposal to prepare a Klamath Act Accomplishments Report 3:30 Break 3:45 12. Discussion of Klamath Act Reauthorization (Keith Wilkinson) 4:30 13. Planning for 2004 Klamath Project Operations and the Conservation Implementation Program (Christine Karas, Bureau of Reclamation) 5:00 14. Public Comment 5:15 Recess 5:30-7:30pm Social Hour - Join us in the Lounge across the street in the Smuggler=s Cove restaurant. February 19, 2004 8:00 am 15. Task Force review of recommendations from Mid-term Evaluation Oversight Committee a. Report on how to revise the Long Range Plan (Laurie Simons, FWS and Ronnie Pierce, Klamath Inter-tribal Fish and Water Commission) b. Discussion of recommendation 2.F.4 from the Long Range Plan 8:30 16. Klamath Provincial Advisory Committee - what it is and current issues (Peg Boland) 9:15 17. Presentation on the Initial Phase of the Scott River Watershed Council Strategic Action Plan (Rhonda Muse, Scott River Watershed Council Coordinator) 10:00 18. Public Comment 10:15 Break 11:15 19. Natural Resource Conservation Service Farm Bill Appropriation for the Klamath River Basin - how it is being spent in the Upper and Lower Klamath River Basin areas and benefits for anadromous fish (Bill Gardiner, NRCS) 12:00 20. Presentation on the Fish and Wildlife Service Fish Die Off Report (Randy Brown, FWS) 1:00 pm 21. Public Comment 1:15 22. Recap. Assignments and motions will be emailed in two weeks. Identify agenda to include in the next meeting. (John Engbring) 1:20 23. Future meetings are in Klamath Falls, June 23-24, 2004, and in Yreka, October 13-14, 2004. Adjourn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Feb 6 17:37:42 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2004 17:37:42 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SB 1155- Machado Message-ID: <01fd01c3ed1a$fbe494e0$a86c3940@V51NH> For legislative information, see http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html***************************************BILL NUMBER: SB 1155 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Machado JANUARY 28, 2004 An act to add Section 79442 to the Water Code, relating to water. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 1155, as introduced, Machado. Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Existing law, the California Bay-Delta Authority Act, establishes in the Resources Agency the California Bay-Delta Authority until January 1, 2006, unless a certain determination is made. The act requires the authority and the implementing agencies, as defined, to carry out the programs, projects, and activities necessary to implement the Bay-Delta Program, defined to mean those projects, programs, commitments, and other actions that address the goals and objectives of the CALFED Bay-Delta Programmatic Record of Decision, dated August 28, 2000, or as it may be amended. The act requires the authority to review, approve, and make recommendations regarding certain program plans and expenditure plans submitted by the implementing agencies and to undertake related actions. This bill, with a certain exception, would prohibit a public agency, including the authority, from assisting or cooperating with any other public agency for the purposes of increasing pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta beyond levels authorized under applicable operating criteria in effect on July 1, 2003, until the authority, the State Water Resources Control Board or the appropriate California regional water quality control board, and the Department of Water Resources, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, undertake certain actions in accordance with a process that encourages public participation and in furtherance of certain described solution principles. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) The CALFED Programmatic Record of Decision (ROD) and its associated documents described actions that were intended to take place in an integrated framework and not independently of one another. While each program element was described individually, it was understood that only through coordinated, linked, incremental investigation, analysis, and implementation could the problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (delta) be effectively resolved. (b) (1) The implementation of the Bay-Delta Program, as defined by subdivision (e) of Section 79402 of the Water Code, has not been balanced across all programs, as described in subdivision (b) of Section 79402 of the Water Code. (2) The implementation has not been consistent with the implementation schedule and milestones described in the CALFED ROD. (3) The implementation has not resulted in concurrent improvement in all program elements in a manner that ensures that improvements in some program elements are not made without corresponding improvements in other program elements. (c) Each of the following CALFED documents stated that prior to increasing pumping from the delta to up 8,500 cubic feet per second during periods that are restricted under applicable operating criteria, new operational rules for use of additional export capability will be determined through an "open CALFED process": (1) The CALFED ROD prepared by the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, dated August 28, 2000. (2) "Section 7" biological opinions prepared by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, dated August 28, 2000. (3) "Section 7" biological opinions prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service, dated August 28, 2000. (4) The natural community conservation plan determination made by the Department of Fish and Game, dated August 28, 2000. (5) The publication entitled "California's Water Future, a Framework for Action," prepared by the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, dated June 9, 2000. (d) The Department of Water Resources convened an open CALFED process in 2002 to try to develop an operational rules plan that would increase delta pumping to up to 8,500 cubic feet per second during periods that are currently restricted. In the progress report entitled "Report on 8500 Stakeholder Process to California Department of Water Resources," dated October 31, 2002, the facilitator found that the stakeholder groups had not reached consensus on an operations plan. (e) Recent private negotiations between the Department of Water Resources and the United States Bureau of Reclamation have resulted in a plan to increase delta pumping to up to 8,500 cubic feet per second during periods that are currently restricted. This "Draft Proposition Concerning CVP/SWP Integrated Operations," also known as the "Napa Agreement," was developed behind closed doors, without direct input from many stakeholder groups or from state or federal wildlife agencies. The Napa Agreement does not conform to the CALFED solution principles. Moreover, "after the fact" negotiations between a few delta export interests and a select group of delta water agencies in no way substitutes for consultations undertaken in accordance with an open CALFED process. (f) In order to restore balance in the implementation of the ROD, to ensure that the Bay-Delta Program fulfills its commitment to achieving continuous improvement in the quality of the waters of the delta system, and to preserve the integrity of the CALFED process, it is necessary for the Legislature to enact this act. SEC. 2. Section 79442 is added to the Water Code, to read: 79442. (a) Notwithstanding subdivision (c) of Section 79403.5, no public agency, including the authority, may assist by loan, grant, contract, license, permit, resolution, staffing, use of facilities, or otherwise cooperate with, any other public agency for the purposes of increasing pumping from the delta beyond levels authorized under applicable operating criteria in effect on July 1, 2003, until all of the following requirements have been met: (1) The authority, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, prepares and implements a plan to meet all water quality standards and objectives in effect on July 1, 2003, for which the State Water Project or the federal Central Valley Project, or both, have responsibility. This plan shall include all of the following components: (A) An enumeration of all existing water quality standards and objectives for which the State Water Project, the federal Central Valley Project, or both water projects, have responsibility. This includes all flow based standards. (B) A description of each action to be undertaken to meet the standards and objectives described in subparagraph (A). The description shall include an identification of all of the following: (i) The agency responsible for implementing the action. (ii) The schedule for implementing the action. (iii) To the maximum extent practicable, quantitative estimates of the specific improvements to be realized by the implementation of the action toward meeting the standards and objectives described in subparagraph (A). (C) The water quality consequences of not meeting the implementation schedule described in clause (ii) of subparagraph (B). (D) A financing plan for implementing the plan. (E) A contingency plan to be undertaken if one or more of the plan' s components is not implemented in accordance with this section. (2) The state board or the appropriate regional board, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, adopts a water quality control plan to address low dissolved oxygen in the San Joaquin River and adopts total maximum daily levels for pollutants that cause that low dissolved oxygen in accordance with Section 1313(d) of Title 33 of the United States Code. (3) The state board or the appropriate regional board, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, adopts a water quality control plan, and total maximum daily loads in accordance with Section 1313(d) of Title 33 of the United States Code, for salinity in the lower San Joaquin River and commences implementation of appropriate source control measures. (4) The department, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, completes a study and provides recommendations to the authority on the use of recirculation to meet the objectives of the Bay-Delta Program. The study shall include an analysis of impacts and benefits, and recommendations on infrastructure improvements necessary to implement recirculation, as appropriate. The recommendations shall specifically address the role that recirculation will provide in improving dissolved oxygen levels in the San Joaquin River. (5) The authority, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, determines the feasibility of restoring habitat and improving hydraulic conditions on Frank's Tract in the delta to optimize improvements in ecosystem restoration, levee stability, and delta water quality. (6) The authority, in collaboration with implementing agencies, develops and adopts a process to certify urban water plan management prepared pursuant to Part 2.6 (commencing with Section 10610) of Division 6. (7) The authority, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, convenes an independent review panel on appropriate measurement of surface water and groundwater deliveries and prepares and submits to the Legislature a report regarding suggested legislation relating thereto. (8) The department, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, completes a funding plan to dredge and install operable barriers to ensure that water is of adequate quantity and quality for agricultural users within the south delta. (9) The department, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, completes environmental studies for floodway improvements on the lower San Joaquin River to provide conveyance, flood control, and ecosystem benefits. (10) The department, in collaboration with the implementing agencies, reconvenes and completes its process to develop a project specific operation plan that addresses the potential impacts of increased pumping. (b) (1) Each state agency that undertakes any activity described in paragraphs (1) to (10), inclusive, of subdivision (a) shall carry out that activity in accordance with an open bay-delta process that encourages public participation. (2) For the purposes of carrying out activities described in paragraph (1), each state agency shall conduct periodic meetings that are publicly noticed and facilitated using consensus seeking techniques. (3) All actions undertaken or proposed by an agency pursuant to subdivision (a) shall conform to all of the following solution principles: (A) "Reduce conflicts in the system," which means the action, in the judgment of the agency, will reduce major conflicts among beneficial uses of water. (B) "Be equitable," which means the action, in the judgment of the agency, will focus on solving problems in all problem areas. (C) "Be affordable," which means the action, in the judgment of the agency, will be implemented using the resources of the Bay-Delta Program and affected parties. (D) "Be durable," which means the action, in the judgment of the agency, will have political and economic staying power and will sustain the resources they were designed to protect and enhance. (E) "Be implementable," which means the action, in the judgment of the agency, will have broad public acceptance and legal feasibility, and will be timely and relatively simple to implement when compared to other possible actions. (F) "Have no significant redirected impacts," which means the action, in the judgment of the agency, will not solve problems in the delta system by redirecting significant negative impacts, when viewed in their entirety, to other areas of the delta or to areas outside the delta. (c) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), the department may conduct studies on the impacts of operating State Water Project pumps at up to 8,500 cubic feet per second, but only for the purposes of paragraph (10) of subdivision (a) and in accordance with subdivision (b). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Feb 16 09:42:52 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 09:42:52 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath stories- Klamath TMDL Public Meetings, Klamath Basin Conference News Message-ID: <01ee01c3f4b4$4f24ac80$656c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~1954313,00.html Water quality standard plans for Klamath River being aired at public meeting The Times-Standard California and Oregon water quality agencies will hold public meetings on the development of water quality standards for the Klamath and Lost rivers. The rivers are both considered impaired by temperature problems and nutrients. Some parts of the rivers also have problems with pH, dissolved oxygen, ammonia toxicity and bacteria. Specifically, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality are working collaboratively to develop plans for the Lost River, Klamath Straits Drain, and the Klamath River from Link River to the Pacific Ocean. The standards, called Total Maximum Daily Loads, assess the condition of rivers and water bodies, quantify pollutants, and develop plans to restore their health. The TMDLs are among others being developed in the watershed, including for the Tule Lake and Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, and the Shasta, Scott and Salmon Rivers. The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a workshop in Fortuna at the River Lodge's Steelhead Room on March 2 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. >From Dan Keppen dkeppen at cvcwireless.net : Two recent stories regarding the recent Klamath Falls science conference and visit by senior federal and state water policy officials to the Upper Basin.... Official interest shown Oregon, California governors send representatives to join Basin research conference Klamath Falls (OR) Herald & News - 2/8/04 By Dylan Darling, staff writer The governors of California and Oregon both sent high-level officials to the Klamath Basin to learn about water issues last week. Coming from California were Mike Chrisman, secretary for resources, and Jim Branham, undersecretary for the state's Environmental Protection Agency. Representing Oregon was David Van't Hof, sustainability policy advisor to Gov. Ted Kulongoski. They joined about 150 scientists and agency managers who had gathered for a four-day conference to discuss ongoing research in the Klamath Basin. The conference was convened to help coordinate the science that supports frequently controversial management decisions regarding water that is shared by farmers, endangered species, power companies and recreationists. Among the most controversial decisions was the one that suspended delivery of irrigation water in the Klamath Reclamation Project in 2001 in order to protect threatened salmon and endangered suckers. "We want to try to avoid those crises we've been in," said Chrisman, who was appointed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to advise him on the state's natural, historical and cultural resources. Chrisman oversees a budget of $4.1 million for 24 state departments. Kulongoski appointed David Van't Hof to his position, which is a new one, on Dec. 19. Before that Van't Hof served in Kulongoski's natural resources office as a policy adviser on water, land use and energy. Chrisman said the governors of Oregon and California want their administrations to work with federal agencies to seek solutions for the Basin. Branham said he and Chrisman have dealt with situation likes the one in the Basin before, and they wanted to become acquainted with its particulars by making a visit. He said it is important for the California officials to work with their Oregon counterparts because, while the Klamath River flows mostly through California, most of its water comes from Oregon. "We manage what we are left with," he said. During their time in the Basin, the officials met with leaders of the Karuk and Klamath tribes for breakfast, members of the Klamath Water Users Association for lunch and, in between, sat in for the wrap-up meeting of a science conference that was held at the Shilo Inn last week. They also toured the A Canal headgates and took a flight over the Klamath River. But the officials' visit wasn't the first time that leaders from the neighboring states talked about the Klamath issue, said Arthur Baggett, chairman of the California Water Resources Board. "We've been talking for about a year and a half," he said. He said they are trying to come up with an agreement that will help all parts of the Basin. Baggett said crafting a solution will take cooperation from all sides. "It is up to all of us - the stakeholder groups and regulators," Baggett said. Steve Thompson, Fish and Wildlife Service regional director, said there is now a window open for a solution in the Basin. Thompson said groups are lucky to get an hour of a secretary's time, and those in the Basin got a day and a half. "We'll see what the next step is," he said. "For me, I want to see some action on the ground that makes a difference." He said he was sharing a flight with the California officials on the way back and wanted to talk to them more about Klamath issues on the plane. Dan Keppen, water users executive director, said the visit could be the start of the two states working together with the federal government to provide leadership for the stakeholders. "There is an opportunity to put all the pieces together and solve the puzzle," he said.# Another blow delivered to Klamath theory By TAM MOORE Oregon Staff Writer cappress at charter.net KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. - The props under U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Klamath Project operations were blasted again Feb. 3 as federal agencies opened a four-day Upper Klamath Basin Science Workshop. "We could find no hint of relationship between lake level" and three technical factors commonly blamed for killing sucker fish in Upper Klamath Lake, said William Lewis. The University of Colorado aquatic specialist was chairman of a National Research Council review of federal biological opinions designed to protect two sucker fish species and a coho salmon run. Those opinions and a drought-shortened water supply triggered the April 2001 denial of irrigation water to 1,100 project farms. Lewis spoke during the opening session of a federal workshop aimed at defining the gaps in scientific knowledge needed to end long-simmering controversies in the 10-million-acre basin shared by Oregon and California. >From 1992, when U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued its first biological opinion on irrigation operations, specifying end-of-the-month lake levels has been the primary measure to assure sucker habitat. Scientists have called lake levels "surrogates" for a complex ecosystem that isn't fully understood but obviously is in trouble for both water quality and water quantity. Upper Klamath Lake, a 90,000-acre impoundment at full pool, is the primary reservoir for the project. The suckers, once so numerous they were fished commercially, crashed in the 1980s. By 1988 they were given Endangered Species Act protection. USFWS' most recent opinion, in June 2002, repeats mandatory minimum lake levels. Neither USFWS nor BuRec has indicated plans to seek revision of the opinion despite Lewis' comment and the written NRC report issued in the fall of 2003. Lewis, who specializes in limnology, the science of lake water quality, said massive changes in land use around Upper Klamath Lake caused changes in the water, and triggered a blue-green algae that about 40 or 50 years ago began dominating the summer lake. Among other things, the algae soaks up oxygen needed for fish, changes the acid level of the water to make water less hospitable and generates so much chlorophyll that light transmission is interrupted. Lewis suggested that those seeking recovery of the struggling sucker fish populations look beyond the lake to other strategies such as improving spawning habitat and creating summer refuges with oxygenated water. The lake level theory has some defenders, including Larry Dunsmoor, chief biologist for the Klamath Tribes. Dunsmoor argues that habitat for the smallest sucker fish, called larvae, includes the edge of Upper Klamath Lake and marshes connected to it. If lake levels fall, he said, habitat for larval fish shrinks. Farmer Steve Kandra, representing water users at the science conference, said he's pleased with the debate between Dunsmoor and Lewis. "It's much better raised here, in this forum, than in the 9th Circuit Court." Kandra said litigation isn't a solution, while technical collaboration encouraged by the conference will help. What will also help, he said, is an understanding by government officials and academics of all elements involved. "Don't ask me to turn my irrigation project off in the middle of the summer unless you know about the plants I'm taking care of and what will happen to them," he said. Kandra said there was cooperation among stakeholders before the 2001 water cutoff. "Then the door closed. The rapport was destroyed. Now we are starting to build some confidence." While this week's science conference concentrated on Upper Basin issues, on Feb. 24, a three-day meeting involving all watersheds in the 10-million-acre basin will be held at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls. Denise Buck, an organizer, said some of those sessions will reach beyond the technical questions raised by the researchers and agency managers at this week's gathering. The federal officials are under pressure to resolve Klamath issues, including prodding from a Cabinet-level task force that President Bush tasked to deliver long-range recommendations in the fall of 2003. Their report has yet to surface, but the Bush budget delivered last week lists nearly $200 million of basin spending thought to be related to recovery of the massive watershed. Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail address is cappress at charter.net. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Feb 16 16:12:37 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2004 16:12:37 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] 22nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference Message-ID: <02be01c3f4ea$c1de45c0$656c3940@V51NH> Posted by Traci "Bear" Thiele Salmonid Restoration Federation http://www.calsalmon.org/conference/2004/index.htm Phone: (707) 223-1770, Fax: (707) 923-4210 22nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference & 14th International Salmon Habitat Enhancement Workshop March 17-20, Davis, California The Salmonid Restoration Federation will hold our 22nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference in Davis, CA from Wednesday, March 17 through Saturday, March 20, 2004. This year's conference is entitled, "Collaborative Watershed Efforts for Salmonid Recovery," and the conference will be held in conjunction with the 14th International Salmonid Habitat Enhancement Workshop. The first two days of the conference include full-day workshops on the following topics: fish-friendly agricultural practices, effectiveness and validation monitoring of restoration projects, urban creek restoration, advanced GIS analysis for watershed management, increasing your watershed and fish restoration organization's capacity, and instream flow requirements for salmonids. Field tours include tours of Putah Creek restoration efforts; Cache Creek basin and the Yolo bypass: steelhead restoration, fish passage, and flood control; Village Homes and Davis, CA: suburban watershed planning; and Mokelumne and American River restoration programs. On Thursday evening, the theatre troupe Human Nature will perform their new musical comedy, "What's Funny about Global Climate Change?" This play is the brainchild of Mattole restorationist David Simpson and was spawned by David's concerns about the effects of global climate change on salmonids. This event will be co-sponsored by the Sacramento-based organization Friends of the River. The plenary session will cover Global, Pacific Northwest, California and Regional salmonid issues. Scientist Robert Lackey from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will address global fisheries issues in his talk, "The Four Nations of the Salmon World." Dune Lankard, a Eyak-Athabascan native from Alaska will share his story of leaving a life of commercial fishing to devote himself to the recovery of wild salmon habitat in Prince William Sound after the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill. Diana Jacobs, Deputy Director of California Department of Fish and Game will discuss the CALFED restoration program particularly in the Sacramento River Basin. Lastly, Mark Dubois, co-founder of the International Rivers Network, will discuss the role of advocacy in preserving rivers and fisheries habitat on a local and global level. Technical and policy concurrent sessions will include presentations on conservation hatchery practices and research, opportunities for restoration through the FERC relicensing process, nutrient additions and water quality in California streams, in-channel and off-channel salmonid habitat enhancement projects, lessons learned from the protection of neighboring watersheds: Putah Creek and Cache Creek, salmon in a global context: climate change, ocean conditions, and the salmon of the Pacific Rim; non-native and invasive species: controlling threats to salmonid habitats, and the human habitat: fostering lasting change through restoration education and outreach. Please visit the SRF web site at www.calsalmon.org to see the conference agenda, a registration form, a preview of the Proceedings, and information about the keynote speakers, scholarship and co-sponsorship opportunities, and conference logistics. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Feb 17 20:44:49 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 20:44:49 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Lewiston Dam Increase in Flows for Local Inflow Message-ID: <000001c3f63b$08538320$106c3940@V51NH> Project: Lewiston Dam Date Time From(CFS) To (CFS) 2/17/04 1545 300 550 2/17/04 1745 550 800 Issued By: Tom Morstein-Marx Comment: Regulate Lewiston for local inflow. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Thu Feb 19 10:03:22 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2004 10:03:22 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Fwd: Trinity River Release Message-ID: Below is the most recent "safety of dams" release scheduled by the Bureau of Reclamation for the Trinity River. These flow updates are sent to the 'env-trinity' list sever and other interested parties. If you are not a part of the 'env-trinity' list server and do not wish to receive flow updates in the future, please let me know. Regards, Andreas __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ >>> Tom Morstein-Marx 02/19/04 09:31AM >>> Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From(CFS) To (CFS) 2/19/04 1800 800 1000 2/19/04 2000 1000 1200 2/19/04 2200 1200 1400 2/19/04 2400 1400 1600 2/19/04 0200 1600 1800 2/19/04 0400 1800 2000 Issued By: Tom Morstein-Marx Comment: Safety of Dams Release From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Feb 20 12:45:26 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 12:45:26 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity River Flows Increased to 2000 cfs Message-ID: <004001c3f7f2$78af3340$1c0aadcf@V51NH> Sorry for the late notice folks, but the flows in the Trinity are now at 2000 cfs. TS *************************************************** Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From(CFS) To (CFS) 2/19/04 1800 800 1000 2/19/04 2000 1000 1200 2/19/04 2200 1200 1400 2/19/04 2400 1400 1600 2/19/04 0200 1600 1800 2/19/04 0400 1800 2000 Issued By: Tom Morstein-Marx Comment: Safety of Dams Release -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Feb 23 16:07:19 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 16:07:19 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] How to post messages to env-trinity Message-ID: <00a701c3fa6a$2bedfbc0$706b3940@V51NH> Dear env-trinity subscribers, If you wish to post a message to the new env-trinity list, the correct address to post it is as follows: env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org The return address on messages you receive is apparently different than the above address. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Feb 24 14:02:13 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 14:02:13 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Lester Snow is New Cal DWR Director Message-ID: <012001c3fb21$dfaf3540$a06c3940@V51NH> Press Release OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR ------------------------------------------------ GAAS:80:04 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 02/24/2004 Governor Schwarzenegger Appoints Lester Snow Director of the Department of Water Resources Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Lester Snow as director of the California Department of Water Resources. "I am very pleased that Lester will be joining my administration and I am confident that he will use his vast knowledge in water resource management to lead the state's efforts to find balance between conservation and development," said Governor Schwarzenegger. Snow has over 25 years of experience working in public water resource management. Since 2001 he has been a principal at Saracino-Kirby-Snow, the water resource planning and management division of Schlumberger Water Services. At the same time he has also been the North American business development manager for Schlumberger Water Services. Prior to that, he served as the Mid-Pacific regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. From 1995 to 1999 he served as the executive director of the CALFED Bay-Delta program and prior to that spent seven years as the general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. Snow's experience also includes six years with the Arizona Department of Water Resources including four years as the Tuscon Area director. "I am honored Governor Schwarzenegger has given me this opportunity to bring my experience in water resource management to the state, and I look forward to serving the people of California in this capacity," said Snow. Snow, 52, is a Democrat from Fair Oaks, CA. He earned a Master of Science in water resources administration from the University of Arizona, and a Bachelor of Science in earth sciences from Pennsylvania State University. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $123,255. The California Department of Water Resources protects, conserves and develops the state's water supply. The Department forecasts future water needs, evaluates and inventories existing water supplies and explores conservation and storage options to meet the needs of the state's growing population. They are also responsible for maintaining and repairing levees in the Central Valley and responding to flood emergency situations. The Department has a budget of $405.9 million with 2,537 employees and is under the umbrella of the California Resources Agency. ### Jeff Cohen Public Information Officer, Office of Water Education California Department of Water Resources 1416 9th St., Room 1104-1 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 653-0979 jcohen at water.ca.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 67 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: govseal.gif Type: image/gif Size: 4041 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Feb 24 14:31:07 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 14:31:07 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] CA Coastal Commission Looking for Trinity Co. Coordinator for Coastal Cleanup Day Message-ID: <017901c3fb25$e710b760$a06c3940@V51NH> Is anybody interested in being the Trinity County organizer for the September Coastal Cleanup Day (it also includes inland streams and rivers)? If so, please contact Eben Schwartz at the number below or at eschwartz at coastal.ca.gov TS ************************************************************************ February 4, 2004 - For Immediate Release - Contacts: Eben Schwartz, Statewide Outreach Coordinator, (415) 904-5210 Judi Shils, Marketing and Sponsorship, (415) 904-5273 California Coastal Commission Announces the "58 for 58" Campaign San Francisco - The Public Education Program of the California Coastal Commission announced today the launch of its "58 for 58" campaign, designed to recruit volunteers and leadership in each of California's 58 counties over the next 58 days for this September's California Coastal Cleanup Day. This year's Cleanup will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the event. In recognition of this milestone, the Coastal Comission is working to broaden the scope of the Cleanup in order to include volunteers from every county in the state - both coastal and inland areas. Started in 1985, California Coastal Cleanup Day is billed as "the country's largest volunteer event dedicated to the marine environment." Taking place over a three-hour span on the same day every year - the third Saturday of September - the Cleanup has gained a prominent spot on California's volunteer calendar, and expands into new areas virtually every year. In September of 2003, 47,817 people turned out in 41 of the state's counties to help remove almost 700,000 pounds of debris. As these numbers indicate, Coastal Cleanup Day long ago outgrew its "coastal" moniker. "We've been cleaning up inland areas for almost as long as we've been organizing Coastal Cleanup Day," said Eben Schwartz, Statewide Outreach Coordinator for the California Coastal Commission. "The data we've collected during the event over the years has shown that most of the trash we pick up starts in our inland and urban areas. So why not go straight to the source and stop that trash where it starts?" Over the next 58 days, the Coastal Commission's Public Education Program, which coordinates the statewide event, will be seeking to recruit coordinators from each of the counties that do not yet participate in Coastal Cleanup Day (see end of this release for a list of these counties). The County Coordinators are a diverse lot, ranging from organizations or agencies with a specific environmental mission to concerned individuals with no organizational affiliation at all. The County Coordinator is an unpaid position that receives training, supplies, and support from the Coastal Commission. "Coastal Cleanup Day is such a massive affair that, if it were not for the partnerships we build with local governments, non-profit groups, and our volunteers, we would never be able to pull it off," Schwartz said. "We're looking for anyone and everyone who's interested in being part of this vital event this September, even if all you want to do is grab a bag and clean up at your local creek." The Commission has already sent letters to the Departments of Public Works and Environmental Health of each of the unrepresented counties. However, the Commission welcomes any private or public involvement, and will be looking to fill these volunteer positions as soon as possible. For more information, please contact Eben Schwartz at (415) 904-5210, (800) COAST-4-U, or eschwartz at coastal.ca.gov. Counties currently unrepresented in California Coastal Cleanup Day: Amador, Colusa, Glenn, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lassen, Mariposa, Plumas, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Feb 24 15:03:51 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 15:03:51 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] 9th Circuit Oral Arguments Website Message-ID: <01dd01c3fb2c$67604100$a06c3940@V51NH> The following is from Byron Leydecker: The Ninth Circuit Court heard oral arguments in the Westlands and Northern California Power Agency v. Interior litigation on the Trinity Record of Decision February 9. The recording of the hearing is posted on the Ninth Circuit website at the following link: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/ca9/media.nsf/Media+Search?OpenForm The case number is 03-15194 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Feb 24 18:48:16 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 18:48:16 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] From PCFFA's SUBLEGALS Message-ID: I would add that this is but a small part of the fallout - not only from Napa, but also from OCAP, SDIP and possible UOP negotiations as well. It gets down to a question of destruction of the San Francisco Bay Delta, among other things, to benefit San Joaquin Valley irrigators applying water to poisoned land and some Southern California municipalities. In other words, Peripheral Canal, Version II (up to one million more acre feet of Northern California water PUMPED out of the Bay, just not a CANAL) A WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR FISHERIES RESOURCES AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATIONS SUBLEGALS ~WE HOOK THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO NET~ Vol. 09, No. 05 30 January 2004 ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________ 9:05/08. FALL-OUT FROM NAPA AGREEMENT - WINTER-RUN CHINOOK THREATENED: Part of the fall-out from the Napa Agreement (see Sublegals, 9:03/05; 8:06/02) to increase diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, sending additional water to Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors and municipal users in Southern California, is the loss of cold water flows in the Sacramento River -- critical to the survival of winter-run chinook salmon. The Sacramento winter-run chinook were the first Pacific salmon to be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and were on the brink of extinction in 1991, until strong actions were taken under the ESA (i.e., cold water releases from Shasta Dam, control of heavy metal pollution from Iron Mountain Mine, implementing effective screening programs at major agricultural diversions, raising the gates at Red Bluff Diversion Dam, curtailing Delta pumping and a captive broodstock program was established). Of all the listed Pacific salmon runs, winter-run have shown the most improvement to date (from 191 spawners in 1991 to an estimated 7,000-12,000 in 2003), although the fish are still a long way from being recovered. That progress could now be reversed and the fish again put in peril if the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) gets its way under the backroom Napa deal (now also wryly described as N.A.P.A. or "Not All Parties Asked"). In a presentation made to the California Department of Fish & Game (DCFG) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), BOR proposed to significantly reduce critical habitat for winter-run chinook in the Sacramento River through the New CVP Operations Criteria & Plan (CVP OCAP). The plan stems from the Napa Agreement to increase Delta exports and CVP yield by drawing down the reservoirs further to capture more flood control "spills." Under this plan, the temperature compliance point from Bend Bridge and Jellys Ferry to Balls Ferry would be moved upstream, resulting in a 40 percent reduction in critical cold water spawning habitat. The current standard is dependent on water year type and Shasta carryover storage, but BOR is proposing the compliance point be moved upstream during wet years to essentially the current critically dry year standard, or worse - it's a long way from Bend Bridge to Balls Ferry. The bad part is that drawing down the reservoirs decreases cold water reserves necessary to keep all runs of Sacramento River chinook, not just winter-run, in good shape during spawning and incubation. BOR's answer to ever-increasing violations of Sacramento River temperature standards, embodied in the 1993 Winter Run Biological Opinion, as well as Water Right Order 90-05, is to simply move the goal post upstream. The issues raised by BOR's plan, include: 1. Frequency of inability to comply with current standard; 2. Loss in winter-run rearing habitat; 3. Loss in winter-run spawning habitat; 4. Loss in spring-run spawning and incubation; 5. Habitat availability to reach winter-run recovery goal (i.e., 20,000 adults); 6. Existing spawning density; and 7. Redd super-imposition. BOR essentially has told CDFG and NMFS that this is the way its going to be unless the fishery agencies can explain to the Bureau in the Biological Opinion (BiOp) why it won't work. There is to be a meeting on 3 March of the Sacramento River Temperature Task Group to discuss the matter. The latest version of the Long-Term OCAP is available on BOR's website at: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Feb 25 09:18:52 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 09:18:52 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Stockton Record- Bay-Delta water program thirsts for real power Message-ID: <03f301c3fbc3$7758ab00$a06c3940@V51NH> Bay-Delta water program thirsts for real power http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/022004/news/articles/022004-e-2.php Published Friday, February 20, 2004 Like a cascading waterfall, California's water problems continue to tumble. After four years of trying to bring peace, the CALFED Bay-Delta Program, designed to solve many of the state's disputes, is at a turning point. Will it be the conduit for solutions or the cause of collapse? It was hard to tell Tuesday during a state Senate Agriculture and Water Committee hearing, where CALFED's effectiveness was challenged. Fractious and suspicious water interests have wondered since CALFED's founding if the agency's members would have the authority, courage, mandate or independence to solve deep-seated, long-standing conflicts. What progress has been made is threatened. State and federal funding problems came first, then the bickering and return of mistrust. Last year, frustrated participants, insisting more water from the Delta was their promise, met secretly and devised the so-called Napa Plan. It would suck more water through the giant state-operated pumps near Tracy to midstate agricultural interests and Southern California urban users. Delta representatives weren't invited to the meetings. Now come the legislative oversight groups such as state Sen. Michael Machado's agriculture and water panel. Machado, D-Linden, listened while charges and claims volleyed back and forth: * Farm users south of San Joaquin County said the plan is necessary to "move forward with CALFED." Without it, competing interests will return to litigation to solve their differences. * Delta defenders asked, "Is this just another water grab?" * CALFED Director Patrick Wright admitted this is a "litmus test by which to judge the effectiveness of the program." Unless stronger leadership exerts itself, this could be the beginning of the end for the program. If renegade groups with narrowly defined interests are able to make decisions independent of CALFED, the agency will lose credibility fast. The program needs funds, authority and objectivity. It no longer can operate merely as a forum for competing interests. It must be able to drive decision making, exercise judgment and regulate with authority. Our voice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The CALFED agency must be able to regulate with authority. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Feb 25 14:58:47 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:58:47 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee- Funding of Sumner Peck Settlement Still in Doubt Message-ID: <062201c3fbf4$1cb4aa60$a06c3940@V51NH> CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT Pay source fought in water deal Lawmakers want to stop feds from tapping funds. Fresno Bee - 2/20/04 By Michael Doyle, staff writer WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration again wants to use Western water project funds to pay for a multimillion-dollar settlement with Westlands Water District farmers. And California lawmakers, again, intend to stop the idea dead in its tracks. Barely a year after the administration retreated in the face of a unified California congressional delegation, Interior Department officials have resurrected a proposal for paying for the Westlands land-retirement deal. For this latest $34 million round of payments, the administration proposes taking the money out of the Bureau of Reclamation's budget. This is exactly what Congress has previously ordered the administration not to do. "We're going to fight that as much as we did last year," Mariposa Republican George Radanovich said. The dispute involves settlement of a long-running lawsuit known as Sumner Peck v. Bureau of Reclamation. The Westlands farmers who rallied together in 1986 under the Sumner Peck name contend the government's failure to provide irrigation drainage led to the poisoning of some 34,000 selenium-laden acres. The December 2002 settlement involved the federal government agreeing to pay $107 million and the Westlands district agreeing to pay $32 million in order to retire the land from farming. Fearing the Westlands land-retirement payments might starve some of their own favorite water projects, the California lawmakers insist the federal government's share be paid out of a Justice Department account rather than the Bureau of Reclamation's budget. It's not simply an accounting debate. "If you take the money out of the Bureau of Reclamation, then that's less money to do things like water development," Visalia Republican Devin Nunes said Thursday. "Obviously, this has to be changed." The Bush administration, for instance, only asked for $15 million to support California's Cal-Fed water program next year. This is half of what Congress provided this year. Interior Department officials, though, say they are waiting for the Justice Department to complete an assessment of the law and its limitations. Until that happens, officials said Thursday, they have no choice but to tap Bureau of Reclamation funds. That plan is included in the Bush administration proposed budget issued this month. "The Bureau of Reclamation is committed to fulfilling the terms of the Sumner Peck settlement," said Mark Limbaugh, the bureau's deputy commissioner. "We will work with the Congress and the Department of Justice to assure the agreed-upon payments will be made in full and on time." The Justice Department asserted the money to pay for the deal could not come from the "judgment fund," which is typically used to settle federal lawsuits. Instead, Justice Department officials interpreted current U.S. law as saying the agency settling the lawsuit had to come up with the settlement money on its own. That roiled lawmakers, particularly when the Interior Department identified which water projects would be sacrificed to pay for the settlement. Officials initially targeted studies at New Melones Reservoir, pump replacements in Placer County, San Jose water reclamation and maintenance throughout the Redding-to-Bakersfield Central Valley Project, among others. "I'm not happy with the idea," Nunes said. Both of California's senators and most of the state's 53 House members, Republicans and Democrats alike, warned the Interior and Justice departments last year not to use the Bureau of Reclamation funds. Congress subsequently used an annual appropriations bill to force the first $34 million payment to come from the Justice Department. Congress also revised the law governing judgments in an effort to force the Justice Department judgment fund to handle any payments more than $5 million. Justice Department attorneys are now examining this legal restriction to determine how binding it might be as the second payment comes due this September. But Congress, Nunes said, is likely to move first with another unmistakable shot across the bow.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Mar 1 09:19:24 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 09:19:24 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] FW: Trinity River Water Message-ID: -----Original Message----- From: Byron Leydecker [mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net] Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 9:18 AM To: Douglas Schleusner; Edward Solbos; Daryl Peterson; Troy Fletcher; Tim Ramirez; Ralph Modine; Mike Ryan; Mike Orcutt; Mary Ellen Mueller; Kirk Rodgers; Irma Lagomarsino; Bill Brock; Russell Smith; Bill Mendenhall; Steve Turek; Tom Stokely; Danny Jordan; George Kautsky; Dave Hillemeier; Sharon Heywood; Zeke Grader; William Huber; Tom Weseloh; Tim Colvin; Serge Birk; Richard Lorenz; Pat Frost; Kevin Lewis; Jimmy Smith; Jim Spear; Jim Feider; Jeff Bryant; Elizabeth Soderstrom; Edgar Duggan; David Steinhauser; Dan Haycox; Bwl3 at Comcast. Net; Bernice Sullivan; Arnold Whitridge Subject: Trinity River Water Importance: High Since the Bureau recently increased releases to 2,000 cfs for dam safety reasons into Trinity River, it apparently has used the lowest release point from the dam. This has resulted in sediment from behind the dam choking the river. Unless clean water flows of up to 6,000 cfs or whatever are released later this year, this sediment will remain stuck in the upper river for the coming year, or until higher clean water releases are provided. In the meantime, is it not possible to change the release point from the dam to a height at which sediment will not pour into the river? This current release arrangement seriously undercuts efforts to restore sediment reductions in the river, if not the Restoration Program itself. I ask that those in the Bureau in a position to do so make every effort to change the current release method to eliminate these highly damaging sediment introductions into the river. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Mar 1 12:41:20 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 12:41:20 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] FW: Trinity River Water Message-ID: -----Original Message----- From: Byron Leydecker [mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net] Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 12:38 PM To: Michael Ryan; jbryant at awwwsome.com; jim.spear at ca.usda.gov; timr at calwater.ca.gov; jmorrison at ci.redding.ca.us; jrsmith at co.humboldt.ca.us; sturek at dfg.ca.gov; sheywood at fs.fed.us; wbrock at fs.fed.us; MaryEllen_Mueller at fws.gov; bsullivan at fwua.org; zgrader at ifrfish.org; whuber at jeffnet.org; Daryl Peterson; Doug Schleusner; Ed Solbos; Kirk Rodgers; Russell Smith; sergebirk at msn.com; yen2fish at netzero.net; Irma.Lagomarsino at noaa.gov; naypooie at northcoast.com; Director at pcweb.net; djordan at pcweb.net; hupafish at pcweb.net; caltrout at reninet.com; awhitridge at snowcrest.net; haycox at snowcrest.net; klewis at snowcrest.net; rlorenz at snowcrest.net; splash at snowcrest.net; tcrcd at snowcrest.net; tlrm at tds.net; tstokely at trinityalps.net; rmodine at trinitycounty.org; billm at water.ca.gov; elizasteve at yahoo.com; tfletcher at yuroktribe.nsn.us Cc: Chester 'Chet' Bowling; Donald Bultema; Debbie Miller; David Poore; George Gardner; June Borgwat; Janice Heller; Larry Ball; Paul Freeman; Paul Fujitani; Roger Pitts; Tom Morstein-Marx Subject: RE: Trinity River Water Thanks very much, Mike... The sediment introduction issue obviously needs more investigation. Lewiston Lake is pea green - maybe all attributable to watershed runoff into both Trinity and Lewiston Lakes? I doubt it. It remains in question whether the sediment is coming from tributaries or dam release site locations. Whatever area from which releases are being made may not be the problem. My causal attribution may not be correct. BUT, there is a problem, it starts at the dam, and it needs corrective action. It does not appear to be merely a problem caused by nature. Instead of trying to analyze the cause or lack of cause of this problem from our armchairs, perhaps someone knowledgeable could go out and look at Lewiston Lake, look at the river for a reasonable length - several miles of it - and tributaries where they enter the mainstem, and assess the problem, it's cause(s) and thereafter, with others who are knowledgeable - consider and implement possible corrective actions. Perhaps this would be a good time to assess turbidity levels and dam release site locations. This problem is particularly distressing because for the past few years the riverbed and its gravels have been in the best shape that they've been in for decades - possibly since the dam was built based upon my own empirical knowledge. This has been the result principally of several very wet winters, starting in 1999-2000 as I recall. These wet years have provided water flows that have dramatically changed the river channel and destroyed riparian encroachment of trees and other growth, but also have had a significant and favorable impact upon riverbed sediment removal and fish returns. The 6,000 cfs spring releases from the dam the past few years also have been helpful. I believe the current problem clearly needs further investigation, determination of actual cause(s) and corrective action to every extent possible. While it may be that the cause of turbidity levels in the upper watershed remain in question, it may be that high spring water releases may provide the only reasonable answer to this problem. Thanks, Mike! -----Original Message----- From: Michael Ryan [mailto:MRYAN at mp.usbr.gov] Sent: Monday, March 01, 2004 10:28 AM To: jbryant at awwwsome.com; jim.spear at ca.usda.gov; timr at calwater.ca.gov; jmorrison at ci.redding.ca.us; jrsmith at co.humboldt.ca.us; bwl3 at comcast.net; sturek at dfg.ca.gov; sheywood at fs.fed.us; wbrock at fs.fed.us; MaryEllen_Mueller at fws.gov; bsullivan at fwua.org; zgrader at ifrfish.org; whuber at jeffnet.org; Daryl Peterson; Doug Schleusner; Ed Solbos; Kirk Rodgers; Russell Smith; sergebirk at msn.com; yen2fish at netzero.net; Irma.Lagomarsino at noaa.gov; naypooie at northcoast.com; Director at pcweb.net; djordan at pcweb.net; hupafish at pcweb.net; caltrout at reninet.com; awhitridge at snowcrest.net; haycox at snowcrest.net; klewis at snowcrest.net; rlorenz at snowcrest.net; splash at snowcrest.net; tcrcd at snowcrest.net; tlrm at tds.net; tstokely at trinityalps.net; rmodine at trinitycounty.org; billm at water.ca.gov; elizasteve at yahoo.com; tfletcher at yuroktribe.nsn.us Cc: Chester 'Chet' Bowling; Donald Bultema; Debbie Miller; David Poore; George Gardner; June Borgwat; Janice Heller; Larry Ball; Paul Freeman; Paul Fujitani; Roger Pitts; Tom Morstein-Marx Subject: Re: Trinity River Water Good morning Byron, I just spoke with Larry Ball. Larry is chief of our operations group for Reclamation's Northern California Area Office. I believe your information is not accurate. Releases from Trinity Dam continue to be made from the powerplant. The Auxiliary Outlet Works (with an intake approximately 150 feet lower in elevation) are not releasing any water. Releases from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River are being made from a combination of the powerplant, hatchery, and the spillway. The powerplant and hatchery are a minor amount. Most of the flow comes from the spillway. Perhaps sediment coming into the reservoirs and/or river as a result of recent rainstorms is causing someone concern. Hope this helps. Mike. Michael J. Ryan, Area Manager Northern California Area Office US Bureau of Reclamation >>> "Byron Leydecker" 03/01/04 09:18AM >>> Since the Bureau recently increased releases to 2,000 cfs for dam safety reasons into Trinity River, it apparently has used the lowest release point from the dam. This has resulted in sediment from behind the dam choking the river. Unless clean water flows of up to 6,000 cfs or whatever are released later this year, this sediment will remain stuck in the upper river for the coming year, or until higher clean water releases are provided. In the meantime, is it not possible to change the release point from the dam to a height at which sediment will not pour into the river? This current release arrangement seriously undercuts efforts to restore sediment reductions in the river, if not the Restoration Program itself. I ask that those in the Bureau in a position to do so make every effort to change the current release method to eliminate these highly damaging sediment introductions into the river. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Mar 3 04:47:18 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 04:47:18 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity County Supervisorial Election Results- http://www.trinitycounty.org/elections/results0-1.htm Message-ID: <006d01c4011d$aa1ca5a0$816b3940@V51NH> SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 2 Total Number of Precincts 2 Precincts Reporting 2 100.0 % Times Counted 903/1610 56.1 % Total Votes 886 -------------------------------------------------------------------- BILLIE A. MILLER 278 31.38% LARRY MCDONOUGH 88 9.93% JEFF W. MORRIS 514 58.01% Write-in Votes 6 0.68% SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 3 Total Number of Precincts 4 Precincts Reporting 4 100.0 % Times Counted 796/1380 57.7 % Total Votes 772 -------------------------------------------------------------------- RALPH R. MODINE 367 47.54% ROGER JAEGEL 400 51.81% Write-in Votes 5 0.65% SUPERVISOR DISTRICT 5 Total Number of Precincts 7 Precincts Reporting 7 100.0 % Times Counted 755/1359 55.6 % Total Votes 632 -------------------------------------------------------------------- ROBERT (BOB) REISS 569 90.03% Write-in Votes 63 9.97% -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Mar 3 10:50:05 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 10:50:05 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] NY Times- U.S. Offers California Tribe Water Plan to End Dispute Message-ID: <00ba01c40150$5a450260$2d6c3940@V51NH> http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/03/national/03RIVE.html U.S. Offers California Tribe Water Plan to End Dispute By DEAN E. MURPHY Published: March 3, 2004 AN FRANCISCO, March 2 - Federal officials presented leaders of the Hoopa Valley Indian tribe with a proposal on Tuesday for resolving a decades-old dispute over the Trinity River, which has been a symbol of the often irreconcilable water demands of farmers and fishing communities in the West. Advertisement The proposal would set rules on the amount of water diverted for irrigation and create an "emergency water bank" so levels in the river could be adjusted when fish suffer disease or face other problems associated with low water flows. But early reaction from tribal leaders was not favorable. After meeting for more than two hours with federal officials in Sacramento, the Hoopa tribe's director of fisheries, Mike Orcutt, said the government proposal favored the farmers, who are represented by the Westlands irrigation district. "The proposal was essentially another regurgitation of a similar proposal from Westlands," he said in a phone interview. "I may not sound real upbeat, but nonetheless tomorrow comes and we continue to participate and pursue alternatives." Use of the water from the Trinity River, a cold-water tributary to the larger Klamath River, has been in dispute since the early 1960's, when dams were built by the federal government to send water and power to farms in the Central Valley. The dams not only tamed the once barreling river, which slices through the Hoopa reservation in remote Northern California, they also left fishing communities in decline by reducing the runs of salmon and steelhead trout. At the same time, the diversion of water to farmland through the federally financed Central Valley Project helped sustained California's agricultural boom. More recently, the Trinity figured prominently in a debate over a fish kill in 2002 along the lower Klamath River in which 33,000 fish, mostly salmon, died. Some biologists who studied the die-off suggested that additional flows of cold water into the Klamath from the Trinity might have saved some of the fish. Steve Thompson, the operations manager for California and Nevada at the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, said the proposal presented Tuesday to the tribe was made with the 2002 fish kill in mind. "The river can be run more predictably and flexibly," Mr. Thompson said. "We believe we can have an impact on the fish kills." The meeting in Sacramento was considered important enough by the Bush administration to involve Bennett W. Raley, the assistant Interior secretary for water and science. Mr. Raley was also to meet with officials from the Westlands irrigation district and the Northern California Power Agency, a consortium of power agencies that obtain hydroelectric power from the Trinity. Mr. Raley acknowledged in a telephone interview that the Hoopa "found little if anything of value in the proposal" but he also indicated that the discussions would continue. "This is one of those cases where there is no free lunch," Mr. Raley said. "There is not enough water to go around. The first priority is the Trinity, but we also have very intense needs for water on the other side, and that calls for some innovative thinking." In an effort to speed things along, Mr. Raley said he asked the Justice Department to schedule settlement discussions in a lawsuit filed by the Westlands irrigation district and the power consortium over a restoration plan for the river approved by the Clinton administration in 2000. That plan, which came about after nearly 20 years of study and calls for additional water flows for fish at the expense of irrigation, was blocked by a judge from being carried out because of the lawsuit. "We are not giving up," Mr. Raley said. "The simple thing for us would be to simply walk away and let the litigation run its course, which takes months and years. We would like to bring the litigation and the controversy to closure." Mr. Orcutt said the 2000 plan remained the soundest approach for restoring the river's badly depleted fish populations, the tribe's main concern. He said the tribe was in discussion with members of Congress, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, to help break the deadlock. In a statement, Ms. Feinstein said: "I have offered to sit down with both sides if they want the help. At this point, the Interior Department has made a proposal, which hopefully will be acceptable. If it isn't, I am still prepared to sit down with both sides." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 45 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: s.gif Type: image/gif Size: 360 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Mar 3 11:08:36 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 11:08:36 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard-Reclamation touts broad, changing Klamath plan Message-ID: <010e01c40152$eed37cc0$2d6c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~1993663,00.html Reclamation touts broad, changing Klamath plan By John Driscoll The Times-Standard EUREKA -- The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Tuesday aired an increasingly ambitious plan before county supervisors for coordinating restoration efforts in the Klamath Basin. It marked the first time in recent memory a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation representative from Klamath Falls, Ore., has spoken before the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. The Klamath Basin Conservation Implementation Program, first envisioned to involve only a handful of participants, is evolving into one that takes in anyone who wants to be a part of it, said bureau environmental specialist Dan Fritz. Existing councils, task forces and private groups would be involved, with the program coordinating efforts between the diverse elements. Fritz said the plan would work between the upper and lower basins, which are often in conflict. "There seems to be something of a wall that exists between the upper and lower basins," Fritz said. The purpose of the program is to recover suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and coho salmon in the lower river, while allowing water for irrigation and contributions to tribal trust responsibilities. First modeled on a program on the upper Colorado River, it initially focused only on recovering endangered fish, Fritz said. But comments to the bureau convinced it that the model was not appropriate. Species of concern, like chinook salmon, were added, and the program is conceived to later be expanded to include recovery of the entire Klamath ecosystem. How long that might take, Fritz couldn't say. There is no specific funding available for the program in President Bush's 2005 budget, though the bureau is providing seed money to start the program, he said. If enough people get on board, it will likely leverage funding in the future, he said. First District Supervisor Jimmy Smith called for meetings to take place locally while the program is still in draft form. Conflict between the upper and lower Klamath River communities came to a head in 2001, when the bureau shut off water to many irrigators on the California-Oregon border, after federal fisheries biologists said the water was needed for salmon. The next year, the bureau provided full irrigation deliveries and 34,000 salmon died on the lower river. The National Research Council reviewed the crisis and recommended vast efforts to restore the ecological and economic uses of the basin. Local river advocate Denver Nelson told Fritz it was good that he made the trip to Humboldt County, and said he understands that the bureau is caught in the middle of the struggle. "You may still be the villain," Nelson said of the bureau, "but you're improving your image." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Mar 3 12:48:57 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Wed, 3 Mar 2004 12:48:57 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] New York Times Trinity Story March 3 Message-ID: To the Editor: Regarding your story today on Interior vigorously pursuing a Trinity River litigation settlement, the following is a bit of relevant history. Interior is intensely interested in serving its irrigator constituents at whatever adverse impacts and costs to others, and to California's dwindling fishery resources. So, it pursues a "settlement" of litigation initiated by the beneficiary of Trinity River water: Westlands Water District. Westlands, at 605,000 acres the country's largest irrigator district, will become a superfund site by 2040 because of selenium and other contaminant concentrations in the soil and waterlogged land, one could conclude from a December 2000 United States Geological Survey Report (Open File Report 00-416). At the same time, since Interior has absolutely no case for any benefit to the Trinity, good luck. With 35 percent of Westlands land planted to grossly uneconomic and heavily taxpayer supported cotton production, one wonders how the public interest is served by Interior fighting so fiercely for a "settlement." A "resolution" to Trinity can be found in the pre-legislative history, the Congressional Record before enactment of the 1955 Trinity Division legislation, that legislation itself, all subsequent Trinity legislation, the reserved Tribal fishing rights and the Federal Government's legal trust obligations to Native American Tribes. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Mar 4 09:47:38 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 09:47:38 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Record Searchlight and Times Standard articles on Interior Settlement Proposal Message-ID: <013c01c40210$cc018340$2c6c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~1995728,00.html Feds float Trinity plan By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Hoopa Tribe, Westlands turn up noses The federal government has proposed a plan for the Trinity River that -- though already met with resistance from key players -- it says might end persistent litigation. The plan calls for a range of options during normal and dry years, and would create two reserved slugs of water available for fish at the discretion of water managers. The options could send less water down the river than a congressionally supported plan under suit, or more. In all but drought years, it would provide more water than what's available under a current order from a federal district court in Fresno. It is the second attempt to reach a settlement in recent months. Westlands Water District, a key beneficiary of Trinity water that has litigated over the restoration plan for the river, pitched its own settlement in October. That settlement was roundly rejected by the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the U.S. Interior Department. Now the Interior Department has come back with its own plan. "This is very likely to continue in endless litigation unless we can find a way to break the stalemate," said Bennett Raley, assistant interior secretary for water and science. Many believe the flows called for in the 2000 restoration plan are the bare minimum needed for salmon in the Trinity River, and the tribe and salmon advocates see it as a compromise. Both the Hoopa Valley Tribe -- an intervenor in the lawsuit -- and Westlands are highly skeptical of the new proposal, Raley said. "The fundamental thing wrong with it is it doesn't have any science to support it," said Hoopa Fisheries Program Director Mike Orcutt. He said the 70,000 total acre feet of so-called reserved water -- which would cost between $5 million and $7 million -- is an example of reactive management, not proactive management. The water is meant to be on hand in case another Klamath River fish kill, like the one in 2002, appears imminent. Relying on buying water with an uncertain federal budget isn't a good idea, Orcutt said. "It's going to rob someone," he said. The salmon fishery on the Trinity once boasted huge runs of fish, but the construction of the Trinity River project had serious impacts. As much as three-quarters of the Trinity's water from above Lewiston Dam is sent to the Sacramento River, where Central Valley farmers get water for irrigation. The 2000 authorization of the original long-studied restoration plan was signed by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Westlands promptly sued. When asked if providing a range of flows during normal and dry years might only lead to a yearly fight over water, Raley said, "There are no absolute assurances." Water managers would look back on each year to determine if the flows met the needs of fish in the river, and adjust the flows during the next year of the same type. Trinity County planner Tom Stokely, who has worked on the Trinity restoration effort for years, said on the surface there appears to be more water in the Interior plan than in Westlands' proposal. "There are a lot of unanswered questions about who would make the decisions and how much water there would actually be," Stokely said. He also said the emergency reserve water would be a moot point if Interior would just recognize Humboldt County's claim to 50,000 acre feet of Trinity water each year. http://www.redding.com/news/stories/20040304lo063.shtml Trinity River plan angers tribe, farmers Each says they'll lose lifeline if water gets reapportioned yearly Alex Breitler Record Searchlight File photo by Jonathan Kirshner WATER WARS: A fisherman casts his line during a guided float trip on the Trinity River in October. It's a serene image, but behind the scenes the government, American Indians, irrigators and power users are fighting over the best use for the water. Wednesday the U.S. Department of Interior announced a new plan for regulating flows. March 04, 2004 - 6:22 a.m. The federal government wants to change the way it regulates flows on the Trinity River, hoping to leave enough water for fish while diverting a fair share to farms in the state's interior. But a proposal - announced Wednesday by assistant Secretary of the Interior Bennett Raley - angers American Indians who depend on the Trinity River for sustenance and culture. And it doesn't exactly thrill irrigators, who could see even less water than they did before they sued to increase diversions. The plan relies on so-called "adaptive management," in which scientists would determine which flows are appropriate from a range based on the amount of precipitation in a given year. To this point, officials have relied on a model to make their decisions. The river has been the subject of a legal battle since 2000, when the Clinton administration agreed to send more water downstream. Irrigators and power users - who have received up to 90 percent of the river's water - sued. "We're mired in a cycle of litigation that could go on for a long, long time," Raley said during a conference call Wednesday. "The river is suffering. . . . We need to break this deadlock." The plan would also set aside an emergency fall reserve of up to 50,000 acre-feet of water, which could be sent downstream if fish are struggling. An additional 20,000 acre-feet water bank would be available as a "savings account" of sorts. An acre-foot is enough water to support a family of four for one year. The river would be evaluated annually, with scientists deciding what's best for flows. "We would have some expert biologists running the river, basically," said Steve Thompson, manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in California and Nevada. Thompson helped develop the plan. But the Hoopa tribe, which rejected a settlement from the Westlands Water District last year, didn't receive the plan favorably. The tribe said it favored farmers and was based on the rejected Westlands proposal. Hoopa officials stand steadfastly behind the 2000 Record of Decision, which was the culmination of 20 years of scientific study. "We're a little taken aback that they put this on the table," said Mike Orcutt, the tribe's fisheries director. The variability of river flows could pose a problem for irrigators, said Tupper Hull, spokesman for Westlands. The district serves 600 farms in the San Joaquin Valley. The proposal could, at times, send more water downstream than even the Record of Decision would have allowed. "There are concerns, obviously," Hull said, although he praised the government for taking steps toward a solution. Although initial reactions were negative, Bennett said he would ask the Justice Department to contact all the parties for another round of settlement discussions with Westlands and other litigants, including the city of Redding, which wants water for hydroelectric production. "Playing God" on the Trinity River has proven much harder than it looks, Bennett said. "But we're not giving up," he said. "We want out of this cycle of litigation." Reporter Alex Breitler can be reached at 225-8344 or at abreitler at redding.com. Thursday, March 4, 2004 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: shim.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 20040304lo063a.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 50988 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Fri Mar 5 01:38:31 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 01:38:31 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity River plan angers tribe, farmers Message-ID: <4110-2200435593831570@earthlink.net> Trinity River plan angers tribe, farmers Each says they'll lose lifeline if water gets reapportioned yearly Alex Breitler Record Searchlight File photo by Jonathan Kirshner WATER WARS: A fisherman casts his line during a guided float trip on the Trinity River in October. It's a serene image, but behind the scenes the government, American Indians, irrigators and power users are fighting over the best use for the water. Wednesday the U.S. Department of Interior announced a new plan for regulating flows. March 04, 2004 ? 6:22 a.m. The federal government wants to change the way it regulates flows on the Trinity River, hoping to leave enough water for fish while diverting a fair share to farms in the state's interior. But a proposal ? announced Wednesday by assistant Secretary of the Interior Bennett Raley ? angers American Indians who depend on the Trinity River for sustenance and culture. And it doesn't exactly thrill irrigators, who could see even less water than they did before they sued to increase diversions. The plan relies on so-called "adaptive management," in which scientists would determine which flows are appropriate from a range based on the amount of precipitation in a given year. To this point, officials have relied on a model to make their decisions. The river has been the subject of a legal battle since 2000, when the Clinton administration agreed to send more water downstream. Irrigators and power users ? who have received up to 90 percent of the river's water ? sued. "We're mired in a cycle of litigation that could go on for a long, long time," Raley said during a conference call Wednesday. "The river is suffering. . . . We need to break this deadlock." The plan would also set aside an emergency fall reserve of up to 50,000 acre-feet of water, which could be sent downstream if fish are struggling. An additional 20,000 acre-feet water bank would be available as a "savings account" of sorts. An acre-foot is enough water to support a family of four for one year. The river would be evaluated annually, with scientists deciding what's best for flows. "We would have some expert biologists running the river, basically," said Steve Thompson, manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in California and Nevada. Thompson helped develop the plan. But the Hoopa tribe, which rejected a settlement from the Westlands Water District last year, didn't receive the plan favorably. The tribe said it favored farmers and was based on the rejected Westlands proposal. Hoopa officials stand steadfastly behind the 2000 Record of Decision, which was the culmination of 20 years of scientific study. "We're a little taken aback that they put this on the table," said Mike Orcutt, the tribe's fisheries director. The variability of river flows could pose a problem for irrigators, said Tupper Hull, spokesman for Westlands. The district serves 600 farms in the San Joaquin Valley. The proposal could, at times, send more water downstream than even the Record of Decision would have allowed. "There are concerns, obviously," Hull said, although he praised the government for taking steps toward a solution. Although initial reactions were negative, Bennett said he would ask the Justice Department to contact all the parties for another round of settlement discussions with Westlands and other litigants, including the city of Redding, which wants water for hydroelectric production. "Playing God" on the Trinity River has proven much harder than it looks, Bennett said. "But we're not giving up," he said. "We want out of this cycle of litigation." Reporter Alex Breitler can be reached at 225-8344 or at abreitler at redding.com. Thursday, March 4, 2004 Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: shim.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: shim.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: shim.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: shim.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: shim.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: shim.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: shim.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: shim.gif URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: shim.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: shim.gif URL: From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Fri Mar 5 16:24:44 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Fri, 05 Mar 2004 16:24:44 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Flow Update Message-ID: The current Safety of Dams release of 2,000 cfs from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River is expected to continue at least until March 7 and possibly extend through March 15, pending weather conditions. __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Mar 9 08:38:08 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 08:38:08 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath Falls Herald and News-Lamprey, sturgeon next for federal listing? Message-ID: <005e01c405f4$e7fa0da0$746b3940@V51NH> http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/03/05/news/top_stories/top4.txt Lamprey, sturgeon next for federal listing? Published March 5, 2004 By DYLAN DARLING A coalition of environmental groups is threatening to sue the federal government in an effort to get further analysis of whether several species of lamprey need to be added to the Endangered Species List. The notice of intent to sue came as three of the same groups were celebrating a court victory earlier in the week to get a similar study done for green sturgeon. Some of the lamprey and the green sturgeon are found in the lower reaches of the Klamath River, which is already home to a species of threatened coho salmon. U.S. Magistrate Elizabeth Laporte in San Francisco ordered federal fisheries scientists to reconsider their finding that sturgeon do not merit federal protection, saying the National Marine Fisheries Service's failure to take into account the large loss of spawning habitat didn't make sense. Both lamprey and sturgeon migrate between the Pacific Ocean and spawning beds in rivers. Neither species is harvested commercially. A dozen groups, including the Oregon Natural Resources Council, petitioned the Service to list four species of West-coast lamprey as threatened or endangered in January 2003. Wendell Wood, ONRC Southern Oregon field representative, said the Service has missed its deadlines to make decisions about whether to study the lamprey. "What Fish and Wildlife is saying now is that they are simply not funding the study," he said. Whether federal money is available or not, Wood said, the lamprey species are in decline and could need to be listed. Curt Mullis, manager of the Wildlife Service's Klamath Falls office, said he has little information about the issue, other than some of the species are found downstream in the Klamath. "There is not a whole lot we know at this point," he said. Wood said the condition of the lamprey and their populations are important because the fish are a popular food for salmon and trout. The eel-like jawless fish have a larval stage of four to six years, during which they look like worms, feed in the mud of stream beds, and become prey for trout, crayfish, and birds. In later stages, lampreys latch on to other kinds of fish, sucking nutrients from the hosts. Not much is known about the lampreys or the green sturgeon, except that their numbers are dropping, Wood said. Green sturgeon no longer spawn in the San Joaquin, South Fork Trinity and Eel rivers in California or the Umpqua. Limited spawning occurs in the Klamath, Rogue and Sacramento rivers. Sturgeon are large, long-lived fish. The green sturgeon is one of the smaller species, but still can grow to more than 7 feet long and weigh up to 350 pounds. The fish date back to the age of the dinosaurs. Jim Milbury, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the agency was still analyzing the judge's ruling and had no immediate comment. Wood said the Bush administration avoids having to list more species for protection by not funding studies for them. This forces the environmental groups to take the government to court, he added. "We don't like to have to use the ESA as the only way to protect fish and wildlife," Wood said. "We should be trying to recover species before they need to be listed." Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said the lawsuits are just another attempt by the environmental groups to get more water sent down the river from the Klamath Reclamation Project. He said the agencies' delays in funding studies could be a result of the "landslide" of lawsuits they have to deal with from groups like the ONRC. "They are trying to create a state of emergency that is not here," he said. On the Net: Oregon Natural Resources Council: www.onrc.org The Associated Press contributed to this story. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Andrew_Hamilton at fws.gov Tue Mar 9 09:20:36 2004 From: Andrew_Hamilton at fws.gov (Andrew_Hamilton at fws.gov) Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 09:20:36 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Flow Update Message-ID: With flows at 2,000 cfs, it would be worthwhile for anyone interested in seeing how the river is supposed to work to go take a look. This would be a close to ideal mid-March to mid-May managed flow for the Trinity, working with about half the natural average flow, around 650,000 acre-feet, which would leave enough for a short gravel-stirring flow in May. What 2,000 to 3,000 cfs does, if sustained, is maximize chinook rearing habitat. For what it's worth, it also makes about half the river down to the North Fork look like ideal Trinity River steelhead spawning habitat-- if you judge that by the appearance at lower flows of the short reach from about a hundred feet above Bucktail Bridge upstream to the riffle, which is the river's primo steelhead spawning reach at the 300 cfs discharge. Although the second week of March is a little early, if there has been adequate seeding this year you can see the Trinity operating as a fish factory along the edges from Lewiston down to Oregon Gulch and conceivably to the North Fork. There are several places that stand out: the best place to look on foot is the side-channel complex between Peterson Hole at about the trailer park just below the Old Bridge in Lewiston, down to about the old temporary rearing ponds at the sawmill. At 2,000 cfs the river, which usually breaks right and left over a low island, flows over the island in a number of places, increasing Chinook rearing habitat a huge amount. If you slosh around in the tangle, you should be able to see thousands of young-of-year chinook that wouldn't otherwise have survived. It's a little rough in there at 2,000 cfs but the habitat gains are impressive down into the 800 cfs range, so it would be worth a visit as the flow comes down. Other fairly accesible areas are the right bank just above the Salt Flat bridge, at Steelbridge below the campground, and side-channels or overflow in the Indian Creek area on the left bank above the upstream houses. There are also impressive accessible increases in habitat on the right at Oregon Gulch where the river levels out, and below Junction City on the right opposite J&M tackle if you can get in there, but mid-March is usually too early to see a lot of juveniles that far down-river. By my observation and measurement, there is nothing particularly wrong with the morphology of the river that 2,000 to 3,000 cfs doesn't correct just by being there. Anyone who is interested could take this opportunity and take a few hours to to see what water will do in the existing channel during the early rearing season. Even if the river is murky, you can probably see fish in the shallows, which is where a lot of them will be. Regarding complaints about the murk, it isn't sand, and I doubt that it hurts the fish. It's probably Red Alps fines from mass wasting or sheet erosion off logging sites above Trinity Lake, although I haven't looked to see if the lake is murky. This happened in 1986, when the river below Lewiston was cloudy from February into early summer as a result of erosion from logging on the Papoose arm. As far as sand as high up as the Lewiston area, some comes out of Deadwood Creek, but most of it is apparently from Hoadley Gulch, which is usually just a trickle. Back around 1990, the river from the Old Lewiston Bridge down to the old gabion was back-hoed out to a depth of about 16 feet, with the idea of providing holding habitat, and you can see what Hoadley Gulch did to the hole when it rained hard. Andrew Hamilton US Fish and Wildlife Service (916) 414-6540 "Andreas Krause" To: , "Andreas Sent by: Krause" env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn. cc: davis.ca.us Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Flow Update 05-03-2004 04:24 PM The current Safety of Dams release of 2,000 cfs from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River is expected to continue at least until March 7 and possibly extend through March 15, pending weather conditions. __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ _______________________________________________ env-trinity mailing list env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Mar 10 13:55:59 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 13:55:59 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Flows to Reduce to 300 cfs by 3/16/02 @ 0220 hours Message-ID: <009901c406ea$79cb5860$616b3940@V51NH> Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From(CFS) To (CFS) 3/11/2004 1820 2,000 1,900 3/11/2004 2220 1,900 1,800 3/12/2004 0220 1,800 1,700 3/12/2004 0620 1,700 1,600 3/12/2004 1820 1,600 1,500 3/12/2004 2220 1,500 1,400 3/13/2004 0220 1,400 1,300 3/13/2004 0620 1,300 1,200 3/13/2004 1820 1,200 1,100 3/13/2004 2220 1,100 1,000 3/14/2004 0220 1,000 900 3/14/2004 0620 900 800 3/14/2004 1820 800 700 3/14/2004 2220 700 600 3/15/2004 0220 600 500 3/15/2004 0620 500 450 3/15/2004 1820 450 400 3/15/2004 2220 400 350 3/16/2004 0220 350 300 Issued By: Tom Morstein-Marx Comment: Rampdown per EIS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Wed Mar 10 13:51:37 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 13:51:37 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Fwd: Trinity River Release Message-ID: Please excuse the cross postings __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ >>> Tom Morstein-Marx 03/10/04 01:28PM >>> Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From(CFS) To (CFS) 3/11/2004 1820 2,000 1,900 3/11/2004 2220 1,900 1,800 3/12/2004 0220 1,800 1,700 3/12/2004 0620 1,700 1,600 3/12/2004 1820 1,600 1,500 3/12/2004 2220 1,500 1,400 3/13/2004 0220 1,400 1,300 3/13/2004 0620 1,300 1,200 3/13/2004 1820 1,200 1,100 3/13/2004 2220 1,100 1,000 3/14/2004 0220 1,000 900 3/14/2004 0620 900 800 3/14/2004 1820 800 700 3/14/2004 2220 700 600 3/15/2004 0220 600 500 3/15/2004 0620 500 450 3/15/2004 1820 450 400 3/15/2004 2220 400 350 3/16/2004 0220 350 300 Issued By: Tom Morstein-Marx Comment: Rampdown per EIS From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Thu Mar 11 16:46:24 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 16:46:24 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Fwd: Trinity River Release Message-ID: __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ >>> Tom Morstein-Marx 03/11/04 04:43PM >>> Project: Lewiston Dam This order supersedes order of 3/10/04. Please make the following changes to the Trinity River. Apologies to notification staff. Date Time From(CFS) To (CFS) 3/11/2004 18:20 2000 1900 3/12/2004 2:20 1900 1800 3/12/2004 10:20 1800 1700 3/12/2004 18:20 1700 1600 3/12/2004 22:20 1600 1500 3/13/2004 2:20 1500 1400 3/13/2004 6:20 1400 1300 3/13/2004 18:20 1300 1200 3/13/2004 22:20 1200 1100 3/14/2004 2:20 1100 1000 3/14/2004 6:20 1000 900 3/14/2004 18:20 900 800 3/14/2004 22:20 800 700 3/15/2004 2:20 700 600 3/15/2004 6:20 600 500 3/15/2004 18:20 500 450 3/15/2004 22:20 450 400 3/16/2004 2:20 400 350 3/16/2004 6:20 350 300 Issued By: Tom Morstein-Marx Comment: Ramp rate reduced to 8 hr intervals until 1,600 cfs. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Mar 12 07:32:01 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 07:32:01 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries Technical Review of DOI Settlement Proposal Message-ID: <003001c40847$2c02d5a0$0b6b3940@V51NH> Technical Review of Interior Department Proposal Regarding Trinity River Record of Decision Presented March 2, 2004 to the Hoopa Valley Tribe by Bennett W. Raley, Assistant Secretary Water and Science March 11, 2004 Hoopa Valley Tribe Fisheries Department Introduction On March 2, Bennett W. Raley, the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and Science convened a meeting in the Sacramento, California, headquarters of the Bureau of Reclamation with California Nevada Operations Manager Steve Thompson of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Kirk Rodgers, and Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Michael Olsen. Department of Justice Attorney Charles Shockey participated in a portion of the meeting by telephone. Representatives of the Hoopa Valley Tribe attended the meeting, including Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall, Tribal Council members, Hoopa Fisheries Department Staff, legal counsel and a tribal consultant. The meeting was convened so that Mr. Raley could present a proposal to settle pending litigation that has blocked implementation of the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) issued by the Secretary of the Interior with the concurrence of the Hoopa Valley Tribe on December 19, 2000, pursuant to section 3406(b)(23) of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Public Law 102-575. This is the third time since the ROD was issued that an alternative to the ROD restoration decision has been proposed. An earlier proposal by the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District was rejected after an independent scientific review by the Geological Survey found it unworkable. Subsequently, the Westlands Water District and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority made a proposal that also was rejected by the Tribe and the Department. Both proposals failed because they could not accomplish the restoration objectives or meet the scientific standards established by the Congress for the Trinity River. The Proposal Mr. Raley's proposal (Proposal) would adjust the flows in the ROD in Normal, Dry and Critically Dry years by substituting a range of flow allocations in place of the fixed flows identified in the ROD. Flow allocations for Wet and Extremely Wet year types would not change from those in the ROD. See following Table. Water Year ROD Flow (acre-feet) Proposed Flows (acre-feet) Percent Change Normal 649,900 575,000-701,000 (-12% to +8%) Dry 452,600 400,00-504,000 (-12% to +11%) Critically Dry 368,600 340,000-396,000 (-8% to +7%) The allocation in each year would be at the low end of the range and would be subject to adjustment within the year up to 20,000 acre-feet. The 20,000 acre-feet would be purchased from water users and banked in federal reservoirs to be used for in-season adjustments. An additional water bank account of 50,000 acre-feet of purchased water would be held in reserve for use as needed to protect the fishery in the Klamath River below the Trinity confluence. Further adjustments between years would be made as discussed in paragraph 3 below. Analysis The following analysis was prepared by the Hoopa Fisheries Department at the direction of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council with input from policy officials, technical staff, and legal counsel. 1) Although the proposal purports to present a "range", it in fact diminishes the ROD flows by eight to twelve percent as described in the table. 2) The "range of flows" proposal is not supported by any scientific analysis. In addition, the adoption of a range is based on a misunderstanding of how mathematical probability analyses should be applied in determining accurately and reliably the flow releases required for Trinity River restoration. 3) The managers of the restoration program could adjust the minimum flow in one of two ways. a) Intra-annual adjustment In the event restoration managers observe a need for more water than the base allocation in a Normal Year, there would be authority to release an additional 20,000 acre-feet from the "Ready Reserve Water Bank". (The maximum reserve volume appears to be based on political considerations, not sound science.) There is no process or standard identified for determining the need for additional intra-annual releases. And any administrative decision would be subject to judicial review with its attendant costs and delays. The nature and extent of NEPA and ESA compliance that might be required in the intra-annual adjustment are not addressed. Note that in any event, the water bank account has only 20,000 acre-feet. Thus, in Normal, Dry or Critically Dry Years the water bank would be insufficient to bring flow releases up to the mid-range, that is ROD flow release, levels. Intra-annual adjustments could only occur pursuant to a process requiring several steps: recognition of needs, assessment of potential adjustments, and then a decision to implement a change in flows. Consequently, flows made available through this process could not timely address early-season fishery needs relating to geofluvial processes or temperature conditions during smolt outmigration, both of which are critical to restoration. b) Inter-annual adjustment At the end of each water year, an assessment would be made as to whether the flow release for that year had been adequate for fishery restoration and propagation. If it is proven to be inadequate, an adjustment would be made in the next occurrence of the same water year type, which could be several years later. But by that time the circumstances may not be comparable and the benefit of an increased allocation would be difficult to assess. By the same token, if an excess of water is deemed somehow to have been allocated then there would be a debit in the future water year that under the circumstances of that year could prove harmful to the fishery and the harm would not be assessed until the end of the year. As with the intra-annual adjustment, there is no provision for a process or standard by which the inter-annual adjustment would be made, or environmental reviews would occur. 4) Whatever process and standard are established for adjustment of fishery flow releases may require diversion of personnel and resources of the adaptive management team. Instead of being able to rely on a constant volume of water as determined in the Trinity River Flow Evaluation Study, Final Report (June 1999) (TRFES), restoration program scientists and managers will be required annually to work with a reduced and variable water supply for each of three possible water year types. The Proposal's introduction of "debits" or "credits" in the fishery flow releases could affect the ability of restoration scientists to test adaptive management hypotheses. This could fundamentally alter the nature of the adaptive management program whose purpose is to conduct "a formal, systematic, and rigorous program of learning from the outcomes of management actions, accommodating change, and improving management," TRFES Appendix N, June 1999. 5) There is a 20,000 acre-feet cap on any intra-annual increase. That cap is further dependent on timely funding and availability of water for purchase in the Ready Reserve Water Bank. The Proposal would make the Ready Reserve Water Bank Account "top water"; that is, the first water spilled from CVP reservoirs. 6) There is a second "Emergency fall reserve" water account under the Proposal. This account in the amount of 50,000 acre-feet would be established to ensure the protection of the Klamath River fishery below the Trinity River confluence. This water would be purchased by the Department and would also be "top water." The proposal ignores the fact that the authorizing legislation for the Trinity River Division and the associated state permits require that the Secretary release 50,000 acre-feet of water annually and make it available to Humboldt County and downstream water users. The Bureau of Reclamation entered into a contract with Humboldt County to implement that provision in 1959. Humboldt County has informed the Secretary that it intends to use the water for restoration and maintenance of the lower Klamath fishery. To date the Secretary has failed to honor the contract. 7) The Proposal estimates that there would be a recurring $5 to 7 million cost to purchase the water to maintain the Ready Reserve Water Bank and the Emergency Fall Reserve. However the federal reclamation law pertaining to the construction and operation of the Trinity River Division, and the State permit conditions to which the operation of the TRD is subject, establish a first priority of use for Trinity River in-basin fishery needs over exports of water to the Central Valley. In view of the reduced federal budgets for Reclamation and the already keen competition for appropriated funds, there can be no reasonable expectation of readily available funding for this purpose. Any funding that is provided is almost certainly to come from other CVP operation, maintenance or environmental restoration programs. 8) The CVPIA expressly requires the Secretary to "operate the Central Valley Project . . . to meet all obligations under State . . . law . . . and all decisions of the California State Water Resources Control Board establishing conditions on . . . permits for the [Central Valley] project" Pub. L. 102-575 ?3406(b)). The Proposal effectively would abandon the priority and entitlement to no-cost Trinity River Division water and undertake a permanent, recurring obligation to purchase water. Such a fundamental deviation from the law governing the Trinity River cannot be reconciled with the express federal trust obligation established in the CVPIA to protect and restore the Trinity River fishery for the benefit of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. 9) The Proposal closely resembles arguments made and rejected in the litigation brought to challenge the ROD, Westlands Water District, et al. v. United States, 275 F.Supp.2d 1157 (E.D. Cal. 2002) Civ. No. F-00-7124 (Memorandum Decision and Order, December 10, 2002). Essentially, the plaintiffs argued that there was uncertainty in the underlying science and so it would be arbitrary and capricious for the Secretary to have "locked in permanent fixed amounts of water that are to be released in each water year type, even though the science that purports to measure the necessity of those amounts was not certain." Id. at 128. The Court went on to state that "An agency decision is not arbitrary or capricious because the agency recognizes the limitations of the information upon which it bases a decision. The fact that Interior has acknowledged it will learn new facts in the future, that river flow management is dynamic, and climatic conditions, upon which CVP water supply depend, uncertain, are indicative of a reflective decisionmaking process, not arbitrariness." Id. at 129. The Court pointed out that best available scientific data is not exact and concluded "To the contrary, the certainty Plaintiff's seek could prevent the mandated statutory goal of flow restoration from ever being implemented" (emphasis added) Id. at 130. On page 131 of the opinion, Judge Wanger squarely confronted the problem with the approach that the Proposal takes. (The difference between the March 2 Proposal and the plaintiffs' argument rejected by Judge Wanger is that the former would arbitrarily limit what the adjustment could be, so in that respect the March 2 proposal is even more restrictive than the plaintiffs' failed argument to Judge Wanger). Judge Wanger states: [P]laintiffs propose that the flows proceed "on a yearly basis to posit necessary flows, test those in accordance with the adaptive management plan and make necessary yearly adjustments." They argue that Section (b)(23) does not require the Secretary to actually implement the permanent instream flows. Section (b)(23) has two subsections. The first mandates that the TRFES be completed and that it make recommendations regarding permanent instream flows [emphasis in original]. The second mandates that the recommendations be forwarded to Congress no later than December 31, 1996 and that if the Secretary and the Hoopa Valley Tribe concur, that those recommendations be implemented. The term `permanent' in the first section combined with the mandate that the recommendations actually be implemented upon the occurrence of finite events, forecloses plaintiffs' interpretation. Plaintiffs proposal that the instream flows for the Trinity River continue to be studied on a yearly basis and be changed, annually, based upon new information in perpetuity derogates the statute's use of the term "permanent". "Permanent" is defined as "existing perpetually; everlasting, especially without significant change" and "intended to exist or function for a long, indefinite period without regard to unforeseeable conditions." Citations omitted, id. at 131-132. Thus, Judge Wanger's ruling made it clear that the science of the ROD is sound and legally sufficient. Yet, it is this significant judicial victory for the Tribe's trust resource that the March 2 Proposal would negate. Conclusion Because the Proposal cannot accomplish the restoration objectives or meet the scientific standards established by the Congress for the Trinity River, the Tribe respectfully requests that the Proposal be withdrawn. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Sat Mar 13 23:57:14 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 23:57:14 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Tom Stokely...Regarding Trinity River Record of Decision Presented March 2, 2004 Message-ID: <410-2200430147571460@earthlink.net> Hoopa Valley Tribe Fisheries Department Introduction On March 2, Bennett W. Raley, the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and Science convened a meeting in the Sacramento, California, headquarters of the Bureau of Reclamation with California Nevada Operations Manager Steve Thompson of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Kirk Rodgers, and Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Michael Olsen. Department of Justice Attorney Charles Shockey participated in a portion of the meeting by telephone. Representatives of the Hoopa Valley Tribe attended the meeting, including Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall, Tribal Council members, Hoopa Fisheries Department Staff, legal counsel and a tribal consultant. The meeting was convened so that Mr. Raley could present a proposal to settle pending litigation that has blocked implementation of the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) issued by the Secretary of the Interior with the concurrence of the Hoopa Valley Tribe on December 19, 2000, pursuant to section 3406(b)(23) of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Public Law 102-575. This is the third time since the ROD was issued that an alternative to the ROD restoration decision has been proposed. An earlier proposal by the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District was rejected after an independent scientific review by the Geological Survey found it unworkable. Subsequently, the Westlands Water District and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority made a proposal that also was rejected by the Tribe and the Department. Both proposals failed because they could not accomplish the restoration objectives or meet the scientific standards established by the Congress for the Trinity River. The Proposal Mr. Raley's proposal (Proposal) would adjust the flows in the ROD in Normal, Dry and Critically Dry years by substituting a range of flow allocations in place of the fixed flows identified in the ROD. Flow allocations for Wet and Extremely Wet year types would not change from those in the ROD. See following Table. Water Year ROD Flow (acre-feet) Proposed Flows (acre-feet) Percent Change Normal 649,900 575,000-701,000 (-12% to +8%) Dry 452,600 400,00-504,000 (-12% to +11%) Critically Dry 368,600 340,000-396,000 (-8% to +7%) The allocation in each year would be at the low end of the range and would be subject to adjustment within the year up to 20,000 acre-feet. The 20,000 acre-feet would be purchased from water users and banked in federal reservoirs to be used for in-season adjustments. An additional water bank account of 50,000 acre-feet of purchased water would be held in reserve for use as needed to protect the fishery in the Klamath River below the Trinity confluence. Further adjustments between years would be made as discussed in paragraph 3 below. Analysis The following analysis was prepared by the Hoopa Fisheries Department at the direction of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council with input from policy officials, technical staff, and legal counsel. 1) Although the proposal purports to present a "range", it in fact diminishes the ROD flows by eight to twelve percent as described in the table. 2) The "range of flows" proposal is not supported by any scientific analysis. In addition, the adoption of a range is based on a misunderstanding of how mathematical probability analyses should be applied in determining accurately and reliably the flow releases required for Trinity River restoration. 3) The managers of the restoration program could adjust the minimum flow in one of two ways. a) Intra-annual adjustment In the event restoration managers observe a need for more water than the base allocation in a Normal Year, there would be authority to release an additional 20,000 acre-feet from the "Ready Reserve Water Bank". (The maximum reserve volume appears to be based on political considerations, not sound science.) There is no process or standard identified for determining the need for additional intra-annual releases. And any administrative decision would be subject to judicial review with its attendant costs and delays. The nature and extent of NEPA and ESA compliance that might be required in the intra-annual adjustment are not addressed. Note that in any event, the water bank account has only 20,000 acre-feet. Thus, in Normal, Dry or Critically Dry Years the water bank would be insufficient to bring flow releases up to the mid-range, that is ROD flow release, levels. Intra-annual adjustments could only occur pursuant to a process requiring several steps: recognition of needs, assessment of potential adjustments, and then a decision to implement a change in flows. Consequently, flows made available through this process could not timely address early-season fishery needs relating to geofluvial processes or temperature conditions during smolt outmigration, both of which are critical to restoration. b) Inter-annual adjustment At the end of each water year, an assessment would be made as to whether the flow release for that year had been adequate for fishery restoration and propagation. If it is proven to be inadequate, an adjustment would be made in the next occurrence of the same water year type, which could be several years later. But by that time the circumstances may not be comparable and the benefit of an increased allocation would be difficult to assess. By the same token, if an excess of water is deemed somehow to have been allocated then there would be a debit in the future water year that under the circumstances of that year could prove harmful to the fishery and the harm would not be assessed until the end of the year. As with the intra-annual adjustment, there is no provision for a process or standard by which the inter-annual adjustment would be made, or environmental reviews would occur. 4) Whatever process and standard are established for adjustment of fishery flow releases may require diversion of personnel and resources of the adaptive management team. Instead of being able to rely on a constant volume of water as determined in the Trinity River Flow Evaluation Study, Final Report (June 1999) (TRFES), restoration program scientists and managers will be required annually to work with a reduced and variable water supply for each of three possible water year types. The Proposal's introduction of "debits" or "credits" in the fishery flow releases could affect the ability of restoration scientists to test adaptive management hypotheses. This could fundamentally alter the nature of the adaptive management program whose purpose is to conduct "a formal, systematic, and rigorous program of learning from the outcomes of management actions, accommodating change, and improving management," TRFES Appendix N, June 1999. 5) There is a 20,000 acre-feet cap on any intra-annual increase. That cap is further dependent on timely funding and availability of water for purchase in the Ready Reserve Water Bank. The Proposal would make the Ready Reserve Water Bank Account "top water"; that is, the first water spilled from CVP reservoirs. 6) There is a second "Emergency fall reserve" water account under the Proposal. This account in the amount of 50,000 acre-feet would be established to ensure the protection of the Klamath River fishery below the Trinity River confluence. This water would be purchased by the Department and would also be "top water." The proposal ignores the fact that the authorizing legislation for the Trinity River Division and the associated state permits require that the Secretary release 50,000 acre-feet of water annually and make it available to Humboldt County and downstream water users. The Bureau of Reclamation entered into a contract with Humboldt County to implement that provision in 1959. Humboldt County has informed the Secretary that it intends to use the water for restoration and maintenance of the lower Klamath fishery. To date the Secretary has failed to honor the contract. 7) The Proposal estimates that there would be a recurring $5 to 7 million cost to purchase the water to maintain the Ready Reserve Water Bank and the Emergency Fall Reserve. However the federal reclamation law pertaining to the construction and operation of the Trinity River Division, and the State permit conditions to which the operation of the TRD is subject, establish a first priority of use for Trinity River in-basin fishery needs over exports of water to the Central Valley. In view of the reduced federal budgets for Reclamation and the already keen competition for appropriated funds, there can be no reasonable expectation of readily available funding for this purpose. Any funding that is provided is almost certainly to come from other CVP operation, maintenance or environmental restoration programs. 8) The CVPIA expressly requires the Secretary to "operate the Central Valley Project . . . to meet all obligations under State . . . law . . . and all decisions of the California State Water Resources Control Board establishing conditions on . . . permits for the [Central Valley] project" Pub. L. 102-575 ?3406(b)). The Proposal effectively would abandon the priority and entitlement to no-cost Trinity River Division water and undertake a permanent, recurring obligation to purchase water. Such a fundamental deviation from the law governing the Trinity River cannot be reconciled with the express federal trust obligation established in the CVPIA to protect and restore the Trinity River fishery for the benefit of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. 9) The Proposal closely resembles arguments made and rejected in the litigation brought to challenge the ROD, Westlands Water District, et al. v. United States, 275 F.Supp.2d 1157 (E.D. Cal. 2002) Civ. No. F-00-7124 (Memorandum Decision and Order, December 10, 2002). Essentially, the plaintiffs argued that there was uncertainty in the underlying science and so it would be arbitrary and capricious for the Secretary to have "locked in permanent fixed amounts of water that are to be released in each water year type, even though the science that purports to measure the necessity of those amounts was not certain." Id. at 128. The Court went on to state that "An agency decision is not arbitrary or capricious because the agency recognizes the limitations of the information upon which it bases a decision. The fact that Interior has acknowledged it will learn new facts in the future, that river flow management is dynamic, and climatic conditions, upon which CVP water supply depend, uncertain, are indicative of a reflective decisionmaking process, not arbitrariness." Id. at 129. The Court pointed out that best available scientific data is not exact and concluded "To the contrary, the certainty Plaintiff's seek could prevent the mandated statutory goal of flow restoration from ever being implemented" (emphasis added) Id. at 130. On page 131 of the opinion, Judge Wanger squarely confronted the problem with the approach that the Proposal takes. (The difference between the March 2 Proposal and the plaintiffs' argument rejected by Judge Wanger is that the former would arbitrarily limit what the adjustment could be, so in that respect the March 2 proposal is even more restrictive than the plaintiffs' failed argument to Judge Wanger). Judge Wanger states: [P]laintiffs propose that the flows proceed "on a yearly basis to posit necessary flows, test those in accordance with the adaptive management plan and make necessary yearly adjustments." They argue that Section (b)(23) does not require the Secretary to actually implement the permanent instream flows. Section (b)(23) has two subsections. The first mandates that the TRFES be completed and that it make recommendations regarding permanent instream flows [emphasis in original]. The second mandates that the recommendations be forwarded to Congress no later than December 31, 1996 and that if the Secretary and the Hoopa Valley Tribe concur, that those recommendations be implemented. The term `permanent' in the first section combined with the mandate that the recommendations actually be implemented upon the occurrence of finite events, forecloses plaintiffs' interpretation. Plaintiffs proposal that the instream flows for the Trinity River continue to be studied on a yearly basis and be changed, annually, based upon new information in perpetuity derogates the statute's use of the term "permanent". "Permanent" is defined as "existing perpetually; everlasting, especially without significant change" and "intended to exist or function for a long, indefinite period without regard to unforeseeable conditions." Citations omitted, id. at 131-132. Thus, Judge Wanger's ruling made it clear that the science of the ROD is sound and legally sufficient. Yet, it is this significant judicial victory for the Tribe's trust resource that the March 2 Proposal would negate. Conclusion Because the Proposal cannot accomplish the restoration objectives or meet the scientific standards established by the Congress for the Trinity River, the Tribe respectfully requests that the Proposal be withdrawn. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Sat Mar 13 23:57:52 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2004 23:57:52 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Tom Stokely..Regarding Trinity River Record of Decision Presented March 2, 2004 Message-ID: <410-22004301475752350@earthlink.net> Hoopa Valley Tribe Fisheries Department Introduction On March 2, Bennett W. Raley, the Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Water and Science convened a meeting in the Sacramento, California, headquarters of the Bureau of Reclamation with California Nevada Operations Manager Steve Thompson of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation Regional Director Kirk Rodgers, and Counselor to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Michael Olsen. Department of Justice Attorney Charles Shockey participated in a portion of the meeting by telephone. Representatives of the Hoopa Valley Tribe attended the meeting, including Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall, Tribal Council members, Hoopa Fisheries Department Staff, legal counsel and a tribal consultant. The meeting was convened so that Mr. Raley could present a proposal to settle pending litigation that has blocked implementation of the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) issued by the Secretary of the Interior with the concurrence of the Hoopa Valley Tribe on December 19, 2000, pursuant to section 3406(b)(23) of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Public Law 102-575. This is the third time since the ROD was issued that an alternative to the ROD restoration decision has been proposed. An earlier proposal by the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District was rejected after an independent scientific review by the Geological Survey found it unworkable. Subsequently, the Westlands Water District and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority made a proposal that also was rejected by the Tribe and the Department. Both proposals failed because they could not accomplish the restoration objectives or meet the scientific standards established by the Congress for the Trinity River. The Proposal Mr. Raley's proposal (Proposal) would adjust the flows in the ROD in Normal, Dry and Critically Dry years by substituting a range of flow allocations in place of the fixed flows identified in the ROD. Flow allocations for Wet and Extremely Wet year types would not change from those in the ROD. See following Table. Water Year ROD Flow (acre-feet) Proposed Flows (acre-feet) Percent Change Normal 649,900 575,000-701,000 (-12% to +8%) Dry 452,600 400,00-504,000 (-12% to +11%) Critically Dry 368,600 340,000-396,000 (-8% to +7%) The allocation in each year would be at the low end of the range and would be subject to adjustment within the year up to 20,000 acre-feet. The 20,000 acre-feet would be purchased from water users and banked in federal reservoirs to be used for in-season adjustments. An additional water bank account of 50,000 acre-feet of purchased water would be held in reserve for use as needed to protect the fishery in the Klamath River below the Trinity confluence. Further adjustments between years would be made as discussed in paragraph 3 below. Analysis The following analysis was prepared by the Hoopa Fisheries Department at the direction of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council with input from policy officials, technical staff, and legal counsel. 1) Although the proposal purports to present a "range", it in fact diminishes the ROD flows by eight to twelve percent as described in the table. 2) The "range of flows" proposal is not supported by any scientific analysis. In addition, the adoption of a range is based on a misunderstanding of how mathematical probability analyses should be applied in determining accurately and reliably the flow releases required for Trinity River restoration. 3) The managers of the restoration program could adjust the minimum flow in one of two ways. a) Intra-annual adjustment In the event restoration managers observe a need for more water than the base allocation in a Normal Year, there would be authority to release an additional 20,000 acre-feet from the "Ready Reserve Water Bank". (The maximum reserve volume appears to be based on political considerations, not sound science.) There is no process or standard identified for determining the need for additional intra-annual releases. And any administrative decision would be subject to judicial review with its attendant costs and delays. The nature and extent of NEPA and ESA compliance that might be required in the intra-annual adjustment are not addressed. Note that in any event, the water bank account has only 20,000 acre-feet. Thus, in Normal, Dry or Critically Dry Years the water bank would be insufficient to bring flow releases up to the mid-range, that is ROD flow release, levels. Intra-annual adjustments could only occur pursuant to a process requiring several steps: recognition of needs, assessment of potential adjustments, and then a decision to implement a change in flows. Consequently, flows made available through this process could not timely address early-season fishery needs relating to geofluvial processes or temperature conditions during smolt outmigration, both of which are critical to restoration. b) Inter-annual adjustment At the end of each water year, an assessment would be made as to whether the flow release for that year had been adequate for fishery restoration and propagation. If it is proven to be inadequate, an adjustment would be made in the next occurrence of the same water year type, which could be several years later. But by that time the circumstances may not be comparable and the benefit of an increased allocation would be difficult to assess. By the same token, if an excess of water is deemed somehow to have been allocated then there would be a debit in the future water year that under the circumstances of that year could prove harmful to the fishery and the harm would not be assessed until the end of the year. As with the intra-annual adjustment, there is no provision for a process or standard by which the inter-annual adjustment would be made, or environmental reviews would occur. 4) Whatever process and standard are established for adjustment of fishery flow releases may require diversion of personnel and resources of the adaptive management team. Instead of being able to rely on a constant volume of water as determined in the Trinity River Flow Evaluation Study, Final Report (June 1999) (TRFES), restoration program scientists and managers will be required annually to work with a reduced and variable water supply for each of three possible water year types. The Proposal's introduction of "debits" or "credits" in the fishery flow releases could affect the ability of restoration scientists to test adaptive management hypotheses. This could fundamentally alter the nature of the adaptive management program whose purpose is to conduct "a formal, systematic, and rigorous program of learning from the outcomes of management actions, accommodating change, and improving management," TRFES Appendix N, June 1999. 5) There is a 20,000 acre-feet cap on any intra-annual increase. That cap is further dependent on timely funding and availability of water for purchase in the Ready Reserve Water Bank. The Proposal would make the Ready Reserve Water Bank Account "top water"; that is, the first water spilled from CVP reservoirs. 6) There is a second "Emergency fall reserve" water account under the Proposal. This account in the amount of 50,000 acre-feet would be established to ensure the protection of the Klamath River fishery below the Trinity River confluence. This water would be purchased by the Department and would also be "top water." The proposal ignores the fact that the authorizing legislation for the Trinity River Division and the associated state permits require that the Secretary release 50,000 acre-feet of water annually and make it available to Humboldt County and downstream water users. The Bureau of Reclamation entered into a contract with Humboldt County to implement that provision in 1959. Humboldt County has informed the Secretary that it intends to use the water for restoration and maintenance of the lower Klamath fishery. To date the Secretary has failed to honor the contract. 7) The Proposal estimates that there would be a recurring $5 to 7 million cost to purchase the water to maintain the Ready Reserve Water Bank and the Emergency Fall Reserve. However the federal reclamation law pertaining to the construction and operation of the Trinity River Division, and the State permit conditions to which the operation of the TRD is subject, establish a first priority of use for Trinity River in-basin fishery needs over exports of water to the Central Valley. In view of the reduced federal budgets for Reclamation and the already keen competition for appropriated funds, there can be no reasonable expectation of readily available funding for this purpose. Any funding that is provided is almost certainly to come from other CVP operation, maintenance or environmental restoration programs. 8) The CVPIA expressly requires the Secretary to "operate the Central Valley Project . . . to meet all obligations under State . . . law . . . and all decisions of the California State Water Resources Control Board establishing conditions on . . . permits for the [Central Valley] project" Pub. L. 102-575 ?3406(b)). The Proposal effectively would abandon the priority and entitlement to no-cost Trinity River Division water and undertake a permanent, recurring obligation to purchase water. Such a fundamental deviation from the law governing the Trinity River cannot be reconciled with the express federal trust obligation established in the CVPIA to protect and restore the Trinity River fishery for the benefit of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. 9) The Proposal closely resembles arguments made and rejected in the litigation brought to challenge the ROD, Westlands Water District, et al. v. United States, 275 F.Supp.2d 1157 (E.D. Cal. 2002) Civ. No. F-00-7124 (Memorandum Decision and Order, December 10, 2002). Essentially, the plaintiffs argued that there was uncertainty in the underlying science and so it would be arbitrary and capricious for the Secretary to have "locked in permanent fixed amounts of water that are to be released in each water year type, even though the science that purports to measure the necessity of those amounts was not certain." Id. at 128. The Court went on to state that "An agency decision is not arbitrary or capricious because the agency recognizes the limitations of the information upon which it bases a decision. The fact that Interior has acknowledged it will learn new facts in the future, that river flow management is dynamic, and climatic conditions, upon which CVP water supply depend, uncertain, are indicative of a reflective decisionmaking process, not arbitrariness." Id. at 129. The Court pointed out that best available scientific data is not exact and concluded "To the contrary, the certainty Plaintiff's seek could prevent the mandated statutory goal of flow restoration from ever being implemented" (emphasis added) Id. at 130. On page 131 of the opinion, Judge Wanger squarely confronted the problem with the approach that the Proposal takes. (The difference between the March 2 Proposal and the plaintiffs' argument rejected by Judge Wanger is that the former would arbitrarily limit what the adjustment could be, so in that respect the March 2 proposal is even more restrictive than the plaintiffs' failed argument to Judge Wanger). Judge Wanger states: [P]laintiffs propose that the flows proceed "on a yearly basis to posit necessary flows, test those in accordance with the adaptive management plan and make necessary yearly adjustments." They argue that Section (b)(23) does not require the Secretary to actually implement the permanent instream flows. Section (b)(23) has two subsections. The first mandates that the TRFES be completed and that it make recommendations regarding permanent instream flows [emphasis in original]. The second mandates that the recommendations be forwarded to Congress no later than December 31, 1996 and that if the Secretary and the Hoopa Valley Tribe concur, that those recommendations be implemented. The term `permanent' in the first section combined with the mandate that the recommendations actually be implemented upon the occurrence of finite events, forecloses plaintiffs' interpretation. Plaintiffs proposal that the instream flows for the Trinity River continue to be studied on a yearly basis and be changed, annually, based upon new information in perpetuity derogates the statute's use of the term "permanent". "Permanent" is defined as "existing perpetually; everlasting, especially without significant change" and "intended to exist or function for a long, indefinite period without regard to unforeseeable conditions." Citations omitted, id. at 131-132. Thus, Judge Wanger's ruling made it clear that the science of the ROD is sound and legally sufficient. Yet, it is this significant judicial victory for the Tribe's trust resource that the March 2 Proposal would negate. Conclusion Because the Proposal cannot accomplish the restoration objectives or meet the scientific standards established by the Congress for the Trinity River, the Tribe respectfully requests that the Proposal be withdrawn. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 15 07:11:51 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 07:11:51 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Serious Threat to Volunteerism for Watersjed Restoration Projects Message-ID: <000e01c40a9f$da28c7c0$466b3940@V51NH> State levies $33,549 penalty over watershed restoration Scott Mobley Record Searchlight March 14, 2004 - 2:07 a.m. State labor officials are serious about enforcing a law against mixing volunteer and paid labor for public works. A Redding nonprofit faces a $33,549 fine under the law, which requires prevailing wages for crews on projects using more than $1,000 in public funding. The law allows volunteers only if the state finds they won't deny jobs to skilled labor. Such workers would earn between $12 and $50 an hour in Redding. The Sacramento Watersheds Action Group (SWAG) underpaid college students in a campaign to clean up a creek and plant trees along Old Highway 99, the state Director of Industrial Relations ruled in November. More than 60 workers should have earned prevailing wages for hauling trash out of the canyon and planting young trees on the hillside just west of the Sulphur Creek hill along North Market Street, the state determined. The cleanup and planting day was in March 2003. SWAG will appeal the fine. "When California passed bonds to do restoration work, I don't think the public intended this would be a subsidy," said John McCullah, SWAG founder and director. "Did we intend this money to go to parks or to prop up the construction industry?" The assessment for back wages and penalties against SWAG has spurred adopt-a-creek groups up and down California to lobby furiously against the law, which could also doom a city of Redding neighborhood park. Watershed groups that rely on volunteers were surprised to find themselves in the state's labor code crosshairs especially when California faces a chronic budget crisis. "The work of these watershed groups empowers citizens, captures the imagination and passion of students, collects and expresses the wisdom of our seniors and weaves our communities together," Michael Wellborn, president of the California Watershed Network, said in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I cannot think of anything more stifling to these efforts than the loss of volunteerism." Wellborn's Jan. 23 letter asked Schwarzenegger to "resolve this issue quickly." Lawmakers are responding. Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-El Cerrito, introduced a bill last month excluding watershed restoration projects from prevailing wage requirements. The bill would not help the city of Redding build its neighborhood park with volunteer help. Hancock's bill needs a majority vote for passage to the governor's desk. SWAG won a $260,000 state Department of Water Resources grant to shrink old Highway 99 from a 40-foot-wide roadbed to a 10-foot-wide foot and bicycle trail linking Lake Boulevard and the Miracle Mile. The nonprofit tapped Shasta College students to unearth a creek, clear flammable thickets, fix culverts and install cataract-calming rock beds in erosion-prone gullies. The students earned course credit in watershed restoration. SWAG also hired crews to use backhoes and dump trucks. The state Department of Water Resources approved the budget for labor and its plans to use volunteers for cleanup days and planting days, said McCullah, the SWAG director. Contractors noticed backhoes working in the canyon in December when city law requires crews to take a winter hiatus. Redding demands this annual bulldozer break to curb erosion and silt pollution. Laborers Local 185 asked the Construction Industry Force Account Council (CIFAC) to investigate whether prevailing wage laws covered SWAG's work. "If you are getting grant money, you should still know the law," said Sally Riley, a field representative for the San Francisco Bay area-based watchdog nonprofit. The union also filed the complaint with the state Division of Labor Standards Enforcement that triggered the SWAG fine. SWAG crews recently mulched a grassy hillside above the Sacramento River Trail extension, tackling a perennial erosion problem at the old Hilltop Burn Dump. SWAG performed the work for Turtle Bay, which won a $915,000 state Wildlife Conservation Board grant for restoration in the nearby McConnell Arboretum. SWAG crews earned prevailing wages for churning up soil, sewing seeds and planting baby cottonwoods, Oregon ash, California sycamores, native grass and willows above the Hilltop trail. Those hourly wages ranged from $12.76 for willow planters to $36 for tractor operators, McCullah said. SWAG paid crews $10 to $15 an hour depending on the task and their experience - before the state stepped in. The prevailing wage requirement boosted Hilltop reseeding costs by 30 percent to 40 percent. That means less money for seeds, trees and rich soil from SWAG's $150,000 slice of the grant. "I can understand why highways need to be public works projects," said McCullah. "Everyone pays a gas tax. But this is different. We need maximize the money to protect the natural resources." Reporter Scott Mobley can be reached at 225-8220 or at smobley at redding.com. Sunday, March 14, 2004 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 15 07:26:40 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 07:26:40 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SWRCB Prop 50 Workshop Notices Message-ID: <002b01c40aa1$ebff3540$466b3940@V51NH> This is just about the only money that Klamath-Trinity can get from Prop 50, but it would have to be part of a broader regional Integrated Regional Management Program. The Water Bond Coalition is putting together such an IRWM. I am the Trinity Co. coordinator for the Water Bond Coalition's IRWM plan. Please contact me if you want further information about the Water Bond Coalition and its IRWM. In my opinion, Proposition 50 unfairly targeted some portions of California, but not others such as the larger North Coast Region, including the Klamath-Trinity area. Sincerely, Tom Stokely Principal Planner Trinity Co. Planning/Natural Resources 530-628-5949 http://wwwowe.water.ca.gov/newsreleases/2004/03-12-04grants.html News for Immediate Release March 12, 2004 Contacts: a.. Tracie Billington, Conjunctive Water Management, (916) 651-9226 b.. Don Strickland, Information Officer, (916) 657-4469 DWR and SWRCB SCHEDULE PROP 50 INTEGRATED REGIONAL WATER MANAGEMENT GRANT SCOPING WORKSHOPS SACRAMENTO--The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) will hold two public scoping workshops this month regarding part of the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002 (Proposition 50). These workshops will offer interested persons an opportunity to provide DWR and the SWRCB with input on Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) Program scoping and procedures, and the content of the grant solicitation and evaluation guidelines. More than $380 million is available for grants as part of the Proposition 50, Chapter 8 IRWM Program. Workshop Dates and Locations: March 24, 2004 - 3 p.m. California Environmental Protection Agency Building 1001 I Street, 2nd Floor, Coastal Hearing Room Sacramento, CA 95814 March 25, 2004 - 3 p.m. George A. Caravalho Sports Complex Activities Center 20880 Center Point Parkway Santa Clarita, CA 91350 For more information on the workshops and the Proposition 50 programs, see DWR's Web site at: http://www.water.ca.gov/grants-loans/. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Back to Top of Page -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Archived News Releases or return to the DWR Home Contact the DWR Office of Water Education for more information about DWR's water activities. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: dwr_brand.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 14928 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 15 08:47:36 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 08:47:36 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SF Chronicle/Glen Martin- Battle of Battle Creek Message-ID: <00b801c40aad$5d677de0$466b3940@V51NH> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/03/15/MNG5T5KMGE1.DTL Battle of Battle Creek: Which way to save salmon? Environmentalists are split over plan that would remove 5 of 8 small PG&E hydropower dams -- some think it's not enough Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer Monday, March 15, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manton, Tehama County -- The country is rolling and semi-arid here in California's northeast quadrant. Pines, manzanita, annual grasses and star thistle dominate the landscape. It doesn't prepare you for the green and lush realm of Battle Creek. This fantastically steep gorge cuts through volcanic bedrock from the slopes of Mount Lassen to the Central Valley. It's a world of rushing water and lofty cascades, of basalt walls carpeted with emerald moss; a world of lilies and sedges and great craggy oaks. It is also the best hope for two endangered populations of Sacramento River salmon -- the winter run and spring run. Five years ago, a consensus was reached to resuscitate the salmon runs: remove five of the eight small PG&E hydropower dams on Battle Creek and outfit the remaining three with fish ladders. It was a revolutionary concept in the 150-year history of water development in California; it would mark the first time that dams would come down rather than go up. But today the projected price tag for a Battle Creek restoration has skyrocketed, from $26 million to about $75 million, and not a single dam has been removed. Now a disagreement among environmentalists threatens to further muddy the waters. While one faction wants to proceed with the 5-year-old restoration plan, another wants to start the negotiation process anew, claiming the only sure way to guarantee the revival of the fish is to remove all eight dams. The "winter run" and "spring run" were once thriving subpopulations of the Sacramento River's remarkably diverse salmon fishery. But these runs were devastated by the construction of Shasta Dam and other water-use projects on the Sacramento. The first dams went up on Battle Creek in the late 19th century. Today, the remaining eight dams -- each about 20 to 30 feet high -- produce 33 megawatts of electricity for Pacific Gas and Electric, enough to power about 30,000 California homes. In the late 1990s, the idea of restoring the creek's fisheries by removing some or all of the dams caught the fancy of Cal-Fed, the joint state and federal agency convened in 1994 to find consensus solutions to California's water wars. Cal-Fed is one of the best-funded government projects to hit California in decades. During the past three years, it has pumped about $2 billion into water storage and environmental restoration projects. Currently, the agency has about $1 billion available for projects to restore ailing fisheries. Cal-Fed agreed to bankroll an ambitious restoration project for Battle Creek, provided a timely agreement could be reached among the stakeholders. Battle Creek quickly became one of its centerpiece fish-restoration projects. At first, things went along swimmingly. In 1999, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by PG&E and government regulators, most notably the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The agreement called for the removal of five of PG&E's dams, increased downstream flows and "fail safe" fish ladders and screens constructed on the remaining three dams. Supporters acknowledge it has taken years to work out the details of implementing the deal, while cost estimates have spiraled ever upward. But that's not unusual for ambitious projects involving multiple government agencies and private stakeholders, they say. "Once we began conducting extensive analyses on the ground, it became obvious that more money was going to be involved," said Tim Ramirez, a spokesman for Cal-Fed. "That is an incredibly rugged canyon, moving equipment around will be very challenging, and any fish screens and ladders will involve significant expense, no matter what form they take." Supporters note that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the lead agency in conducting any restoration work on the creek, will likely make its final decision to approve the project's federal environmental impact statement by this summer. That means the dams could start coming down in 2005. To start the entire process over again at this late date, supporters say, could result in deadlock or even utter failure. "If we had our druthers, we'd all no doubt druther something a little different," said Steve Johnson, director of strategic initiatives for the California Nature Conservancy. "But this deal is doable," Johnson said. "The MOU exists. It can be implemented now. The MOU strikes a fair balance between restoring habitat for endangered fish, generating nonpolluting energy and protecting local jobs. It's at the heart of the entire Cal-Fed process, and it needs to go forward." But fisheries advocates charge that the MOU is inadequate to the goal of restoring the salmon, as well as steelhead, a sea-run trout that has similarly declined in the Sacramento system over the years. It would be far more effective, and ultimately cheaper to taxpayers, to remove all eight dams, they say. William Kier, a Sausalito fisheries consultant who has conducted studies on Battle Creek's fisheries, estimates that removing all the dams would cost about $2 million less than it will cost to remove five dams and install fish ladders around the remaining three. Furthermore, he says, it will be costly to maintain the fish ladders. "Battle Creek is a steep canyon, with a history of rockfalls. These devices will be damaged or destroyed over time. That will mean ongoing expense, and reduced recovery for the listed species." Still, supporters of the MOU claim it is the best chance the salmon have for recovery. Harry Rectenwald, the Sacramento River salmon and steelhead environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Game, said the eight-dam alternative would add no more than 10 percent additional spawning habitat to the creek. "It isn't worth abandoning the entire MOU for that extra 10 percent," he said. But that 10 percent, said Zeke Grader, the executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, is the most important 10 percent in the entire canyon. "That additional percentage is in the upper reaches of the creek, and it constitutes fully two-thirds of the winter-run's historic spawning territory," said Grader. "They always went further up the creeks than the other runs. So this is hardly an insignificant point. The winter-run is the main reason we're doing this project. It's ridiculous to sacrifice the habitat they need the most." Landowners on the creek's watershed -- mostly cattle ranchers -- remain skeptical of the project, while simultaneously hoping it proves of genuine benefit to the fish. Larry Lucas, secretary of the board of directors for the Battle Creek Watershed Conservancy, a landowners group, said the group's biggest concern with the project is that government agencies can't necessarily be trusted to do the right thing at a reasonable price. "Everyone up here is absolutely appalled at the cost overruns," he said, "especially considering how little has been accomplished." For its part, Cal-Fed has yet to indicate which plan it favors -- the MOU or the eight-dam alternative. "We're not a signatory to the MOU," said Ramirez of Cal-Fed, "so we're not obliged to support it. Basically, we function as the bank in this process -- we decide what projects to fund." At this point, said Ramirez, "We have not decided on either the MOU or the alternative. Our staff will probably make its recommendation in the spring, and the authority board should make its final decision in June." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Public meeting The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the State Water Resources Control Board will convene a public meeting at the Red Bluff Community and Senior Center from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. today to discuss the dam alternatives. E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin at sfchronicle.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clear.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: chronicle_logo.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1013 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: chronicle_sections.gif Type: image/gif Size: 290 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 15 10:21:29 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 10:21:29 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] 32nd Annual Fisheries Legislative Forum, 3/17/04 Message-ID: <001401c40aba$57c464e0$876c3940@V51NH> The public is welcome at this event. This is the 32nd annual report of the fishing/fisheries community to the State Legislature's Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aqauculture. Please note that the sessions from 2 pm to 5 pm are exclusively on Klamath-Trinity fishery issues, and the discussions are likely to be lively! Tom Stokely ************************************************************************* 32nd Annual Fisheries Legislative Forum Wednesday, March 17, 2004 9:30 a.m. - Noon 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. State Capitol, Room 126 Sacramento, CA 9:30 - 9:45 am Welcome and Introductions: Assemblymember Patty Berg, Chair Senator Dede Alpert, Vice-Chair 9:45 - 10:10 a.m. Fishery Agency/Commission Presentations: Fish & Game Commission: Jim Kellogg, President California Department of Fish & Game: Ryan Broddrick, Director, 10:10 - 10:25 a.m. Fisheries Research Collaborative Research: Dan Platt (Salmon, Groundfish) Pacific Marine Conservation Council: Jennifer Bloeser, (invited) California College Sea Grant Program: Dolores Wesson, Deputy Director 10:25 - 10:50 a.m. Fisheries Funding Salmon and Steelhead Trout Advisory Committee: Mitch Farro, Chairman Pacific Salmon Recovery Funding Update: Randy Poole, General Manager, Sonoma County Water Agency California Conservation Corp: Michelle Rose, Fortuna Supervisor Establishment of a National Trust Fund: Zeke Grader, Executive Director, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations 10:50 - 11:15 a.m. Salmon Chinook Management: Dave Bitts, Vice President, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations Coho Recovery: Tom Weseloh, North Coast Manager, Cal Trout Tribal Fisheries: Troy Fletcher or Dave Hillimirer, Yurok Tribe (invited) Salmon Marketing Council: David Goldenberg, Executive Director Recreational Ocean Fishery: Roger Thomas, President, Golden Gate Fishermen's Association 11:15 - 11:40 Shellfish Limiting Entry, MSC Certification: John Guth, President, California Commercial Lobster & Trap Fishermen's Assn. (invited) Dungeness Crab: Chuck Wise, President, PCFFA, Rock Crab Permit System: Phil Beguhl, Commercial Fishermen of Santa Barbara Sea Urchins: Pete Halmay, Sea Urchin Harvesters Association of California, and Dr. Charles Igawa, Sea Urchin Processors Association of California 11:40 -Noon Sportfishing Recreational Fishing Alliance, Randy Fry (invited) Water for Fish: Chuck Bonham, California Counsel, Trout Unlimited Wild Heritage Trout: Brett Matzke, Wild Heritage Trout Manager, CalTrout Noon - 1:00 p.m. Lunch (on your own) 1:00 - 1:15 p.m. Seafood Safety Mercury Warning Labeling: Wayne Heikkila, Executive Director, Western Fishboat Owners Association Genetically Engineered Fish: Rebecca Spector, West Coast Coordinator, Center for Food Safety (invited) Processor/Distributor Concerns: Rob Ross, California Fisheries and Seafood Institute 1:15 - 1:25 p.m. Aquaculture Status: Justin Malan, California Aquaculture Association (invited) Trends: Natasha Benjamin, Fisheries Consultant (invited) 1:30 - 150 p.m. Other Fisheries Nearshore: Kenyon Hensel, Commercial Fishermen, Crescent City Herring: Ernie Koepf, President, California Herring Association (invited) White Sea Bass: Bob Strickland, President of United Anglers of Northern California (invited) 1:50 - 2:00 p.m. Break 2:00 - 2:15 p.m. Klamath/Trinity Comments: Assemblymember Patty Berg, Chair Senator Dede Alpert, Vice-Chair Senator Wes Chesbro, Chairman, Senate Budget Committee Senator Sam Aanestad (invited) 2:15 - 3:15 p.m. Klamath Managers Panel Mike Chrisman, California Resources Secretary Ryan Broddrick, Director, California Department of Fish and Game Lester Snow, Director, California Department of Water Resources (invited) Arthur Baggett, Chair, Water Resources Control Board John Davis, Deputy Regional Director, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Steve Thompson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife (invited) 3:15 - 3:30 p.m. Klamath Fisheries Panel Zeke Grader, Executive Director, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations Troy Fletcher or Dave Hillimirer, Yurok Tribe (invited) Tom Weseloh, North Coast Manager, CalTrout 3:30 - 3:45 p.m. Break 3:45 - 4:20 p.m. Trinity River Issues Thomas Birmingham, General Manager and General Counsel, Westlands Water District (invited) Byron Lydecker, President, Friends of the Trinity River Tom Stokely, Member, California Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout Jill Geist, Chair, &/or Jimmy Smith, Humboldt County Board of Supervisors 4:20 - 4:40 p.m. Klamath Basin Research Needs Dr. Rollin Richmond, President, Humboldt State University Dr. Bob Gearheart, Interim Director, Klamath Watershed Institute 4:40 - 5:00 p.m. Closing Remarks The Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture will accept written comments, and/or any additional information, for two weeks after this hearing. The written materials should be sent to: Assemblymember Patty Berg, Chair State Capitol P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 94249-0000 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 15 11:18:50 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 11:18:50 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SF Chronicle and Boston Globe-Bush political aide Rove didn't influence Klamath policy, inspector general says Message-ID: <00f301c40ac2$59dceb00$876c3940@V51NH> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/03/12/state1943EST7241.DTL Bush political aide Rove didn't influence Klamath policy, inspector general says MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Writer Friday, March 12, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (03-12) 16:43 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Interior Department's inspector general has found no basis for a claim by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry that White House political advisers interfered in developing water policy in the Northwest. Specifically, the inspector general said President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not involved in a 2002 decision to divert water from the Klamath River in Oregon to irrigate farms. While Rove mentioned the Klamath in passing during a briefing with senior Interior officials, "we found nothing to tie Karl Rove's comments ... to the Klamath decision-making process," Inspector General Earl Devaney said in a March 1 letter to Kerry. A major fish kill and other problems in the drought-starved region have "fueled the flames of suspicion and distrust," Devaney wrote in the letter, which was released Friday by the Interior Department. "However, we conclude that the (Interior) Department conducted itself in keeping with the administrative process, that the science and information utilized supported the department's decisions, and that no political pressure was perceived by any of the key participants," the letter said. The White House called the report a vindication of its approach to water management in the Klamath, a contentious issue that has spurred litigation and hard feelings among farmers, environmentalists, commercial fishermen, Indian tribes and others. "While there is always going to be political sniping in this world, it doesn't change the fact that the Department of Interior bases its decisions on the best available science and will continue to do so," White House spokesman Ken Lisaius said Friday. In a statement from his Senate office, Kerry said he accepts the inspector general's findings but still questions why a political operative was briefing senior Interior officials about complex resource issues. "There are too many examples in this administration of politics trumping science not to be concerned," the statement said. Kerry sought the inquiry last year, following a report in the Wall Street Journal that Rove had briefed top managers at the Interior Department in January 2002 about the Klamath and other Western issues. Rove's briefing followed a trip by President Bush and Rove to Oregon, where Republican leaders had stressed the need to support their agricultural base by increasing water flow to nearby farms. Rove's briefing signaled that the White House shared that desire, the newspaper reported. Three months after the meeting, administration officials increased the water supply to more than 200,000 acres of farmland in California and Oregon -- a decision that was bitterly opposed by environmentalists, commercial fishermen and others. In September 2002, nearly 33,000 chinook salmon died in the Klamath River in northern California. The California Department of Fish and Game laid much of the blame on low water flows controlled by the federal government, saying it created conditions that allowed a fatal gill-rot disease to spread through the fish. A report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said low river flows played a role, but said other factors, including a large return of fish, also contributed to the fish kill, the worst in decades. Susan Holmes, a spokeswoman for Earthjustice, an environmental group that advised Kerry on the Klamath inquiry, said it was "unimaginable" that politics did not play a role in the decisions surrounding the Klamath Basin. "There are three Bush administration whistle-blowers and 33,000 dead fish that speak for themselves," Holmes said. But Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said the report "really reaffirms that this is a matter of biological science, not political science." http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/03/14/us_clears_bush_adviser_over_water_management/ US clears Bush adviser over water management By Matthew Daly, Associated Press, 3/14/2004 WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department's inspector general has found no basis for an assertion by Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry that White House political advisers interfered in Northwest water policy. The inspector general said President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, was not involved in a 2002 decision to divert water from the Klamath River in Oregon to irrigate farms. While Rove mentioned the Klamath in passing during a briefing with senior Interior officials, "we found nothing to tie Karl Rove's comments . . . to the Klamath decision-making process," Inspector General Earl Devaney said in a letter to Kerry, the Massachusetts senator. A major fish kill and other problems in the drought-plagued region have "fueled the flames of suspicion and distrust," Devaney wrote in the letter dated March 1 and released Friday by the Interior Department. "However, we conclude that the [Interior] Department conducted itself in keeping with the administrative process, that the science and information utilized supported the department's decisions, and that no political pressure was perceived by any of the key participants," Devaney's letter said. The White House called the report a vindication of its approach to water management in the Klamath, a contentious issue that has spurred litigation and hard feelings. In a statement, Kerry said he accepts the inspector general's findings but still questions why a political operative was briefing senior Interior officials about complex resource issues.Kerry sought the inquiry last year, following a report in The Wall Street Journal that Rove had briefed top managers at the Interior Department in January 2002 about the Klamath and other Western issues. Rove's briefing followed a trip by President Bush and Rove to Oregon, where Republican leaders had stressed the need to support their agricultural base by increasing water flow to nearby farms. Three months after the meeting, administration officials increased the water supply to more than 200,000 acres of farmland in California and Oregon. In September 2002, nearly 33,000 chinook salmon died in the Klamath River in northern California. The California Department of Fish and Game laid much of the blame on low water flows controlled by the federal government. ? 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Name: logo_ap.gif Type: image/gif Size: 684 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Mar 16 09:12:19 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 09:12:19 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Many Dept. of Interior Agencies Taken Off E-Mail-Internet Service Message-ID: <007001c40b79$d8859d00$8f6c3940@V51NH> This is to notify you that many Interior Department agencies such as Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and others no longer have access to the Internet because of a court order related to a long-standing case regarding Tribal Assets. The National Park Service and US Geological Survey are not affected by the court order. Please use FAX and Phone to contact affected agencies. For the Trinity River Restoration Program/Bureau of Reclamation office, the phone number is 530-623-1800. The FAX is 530-623-5944. US Fish and Wildlife Service office in Arcata is 707-822-7201, the FAX is 707-822-8411 Bureau of Land Management's phone number in Redding is 530-224-2100, FAX is 530-224-2172 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Mar 16 10:33:48 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 10:33:48 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE-Indians rally to restore Trinity River flows Message-ID: <00e401c40b85$3a8b9a80$8f6c3940@V51NH> March 16, 2004 Top Topic: Trinity River Indians rally to restore Trinity River flows They target a coalition of power agencies and a huge water district. Sacramento Bee - 3/16/04 By Jennifer K. Morita, staff writer They say that years ago, the Trinity River was so full of fish you could walk across the water on the backs of salmon. A fisherman could spend three days on the river and catch enough food for an entire year. Now, two American Indian tribes say the Northern California Power Agency and one of the nation's largest water districts are taking too much water out of the river, destroying the fish population and their way of life. Roughly 60 Hoopa Valley and Yurok Indians, along with members of Friends of the River, demonstrated in front of NCPA offices in Roseville on Monday afternoon. They waved signs, beat a ceremonial drum and asked the agency to end a legal battle that they say has blocked restoration of the Trinity River for years. "The river is our lifeline," said Tabitha Chenault, a 21-year-old member of the Yurok tribe. "But these last few years, the river and fish have started to die. All you have to do is walk by and see the dead fish floating down the river. It's an awful, awful sight." The Trinity River, which flows from the Trinity Alps near Redding to the Pacific Ocean, was dammed 40 years ago by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Up to 90 percent of the river's flow was diverted to irrigate Central Valley farms and provide hydropower to cities such as Sacramento. As a result, salmon and steelhead trout populations have declined over the years. In 2002, 33,000 fish died along the lower Klamath River. Some scientists say that if water had been restored to the Klamath from the Trinity River, some of the fish may have been saved. Kendall Allen, 16, who spent the day demonstrating in front of the NCPA offices, remembered the fish kill. "It was so gross," Allen said. "It stunk and it was awful." The U.S. Interior Department approved a plan to restore nearly half of the Trinity's historical flows, but a federal judge blocked the plan after Westlands Water District sued. Westlands, a 600,000-acre district in Fresno and Kings counties, later was joined by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and the Northern California Power Agency, a coalition of public power agencies. NCPA officials say the government focused too much on increasing the water flow and didn't consider other alternatives. "Fundamentally, we feel we're on the same side," NCPA Legislative Director John Fistolera said. "We share the same goal of restoring the river and fisheries, but we have to do it in a way that is science-based and takes a responsible look at everyone's needs and objectives." NCPA Assistant General Manager Jane Dunn Cirrincione said the only way to effectively restore the river is to continually evaluate flow levels and adjust the plan accordingly. "The concern is if you lock into a single flow level, it doesn't give federal agencies the flexibility to evaluate the impact on the waterway and see if it helps further restoration goals, or set restoration goals back," Cirrincione said. SMUD dropped out of the lawsuit last year, and Hoopa representatives have been appealing to individual NCPA members to follow suit. So far, the cities of Palo Alto and Alameda have dropped out. Remaining litigants include Westlands Water District and the cities of Roseville, Santa Clara and Redding. Fistolera said the lawsuit has worked its course, and the Department of the Interior is conducting a new environmental study of its proposed plan that he expects will be released any day. Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall offered NCPA officials a basket of homemade kippered salmon and asked the agency to drop its lawsuit. "We hope you will do the right thing," Marshall said, extending an invitation to visit the tribe. "Spend a few days rafting or try fishing. If you saw the river even once, you'll understand why we love it so much and understand why it's so important to protect it." Hoopa Valley Tribal Councilman Joseph Jarnaghan said the Trinity River's average flow used to be 1.2 million acre-feet a year. "Now it's 120,000 acre-feet; that's 10 percent of what it used to be," Jarnaghan said. "You can imagine what the Sacramento River would look like if it was only 10 percent of it's flow. It's just devastating. "To us, the river is a way of life. We live, work and play in that water. It's something we've always had, and something we plan to always have in the future." Several younger members of the tribe also attended the demonstration, including Marshall's 18-year-old son Cliff Marshall Jr. "You can see the decay of the river," the younger Marshall said. "There didn't used to be as much moss, and it used to be one of the clearest rivers around. We used to swim in the Klamath River when I was a kid, and now it's brown. "This century will be one of the most desperate times for the Indian people because a lot is being lost. ... We're trying to hold on to what we can."# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Mar 16 11:23:40 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 11:23:40 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] AP- Interior Dept. Goes Offline Message-ID: <014f01c40b8c$3250ce60$8f6c3940@V51NH> FEDERAL AGENCIES Interior Department Goes Offline Associated Press - 3/15/04 WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Monday once again ordered the Interior Department [including the Bureau of Reclamation] to pull the plug on most of its Internet connections, finding that the department still hasn't fixed computer security problems that could jeopardize millions of dollars in royalties for American Indians. It is the third time that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth has ordered the systems to be disconnected to protect oil, gas, timber and grazing royalties held in trust for the Indians. "The interest of the 300,000-plus current beneficiaries of the individual Indian trust outweigh the potential inconvenience of those parties that would otherwise have access to Interior's Internet services," Lamberth wrote. An Interior Department spokesman could not immediately comment on the decisions. The judge allowed all emergency systems, such as those that deal with law enforcement or fire fighting, to remain connected. The National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey, and Interior's budget office, will also remain connected, since they convinced the court that they have fixed their lapses. Lamberth said the move was necessary because the department refuses to work with Special Master Alan Balaran to fix holes in the computer security, which has been widely criticized in government reviews as being deficient. The department has accused Balaran of being biased. Lamberth denied the department's request to remove him from the case. The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 300,000 American Indian landowners. The department was assigned in 1887 to manage royalties from lands held in trust for the Indians. But over time, the lands were poorly managed and money was squandered, stolen or never collected. The move left the public unable to access information about popular national parks and monuments and made it difficult for Interior agencies to communicate with one another. Emergency services were allowed to remain connected, and service was restored as gaps were fixed. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phiggins at humboldt1.com Thu Mar 18 15:07:26 2004 From: phiggins at humboldt1.com (Patrick Higgins) Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 15:07:26 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Cal-Neva/Humboldt AFS Annual Meeting Pre-Reg Deadline March 26 In-Reply-To: <014f01c40b8c$3250ce60$8f6c3940@V51NH> Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20040318145247.00af3740@mail.humboldt1.com> Hello Tom and Trinity List Serve Subscribers, This year the Cal-Neva and Humboldt Chapters of the American Fisheries Society are co-sponsoring an annual meeting in Redding from April 22-24 that should prove to be highly informative. There will be all day symposia on April 22 on Steelhead Recovery and Fish Passage, the latter with 18 presenters. The meeting on April 23-24 will have papers and posters on the issues of the Klamath River system, managed flow rivers, endangered species, field and laboratory techniques, pollution, restoration and aquaculture. Attached are the Pisces newsletter. Pisces not only has a full agenda for the meeting but also a fairly persuasive pitch from the Cal-Neva President as to why scientists need to network more than ever when budgets are tight (and why your boss should let you go). Given the email black out to Department of Interior employees, please consider faxing or copying and sharing in paper with your colleagues in these agencies, if you have contact with them or appropriate FAX numbers. You can get a registration form off the Cal Neva Events web page: http://www.afs-calneva.org/Events.htm. Thanks for your consideration of this opportunity. Sincerely, Pat Higgins -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: PiscesSpring04.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 287822 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Mar 18 20:11:42 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 20:11:42 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Litigator - Northern California Power Agency Message-ID: TRINITY RIVER RESTORATION Hupas ask power interest to back out of Trinity suit Eureka Times-Standard - 3/17/04 Dozens of Hupa Indians marched on the offices of the Northern California Power Agency on Monday asking that a suit barring restoration of the Trinity River be dropped. Joined by Roseville residents, fishermen and environmentalists, the tribal members offered the agency officials a basket of kippered salmon, as a peace offering. The power agency is suing over the approval of a restoration plan for the river, most of which is diverted to the Sacramento River and Central Valley farms. Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed off on the plan in 2000. But a suit has blocked the implementation of the plan. Other cities and utility districts, including the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District have dropped out of the suit being spearheaded by the Westlands Water District. "The Trinity River is part of our sustenance and culture," said Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall. "The NCPA is destroying the river, the fish and our tribal heritage by taking too much water from the river." The 2000 restoration plan calls for a reduction in the diversion, from about 75 percent to nearly 50 percent. That difference only produces a small amount of power, and estimates have been made that the average power agency ratepayer would only see a $3 per year increase in their bill if the plan was implemented. The Hoopa Tribe, which sees the plan as a settlement, has been presented with two settlement proposals that would crimp flows to the river more than the restoration plan. Westland's proposal was rebuffed, as was a recent proposal from the U.S. Interior Department, as ignoring the two decades of science behind the original restoration plan. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Mar 18 20:19:38 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 20:19:38 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Litigant Northern California Power Agency Message-ID: Hoopa Valley Tribe Marches To Restore The Trinity by Dan Bacher Over 100 members of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and supporters marched on the offices of the Northern California Power Agency in Roseville on March 15 to ask the agency to withdraw from the lawsuit blocking Trinity River restoration. The group, holding colorful signs, big salmon puppets, and a huge fisherman puppet, surprised representatives of the NCPA and local residents in a city unused to protests. Many drivers going by the offices on Cirby Avenue honked in support of the river advocates as the protesters shouted, "Hey-Hey, Ho-Ho, the lawsuit has got to go," "Don?t shake - don?t shiver, we are here to save the river," "Please hear our wish, don?t kill the fish." Heather Campbell, a Hoopa Tribal member who helped hold the fisherman puppet up with her two children, explained the importance of the river to her culture. "The river is part of our heritage and culture and we need it to survive," she stated. "I fish hook and line with spinners for steelhead and salmon for fun, but my family fishes for sustenance. Our tribe has survived on fish since time immemorial." As tribal members marched peacefully and beat a ceremonial drum on the sidewalk outside of the office, Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshal and members of the Tribal Council presented a "peace offering" of a basket of smoked salmon to representatives of the NCPA. "The energy crisis was created by manipulation of the market in Texas, not in California, and it?s time to see that the lawsuit does not have any merit," said Marshall as he presented the basket to John Fistolera, and Jane Sirrincinoe, NCPA representatives. "We want the NCPA to do the right thing for the right reasons and to preserve the river for our kids and their children." Marshall emphasized how the Trinity restoration plan - the Record of Decision (ROD) signed by then Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt - was the culmination of over 20 years of hard work by the Hoopa Tribe and other California communities. "People must realize that the Trinity is something worth saving not only for the Indian people but for all Californians," said Marshall. "We invite you to spend time on the river rafting or fishing. If you saw the river even once, you?ll understand why we love it so much and why it?s so important to protect it." The Hoopa Tribe was joined by members of the Yurok Tribe and representatives of Friends of the River, International Rivers Network, United Anglers, Friends of the Eel River and Save the American River Association in protesting the continued participation of the agency as partners in the lawsuit with Westlands Water District, the poster boy of unsustainable agribusiness. The lawsuit blocks the Record of Decision, which provides 47 percent of the river?s flows to fish and the other 53 percent to agricultural and power users. Prior to the ROD, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation diverted up to 90 percent of the river, much of it to the unsustainable corporate farms in the Westlands Water District of the San Joaquin Valley. After the peace offering, the NCPA representatives invited them into the office. Nothing was resolved, with Fistolera and Jane Sirrincinoe reiterating their agency?s position. "We support river restoration," said Fistolera, NCPA?s legislative director. "The resource portfolio of NCPA members is 75 percent renewable energy. We think that the Environmental Impact Statement coming out (as a result of the lawsuit) will address your concerns and our concerns. We commit to working with the Hoopa on a solution that restores the fish and considers the need for reliable electrical generation." "The ROD was made on only one basis - flow," added Sirrincinoe, who claimed that higher flows could in fact impede restoration efforts by washing gravel out of some alluvial areas. However, Mike Orcutt, fisheries program director of the tribe, emphasized that the agency was just rehashing concepts that have already been proven wrong by fishery scientists. "They are holding onto bygone ideas, such as the discredited SMUD Alternative and the idea that higher flows can damage a river," he said. "But the science is behind the ROD. NCPA is just talking about procedural violations of the ESA to continue the litigation."Marshall dismissed the concept that the ROD would cost power customers a substantial amount of power or money. The cost of implementing the ROD would only be $.25 per month or $3.00 per year, based on a study by Environmental Defense. Friends of the River (FOR), a statewide river advocacy group, helped organize the event with the tribe to mark the annual International Day of Action Against Dams on March 15. River activists in 18 countries, including many indigenous activists, held 38 separate events to support healthy, free-flowing rivers. "Friends of the River is here to support the struggle of the Hoopa Tribe," said Craig Tucker, FOR Outreach Director. "The Trinity was once one of the west?s most productive salmon fisheries. Today it is but a shadow of its former self, hosting only 12% of its historic population of salmon. NCPA will still get power from the project even if the river is restored." Local recreational anglers also supported the Hoopa Tribe. Bill Hagopian, spokesman for the Granite Bay Flycasters, said, "The City of Roseville needs to be more environmentally sensitive. For the cost of a cup of coffee annually, we can help the Hoopa people restore the Trinity River." Before the Hoopa departed from Roseville to go back to the reservation, Marshall told tribal members and local activists,"I think you guys made an impact. This is our elite attack force today. If we have to come back, we?ll bring the rest of the tribe, we?ll bring our cousins with us!" The Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District, one of the original litigants in the Westlands lawsuit, withdrew from the legal battle in 2003 after pressure by Indian tribes, fishermen and environmentalists. Three members of NCPA - Palo Alto, Alameda and Port of Oakland - have also voted to withhold funding for the agency?s lawsuit. The event was held in Roseville not only because the NCPA office is located there, but because the city of Roseville is a NCPA member that is still a partner to the lawsuit. "We want to return home, in peace, to the heart of our valley by the Trinity River, concluded Marshall. " We want to care for the gift of our ancestors and conserve if for our descendants. All of the money and time spent fighting in court subtracts from the real need ? saving the river and the fish." Hopefully, the NCPA and its member agencies will see the error of their ways and pull out of the litigation just like SMUD, Palo Alto, Alameda and the Port of Oakland did - after they were educated about how their participation was stopping salmon and steelhead restoration efforts on the Trinity. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Mar 18 21:41:04 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 21:41:04 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] TAMWG Agenda 4/1/04 Message-ID: <008701c40d74$c5e800a0$576c3940@V51NH> TAMWG members, greetings; Here's a draft agenda for our April 1-2 meeting. A packet should go out today from Arcata with this agenda and the draft minutes for the December meeting. I hope and expect that other documents will be available prior to the meeting, but they are not available now, so we'll have to find another way to transmit them. In this category: proposed flow schedule for 2004; report from the program evaluation committee; the next iteration of the strategic plan. Please let me know if you cannot attend on April 1-2. Thanks. Looking forward, Arnold Whitridge Draft Agenda TRINITY ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT WORKING GROUP Victorian Inn and Restaurant, Weaverville, CA 1:00 p.m. Thursday, April 1, 2004 Action Time Topic - Purpose Requested? 1. 1:00 Introductions; Adopt agenda; Approve minutes of December meeting Action 2. 1:10 Elect Chair and Vice-Chair for 2004 Action 3. 1:15 Public Comment Period 4. 1:30 AEAM Program Conception Clair Stalnaker 5. 3:30 2004 Flow Schedule Daryl Peterson Action 5:00 Adjourn for day Friday, April 2 6. 8:30 Program Evaluation Report Curtis Anderson Action 7. 10:30 Strategic Plan Doug Schleusner Action 12:00 Lunch 8. 1:15 Interior perspective on Mile Ryan litigation settlement 9. 1:45 Executive Director's Report Doug Schleusner 10. 2:15 SEIS report Lead Agency Representative 11. 2:30 TAMWG Charter Renewal Designated Federal Official and member appointments 12. 2:45 Report from Watersheds Subcommittee 13. 3:00 TAMWG operations Action Review TAMWG 2003 activity; adopt improvements to communications, procedures, and/or subcommittee operations 14. 3:15 Public Comment Period 15. 3:30 Assignments and Calendars Action Outline subcommittee tasks; schedule next regular meeting 3:45 Adjourn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Mar 19 22:17:42 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 22:17:42 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Various News Stories about Klamath-Trinity Message-ID: <008601c40e43$0e9a2fc0$c06c3940@V51NH> TRINITY RIVER RESTORATION Hupas ask power interest to back out of Trinity suit Eureka Times-Standard - 3/17/04 Dozens of Hupa Indians marched on the offices of the Northern California Power Agency on Monday asking that a suit barring restoration of the Trinity River be dropped. Joined by Roseville residents, fishermen and environmentalists, the tribal members offered the agency officials a basket of kippered salmon, as a peace offering. The power agency is suing over the approval of a restoration plan for the river, most of which is diverted to the Sacramento River and Central Valley farms. Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed off on the plan in 2000. But a suit has blocked the implementation of the plan. Other cities and utility districts, including the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District have dropped out of the suit being spearheaded by the Westlands Water District. "The Trinity River is part of our sustenance and culture," said Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall. "The NCPA is destroying the river, the fish and our tribal heritage by taking too much water from the river." The 2000 restoration plan calls for a reduction in the diversion, from about 75 percent to nearly 50 percent. That difference only produces a small amount of power, and estimates have been made that the average power agency ratepayer would only see a $3 per year increase in their bill if the plan was implemented. The Hoopa Tribe, which sees the plan as a settlement, has been presented with two settlement proposals that would crimp flows to the river more than the restoration plan. Westland's proposal was rebuffed, as was a recent proposal from the U.S. Interior Department, as ignoring the two decades of science behind the original restoration plan. # KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Bureau's water bank taking shape Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 3/17/04 By Dylan Darling, staff writer The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has started informing Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators who is in and who is out of its water bank this summer. Contracts for land idling and ground water substitution, both inside and outside the Project are ready to be signed, said Dave Sabo, Project manager. But those two types of accounts will only be a part of the water bank. The bank is required by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service as protection for threatened coho salmon downstream in the Klamath River. Sabo said he can also use stored water and possibly other options. "I have a limited amount of money to spend on the water bank, so I have to make it go as far as it can," he said. The water bank needs to have 75,000 acre-feet of water in it, and the Bureau has a $4.5 million budget to acquire it. That amounts to about $60 per acre-foot, which is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of ground with 12 inches of water. He said some of the contracts the Bureau will sign will be optional ones, with larger pumps that will only be kicked in if the water is needed. He said this year's bank should be more flexible than last year's because the Bureau can count flow extra river flows resulting from rain and snowstorms. If extra water falls from the sky, then less water is needed from the ground. The issue of whether high river flows could be counted as part of the water bank is a point of contention between the Bureau and the Fisheries Service. The two federal agencies still haven't agreed how much water was ultimately sent downstream as bank flows last year. But the Fisheries Service said the flows can be part of the bank this year, Sabo said. Groups on opposite sides of the Klamath water issue have similar sentiments about the water bank - saying it's a Band-Aid, not a long term solution. Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said he appreciates the government's support of the program because it compensates farmers and ranchers for changing their water use, but it's not something that will remedies the Basin's problems permanently "We reluctantly support the water bank," he said. "The water bank isn't going to be the silver bullet that solves the problem." Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations said the water bank is inherently unstable, especially if it gets underfunded by the federal government. "It depends on a Congress that is harder and harder pressed to pay the bills," Spain said. He said his group favors a permanent purchase of water rights, rather than the "renting" of water. The storage in this year's bank would come from the Agency Lake Ranch, which the Bureau owns and can hold about 12,000 acre-feet of water and from national wildlife refuges like Lower Klamath Lake. Although this year's bank will need to be about 50 percent larger than last year's pilot project, the Bureau has less money to spend this year. Last year about $4.75 million was spent. In the pilot water bank last year, irrigators were paid fixed fees of $187.50 per acre idled, and $75 per acre-foot of groundwater. This year, the Bureau didn't set prices and opened the water bank to bidding. Sabo said the bids ranged from about $30 to about $150 per acre-foot. The Bureau has about 400 applications, representing about 60,000 acres and about 140,000 acre-feet of water, from which to choose. He said expanding the water bank to outside the Project helped get more applicants. "It just makes more sense since the whole Basin impacts the river, not just the Project," he said. Next summer, the Bureau will need a water bank of 100,000 acre-feet.# RELATED Removal of dam still not a sure thing Studies, opinions still needed on Chiloquin Dam Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 3/16/04 By Dylan Darling, staff writer President Bush earmarked $2.1 million in next year's budget for the removal of Chiloquin Dam, but before the dam can be removed several bureaucratic hurdles will need to be cleared. The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is an arm of the Interior Department, will be handling studies involving endangered species and the environmental impact of removing the dam. The studies fall into the realm of the National Environmental Policy Act. The act, established in 1969, provides a list of studies that need to be done before a federal project can move forward. In late January, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the removal of the dam should happen next year, but NEPA studies can get complex and the process can extend for years, which could delay the removal, said Doug Tedrick, chief range conservationist for Indian Affairs. Although Tedrick said the agency's goal is to get them done this calendar year. "The president's budget anticipated the successful completion of the NEPA process," he said. And it anticipated that the result of that process would be the recommended removal of the dam. This week, Tedrick will be in the Klamath Basin to talk to the groups involved with the possible removal of the dam. He will meet Wednesday afternoon with a group of "collaborators," or stakeholders, that have been meeting since September 2002 and then with members of the Klamath Tribes Wednesday evening. The collaborator group includes city, county state and federal agencies, the Tribes, water users and others. Chuck Korson, fish passage manager at Reclamation's Klamath Falls office, has been working with the collaborators, most of whom recommend that the dam be pulled out. Although the money for removal is in the budget, Korson said it is not a done deal. "It's not a forgone conclusion until the NEPA is done," he said. He said there also needs to be a study done to figure how Modoc Point Irrigation district would replace the water it gets from a diversion spurred by the dam. Don Gentry, a natural resource specialist for the Tribes, said Tedrick will update the Klamath Tribes on the NEPA process and answer questions about the removal process. The Tribes have not taken an official position as to whether the dam should be removed or not. Gentry said the Tribes want to make sure that what ever is done to Chiloquin Dam - be it complete removal or improvement of its fish ladder - is what is best for the restoration of the sucker fishery. He said there still needs to be studies of how much restoration work would need to be done upstream if the dam is taken out. "It's gets pretty complicated," Gentry said.# RELATED Editorial: If Shilo talks falter, talks must go on Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 3/14/04 The not-so-secret talks at the Shilo appear to be in trouble. Inside, the participants haven't yet been able to agree on the complicated task of divvying up the Basin's water. Outside, there's strong opposition to one key to a resolution, the return of national forest land to the Klamath Tribes for a reservation, and opposition from water users above Upper Klamath Lake. The secrecy has proved troubling to both participants and the public. The conveners, Jim Root of Medford and Kurt Thomas of Bakersfield, a Tulelake native, have taken hits, most recently in the government report that said their Klamath Basin Rangeland Trust overestimated the benefit of idling pastureland above Upper Klamath Lake in 2002. The main elements of a deal have long been apparent. In exchange for guaranteed water supplies, Basin irrigators would idle some land and give tacit or other support to the Tribes, who would "forebear" from enforcing a share of their water rights. The federal government would apply the salve of money. The number bandied about is $200 million-plus for habitat restoration and other work. But turning these elements into something people could shake hands over is an enormous task. The promise of the Root-Thomas talks was that their political connections to the Bush administration would provide the clout for local interests and cover for the Congress and the White House. In other words, if we here in the Basin can agree on things, the government would make them happen. That's still the imperative: Unless we can agree here, nobody from the outside is going to settle things. Even with a local agreement, the Basin is so divided that a settlement might not stick. But solutions imposed from outside are certain to fail, or take so long as to guarantee failure. Uncertain water supplies and years of lawyers' fees will eat away at the financial foundation of Basin agriculture. Nobody will lend money to farmers who can't be sure of water. The Tribes can't get land back without the support of enough whites to make a land-return bill anything other than political suicide for the Oregon members of Congress, without whose support the bill could not pass no matter which party runs the Capitol and White House. Environmentalists cannot ensure the survival of endangered fish unless there's a significant effort to create and restore habitat, which only the federal government can afford. If the Shilo talks falter, the parties should find ways to stay in touch, to keep talking, to open up the process to the public and to interests both above Upper Klamath Lake and below Iron Gate Dam. On that last point, the inauguration of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was promising. He's oriented toward resolving difficult problems, and his administration won't be scapegoating Basin farmers. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski signaled early on that he wants to be a leader about the Basin rather than a partisan, as his predecessor was. Both governors have had representatives in the Basin recently, and both could prove helpful. If it's too early to write off the Shilo talks, fine. But the news and the talk hasn't been encouraging. It may be time to look for a new way out. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 22 09:23:09 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 09:23:09 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Message from Arnold Whitridge transmitting message from Doug Schleusner Message-ID: <003b01c41032$594638c0$266b3940@V51NH> awhitridge at snowcrest.net wrote: TAMWG and TMC, My e-mail capabilities currently exceed those of some entire Interior Department agencies, so I've been asked to circulate a message from the TRRP office. As background, there was concern that the recent rampdown of Lewiston releases from 2000 cfs to 300 cfs would strand some juvenile fish. To minimize stranding, Central Valley Operations modified the rampdown schedule as suggested by scientists who were meeting to discuss the annual flow schedule, but there were nevertheless some reports of stranding, including stranding of young coho. Doug Schleusner reports (March 19): "Branch Chief Daryl Petersen and two other biologists (Mike Kelly, NOAA Fisheries; Loren Everest, Forest Service) floated the Trinity from the hatchery to Bucktail, and stopped at 5 sites where stranding had been reported or historically has occurred. Stranded salmon were observed at all sites, but most were chinook, with some coho (native) observed at one location. It appears that at these sites there is still enough surface flow to allow some fry to move back into the main channel, or the pools are large enough to allow fry to rear and survive until the spring flow releases begin to ramp up in late April or early May. Mike Kelly will document their observations in more detail and contact other observers down river; a report is expected by next Monday or Tuesday. At this point it does not appear necessary to mobilize a rescue effort or take actions other than continuing to monitor the situation." Arnold Whitridge -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 22 09:26:46 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 09:26:46 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Hoopa Valley Tribe Comments on EA/FONSI for CVP Interim Water Contract Renewal Message-ID: <004601c41032$dc6c22a0$266b3940@V51NH> Bureau of Reclamation ATTN: Frank Michny 2800 Cottage Way Sacramento, CA 95825-1898 Re: Comments on Draft Supplemental Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact for Central Valley Project Interim Renewal Contract Dear Mr. Michny: On behalf of the Hoopa Valley Indian Tribe, we have reviewed and now submit the following comments on the above referenced Draft Supplemental Environmental Assessment (SEA) and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). These comments reflect the Tribe's ongoing concern with management of the Central Valley Project ("CVP"), which includes the Trinity River Division. Because of the CVP's effect on fisheries reserved for our tribe, we are committed to ensuring that Reclamation actions subject to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) reflect and comply with recent court decisions requiring, for example, that mitigation measures imposed as a result of consultation under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act be addressed in draft environmental review documentation prepared pursuant to NEPA. See e.g. Westlands v. United States, 275 F.Supp.2d 1157 (E.D. Cal. 2002) (discussed below). This approach ensures that the public is fully informed and has the opportunity to comment and participate in the decision-making process on all aspects of projects affecting the human environment. Reclamation has tentatively concluded that the proposed project, the renewal of up to fifty-nine (59) water service contracts for a term of up to two (2) years, will have no significant impact requiring assessment in an Environmental Impact statement. Draft FONSI at 2. That conclusion, however, is unsupported in a number of particulars as more fully described below. It also relies in part on deferral of consideration of impacts to threatened and endangered species pending completion of consultation with NOAA-Fisheries and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Id. Such an approach is impermissible in light of recent court decisions. 1. Failure to Require Interim Contract Language to Reflect CVPIA Mandated Fishery Restoration Flows. On February 5, 2004, the Hoopa Valley Tribe ("Tribe") formally requested that language referencing the instream fishery flow requirements of the Trinity River be incorporated into the terms of interim renewal contracts between the Bureau of Reclamation ("Bureau") and Central Valley Project ("CVP") water service contractors. This language is authorized by section 3404 of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, Pub. L. 102-575, 106 Stat. 4600 (1992) ("CVPIA"), which subjects new and renewal CVP water service contracts to the fishery restoration provisions of the CVPIA, which includes the Bureau=s obligation to meet the fishery restoration requirements of the Trinity River as established by the Trinity River Flow Evaluation-Final Report ("Flow Study"). See CVPIA ? 3406(b)(23). Contract language acknowledging Trinity River restoration requirements also reflects long-standing congressional directives that prioritize Trinity fishery releases over transbasin diversions to Central Valley contractors and is consistent with the federal government's trust responsibility to protect and preserve the Hoopa Valley Tribe's federally reserved fishing right. The Tribe's request was narrowly tailored to require compliance with scientifically based fishery flow requirements set forth in the Flow Study. Those requirements must be implemented pursuant to CVPIA ? 3406(b)(23), and should be included as conditions on supply made available for delivery to Central Valley Project contractors. The decisions of the federal courts since the enactment of the CVPIA make clear that the Bureau can and should reduce quantities of water delivered when fishery needs demand greater allocations. See O'Neill v. United States, 50 F.3d 677, 686 (9th Cir. 1998) (holding that the CVPIA modified priority of water users and thus changed contractual obligations under pre-existing long-term water delivery contracts); NRDC v. Houston, 146 F.3d 1118, 1126 (9th Cir. 1998) (invalidating CVP renewal contracts for failure to comply with environmental requirements); Klamath Water Users Protective Ass'n v. Patterson, 204 F.3d 1206, 1213 (9th Cir. 1999) (recognizing Bureau's responsibility to manage project operations to "meet the requirements of the ESA, requirements that override the water rights of the Irrigators"). The Ninth Circuit has expressly recognized the Bureau's obligation to operate to meet the water needs of vested tribal fishing rights. Klamath Water Users, 204 F.3d at 1214 (holding that the Bureau has "a responsibility to divert the water and resources needed to fulfill the Tribes' rights, rights that take precedence over any alleged rights of the Irrigators"). Accordingly, the terms of interim renewal contracts should expressly acknowledge those requirements, and the impacts of incorporating those requirements into the contracts should be assessed in an EIS. Express subordination of water service delivery obligations to fishery restoration needs is hardly unprecedented. E.g. id. The Bureau has historically included fishery restoration requirements as among the conditions on supply available to satisfy interim renewal contracts. For example, in California Trout v. Schaefer, 58 F.3d 469 (9th Cir. 1995), the court noted that an interim renewal contract for allocations from the New Melones Reservoir provided "a maximum of 75,000 acre-feet of water annually, subject to availability after the Bureau satisfied the water needs of in-basin users and higher priority out-of-basin users." Id. at 471 (emphasis added). The "in-basin" needs given priority under that contract included those of "fish and wildlife resources" in the Stanislaus River Basin established under CVPIA ? 3406(c)(2). Id. Given that precedent, the Bureau would not be breaking new ground by heeding the command of CVPIA ? 3404(c) to include similar conditions in the terms of interim renewal contracts. As of the date of these comments, HVT has received no indication from Reclamation that the agency intends to honor the Tribe's February 5, 2004 request. Should such language be added to the interim contracts, additional environmental review may be necessary in order to evaluate what effect giving priority to the Trinity fishery flows will have on the availability of supplies and hence the reasonableness of the delivery obligations incurred in the interim contracts, as well as the various mitigation obligations outlined in the EA/FONSI. To the extent that additional mitigation measures may be required as a result of prioritizing Trinity fishery releases over contract deliveries, the effect of those mitigation measures must be fully and fairly presented in any draft NEPA documentation, so as to allow the public the opportunity to review and comment on that analysis. See e.g. Westlands, 275 F.Supp.2d at 1182. 2. Improper Deferral of Mitigation. As noted above, the SEA improperly defers consideration of impacts to threatened and endangered species pending completion of ESA ? 7 consultation with NOAA-Fisheries and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Draft FONSI at 2; Draft SEA at 13.[1] Such an approach is impermissible under the recent ruling in Westlands, 275 F.Supp. 2d at 1182 -1185. In that case, the court found that a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) did not adequately analyze the impact of the proposed action on certain ESA-listed species. Id. at 1183. Further, the court found that the DEIS "did not consider or identify mitigation measures" for those impacts, other than to "specify that mitigation for impacts.would consist of consulting with the Service on impacts and implementing any required conservation measures." Id. The court concluded that Reclamation violated NEPA. That is precisely the approach adopted in the interim contract renewal SEA. In the words of the Westlands court, this approach "defers consideration of mitigation efforts" and "precludes the parties from meaningful analysis." Id. at 1184. See also id. at 1188 ("The omission of discussion of mitigation measures foreclosed any public input on the issues of whether and what CVP operations management alternatives existed and were feasible; and whether alternate water sources existed or if reduced flows could reduce the impact on species and other CVP users."). Moreover, to the extent that mitigation measures are imposed as a result of deferred ESA ? 7 consultation, either in the form of Reasonable and Prudent Measures (RPMs) or other terms and conditions that may have significant effects, the Westlands case requires that the environmental impacts of those mitigation measures be discussed "with reasonable thoroughness." Id. at 1192. These measures and their environmental impacts must be disclosed to the public in a process that "included public participation", i.e. they must be disclosed in a manner that allows meaningful public scrutiny, comment, and participation. Id. at 1198. By deferring discussion of species impacts pending completion of consultation with the fisheries agencies, the Draft EA/FONSI for interim contract renewals fails to meet these requirements. 3. Inadequate Discussion of Alternatives. The Draft EA is insufficient because it lacks any discussion of the "environmental impacts of the proposed action and alternatives" 40 C.F.R. ? 1508.9 (emphasis added). Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations require that an environmental assessment "shall include" a discussion of the environmental impacts "of the proposed action and alternatives.." Id. The Draft EA/FONSI, however, discusses only the proposed action of renewing interim contracts for an additional two-year period on the same terms as previous interim contracts. It contains no comparative evaluation of alternatives to that action, and expressly excludes from consideration a number of reasonable alternatives, including non-renewal, tiered pricing, and renewal at reduced delivery amounts that would more accurately reflect current delivery constraints. See Draft EA at 8-9. A comparative analysis of differential environmental impacts of a range of alternatives to the proposed action must be undertaken in order to allow the public a meaningful opportunity to assess the proposed action. 4. City of Shasta Lake (City) - Unjustified Increase in Contract Amount. An addendum to the interim renewal contract proposed action/project description proposes increasing the City's contract amount by 1650 acre-feet. The addendum asserts that no significant or demonstrable effects will result from this increase, in large part because actual use of water will not change due to the presumption that the City will "suspend the series of temporary water transfers it has relied upon in recent years." However, no analysis is included addressing the potential scenario in which the City does not suspend transfers but instead seeks to further augment its supply by continuing to secure transfer of other CVP water. Furthermore, there is no explanation as to why the revised contract amount is almost twice the City's projected needs. The revised contract represents a 60% increase from current contract amount, over 46% more than 2003 projected actual use. The addendum claims that the City's water usage has increased on average 4? percent annually over the last four years, and thus projects that by 2005 the City will require 3,276ac-ft /year. The addendum also asserts that increasing water supplies will not affect regional settlement or development patterns, due to availability of groundwater supplies to meet projected urban development needs. Given these facts, there is no readily apparent justification, and certainly no justification given in the SEA, for the proposed increase to 4,400 ac-ft. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to comment on the Draft EA/FONSI. We trust that our comments will be appropriately considered and responded to in any final NEPA documentation for this proposed action. Sincerely yours, MORISSET, SCHLOSSER, JOZWIAK & McGAW Thomas P. Schlosser T:\WPDOCS\0020\05543\Corresp\Mich031604_L01.doc nmc:3/16/04 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] The Draft SEA at page 11 purports to incorporate by reference the FWS Biological Opinion for 2002 interim contracts ("2002 Interim BiOp"), which it asserts contains "the commitments that reclamation will undertake during the proposed 2004 interim renewal period." To the extent that as a result of consultation on the 2004 renewal, FWS imposes RPMs, terms and conditions, or other requirements that differ in any respect from those contained in the 2002 Interim BiOp, the environmental impacts of those requirements must be disclosed to the public in a draft environmental document that is released to the public for review and comment. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Mar 22 16:15:21 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 16:15:21 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Articles- UOP/Delta Talks Break Down; 200,000 acres in Westlands to be retired? Message-ID: <026401c4106b$f067dc20$266b3940@V51NH> http://www.recordnet.com/articlelink/032004/news/articles/032004-gn-6.php Delta water talks break down San Joaquin Record - 3/20/04 By Audrey Cooper, staff writer Important negotiations over Delta water quality have broken down, leaving local farmers to wonder if their long-standing problems with salty irrigation water will be ignored yet again while Southern California water agencies work on a plan to take more water from the Delta. Seven months ago, Delta farming groups and a Contra Costa County water agency first sat down with some of the state's largest and most politically powerful water groups, all of which rely on water that is pumped from the Delta and sent south. Those talks were aimed at coming up with a way for the large water groups -- such as the Fresno-based Westlands Water District and the urban Metropolitan Water District of Southern California -- to take more Delta water while also solving some of the water-quality problems those exports have caused over the past few decades. Attorneys who represent Delta farmers once proclaimed the talks could be the much-needed solution to the Delta's infamous water problems. Yet those negotiations, regularly held at Stockton's University of the Pacific, broke down last Saturday. In the end, Delta farmers wanted more promises than the other side would give. The water agencies that pump out Delta water weren't willing to give up enough water, said Tom Zuckerman, an attorney for the Central Delta Water Agency. "From our point of view, it was absolutely necessary that existing water-quality standards were met. We were unable to get a commitment that they would do that," Zuckerman said. Dan Nelson, head of the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority, said his side couldn't promise to solve problems they may not be causing. The agency represents 32 small irrigation districts that rely on water pumped out of the Delta. "I think we even offered a lot more than some of our folks would be comfortable with. The Delta people wanted us to take responsibility for everything that causes water-quality problems, even though we may not be responsible for all those problems," Nelson said. The Delta has always been a source of intense debate when it comes to meeting the state's water needs, in part because of the complicated way water is moved around the arid state. At the core of that water system are two sets of large water pumps near Tracy. River water that normally would flush through the Delta instead is pumped into a series of canals and aqueducts owned by the state and federal governments. The removal of that water lowers the Delta's water quality. Alex Hildebrand, a Manteca farmer and member of the South Delta Water Agency, said although the University of the Pacific talks stalled, more talks have been planned for next week with Lester Snow, the newly named head of the state Department of Water Resources. After that meeting, the two sides may get their heads back together, Hildebrand said. "But I may be too optimistic," he said. U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and state Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, have both said that Delta water quality cannot be sacrificed in order to increase water pumping. Both politicians chair committees that would ultimately have to sign off on at least part of the water plan. On Friday, Machado said he is optimistic that the negotiations will continue, despite the recent impasse. "This is not an issue that can afford not to be resolved. The health of the Delta is directly related to this. Where we go in the future ... to find some harmony between the north and south is very important to the state," he said. Pombo said he is also working to bring both sides back to the negotiating table. # http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/8230092.htm Growers on Soured Fresno, Calif., Farmland Discuss New Ways of Farming By Dennis Pollock, The Fresno Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News Mar. 19 - Sitting in the midst of soured farmland where the economy is on the skids, about 20 people gathered in Five Points on Thursday to discuss the need for a revolution. "With the Westlands land retirement, the decrease in water supplies and the drainage problems, the stage is set for a revolution," said Sarge Green, manager of the Westside Resource Conservation District. Some 200,000 acres of farmland in the Westlands Water District are expected to be taken out of production because of salinity that has been building as a result of drainage difficulties. With one in three residents of the region unemployed, the land retirement is expected to cause the loss of thousands of jobs. The meeting was marked by an emphasis on trying to help farming operations survive and keep jobs in the region -- and perhaps create more -- by employing new ways of thinking and farming: Instead of seeing salt as a waste product, find markets for it. Instead of depending on crops such as wheat and cotton that are assisted by federal subsidies, diversify into other arenas, including biodiesel production and biomass production. Also, some crops can be used to draw selenium, a naturally occurring mineral linked to deformities in waterfowl on the Kesterson Reservoir, from the soil. Those crops -- including canola in the winter and sunflowers in the summer -- can be used in biodiesel and provide selenium to cattle who lack the mineral. One of the leading soldiers of the west-side cause is John Diener of Five Points, who is working to reclaim thousands of abandoned acres and attract interest in alternative farming approaches. "We need to do things that keep the money here," Diener said during the program that was presented by the conservation district and Community Alliance with Family Farmers. Diener explained how he uses biodiesel made from the oils of sunflowers and canola to help power irrigation pumps and tractors on his Red Rock Ranch. He said the meal from those plants contains selenium and protein feed for "ruminant animals" -- sheep, deer and cows. While the west side of the Valley is naturally rich in selenium, the east side is not, Diener said. Cattle on the east side could benefit from the addition of selenium to their feed. Diener came up with a way to recycle water to reduce its salinity and in three years made great strides. "We were surprised how fast we reclaimed the land," he said. "We went from 1 ton of wheat per acre to 3 tons in three years." Among those who attended the meeting was Craig Roberts, who said Diener "is on the cutting edge of what ag needs to do if it is going to survive." Roberts is plant manager for Cal/West Seeds in Tranquillity, which is operated by a grower cooperative. He said the cooperative's grower base has been dwindling because of economic challenges that growers are facing, and its sales of alfalfa seed have dropped to 3 million pounds from 14 million in 1988. Rob Rundle, an agronomist with Britz Farms, said he has a personal interest in biodiesel because it does not emit greenhouse gases. "It's more environmentally friendly and could be a solution to the problem of climate change," he said. But Rundle pointed out that biodiesel costs more -- about $1 more than a gallon of conventional diesel, according to Bryan Jenkins, a professor with the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at University of California at Davis. Jose Faria, chief of the Special Investigations Branch of the California Department of Water Resources, talked of using salt ponds to absorb energy from the sun to produce electricity or to operate a greenhouse. He also said saltwater is being used at Tulare Lake to raise brine shrimp, which are sold as feed for pet fish. David Righthouse, plant manager and vice president of AES Mendota, a biomass energy facility, said such plants are seen as "an air pollution solution" to burning orchard prunings in open fields. That's because they can cut particulates released by between 96 percent and 99 1/2 percent. ----- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From windhorse at jeffnet.org Mon Mar 22 17:13:38 2004 From: windhorse at jeffnet.org (Jim Carpenter) Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 17:13:38 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Herald and News Op/Ed Message-ID: Let's unite the basins, based on the benefits of a restored river Published March 22, 2004 By Jim and Stephanie Carpenter Guest columnists "Brand Oregon" is all the buzz upstate with the rollout of Gov. Ted Kulongoski state marketing campaign. Designed by the Portland advertising firm Wieden + Kennedy, the theme is quality, centered on Oregon's high-toned but casual lifestyle, and its agricultural products, wild salmon and wine. The idea is to promote Oregon for tourists and businesses looking to relocate, and the state's agricultural and fish commodities to the upmarket consumer. The effort builds on the state's new slogan, "Oregon, We Love Dreamers." More than just a feel-good campaign, this new initiative will present a cohesive and coordinated view of the state for visitors with a bottom line to improve the state's economy. We agree that a makeover was needed. "Oregon, things look different here" is no longer seen as a particularly positive statement. Something dramatic is needed to leverage Oregon out of the economic doldrums, and envisioning a new dream is a good beginning. The South Portal is a project we have been working on with a similar vision. The downtown redevelopment of the Lake Ewauna waterfront, designed to improve the first impression as travelers arrive from the south, and to provide a range of services for visitors and locals alike. Key to the project is expanded public access to the lake and Link River corridor and siting a visitor-interpretive center near the downtown exit of Highway 97. Developing a local brand would enhance our marketing of Klamath Falls as the portal to the Basin - something along the lines of "It's The Water" that sold so many six- packs over the years. The Klamath Basin is the poster child for water. Our opportunity is to "brand" it and use it as a positive statement about our water, our stewardship, and the lifestyle our water resources nourish in this incredibly diverse and naturally blessed watershed. It is our story. We own it, and yet we are mostly playing defense in reaction to outside assaults by carpetbaggers from the left and right who think they know the Basin and what we locals need to be doing with our resource issues. Could be a focus We propose that a Klamath Basin, branded and bonded by our water, would mesh well with the experiential lifestyle brand being promoted by the state. But even more important, it serves as a focus for developing a shared vision of community with its roots sustained by our river. Klamath Falls is headwaters and hub of a region that has for too long been languishing for lack of common purpose and collective sense of place. The last time we recall the community coming together in this way was a result of the drought more than a decade ago, and it produced the Vision 2002 document. It is still a viable planning tool and example of what a community can pull together, given the challenge. Perhaps we, as a community, should re-engage in an update. Even though the drought does not seem so severe this year, the challenges of allocating our water resources are even more daunting. The good news is that more and more people are taking up the task. Conferences, seminars, groups, agencies, councils, clubs and committees meet more or less constantly in search of solutions. Most recently, Oregon State University and others convened a gathering, the fifth in an ongoing series of biennual watershed conferences, to share data and describe conditions across the watershed. What stood out for us at this year's conference was the Basinwide pur-view of the discussions - ridgetop to river mouth. Increasingly, the conferences are taking on a watershedwide scope, recognizing that the old paradigm of upper and lower Basin planning does not fit the natural model of interdependent river basin. For us, the most encouraging development of the conferences has been the inclusion of an interactive element in the agenda. We are recognizing that solutions will not be just data-driven, even if wrapped in the best science, but will need to engage the community as well in the planning process. The facilitator was Bob Chadwick, a former Winema Forest supervisor, now running consensus seminars for conflict resolution. Chadwick has a format that engages everyone in the dialogue. Sitting in small circles, everyone gets a chance to talk and everyone listens with no interruptions. The conversations start with brief self-introductions. Participant then write down short statements of the worst and the best possible outcomes they imagine for the Basin. The group then explores the common themes. The results demonstrate a vision for the Basin beyond conflict. The exercise shows how much more we have that unites us than divides us. The process is based on values. The common thread is quality of life. What worked so well for the conference attendees could be expanded to a Basinwide dialogue to establish the shared vision for this sense of place, the brand of quality lifestyle and values organized around a river. Use license process We think our best opportunity for achieving this is through the relicensing process PacifiCorp is undertaking for its hydro facilities along the Klamath River. Here is how: Expand the scope of the stakeholder meetings that have been going on for a couple of years. The fruit of the meetings, PacifiCorp's draft application for relicensing, has been submitted. It is pretty much status quo from what we have seen, although the Link River Dam will no longer be used for power production, as the cost-benefit for fish screens just did not pencil out. So, too, for fish passage for salmon at the other dams. Cost for the perceived benefit was not there. We think the analysis was too narrowly focused. PacifiCorp looked only at the stretch of the Klamath River within its project, and did not factor in at all the value of "ecosystem services" that a fully functional river provides for free: water quality, species habitat and the economic and cultural value of a restored salmon run - once the third largest on the West Coast. If PacifiCorp expanded its vision to include the entire Basin and relicensed the project with the goal of modifying the dams to provide fish passage and low-head hydroelectric production and a free-flowing river at the same time, the benefits would surely exceed the value of the electricity when applied to the entire Klamath watershed. The dams could become the rallying point for restoration rather than the bottleneck and barrier they represent between the upper and lower basin. Restoration of the river would become the "brand" under which our communities could be brought together in real "eco"nomic sustainability. Jim and Stephanie Carpenter own Carpenter Design, Inc., a consulting and contracting firm in Klamath Falls that networks people and resources. They work with a variety of groups locally on building community. Print this story Email this story llllllllllllll Carpenter Design Inc. Consulting & Construction CCB# 93939 ph. 541 885 5450 fx. 443 337 2379 www.CarpenterDesign.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: tech.gif Type: image/gif Size: 862 bytes Desc: not available URL: From hupafish at pcweb.net Tue Mar 23 10:35:08 2004 From: hupafish at pcweb.net (George Kautsky) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 10:35:08 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Message from Arnold Whitridge transmitting messagefrom Doug Schleusner In-Reply-To: <003b01c41032$594638c0$266b3940@V51NH> Message-ID: Arnold and others, I wish to inform preliminarily as to our observations at Junction City Juvenile screw-trapping site. My field biologist noted today that captures are much lower than typically observed for this week in prior years. That is, the flood of hatchery steelhead and coho have not arrived yet at JC as anticipated. He further states that he has heard accounts of large pods of juveniles holed up in vicinity of the old Lewiston Bridge. We should have preliminary tabulations for J.C. screw trap completed by early next week and will distribute them to coop agencies. Regards, George Kautsky Hoopa Tribal Fisheries (530)625-4267 ext 15 -----Original Message----- From: env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us]On Behalf Of Tom Stokely Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 9:23 AM To: env-trinity Cc: salmon at pelicannetwork.net Subject: [env-trinity] Message from Arnold Whitridge transmitting messagefrom Doug Schleusner awhitridge at snowcrest.net wrote: TAMWG and TMC, My e-mail capabilities currently exceed those of some entire Interior Department agencies, so I've been asked to circulate a message from the TRRP office. As background, there was concern that the recent rampdown of Lewiston releases from 2000 cfs to 300 cfs would strand some juvenile fish. To minimize stranding, Central Valley Operations modified the rampdown schedule as suggested by scientists who were meeting to discuss the annual flow schedule, but there were nevertheless some reports of stranding, including stranding of young coho. Doug Schleusner reports (March 19): "Branch Chief Daryl Petersen and two other biologists (Mike Kelly, NOAA Fisheries; Loren Everest, Forest Service) floated the Trinity from the hatchery to Bucktail, and stopped at 5 sites where stranding had been reported or historically has occurred. Stranded salmon were observed at all sites, but most were chinook, with some coho (native) observed at one location. It appears that at these sites there is still enough surface flow to allow some fry to move back into the main channel, or the pools are large enough to allow fry to rear and survive until the spring flow releases begin to ramp up in late April or early May. Mike Kelly will document their observations in more detail and contact other observers down river; a report is expected by next Monday or Tuesday. At this point it does not appear necessary to mobilize a rescue effort or take actions other than continuing to monitor the situation." Arnold Whitridge -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Mar 23 10:53:01 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 10:53:01 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] www.fresnobee.com- Letter to Editor by Lloyd Carter Message-ID: <00e201c41108$1279cfc0$8c6b3940@V51NH> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thirst of growers, developers huge threat By Lloyd G. Carter President of the California Save our Streams Council. (Updated Monday, March 22, 2004, 4:45 AM) E-mail This Article Printer-Friendly Format Receive the Daily Bulletin Subscribe to Print Join a Forum Have you heard of the Napa Agreement? Probably not. Last summer, key officials from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the California Department of Water Resources, the Westlands Water District, Kern County Water Agency, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and various 800-pound water gorillas from the big Tulare Lake Basin plantations met secretly in scenic Napa to hammer out a new proposal to dramatically boost exports of Northern California water to the western San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Environmentalists and public interest groups concerned about dewatered northern rivers, Delta water quality, the waste of water to grow surplus crops and uncontrolled urban sprawl in the Southland were shut out of the secret talks. Out of the Napa negotiations came a plan to boost pumping at the massive state and federal Delta pumps at Tracy from the current 6,680 cubic feet per second to 8,500 cubic feet per second. One cubic foot per second is 450 gallons. The increase would mean an extra 3.8 million gallons a minute from the giant, fish-grinding Tracy pumps. The Napa Agreement has become a part of the record of decision of the Bay-Delta program known as Cal-Fed, a consortium of state and federal agencies. Cal-Fed's lead agencies are the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources, which supply several million acre-feet of water a year to San Joaquin Valley agriculture. Cal-Fed was created a decade ago to "fix" California's two major water problems: (1) Delta water quality and (2) chronic water shortages south of the Delta. Proponents of the Napa proposition want to boost Delta exports first before the water quality and wildlife issues are resolved. Critics claim the new plan could increase exports of Northern California water by up to 1 million acre-feet of water, enough water to cover a million football fields a foot deep, and devastate Delta recovery chances. Proponents say the diversions would be much lower in volume, would occur during periods of flood and would not harm the Delta. Napa Agreement proponents, in a well-orchestrated public relations campaign now under way, like to cleverly label opponents as "perpetually unhappy environmentalists" or "Bay Area radical elitists," ignoring the fact that virtually all of Northern California and the Bay-Delta area, including urban water districts supplying millions of people with Delta drinking water are also highly skeptical about the backroom Napa Agreement Seeking a delay Delta area state Sen. Mike Machado has introduced a bill, Senate Bill 1155, that would block implementation of the Napa Agreement until Delta water quality issues -- ranging from improving drinking water quality to restoring healthy fish populations and reducing irrigation water salinity -- are resolved. Hearings on Machado's bill will be this spring. Another "perpetually unhappy environmentalist" is San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors Chairman Leroy Ornellas. Ornellas worries the Napa proposition "could cause serious impacts to the social, economic and environmental viability of the Delta and San Joaquin County." "To further exacerbate this problem," Ornellas wrote in a letter to state Sen. Chuck Poochigian of Fresno, "inflow to the Delta from the San Joaquin River now consists primarily of high salt-bearing drainage from farmlands and wetlands in the [Central Valley Project's] west-side service area." Also lumped into the category of "perpetually unhappy environmentalists" are Indian tribes in Trinity County. They have been waging a 20-year campaign to revive flows in the decimated Trinity River. Water from the river now flows to the Westlands. A plan to restore fishery flows is currently being blocked by a Westlands lawsuit. Trinity people want the Napa Agreement boosters to drop the sloganeering and name-calling and justify the use of precious Northern California rivers to grow surplus subsidized cotton on more than 700,000 acres of land in the western San Joaquin Valley. They want an explanation of why Northern California counties should keep sending the lifeblood of their rivers south to irrigate high-selenium western Valley farmlands with no drainage solution in sight. They want to know why Northern California should dry up its rivers so developers in Southern California can jam yet another tacky subdivision onto a landslide-prone barren hillside. It's not the perpetually unhappy environmentalists I'm worried about here in our San Joaquin Valley, where the air grows more poisonous, our children grow more asthmatic, raisin farmers vanish, cotton subsidies grow ever more lavish, poverty and joblessness increase every year, and urbanization gobbles up the Blossom Trail. I'm worried about the "perpetually thirsty" big west-side growers and Southern California developers who can never get enough of Northern California's liquid treasure and who will engage in smear tactics against anyone who would get in the way of the steamroller driven by the Hydraulic Brotherhood. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: header.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1914 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: story_resources.gif Type: image/gif Size: 421 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: email_article.gif Type: image/gif Size: 100 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: printer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 102 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: bulletin.gif Type: image/gif Size: 100 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: subscribe.gif Type: image/gif Size: 97 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: forum.gif Type: image/gif Size: 122 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Mar 23 21:44:30 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 21:44:30 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Joint Legislative Comm on Fisheries and Aquaculture Message-ID: Joint Legislative Committee On Fisheries and Aquaculture State of California Remarks of Byron W. Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. Trinity River Restoration March 17, 2004 Chairperson Berg and Members of the Committee: Thank you for providing this opportunity to share with you some thoughts about restoration or non-restoration of the Trinity River. My name is Byron Leydecker. I?m the founder and volunteer chair of Friends of Trinity River and a volunteer consultant to California Trout. I served on the former federally legislated Trinity River Task Force and currently serve on the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group. I?ve been fishing the Trinity River since I was a young boy in the 1930s. I ?ve experienced great fisheries and almost non-existent fisheries - fisheries that now are about 12 percent of pre-dam population levels. We do have the promise, however, for restored fisheries ? a promise that dates back to the days before Trinity Division legislation was passed in 1955. And we have every piece of Trinity Division law ever passed to assure that. My goal is simple. I?m a fly fisherman. I have no economic or any other interest in Trinity River - none - aside from its restoration. My purpose is to see the Trinity River and its fisheries restored in my lifetime. I founded Friends of Trinity River 11 years ago to ensure involvement and participation in restoration of the river by non-governmental organizations and the recreational fishing community. We were instrumental in reauthorization of the federal Trinity Restoration Act in 1994 and in adding to the program?s Task Force representatives of two Native American Tribes, commercial fishing, sport fishing, and timber. Later, I was instrumental in adding irrigator and power representatives to the Trinity Task Force. Trinity River is the single, the only ? the one, single river in the United States below a federally financed dam that has the opportunity for significant ecosystem and fishery restoration. The reasons for this are simple: promises in the pre-legislative and legislative history of the Trinity Division, the legislation that created the Trinity Division and in all subsequent Trinity legislation. All reinforce the original promises and legal mandates for fisheries protection and restoration. One of those laws requires that fish populations be restored to pre-dam levels. An example of the promises is found in the words of Clair Engle, then congressman from the area and proponent of building Trinity Dam. He said his legislation, and I quote, ?does not contemplate diversion of one bucketful of water which is necessary is this watershed." There were numerous similar promises. Then, Trinity Division authorizing legislation provided, and I quote again, ? the Interior Secretary is authorized and directed to adopt appropriate measures to insure the preservation and propagation of fish and wildlife .? That is the law. We have consistent promises. We have consistent law. About four years after completion of Trinity Dam in 1963, major fishery declines became obvious. It was not until 1981, however, that Interior Secretary Cecil Andrus ordered a modest increase in returns of water to the river and a 12-year flow study by scientists to determine a flow regime that would restore fisheries as mandated by law. In 1992, the Miller/Bradley Act incorporated the Secretary?s decision and mandated completion and implementation of the remediation plan by December 1996. After 20 years of solid scientific evaluation and study, the flow report and related environmental documentation finally was completed. In December 2000, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, with the concurrence of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, signed a decision to provide for sufficient returns of water to the river and other actions to restore the river?s fisheries. That decision would restore fish populations to about 60 percent of pre-dam levels. Immediately following the decision, implementation of it was blocked by litigation, and it remains so. This issue is not merely a matter of recreational fishing opportunities. Aside from the transfer of Trinity?s water to the Western San Joaquin Valley, there also is an ongoing major wealth transfer from the North Coast to a relative handful of large landowners. Trinity restoration is critical, absolutely critical to the economy of the North state. Unemployment in Trinity and affected counties remains in excess of 20 percent. From San Francisco Bay to our Northern border, some 17,000 off and on shore jobs have been lost to the commercial fishing industry alone. Tourism increases from a restored fishery remains the foundation of a rejuvenated economy for the entire North Coast area. Well, what do we ask the Joint Committee to do? We ask for support to implement the Trinity Record of Decision as soon as possible. We ask you not to support a settlement of litigation that would allow continued destruction of the Trinity Basin. There have been litigation settlement proposals, and more settlement proposals. As stated by the Hoopa Valley Tribe, "These proposals have failed because they cannot accomplish the restoration objectives or meet the scientific standards established by the Congress for the Trinity River." We ask that California continue as an active participant in the policy-making entity for restoration, the Trinity Management Council. The California position is now vacant. The TMC is charged with implementing the Record of Decision, and that needs to be accomplished as quickly as possible and in a manner that measures and ensures the program?s success. Finally, as a member of a family that immigrated to California in the 1860s, and provided me with the unique experiences of a vibrant Trinity River until the mid-1960s, I ask that you support achieving a restored Trinity in my lifetime ? for me, for my children, for my grandchildren, for you and your children and grandchildren and for all future generations. Having lived nearly eight decades in California, the issue gets down to this: Is our legacy to be a partially restored irreplaceable resource as promised and legislated? Or, is it to be within a few decades - largely with the Trinity?s water - a 950 thousand acre Western San Joaquin Valley Superfund site? Thank you very much. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Andrew_Hamilton at fws.gov Thu Mar 25 13:49:35 2004 From: Andrew_Hamilton at fws.gov (Andrew_Hamilton at fws.gov) Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2004 13:49:35 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Message from Arnold Whitridge transmitting messagefrom Doug Schleusner Message-ID: More natural history: Spring juvenile coho populations in the mainstem Trinity fluctuate radically, with about half the young salmon in the area above Rush Creek composed of coho in about one out of three years, and only a handful of coho in other years. Coho are the fish most disposed to stranding, since they occupy still backwater areas as well as the full range of chinook habitat. If this is a low coho year, seeing few coho stranded really isn't encouraging, because although you won't lose many, there aren't many to lose. A drop from 2,000 to 300 cfs in mid-March will necessarily eliminate many thousands of chinook, and in a good coho year many thousands of coho. It is doubtful that any isolated fish will survive through April, or that any ramping rate can be devised that would lessen the effect. The logical problem with slowed ramping rates is that while they allow more time for fish to swim out of potential isolation areas, they allow the same amount of time for fish to swim into potential isolation areas. Population effects of the recent flow blip may be negligible, because a lot of the the fish that were present at 2,000 cfs had survived only because of the higher flows, and dropping flows to preordained levels will change little in the long run. To put it another way, when you make the river smaller during the rearing season, there isn't room for all the fish that were there when it was running high, and it doesn't matter whether they are stranded or simply crowded out into undesirable areas. If there were enough water to hold flows at 2000 cfs until mid-May, when almost all the natural chinook and coho have left the upper river, there would be no stranding and no loss of habitat. Andrew Hamilton US Fish and Wildlife Service (916) 414-6540 "George Kautsky" To: "Tom Stokely" , Sent by: "env-trinity" env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn. cc: Joel Green , davis.ca.us salmon at pelicannetwork.net, Paul Petros Subject: RE: [env-trinity] Message from Arnold Whitridge transmitting messagefrom Doug Schleusner 23-03-2004 10:35 AM Arnold and others, I wish to inform preliminarily as to our observations at Junction City Juvenile screw-trapping site. My field biologist noted today that captures are much lower than typically observed for this week in prior years. That is, the flood of hatchery steelhead and coho have not arrived yet at JC as anticipated. He further states that he has heard accounts of large pods of juveniles holed up in vicinity of the old Lewiston Bridge. We should have preliminary tabulations for J.C. screw trap completed by early next week and will distribute them to coop agencies. Regards, George Kautsky Hoopa Tribal Fisheries (530)625-4267 ext 15 -----Original Message----- From: env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us]On Behalf Of Tom Stokely Sent: Monday, March 22, 2004 9:23 AM To: env-trinity Cc: salmon at pelicannetwork.net Subject: [env-trinity] Message from Arnold Whitridge transmitting messagefrom Doug Schleusner awhitridge at snowcrest.net wrote: TAMWG and TMC, My e-mail capabilities currently exceed those of some entire Interior Department agencies, so I've been asked to circulate a message from the TRRP office. As background, there was concern that the recent rampdown of Lewiston releases from 2000 cfs to 300 cfs would strand some juvenile fish. To minimize stranding, Central Valley Operations modified the rampdown schedule as suggested by scientists who were meeting to discuss the annual flow schedule, but there were nevertheless some reports of stranding, including stranding of young coho. Doug Schleusner reports (March 19): "Branch Chief Daryl Petersen and two other biologists (Mike Kelly, NOAA Fisheries; Loren Everest, Forest Service) floated the Trinity from the hatchery to Bucktail, and stopped at 5 sites where stranding had been reported or historically has occurred. Stranded salmon were observed at all sites, but most were chinook, with some coho (native) observed at one location. It appears that at these sites there is still enough surface flow to allow some fry to move back into the main channel, or the pools are large enough to allow fry to rear and survive until the spring flow releases begin to ramp up in late April or early May. Mike Kelly will document their observations in more detail and contact other observers down river; a report is expected by next Monday or Tuesday. At this point it does not appear necessary to mobilize a rescue effort or take actions other than continuing to monitor the situation." Arnold Whitridge_______________________________________________ env-trinity mailing list env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity From Gary_Curtis at r1.fws.gov Fri Mar 26 09:03:51 2004 From: Gary_Curtis at r1.fws.gov (Gary_Curtis at r1.fws.gov) Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 09:03:51 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath Fishery Mgmt. Council April meeting agenda Message-ID: Hi all-here is the draft agenda for the April 4-9 meeting of the Klamath Fishery Management Council in Sacramento. The meeting will be held in conjunction with the Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Klamath Council will be developing final recommendations regarding the 2004 harvest of Klamath River fall Chinook. DRAFT AGENDA KLAMATH FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL MEETING April 4-9, 2004 Red Lion Inn, Sacramento, CA Meeting # 75 Sunday April 4, 2004 3:00 pm Convene meeting and introduce members Administration 1. Review and approve agenda 2. Review materials and correspondence (Staff) 3. Election of Officers 4. Public comment 2004 Management Season 5. Review of Pacific Fishery Management Council's (PFMC) salmon-fishing options for public review. 6. Action: Develop additional recommendations for the 2004 management season for discussion with the Salmon Advisory Subpanel and presentation to the PFMC 7. Assignments to Technical Advisory Team (TAT), staff, and members 8. Public comment 9. Set meeting times for the rest of the week Recess Meeting times to be arranged April 5-9: 10. Revise and approve agenda 11. Items relevant to the progress of the PFMC meeting 6. (cont.) Action: Develop additional recommendations for the 2004 management season for discussion with the Salmon Advisory Subpanel and presentation to the PFMC 12. Public comment General 13. Update from California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) regarding fishery monitoring below Coon Creek and other CDFG monitoring activities for the 2004 season 14. Report on Klamath Act administration budget 15. Discussion on KFMC presentation to the Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force at their June meeting 16. Public comment 17. Assignments to TAT, staff, and members 18. Agenda for October, 2004, meeting 19. Time and place of October, 2004, and February, 2005, meetings 20. Public comment Adjourn For more information contact: *********************************************** Gary L. Curtis USFWS-Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office 1829 S. Oregon St., Yreka, CA 96097 530-842-5763 gary_curtis at fws.gov *********************************************** From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Apr 1 08:53:37 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 08:53:37 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Selling Trinity Water to Imperial County? Message-ID: <014601c4180a$0747c4a0$596b3940@V51NH> http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2004/03/20/news/news03.txt Water: The marketable commodity By MARC SCHANZ, Staff Writer SACRAMENTO - California is so well-connected in its system of canals that water from the Trinity River could be flowing into Imperial County if someone wanted it badly enough, according to Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District. "If the best economic interest can be made by transferring my water to someone else, why wouldn't I do that?" Birmingham asked when discussing fallowing in the Central Valley. WWD covers a large portion of the western Central Valley south of Fresno. "What is wrong with making money?" Birmingham asked rhetorically. Now that the historic Quantification Settlement Agreement is a done deal, what does that imply for the future of water transfers in California? What are the responsibilities, if any, of the sellers and buyers of water? If anyone wanted to stop the litigation spawned from the Golden State's water wars in its tracks, they could have done it by rounding up all the usual suspects at the Clarion Hotel in Sacramento on Friday at the "California Water Marketing" seminar put on by the Washington-based Seminar Group and trade journal Water Strategist. A virtual who's who of players in the QSA and state water law turned out to examine where the future of water in California was headed, especially after the historic transfer between the Imperial Irrigation District and the San Diego County Water Authority was approved in October 2003. Representatives from the legal teams of SDCWA, IID, the Metropolitan Water District and other state water agencies all were in attendance. Moderator Rodney Smith, the editor of Water Strategist and an IID economist, said "the Berlin Wall has fallen in California" when talking about the emerging water market. Water is coming into its own as a market in this state, but certain things have to happen for that to be encouraged, Smith said. The state's traditional water supplies - the Colorado River, the State Water Project and groundwater - all are dwindling, Smith said. "We need to have an institutional framework for decision-making and a clear definition of property rights," Smith added. The arrival of an open water market will challenge the old structures of the water industry, Smith added, and development pressures will become more acute and less tolerant of delays through litigation. Between seminars dealing with weighty topics such as property rights, water markets, land-use planning and water supply to new development, water lawyer jokes were the order of the day. "I flunked out of law school and I'm the one who wrote the laws," joked former state Assemblyman and current member of the State Water Resources Control Board Richard Katz, to the room full of lawyers. Katz, who in the 1980s authored some of the legislation that changed the way water transfers were viewed, talked about the state's dealings with the Colorado River and the federal government. "There's nothing like arguing for state's rights with the Bush administration," Katz added wryly. Commenting on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's assessment of use of Colorado River water, Katz said, "They believe in states rights except when dealing with water and presidential elections." The keynote address was given by Dennis O'Connor, consultant to the state Senate committee on agriculture and water resources. "There was a time during the beginning of the (State Water Project) where there were unintended positive effects to landowners along the project," O'Connor said. "Now, we're looking at how public trust issues and health and safety issues are dealt with." O'Connor spoke about state Sen. Michael Machado (D-Linden), and his work involving the growing concern with "third-party impacts" of water transfers. O'Connor mentioned legislation recently introduced by Machado - SB 1374 - that specifically addresses third-party impacts from long-term water transfers, and laying out criteria for which the SWRCB can approve such transfers. The bill is scheduled to be heard in the Assembly on April 20, O'Connor said. Those seeking a transfer must show that full disclosure of the structure and financing of a transfer, demonstrate sufficient opportunity was given for those affected to demonstrate effects, show the evidence presented by those affected was considered and that the transfer avoids or mitigates impacts, O'Connor said of the bill's language. "What is sufficient mitigation? We are still working on that, and that may come forward in the future," O'Connor said. "This is intended to get rid of many issues that the folks down in Imperial are still wrestling with." David Osias, an outside attorney who has represented IID, said such new legislation lends itself to being a delay mechanism for those who would find issue with transfers. "I'm sure that's not what it's intended for, but that's what it looks like," he said. The loser in the movement toward a water market is the California farmer, said Rhonda Azevedo Lucas of the California Farm Bureau Federation. Most farmers in the state are family farmers, with mid-sized farms that are not "corporate-owned," Lucas said. "Most times, when there is a use shortage, agriculture is impacted in this state," Lucas said. More crops are being produced in California today with less water, she said, all while farmers are under assault from federal and state environmental regulations. "The industry is losing money while increasing output," Lucas said. "We need to work to protect agriculture in this state because it is under pressure." One of the concerns of those in attendance was the concept of reasonable and beneficial use and how nebulous the term has been in the past when dealing with water rights - and disputes over who's the best user of that water. IID Director Andy Horne asked how water districts are going to come to some understanding about use. "How are we going to get clarity on this issue in the future?" Horne asked. "Right now, there's a hammer hanging over every water rights owner's head: the idea of reasonable and beneficial use." Katz said the state is no longer divided along north-south lines but east-west, and the key to solving the morass of districts invoking reasonable-use clauses is to get more people involved in the process. "It's an urban versus rural split in the state now," Katz said. "There need to be more mid-level transfers so we can manage and plan better." John Penn Carter, the IID's chief counsel since 1981, defended the Imperial Valley's water rights in the wake of the sweeping transfer agreement and talked about his 20-plus years defending the district's water claim. "Has the mission been accomplished? I would say it has been, but there's a lot we still have to see through," Carter said. Southern California had and still has the political will to beat up on Imperial County's water rights, Carter said. Now the district is fallowing, something it didn't want to do but is obligated to as part of the water transfer. "There are huge environmental concerns at stake here, the Salton Sea being the largest," Carter said. "None of our water rights are being transferred just our water. I think there's an important distinction to be made there." >> Staff Writer Marc Schanz can be reached at 337-3452 or at mschanz at ivpressonline.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright ? 2004 Imperial Valley Press. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 2 11:10:18 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2004 11:10:18 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] New U.S.D.A. Initiative Will Target Klamath Salmon Message-ID: <000501c4190f$e127c3e0$cd653940@V51NH> Does anybody know if this funding will be available in the Trinity River and South Fork Trinity River watersheds? http://www.eurekareporter.com/Stories/fp-03300401.htm New U.S.D.A. Initiative Will Target Klamath Salmon U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced on Tuesday a $3.5 million new initiative to help restore and conserve salmon habitat as part of the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program. The fiscal year 2004 funds will be used for the new Salmon Habitat Restoration Initiative, which is available in Alaska, California, Maine, Oregon and Washington. "This initiative supports the administration's commitment to restoring the health of the Klamath Basin and critical salmon habitat in other key areas of the country," Veneman said. "Maintaining healthy watersheds will ensure long-term salmon survival." The new initiative, administered by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, will help landowners with projects that restore habitat for Pacific and Atlantic salmon. Projects may include providing shade along streams, restoring gravel spawning beds, removing barriers to fish passages and reducing agricultural runoff. WHIP is a voluntary conservation program, reauthorized in the 2002 Farm Bill, which provides technical and financial assistance to landowners and others to develop upland, wetland, riparian and aquatic habitat areas on their property. The program provides full flexibility to landowners, offering one-year agreements, 5- to 10-year agreements and 15-year or longer agreements. Since WHIP began in 1998, nearly 14,500 participants have enrolled more than 2.3 million acres into the program. Additional information on WHIP and the Salmon Habitat Restoration Initiative is at www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/whip or from Martha Joseph, NRCS Watersheds and Wetlands Division, martha.joseph at usda.gov or phone (202) 720-7157. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Apr 6 01:39:45 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 01:39:45 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Upcoming Meeting Schedules Message-ID: <014901c41bb2$b75bec80$486c3940@V51NH> The following is from Doug Schleusner dschleusner at mp.usbr.gov Good morning, This is to confirm that Tuesday, June 29, is the date identified by most of you as best for the June TMC meeting. Details will be provided at a later date. To summarize some key calendar items: April 14, TMC meeting, Redding (USDA Service Center, off Airport Rd.) May 12, Program Review Workshop, Weaverville (combined meeting) June 7-10, Lower Klamath/Trinity Science Workshop (HSU) June 14, TAMWG meeting (Weaverville) June 29, TMC meeting (Weaverville) Thank you. ___________________________________ Douglas P. Schleusner, Executive Director Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300, 1313 South Main St. Weaverville, CA 96093 (530) 623-1800 Fax: (530) 623-5944 e-mail: dschleusner at mp.usbr.gov ___________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Apr 6 01:43:48 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2004 01:43:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Bill Chambers Appointed Trinity County District 1 Supervisor Message-ID: <017601c41bb3$47e67cc0$486c3940@V51NH> It has been reported to me that Mr. Bill Chambers of Lewiston has been appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to fill the vacant District 1 Trinity County Supervisorial seat held by the late David Klipp. Congratulations to Mr. Chambers! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 9 09:23:32 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 09:23:32 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Smaller Salmon Runs for Klamath-Trinity Message-ID: <003b01c41e4f$008ff2e0$9a6c3940@V51NH> It's my understanding that there was a juvenile fish kill in spring/early summer of 2002 which affected this year's run of 3-year old chinook. The impacts of the 2002 adult salmon kill on 3 year old fall chinook in the Klamath-Trinity will not be felt until next year. The number of returning jacks this year will help determine what the impact of the adult fish kill will likely be next year. Usually in the Trinity River, fall chinook outnumber spring chinook by a ratio of about 2/1. However, it's my understanding that in 2002 due to the fish kill in the lower Klamath and a robust spring run on the Trinity, spring chinook outnumbered fall chinook by about 2/1, something not seen since the fish have been monitored here starting in the 1970's. Tom Stokely http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peninsula/8387824.htm Posted on Thu, Apr. 08, 2004 Klamath fish kills influence salmon industry two years later DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO - Two years after one of the nation's largest recorded fish kills, federal fisheries managers adopted restrictions Thursday to protect a smaller returning Klamath River salmon population along the coasts of California and Oregon. Salmon fishing also will be reduced along the northern West Coast to compensate for an increased Canadian catch. At least 32,550 fall run chinook salmon died along the Klamath in what is believed to be the nation's largest such die-off in the fall of 2002, and biologists worry that could be a significant underestimate. It followed two consecutive smaller spring kills, when water diverted to irrigation stranded young salmon that, had they survived, would be returning upriver to spawn. The projected catch of Klamath River fall chinook this year is down 25 percent from last year's actual catch, said Chuck Tracy, the Pacific Fisheries Management Council's salmon expert. The council regulates sport and commercial fishing in the Pacific. Other salmon runs are expected to be bountiful, but the catch will have to be restricted to make sure there are enough Klamath River salmon to ensure future generations. "It's coming back to haunt us, and it will haunt us at least one more year," said Duncan MacLean, a 32-year commercial salmon fisherman from Half Moon Bay who serves as California's salmon troll adviser to the federal council. "It's not just a few communities here. This is affecting the salmon fishing industry from the Mexican border all the way up through Oregon." The fish kills manifest an ongoing battle between farmers, fishermen and Indian tribes over scarce water in the Klamath River flowing from south central Oregon through northern California. An irrigation shut-off in 2001 led to confrontations between farmers and U.S. marshals, and engaged the White House as the Department of Interior and Bureau of Reclamation continue trying to balance water demands. MacLean is among fishermen who are bitter at the annual restrictions and billions of dollars spent to improve salmon habitat, "only to see those destroyed in one fell swoop. Fish just can't get along without water. It's just that simple." But Wade Sinnen, a fisheries biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game, said ocean conditions and many other environmental factors may also be to blame for the lower projected return. "That's a stretch to say there's a definite link there," Sinnen said. "You can't positively say because of the kill, the numbers are down." The restrictions the length of the U.S. West Coast come a year after the fisheries council recommended the largest salmon harvests in 15 years. "Just because they don't get as good a season as they did last year, doesn't mean it's going to be a bad season. I think it's going to be a great season," said California fisheries biologist Melodie Palmer-Zwahlen. West Coast salmon runs had been steadily increasing the last three years after bottoming out in 1994. The populations by then were so low the council nearly shut down both sport and commercial salmon fishing to keep from wiping out threatened and endangered runs. To avoid a repeat and make sure Klamath salmon return to spawn, the council increased the size limit from 26 inches to 27 inches beginning July 1, and to 28 inches beginning Sept. 1 north of Point Arena; delayed the season a month in the Fort Bragg area; and imposed a smaller catch in the Crescent City and Eureka area near the mouth of the river. A more complicated system was recommended for Oregon to get similar results. "Guys will not work on schools of smaller fish that they otherwise would have worked," said David Bitts of Eureka, vice president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, who has fished for salmon for 30 years. The council also trimmed salmon harvests from northern Oregon through Washington to compensate for an increased Canadian catch of the benchmark species there, Snake River fall chinook. Unlike the last few years, Canada intends to catch its limit this season. "There won't be as many to go around," Tracy said. When commercial fishermen reach their limit on that species, they'll have to stop the harvest for other salmon as well. Recreational fisheries will be less affected, with limits generally similar to last year. In Oregon, the coho fishery will extend to the Oregon-California border instead of to Humbug Mountain, but there will be a smaller quota. For winter run chinook in California, the 2005 season will begin April 2 with a 20-inch size limit, down from a periodic 24-inch limit this year. Salmon stayed far off the California coast last year, so not as many were caught. "We're hoping they'll have a little better fishing this year, a more normal catch," Tracy said. ON THE NET Pacific Fishery Management Council: http://pcouncil.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 9 17:14:01 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 17:14:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Science Workshop Agenda for April 15 Message-ID: <01a601c41e90$baa95540$9a6c3940@V51NH> MEETING AGENDA Overview of Process and Schedule for Development of Scientific Framework and Integrated Information Management System (IIMS) Who: TRRP Staff & Partners; Representatives of TMC and TAMWG When: April 15, 2004; 1-4 pm Where: Victorian Inn Conference Room (near pool) 1701 S. Main St. Weaverville, CA. 1 pm Introductions (Doug Schleusner & Daryl Peterson) 1:15 pm Overview of Process and Schedule for Development of Scientific Framework and IIMS (David Marmorek and Colin Daniel, ESSA Technologies Ltd.) 2:15 pm Discussion ? General Questions ? Scheduling of Workshops ? Identification of Roles and Responsibilities 3 pm BREAK 3:15 pm Synthesis ? Issues to be Resolved ? Action Items 4 pm Adjourn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Sat Apr 10 06:11:40 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 06:11:40 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Smaller Salmon Runs for Klamath-Trinity Message-ID: Tom You're absolutely right about the juvenile fish kill in the spring/early summer of 2002 that is having a big impact upon this year's run of 3 year old chinook. Here's my article that I wrote about this fishery disaster, the prelude to the September 2002 adult fish kill, in the spring of 2002. The biologists quoted in the ap article seem to be doing everything they can to get the Bush administration off the hook for the Klamath juvenile fish kills of 2001 and 2002. There is absolutely no doubt that these fish kills - and projected lower 3 year old returns this year - were a direct result of Karl Rove's cynical decision to sacrifice the fisheries of the Klamath and Trinity rivers in order to curry favor with agribusiness to get a Republican Oregon Senator re-elected. Dan Bacher Judge Allows Bureau of Reclamation To Strand Klamath River Salmon A federal judge issued a virtual death sentence upon juvenile chinook and coho salmon stranded by low flows in the Klamath River when she decided not to order the Bureau of Reclamation to release more water into the Klamath River through May 31. Coastal commercial salmon fishermen, represented by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations (PCFFA), were ?deeply disappointed? with the decision on May 3 by Federal Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong in U.S. District Court in Oakland. The PCFFA and Institute For Fishery Resources were the lead plaintiffs in a suit seeking an emergency protective order from the court to prevent the Bureau from devastating this year?s juvenile salmon by cutting releases from Iron Gate Dam. The Yurok tribe also supported the suit, handled by the Earthjustice Legal Fund, by filing an ?amicus brief.? The lower flows resulted from a decision by the Bush administration to release more water to Klamath Basin farmers this year after they rose up in protest over irrigation water cutoffs last year. US Interior Secretary and Agriculutre Secretary Ann Veneman, in a clear case of favoring subsidized agribusiness over downriver fishermen and the Yurok and Hoopa tribes, personally opened the head gates diverting water from the Klamath to the fields in late March. ?The court?s ruling was mixed,? said Glenn Spain, PCFFA Northwest Regional Director. ?The judge agreed with the fishermen on all their legal points, but ruled against them on their request for emergency relief at this time. She instead deferred to the agencies to work details out in the still uncompleted National Marine Fisheries Service formal Biological Opinion on the Bureau of Reclamations?s proposed 10 year water plan.? However, Spain added that this was only ?the first round?in this battle and emphasized that fishermen ?will continue to fight for a fair share of water for the survival of the lower river economy.? ?The Bureau of Reclamation is trying to write off the lower river and coastal economy, but has forgotten that rivers also run to the sea,? said Spain. ?All we have ever asked is a fair share of the water. Lower river and coastal fishermen are just as entitled to make a living and to feed their families as farmers, but cannot do so unless enough water is left in the river so that fish can survive.? Spain noted that the lower Klamath River is receiving less water from the Bureau of Reclamation this year than last year, in spite of last year?s record drought. The ruling came at a critical time for juvenile salmon and steelhead migrating downriver, when high, cold flows are critical to getting the fish safely to salt water. ?The fish are facing a crisis,? stated Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok tribe. ?The Bureau of Reclamation dropped the flows to 1300 cfs, less than half of flows of 2700 cfs that outmigrant coho salmon, chinook salmon and steelhead need.? Crews from the Yurok and Karuk tribes, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service and the DFG have been rescuing stranded fish every day since May 1 from the river around Happy Camp to Iron Gate Dam. Fletcher could not give an exact number of fish stranded in the low flows, but emphasized that the number was in the ?low thousands,? including many coho salmon. Because of the diversion of water for agribusiness that has resulted in salmon declines over many decades, the tribe decided to only commercially fish for salmon for 4 out of the last 15 years. ?Some years we can?t even meet our ceremonial and subsistence needs,? he noted. The Karuk tribe supported the Yuroks and commercial fishermen in their efforts to restore flows. ?The stranding of fish on the Klamath now may not seem that alarming to some, but the drop in flows has a large, cumulative effect on the fishery,? emphasized Leif Hillman, Director of Natural Resources for the Karuk tribe. Recreational anglers also contested the decision as favoring Klamath Basin farmers over the fish and the tribes, commercial fishermen and recreational anglers that depend upon them. ?The court's decision will have a devastating effect on the river's salmon and steelhead populations," said John Beuttler on behalf of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "Sufficient spring flows in the river are absolutely essential to ensure the successful migration of these young fish to the ocean. Unfortunately, the court's decision allows for flows that could make every year a drought year by not requiring the flows necessary for most of these fish to get to the sea. It's another clear example of why anglers need to support fishery conservation groups fighting for their fisheries." On the other hand, timber and agribusiness-backed wise use advocates were very pleased with the court decision. ?It was a sound ruling consistent with the Bureau?s decision not to release water,? said Russell C. Brooks, the attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation. ?The federal court ruling follows a report by the National Academy of Sciences that determined that shutting off water to farms was not backed by the best available science - and that releasing more water may actually harm fish at times.? The struggle to restore the Klamath and Trinity rivers has resulted in the formation of an unprecedented coalition of commercial fishermen, Indian tribes, recreational anglers and environmental groups, who may disagree on other issues, but agree over the need to restore flows to the Klamath-Trinity system. ?The Yurok, Hoopa and Karuk tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and environmental groups are all on the same page on this issue,? said Troy Fletcher. ?It?s terrible that after last year?s decision by the Bush administration to put the fish first, the Bush administration has made a 180 degree turn in the opposite direction to support Klamath Basin farmers. The more that sportsmen support us on this issue, the better it will be for everybody.? "It's my understanding that there was a juvenile fish kill in spring/early summer of 2002 which affected this year's run of 3-year old chinook. The impacts of the 2002 adult salmon kill on 3 year old fall chinook in the Klamath-Trinity will not be felt until next year. The number of returning jacks this year will help determine what the impact of the adult fish kill will likely be next year. Usually in the Trinity River, fall chinook outnumber spring chinook by a ratio of about 2/1. However, it's my understanding that in 2002 due to the fish kill in the lower Klamath and a robust spring run on the Trinity, spring chinook outnumbered fall chinook by about 2/1, something not seen since the fish have been monitored here starting in the 1970's." Tom Stokely _________________________________________________________________ Persistent heartburn? Check out Digestive Health & Wellness for information and advice. http://gerd.msn.com/default.asp From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Apr 12 20:38:01 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:38:01 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] (no subject) Message-ID: <323910-2200442133381847@M2W094.mail2web.com> RELATED Klamath River could fare better this year Water bank and flows on Trinity improve the picture Eureka Times-Standard - 4/12/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer This year's water picture on the Klamath River appears to be a bit brighter than in other recent years when farms lost irrigation water and salmon went belly up. Farms in the Upper Klamath Basin will receive full deliveries of water, provided extremely hot or very wet conditions don't set in, said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. And water being purchased from farmers by the federal government should improve the lot for salmon downstream. The operations plan was released at a Klamath Water Users Association meeting this week. Reclamation is buying some 75,000 acre feet of water -- 24 billion gallons -- from farms in the upper basin for about $4.2 million. That water bank will bolster flows from Iron Gate Dam to the lower Klamath River, flows that might otherwise mimic conditions in the fall of 2002, when 34,000 salmon died in the hot, shallow river. "We need to have that water available to meet the biological opinion for downstream flows," said Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken. The size of the water bank has increased since its inception last year, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ordered the program. The water will be bought not just from people in the federal irrigation project, McCracken said, but from other farms above Upper Klamath Lake too. The Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations said the water bank is beginning to improve flows. But the group, which is suing Reclamation after the 2002 fish kill, also said the base flows to which the water bank is being added aren't based on science and are artificially low. Irrigation deliveries, considering the water year, are the highest in 40 years, the association said. Flows down the Trinity River, the Klamath's main tributary, are also going to be higher this year. The year is being considered a dry year, a classification one step up from critically dry. Last year, as fall approached and conditions seemed to threaten another fish kill on the Klamath, the federal government asked a judge overseeing Trinity River litigation to make available 50,000 acre feet to improve the situation in the Klamath. About 33,000 acre feet was released as salmon began their fall migration. McCracken said he doesn't think the government has asked for that water again. Humboldt County is still trying to get control over 50,000 acre feet it was promised when the Trinity River project was approved in the 1950s. Progress has been slow on that front. # -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From clements_janet at hotmail.com Mon Apr 12 21:06:25 2004 From: clements_janet at hotmail.com (janet clements) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 04:06:25 +0000 Subject: [env-trinity] April 14th TMC Meeting Agenda Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: TMCApril14Mtg.doc Type: application/octet-stream Size: 28672 bytes Desc: not available URL: From clements_janet at hotmail.com Tue Apr 13 09:05:52 2004 From: clements_janet at hotmail.com (janet clements) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 16:05:52 +0000 Subject: [env-trinity] TMC Meeting Location Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From clements_janet at hotmail.com Tue Apr 13 12:45:04 2004 From: clements_janet at hotmail.com (janet clements) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 19:45:04 +0000 Subject: [env-trinity] FW: Consider this additional direction info for the TMC meeting Wed 4/14 Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Apr 13 13:12:42 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 16:12:42 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] Directions to TMC Meeting at New USFS HQ Message-ID: <39020-220044213201242827@M2W059.mail2web.com> The following instructions are courtesy of Mr. Bill Brock of the USFS. I won't be in attendance. Have fun everybody! Tom Stokely *************************************** >From I-5 South: Take the Knighton Road offramp. Turn right, travel east for about 2 miles until reaching the airport at the stoplighted intersection with Airport Road. Turn left (north) onto Airport Road and drive a mile at most, passing groves of pine trees on your right until reaching Avtech Parkway on your right. Avtech Parkway is marked with a green-colored street sign only, but it's out in the open. You can see the new 2 story building immediately visible on your right. Everyone will need to enter the building through the main front doors evident as you first enter the parking lot. The meeting room area is just 10 yards beyond the doors that you'll pass through after signing in at the front desk. >From the North or West: After reaching Highway 44 heading east toward Lassen Park, the Airport Road/Old Oregon Trail offramp is about 5 miles from downtown Redding and the Interstate 5 overpass. Turn right onto Airport Road. The locals like to go at least 55 mph on this road, so..... Watch first for the marked Rancho Road cross street after traveling slightly less than two miles, with a Union 76 gas station on your right. Look for a sign on your left after about another half mile, 'Maxx Mini-Storage'. Avtech Parkway is about a quarter mile beyond the Maxx mini-storage sign, also on your left. It is marked with a green street sign only so watch for the new 2 story building to come into view on your left about 10 seconds after passing the 'Maxx' sign. Everyone will need to enter the building through the main front doors evident as you first enter the parking lot. The meeting room area is just 10 yards beyond the doors that you'll pass through after signing in at the front desk. William A. Brock Fisheries Program Manager Shasta-Trinity National Forest 3644 Avtech Parkway Redding, CA 96002 530-226-2430 direct line 530-226-2500 front desk/page -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Apr 13 13:45:39 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 13:45:39 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Poker Bar and Bucktail Bridges Message-ID: Yesterday, bids were opened for rebuilding Poker Bar and Bucktail Bridges. There were multiple bids, all within the acceptable range of the engineer's estimate . As soon as Bureau Contracting has evaluated the bid packages and verified the low bid, more information can be provided to you. This is a very positive development. At this point, all four bridges now are slated for reconstruction/rebuilding. That's highly important for public (human) safety, dam safety, and to allow for higher volume returns of Trinity River's water to it. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Apr 14 11:36:10 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2004 11:36:10 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard April 13 Message-ID: Federal betrayal claimed on Trinity water Eureka Times-Standard - 4/13/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer The Hoopa Valley Tribe said U.S. Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley reneged on a pledge to push for more water to flow down the Trinity River. In a strongly worded statement Monday, the tribe said federal attorneys missed a deadline to plead with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the water needed by salmon. There is a lot more water available this year than there has been in the past several years. Trinity Lake is nearly full, and the year has been classified as wet. The water picture on the Sacramento River is also good, leaving the two artificially connected watersheds relatively flush. The U.S. District Court in Fresno has capped the flows to the river at what would be allowed during a dry year. The tribe said Raley this winter vowed to submit his own brief seeking higher flows to the appeals court now hearing the case, but later backed away, saying it would only support the tribe's request. The Interior Department didn't do that either. "Today was the deadline for the department to support our request for water," tribal chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall said. "But Interior never showed up, and left us alone at the courthouse door." Raley, on an eight-day rafting junket with federal officials and reporters down the Colorado River, was not able to return the Times-Standard's phone call by deadline. Interior and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation public relations personnel would not comment. The injunction on flows comes as part of a suit pressed by the Westlands Water District. The powerful irrigation interest was identified as the main benefactor in legislation authorizing the Trinity River project in the 1950s, and it sued when a federal plan to restore flows to the river was signed years later. Former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2000 approved a restoration plan backed by two decades of studies. The plan would send just under half the upper watershed's water down the river, which joins the Klamath River at Weitchpec. Westlands, in the San Joaquin Valley, gets its water through the Sacramento River delta, fed in part by a diversion tunnel connecting the two rivers. If the court were to uphold the Hoopa Tribe's request, some 71 billion more gallons would flow down the river, opening up habitat for salmon along the course of the Trinity. That water is needed for fish now, according to the tribe. Should the appeals court wait to rule on the merits of the case, the benefits of the water would be lessened. Water from the Trinity last year was credited for staving off another fish kill on the warmer, shallower Klamath, which this year is expected to have generally higher flows. Marshall said Interior's failure to back up the tribe's request will hurt the run of chinook salmon -- a mainstay of the Hoopa and Yurok tribes -- by keeping habitat out of their reach. He said Interior Secretary Gale Norton's decision not to ask for more water is "unconscionable." "The government's silence is mute evidence of Secretary Norton's disregard of her trust responsibility and requirement in federal reclamation law to protect the fishery." Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Apr 15 16:31:34 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 16:31:34 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity 2004-5 Water Year Flow Schedule Message-ID: The following information was provided by Douglas Schleusner, Executive Director of the Trinity River Restoration Program. I have changed some wording. At yesterday's meeting, the TMC approved the recommended flow (water) release schedule for this water year. It is basically the same as last year - ramping up from 300 cfs to 500 cfs on/about May 9, and then up to 2000 cfs on May 15, and ramping down to a summer base of 450 cfs starting July 9. Specific daily releases will be confirmed and distributed through Central Valley Operations of the Bureau of Reclamation in the near future. This schedule is based upon an available court-mandated dry year water volume of 453,000 acre feet, implemented in a way that maximizes biological/temperature objectives. Trade-off is that water volume is unavailable to achieve geomorphic objectives through a peak release early in the season. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sun Apr 18 10:00:33 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 10:00:33 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] GAO to scrutinize Klamath water bank Message-ID: <004a01c42566$ab8616c0$666c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2092501,00.html GAO to scrutinize Klamath water bank By John Driscoll The Times-Standard EUREKA -- The U.S. General Accounting Office is launching an inquiry into a water account created for the Klamath River in 2002 by buying millions of dollars of water from farmers to send downstream for salmon. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water bank project reportedly bought $4 million of water in 2003 -- and has more than $4 million available to buy even more water this year -- from farmers along the central California-Oregon border. The billions of gallons of water is intended to improve conditions for threatened salmon in the lower Klamath River. Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, the ranking minority member on the Committee on Government Reform, asked the GAO to find out how much money was actually spent, whether it reduced demand for water and whether it was used for other purposes than to send water to salmon. "We spent money on this and was it well spent?" asked Thompson on a recent trip to Eureka. Last spring, as Reclamation was amassing the water bank, heavy rains forced officials to spill water from lowermost Iron Gate Dam. Reclamation weighed whether to count the spilled water against the water bank, infuriating lower river communities. In June, Reclamation put out a press release saying the 50,000 acre feet in the water bank would bolster flows to the river. Four weeks later, it was gone. Reclamation changed the water year type for the watershed, cutting back flows due to hot and dry weather. Staff have just been assigned to the inquiry and discussions will soon determine what the scope on the investigation will be, said the GAO's Bob Robinson. "It's imminent to get started, but we're not under way right now," Robinson said. This year, the bureau is seeking to buy 75,000 acre feet from farmers. Next year, it will try to buy 100,000 acre feet. The program is ordered by the fisheries element of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which in 2002 found Reclamation's 10-year plan for the project would jeopardize protected fish. Ernie Niemi, an economist in the Eugene, Ore., office of the firm EcoNorthwest, was sharply critical of the water account program, saying it doesn't transfer water from the low-value users to the high-value users. "This is more like a bureaucracy that doesn't have the skill or innovation to manage the resource," Niemi said. "It's another Stalinesque approach to managing resources in the basin." The federal irrigation project serves about 220,000 acres of land in the Upper Klamath Basin. In 2002 and 2003, Reclamation sought water only from the farmers in the project. A call to Dan Keppen of the Klamath Water Users Association was not returned by deadline. Bill Jaeger in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Oregon State University said the water bank concept has a lot of potential, and could be implemented better. Jaeger said any time something new is tried, there will be problems. "You're going to have lots of bumps in the road," he said. He said a key change would be to include water users outside the project, an option that would make for better efficiency and cost savings. Reclamation is looking outside the project this year. The GAO's Robinson said he didn't have a time frame to finish the investigation. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Apr 19 10:40:53 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 10:40:53 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Wall Street Journal - Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall Message-ID: Another excellent and constructive commentary by Chairman Marshall of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Wall Street Journal April 19, 2004 Program: Ecosystem Restoration Headline: LETTER: The Great Central Valley Water Battle Your March 17 story about the renewal of water contracts in California's Central Valley ("Is Water Too Cheap? As Contract Renewals Loom Environmentalists, Environmentalists, Tax Group Call for Farmers to Pay More") illuminated some interesting aspects about the cost of "cheap water" in our state. But it completely overlooked one of those costs. As chairman of Northern California's Hoopa Valley Tribe, I have watched my tribe and the Trinity River, which bisects our reservation, pay dearly for the water that has been taken from us and sent to irrigation and hydropower users. This water theft has been going on for 40 years despite the assurances of Congress in the 1950s that enough water would be left to keep our water quality healthy and our fishery productive. Now the fish are dying, threatening our livelihood, and causing economic devastation in Pacific Coast communities from Coos Bay, Ore., to San Francisco Bay. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt signed an agreement in 2000 with our tribe for enough water to restore the Trinity River. In that agreement we gave 53% of the Trinity River's flow to the Central Valley, but that was not enough to satisfy the thirst for subsidized water. The Westlands Water District promptly sued to block fishery restoration. We have been fighting them in court for four years, while watching the river and fish suffer. The federal commitment to the Trinity fishery has waned under the Bush administration's stewardship. A year and a half ago, a federal court concluded that the Department of the Interior had breached its trust responsibility to our tribe for neglecting the fishery. Nonetheless, the administration's agenda to renew subsidized Central Valley water contracts remains on a fast track, because, it asserts, to do otherwise would drive agribusiness giants out of business. Congress and President Bush should keep faith with the federal government's promise to our people and the Trinity River. They should tell Westlands that no Central Valley water contracts will be signed until there is enough water to rehabilitate the Trinity River. Clifford Lyle Marshall, Chairman Hoopa Valley Tribe Hoopa, Calif. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Apr 19 11:09:01 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 11:09:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Feinstein's CalFed Bill Message-ID: Feinstein did NOT include a provision for the Trinity. The California delegation has been divided on this legislation and similar legislation of hers for the past several years. No bill has come out of the Congress, nor has the program been funded by the federal government for the past few years. From the point of view of Trinity interests, there is nothing to commend the bill - quite the reverse. If anyone wants a copy of the bill, let me know. I can send it to you in pdf format. Shrunken Cal-Fed bill might have a chance Sacramento Bee - 4/15/04 By Michael Doyle, staff writer WASHINGTON -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein has prepared a bite-sized version of a once-sprawling California water bill in hopes it can be more easily digested on Capitol Hill. Today, in a San Francisco meeting, Feinstein and her allies will learn if they've gone far enough by cutting the bill's cost by more than half. "I actually think we have the only bill that can get through the Senate now," Feinstein, D-Calif., said Wednesday. "I think it's fair to say this is the last chance for a bill (this year)." After months of behind-the-scenes work, Feinstein has crafted a $389 million version of legislation to authorize the so-called Cal-Fed water program. It includes restoring San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta habitat and studying new reservoirs along the upper San Joaquin River and in the Sacramento Valley. The proposal has shrunk from the $880 million California water package Feinstein introduced last May, and the $2.4 billion bill Feinstein tried moving two years ago. Lawmakers had continued to choke on the past offerings, citing both cost and seemingly unrelated labor provisions. Now, though some disputes remain, Feinstein hopes she can move her bill in the next two weeks. "The money should be sufficient to meet the program needs," Feinstein said. Feinstein described her meeting today, with representatives of farm and environmental groups among others, as a chance to build a "united front." Her chief of staff previously met with labor leaders to ensure that the proposal and its treatment of prevailing-wage requirements set by the federal Davis-Bacon Act, would not incite overt opposition. "I give Sen. Feinstein a lot of credit for taking another whack at Cal-Fed," said Environmental Defense attorney Tom Graff, who has been critical of past federal water projects. "There's little glory for a California senator in trying to make something happen on (it), given the mess that the Clinton and Davis administrations handed off to their successors." The Interior Department also helped jump-start the latest negotiations, with top federal water officials getting directly involved after a long period of relative passivity. The bill's changes are both temporal and concrete. The bill now covers six years, for instance, instead of the previous four. Its cost is markedly lower because it's dealing with many projects that have already gotten a congressional go-ahead. It also sidesteps the recurring Davis-Bacon wage conflict. Feinstein now contends that spelling out the prevailing-wage guarantees - anathema to congressional conservatives but heretofore essential to organized labor - is not necessary given existing authorizations for the California water projects. Graff cautioned, though, that "threading the needle with a Cal-Fed bill, in the absence of consensus among the California water interests or strong leadership from Sacramento, is likely to be near impossible." Northern California Indian tribes, for example, worry about the future of Trinity River water. Another political variable is the relationship between the California water bill and the priorities of other Western senators. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., is championing an Indian water-rights settlement in his state costing hundreds of millions of dollars, while Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., is pushing his own bundle of Western water projects. Feinstein said she would be "surprised" if the California bill doesn't eventually get wedded to other Western water legislation. With Congress squeezed by an election-year calendar, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee could take up the legislation as early as April 28. A House bill written by Riverside Republican Ken Calvert, with a price tag that still exceeds $880 million, could then be on track for House Resources Committee approval on May 5. "They're making very positive changes," House Resources Committee spokesman Brian Kennedy said of the Senate bill. House and Senate negotiators would still have to work out their differences in a conference. Some differences are pretty big. The House bill, for instance, includes a $100 million grant program that Feinstein's does not. The House bill also includes controversial language that streamlines the process for actually constructing new dams. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Wed Apr 21 11:14:57 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 11:14:57 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fwd: Trinity Flow Schedule Message-ID: __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ >>> Tom Morstein-Marx 04/21/04 10:55AM >>> The Trinity Flow Schedule has been posted at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/ (see Trinity River Flow Schedule link in lower right) or go direct via http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vungvari/trinsch.pdf From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Apr 21 15:44:43 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 15:44:43 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Flow Schedule 2004-05 Message-ID: Go the the website below to obtain a Trinity Flow Schedule for this water year. http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vungvari/trinsch.pdf Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Apr 21 17:25:33 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 17:25:33 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Association of Environmental Professionals Award for Trinity Bridges EA/EIR Message-ID: <02ea01c42800$55a7fc40$0f6c3940@V51NH> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Tim Reilly, North State Resources, (530) 222-5347 (office), (530) 244-9990 (home) North State Resources Wins Award for Outstanding Environmental Analysis Redding, CA, April 21, 2004 North State Resources, Inc. (NSR), headquartered in Redding, has won the 2004 award for Outstanding Environmental Analysis Document-Small Jurisdiction from the California Chapter of the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP). The winning document, entitled Trinity River Bridges Environmental Assessment/Environmental Impact Report, was honored at AEP's Awards Banquet on April 17 in Los Angeles. Kerri Mikkelsen Rose, an environmental analyst in NSR's Sacramento office, accepted the award on behalf of NSR. Prepared under contract to the Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the document analyzed the environmental effects of replacing or modifying four bridges along a 10-mile reach of the Trinity River as part of a river restoration program to benefit endangered and threatened salmon species. The TRRP, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and Trinity County were lead agencies in the preparation of the document. The Sacramento law firm Remy Thomas Moose and Manley LLP was also a key member of the project team. The Trinity River Bridges document was prepared to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). AEP's awards jury said, "The document represents an excellent analysis of a pro-active project which will contribute to the restoration of the anadromous fishery of the Trinity River while also providing for the health and safety of Trinity County residents. The efficacy with which the preparers of the document have synthesized NEPA and CEQA analysis can serve as a model for the great number of similar projects which are necessary throughout the state." NSR is a full-service environmental consulting firm that specializes in analysis of the biological and physical environments, regulatory compliance, and land and water resource management. The 45-person firm represents federal, state, and local agencies and private clients throughout California and the western United States. In addition to Redding and Sacramento, the firm has offices in Chico and Mt. Shasta. ### This project and environmental documentation has been cooperatively funded through the Trinity River Restoration Program and the California Department of Fish and Game Coastal Salmon Recovery Program -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Apr 22 14:14:13 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 14:14:13 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity River Bridges EA/EIR Websites Message-ID: <03fa01c428ae$c4e24440$0f6c3940@V51NH> I've had a few inquiries about how to obtain a copy of the Trinity River Bridges EA/EIR. You can find it on the Trinity County Natural Resources website at: http://www.trinitycounty.org/departments/planning/natresources.htm or at the Bureau of Reclamation's website at: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao/index.html (see on the left side, bottom of column) If you decide to print it all, you will need a lot of paper. It should also be available in hard copy at the Trinity County Free Library in Weaverville, Hayfork and Trinity Center. Tom Stokely Principal Planner Trinity Co. Planning/Natural Resources 530-628-5949 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 23 08:49:47 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:49:47 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Hoopa Valley Tribe Press Release- SENATE LEADERSHIP URGES SENATORS FEINSTEIN/BOXER TO RESOLVE TRINITY RIVER LITIGATION Message-ID: <056a01c4294a$9ce52c40$0f6c3940@V51NH> April 23, 2004 Media Contacts: Clifford Lyle Marshall (530) 625-4211 (Chairman) Mike Orcutt (530) 625-4267 ext. 13 Tod Bedrosian (916) 421-5121 CALIFORNIA STATE SENATE LEADERSHIP URGES SENATORS FEINSTEIN AND BOXER TO RESOLVE TRINITY RIVER LITIGATION Sacramento, CA - California Senate leaders have sent a plea to Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer asking that they resolve the litigation blocking the restoration of the Trinity River before CalFed is completed. Senate President John Burton, Agriculture and Water Committee Chair Michael Machado, and Budget and Fiscal Review Committee Chair Wesley Chesbro signed the letter noting, "This long and expensive litigation has diminished the human and financial resources needed to restore the Trinity River's fishery." Restoration of the river, which bisects the Hoopa Valley Reservation in Humboldt County, has been blocked since 2000 because Westlands Water District and the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) have sued to stop a restoration plan by the tribe and the U.S. Department of Interior. "This is one of the last wild and scenic rivers we have in California," said Chesbro, who represents Humboldt County. "I felt compelled to assist the Hoopa Valley Tribe and other North Coast communities in making this request to Senators Feinstein and Boxer because the fate of the river is at a critical juncture now. The Central Valley agricultural interests that have drained this river for 40 years are vigorously pushing through CalFed and obtain new water contracts. I am urging a resolution of the Trinity River litigation as a preface to any federal water deals." The letter asks that the federal promise to the Hoopa Valley Tribe and Trinity basin communities be kept for enough water to sustain a fishery in the river. "This promise has not been kept and for the past 40 years up to 90 percent of the Trinity River's flow at Lewiston (Dam) has been diverted to the Central Valley. In 2002, an estimated 34,000 fish, mostly endangered species salmon, died in the Klamath River before they could migrate to the Trinity River to spawn," notes the letter. In 2000, Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt signed a Record of Decision to begin restoration of the river after 20 years of study and negotiations with the tribe. Westlands, NCPA and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) immediately filed a lawsuit to prevent the restoration of the river. SMUD and NCPA members Palo Alto, Alameda and Port of Oakland have since voted to withdraw from the litigation for environmental reasons. "We are very grateful to State Senators Burton, Machado and Chesbro for their leadership support of the Trinity River," said Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall. He added, "Agricultural water contracts are important, but these state senators are saying that the Trinity River cannot be neglected as a resource for the people of California." In fact, Calfed will more than make up for the modest amount of water required for Trinity restoration. "The CalFed process is an historic opportunity to begin the restoration of the Trinity River. I hope the Senate will honor the Nation's promises to us and bring this litigation to an end so we can begin to heal the Trinity River," said Marshall. - 30 - -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 23 11:08:32 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 11:08:32 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Cal Fish and Game's Fishery Restoration Grant Program- Proposals Due May 21 Message-ID: <061a01c4295d$fdd664c0$0f6c3940@V51NH> The California Department of Fish & Game has issued a solicitation for proposals for projects under its Fisheries Restoration Grant Program for 2004/2005. The deadline for applications being received is 21 May. A series of 6 workshops will be held during April across the state to explain the program. For more information, or an application, go to: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/nafwb/fishgrant.html, or call (916) 327-8849. The Fishery Restoration Grant Program has funded numerous projects in the Klamath and Trinity basins over the past 20 years. Current projects include the Trinity River Bridges Project, the Five Counties Salmonid Restoration Program and numerous fish barrier and watershed restoration projects. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 23 13:20:10 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 13:20:10 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] California water agencies sue feds Message-ID: <06c201c42970$621a8e40$0f6c3940@V51NH> Maybe Humboldt County should join this lawsuit for their 50,000 af contract? TS ************************************************* BUREAU OF RECLAMATION California water agencies sue feds Attorney says feds 'took the money and ran' Associated Press - 4/22/04 By Seth Hettena, staff writer SAN DIEGO - Two California water agencies are seeking $500 million for a decade's worth of water that they say the federal government failed to deliver. Two San Joaquin County water agencies say that since 1993 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has failed to deliver 37.5 million gallons a year from New Melones Dam, according to a complaint filed Tuesday in the Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. Much of the water was used to meet state and federal environmental regulations on salinity and federally protected fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, according to the complaint. Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said he had not seen the lawsuit and declined to comment. The Stockton East Water District and Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District supply water to more than 320,000 residents and 130,000 acres of San Joaquin County farmland. Stockton East spent $65 million to build tunnels and aqueducts to carry water it rarely receives. "The system is bone dry most of the time," said Kevin Kauffman, general manager of Stockton East. Nancie G. Marzulla, the attorney for the water districts, said the Bureau of Reclamation signed contracts in 1983 to provide the water, got California to agree to the deliveries and then "took the money and ran." It is the third such case to emerge from California and Oregon in the Court of Federal Claims in recent years. Farmers in the Klamath Basin along the California-Oregon border are seeking $100 million for water the Bureau of Reclamation used in 2001 to protect endangered suckers and threatened coho salmon. In December, a judge awarded $26 million to farmers in Kern and Tulare Counties for water they lost in an effort in the early 1990s to save two rare fish. The Justice Department has not said whether it will appeal. Critics have called the claims a stealth attack on the environment. "The purpose of these suits is simply a backdoor attack on environmental laws," said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the National Resources Defense Council.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Fri Apr 23 14:21:46 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron Leydecker) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 14:21:46 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] (no subject) Message-ID: Excerpts from: A WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR FISHERIES RESOURCES AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S ASSOCIATIONS ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________ SUBLEGALS ~WE HOOK THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO NET~ Vol. 09, No. 11 19 & 26 March 2004 ____________________________________________________________________________ ______________________ "The problem in our fisheries today, and that includes the agencies, academia, industry and the environmentalists, is that we've got too damn many theorists and too few thinkers. What's clearly needed is more critical thought and less 'group think'." .P.R. Templeton ____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________ IN THIS ISSUE . 2002 Klamath Fish Kills May Shut Down 2005 & 2006 California and Oregon Salmon Fisheries. 9:11/01. NMFS Science Panel Rips Agency's Hatchery Fish Listing Policy. 9:11/03. AND MORE ____________________________________________________________________________ _______________________ 9:11/01. 2002 KLAMATH FISH KILLS MAY MEAN SHUTDOWN OF CALIFORNIA AND OREGON OCEAN SALMON FISHERIES IN 2005, 2006; HOW WILL KARL ROVE SPIN THIS? At its 7-12 March meeting in Tacoma, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) released data on ocean salmon stocks showing the number of Klamath 3-year old fall chinook numbers to be the second lowest on record. The Klamath numbers sharply differ with projected abundance for stocks from all other river systems, which indicate continued abundance attributed to the wet conditions of the early part of the decade and good ocean survival. Ocean salmon fisheries from the central Oregon coast to the central California coast are managed on the basis of Klamath stock abundance and coastal fall-chinook (e.g., Eel and Mattole Rivers). Thus, predicted near record low numbers of returning Klamath 3-years olds this year means there is a danger the "escapement floor" of 35,000 natural spawners may not be met. This will trigger some cutbacks in this year's fishery (most likely from Point Arena north, affecting the ports of Fort Bragg and Eureka, as well as the southern Oregon coast) but massive cuts in the ocean fishery, as well as the tribal and in-river sport fishery, for 2005. With the new Klamath model this could mean no salmon fishing between Cape Falcon (Columbia River) and Point Sur (southern end of Monterey Bay) in 2005. Evidence explaining extremely low Klamath 3-year olds this year clearly points to the juvenile fish kill that occurred in the river in the spring of 2002 (see Sublegals, 5:18/01; 5/17/02; 5/14/02; 5:13/02). That spring, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), despite protests from the California Department of Fish & Game, the Yurok Tribe and a lawsuit by PCFFA and other fishery and conservation groups, substantially reduced flows into the river in order to provide full delivery of irrigation water to growers in the Klamath Federal Irrigation Project during the drought. That action led to a large kill of juvenile chinook - this season's class of 3-year olds - as well as Endangered Species Act (ESA) listed coho salmon. The low water conditions also led to the much-publicized kill of over 34,000 returning adult spawners late that summer (see Sublegals, 6:15/01; 6:14/01; 6:13/01; 6:12/07). Although the fall kill was the most spectacular and publicized, the spring kill may prove to be far more devastating. 2006 will likely see similar draconian closures due to the September 2002 adult fish kill and the loss of their progeny. Tragically, the situation fishermen and coastal communities are faced with next season could have been avoided had the BOR listened to the fishery biologists and provided the minimums flows. Politics and the re-election campaign of a U.S. Senator, however, got in the way. Ignoring her trust obligations to the Tribes and the water needs of the fish, Interior Secretary Gail Norton stood in front of a cheering crowd of growers in Klamath Falls that spring of 2002 opening the irrigation head-gates and drying up the river. White House operative Karl Rove, meanwhile, was meeting in the area with growers determining how to use the issue to help the re-election of U.S. Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR). It was not until the following year, in a 30 July 2003 expose in the Wall Street Journal, that the details of the Administration's political maneuvers come to light (see Sublegals, 8:05/06). In September 2003, an investigation was called for on Rove's activities and the role of the Bush Administration in the fish kill, but an in-house investigation by Interior's Inspector General claimed there was no foul play. For more information, see the 6 September 2003 issues of The Olympian at: http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20030906/northwest/93525.shtml, and the Boston Globe at: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/09/06/bush_water_policy_face s_probe, as well as the 5 September 2003 print version of KATU News at: http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=60481. Also see the 12 March 2004 issue of the Oregonian at: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/10790968463227 70.xml. At its April meeting in Sacramento, the PFMC will make its recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce for the 2004 salmon season. Those recommendations will likely include some additional restrictions in the 2003 season to reduce impacts on depressed Klamath 3-year olds. But the real brunt of the 2002 Klamath fish kill will be felt in 2005 and 2006, well after the 2004 elections, and when the new Congress will be immersed in program cuts attempting to address the record federal budget deficit. 9:11/03. NMFS SCIENCE PANEL RIPS ITS AGENCY FOR MIXING WILD WITH HATCHERY FISH FOR COUNTING PURPOSES UNDER ESA: On 26 March, a panel of six scientists, constituting the National Marine Fisheries Service's (NMFS) Recovery Science Review Panel, released a paper in the 26 March issue of Science, blasting the NMFS proposal to count hatchery fish as equivalent to wild for the purposes of determining whether a fish warrants listing and special protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). On 10 September 2001, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Hogan found NMFS' justification lacking for separately counting wild and hatchery fish for purposes of the ESA (see Sublegals, 4:11/02). NMFS refused to appeal the decision, in a case brought by developers (Alsea Valley Alliance v. NMFS, Oregon Dist. Ct., Civ. No. 99-6265-HO), and the issue ended up being appealed by PCFFA and other fishing and conservation groups to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals where it was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds on 24 February of this year (see Sublegals, 9:09/02). Because of the abundance of certain hatchery stocks, their numbers, if counted with natural spawners, could mask problems facing wild stocks and the need for special protections afforded under the ESA. The Review Panel had recommended NMFS respond to Hogan's ruling by excluding hatchery fish from its general fish count, but the agency refused and tried to quell the scientist's concerns. In its Science article, the Review Panel recommended NMFS rewrite its rules and definitions to distinguish between wild salmon and hatchery-raised fish both to satisfy the legal concerns of the federal judge and to make sure wild salmon remain protected. The fisheries service must find a legally defensible definition, the scientists wrote, or face "devastating consequences: wild salmon could decline or go extinct while only hatchery fish persist." The Panel Chairman, Dr. Robert Paine of the University of Washington, told the San Francisco Chronicle, "We should not open the legal door to maintaining salmon only in hatcheries. The science is clear and unambiguous. As they are currently operated, hatcheries cannot protect wild stocks." NMFS downplayed the article, saying "policy and science should not be mixed," amidst charges the agency had sought to censor the scientists' findings, similar to what it had done with the report of one of their biologists on the Klamath following the 2002 fish kill. "This administration has developed such a reputation for scientific censorship that it wouldn't be a surprise if this had been ordered removed from Washington," Donald Kennedy, former President of Stanford University and now Editor of Science, told the Los Angeles Times. Kennedy described the six scientists as top-notch and noted that their article easily withstood review by scientific peers before publication. "Differences on scientific issues should be argued on the merits," Kennedy said, "and censorship isn't the way to conduct an honest debate." PCFFA Northwest Director Glen Spain, commenting on the Panel's Science article, said "The Endangered Species Act was not intended to protect fish in tanks. It was intended to protect them in the wild, which includes the rivers and streams where they spawn. The fishing industry has suffered enormous losses due to over-logging, over-grazing and the over-drafting and polluting of rivers." For more information, see the 26 March issues of the San Francisco Chronicle at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/03/26/MNGQG5RO7F1.D TL, and the Los Angeles Times at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-salmon26mar26,1,1261298.story?coll=l a-home-local. Byron Leydecker Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc, PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 cell 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sat Apr 24 11:19:28 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2004 11:19:28 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] 9th Circuit Rules in Favor of Hoopa Valley Tribe for 2004 Trinity Flows of 647, 000 AF Message-ID: <003201c42a5c$d32cc160$7d6c3940@V51NH> A 3 judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals made the following decision on Friday April 23, 2004: "Hoopa Valley Tribe's Emergency Motion for Stay Pending Appeal Re: Water Year 2004 is GRANTED to allow a water release appropriate for a "normal" water year type." Flows will be 647,000 AF instead of the 453,000 AF granted by Federal Eastern District Court Judge Oliver Wanger. The appeals filed with the 9th circuit by the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Yurok Tribe and others to overturn Judge Wanger's entire ruling are still pending before the 9th Circuit, but this is a good sign. Congratulations and kudos to the Hoopa Valley Tribe! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 23 08:54:04 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 08:54:04 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] CA Senators' Letter to Feinstein and Boxer Message-ID: <057401c4294b$35201ec0$0f6c3940@V51NH> Attached is the 3 California Senators' letter to Senators Feinstein and Boxer -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: CA Senators' Ltr to Feinstein & Boxer, dtd April 21, 2004.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 209807 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Apr 27 09:16:32 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 09:16:32 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] RELEASE OF DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT FOR TRINITY RIVER FISHERY RESTORATION PROGRAM Message-ID: <004401c42c73$04fd8040$156c3940@V51NH> http://www.usbr.gov/mp/mp150/envdocs/trinity_seis/index.html Mid-Pacific Region Sacramento, California MP-04-031 Jeffrey S. McCracken 916-978-5100 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : April 26, 2004 Federal Register Notice Posted on April 23, 2004 RECLAMATION AND PARTNER AGENCIES RELEASE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENT FOR TRINITY RIVER FISHERY RESTORATION PROGRAM Reclamation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hoopa Valley Tribe and Trinity County have made available for public review and comment the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (Draft SEIS/EIR) for the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Program (Program). A final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the Program was issued in November 2000, and a Record of Decision (ROD) executed on December 19, 2000. Central Valley water and power interests filed suit in U. S. District Court seeking to enjoin the ROD's implementation. On March 22, 2001, the court issued a Memorandum Decision and Order preliminarily enjoining the Federal defendants from implementing certain flow related aspects of the ROD. The court found that the effects of reasonable and prudent measures in the two biological opinions, as well as the effects on power in light of the California energy crisis, were not adequately analyzed in the EIS. This Draft SEIS/EIR addresses the court's concerns and updates alternatives. The purpose for the Program as set forth in the original EIS/EIR is to restore and maintain the natural production of anadromous fish on the Trinity River mainstem downstream of Lewiston Dam. The revised purpose discussed in the Draft SEIS/EIR is to restore and maintain the natural production of anadromous fish in the Trinity River basin downstream of Lewiston Dam and to meet the United States' tribal trust obligations. Secondary consideration is given to: (a) meeting the Trinity Basin fishery and wildlife restoration goals of the Act of October 24, 1984, Public Law 98-541, and (b) achieving a reasonable balance among competing demands for use of Central Valley Project water, including the requirements of fish and wildlife, agricultural, municipal and industrial, and power contractors. Submit written comments on the Draft SEIS/EIR by June 22, 2004, to Russell Smith at Reclamation's Northern California Area Office at: Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 723, Shasta, CA 96087, by fax at 530-275-2441, or via e-mail to: rpsmith at mp.usbr.gov . Two public hearings have been scheduled to receive oral or written comments in: Redding, CA Hoopa, CA Tuesday, June 1, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m Thursday, June 3, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m. Holiday Inn, 1900 Hilltop Drive Hoopa Fire Department, Highway 96 Copies of the Draft SEIS/EIR (but not the original EIS/EIR) may be requested from Mr. Smith at the above address, by calling 530-275-1554 (TDD 700-450-6000), or viewed on Reclamation's website at: www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao (click on Projects/Activities/Documents, then on Trinity River - Restoration Program). ### Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, with operations and facilities in the 17 Western States. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Accessibility | FOIA | Quality of Information DOI | Recreation.gov | FirstGov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Apr 27 09:20:54 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 09:20:54 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity to get more water Message-ID: <005201c42c73$9e55c9a0$156c3940@V51NH> Trinity to get more water Court OKs request from the Hoopa tribe http://www.redding.com/top_stories/local/20040427toplo046.shtml Alex Breitler Record Searchlight April 27, 2004 - 6:15 a.m. A trio of judges has granted an emergency request from American Indians to send more water down the Trinity River for fish. The order, issued late last week by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, means the Trinity will swell with far more water this season than it has in the past five years and possibly longer, officials said. Flows had been capped by a federal judge in a lower court while irrigators and power agencies fight with the Hoopa tribe for a limited amount of water. That cap represented the amount of water the river would get during a "dry" season. Last year, however, was anything but dry, with a snowpack estimated at 120 percent of normal. This year brought another healthy snowpack, and the court agreed that the river should receive a "normal" year's water supply, or about 43 percent more water than the dry year cap allowed. But even more encouraging for the Hoopa tribe, the same court is debating the Hoopa's appeal to a successful lawsuit that put off implementation of a Clinton-administration plan in 2000 to restore the river with higher flows. A decision is expected in several months. "It's a breakthrough," said Mike Orcutt, fisheries director for the Hoopa tribe. "Hopefully, we're heading in the right direction." River advocates say the once-mighty channel has declined as more water has been shipped under the mountains to Westlands Water District, which has about 600,000 acres of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley. Since the 1960s, farmers have typically received about 70 percent of the Trinity's supplies. The 2000 plan would reduce diversions to 52 percent. But Westlands sued and the issue has been locked up in court since. Nearly two years ago, 34,000 salmon died on the Klamath River below its merger with the Trinity, due in part to low flows. "We have no other choice but to continue fighting in court," Hoopa Chairman Lyle Marshall said in a statement. "We don't have another river to live next to. The fish don't have another river to swim in." The decision to send more water down the river this year likely won't affect irrigators or power users like the Redding Electric Utility since there's plenty of storage in Trinity Lake, said Tupper Hull, a spokesman for Westlands. But it might cut into water storage for next year, he warned. Westlands offered a settlement to the tribe, but it was rejected. So was a similar offer by the Department of Interior. "This is exactly the wrong way to manage a fishery restoration," Hull said. "This is why we have been calling for several months for all of the parties who are involved . . . to come together, sit down at a table and discuss it." It's dangerous to read into the court's decision, he said, noting that the judges issued just a one-sentence statement. "Obviously, it's a concern, but we really don't know how the court reached its decision," he said. The announcement sent officials scrambling to find a new flow schedule for the river, said Doug Schleusner of the Trinity River Restoration Program. Flows will peak in May at 6,000 cubic feet per second. The flows will prevent vegetation from invading the riverbed and will flush out fine sediments, improving the quality of spawning gravel, Schleusner said. The amount of water gives restoration officials more flexibility. "They (the tribe) made a compelling case, and we have the water to work with," he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Apr 27 17:27:46 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 17:27:46 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Various Articles/Spins on Trinity Issues- HVT, LA Times, Eureka Times Standard Message-ID: <025d01c42cb7$a3a8c300$156c3940@V51NH> Ninth Circuit Court rules to give the Trinity River more water for fish Hoopa Valley Tribe - 4/23/04 SAN FRANCISCO - The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today ordered the federal Bureau of Reclamation to release emergency water for northern California's Trinity River despite opposition by agricultural and hydropower litigants. "We are grateful to the court for respecting the Trinity River's need for water," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, Chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe of Humboldt County. A final decision on the appeal is expected in the next few months, "But this temporary emergency order shows the court understands the long-term trust responsibility to preserve a healthy fishery, " said Marshall. The Hoopa Valley Tribe, whose reservation is bisected by the river, asked the court for more water to help restore the river's fishery. The ruling is part of a four-year litigation with the tribe and its trustee, the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), on one side, and Westlands Water District and the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) on the other. The tribe has been litigating since 2000, when Westlands and NCPA sued to prevent the implementation of a restoration plan developed by the tribe and the DOI after 20 years of study and negotiations. The legal battle is rooted in the decision of Congress in 1955 to divert Trinity River water to the Central Valley Project. "The federal government promised to leave enough water in the river for the river's fishery, but in some years the Bureau of Reclamation took 90 percent of the river's water and the fish population began to dramatically decline," said Mike Orcutt, Director of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries Department. He said the 2002 fish kill of some 34,000 migrating fish in the Klamath River shows the imperative for water in the Trinity, which flows into the Klamath River. In the l980's Congress ordered restoration studies culminating in the signing of the 2000 Record of Decision (ROD) by then-Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. Westlands and NCPA immediately filed an injunction blocking the ROD. In 2002, Fresno federal district court judge Oliver Wanger ruled in favor of irrigation and hydropower interests that wanted to delay the ROD. The tribe appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court. "This long and expensive litigation by Westlands and NCPA has taken away human resources and money from the restoration of the river," said Marshall. "But we have no other choice but to continue to fight in court. We don't have another river to live next to. The fish don't have another river to swim in." # http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2111230,00.html The Trinity wrench in the works By California lawmakers want water contracts delayed pending suit's end John Driscoll The Times-Standard The next few months could prove pivotal to the future of the Trinity River, as contracts with Central Valley irrigators are hammered out and the river's role in those negotiations plays out. On Friday the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to allow more water to flow down the Trinity for salmon this year. That ruling substantially boosts water to the river, and will open up habitat for young fish and help reshape the river's channel. The emergency ruling is part of a suit brought against the 2000 plan to restore the river's fishery by Westlands Water District and other water and power users. Westlands is one of the water users looking to gain 25-year contracts, which are being negotiated in a series of meetings with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Despite being a litigant, Westlands has tried to portray the Hoopa Valley Tribe as obstructionist for not accepting settlement offers from the irrigation district and the U.S. Interior Department. In analyses of the offers, the tribe found them unsupported by science. But the tribe's support is growing. California Sens. John Burton, D-San Francisco, Michael Machado, D-Linden, and Wesley Chesbro last week sent letters to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, saying the litigation threatens to stall water contract negotiations. "I am urging a resolution of the Trinity River litigation as a preface to any federal water deals," said Chesbro, an Arcata Democrat, in the letter. On Thursday, Feinstein asked the entire Hoopa Valley Tribal Council to fly to Washington, D.C., for a Monday meeting. In attendance was Assistant Interior Secretary Bennett Raley, who was criticized by the tribe last week for breaking a pledge to support the request for higher flows this year. Feinstein reportedly committed to more talks on the issue. The tribe is hoping Feinstein might enter language into CalFed -- the state and federal program to restore the Sacramento River Delta -- that would prevent contracts from being approved until the Trinity River matter is resolved. Westlands gets its water from the delta, which is fed in part by the diversion of most of the Trinity's water above Lewiston Dam. Trinity River restoration advocates believe the federal government may try to rush water contracts through before the November presidential election, and most water contracts are expected to be finished in mid-May. Environmental reviews will follow. Westlands spokesman Tupper Hull said the court's decision to release water this year is not how the Trinity's fishery should be managed. He said while it appears there is enough water in storage to support the court's decision this year, dry conditions next year could tax the system. The fastest way to resolve the Trinity issue is for everyone to sit down at the same table and come up with a science-based settlement, Hull said. "That's how a long-term, permanent restoration plan is going to be developed," Hull said. The restoration plan being litigated was drafted after 20 years of studies and would return just under half of the water diverted from Trinity Lake to the river. Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Policy Analyst Barry Nelson said contractors are looking to strengthen their legal and political claims to water from the Central Valley Project -- before suits on the Trinity and San Joaquin rivers are resolved. That could leave the federal government legally bound to deliver water that is required for restoration of the rivers. "Westlands is obviously trying to lock up as much of its future water supply as possible ... before a final decision is made on the Trinity," Nelson said. http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2111241,00.html Big water coming: Heaviest flows in years OK'd by court By John Driscoll The Times-Standard More water will flow down the Trinity River this spring than has been released in years. A relative deluge will pour down the river for nearly a week in May, and strong flows will continue into July. The big volume of water was approved by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Friday, and will move gravel, scour encroaching river-side vegetation and improve habitat for young salmon. The schedule to send the 647,000 acre feet -- 210 billion gallons -- down the river is being hashed out by hydrologists and biologists in the Trinity River Restoration Program. The program expected to be working with about a third of that water when the court issued its new ruling on Friday. "This is the largest volume of water that has gone down the river in quite some time," said Doug Schleusner, executive director of the program. "Overall, I think it's going to be really good for the river." When former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed the Trinity restoration plan in 2000, Westlands Water District and other Central Valley water and power users sued. While the plan has been stalled in litigation, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger has in previous years allowed a portion of the flows to go down the river. But with an average winter, the plan called for more water than Wanger allowed. The Hoopa Valley Tribe petitioned the 9th Circuit -- where the larger case rests -- to allow higher flows. Four bridges over the Trinity have to be rebuilt to allow flows higher than 6,000 cfs, which are called for in wet years. While the high flows are meant to improve conditions for fish, they also help the burgeoning white water rafting business on the Trinity River. High flows bring more exhilarating, safer trips. "In one word? Whoopee," said Michael Charlton of Redwoods and Rivers in Big Bar. "Higher flows just equate to more fun for us." Charlton said once the word gets out about the higher flows, booking should go up substantially. The schedule of releases should be available early next week. TRINITY RIVER District Ordered to Release Water Los Angeles Times - 4/27/04 Staff and wire service reports The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the release of emergency water to replenish the Trinity River in Northern California. The ruling is part of a four-year case by the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the U.S. Department of the Interior, which argued that an act of Congress in 1950 to redirect the river's water to irrigate the Central Valley had depleted the area of fish. An order from the Department of the Interior in 2000 to restore the river was blocked by the Westlands Water District and the Northern California Power Agency, throwing both sides into litigation. The court's ruling last Friday is temporary.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 20040427_FPG_TFRT.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 25871 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Apr 28 07:33:57 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 10:33:57 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE- Deal may be in the works between Hoopas, Westlands Message-ID: <244640-220044328143357260@M2W044.mail2web.com>  x - closeRecent Stories By David Whitney Deal may be in the works between Hoopas, Westlands Water district sued in 2000 to block higher flows in the Trinity River for salmon. By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, April 27, 2004 Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here. WASHINGTON - An effort appears to be under way to negotiate a settlement between the Hoopa Valley Indian tribe and the Westlands Water District over diversion of Trinity River water for Central Valley agricultural irrigation. The move comes as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the release of more water for salmon sought by the tribe and as a Senate committee prepares to take up California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's pared-down bill to authorize the joint federal-state water project known as Cal-Fed on Wednesday. Last week, California state Senate leaders sent a letter to Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer urging them to resolve the legal fight between the Hoopas and Westlands before completing work on the Cal-Fed bill. Hoopa tribal officials said late last week that they were headed to Washington for a Monday meeting with Feinstein. After the meeting early Monday afternoon, tribal officials said the senator asked them not to discuss details with the media. But the tribe said more meetings will be held, raising the likelihood that Feinstein has agreed to serve as a sort of arbitrator in the water dispute. Her spokesman, Howard Gantman, confirmed there had been a meeting with the tribal leaders Monday but provided no other details. That prospect brought cheers from Westlands, whose spokesman, Tupper Hull, said, "We'd welcome Senator Feinstein's participation in bringing all the parties together to talk." The Hoopas and Westlands have been locked in a legal battle since 2000 when the water district and others, including the Northern California Power Agency, sued to block implementation of a deal between the tribe and the Interior Department to restore flows to the Trinity River that had been diverted into the Central Valley Project since the mid-1950s. While the CVP legislation had promised there would be enough flow in the Trinity for its salmon runs, that hasn't always worked out, especially in drought years, and the Hoopa have blamed the irrigation withdrawals for sharp declines in salmon runs. In a letter to Boxer and Feinstein dated April 21, state Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, Senate Agriculture and Water Committee Chairman Michael Machado, and Budget and Fiscal Review Committee Chairman Wesley Chesbro urged them "to help resolve the litigation that is blocking restoration of the Trinity River." Two days later, on Friday, the 9th Circuit overturned a lower court decision that releases down the Trinity River for salmon be managed based on dry-year river volumes, ordering instead that the releases parallel normal-year flows. That change will increase the flow down the Trinity from a total of about 453,000 acre- feet to about 647,000 acre-feet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ About the Writer --------------------------- The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or dwhitney at mcclatchydc.com. - Get the whole story every day - SUBSCRIBE NOW! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Apr 29 07:39:13 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:39:13 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Upcoming Trinity Adaptive Mgmt Working Group Meetings Message-ID: <002d01c42df7$bffb3560$106c3940@V51NH> Arnold Whitridge wrote: TAMWG, After careful analysis of the responses to my April 23 inquiry, I've set Tuesday, June 15 as the date for the next regular meeting of the TAMWG. The special "vision" meeting suggested by the TMC program evaluation committee is still scheduled for May 12. Regards, Arnold Whitridge -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Apr 29 07:46:25 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 07:46:25 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] NY Times-W.T.O. Rules Against U.S. on Cotton Subsidies Message-ID: <005a01c42df8$c052aec0$106c3940@V51NH> W.T.O. Rules Against U.S. on Cotton Subsidies April 27, 2004 By ELIZABETH BECKER WASHINGTON, April 26 - Brazil won a preliminary ruling at the World Trade Organization on Monday night that could force the United States to lower the subsidies it pays farmers to grow cotton and, eventually, most subsidized crops. The decision supports Brazil's contention that the subsidies paid to American cotton farmers violate international trade rules. A final ruling against the United States could lead to stiff penalties if it fails to change its practices. In another recent case involving steel, President Bush chose to remove subsidies and therefore did not have to face the penalties. The ruling also puts the Bush administration in a tight bind in an election year, when Republicans are counting on support from the Farm Belt. The largest American farmers have grown dependent on the $19 billion they receive in annual subsidies. If the final decision in June goes against the United States, the administration is expected to appeal, if for no other reason than to delay action until after the election. Nearly all preliminary opinions are eventually upheld by the W.T.O. As the first successful challenge of a wealthy nation's domestic agricultural subsidies, the Brazilian case could also force the United States, the countries of Europe and other well-to-do nations to act this summer and offer new compromises at global trade talks that have been blocked over this agriculture issue for more than a year. The $300 billion in annual farm subsidies and supports paid by the world's wealthiest nations have been the bane of Third World farmers. The United Nations, the World Bank and charities like Oxfam have said their elimination or reduction would provide the single biggest possible benefit for the economies of poor countries with many subsistence farmers. Brazilian officials said they brought the case against the United States out of frustration, saying that all attempts by poorer nations to negotiate a reduction of the subsidies had failed. The ruling Monday night was not publicly disclosed, and the United States and Brazil have agreed not to discuss the findings in detail until the final decision is made in June. At a news conference in Bras?lia, however, top government officials said they were pleased and gratified with the ruling. "This is a precedent; this is a war that must continue," said Roberto Azevedo, the top legal adviser to Brazil's Foreign Ministry. The Brazilians accused the United States of breaking trade rules that limit to $1.6 billion the amount of subsidies it can pay American cotton growers every year. The United States defended the additional financing as domestic subsidies that do no harm to global markets. But using data from the United States Department of Agriculture, Brazil argued that the programs led to increased American cotton production that destroyed Brazil's export markets and undermined the livelihoods of its farmers. Without the subsidies, Brazil estimated that United States cotton production would have fallen 29 percent and that American cotton exports would have dropped 41 percent. That would have led to a rise in international cotton prices of 12.6 percent, which would have helped Brazil's cotton farmers. Brazil also said that the United States was providing illegal export subsidies to American agribusinesses and manufacturers, who were given $1.7 billion to buy American cotton. Ken Cook, the president of the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization that posted a database of subsidies on its Web site that was used by Brazil, said that the ruling was putting into question how the government would pay subsidies in the future. "This could mean problems for all domestic subsidy programs, for corn, wheat, rice, everything that receives big direct payments from the United States Treasury," he said. A United States trade official said Monday night that the administration would appeal the decision if the final report remained unchanged. "United States farm programs were designed to be and are fully consistent with our W.T.O. obligations," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the ruling. "We have serious concerns with aspects of the panel report." American farmers have benefited handsomely from the expansion in world trade, and their exports have exploded over the last years. One out of every three acres in the United States are now planted for exports. The cotton subsidies have helped make the United States the world's top cotton exporter, with more than 40 percent of the world market. Poor nations have long contended that this expansion is based unfairly on subsidies that fuel overproduction and drive down world prices. Those prices do not harm the big farmers in the United States because they are subsidized by American taxpayers. The United States argued in its submission that its subsidies were not linked directly to the production of cotton and, therefore, did not distort trade. But the Monday night ruling threw that argument into doubt, thereby calling into question the basis of much of the domestic agricultural subsidy system. In its complaint, Brazil also accused the United States of additional unfair subsidies - including the federal farm program that pays American agribusinesses and manufacturers $1.7 billion to buy the American cotton that is already subsidized. Brazil was joined in the W.T.O. case as third parties by Argentina, Australia, Benin, Canada, Chad, China, the European Community, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Taiwan and Venezuela. The existing subsidies for American cotton farmers - $10 billion over seven years - were partly responsible for the breakdown in global trade talks in Canc?n, Mexico, in September. West African countries, some of the poorest in the world, made cotton a test case of the W.T.O.'s commitment to remove barriers to poor nations' ability to trade their agricultural products. But the United States offered, instead, to study the cotton issue and consider reducing subsidies as well as removing nontariff and other trading barriers on cotton, synthetic fibers, textiles and clothing. With the United States and Europe vowing to revive those stalled trade talks over the summer, the question of agricultural subsidies and supports, especially now for cotton, will be back on the agenda. A compromise reached in trade talks could be less painful than penalties from the cotton case. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/27/business/worldbusiness/27COTT.html?ex=1084 077400&ei=1&en=548fafa92408e5b0 --------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Apr 29 18:44:58 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 18:44:58 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] [FOTR] Recommended Trinity River flow schedule Message-ID: <200404300145.i3U1jAOi027833@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> Attached is the Trinity River flow schedule recommendation submitted by the Restoration Program office to Central Valley Operations on behalf of the Trinity Management Council. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: WY2004 Trinity Recommended Release Schedule 4-28-2004.xls Type: application/vnd.ms-excel Size: 47104 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: ATT00020.txt URL: From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Fri Apr 30 08:22:57 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 08:22:57 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Revised WY04 Trinity River Flow Release Schedule Message-ID: All- Reclamation has revised the release schedule for the Trinity River at Lewiston based on the recommended flow schedule from the TMC. The daily flow schedule and press release are shown below. Regards, Andreas >From Date To Date Flow (cfs) 01-Oct-03 15-Oct-03 450 16-Oct-03 04-May-04 300 05-May-04 05-May-04 2,000 06-May-04 11-May-04 2,500 12-May-04 13-May-04 3,000 14-May-04 15-May-04 4,500 16-May-04 25-May-04 6,000 26-May-04 26-May-04 5,700 27-May-04 27-May-04 5,400 28-May-04 28-May-04 5,100 29-May-04 29-May-04 4,800 30-May-04 31-May-04 4,500 01-Jun-04 01-Jun-04 4,200 02-Jun-04 02-Jun-04 3,900 03-Jun-04 03-Jun-04 3,600 04-Jun-04 04-Jun-04 3,300 05-Jun-04 08-Jun-04 3,000 09-Jun-04 10-Jun-04 2,800 11-Jun-04 12-Jun-04 2,600 13-Jun-04 14-Jun-04 2,400 15-Jun-04 15-Jun-04 2,300 16-Jun-04 16-Jun-04 2,200 17-Jun-04 17-Jun-04 2,100 18-Jun-04 09-Jul-04 2,000 10-Jul-04 10-Jul-04 1,700 11-Jul-04 11-Jul-04 1,500 12-Jul-04 12-Jul-04 1,350 13-Jul-04 13-Jul-04 1,200 14-Jul-04 14-Jul-04 1,050 15-Jul-04 15-Jul-04 950 16-Jul-04 16-Jul-04 850 17-Jul-04 17-Jul-04 750 18-Jul-04 18-Jul-04 675 19-Jul-04 19-Jul-04 600 20-Jul-04 20-Jul-04 550 21-Jul-04 21-Jul-04 500 22-Jul-04 30-Sep-04 450 RECLAMATION RELEASES NEW TRINITY RIVER FLOW SCHEDULE A Ninth Circuit Court ruling on April 23 significantly increased the volume available to the Trinity River. The Court's ruling came as a result of a request from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. In December 2002, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger limited the available volume of water to 453,000 acre-feet pending completion of a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Report. The Ninth Circuit Court's ruling, in response to the emergency motion, increased that volume to 647,000 acre-feet for this year. The newly revised 2004 flow schedule will be finalized by the Department of the Interior, based on a recommendation made by the Trinity Management Council to achieve a wide variety of physical and biological objectives. This schedule will not only benefit smolt (juvenile salmon and steelhead) growth and survival in late spring and early summer, but will also achieve substantial geomorphic benefits by flushing large accumulations of fine sediment that have been deposited over the past two years, move and redeposit gravel, and scour 1-2 year old riparian vegetation that has re-encroached along the channel's edge, all of which will improve habitat conditions throughout the system. Under the newly approved flow schedule, current releases from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River will continue at 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) through Tuesday, May 4, ramp up to 2,500 cfs by Thursday, May 6, and then continue up to 6,000 cfs by Sunday, May 16. The schedule calls for these releases to continue at 6,000 cfs from May 16 through Tuesday, May 25, gradually ramping down to 2,000 cfs by June 18, and finally reaching the summer base level of 450 cfs by July 22. The new flow release schedule is available online at Reclamation's Central Valley Operations (CVO) web site at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo For additional information, please call Jeffrey McCracken in Reclamation's Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TDD 916-978-5608). You may also contact Doug Schleusner at the Trinity River Restoration Program at 530-623-1800 or Tom Morstein-Marx at CVO at 916-979-2196, (TDD 916-979-2183). __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Apr 30 10:20:37 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 13:20:37 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] USBR Press Release on Trinity Flows Message-ID: <25210-220044530172037381@M2W082.mail2web.com> CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT Reclamation releases new Trinity River flow schedule News release, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region - 4/29/04 A Ninth Circuit Court ruling on April 23 significantly increased the volume available to the Trinity River . The Court's ruling came as a result of a request from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. In December 2002, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger limited the available volume of water to 453,000 acre-feet pending completion of a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Report. The Ninth Circuit Court's ruling, in response to the emergency motion, increased that volume to 647,000 acre-feet for this year. The newly revised 2004 flow schedule will be finalized by the Department of the Interior, based on a recommendation made by the Trinity Management Council to achieve a wide variety of physical and biological objectives. This schedule will not only benefit smolt (juvenile salmon and steelhead) growth and survival in late spring and early summer, but will also achieve substantial geomorphic benefits by flushing large accumulations of fine sediment that have been deposited over the past two years, move and redeposit gravel, and scour 1-2 year old riparian vegetation that has re-encroached along the channel's edge, all of which will improve habitat conditions throughout the system. Under the newly approved flow schedule, current releases from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River will continue at 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) through Tuesday, May 4, ramp up to 2,500 cfs by Thursday, May 6, and then continue up to 6,000 cfs by Sunday, May 16. The schedule calls for these releases to continue at 6,000 cfs from May 16 through Tuesday, May 25, gradually ramping down to 2,000 cfs by June 18, and finally reaching the summer base level of 450 cfs by July 22. The new flow release schedule is available online at Reclamation's Central Valley Operations (CVO) web site at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo For additional information, please call Jeffrey McCracken in Reclamation's Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TDD 916-978-5608). You may also contact Doug Schleusner at the Trinity River Restoration Program at 530-623-1800 or Tom Morstein-Marx at CVO at 916-979-2196, (TDD 916-979-2183). # -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From bwl3 at comcast.net Fri Apr 30 11:37:47 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2004 11:37:47 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Flow Schedule Message-ID: <200404301837.i3UIbwOi029799@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT Reclamation releases new Trinity River flow schedule News release, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region - 4/29/04 A Ninth Circuit Court ruling on April 23 significantly increased the volume available to the Trinity River . The Court's ruling came as a result of a request from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. In December 2002, U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger limited the available volume of water to 453,000 acre-feet pending completion of a final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Report. The Ninth Circuit Court's ruling, in response to the emergency motion, increased that volume to 647,000 acre-feet for this year. The newly revised 2004 flow schedule will be finalized by the Department of the Interior, based on a recommendation made by the Trinity Management Council to achieve a wide variety of physical and biological objectives. This schedule will not only benefit smolt (juvenile salmon and steelhead) growth and survival in late spring and early summer, but will also achieve substantial geomorphic benefits by flushing large accumulations of fine sediment that have been deposited over the past two years, move and redeposit gravel, and scour 1-2 year old riparian vegetation that has re-encroached along the channel's edge, all of which will improve habitat conditions throughout the system. Under the newly approved flow schedule, current releases from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River will continue at 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) through Tuesday, May 4, ramp up to 2,500 cfs by Thursday, May 6, and then continue up to 6,000 cfs by Sunday, May 16. The schedule calls for these releases to continue at 6,000 cfs from May 16 through Tuesday, May 25, gradually ramping down to 2,000 cfs by June 18, and finally reaching the summer base level of 450 cfs by July 22. The new flow release schedule is available online at Reclamation's Central Valley Operations (CVO) web site at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumin.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon May 3 08:43:29 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 08:43:29 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE- Cloud over cotton farmers Message-ID: <001b01c43125$638f4060$1c6b3940@V51NH> http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/9164009p-10089585c.html Cloud over cotton farmers State's growers fear WTO subsidy edict will hit them hard. By Jim Evans -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Monday, May 3, 2004 California cotton farmers could be forced to sell out to developers or grow different crops if a World Trade Organization ruling against U.S. cotton subsidies released last week is allowed to stand. Last week, a panel from the global trading body ruled that U.S. cotton subsidies - worth about $10 billion in 2002 - create unfair competition for Brazil, which filed the complaint. While the report on it hasn't been released, Brazilian officials leaked the ruling last week, prompting U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick to tell a congressional panel that the United States will appeal the WTO ruling, which could take until next year or later. "The effect on the California cotton farmer would be devastating," said Paul Betancourt, whose family grows cotton at VF Farms in Fresno County. The California cotton business is second only to Texas in size. Cotton farmers in the state produce up to 2.5 million bales a year, which is about 10 percent to 14 percent of the U.S. market in any given year, according to the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Associations. The industry employs about 20,000 workers in the state. According to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., U.S. cotton subsidies totaled more than $10.5 billion between 1995 and 2002. California's take of those cotton price supports was $1.2 billion, third in the nation after Texas and Mississippi. The subsidies bolster an already big business. California cotton farmers count on about $1 billion in exports a year, mostly to markets in the Pacific Rim, and rack up sales of about $3.5 billion annually. U.S. cotton farmers say the subsidies are needed because without them they would not be able to compete with countries where the costs of doing business are substantially lower than here. "I think we'd be looking at a situation where our cotton producers become uncompetitive because of low world prices," said Greg Palla, director of operations and grower services for Weil Brothers-Cotton Inc., an Alabama-based company with operations in the San Joaquin Valley. If the WTO ruling survives the appeal process, California cotton farmers said, some in their ranks may have to sell their farms to housing developers or switch quickly to other crops - which would have ramifications for prices for other agriculture products. "If growers seek alternative crops, that puts additional burdens on those other crop businesses," said Palla. Economists say California cotton isn't as subsidized as cotton in other states, such as Texas, because subsidies are based on price and California's higher-quality cotton is more expensive, said Daniel Sumner, director of the Agricultural Issues Center at the University of California, Davis. Sumner - who served as a consultant for Brazil in its case against the U.S. - said federal subsidies "are far less important to California" than they are to other states. Growers in California grow two types of cotton: Upland, or Acala, and Pima. Upland is the only variety covered by the WTO report. Upland cotton makes up about 25 percent to 30 percent of the California cotton market and is the higher-quality cotton - experts say growers get about 5 cents more per pound for upland cotton than for other types. Sumner said Brazil's case before the WTO was that U.S. cotton exports, without the subsidies, would fall by 40 percent, and world prices - because the United States is such a large exporter of cotton - would rise almost 13 percent. Developing countries argue that depressed prices make it harder for them to compete because they don't subsidize their crops. U.S. cotton farmers say that if Brazil wins its case, all U.S. farm subsidies could be threatened. Experts said U.S. farmers receive $15 billion to $20 billion annually in federal subsidies for all agricultural products. "Cotton will not walk the plank alone on this thing," said John Pucheu, co-owner of Pucheu Brothers Ranch in Tranquillity, and chairman of American Cotton Producers. "It could apply to all supported crops." Over the past 25 years, California's cotton business, in acreage, has dwindled considerably. In 1979, California cotton growers produced 3.4 million bales of cotton on 1.6 million acres. In 2002, cotton farmers produced about 2 million bales of cotton on only 700,000 California acres. So far, this year's cotton growing season has gotten off to a roaring start. "We're going into a season right now - knock on wood - that's been one of the most ideal starts in 50 years," said Bruce Roberts, University of California Cooperative Extension farm adviser in Kings County. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Writer --------------------------- The Bee's Jim Evans can be reached at (916) 321-1215 or jevans at sacbee.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 64313730623035333430303832633930?_RM_EMPTY_ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon May 3 09:24:39 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 09:24:39 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Eureka Times Standard Trinity Draft SEIS/R Message-ID: <200405031624.i43GOsOi025219@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> _____ From: Byron [mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net] Sent: Monday, May 03, 2004 8:24 AM To: FOTR List (fotr at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us) Subject: Jobs MEDICAL ASSISTANT Northcoast Family Practice _____ CERTIFIED NURSING ASSISTANT Pacific Healthcare & Rehab _____ 2 Positions Ferndale Children's Center _____ LOAD OFFICERS _____ CARPENTER _____ CUSTOMER SERVICE National Recovery Services _____ GROCERY SALES ASSOCIATES Cash & Carry _____ CERTIFIED NURSE ASSISTANTS Eureka Healthcare & Rehabilitation _____ GOVERNMENT RELATIONS CONSULTANT _____ INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT SPECIALIST 3 College of the Redwoods _____ OFFICE ASSISTANT Redway Community Services District _____ RESPITE SPECIALIST Humboldt Child Care Council _____ SURVEYOR-LAND SHN Consulting _____ Analysis backs 2000 Trinity restoration plan By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Power interests and endangered fish in the Sacramento River shouldn't feel significant effects from boosting flows to the Trinity River, according to a court-ordered federal draft environmental document. The draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement lists an alternative essentially unchanged from one approved in 2000 by former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. It also says that actions being considered by the state and federal government could lessen the effects of crimping water exports from the Trinity River to the Sacramento River and Central Valley farms. Increased water storage, land fallowing, purchasing water from willing sellers and conserving water all might offset the decreased diversion, the document reads. The analysis was ordered by Fresno U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger, overseeing a case by Central Valley irrigator Westlands Water District and power interests who claim the original analysis didn't look deeply enough into the effects of increasing flows to the Trinity River. Whether the U.S. Interior Department supports the preferred option is yet to be seen. The Hoopa Valley Tribe has to concur with the interior secretary's decision, but could sue if the option is not federally approved. Shortly after the Trinity River diversion project was completed in the 1960s, up to 90 percent of its flow above Lewiston Dam was sent to the Sacramento River. Salmon and steelhead runs suffered, and flows have been increased some since then. The Trinity River restoration plan aims to improve river conditions for fish and calls for just under 50 percent of the river's flows to be allowed down the river. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals could throw out the entirety of Wanger's ruling and with it the draft environmental document. Byron Leydecker of California Trout called the draft document a positive step. But he cautioned that legal challenges are likely, and that the river could see its flows crimped until the issue is resolved by legislation or the courts. Westlands had no comment on the document. In the meantime, the 9th Circuit has ordered more water to be sent down the river this year. A schedule for water releases has been set. Flows will begin ramping up beginning May 4 to 2,500 cubic feet per second by May 6. They will climb to 6,000 cfs by May 16 and held there until May 25. Flows will gradually scale back to 2,000 cfs by June 18 and reach summer flows of 450 cfs by July 22. The document can be found at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao/ Click on projects/activities/documents, then on Trinity River, then on restoration. Comments must be sent by June 22, 2004, to Russell Smith, Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 723, Shasta, CA 96087, by fax at 530-275-2441, or via e-mail to: rpsmith at mp.usb r.gov. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumin.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 2129 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon May 3 12:04:17 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 12:04:17 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Sacto Bee - Fishery Rules Change Message-ID: <200405031904.i43J4VOi022568@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> FISHERIES PRESERVATION New rules shift salmon policy Critics say scientists were ignored; species protection uncertain. Sacramento Bee - 5/2/04 By Les Blumenthal, staff writer WASHINGTON - In tentatively concluding there is little difference between wild and hatchery salmon, the Bush administration rejected the findings of independent scientists and, instead, opted for a fundamental shift in long-established policy that could affect federal protections for up to 25 West Coast runs. The administration's move, outlined in a one-page confidential memo reviewed by the White House Council on Environmental Policy, represents a major victory for agricultural interests and developers who had fought the listings of salmon and steelhead runs under the Endangered Species Act. It was a major setback for environmentalists, who charge the White House manipulated an earlier court decision for political purposes. The proposed policy, still in draft form, comes at a time of record or near-record runs on rivers and streams. Most returning fish, in some cases 90 percent or more, are hatchery-raised and not wild. Despite more than $700 million spent annually on the most extensive effort ever to recover an endangered species, improved ocean conditions rather than man-made fixes are generally credited for the healthy runs. Hatcheries have played a key role in supplementing wild runs since the 1930s, when the federal government embarked on an ambitious program to build massive hydroelectric dams. The dams flooded spawning habitat and interfered with migrating fish. Until now, only wild salmon and steelhead have been considered when deciding on federal protection. "Ultimately, this is an attempt to bypass the Endangered Species Act and delist as many stocks as they can," said biologist Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Myers was one of six scientists appointed to an independent advisory panel by federal officials to look at whether wild and hatchery-bred salmon are genetically similar. Myers and other members of the panel said officials of the National Marine Fisheries Service were not pleased when the panel concluded there were significant differences. "Any science that contradicted them was not welcome," Myers said in a telephone interview. The scientists, he said, basically found that "you can't replace wild salmon with hatchery salmon. It's like saying Chihuahuas and wolves are the same." Other members of the scientific panel were also critical of the administration. "The current political and legal wrangling is a sideshow to the real issues," Robert Paine, a biologist at the University of Washington, said in an earlier statement. "The science is clear and unambiguous - as they are currently operated, hatcheries and hatchery fish cannot protect wild stocks." The advisory panel said the tens of millions of hatchery fish released into Western rivers each year are well-fed and larger than wild ones. But Myers said the hatchery fish are also genetically inferior, and staking the survival of all salmon on those bred in captivity would be a mistake. Administration officials sought to downplay the impact of the new policy. "People are jumping to conclusions about what this says," said Jim Lecky, intergovernmental program adviser to the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries programs. Of the 26 federally protected salmon and steelhead runs on the West Coast, all but one - Southern California steelhead - will eventually be reviewed in light of the new policy, Lecky said. Fifteen of the runs have been challenged by various groups; of those, NOAA-Fisheries is under court pressure to decide quickly. "This doesn't necessarily mean they will be delisted or reclassified," Lecky said. "We don't know how many will actually be affected." The memo outlining the proposed new policy, a copy of which was obtained by the News Tribune, concluded hatchery fish that are genetically "no more than moderately divergent" from wild ones will be considered when deciding whether a run should receive federal protection. The phrase "moderately divergent" was not defined. But the memo also said federal officials will recognize the "necessity" of conserving wild salmon populations and the ecosystems salmon depend on. Lecky conceded the policy, if finally adopted, would be controversial. Asked about White House involvement, Lecky said top environmental officials in the White House routinely review such policy changes. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumin.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon May 3 12:06:17 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 12:06:17 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Editorial Record Searchlight Message-ID: <200405031906.i43J6VOi022937@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> Editorial: However counted, fish need healthy rivers Redding Record Searchlight - 5/2/04 Federal fishery managers announced a new policy last week to count hatchery-raised salmon along with their wild kin when deciding whether a run deserves listing as endangered or threatened. The decision provoked the usual alarm from conservation groups and praise from those who bear the weight of Endangered Species Act restrictions, but the political sniping misses the point. A federal judge ruled that the genetically indistinguishable fish should be counted together, the 9th Circuit rejected an appeal, and there the law stands. Bob Lohn, NOAA-Fisheries' regional administrator, said that "properly run, hatcheries can become a kind of extension of natural habitat." True enough, but fishery managers must avoid turning complacent as their stocks, on paper, suddenly appear healthier. While hatcheries can be an "extension" of nature, they cannot replace healthy streams. Hatcheries were first established on the West Coast nearly 150 years ago, and the era since has brought a steady decline in salmon runs, to the point that wild populations are virtually extinct on many rivers. Whatever bump the new rules cause will in no way reduce the work needed to revive self-sustaining, viable salmon stocks. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumin.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From Jay_Glase at nps.gov Mon May 3 15:15:45 2004 From: Jay_Glase at nps.gov (Jay_Glase at nps.gov) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 18:15:45 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: NYTimes.com Article: Drought Settles In, Lake Shrinks and West's Worries Grow Message-ID: Jay Glase Great Lakes Area Fishery Biologist Isle Royale National Park 800 E. Lakeshore Dr. Houghton, MI 49931 906/487-9080 ----- Forwarded by Jay Glase/Omaha/NPS on 05/03/2004 06:10 PM ----- John Wullschleger To: 05/03/2004 03:24 cc: (bcc: Jay Glase/Omaha/NPS) PM MDT Subject: Fw: NYTimes.com Article: Drought Settles In, Lake Shrinks and West's Worries Grow Western drought in the New York Times: Drought Settles In, Lake Shrinks and Wests Worries Grow May 2, 2004 By KIRK JOHNSON and DEAN E. MURPHY PAGE, Ariz. - At five years and counting, the drought that has parched much of the West is getting much harder to shrug off as a blip. Those who worry most about the future of the West - politicians, scientists, business leaders, city planners and environmentalists - are increasingly realizing that a world of eternally blue skies and meager mountain snowpacks may not be a passing phenomenon but rather the return of a harsh climatic norm. Continuing research into drought cycles over the last 800 years bears this out, strongly suggesting that the relatively wet weather across much of the West during the 20th century was a fluke. In other words, scientists who study tree rings and ocean temperatures say, the development of the modern urbanized West - one of the biggest growth spurts in the nation's history - may have been based on a colossal miscalculation. That shift is shaking many assumptions about how the West is run. Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the states that depend on the Colorado River, are preparing for the possibility of water shortages for the first time since the Hoover Dam was built in the 1930's to control the river's flow. The top water official of the Bush administration, Bennett W. Raley, said recently that the federal government might step in if the states could not decide among themselves how to cope with dwindling supplies, a threat that riled local officials but underscored the growing urgency. "Before this drought, we had 20 years of a wet cycle and 20 years of the most growth ever," said John R. D'Antonio, the New Mexico State engineer, who is scrambling to find new water supplies for the suburbs of Albuquerque that did not exist a generation ago. The latest blow was paltry snowfall during March in the Rocky Mountains, pushing down runoff projections for the Colorado River this year to 55 percent of average. Snowmelt is the lifeblood of the river, which provides municipal water from Denver to Los Angeles and irrigates millions of acres of farmland. The period since 1999 is now officially the driest in the 98 years of recorded history of the Colorado River, according to the United States Geological Survey. "March was a huge wake-up call as to the need to move at an accelerated pace," said Mr. Raley, assistant secretary of the interior for water and science. Losing Water at Lake Powell Some of the biggest water worries are focused here on Lake Powell, the vast blue diamond of deep water that government engineers created in one of the driest and most remote areas of the country beginning in the 1950's. From its inception, Lake Powell, the nation's second-largest artificial lake, after Lake Mead in Nevada, was a powerful symbol across the West. Some saw it as a statement of human will and know-how, others of arrogance. Powell, part of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, has lost nearly 60 percent of its water and is now about the size it was during the Watergate hearings in 1973, when it was still filling up. White cliffs 10 stories high, bleached by salts from the lake and stranded above the water, line its side canyons. Elsewhere, retreating waters have exposed mountains of sediment. The tourist economy here in Page has been battered. The National Park Service, which operates the recreation area, has spent millions of dollars in recent years just to lay concrete for boat-launch ramps that must be extended every year, a process that one marina operator here called "chasing water." Daniel C. McCool, a professor of political science at the University of Utah and director of the American West Center, says Powell is the barometer of the drought because what has happened here is as much about politics, economics and the interlocking system of rules and rights called the law of the river as it is about meteorology. Part of the lake's problem, for example, dates to a miscalculation in 1922, when hydrologists overestimated the average flow of the Colorado River and locked the number into a multistate agreement called the Colorado River Compact. The compact, along with a subsequent treaty with Mexico, requires Lake Powell to release 8.23 million acre-feet of water each year below the river's dam, Glen Canyon, no matter how much comes in. Because the river's real average flow was less than the 1922 compact envisioned, Powell very often released more than half of the water the Colorado River delivered. But it did not really matter because the upper basin states were not using their share. Now, communities from Denver to Salt Lake City and Indian tribes with old water rights in their portfolios are stepping forward to stake their claims. Lake Powell, which has been called the aquatic piggy bank of the upper West, is overdrawn. If water levels continue to fall, Powell will be unable to generate electricity as early as 2007 or sooner, some hydrologists say. And it would be reduced more or less to the old riverbed channel of the Colorado River not long after that. Even now, the lake's managers say, it would take a decade of historically normal rainfall to refill it. "If we're only in the middle of this drought, then Lake Powell might be very close to some very dramatic problems," said Dr. John C. Dohrenwend, a retired geologist for the Geological Survey who lives near the lake. Insufficient water for the Glen Canyon Dam turbines would be only the beginning. At that point, much of the lake bottom would be exposed, creating a vast environment for noxious weeds like tamarisk and thistle. The next step in the spiral would come at what is called "dead pool," where decades' worth of agricultural chemicals at the lake bottom would begin mixing more actively with the reactivated river. The question then, environmentalists say, is what would happen to the Grand Canyon, just south of the dam. An Issue That May Go to Congress "Americans won't stand for the Grand Canyon being endangered," said John Weisheit, the conservation director for Living Rivers, an environmental group in Moab, Utah, that advocates removing the dam at Glen Canyon and allowing the river to return to its natural course. "In another year, they're going to be talking more seriously about Powell in Congress." But the fact is, no one knows: the weather could change tomorrow. Many past Western droughts have ended suddenly, with a bang of precipitation. But some dry spells persisted for generations. From about 900 to 1300, scientists say, periodic drought in the West was the norm. Only a few times during that period, according to tree-growth measurements, was precipitation anywhere near the relatively high levels of the 20th century. "What is unusual is not the drought periods, but the above-average wet periods," said Dr. Robert Webb, a hydrologist with the Geological Survey who specializes in the Colorado River. The uncertainty has local, state and federal officials along the 1,450-mile river scurrying to secure water allotments while also preparing for the worst. Already in Las Vegas, the regional water agency is removing the equivalent of a football field of grass every day from front lawns, playgrounds and golf courses to save on outdoor watering. Farther downriver, Arizona officials are pumping billions of gallons of water into aquifers to save for an even less rainy day. Electricity has become a concern. The Western Area Power Administration, the federal agency that distributes power from hydroelectric projects in the Rocky Mountain West, plans to reduce by about 25 percent the amount of electricity it can promise in future years. Conserving on a Large Scale In Los Angeles, a representative from the West's largest urban water agency, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is among a group of Western water officials dusting off plans to help limit evaporation from reservoirs, which could save billions of gallons. One idea is to pour a nontoxic substance over the reservoirs to form a water-trapping barrier. The group, which has been holding meetings, is even looking at far-off solutions like raising the height of Hoover Dam so that more water could be collected and saved during wet times. "We understand we have a problem and we are working on it," said the Los Angeles representative, Dennis Underwood, a former head of the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees dams and reservoirs in the West. There are also worries downstream from Powell at Lake Mead, which serves Nevada, Arizona and California. It could drop low enough as early as next year to force officials to declare a drought emergency. That would hurt the booming southern Nevada economy through significantly higher water rates and outright bans on things like new swimming pools, said Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Mr. Raley of the Interior Department said he wanted the states to consider a water bank, in which unused water could be leased or sold across state lines. Some previous efforts to create banks, with federal oversight, have been contentious because they were seen by smaller states as a means to funnel more of the river to water-guzzling California. But the notion of cutting private water deals on the Colorado is gaining broader acceptance, in large part because of the drought. The most celebrated example was a deal last year to sell irrigation water in the Imperial Valley of Southern California to the urban water district in San Diego. Some advocates for agriculture fear that water-to-the-highest-bidder could ravage ranches and farms if owners were induced to sell their irrigation rights. But private-market supporters say the truth, like it or not, is that farmers own most of the West's water, and ultimately there will be fewer of them. There is some concern that if the Colorado River goes into crisis, the ensuing tangle of litigation over water rights, endangered species and border disputes could undo the system of Western water law that has evolved over the last 100 years. Some say that would be a good thing. "The law of the river is hopelessly, irretrievably obsolete, designed on a hydrological fallacy, around an agrarian West that no longer exists," Professor McCool at the University of Utah said. "After six years of drought, somebody will have to say the emperor has no clothes." Water officials in Arizona and Nevada say they would also like to rethink the law of the river to put their states on a more equal footing in sharing the Colorado River. But Mr. Raley said such talk invites disaster and chaos, especially during a drought. "This isn't the time to plunge into chaos," he said. Other people who live here on the fringe of Lake Powell say that the West's great reservoirs have, in their very decline, proved their value in stretching out limited water resources and underlined the difference between past civilizations here that anthropologists say were wiped out or displaced by drought. "Those people back then had nothing to catch and save their water - now we do," said Ronald W. Thompson, district manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District in southwestern Utah. "I'm a believer that history repeats itself - long-term drought could return," Mr. Thompson said. "But I suspect our civilization can weather this." Kirk Johnson reported from Page, Ariz., for this article and Dean E. Murphy from Grand Canyon National Park. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/02/national/02DROU.html?ex=1084618857&ei=1&en=ff744441d61adc0f --------------------------------- Get Home Delivery of The New York Times Newspaper. Imagine reading The New York Times any time & anywhere you like! Leisurely catch up on events & expand your horizons. Enjoy now for 50% off Home Delivery! Click here: http://homedelivery.nytimes.com/HDS/SubscriptionT1.do?mode=SubscriptionT1&ExternalMediaCode=W24AF HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales at nytimes.com or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help at nytimes.com. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon May 3 17:24:02 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 3 May 2004 17:24:02 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Agenda for May 12 Trinity River Joint Workshop Message-ID: <004a01c4316e$1c6ebf00$246b3940@V51NH> P.O. Box 1300, 1313 South Main Street, Weaverville, California 96093 Telephone: 530-623-1800, Fax: 530-623-5944 Trinity River Restoration Program MEMORANDUM TO: TMC Members and Alternates; TAMWG Members and Alternates; SAB Members FROM: Doug Schleusner, Executive Director TRRP Mike Ryan, Chairperson TMC Arnold Whitridge, Chairperson TAMWG Curtis Anderson, Chairperson TMC Subcommittee CC: TRRP Staff SUBJECT: May 12, 2004 TMC/TAMWG/SAB Joint Workshop Agenda DATE: May 3, 2004 __________________________________________________________________________________ Enclosed is the agenda for the May 12, 2004 joint workshop of the Trinity Management Council (TMC), Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG), Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), and Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) Staff. The meeting will be held at the Victorian Inn Restaurant's conference room starting at 8:30 a.m. Lodging may be obtained at the Victorian Inn (530-623-4432) or the 49er Gold Country Inn (530-623-4937). The workshop will focus on the overall Trinity River restoration strategy, restoration objectives, and initial actions established in the Trinity River Flow Evaluation Report (TRFER), as well as roles and responsibilities for executing the Record of Decision (ROD) and Implementation Plan. The primary outcome of the workshop should be a shared understanding of Program objectives and a common vision for the future that will be documented in the Strategic Plan. As discussed at the April meetings of the TMC and TAMWG, the morning session will include presentations by TRFER authors on key components of the Flow Evaluation Report, Implementation Plan, and ROD. The draft Strategic Plan will be used as a discussion tool during the workshop, and subsequently revised as necessary (please bring your copy distributed in April; extras will be available at the meeting). Time will be available at the end of the morning session for a group discussion of key implementation issues identified in the presentations. A field tour is scheduled for the afternoon to discuss lessons learned from past restoration activities and the challenges posed by future implementation projects. A 46 passenger bus will provide transportation for primary members of the TMC, TAMWG, SAB, and Staff. Designated alternates and other participants may have to carpool depending on attendance (bring a van if you have one available). Note the 8:30 a.m. start time for this meeting, and please drive safely! Bring your own lunch to eat on the bus while traveling to the first field stop. Due to the very tight schedule, there will not be time to obtain your lunch once the meeting starts. Those who overnight in Weaverville can obtain lunches from several sources in town. Trinity River Restoration Program TMC/TAWMG/SAB/AEAM Team Joint Meeting May 12, 2004 Time Topic and Purpose Discussion Leader 08:30 Welcome; Introductions and Doug Schleusner, Executive Director Meeting Objectives: Curtis Anderson, Chair, Review Subcommittee Four Perspectives Mike Ryan, Chair, TMC (incl. SEIS status?) Arnold Whitridge, Chair, TAMWG 09:00 Key Components of the Flow Clair Stalnaker, Flow Study Author Evaluation Report, ROD, and (USGS, retired) Implementation Plan (Including Organizational Roles) 09:30 Role of the Strategic Plan in Doug Schleusner Today's Workshop 09:45 Break 10:00 Fish Restoration Goals, Objectives, Joe Polos, FWS, Flow Study Author Hypotheses: (Fry Rearing Habitat As a Limiting Factor, Geomorphic Relationships, Smolt Migration, Screw Trap Limitations) 10:45 AEAM Implementation Examples: Scott McBain, Flow Study Author Flow Schedule Flexibility; Sediment Management, Real-Time Water Temperature Monitoring 11:15 Group Discussion and Facilitated by Doug Schleusner Feedback to Strategic Plan 12:00 Load Buses, Drive to Bucktail "BYOL" 12:45 Historical Perspective on Rehab Ed Solbos, RIG Branch Chief and Sites; Role of Coarse Sediment Andreas Krause, TMAG Physical Scientist 1:45 Drive to the North Fork 2:30 Desired Future Conditions; How Robert Franklin, HVT, Flow Study Author Should the River Look and Act Jay Glase, TMAG Fishery Biologist 3:30 Drive to Hocker Flat 3:45 Future Bank Rehab Sites; Richard Miller, RIG Civil Engineer, Summary and Next Steps Curtis Anderson and Doug Schleusner (Hand out evaluation/comment form) 4:45 - 5:30 Drive Back to Weaverville -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clip_image002.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2159 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clip_image004.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 4620 bytes Desc: not available URL: From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Tue May 4 09:14:01 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 09:14:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fwd: Lewiston Dam - Trinity River Release Message-ID: Release schedule from Reclamation for Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River. __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ >>> Tom Morstein-Marx 05/04/04 09:02AM >>> Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From To (cfs) (cfs) 5/5/04 0400 300 350 5/5/04 0500 350 400 5/5/04 0600 400 450 5/5/04 0700 450 500 5/5/04 0800 500 625 5/5/04 0900 625 750 5/5/04 1000 750 875 5/5/04 1100 875 1000 5/5/04 1200 1000 1125 5/5/04 1300 1125 1250 5/5/04 1400 1250 1375 5/5/04 1500 1375 1500 5/5/04 1600 1500 1625 5/5/04 1700 1625 1750 5/5/04 1800 1750 1875 5/5/04 1900 1875 2000 5/6/04 0700 2000 2250 5/6/04 0800 2250 2500 5/12/04 0700 2500 2750 5/12/04 0800 2750 3000 5/14/04 0700 3000 3250 5/14/04 0800 3250 3500 5/14/04 0900 3500 3750 5/14/04 1000 3750 4000 5/14/04 1100 4000 4500 5/15/04 1800 4500 5000 5/15/04 1900 5000 5500 5/15/04 2000 5500 6000 From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue May 4 10:03:29 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 10:03:29 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] FW: Lewiston Dam - Trinity River Release Message-ID: <200405041703.i44H3ij7009618@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From To (cfs) (cfs) 5/5/04 0400 300 350 5/5/04 0500 350 400 5/5/04 0600 400 450 5/5/04 0700 450 500 5/5/04 0800 500 625 5/5/04 0900 625 750 5/5/04 1000 750 875 5/5/04 1100 875 1000 5/5/04 1200 1000 1125 5/5/04 1300 1125 1250 5/5/04 1400 1250 1375 5/5/04 1500 1375 1500 5/5/04 1600 1500 1625 5/5/04 1700 1625 1750 5/5/04 1800 1750 1875 5/5/04 1900 1875 2000 5/6/04 0700 2000 2250 5/6/04 0800 2250 2500 5/12/04 0700 2500 2750 5/12/04 0800 2750 3000 5/14/04 0700 3000 3250 5/14/04 0800 3250 3500 5/14/04 0900 3500 3750 5/14/04 1000 3750 4000 5/14/04 1100 4000 4500 5/15/04 1800 4500 5000 5/15/04 1900 5000 5500 5/15/04 2000 5500 6000 _______________________________________________ env-trinity mailing list env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue May 4 09:30:17 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 4 May 2004 09:30:17 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] PRESS DEMOCRAT -Unions back pay rule change: Volunteers would be allowed to work for free on habitat restoration Message-ID: <00db01c43201$ae7b78a0$866b3940@V51NH> Unions back pay rule change: Volunteers would be allowed to work for free on habitat restoration April 20, 2004 By CAROL BENFELL THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Labor unions Monday joined environmental groups in calling for the repeal of a law that requires full pay for volunteers on state-funded habitat restoration projects. "If there are projects that require skilled labor, those folks should be paid a prevailing wage. We are certainly not trying to come between volunteers and community groups who have been doing great work for decades," said Jim Lewis, communications director with the state Building and Construction Trades Council, an umbrella organization of 14 trades and crafts unions. Environmentalists welcomed the support. "That's great. I'm thrilled. This is exactly the kind of support we were hoping for," said Michael Wellborn, president of the board of directors of the California Watershed Network, a statewide organization. "It makes sense that volunteers can provide support for critical community projects and that labor will obtain an appropriate wage for their skills," Wellborn said. The 2001 law expanded the kinds of projects that are considered "public works" and for which prevailing wages must be paid. Hundreds of state projects and millions of dollars in bond money for environmental projects, authorized by voters as Propositions 40 and 50, are in limbo until the law is amended. That has also put local projects on hold, including a 4-year effort to restore habitat along Green Valley Creek, a push to rid the Russian River of invasive Arundo reed, and a hands-on environmental program for Salmon Creek schoolchildren. "We can make the money go so much farther with volunteers," said Cam Parry, head of a Forestville group that obtained $94,000 in state grants to restore three miles of Green Valley Creek. "This would have been a million dollar project if the state had done it." A bill to amend the 2001 law has been introduced by Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, and goes to its first committee hearing today. The state Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which oversees the Department of Industrial Relations, is also trying to craft a new law, which could be given to Hancock to use or inserted in another bill. The agency's assistant secretary, Rick Rice, said he hopes a new law could take effect by July 1, either by tacking the proposed new law onto an existing budget bill or by persuading legislators to designate it an urgency measure. Otherwise, the law wouldn't take effect until Jan. 1, 2005, he said. "I think now that workers' comp is off state, this issue will take center stage," Rice said. "A legislative change has to be made." The building trades council is working with both Hancock and the labor agency, Lewis said. "We have great hope for a resolution," Lewis said. "It has never been the intention of the unions that comprise the building trades to stop the use of volunteers on these projects." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu May 6 13:51:03 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 13:51:03 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Lower Klamath Basin Science Conference Message-ID: <007601c433ab$d9602ec0$be6c3940@V51NH> ANNOUNCEMENT LOWER KLAMATH BASIN SCIENCE CONFERENCE June 7-10, 2004 Humboldt State University Arcata, California 52521 The U.S. Departments of the Interior and Commerce and the Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force are hosting a science needs conference June 7-10, 2004 at Humboldt State University. The conference will begin at 8:00 am on Monday, June 7 and conclude about noon on Thursday, June 10. The purpose of the conference is to initiate a dialogue between resource management and scientific communities including tribal authorities, academia, and other stakeholders about present and future information needs and their priority in the Basin. The physical connections and ecological linkages between upper and lower basins including the Trinity River are key themes. Conference goals focus on anadromous fishes and instream flow needs. Science needs will be identified, discussed, and synthesized. The first day will be devoted to the identification of highest priority management and stakeholder information needs. A planned keynote presentation by Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Solicitor of the Interior, representing the President's Klamath Basin Working Group, will highlight the opening session. Technical sessions on Days 2 and 3 will address the state of knowledge regarding key species of interest, physical habitats, and information needs in the basin. A poster session will provide an additional forum for presenting current science activities. A plenary session on June 10th is intended to inform regional decision makers about the critical needs identified in conference proceedings for science and adaptive management. Attendance at the workshop is encouraged for scientific researchers, natural resource managers, and all interested stakeholders in the Klamath Basin. Registered participants will receive conference abstracts at registration and a summary of the scientific recommendations and priorities following the meeting. Contacts: Walt Duffy (Humboldt State University, tel: 707-826-5644) Irma Lagomarsino (NOAA Fisheries, tel: 707-825-5160) Ronnie Pierce (Klamath River Intertribal Fish and Water Commission, tel: 707-839-3637) Lyman Thorsteinson (U.S. Geological Survey, tel: 206-526-6291) __________________________ Register for the conference at: http://www.usbr.gov/research/activity/conferences/lower_klamath/registration/registration.cfm Once you register you will receive an email confirmation. The email confirmation will include a link to the website for completing science needs. __________________________ 5/4/04 Draft Agenda (Subject to Change) Lower Klamath River Basin Science Conference Humboldt State University Arcata, California Monday, June 7, 2004. John Van Duzer Theater. 7:30-8:30 AM Registration 8:30-8:45 AM Welcome and Overview Purpose and objectives of the Conference- critical exchange of science and scientific needs Overview of the sessions Describe the voting process Describe the role of independent reviewers 8:45-9:05 AM Keynote Address Describes the complexity of issues facing the Klamath; conflicting needs; role of science in management; need for connectivity between upper and lower basin. (Sue Ellen Wooldridge, invited) 9:05-10:00 AM Agency Perspective Panel on the Role of Science and Future Needs. NOAA Fisheries 10 min Bureau of Reclamation 10 min U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 10 min North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board 10 min California Department of Fish and Game 10 min Questions and Answers 5 min 10:00-10:45 AM Tribal Perspective Panel on the Role of Science and Future Needs. Hoopa Valley Tribe 10 min Karuk Tribe 10 min Klamath Tribes of Oregon 10 min Yurok Tribe 10 min Questions and Answers 5 min 10:45-11:00 AM Break 11:00 AM-12:05 PM Stakeholder Perspectives. Siskiyou County Perspective 10 min Humboldt County Perspective 10 min Klamath Water Users Association 10 min Klamath Task Force 10 min TAMWG 10 min Klamath Basin Coalition 10 min Questions and Answers 5 min 12:05-1:05 PM Catered Lunch at the Kate Buchanon Room. Luncheon Speaker: Rollin Richmond, HSU President. Overview of the Basin and Fish Community 1:05-1:35 PM Overview of the Physical Environment: Hydrology, Geomorphology, and Water Quality. (Bob Gearhart?) 1:35 -2:05 PM Historical and Present Condition of Lower Klamath River Basin Fish Community. (Walt Duffy) Status of Past and Ongoing Studies 2:05-2:35 PM Status of the Klamath River Comprehensive Flow Study with Respect to the 1998 Flow Study Scoping Document and History of Klamath River Flow Analyses and Recommendations (Mike Belchik) 2:35-3:05 PM Past and Current Biological Studies (Outmigrant studies, Coho studies, Green Sturgeon, all other agency studies). (Dave Hillemeier) 3:05-3:15 PM Break 3:15-3:45 PM Overview of Water Quality Studies in the Klamath River Basin (David Leland) 3:45-4:15 PM Trinity River Flow Study and Recommendations. (Clair Stalnaker) 4:15-4:45 PM Effects of the Summer 2003 Trinity River Pulse Flow on Lower Klamath River Water Quality. (Paul Zedonis) 4:45-5:15 Overview of Fish Health in the Klamath Basin. (Jim Winton) Tuesday, June 8, 2004. Kate Buchanan Room. Biological Investigations and Future Needs 8:00-8:05 AM Introduction Recent Scientific Reviews 8:05-8:35 AM The NRC Report: Lower Basin Findings and Recommendations. (Peter Moyle) 8:35-9:05 AM The IMST Report: Lower Basin Findings and Recommendations. (Stan Gregory) Anadromus Fish Habitat Utilization in the Lower Klamath Basin 9:05-9:35 AM Estuarine Use by Juvenile Chinook Salmon. (Mike Wallace) 9:35-10:05 AM The Use of Radio-Telemetry to Track Chinook Salmon. (Josh Strange) 10:05-10:35 AM Update on the Current Information on Green Sturgeon. (Dave Hillemeier) 10:35-10:45 AM Break 10:45-11:15 AM Update on the Current Information on Lamprey. (Toz Soto) 11:15-11:45 AM Observations of Juvenile Coho and Other Species in Thermal Refugia Areas of the Mainstem Klamath River. (Ron Sutton) 11:45-12:15 PM Habitat Suitability Criteria and Habitat Use by Juvenile Salmonids in Mainstem Klamath River. (Co-presenters: Tom Shaw and Sam Williamson) Habitat and Population Modeling 12:15-12:45 AM Data Collection for Chinook Salmon Young-Of-Year Production Model (SALMOD). (Sam Williamson) 12:45-1:45 PM Catered Lunch 1:45-2:15 PM Two-Dimensional Habitat Modeling from Phase II. (Thom Hardy) 2:15-2:45 PM Monitoring Techniques to Assess Small Populations. (Dana McCann?) 2:45-3:15 PM NOAA SW Science Center Presentation on the Development of Viable Salmonid Population Parameters for coho in the Klamath Basin (Eric Bjorkstedt) 3:15-3:45 PM Forecasting Chinook in the Klamath Basin: Models, Techniques, and Needs, Including Stock Recruitment Analysis, Cohort Reconstruction, Ocean Modeling, and Predictors. (Mike Mohr) 3:45-3:55 PM Break Considerations of Salmonid Health in the Klamath Basin 3:55-4:25 PM Ceratomyxa shasta Investigations. (Scott Foott and Jerri Bartholomew) 4:25-5:30 PM Panel Discussion: The 2002 Klamath River Fish Die-Off Event. (Yurok Tribe, USFWS, CDFG). 5:30-7:00 PM Poster Session (with appetizers) Monitoring and Prioritizing Sedimentation and Upslope Restoration. (Dan Gale) Effects of Flows on Smolt Transit Time and Survivability. (Steve Smith, Bill Muir) Monitoring Techniques to Assess Small Populations. (Hans Voight) Limiting Factor Analysis of Spring Chinook in the Salmon River. (Petey Brucker) Observations of Juvenile Coho and Other Species in Thermal Refugia Areas of the Mainstem Klamath River. (BOR, Yurok Tribe, Karuk Tribe) Thermal Infrared and Color Videography as a Tool to Describe Water Quality Conditions in the Shasta and Scott Rivers. (Russ Faux) County Roads: Erosion Inventory for the Trinity River Watershed (Mark Lancaster) Exploring Climate Teleconnections to Improve Seasonal Operations Planning and Runoff Forecasting, including the Upper Klamath Basin (Levi Brekke) Sub-Basin Restoration Programs Wednesday, June, 9, 2004. Kate Buchanan Room. Hydrological and Water Quanity Investigations, and Future Needs. 8:00-9:00 AM Presentations and Panel Discussion: Estimation of Past Hydrologic Conditions. (Tom Perry, Barry Hecht, Thom Hardy) Modeling Water Budgets, Flow, and Water Quality 9:00-9:40 AM The KPSIM and MODSIM Models (Nancy Parker) 9:40-10:20 AM The Use of Hydrologic Modeling in the Development of Flow Recommendations. (Thom Hardy) 10:20-10:35 AM Break 10:35 AM-11:05 PM Flow Models: Sources and Uses of Flow and Water Quality Data from Klamath Reservoirs and River. (Mike Deas) 11:05-11:35 AM Klamath, Shasta, Scott TMDLs (Matt St. John and Alan Flint) Scott, Shasta, Salmon Rivers 11:35 AM - 12:05 PM Hydrology of the Scott and Shasta Basins (Bill Bennett) 12:05-12:35 PM Shasta, Scott and Salmon River Coho Monitoring (Bill Chesney) 12:35-1:05 PM Shasta/Scott Pilot Recovery Plan Study Recommendations (Craig Martz) 1:05-2:05 PM Catered Lunch Klamath Hydrolelectric Project Reliensing: Science in Hand, Science Still Needed and Panel Discussion 2:05-2:30 PM Water Quality (Scott Wells) 2:30-2:55 PM Fish Passage and Reintroduction (Chuck Huntington) 2:55-3:10 PM DOI Agency Needs (David Diamond) 3:10-3:20 PM DOC NOAA Fisheries (Steve Edmondson) 3:20-3:40 PM PacifiCorp (Todd Olsen) 3:40-3:55 PM State of California (Russ Kanz) 3:55-4:05 PM Lower Basin Tribes (Ronnie Pierce) 4:05-4:20 PM Break 4:20-4:30 PM State of Oregon (Amy Stewart) 4:30-4:40 PM American Rivers (Steve Rothert) 4:40-5:30 PM Panel Discussion Thursday, June, 10, 2004. Kate Buchanan Room.. Integration, Synthesis, and Discussion. 8:00-8:30 AM Overview of the Conservation Implementation Program (CIP). (BOR) 8:30-10:00 AM Discussion of the Synthesis and Reporting of Identified Needs to the State and Regional Directors, and Tribal Representatives. 10:00-10:15 AM Break 10:15-11:45 AM Outside Reviewer Perspective. 11:45 AM-12:15 PM Description of Participant Involvement in Prioritizing Science Needs and How Information Will Be Reported and Used. 12:15-12:30 PM Next Steps ______________________________________________________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sun May 9 09:29:16 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 09:29:16 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Employment Opportunity-Technical Modeling and Analysis Branch Chief Message-ID: <002f01c435e3$748d92a0$846c3940@V51NH> May 7, 2004 Outreach Notice - Employment Opportunity Trinity River Restoration Program, Weaverville, California Technical Modeling and Analysis Branch Chief The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) will be advertising for the position of Technical Modeling and Analysis Group (TMAG) Branch Chief during May-June, 2004. This is a supervisory interdisciplinary position requiring an advanced degree in physical or biological sciences. The successful applicant will become a full time federal employee with the Bureau of Reclamation at the GS-13 grade level (salary range of $69,762 to $90,692, depending on qualifications and experience). The position will be advertised both internally (current federal employees) and externally (all U.S. citizens) on the USAJobs website (www.usajobs.opm.gov). Located in Weaverville, California, the TRRP is a specialized field unit of Reclamation's Northern California Area Office charged with restoration of anadromous fish populations and habitat of the Trinity River. While staff members are Reclamation employees, the office represents a multi-agency program and provides the technical, scientific, and administrative support needed to implement the December 2000 Record of Decision and Implementation Plan for the Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration EIS. The incumbent is the senior scientist and lead spokesperson for the science branch of this program, and supervises a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and resource specialists. Working in one of the most progressive adaptive environmental assessment and management (AEAM) programs in the United States, the TMAG develops annual flow schedule recommendations, uses models (e.g., SALMOD, PHABSIM) to predict restoration outcomes, and develops specific monitoring strategies. The TMAG also works cooperatively with the Implementation Branch to integrate these products into practical management objectives and design recommendations for specific projects such as bank rehabilitation, gravel augmentation, riparian revegetation, sediment management, and watershed rehabilitation throughout the subbasin, with a special emphasis on 40 miles of the mainstem. The TMAG Branch Chief reports to the Executive Director who coordinates overall program management with policy direction provided by the Trinity Management Council (TMC). The TMC consists of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, NOAA Fisheries, the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes, the Resources Agency of California, and Trinity County. A 19-member federal advisory committee, the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group, provides a formal means of stakeholder participation in the program. Scenic Weaverville is located 45 miles west of Redding and 100 miles east of Eureka (and the Pacific coast) on State Highway 299. This historic mining town (population 3,500) is the County Seat of Trinity County. The economy is based on outdoor recreation, tourism, forest management, timber harvest, and federal, state, and local government. Outdoor recreation opportunities are plentiful in the Whiskeytown/Shasta/Trinity National Recreation Area and the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area. For more information, contact Doug Schleusner, Executive Director, by phone at 530-623-1800, by mail at P.O. Box 1300, Weaverville, CA 96093, or email at dschleusner at mp.usbr.gov. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sun May 9 09:30:22 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 09:30:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Employment Opportunity-Fishery Biologist - Aquatic Ecologist Message-ID: <003001c435e3$76b77780$846c3940@V51NH> May 7, 2004 Outreach Notice - Employment Opportunity Trinity River Restoration Program, Weaverville, California Fishery Biologist - Aquatic Ecologist The Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) will be advertising for the position of Fishery Biologist - Aquatic Ecologist during May-June, 2004. This position requires an advanced degree in aquatic biology, aquatic ecology, or fisheries sciences that included specific coursework or experience in pacific coast salmonid life history, and the habitat requirements of fish and other aquatic species found in western river systems. The successful applicant will become a full time federal employee with the Bureau of Reclamation at the GS-12 grade level (salary range of $58,665 to $76,261, depending on qualifications and experience). The position will be advertised both internally (current federal employees) and externally (all U.S. citizens) on the USAJobs website (www.usajobs.opm.gov). Located in Weaverville, California, the TRRP is a specialized field unit of Reclamation's Northern California Area Office charged with restoration of anadromous fish populations and habitat of the Trinity River. While staff members are Reclamation employees, the office represents a multi-agency program and provides the technical, scientific, and administrative support needed to implement the December 2000 Record of Decision and Implementation Plan for the Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration EIS. The Fishery Biologist - Aquatic Ecologist is a key member of the Technical Modeling and Analysis Group (TMAG). Working in one of the most progressive adaptive environmental assessment and management (AEAM) programs in the United States, the TMAG develops annual flow schedule recommendations, uses models (e.g., SALMOD, PHABSIM) to predict restoration outcomes, and develops specific monitoring strategies. The TMAG also works cooperatively with the Implementation Branch to integrate these products into practical management objectives and design recommendations for specific projects such as bank rehabilitation, gravel augmentation, riparian revegetation, sediment management, and watershed rehabilitation throughout the subbasin, with a special emphasis on 40 miles of the mainstem. This position reports to the TMAG Branch Chief. The Executive Director implements overall policy direction provided by the Trinity Management Council (TMC), which consists of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Forest Service, NOAA Fisheries, the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes, the Resources Agency of California, and Trinity County. A 19-member federal advisory committee, the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group, provides a formal means of stakeholder participation in the program. Scenic Weaverville is located 45 miles west of Redding and 100 miles east of Eureka (and the Pacific coast) on State Highway 299. This historic mining town (population 3,500) is the County Seat of Trinity County. The economy is based on outdoor recreation, tourism, forest management, timber harvest, and federal, state, and local government. Outdoor recreation opportunities are plentiful in the Whiskeytown/Shasta/Trinity National Recreation Area and the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area. For more information, contact Doug Schleusner, Executive Director, by phone at 530-623-1800, by mail at P.O. Box 1300, Weaverville, CA 96093, or email at dschleusner at mp.usbr.gov. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue May 11 23:08:55 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 23:08:55 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Eureka Times Standard- Reclamation crimps Klamath flows to 2002 fish kill levels Message-ID: <008801c437e7$9ec80c20$606b3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2141144,00.html KLAMATH BASIN Reclamation crimps Klamath flows to 2002 levels Eureka Times-Standard - 5/11/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer A change in the amount of water that will be sent down the Klamath River has prompted concerns from lower river communities that fear another fall fish kill. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has reworked its operation plan for the summer, deeming the year "dry" instead of "below average." A lack of rain this spring dropped the inflow of water to Upper Klamath Lake well below previously expected levels. The dry-year flows are the same as those during the fall of 2002, when 34,000 salmon died. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that year's run got trapped in the hot lower river, leaving them susceptible to the diseases that killed them. The 3-year-old salmon that will return to the river this year are the progeny of the 2001 run, when an estimated 200,000 young salmon died in the spring. This year, a water bank is boosting flows from Iron Gate Dam during the spring and summer months. Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said 75,000 acre feet has been purchased from farmers in the Upper Klamath basin, in keeping with the biological opinion issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But beginning in August, almost no additional water will supplement flows some fear could again be lethal to migrating fish. Flows from Iron Gate in August are now scheduled to be 581 cubic feet per second, and in September 731 cfs. Flows in a below average year, for comparison, would be 1,021 cfs in August and 1,168 in September. "If we don't have a plan in place that's going to augment the flow," said Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith, "when we get to the fall we're going to be facing the same kind of horrible disaster we had two years ago." Regulations to limit the already tiny commercial take of salmon have been tightened, with bag limits and the total number of fish taken commercially reduced. Fish managers also are watching anxiously to see how many 2-year-old salmon -- called jacks -- return this year, the offspring of the 2002 run hit by the fish kill. A biologist with the Yurok Tribe said he had concerns with the flow schedule, and was meeting with tribal officials Monday. The officials did not return the Times-Standard's call by deadline. Last year, Reclamation asked a federal district court judge overseeing a suit on the Trinity River to free up 50,000 acre feet of water to stave off a fish kill in the lower Klamath. Some credited the fall releases with protecting the run of salmon. The suit by Central Valley irrigator Westlands Water District has held up a restoration plan for the Trinity River. Flows to that river, per order of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will be higher this spring than in years past. The big slug of water was scheduled by the Trinity Management Council, and will be spent by mid-July. The council did not schedule releases in the fall. Reclamation's McCracken said he didn't know if the government would go back to court to seek Trinity water to boost fall flows. On that front, Humboldt County has filed a complaint with the State Water Resources Control Board, asking it to press Reclamation to honor a 45-year-old water contract for 50,000 acre feet, which the county has said it would use to boost fall flows. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed May 12 11:10:54 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 11:10:54 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard Editorials- Leydecker and Parra Message-ID: <000301c438a9$8e925640$766b3940@V51NH> Below is a letter to the editor by Byron Leydecker in response to one by Sal Parra (also below) and Thomas Birmingham (not included). If anybody has Mr. Birmingham's letter to the editor electronically (text only), please post it to the list or send it to me and I'll post it. TS **************************************************************** TRINITY RIVER / CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT Commentary: Who's the real obstructionist here? Eureka Times-Standard - 5/11/04 By Byron Leydecker A letter to the editor from Mr. Thomas Birmingham, general manager of Westlands Water District (April 24), and the op-ed piece a few days later by Mr. Sal Parra, both published in the Times-Standard, raise interesting questions. On April 23, the day before Mr. Birmingham's letter was printed, the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a decision by the federal district judge in Fresno that limited a return of water to the Trinity. Judge Wanger also required a completely new environmental analysis for Trinity restoration. The new analysis, released in draft form for public comment late last month, could provide the basis for a new Record of Decision -- one that could diminish a return of water to Trinity River. A final decision by the 9th Circuit Court on the litigation involving the December 2000 Trinity Restoration Record of Decision should be forthcoming in the next few months. The facts are -- the truth is -- that before the Trinity Division was created, Congress was told that no more than 56 percent of the river's water at Lewiston would be diverted. As soon as the dams were completed, the Bureau of Reclamation started diverting 90 percent of the river's water. That representation to the Congress never has been changed. Before Trinity Division legislation passed in 1955, Congressman Clair Engle stated "not one bucketful of water needed in this (Trinity) Basin would be diverted." A senior Bureau employee testified that "the fishery would be improved (by construction of the dams)." By the late 1960s, the fishery had declined to about 10 percent of pre-dam population levels. The 1955 legislation providing for construction of Trinity Dam and related facilities authorized and directed the Interior secretary "to protect and preserve fish and wildlife" in the Trinity Basin. Every subsequent piece of Trinity legislation, except one, has required fishery and wildlife restoration. One congressional act required that fisheries be restored to pre-dam population levels. The Babbitt decision would restore fisheries to just 60 percent of pre-dam population levels. Meanwhile, Trinity's water is going principally to land that is so waterlogged -- high groundwater poisoned with selenium, boron, molybdenum, mercury and other salts -- that Westlands wants the federal government to buy out one-third of its land (200,000 acres) at a cost to taxpayers of $800 million. Westlands also is floating a multimillion-dollar bond issue to buy out and retire 100,000 acres of district land. Nevertheless, Westlands not only wants to keep all of the Trinity's water flowing to it, but to increase water flowing to it through illegal water "assignments" to it from other waterlogged districts in the Western San Joaquin Valley. In other words, is the Trinity's real gold from the 1800s to become Westlands' "water gold" of the 2000s? This is advocated despite the fact that Westlands' single entitlement to water merely is a contract with the bureau that expires in 2007. It has no water rights. Land in Westlands that could be irrigated additionally contains higher levels of selenium and other toxics than worthless land scheduled for retirement. Poisoned irrigation runoff currently enters an aquifer under Westlands' land and ultimately winds up poisoning the San Joaquin River and San Francisco Bay -- drinking water supply for about two-thirds of the state's population. These writers say the tribes should "negotiate" and agree to a "fair" settlement of litigation initiated by Westlands and its allies. What they propose, along with assistant secretary of the interior for water and science, Bennett Raley, is to trade 20 years of science-based water flow and restoration planning in Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's December 2000 Record of Decision for three pages of "science" tossed together in a matter of days. The Babbitt decision already provides for adaptive management as these gentlemen advocate. The Hoopa Valley Tribe was accused of promoting a "myth" and of "harmful distortions" by failing to negotiate a litigation settlement. Any settlement less than the existing Record of Decision would mean simply that these opposing interests continue to obtain more financial benefits -- water subsidies, electricity subsidies, crop subsidies and project capital cost subsidies. In fact, the Hoopa Valley Tribe has pursued no "myth" and no "distortions." It has worked valiantly for decades to see that all Trinity River law, as well as its legally reserved fishing rights, are enforced. Attempting to enforce the law is being "obstructionist?" The Babbitt decision continues to allow the diversion of 53 percent of the river's water at Lewiston to these irrigators and NCPA power users. However, loss of power from implementation of the existing Record of Decision amounts to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of California's total power consumption. The California Energy Commission has characterized the power loss as "insignificant." The Sacramento Municipal Utility District and several members of the NCPA -- city councils, the Port of Oakland -- already have withdrawn from the litigation after being informed of the facts. The tribe is pursuing a "myth?" It is being "obstructionist?" You decide. Friends of Trinity River and California Trout Inc., along with every fishing organization and every environmental organization in California working to protect San Francisco Bay, support completely the tribe's efforts to enforce the law. Byron Leydecker is chairman of Friends of Trinity River and a consultant for California Trout Inc. He lives in Mill Valley.# TRINITY RIVER Commentary: Flexibility required for meaningful Trinity River restoration Eureka Times-Standard - 4/27/04 By Sal Parra For many years, my family, friends and fellow San Joaquin Valley farmers have been characterized as the bad guys in the debate over the Trinity River and efforts to restore its fishery. The only problem with this characterization is that it is based on inaccurate information and a flawed analysis of what is required to restore the Trinity River fishery.The Native American tribes whose lands border the Trinity are not the only stakeholders that would be affected by a restoration effort, but they are the only ones standing in the way of an effective restoration plan. Recently, leaders of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes have staged rallies and issued press releases designed to intimidate water users into dropping their opposition to an ill-advised and illegal plan to restore the Trinity. These efforts are part of the tribes' public relations campaign of fanciful distortions and misstatements designed to pressure other water users to accept their increasingly isolated and unrealistic view of the Trinity River. They claim the river's flows have been reduced to a mere trickle. They claim the fishery is dying. Yet the Sacramento Bee reported last year the Trinity is one of California's finest steelhead rivers. And they claim the unfortunate death of salmon in the Klamath River in 2002 was related to the Trinity's flows. The National Research Council, however, could not establish any linkage between the Trinity's flows and that event. Further, in that same year, more chinook salmon returned to spawn than in the preceding four years. More than 40 years ago, at a time when our nation placed great value in harnessing nature's resources, the United States began diverting a portion of the Trinity's headwaters into the Sacramento River. The waters from the Trinity mingled with those of the Sacramento, becoming part of the Central Valley Project. These waters produce clean, inexpensive electrical power, provide irrigation for food-producing farms in the Central Valley and drinking water for growing cities in the Silicon Valley. Today, however, things are viewed differently. Virtually everyone agrees that more water must be left in the Trinity River for its salmon and steelhead. The only remaining issue is how best to accomplish this restoration. In 2000, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt issued a restoration plan that would have established fixed inflexible flows on the Trinity. Westlands and others objected, and a U.S. district judge ruled against the plan because it failed to consider the harm it would cause endangered fish in the Sacramento River ecosystem. Incredibly, this is the restoration plan -- the only restoration plan -- the two tribes will consider. The Department of Interior recently proposed a new plan that could provide even more water for the Trinity's salmon and steelhead than Secretary Babbitt's plan. It would place decision making in the hands of independent, credible scientists and rely upon the kind of flexible adaptive management most biologists recognize is essential for meaningful fishery restoration. The tribes refuse to discuss it. San Joaquin Valley farmers believe Interior's plan is a good starting point, despite the fact it could affect our water supplies. But the tribes won't discuss it. Sadly, their refusal to work constructively on a fair and effective restoration plan will lead only to more lawsuits, rancor and delays. In my view, their refusal to participate in the Trinity's restoration is the greatest tragedy of all. Sal Parra grows tomatoes, onions, garlic and cotton. He has 400 acres in the Westlands Water District near the San Joaquin Valley community of Five Points. This commentary originally ran in the Sacramento Bee, and is published here at the author's request.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri May 14 14:13:57 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 14:13:57 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard Editorial- Tom Birmingham, Westlands Message-ID: <003901c439f8$5fd231e0$886b3940@V51NH> Retyped from: Letters to the Times-Standard - Saturday April 24, 2004 - page A5 (also included below are the Parra and Leydecker letters for reference) Tribe continues to promote myths about Trinity restoration It is unfortunate that the leaders of the Hoopa Valley Tribe continue to promote the myth that everyone else - the Department of the Interior, Westlands Water District, Northern California power users - are to blame for delaying restoration of the Trinity River ("Federal betrayal claimed on Trinity water"). The truth is once again a casualty of their own making. Only the tribes are standing in the way of a fair and effective restoration plan for the Trinity. All of the parties involved in the litigation over the flawed and unlawful 2000 Record of Decision have stated their willingness to negotiate a reasonable settlement. Interior and Westlands both have put forth separate, compromise restoration plans that would provide much higher Trinity River flows than now allowed. In fact, Interior's proposal calls for an adaptive management approach that could result in even more water going down the river than was allowed under the discredited 2000 Record of Decision. As we have said on numerous occasions, it is time to end the fighting over the Trinity. The fastest and fairest way for restoration to be accomplished is for all of the parties in this dispute to sit down and negotiate a fair and effective plan. The tribe's refusal even to discuss a settlement ensures only many more years of rancor, fighting and minimal flows for the river, the fish, and the tribes who claim to really care about them Thomas W. Birmingham General Manager Westlands Water District Fresno TRINITY RIVER Commentary: Flexibility required for meaningful Trinity River restoration Eureka Times-Standard - 4/27/04 By Sal Parra For many years, my family, friends and fellow San Joaquin Valley farmers have been characterized as the bad guys in the debate over the Trinity River and efforts to restore its fishery. The only problem with this characterization is that it is based on inaccurate information and a flawed analysis of what is required to restore the Trinity River fishery.The Native American tribes whose lands border the Trinity are not the only stakeholders that would be affected by a restoration effort, but they are the only ones standing in the way of an effective restoration plan. Recently, leaders of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes have staged rallies and issued press releases designed to intimidate water users into dropping their opposition to an ill-advised and illegal plan to restore the Trinity. These efforts are part of the tribes' public relations campaign of fanciful distortions and misstatements designed to pressure other water users to accept their increasingly isolated and unrealistic view of the Trinity River. They claim the river's flows have been reduced to a mere trickle. They claim the fishery is dying. Yet the Sacramento Bee reported last year the Trinity is one of California's finest steelhead rivers. And they claim the unfortunate death of salmon in the Klamath River in 2002 was related to the Trinity's flows. The National Research Council, however, could not establish any linkage between the Trinity's flows and that event. Further, in that same year, more chinook salmon returned to spawn than in the preceding four years. More than 40 years ago, at a time when our nation placed great value in harnessing nature's resources, the United States began diverting a portion of the Trinity's headwaters into the Sacramento River. The waters from the Trinity mingled with those of the Sacramento, becoming part of the Central Valley Project. These waters produce clean, inexpensive electrical power, provide irrigation for food-producing farms in the Central Valley and drinking water for growing cities in the Silicon Valley. Today, however, things are viewed differently. Virtually everyone agrees that more water must be left in the Trinity River for its salmon and steelhead. The only remaining issue is how best to accomplish this restoration. In 2000, former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt issued a restoration plan that would have established fixed inflexible flows on the Trinity. Westlands and others objected, and a U.S. district judge ruled against the plan because it failed to consider the harm it would cause endangered fish in the Sacramento River ecosystem. Incredibly, this is the restoration plan -- the only restoration plan -- the two tribes will consider. The Department of Interior recently proposed a new plan that could provide even more water for the Trinity's salmon and steelhead than Secretary Babbitt's plan. It would place decision making in the hands of independent, credible scientists and rely upon the kind of flexible adaptive management most biologists recognize is essential for meaningful fishery restoration. The tribes refuse to discuss it. San Joaquin Valley farmers believe Interior's plan is a good starting point, despite the fact it could affect our water supplies. But the tribes won't discuss it. Sadly, their refusal to work constructively on a fair and effective restoration plan will lead only to more lawsuits, rancor and delays. In my view, their refusal to participate in the Trinity's restoration is the greatest tragedy of all. Sal Parra grows tomatoes, onions, garlic and cotton. He has 400 acres in the Westlands Water District near the San Joaquin Valley community of Five Points. This commentary originally ran in the Sacramento Bee, and is published here at the author's request.# TRINITY RIVER / CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT Commentary: Who's the real obstructionist here? Eureka Times-Standard - 5/11/04 By Byron Leydecker A letter to the editor from Mr. Thomas Birmingham, general manager of Westlands Water District (April 24), and the op-ed piece a few days later by Mr. Sal Parra, both published in the Times-Standard, raise interesting questions. On April 23, the day before Mr. Birmingham's letter was printed, the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a decision by the federal district judge in Fresno that limited a return of water to the Trinity. Judge Wanger also required a completely new environmental analysis for Trinity restoration. The new analysis, released in draft form for public comment late last month, could provide the basis for a new Record of Decision -- one that could diminish a return of water to Trinity River. A final decision by the 9th Circuit Court on the litigation involving the December 2000 Trinity Restoration Record of Decision should be forthcoming in the next few months. The facts are -- the truth is -- that before the Trinity Division was created, Congress was told that no more than 56 percent of the river's water at Lewiston would be diverted. As soon as the dams were completed, the Bureau of Reclamation started diverting 90 percent of the river's water. That representation to the Congress never has been changed. Before Trinity Division legislation passed in 1955, Congressman Clair Engle stated "not one bucketful of water needed in this (Trinity) Basin would be diverted." A senior Bureau employee testified that "the fishery would be improved (by construction of the dams)." By the late 1960s, the fishery had declined to about 10 percent of pre-dam population levels. The 1955 legislation providing for construction of Trinity Dam and related facilities authorized and directed the Interior secretary "to protect and preserve fish and wildlife" in the Trinity Basin. Every subsequent piece of Trinity legislation, except one, has required fishery and wildlife restoration. One congressional act required that fisheries be restored to pre-dam population levels. The Babbitt decision would restore fisheries to just 60 percent of pre-dam population levels. Meanwhile, Trinity's water is going principally to land that is so waterlogged -- high groundwater poisoned with selenium, boron, molybdenum, mercury and other salts -- that Westlands wants the federal government to buy out one-third of its land (200,000 acres) at a cost to taxpayers of $800 million. Westlands also is floating a multimillion-dollar bond issue to buy out and retire 100,000 acres of district land. Nevertheless, Westlands not only wants to keep all of the Trinity's water flowing to it, but to increase water flowing to it through illegal water "assignments" to it from other waterlogged districts in the Western San Joaquin Valley. In other words, is the Trinity's real gold from the 1800s to become Westlands' "water gold" of the 2000s? This is advocated despite the fact that Westlands' single entitlement to water merely is a contract with the bureau that expires in 2007. It has no water rights. Land in Westlands that could be irrigated additionally contains higher levels of selenium and other toxics than worthless land scheduled for retirement. Poisoned irrigation runoff currently enters an aquifer under Westlands' land and ultimately winds up poisoning the San Joaquin River and San Francisco Bay -- drinking water supply for about two-thirds of the state's population. These writers say the tribes should "negotiate" and agree to a "fair" settlement of litigation initiated by Westlands and its allies. What they propose, along with assistant secretary of the interior for water and science, Bennett Raley, is to trade 20 years of science-based water flow and restoration planning in Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's December 2000 Record of Decision for three pages of "science" tossed together in a matter of days. The Babbitt decision already provides for adaptive management as these gentlemen advocate. The Hoopa Valley Tribe was accused of promoting a "myth" and of "harmful distortions" by failing to negotiate a litigation settlement. Any settlement less than the existing Record of Decision would mean simply that these opposing interests continue to obtain more financial benefits -- water subsidies, electricity subsidies, crop subsidies and project capital cost subsidies. In fact, the Hoopa Valley Tribe has pursued no "myth" and no "distortions." It has worked valiantly for decades to see that all Trinity River law, as well as its legally reserved fishing rights, are enforced. Attempting to enforce the law is being "obstructionist?" The Babbitt decision continues to allow the diversion of 53 percent of the river's water at Lewiston to these irrigators and NCPA power users. However, loss of power from implementation of the existing Record of Decision amounts to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of California's total power consumption. The California Energy Commission has characterized the power loss as "insignificant." The Sacramento Municipal Utility District and several members of the NCPA -- city councils, the Port of Oakland -- already have withdrawn from the litigation after being informed of the facts. The tribe is pursuing a "myth?" It is being "obstructionist?" You decide. Friends of Trinity River and California Trout Inc., along with every fishing organization and every environmental organization in California working to protect San Francisco Bay, support completely the tribe's efforts to enforce the law. Byron Leydecker is chairman of Friends of Trinity River and a consultant for California Trout Inc. He lives in Mill Valley.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri May 14 17:10:10 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 17:10:10 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] PUBLIC NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY-Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for Trinity River Fishery Restoration Message-ID: <00d701c43a11$22e7fb20$886b3940@V51NH> PUBLIC NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for Trinity River Fishery Restoration The Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Hoopa Valley Tribe, as federal co-lead agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Trinity County, as state lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), have made available for public review and comment the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (SEIS/EIR) for the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Program (Program). The primary objective of the SEIS/EIR is to evaluate alternatives for the Program to meet Federal trust responsibilities for tribal fishery resources and restore the fisheries in the Trinity River basin to the level that existed prior to the construction of the Trinity River Division (TRD) of the CVP. Secondary consideration is given to: (a) meeting the Trinity Basin fishery and wildlife restoration goals of the Act of October 24, 1984, Public Law 98-541, and (b) achieving a reasonable balance among competing demands for use of Central Valley Project (CVP) water, including the requirements of fish and wildlife, agricultural, municipal and industrial, and power contractors. The proposed alternatives focus on the 40 miles of Trinity River below Lewiston Dam, in Trinity County, California. The direct and indirect impacts of the alternatives occur within and outside the Trinity River Basin. Anticipated impacts and benefits are generally discussed in the context of three geographic areas: the Trinity River Basin, the Lower Klamath River Basin/Coastal Area, and the Central Valley. A final environmental impact statement (EIS) on the Program was issued in November 2000, and a Record of Decision (ROD) executed on December 19, 2000, by former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. The Trinity County Board of Supervisors, however, did not certify that document as a Final EIR. In late 2000, Central Valley water and power interests filed suit in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of California seeking to enjoin implementation of the ROD. On March 22, 2001, the district court issued a Memorandum Decision and Order preliminarily enjoining the Federal defendants from implementing certain flow related aspects of the ROD. In its Memorandum Decision and Order the court found that the environmental effects of reasonable and prudent measures in the two biological opinions prepared with respect to the project, as well as the effects on power in light of the California energy crisis were not adequately analyzed in the EIS. This Draft SEIS/EIR addresses the court's concerns and updates alternatives. The purpose of the Draft SEIS/EIR has been amended, consistent with court orders. The Draft SEIS/EIR updates information on alternatives described in the October 2000 EIS/EIR. These alternatives include: Existing Conditions, No Action, Mechanical Restoration (revised to address the court's concerns and using information submitted by plaintiffs), Percent Inflow (modified to address the court's concerns), Flow Evaluation and Maximum Flow. An additional alternative is also evaluated: a 70 Percent Inflow Alternative, based on comments documented in the October 2000 EIS/EIR. Consistent with the October 2000 EIS/EIR, the Flow Evaluation Alternative remains the designated Preferred Alternative. The flow evaluation alternative consists of the following components: . Variable annual instream flows for the Trinity River from the TRD based on forecasted hydrology for the Trinity River Basin as of April 1st of each year, ranging from 369,000 acre-feet (af) in critically dry years to 815,000 AF in extremely wet years; . Physical channel rehabilitation, including the removal of riparian berms and the establishment of side channel habitat; . Sediment management, including the supplementation of spawning gravels below the TRD and reduction in fine sediments that degrade fish habitats; . Watershed restoration efforts, addressing negative impacts which have resulted from land use practices in the Basin; and . Infrastructure improvements or modifications, including rebuilding or fortifying bridges and addressing other structures affected by the peak instream flows.. The alternative also includes an Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management (AEAM) Program. The AEAM Program, guided by a Trinity Management Council (TMC) and advised by the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG) established as part of this decision and by sound scientific principles, will ensure the proper implementation of these measures, conduct appropriate scientific monitoring and evaluation efforts, and recommend possible adjustments to the annual flow schedule within the designated flow volumes provided for in this ROD or other measures in order to ensure that the restoration and maintenance of the Trinity River anadromous fishery continues based on the best available scientific information and analysis. Significant effects of the proposed project on the environment pursuant to CEQA include water quality, endangered species, energy, recreation, agriculture, water supply, groundwater, fisheries and land use. Pursuant to NEPA, a 60-day public review period has been established for review of the SEIS/EIR. This review period began on April 23, 2004, and will end on June 22, 2004. A 45-day public review period has been established pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act. This review period began on May 9, 2004, and will end on June 22, 2004. Electronic copies of the SEIS/EIR are available for public review on the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific website for the Northern California Area Office at www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao (click on Projects/Activities/Documents, then on Trinity River - Restoration Program). Hard copies of the document are available for review at the Trinity County Planning Department at 190 Glen Road in Weaverville and at Trinity County Libraries in Hayfork, Weaverville, and Trinity Center. Electronic CD copies of the SEIS/EIR may be obtained at by contacting the Trinity County Planning Department and free of charge (subject to availability). The documents referenced within the SEIS/EIR are also available for public review at the CH2M Hill office located at 2525 Airpark Drive, Redding, California. Three public hearings have been scheduled to receive oral or written comments regarding the project's environmental effects: Thursday, June 1, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m., Holiday Inn, 1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA Tuesday, June 3, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30: p.m., Hoopa Fire Department, Highway 96, Hoopa, CA Tuesday, June 10, 2004, at 7 p.m. or soon thereafter, at the Trinity County Planning Commission, Trinity County Board of Supervisors Meeting Room, Trinity County Library, 211 Main Street, Weaverville, CA Written comments are encouraged. Written comments on the Draft SEIS/EIR should be sent to Mr. Russell Smith, Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 723, Shasta, CA 96087; telephone: 530-275-1554; fax 530-275-2441. NOTE: If you Challenge the action or proposed action in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised through the public hearings and public comment period described in this notice, or in written correspondence. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov Mon May 17 13:09:24 2004 From: BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov (Brandt Gutermuth) Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 13:09:24 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Available: A NOP for the Hocker Flat Rehabilition Site: Trinity River mile 78-79.1 EA/EIR Message-ID: Below is the Notice of Preparation (NOP) for an EIR that was submitted to the State Clearinghouse for review and routing to responsible and trustee agencies. Figures and a signature from the lead CEQA agency, The Department of Water Resources, are included in the attached Adobe Acrobat version. The review period will end June 19, 2004. If you have questions or would like a hard copy of the NOP, please contact: Brandt Gutermuth, environmental specialist for the Trinity River Restoration Program at (530) 623-1806 or Aric Lester, environmental scientist for the California Department of Water Resources at (530) 529-7365 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ State of California Resources Agency Department of Water Resources NOTICE OF PREPARATION FOR AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78 to 79.1 TO: Responsible and Trustee Agencies, and Interested Parties FROM: State of California, Resources Agency, Department of Water Resources SUBJECT: Notice of Preparation for a Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78 to 79.1. LEAD AGENCY: Department of Water Resources (DWR), State of California PROJECT TITLE: Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78 to 79.1 PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING: A public scoping meeting has been scheduled for June 2, 2004 at 6:30 pm at the Junction City Community Hall, 71 Dutch Creek RD. (Just south of HWY 299), Junction City, CA. Information on the project will be presented and comments on the scope of the EIR accepted. NOTICE OF PREPARATION COMMENT PERIOD: A public review period for the Notice of Preparation has been established from May 19, 2004 through June 19, 2004. The purpose of this comment period is to provide involved agencies and the public an opportunity to learn about the project and to solicit comments to assist the Lead Agencies in identifying the range of actions, alternatives, mitigation measures, and significant effects to be analyzed in the EIR/EA. Public and agency comments must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 19, 2004. Please address comments, questions, and responses to: Department of Water Resources c/o Trinity River Restoration Program Attn: Brandt Gutermuth P. O. Box 1300 1313 Main Street Weaverville, CA 96093 Voice (530) 623-1806 or Fax (530) 623-5944 APPLICANT: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Northern California Area Office Trinity River Restoration Program P. O. Box 1300 1313 Main Street Weaverville, CA 96093 Date __________________________ Signature ____________________________ Dwight Russell, Chief Northern District Department of Water Resources BACKGROUND: The Central Valley Project Improvement Act (1992) and the Trinity River Basin Fish and Wildlife Management Act (1984) provide the legal authority for projects that restore the fishery Resources of the Trinity River. Specifically, these acts include language intended to protect, restore, and enhance fish, wildlife, and associated habitats within the Trinity River Basin. In December 2000, the Secretary of Interior signed a Record of Decision (ROD) for the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS). This decision recognized that restoration and perpetual maintenance of the Trinity River's fishery Resources requires rehabilitating the River itself, and restoring the attributes that produce a healthy, functioning alluvial River system. Consequently the ROD included five components to ensure long-term restoration and maintenance of the Trinity River: a) Variable annual instream flows ranging from 369,000 acre-feet (af) in critically dry years to 815,000 af in extremely wet years; b) Physical channel rehabilitation, including the removal of riparian berms and the establishment of side channel habitat; c) Sediment management, including the supplementation of spawning gravels below Lewiston dam and reduction in fine sediments which degrade fish habitats; d) Watershed restoration efforts, addressing negative impacts which have resulted from land use practices in the Basin; and e) Infrastructure improvements or modifications, including rebuilding or fortifying bridges and addressing other structures affected by the peak instream flows provided by the ROD. The ROD's channel rehabilitation component focused attention on the need to physically manipulate the bank and floodplain features of the Trinity River between River Mile 112.0 (Lewiston Dam) and River Mile 72.4 (North Fork Trinity River). The channel reconstruction is intended to restore the Trinity River's historic alternate point bar morphology and habitat complexity to improve fishery Resources. The Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78 to 79.1 (Project) is a pilot project to implement the ROD's mechanical rehabilitation component and rework the Trinity River floodplain based on pre-dam channel morphology characteristics. The DWR, which has completed engineering designs for the project and has participated in the Trinity River Restoration Program for many years, will serve as the state California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Lead Agency and will prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project as described below. DWR requests your views concerning the scope and content of the environmental information germane to your interests or agency's statutory responsibilities in connection with the proposed project. Your agency will need to use this EIR/EA prepared by DWR when considering your permit or other approvals for the project. The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) will be the federal National Environmental Quality Act (NEPA) lead agency, with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) acting as a cooperating agency under NEPA. A project description, location maps, and a summary of the potential environmental effects are included in this Notice of Preparation. PROJECT LOCATION: The Project is located on the Trinity River, immediately downstream from Junction City, a small community in Trinity County, California (Figure 1). The upstream end of the Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site is situated at River Mile 79.1, immediately downstream from Canyon Creek, a tributary to the Trinity River. The project extends downstream approximately 1.1 miles and encompasses both sides of the Trinity River. River Mile 78.0 marks the downstream boundary of the project. The project area is generally associated with Hocker Flat as shown on the Junction City, California 7.5-minute United States Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangle map, Township 33 North, Range 11 West, Sections 1 and 12, Mount Diablo Base Meridian (MDBM), 040? 44' 26" North latitude by 123? 03' 47" West longitude. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: In joint action with Reclamation and BLM, DWR is evaluating a pilot River rehabilitation project for the reach of the Trinity River locally known as Hocker Flat. As a pilot, this project represents the initial efforts to implement the mechanical channel rehabilitation component described in the 2000 ROD. Within the environmental study limits (ESL) of the project, 16 discrete activity areas have been identified (Figure 2). For identification purposes, these areas are labeled as R (River) or U (upslope riparian), based on the type of restoration proposed. Within these activity areas, a variety of discrete actions may be conducted that are intended to enhance or reestablish the Trinity River's alternate point bar morphology and channel complexity, and to subsequently provide an increase in useable fish habitat. In addition, these actions are intended to enhance the riparian and terrestrial habitat adjacent to the Trinity River. The following actions may be conducted in one or more activity areas as part of this project. -Removal of Vegetation -Earthwork in the Trinity River Floodplain - Material Transportation - Material Disposal -Revegetation POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS: The EIR/EA is being prepared to evaluate potentially significant impacts to the environment. The following section provides a brief discussion of the environmental factors that will be addressed in the EIR/EA. Air Quality. The EIR/EA will address regional air quality conditions in Trinity County and the air quality impacts resulting from the actions incorporated into this project. Air quality will be examined to determine if the proposed project would result in a conflict with the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District regional air quality plan. The nearby Weaverville Basin is in moderate "nonattainment" of state PM10 standards. Vehicle exhaust and fugitive dust from construction activities on and adjacent to the site will be considered. Noise. Potential noise impacts associated with construction will be assessed in the EIR/EA. Noise levels will be evaluated for consistency with the Junction City Community Plan, the Trinity County General Plan and Zoning Ordinance, and State and federal standards and guidelines regulating noise on public and private lands. Geology and Soils. Geological and seismic safety, and soils stability will be addressed in the EIR/EA. Hydrology, Water Quality, and Floodplains. The EIR/EA will address any hydrology, water quality, and floodplain impacts that may occur as a result of the proposed project. The construction phase of the project may have the potential to increase erosion, turbidity and sedimentation levels downstream of the project sites. Activities within the active channel of the Trinity River would be subject to water quality limitations imposed by the California North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in conjunction with the issuance of a 401 Certification pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act. The Trinity River has been listed under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act as a waterbody impaired by sediment. A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the Trinity River was completed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in December, 2001. It is anticipated that the project will improve the beneficial uses of the Trinity River (cold water fisheries) that are impaired by sediment. Per federal Executive Order 11988 (pertaining to floodplain involvement), public notice is hereby given that the project may encroach upon the 100-year floodplain. If it is determined that project activities would result in a change to the 100-year floodplain, a floodplain risk assessment will be performed to determine what impacts, if any, would occur to adjacent structures and the public. However, it is anticipated that completion of the proposed project will reduce flooding risks and will not adversely affect the 100-year floodplain and Base Flood Elevations in the project areas. If the Trinity River 100-year floodplain is affected by the project, a Conditional Letter of Map Revision (CLOMR) will be submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The DWR will be responsible for preparing the CLOMR and defining updated Base Flood Elevations using the best hydrology information that is available. In addition, project activities in designated floodplains on private lands will require issuance of a Floodplain Development Permit from Trinity County. Biological Resources. Existing biological conditions within the Trinity River and the area surrounding the project sites will be described, and potential impacts of the proposed project on vegetation and wildlife will be assessed. The EIR/EA will evaluate the likelihood for any significant biological impacts, including effects on endangered, threatened, rare, or other special status plant and animal species, and wetland/special aquatic Resources. The area defined by the ESL for the proposed project has the potential to support a variety of special status species (listed and non-listed). Spring and fall chinook salmon, coho salmon, Pacific Lamprey and summer and winter steelhead are known to spawn within the Trinity River, and suitable spawning habitat is available for the species within the study limits of the project. In addition, the Trinity River is designated as critical habitat for coho salmon by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Fisheries Section (NOAA Fisheries). Other special-status and listed species within the project area could potentially include the willow flycatcher, green sturgeon, silky cryptantha, northwestern pond turtle, yellow warbler, yellow-breasted chat, bald eagle, and osprey. A comprehensive plant and wildlife survey will be conducted to determine species presence/absence and potential project-related effects to species that are determined to be present. A Biological Assessment may be required pursuant to Section 7 of the Federal Endangered Species Act (federal Endangered Species Act [ESA]) to address impacts to listed riparian and terrestrial species under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A Biological Opinion (BO) was issued by NOAA Fisheries (formerly National Marine Fisheries Service) on October 12, 2000 for the Trinity River Fisheries Restoration Program. This BO is considered adequate to address listed fish species that may be affected by this project. If required by the California Fish and Game Code, a "2081 Incidental Take Permit" (California Endangered Species Act) and a "1601 Streambed Alteration Agreement" may be issued, based on the certified final EIR, by the California Dept of Fish and Game, acting as a responsible agency. The project will be assessed for consistency with the state and federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Acts. Completion of the project is expected to enhance anadromous salmon and steelhead fisheries; both identified as outstandingly remarkable values of the Trinity River. The project includes a variety of riparian and wetland habitat elements. These elements are considered sensitive, and ecologically important to a variety of human and natural Resources. Activities associated with the project could result in the loss of an undetermined acreage of riparian habitat. Per federal Executive Orders 11990 (pertaining to wetlands), public notice is hereby given that the project may encroach upon wetlands. Construction activities associated with the proposed project could result in temporary and permanent impacts to wetland features within the ESL that are subject to U.S. Army Corps of Engineer's (ACOE) jurisdiction, pursuant to Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Within the ESL, a delineation of jurisdictional waters of the United States will be conducted and a delineation report will subsequently be submitted to the ACOE for review and verification, as necessary. Cultural Resources. A cultural Resources survey and evaluation will be conducted, in consultation with the State Historic Preservation Officer. This evaluation will assess the area within the environmental study limits of the project to determine the presence and significance of cultural and archaeological Resources identified. The project site does not contain any known cultural Resources; however, there may be cultural Resources that are currently hidden within the project study limits that could be unearthed and discovered during the construction phase of the project. If cultural Resources are encountered during the survey, a determination will be made as to their eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The study will be transmitted to the State Office of Historic Preservation for concurrence with any eligibility determinations, in accordance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Hazards. The actions associated with the project are not expected to involve the use of hazardous materials and, therefore, will not expose the public to significant hazard. Historic Mercury deposits from past mining efforts likely exist on site. Hazards related to movement of earth and its effects on Mercury availability will be addressed. Land Use. The proposed project is consistent with Trinity County's General Plan and related policies. No buildings or permanent structures are located within the ESL. Mineral extraction activities occur within the ESL, and will be incorporated into the project design. Growth-inducing impacts are not expected to occur as a result of the project, but will be examined. Socioeconomic/Displacements/Environmental Justice. Right-of-way acquisition, residential/business displacements, relocation assistance, business impacts, and neighborhood cohesion will be analyzed pursuant to both CEQA and NEPA. In addition, environmental justice concerns will be addressed pursuant to NEPA. Public Services/Utilities. An analysis of public services and utilities associated with the project will be included in the EIR/EA. Visual Resources. A Visual Impact Analysis will be included in the EIR/EA describing the existing visual characteristics of the project area and analyzing any potential visual impacts. Transportation and Circulation. Transportation and circulation impacts will be analyzed for each of the alternatives, including access during construction, and any impacts to public roads, including State Highway 299 West. A main objective of the project is to ensure implementation in a manner that provides safe transit in and adjacent to the project area. Project work within existing Right-of-Ways for public roads may require issuance of an encroachment permit from the responsible agency. Construction Impacts. The document will identify and analyze any further short-term construction impacts associated with air quality, noise, water quality, traffic congestion and detours, safety, visual, business access, community facilities, etc. Brandt Gutermuth, Environmental Specialist Trinity River Restoration Program PO Box 1300 (mailing) 1313 Main Street (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 (530) 623-1806 voice (530) 623-5944 fax Bgutermuth at mp.usbr.gov -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: nophockerflat_SignedFinal.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1033028 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon May 17 17:03:27 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 17:03:27 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Weseloh Letter to Editor - Times Standard Message-ID: <01b401c43c6d$c3067a60$396b3940@V51NH> Retyped from: Letters to the Times-Standard - May 17, 2004 - page A4 Trinity Record of decision based on sound science Thomas Birmingham and Sal Parra accuse the Hoopa Valley Tribe (HVT) of promoting "myths", "fanciful distortions" and "misstatements" that are supposedly delaying restoration. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the Westlands Water District, Mr. Parra's water provider and Mr. Birmingham's employer, litigated to delay implementation of the 2000 Record of Decision (ROD) based on two out of basin impacts. These are being addressed in the SEIS (see Times-Standard May 2 article "Analysis backs Trinity plan"). The day before Mr. Birmingham's letter was published the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the litigation regarding the ROD and ordered increased releases for the Trinity River this year. Mr. Parra believes that Trinity River fishery is healthy when populations are a fraction of pre-dam numbers and not reaching legislated restoration goals. Additionally, Mr. Parra wants "flexible adaptive management" claiming "the tribes refuse to discuss it". The ROD is based on this concept and the tribes have embraced it. Mr. Parra should read the ROD. The HVT and Humboldt/Trinity County community members have put forth a tremendous effort to consistently remind our federal government of the litany of legislative and public promises made regarding diversion of Trinity River water and reserved fishing rights. I applaud the Tribe and all of the local advocates that promote adequate flows, restored fisheries and the resulting economic benefit based upon sound science, vested rights, and legislative mandates. It is Westlands' representatives that are promoting "myths", "fanciful distortions" and "misstatements" and delaying Trinity River restoration. Thomas J. Weseloh McKinleyville -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Mon May 17 17:51:31 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 17:51:31 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Weseloh Letter to Editor - Times Standard Message-ID: Tom Great letter - short and to the point. Dan Bacher From danielbacher at hotmail.com Mon May 17 17:56:55 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 17:56:55 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Weseloh Letter to Editor - Times Standard Message-ID: Here's the latest update on what's happening with the American River Parkway. Last Minute Rally of River Activists Prevents Raid On Parkway Funds by Dan Bacher In a last minute rally of local river activists, 35 supporters of the American River Parkway attended the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors meeting on May 13 to stave off an attempt by the County Sheriff to divert $3 million proposed for the parkway. The County had proposed to cut the parkway budget $633,000, a vast improvement over an earlier proposed cut of $4.4 million from a budget of about $5 million, during a "Quality of Life" hearing on May 6. The County found the $3,000,000 for the parkway through a windfall land sale. However, river advocates received a tip from County insiders on May 12 that? Lou Blanas, Sacramento County Sheriff, was planning to raid this fund to solve a shortfall in his department. The presence of Parkway supporters at the latest hearing apparently convinced the Board to hold firm on their tentative agreement to give the $3 million to the parkway. "We feel good that the cuts are not as bad as they could be," said Alan Wade, president of the Save the American River Association (SARA), who spoke on behalf of the organization on May 13. "I look at the parkway budget glass now as 3/4 full rather than 3/4 empty." Unfortunately, parkway funding for the upcoming fiscal year -? July 1, 2004? through June 30, 2005 - is still not definitely secured because of projected cuts in state budget reimbursements to the County that loom over the County budget. "We could be back to square one because I don?t think the Governor understands the dire straits that the local governments are in," said Wade. The Sacramento Bee on May 14 quoted Roger Niello, County Supervisor as saying, "When the other shoe drops (the state budget), we?re going to have to find additional money or make additional cuts, so we?ll be back here looking for creative solutions." In the latest meeting, the Board approved a spending plan for the coming year with $17.9 million cuts for nearly every department. In early July, the Board of Supervisors is expected to make their final budget decisions after they are provided with information regarding the status of state budget reimbursements for county programs. The failure of the Sheriff to raid the parkway fund is a great tribute to the hundreds of parkway activists who wrote letters, attended board meetings and called their Board members to urge them not to close the American River Parkway, the "crown jewel" of Sacramento County. The parkway generates an estimated $259,034,030 in the local economy each year, according to the American River Parkway Financial Needs Study (August 10, 2000.)? This includes direct spending by parkway visitors, the County of Sacramento and other operators involved in providing parkway services. The American River is one of the most heavily fished rivers in the state because of its large king salmon, steelhead, striped bass and shad runs. "Our presence was noted and we managed to deter anyone from even suggesting that the 3 million dollars promised the week before should be shifted to someplace else," said Betsy Weiland, SARA activist. "Never doubt that it is our continued dedication to attending these hearings that is keeping the Parkway front and center in this budget crisis. We have lived to fight another day." However, she emphasized, "Once the other shoe falls i.e. the state budget impacts, we will once again alert everyone if more action is needed to protect the Parkway funding." Meanwhile, parkway advocates will be stepping up their efforts to search for alternative funding sources. For more information and the latest action alerts, contact the Save the American River Association: www.sarariverwatch.org; email - riverwatch at comcast.net or sara5204 at pacbell.net; or phone (916) 383-1298. You can also contact the American River Parkway Foundation, P.O. Box 188437. Sacramento, CA 95818, (916) 456-7423, Fax (916) 455-4632, www.arpf.org. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed May 19 18:03:20 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:03:20 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Time Extension Granted for CEQA Comments on Trinity Supplemental EIS/EIR Message-ID: <024301c43e06$3fd58420$a16c3940@V51NH> Please be aware that on May 18, 2004, the Trinity County Board of Supervisors voted favorably to a request by Friends of the Trinity River and others to extend the comment period under CEQA for the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Supplemental EIR by 30 days to July 22, 2004. However, the NEPA comment period remains the same, June 22, 2004, so you still need to get those comments into the NEPA co-leads (Hoopa Valley Tribe, USFWS and USBR) before their deadline, unless they also agree to extend the comment period. Tom Stokely, Principal Planner Trinity Co. Planning/Natural Resources 530-628-5949 REVISED PUBLIC NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY: Supplemental Environmental Impact Report for Trinity River Fishery Restoration The Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Hoopa Valley Tribe, as federal co-lead agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Trinity County, as state lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), have made available for public review and comment the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (SEIS/EIR) for the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Program (Program). The primary objective of the SEIS/EIR is to evaluate alternatives for the Program to meet Federal trust responsibilities for tribal fishery resources and restore the fisheries in the Trinity River basin to the level that existed prior to the construction of the Trinity River Division (TRD) of the CVP. Secondary consideration is given to: (a) meeting the Trinity Basin fishery and wildlife restoration goals of the Act of October 24, 1984, Public Law 98-541, and (b) achieving a reasonable balance among competing demands for use of Central Valley Project (CVP) water, including the requirements of fish and wildlife, agricultural, municipal and industrial, and power contractors. The proposed alternatives focus on the 40 miles of Trinity River below Lewiston Dam, in Trinity County, California. The direct and indirect impacts of the alternatives occur within and outside the Trinity River Basin. Anticipated impacts and benefits are generally discussed in the context of three geographic areas: the Trinity River Basin, the Lower Klamath River Basin/Coastal Area, and the Central Valley. A final environmental impact statement (EIS) on the Program was issued in November 2000, and a Record of Decision (ROD) executed on December 19, 2000, by former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. The Trinity County Board of Supervisors, however, did not certify that document as a Final EIR. In late 2000, Central Valley water and power interests filed suit in the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of California seeking to enjoin implementation of the ROD. On March 22, 2001, the district court issued a Memorandum Decision and Order preliminarily enjoining the Federal defendants from implementing certain flow related aspects of the ROD. In its Memorandum Decision and Order the court found that the environmental effects of reasonable and prudent measures in the two biological opinions prepared with respect to the project, as well as the effects on power in light of the California energy crisis were not adequately analyzed in the EIS. This Draft SEIS/EIR addresses the court's concerns and updates alternatives. The purpose of the Draft SEIS/EIR has been amended, consistent with court orders. The Draft SEIS/EIR updates information on alternatives described in the October 2000 EIS/EIR. These alternatives include: Existing Conditions, No Action, Mechanical Restoration (revised to address the court's concerns and using information submitted by plaintiffs), Percent Inflow (modified to address the court's concerns), Flow Evaluation and Maximum Flow. An additional alternative is also evaluated: a 70 Percent Inflow Alternative, based on comments documented in the October 2000 EIS/EIR. Consistent with the October 2000 EIS/EIR, the Flow Evaluation Alternative remains the designated Preferred Alternative. The flow evaluation alternative consists of the following components: . Variable annual instream flows for the Trinity River from the TRD based on forecasted hydrology for the Trinity River Basin as of April 1st of each year, ranging from 369,000 acre-feet (af) in critically dry years to 815,000 AF in extremely wet years; . Physical channel rehabilitation, including the removal of riparian berms and the establishment of side channel habitat; . Sediment management, including the supplementation of spawning gravels below the TRD and reduction in fine sediments that degrade fish habitats; . Watershed restoration efforts, addressing negative impacts which have resulted from land use practices in the Basin; and . Infrastructure improvements or modifications, including rebuilding or fortifying bridges and addressing other structures affected by the peak instream flows.. The alternative also includes an Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management (AEAM) Program. The AEAM Program, guided by a Trinity Management Council (TMC) and advised by the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group (TAMWG) established as part of this decision and by sound scientific principles, will ensure the proper implementation of these measures, conduct appropriate scientific monitoring and evaluation efforts, and recommend possible adjustments to the annual flow schedule within the designated flow volumes provided for in this ROD or other measures in order to ensure that the restoration and maintenance of the Trinity River anadromous fishery continues based on the best available scientific information and analysis. Significant effects of the proposed project on the environment pursuant to CEQA include water quality, endangered species, energy, recreation, agriculture, water supply, groundwater, fisheries and land use. Pursuant to NEPA, a 60-day public review period has been established for review of the SEIS/EIR. This review period began on April 23, 2004, and will end on June 22, 2004. A 75-day public review period has been established pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act. This review period began on May 9, 2004, and will end on July 22, 2004. Electronic copies of the SEIS/EIR are available for public review on the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific website for the Northern California Area Office at www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao (click on Projects/Activities/Documents, then on Trinity River - Restoration Program). Hard copies of the document are available for review at the Trinity County Planning Department at 190 Glen Road in Weaverville and 98A Clinic Ave in Hayfork, and at Trinity County Libraries in Hayfork, Weaverville, and Trinity Center. Electronic CD copies of the SEIS/EIR may be obtained at by contacting the Trinity County Planning Department and free of charge (subject to availability). The documents referenced within the SEIS/EIR are also available for public review at the CH2M Hill office located at 2525 Airpark Drive, Redding, California. Three public hearings have been scheduled to receive oral or written comments regarding the project's environmental effects: Thursday, June 1, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m., Holiday Inn, 1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA Tuesday, June 3, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30: p.m., Hoopa Fire Department, Highway 96, Hoopa, CA Tuesday, June 10, 2004, at 7 p.m. or soon thereafter, at the Trinity County Planning Commission, Trinity County Board of Supervisors Meeting Room, Trinity County Library, 211 Main Street, Weaverville, CA Written comments are encouraged. Written comments on the Draft SEIS/EIR should be sent no later than June 22, 2004 to Mr. Russell Smith, Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 723, Shasta, CA 96087; telephone: 530-275-1554; fax 530-275-2441. Written comments submitted after June 22, 2004 pursuant to CEQA should be sent to Mr. Tom Stokely, Trinity County Natural Resources, P.O. Box 156, Hayfork, CA 96041-0156; telephone 530-628-5949; fax 530-628-5800. NOTE: If you Challenge the action or proposed action in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised through the public hearings and public comment period described in this notice, or in written correspondence. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed May 19 18:17:36 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 18:17:36 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] AP-Federal whistleblower quits, alleges politicization of science Message-ID: <028801c43e08$3ce94ec0$a16c3940@V51NH> http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/8705712.htm Federal whistleblower quits, alleges politicization of science DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO - A federal biologist who said his team's advice was illegally ignored prior to a massive 2002 Klamath River fish kill has resigned, accusing the government of politicizing scientific decision-making and misleading the public. Michael Kelly had sought federal whistleblower protection after he complained the Bush administration violated the Endangered Species Act by pressuring for altered scientific findings by the review team he led for the National Marine Fisheries Service, now NOAA Fisheries. "My efforts were ultimately unproductive," Kelly laments in his resignation letter, released Wednesday through Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which represented Kelly in the whistleblower case first reported by The Associated Press. "Threatened coho salmon in the Klamath basin still do not have adequate flow conditions to assure their survival." Kelly alleged his team's recommendations were twice rejected as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation imposed lower water levels than were scientifically justified. California wildlife officials, environmentalists, fishermen and Indian tribes blame low water levels for the death of 33,000 salmon that fall, amounting to nearly a quarter of the projected fall run in the river flowing from south central Oregon through northwest California. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel declined to investigate Kelly's complaint, saying it could neither prove "gross mismanagement" by NOAA Fisheries even if the agency relied on conflicting science nor prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the low water decision and the subsequent die-off. Kelly's testimony has since been key in a federal court ruling overturning the agency's long-term water flow plan for the Klamath, though a decision allowing the government to proceed with its plans through 2008 is under appeal. Kelly resigned from the agency's Arcata, Calif., office Friday after nine years, saying Regional Manager Jim Lecky had again intervened in overturning his finding in the latest project to which he was assigned. He feared a repeat of his ethical predicament two years ago. NOAA Fisheries officials had no immediate comment. The latest project is a proposal by the California Department of Fish and Game to rebuild a collapsed levee and re-establish a freshwater pond in what has become a salt marsh at the mouth of the Eel River. Kelly found that the marsh has become an important rearing area for young threatened chinook salmon and other species. He objects in his letter that the state agency appears to want to turn it back into a freshwater pond mainly to concentrate ducks for convenient hunting. Karen Kovacs, a senior state biologist supervisor, said the state manages the 2,200-acre Eel River Wildlife Area for all aquatic wildlife - freshwater and saltwater - and to that end wants to re-establish a 120-acre pond that collapsed six years ago, while leaving 200 acres as a salt marsh. As a result of Kelly's finding, PEER called on the state to drop the proposal. Kelly is the latest in a recent string of scientists to accuse the Bush administration of substituting policy for science, charges the administration denies. In his Tuesday resignation letter, he accuses his agency of doing so in recent decisions not to list the green sturgeon under the Endangered Species Act; counting hatchery raised salmon along with wild salmon in protection decisions; and an attempt, since blocked by a judge, to alter the definition of dolphin-safe tuna. "My particular case is just symptomatic of this agency's failure to correctly apply science and caution to its decisions and public pronouncements. I speak for many of my fellow biologists who are embarrassed and disgusted by the agency's apparent misuse of science," Kelly wrote. "Federal service has just lost another biologist with the integrity to speak up," said Karen Schambach, director of PEER's California office. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for self-respecting scientists to continue working in agencies where politics now routinely and flagrantly trump science." ON THE NET Read Kelly's allegations in the Klamath water case at http://www.peer.org/kellynarrative.pdf Read the final biological opinion at http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/psd/klamath/KpopBO2002finalMay31.PDF -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu May 20 09:18:12 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 09:18:12 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] June 7, 7-9 p.m- Water Forum on Trinity River and South Africa Message-ID: <005b01c43e86$0d6b6ba0$176c3940@V51NH> Press Release: For Immediate Release, May 19, 2004 Contact: Dan Bacher, 916-487-4905, email: danielbacher at hotmail.com Sagren Govender to Speak on Water Privatization in South Africa at Water Forum The Central America Action Committee of Sacramento will present a water rights forum, "Trading Away Our Water: Who Owns It? Who Gets It?," on Monday June 7, 7-9 p.m. The event will take place at the Newman Center, 5900 Newman Court, off Carlson Avenue north of CSU Sacramento. Sagren Govender, from Durban, Kwa-Zulu, South Africa, will speak on water privatization in South Africa. Govender is the co-founder of Committee for South African Solidarity, COSAS, which has an office in Oakland, Ca. He is also the Volunteer Editor of South African BEACON. Water is increasingly becoming a hot topic in Sacramento, the U.S., Central America and throughout the world. Poor and indigenous communities are particularly hard hit by water diversions and the privatization of water resources by huge global corporations. The event will also feature an overview of global water privatization - including right here in Sacramento - by Nancy Price of the Alliance for Democracy. Price recently returned from an international gathering in Costa Rica on how to organize opposition to US-pushed "free trade" (including water!) agreements in the Western Hemisphere. Tod Bedrosian of the Hoopa Valley Tribe will discuss the long struggle of the tribe to restore water and fish to the Trinity River. The tribe and its supporters have successfully pressured a number of cities and public utilities, including SMUD, to pull out of a lawsuit blocking Trinity River restoration. Juliette Beck, the California Coordinator and Senior Organizer of the Water for All Campaign of Public Citizen, will MC the forum. The event will also feature exhibits and brief presentations regarding: . rural Nicaraguan water projects, El Porvenir . solar water pasteurization, Solar Cookers International . ceramic water filters (filtrones), Friends of San Juan de Oriente (Nicaragua). This promises to be a unique, entertaining and highly informative event, the first of its kind in Sacramento. The event is free, but donations are appreciated. The forum is co-sponsored by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Sacramento), El Porvenir, Solar Cookers International and Friends of San Juan de Oriente. For more information, call the Central America Action Committee, 916-739-0860 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu May 20 10:17:47 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 20 May 2004 10:17:47 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Portland Oregonian - Revised outlook cuts water for Klamath fish Message-ID: <00c201c43e8e$6050c240$176c3940@V51NH> Revised outlook cuts water for Klamath fish Farmers and salmon alike will be hurting this summer in the Klamath Basin as expected spring runoff fails to materialize Portland Oregonian - 5/20/04 By Michael Milstein, staff writer Ample mountain runoff predicted earlier in the year has not shown up in the Klamath Basin, leading federal managers to sharply scale back water for protected fish while urging farmers to conserve every drop. The shortage has grown especially acute over the last month, reviving tensions in the region bedeviled by drought. Klamath farmers lost irrigation water in 2001 because federal agencies reserved what little there was for protected fish. "The bottom line is we've got less water -- everyone's got less water," said Dan Keppen of the Klamath Water Users Association. "People are obviously going to tighten up their belt as much as they can, but I'm not sure what else we can do." The government's current strategy could put less water in the Klamath River this fall than in the fall of 2002, when more than 33,000 salmon died crowded in its lower reaches. Federal officials earlier this month paid farmers to pump millions of gallons of well water onto crops after realizing Upper Klamath Lake will not fill with water as many had hoped. The water table has since fallen in some parts of the arid basin. With the year increasingly parched, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation redefined the water year as drier than expected. That reduces by about one-third the amount of water that must be directed to threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River. Reclamation officials are sending extra water down the river for young salmon leaving hatcheries. But Northern California tribes that rely on fall salmon runs are troubled that water releases this fall could drop below 2002 levels, which they blamed for one of the largest adult salmon die-offs in U.S. history. "We're really concerned, basically because we're setting ourselves up for a similar situation," said Toz Soto, fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe. Northern California's Trinity River also contributes water to the Klamath River, but much of its flow is diverted to farms in Central California. Klamath farms typically require more irrigation water in dry years, meaning they will compete with the needs of the salmon and endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake. "This is just becoming a routine event," Keppen said. "It happens every summer," he said, because minimum flows for fish have little flexibility. Dave Sabo, manager of the Klamath Project for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said he will urge the roughly 1,400 farms in the 200,000-acre reclamation project to save water so forced cutbacks in irrigation water do not loom later in summer. "I'm real nervous about how this is going to turn out," Sabo said. "It's critical that people pay attention to what they're using." He said about half the water freed up by a so-called water bank, which paid farmers to idle cropland and irrigate with well water, will be exhausted by the end of May. He has asked federal biologists at NOAA-Fisheries, which oversees protected salmon, how to spread the rest out over the remainder of the year. The tighter supply hinges on early projections of healthy runoff into Upper Klamath Lake that led officials to release more water downstream through winter and early spring. The projections have since fallen to 38 percent below average. "We were counting on having a high spring inflow, and it hasn't materialized," Sabo said. The amount of water held in mountain snow around the basin fell from near normal at the beginning of the month to about 40 percent below average this week. Experts think melting snow is either evaporating or soaking into the parched ground without reaching rivers and streams. Farmers said they are doing all they can by adopting new conservation measures and joining in the water bank. The government last year began asking farmers to irrigate from wells as a stopgap measure to leave more lake and river water for fish. But the pumping has lowered a water table already suffering from three dry years. The water level in a Malin city well, just north of the California line, had fallen from 22 feet below ground in 2000 to 45 feet earlier this year. After the government began paying farmers to pump well water May 3, the level fell more than 10 additional feet, said public works director Rob Grounds. Although the city draws water from 250 feet below ground, protecting it against shallow fluctuations, Grounds said smaller domestic wells may be more vulnerable. Malin lies a few miles from large wells operated by the Tulelake Irrigation District just inside California. Federal officials suspended the extra pumping last week, as water savings from idled land and other sources became more apparent. And officials at the irrigation district, which records show could earn as much as $1.9 million for pumping, said they would adjust to minimize the effects on other wells. Meanwhile, a splinter group of members from the Klamath Tribes filed claims against PacifiCorp for the loss of chinook salmon fisheries cut off when hydroelectric dams blocked the Klamath River almost a century ago. The Klamath Tribes Claims Committee, which is separate from the tribal government, said it also seeks restoration of salmon runs during upcoming relicensing of the dams by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Fri May 21 02:20:33 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 02:20:33 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Northern California Tribes Push for Higher Profile in Water Battles Message-ID: <410-22004552192033260@earthlink.net> Northern California Tribes Push for Higher Profile in Water Battles, Salmon Debates NCM Report, News Feature, Julie Johnson, May 19, 2004 SAN FRANCISCO -- Two Northern California tribes have a great deal to say on how to protect endangered West Coast salmon and how best to balance demands on fresh water in the state. Yet the concerns of the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes do not always receive careful consideration as deals are negotiated in the court system and in government offices to decide how the region's scarce water resources will be apportioned. Media coverage of California's "water battles" often leaves tribal voices out as well. In a presidential election year, the stakes are high, because the federal government typically exerts pressure on communities and negotiators to cinch up water deals before November, says Mike Orcutt, the Hoopa Valley Tribe's fisheries director. In 2002, the death of over 30,000 salmon along the Klamath River, which is fed by the Hoopa Valley's Trinity River, attracted a flurry of media coverage that often included tribal voices. But in-depth articles are now being written on Pacific Coast water issues without mentioning tribal interests at all. A March 17 story in The Wall Street Journal on water battles and water's cost in California's Central Valley completely overlooked the views of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, says tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall. In a letter to the editor published April 19, Marshall said the story ignored a huge cost of the water diversion schemes meant to provide Central Valley farmers with irrigation: "The fish are dying, threatening our livelihood, and causing economic devastation in Pacific Coast communities from Coos Bay, Ore., to San Francisco Bay." Much of the river water that once coursed naturally from Northern California sierras to the sea was dammed and diverted in the 1950s for crops in the once-arid Central Valley, now one of the nation's most lucrative agricultural areas. Marshall argues in this letter that U.S. government promises to rehabilitate the Trinity and provide enough water for its salmon are routinely ignored as federal authorities side with ?agribusiness giants" and their desire for cheap water. The sticking point is a year 2000 agreement, signed by President Clinton's administration, that said Trinity River water levels were to be brought up to almost half of natural flow. The remaining flow was earmarked for hydropower and irrigation. But the Westlands Water District -- which covers a large swath of the Central Valley -- and power suppliers filed a lawsuit, claiming that this change would cause harm to Central Valley residents and businesses. That lawsuit is still in the federal court system and the burden has been put on tribes to prove the drain on water is adversely affecting the river basin and its wildlife. The Hoopa tribe, along with the neighboring Yuroks, have put decades of hard scientific research into proving their observations that that low water levels caused by diversion for hydropower and irrigation are bad for the fish, says Joseph Orozco, manager of tribal station KIDE 91.3 FM Hoopa Valley Radio. The tribes also are trying to weigh in on a related, equally contentious debate concerning the ecological viability of hatchery salmon versus wild salmon stocks. Those who say that the Trinity River and other West Coast watersheds are not quite as threatened as tribes and environmentalists contend base part of their arguments on the fact that hatchery salmon have been successfully introduced into rivers and are living alongside wild salmon stocks. This month, President Bush's administration proposed, then abandoned, a controversial plan to take many species of West Coast salmon off the Endangered Species list because of the presence of hatchery fish in the rivers. Orozco says the tribe is marshalling evidence to prove that hatchery fish are no substitute for wild stock. Plus, he argues wild salmon could be adversely affected by interbreeding with hatchery fish that are more susceptible to disease and smaller than wild salmon. Worse, the hatchery fish, unused to having to compete for food also "seem to feed" on wild fish eggs, he says. Hupas who throughout their history have relied on salmon for sustenance can even taste the difference between the two, an indication of how important healthy salmon stocks are to the tribe's identity and well being, says Orozco. "Those who have been raised on salmon all their lives can practically tell what creek the fish they eat came from." The tribe has been reaching out to nearby communities, and even to groups in the Central Valley, in order to share research showing that even when rivers such as the Trinity appear "healthy" because of abundant rain or snowfall, the strain year after year that is slowly sapping at its life. These efforts contributed to several parties dropping out of the Westlands lawsuit, including the Port of Oakland, the city of Palo Alto and Alameda County, according to Orozco. John Fistolera, legislative director of the Northern California Power Agency, one of the lawsuit's main backers, says the 2000 agreement to restore half the Trinity River's flow did not fairly account for the adverse effects reduced water would have on agriculture and hydropower in an energy-strapped state. The Hoopa tribe, meanwhile, has focused on its own awareness building: one event, begun after the 2002 fish deaths, involves an annual relay-style "fish run" along rivers and streams during spawning season by students carrying batons carved to resemble salmon. George Kautsky, deputy director of the neighboring Yurok Tribe Fisheries Department, says the neglect of tribal, and environmental, interests in the Trinity River water negotiations is a long story. He says the original 1955 contract dictating use of the Trinity River's water was a compromise among agriculture, hydroelectric power, and local ecosystems. ?It was a three-legged stool, but the fish and the tribal land were neglected,? Kautsky says. Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov Fri May 21 13:58:27 2004 From: BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov (Brandt Gutermuth) Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 13:58:27 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Notice of Preparation Available, Scoping Meeting Scheduled for the Hocker Flat EA/EIR Message-ID: The NOP is announced on the USBR website - as below: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/mp140/news/2004/MP-04-040.html Best Regards- Brandt __________________________________________________________________________ Mid-Pacific Region Sacramento , CA MP-04-040 Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken, 916-978-5100 For Release On: May 19, 2004 Notice of Preparation Available, Scoping Meeting Scheduled for the Hocker Flat EA/EIR Under the guidance of the Trinity River Restoration Program, the Bureaus of Reclamation and Land Management (the Federal lead agencies), and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) (the State lead agency), announce availability of a Notice of Preparation (NOP) for an Environmental Assessment and Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the "Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78 to 79.1." The EA/EIR is being prepared to meet California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act requirements. The Hocker Flat project is located on the Trinity River , immediately downstream from Junction City and below the confluence of Canyon Creek. This bank rehabilitation project is the first of many that will mechanically reshape the Trinity River channel, allow for a more naturally functioning river and floodplain, and provide for increased fish habitat as described in the December 19, 2000 , Record of Decision for the Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration Environmental Impact Statement. Actions which may be conducted in areas of the project include removal of vegetation, earthwork in the Trinity River floodplain, material transportation and disposal, and revegetation. A 30-day public scoping period will be held May 19 to June 21, 2004 , to solicit comments to assist the lead agencies in identifying the range of actions, alternatives, mitigation measures, and significant effects to be analyzed in the EA/EIR. A public scoping meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 2, 2004 , at 6:30 p.m. at the Junction City Community Hall, 71 Dutch Creek Road (just south of Hwy 299), Junction City . Project information will be presented and comments on the scope of the EA/EIR will be accepted. For further information or to receive a copy of the NOP, contact Mr. Brandt Gutermuth, Bureau of Reclamation, at 530-623-1806, or Mr. Aric Lester, DWR, at 530-529-7365. Please send comments to: Mr. Brandt Gutermuth, c/o Trinity River Restoration Program, P.O. Box 1300 , Weaverville , CA 96093 , or e-mail bgutermuth at mp.usbr.gov . ### Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States , with operations and facilities in the 17 Western States. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. Visit our website at http://www.usbr.gov From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Fri May 21 16:32:16 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 16:32:16 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fwd: Lewiston Dam - Trinity River Release Message-ID: Updated ramping schedule from Reclamation for releases from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River. __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ >>> Tom Morstein-Marx 05/21/04 10:48AM >>> Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From (CFS) To (CFS) 5/25/04 2300 6000 5900 5/26/04 0000 5900 5800 5/26/04 0100 5800 5700 5/26/04 2300 5700 5600 5/27/04 0000 5600 5500 5/27/04 0100 5500 5400 5/27/04 2300 5400 5300 5/28/04 0000 5300 5200 5/28/04 0100 5200 5100 5/28/04 2300 5100 5000 5/29/04 0000 5000 4900 5/29/04 0100 4900 4800 5/29/04 2300 4800 4700 5/30/04 0000 4700 4600 5/30/04 0100 4600 4500 5/31/04 2300 4500 4400 6/1/04 0000 4400 4300 6/1/04 0100 4300 4200 6/1/04 2300 4200 4100 6/2/04 0000 4100 4000 6/2/04 0100 4000 3950 6/2/04 0200 3950 3900 6/2/04 2200 3900 3850 6/2/04 2300 3850 3800 6/3/04 0000 3800 3750 6/3/04 0100 3750 3700 6/3/04 0200 3700 3650 6/3/04 0300 3650 3600 6/3/04 2200 3600 3550 6/3/04 2300 3550 3500 6/4/04 0000 3500 3450 6/4/04 0100 3450 3400 6/4/04 0200 3400 3350 6/4/04 0300 3350 3300 6/4/04 2200 3300 3250 6/4/04 2300 3250 3200 6/5/04 0000 3200 3150 6/5/04 0100 3150 3100 6/5/04 0200 3100 3050 6/5/04 0300 3050 3000 6/8/04 2200 3000 2950 6/8/04 2300 2950 2900 6/9/04 0000 2900 2850 6/9/04 0100 2850 2800 6/10/04 2200 2800 2750 6/10/04 2300 2750 2700 6/11/04 0000 2700 2650 6/11/04 0100 2650 2600 6/12/04 2200 2600 2550 6/12/04 2300 2550 2500 6/13/04 0000 2500 2450 6/13/04 0100 2450 2400 6/14/04 2300 2400 2350 6/15/04 0000 2350 2300 6/15/04 2300 2300 2250 6/16/04 0000 2250 2200 6/16/04 2300 2200 2150 6/17/04 0000 2150 2100 6/17/04 2300 2100 2050 6/18/04 0000 2050 2000 From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Sat May 22 01:26:37 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 01:26:37 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Native Americans in protest at ScottishPower threat to salmon Message-ID: <410-22004562282637810@earthlink.net> Native Americans in protest at ScottishPower threat to salmon Tribes set to visit Glasgow HQ in bid to save river fish By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor ONE of Scotland?s leading multinationals, ScottishPower, is facing angry protests from native Americans who accuse its US subsidiary of destroying a salmon river in California. Four tribes ? the Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa and Klamath ? fearful for the fate of their traditional fishing grounds, are threatening to bring their protest to ScottishPower?s Glasgow headquarters. They warn the company that it is risking years of bitter conflict and serious damage to its environmental credentials. According to Leaf Hillman, of the Karuk, shareholders are raking in multi-million pound profits as the tribes suffer. ?While they kill the fish with their hydro-power dams, downstream native Americans go without fish to eat or electricity in their homes,? he says. ?ScottishPower claims to be a green utility, but what its subsidiary is doing is cheating us out of a possible solution.? The company is guilty, he alleges, of a ?betrayal of trust?. The Klamath River in northern California and southern Oregon was once the third biggest salmon-producing river in the US. But now two species are extinct, one is threatened and the remaining two have been reduced to 10% of their former populations. The four tribes, backed by anglers and environmentalists, say dams and power stations operated along the river by ScottishPower?s subsidiary, PacifiCorp, are to blame. The dams have prevented salmon from reaching their natural spawning grounds up river. ?These are small, old dams that provide little power but a do a great deal of damage to the river, blocking hundreds of miles of historic salmon spawning habitat,? said Glen Spain, regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations. ?Salmon kills caused by these dams have destroyed fishing jobs all along the west coast.? In 2002, the 240-mile Klamath River suffered the largest fish kill in US history, with more than 33,000 fish dying because of a shortage of good quality water. The tribes and environmentalists claim the dams played ?a significant part? in the disaster, though ScottishPower denies this. The tribes have lived along the Klamath for millennia, depending on its fish for sustenance. Now the 50-year-old hydro schemes have come up for relicensing, they were hoping to get them adapted to enable salmon to swim upriver to spawn as they once did. But when PacifiCorp submitted its relicensing application in February it failed to promise to install salmon runs, or to investigate shutting down some dams, and instead suggested salmon could be caught and hauled upstream in trucks. ?Despite our good faith involvement with PacifiCorp, we have been ignored,? said Merv George Jnr, director of the Klamath River Inter-Tribal Fish and Water Commission. ?As the parent company, ScottishPower should be held accountable and uphold its responsibilities to native people.? On May 5, the tribes wrote to its board in Glasgow requesting it direct Pacifi Corp to enter into settlement negotiations. They are also trying to raise money to finance a protest visit to Glasgow to highlight ?environmental racism?. The Klamath power stations generate 151 megawatts, about 2% of all PacifiCorp?s hydroelectricity. The river has 12 turbine generators, five reservoirs and five dams, the largest of which, Iron Gate, is 173ft high. In November 1999, PacifiCorp was taken over by ScottishPower, which last year had a global turnover of more than ?5 billion and a profit before tax of more than ?800 million. ScottishPower provides electricity and gas to four million consumers in the UK, many of them in Scotland. ScottishPower argues that the conflicts over the Klamath are a legacy of dams built decades ago to standards very different from today?s. ?Removal of the dams would perhaps please the tribes, but it could spell disaster for farmers in the area in terms of irrigation,? said a spokesman. ?Our relicensing proposal aims for a compromise. In this situation it is very difficult to please all sides.? PacifiCorp was obliged to seek maximum benefits from a renewable energy source. Friends of the Earth Scotland sides with the tribes. ?Environmental injustices often arise where companies operate overseas, far from the scrutiny of shareholders or customers, and this sounds like a classic example,? said chief executive, Duncan McLaren. ?ScottishPower may be proud of its green credentials, but this case makes me question whether it is genuinely accountable to the communities it affects.? Copyright ? 2004 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088 Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Sat May 22 01:26:45 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 01:26:45 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Native Americans in protest at ScottishPower threat to salmon Message-ID: <410-22004562282645390@earthlink.net> Native Americans in protest at ScottishPower threat to salmon Tribes set to visit Glasgow HQ in bid to save river fish By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor ONE of Scotland?s leading multinationals, ScottishPower, is facing angry protests from native Americans who accuse its US subsidiary of destroying a salmon river in California. Four tribes ? the Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa and Klamath ? fearful for the fate of their traditional fishing grounds, are threatening to bring their protest to ScottishPower?s Glasgow headquarters. They warn the company that it is risking years of bitter conflict and serious damage to its environmental credentials. According to Leaf Hillman, of the Karuk, shareholders are raking in multi-million pound profits as the tribes suffer. ?While they kill the fish with their hydro-power dams, downstream native Americans go without fish to eat or electricity in their homes,? he says. ?ScottishPower claims to be a green utility, but what its subsidiary is doing is cheating us out of a possible solution.? The company is guilty, he alleges, of a ?betrayal of trust?. The Klamath River in northern California and southern Oregon was once the third biggest salmon-producing river in the US. But now two species are extinct, one is threatened and the remaining two have been reduced to 10% of their former populations. The four tribes, backed by anglers and environmentalists, say dams and power stations operated along the river by ScottishPower?s subsidiary, PacifiCorp, are to blame. The dams have prevented salmon from reaching their natural spawning grounds up river. ?These are small, old dams that provide little power but a do a great deal of damage to the river, blocking hundreds of miles of historic salmon spawning habitat,? said Glen Spain, regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations. ?Salmon kills caused by these dams have destroyed fishing jobs all along the west coast.? In 2002, the 240-mile Klamath River suffered the largest fish kill in US history, with more than 33,000 fish dying because of a shortage of good quality water. The tribes and environmentalists claim the dams played ?a significant part? in the disaster, though ScottishPower denies this. The tribes have lived along the Klamath for millennia, depending on its fish for sustenance. Now the 50-year-old hydro schemes have come up for relicensing, they were hoping to get them adapted to enable salmon to swim upriver to spawn as they once did. But when PacifiCorp submitted its relicensing application in February it failed to promise to install salmon runs, or to investigate shutting down some dams, and instead suggested salmon could be caught and hauled upstream in trucks. ?Despite our good faith involvement with PacifiCorp, we have been ignored,? said Merv George Jnr, director of the Klamath River Inter-Tribal Fish and Water Commission. ?As the parent company, ScottishPower should be held accountable and uphold its responsibilities to native people.? On May 5, the tribes wrote to its board in Glasgow requesting it direct Pacifi Corp to enter into settlement negotiations. They are also trying to raise money to finance a protest visit to Glasgow to highlight ?environmental racism?. The Klamath power stations generate 151 megawatts, about 2% of all PacifiCorp?s hydroelectricity. The river has 12 turbine generators, five reservoirs and five dams, the largest of which, Iron Gate, is 173ft high. In November 1999, PacifiCorp was taken over by ScottishPower, which last year had a global turnover of more than ?5 billion and a profit before tax of more than ?800 million. ScottishPower provides electricity and gas to four million consumers in the UK, many of them in Scotland. ScottishPower argues that the conflicts over the Klamath are a legacy of dams built decades ago to standards very different from today?s. ?Removal of the dams would perhaps please the tribes, but it could spell disaster for farmers in the area in terms of irrigation,? said a spokesman. ?Our relicensing proposal aims for a compromise. In this situation it is very difficult to please all sides.? PacifiCorp was obliged to seek maximum benefits from a renewable energy source. Friends of the Earth Scotland sides with the tribes. ?Environmental injustices often arise where companies operate overseas, far from the scrutiny of shareholders or customers, and this sounds like a classic example,? said chief executive, Duncan McLaren. ?ScottishPower may be proud of its green credentials, but this case makes me question whether it is genuinely accountable to the communities it affects.? Copyright ? 2004 smg sunday newspapers ltd. no.176088 Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Sat May 22 20:26:13 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 20:26:13 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Counting salmon in hatcheries? Why not count fish sticks? Message-ID: <410-2200450233261380@earthlink.net> Fishy figures Counting salmon in hatcheries? Why not count fish sticks? May 14, 2004 Press Democrat Editorial The public would certainly like to see evidence that some Pacific salmon and steelhead are ready to be removed from the U.S. Endangered Species Fishy figures Counting salmon in hatcheries? Why not count fish sticks? May 14, 2004 The Bush administration plans to make a policy shift that would allow the counting of fish in hatcheries -- as well as those in the wild -- in determining whether certain populations of fish should no longer be listed as endangered or threatened. You can't even call this fuzzy math -- just fuzzy logic. The new policy, which is expected to be announced later this month, runs contrary to the advice of the Bush administration's own panel of experts who note that even after a century of human-induced production through hatcheries, wild salmon runs have declined. The policy closely follows the ideas of Mark Rutzick, who used to be the timber industry's top attorney in its environmental battles with the federal government. Where is Rutzick today? He's a high-ranking political appointee in the Bush administration giving out environmental advice. Counting fish in hatcheries is akin to counting salmon sandwiches. It might make the numbers look good, but it does nothing to monitor the health of fish. This smells of politics and should be tossed out. Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Sat May 22 23:29:48 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Sat, 22 May 2004 23:29:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Racism Stains Klamath River Message-ID: <410-22004502362948550@earthlink.net> ECONEWS: Racism Stains Klamath River Posted by: NEC on Friday, February 01, 2002 - 12:28 PM by Tim McKay Overt racism reared its ugly head in December on the upper Klamath River, where conflicting demands for not enough water have entangled fishers, tribes and farmers. The tense situation was aggravated further when President* Bush came out on the side of subsidized farmers. Hard on the heels of last summer?s anti-government occupation of the federal Bureau of Reclamation facility in Klamath Falls, three residents of the nearby town of Bonanza capped a hunting and beer-drinking trip by shooting up the town of Chiloquin in December. The village of 500 residents is the headquarters for the Klamath Tribes that consider the imperiled fish they call c?waam and qapdo, and which the whites call suckers, to be sacred gifts of the Creator. Sucker Lovers Perry Chocktoot, among those who witnessed the incident, said the trio pulled up in front of his house while he was working on his truck and fired a shotgun blast into a portable toilet across the street, yelling: ?Sucker-lovers, come out and fight!? After firing at signs and buildings around town, they pulled up behind a stopped school bus unloading kids for a basketball game. They asked the children if they were Indians, Chocktoot said, and then ?they shot over one kid?s head.? Three weeks later, ranch hand George Curry, logger Richard Sharp and their friend Adam Lee were charged with felony intimidation, unlawful use of a weapon, conspiracy, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. They have not been jailed and no trial has been held. Two weeks later, Oregon State University and the University of California at Davis released a draft assessment which found that racism is a deeply embedded social problem and a barrier to finding solutions to the water over-allocation situation. The full 301-page report can be found on the web at http://eesc.orst.edu/klamath or at the NEC library. Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon May 24 08:09:01 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 08:09:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] KWUA Requests Delayed Hatchery Release- Fish Kill on Klamath? Message-ID: <002f01c441a1$0d9c3e60$8b6c3940@V51NH> It is rumored that there is a juvenile fish kill on the mainstem Klamath River from Ceratomyxa. Can anybody provide additional information on this? Tom Stokely 530-628-5949 Salmon release date questioned Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 5/20/04 By Dylan Darling, staff writer Millions of hatchery-produced chinook salmon fingerlings are set to start their swim to the Pacific Ocean down the Klamath River. But Bureau of Reclamation officials are asking if some of the salmon can wait until fall to swim. The California Department of Fish and Game planned to release a million of the tiny fall-run salmon into the river from the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery today. Another million are set to swim on May 24 and another 3 million on May 31. On May 13, the Department released its first million fingerlings. The fingerlings are ready for release when about 90 of them weigh about a pound together, said Mike Rode, staff environmental scientist for the department. The state hoped to release the salmon soon because flows in the Klamath River will be sharply curtailed in June, Rode said. The river flows will be less than expected because of a change in the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's water year type for the river because of a drop in inflow to Upper Klamath Lake. The Bureau regulates how much water goes down the river by guiding PacifiCorp's management of its Klamath hydroelectric project dams. Dave Sabo, manager of the Klamath Reclamation Project, said he was in discussions with the department this morning about the possibility of holding a million of the salmon back until next fall and letting loose the ones that are released farther down in the river. "But we didn't get an answer from them," he said. The Bureau offered to pay $65,000 for the holding of the salmon until fall. Bureau officials are waiting for a response and should get it today, Sabo said. Reports of a disease spreading among salmon between I-5 and the Scott and Shasta rivers, prompted the request for a lower release spot. Concerned about the release of the salmon, the Klamath Water Users Association wrote a letter to the department's regional manager. In it, the water users ask a number of questions about how the department manages the salmon and suggests that the department coordinate its releases with the Bureau's flows. Dan Keppen, water users executive director, said the water users are concerned about the releases because when things go wrong with salmon on the river, the Klamath Reclamation Project and its irrigators usually get the blame. # KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Klamath farmers, fish short on water Less-than-expected mountain runoff spurs fears of an irrigation shut-off and a fish kill. Associated Press - 5/21/04 KLAMATH FALLS - The amount of water running out of the Cascade Range snowpack has fallen below expectations, leading federal water authorities to scale back releases for Klamath River salmon and urge farmers to conserve on irrigation. The water shortage has revived fears that farmers could face another irrigation shut-off like 2001 and the Klamath River could see another massive fish kill like the one in 2002. "People are obviously going to tighten up their belt as much as they can, but I'm not sure what else we can do," said Dan Keppen of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents farmers on the Klamath Reclamation Project. Tribes along the Klamath River in California are concerned that lower flows this fall could re-create conditions that killed 33,000 adult salmon in September, 2002. "We're really concerned, basically because we're setting ourselves up for a similar situation," said Toz Soto, fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe. The lack of runoff prompted the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to reclassify 2004 as a dry year, reducing by about a third the amount of water mandated for threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River while leaving full water deliveries to farmers on the Klamath Project in place. The bureau has been sending extra water down the river this spring to help young salmon make their migration to the Pacific Ocean. Earlier this month, the Bureau of Reclamation paid farmers to tap private wells for crops after realizing that Upper Klamath Lake, the primary reservoir for the Klamath Project, was not filling. The water table has since fallen in parts of the arid basin. "I'm real nervous about how this is going to turn out," said Dave Sabo, Klamath Project manager for the bureau. "It's critical that people pay attention to what they're using" for irrigation. Runoff from the mountain snowpack was originally predicted to be close to average levels, leading to more water being released downstream through the winter and early spring. Projections have since fallen to 38 percent below average, Sabo said.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon May 24 09:40:48 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 09:40:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity River Restoration Program Senior Scientist Job Announcement- Weaverville Message-ID: <006a01c441ad$df159de0$506c3940@V51NH> This is a good paying and important job in Weaverville as the Scientific Branch Chief for the Trinity River Restoration Program. Please forward it to interested and qualified persons. A fishery biologiest job will also be advertised soon. Tom Stokely 530-628-5949 Vacancy Announcement DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR BUREAU OF RECLAMATION Vacancy Announcement Number: BOR-MP-04-100 (DY) Opening Date: 05/24/2004 Closing Date: 06/25/2004 Position: Supervisory Interdisciplinary, GS-13 This position of senior scientist and branch chief may be filled in any one of the titles and series listed based on the qualifications of the individual selected: Supervisory Biologist, GS-0401; Supervisory Hydraulic Engineer, GS-0810; or Supervisory Physical Scientist, GS-1301. Please be sure to indicate on your application the occupation for which you wish consideration. This position is also being advertised under a vacancy announcement open to all U.S. Citizens as a means of broader outreach. If you do not have status, and you are a U.S. Citizen, please refer to Vacancy Announcement Number BOR-MP-04-101 (DEU) (DY). Salary: $69,762 per year - $90,692 per year Promotion Potential: GS-13 Duty Location: 1 vacancy at Weaverville, CA This is a permanent, full time position assigned to the Bureau of Reclamation's Northern California Area Office, reporting to the Executive Director, Trinity River Restoration Division. This Division has a duty station in Weaverville, CA which is about 50 miles from the Area Office in Redding. The historic mining town of Weaverville (population 3,500) is the County Seat of Trinity County, and is located on State Highway 299 about 90 miles from the Pacific coast. The economy is based on tourism, timber, and government agencies. Outdoor recreation opportunities are plentiful in nearby Whiskeytown/Shasta/Trinity National Recreation area and the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area. Applications will be accepted from: (1) Current Federal employees serving under a career or career conditional appointment. (2) Former Federal employees with reinstatement eligibility. (3) VEOA Eligibles - Veterans who are preference eligibles or who have been separated from the armed forces under honorable conditions after 3 or more years of continuous active service. (4) Special Appointment authorities such as Handicapped, 30% Disabled American Veteran, former Peace Corps, VISTA volunteers. Major Duties: Serves as a first line supervisor over a multi-disciplinary team of approximately five scientists and engineers assigned to the Technical Modeling and Analysis Group (TMAG). This group is responsible for conducting and managing complex scientific studies and projects, and integrating these products into management objectives and recommendations to be used in the Trinity River Restoration project. The TMAG conducts technical analyses, models projections for achieving restoration objectives, evaluates monitoring results and coordinates peer reviews. As the senior employee of the TMAG, ensures the staff is working effectively towards program goals. Integrates multi-disciplinary information and identifies alternatives to resolve conflicting ecological management needs. Conducts and presents analyses to the Executive Director and the Trinity Management Council (TMC) for resolving conflicts and assessing management needs. Provides short-term research project development and oversight, and long-term trend monitoring development and oversight. Sets standards and protocols for monitoring information. Ensures effective data management, storage, analysis and distribution. Solicits technical input review from stakeholder groups and regulatory agencies. Analyzes and submit implementation plans for scientific peer review. Coordinates review from Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and Review Committees. Assists in Objective Specific Monitoring and Rehabilitation Activities contracting. Reports on program status. Qualifications Required: In order to be considered basically qualified, applicants must meet one of the following three education requirements described under each series below; AND, must meet Specialized Experience requirements; AND, must meet Time in Grade requirements (if currently employed within the Federal government). GS-0401: Basic Requirements: A degree in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position. OR A combination of education and experience - courses equivalent to a major, as shown in above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. GS-0810: Basic Requirements: A. A degree in professional engineering. To be acceptable, the curriculum must (1) be in a school of engineering with at least one curriculum accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) as a professional engineering curriculum; or (2) include differential and integral calculus and courses (more advanced than first-year physics and chemistry) in five of the following seven areas of engineering science or physics; (a) statics, dynamics; (b) strength of materials (stress-strain relationships); (c) fluid mechanics, hydraulics; (d) thermodynamics; (e) electrical fields and circuits; (f) nature and properties of materials (relating particle and aggregate structure to properties); and (g) any other comparable area of fundamental engineering science or physics; such as optics; heat transfer, soil mechanics, or electronics. OR B.Combination of education and experience - college level education, training, and/or technical experience that furnished (1) a thorough knowledge of the physical and mathematical sciences underlying professional engineering, and (2) a good understanding, both theoretical and practical, of the engineering sciences and techniques and their applications to one of the branches of engineering. The adequacy of such background must be demonstrated by one of the following: 1) Professional Registration - Current registration as a professional engineer. Proof must be submitted with application. If you have achieved registration by means other than a written test, you will be eligible only for positions that are within or closely related to the speciality field of your registration. 2) Written Test - Evidence of having successfully passed the Engineer-in-Training (EIT) examination, or the written test required for professional registration. 3) Specified academic courses - Successful completion of at least 60 semester hours of courses in the physical, mathematical, and engineering sciences and in engineering that included the courses specified in the basic requirements. The courses must be fully acceptable toward meeting the requirements of a professional engineering curriculum as described in paragraph A. 4) Related curriculum - Successful completion of a curriculum leading to a bachelor's degree in engineering technology or in an appropriate professional field, e.g., physics, chemistry, architecture, computer science, mathematics, hydrology, or geology, may be accepted in lieu of a degree in engineering, provided the applicant has had at least 1 year of professional engineering experience acquired under professional engineering supervision and guidance. GS-1301: Basic Requirements: Degree in physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics; OR a combination of education and experience - education equivalent to one of the majors listed above that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, plus appropriate experience or additional education. AND Specialized Experience: one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level. Specialized experience is defined as experience that has equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position, and that is typically in or related to the work of the position to be filled. Examples of Specialized Experience include: experience in the design and/or implementation of research projects, administrative studies, resource inventories, assessments, or monitoring studies related to aquatic species/habitat; experience in development of scientifically sound and legally defensible criteria and protocols for evaluating resource management projects. These examples are not all inclusive. AND Time in Grade: Current career or career conditional employees of the Federal government, as well as former Federal career or career conditional employees who have a break in service of less than one year, are required to meet the time in grade restriction of one year of Federal experience at the GS-12 level. Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required: Candidates should submit a narrative statement on a separate page(s) with specific responses to the knowledge, skills and abilities, both mandatory and non-mandatory, in this announcement. Failure to submit your narrative response for this position may negatively affect your eligibility and/or rating for this position. 1. Ability to effectively present, negotiate and resolve complex and controversial scientific issues in a leadership role with subordinates, peers, supervisors, other agencies, tribes and the public. (Mandatory) 2. Knowledge of and demonstrated experience in research study design, adaptive management monitoring, evaluation and assessment techniques, including the use of conceptual and quantitative models in river restoration and management. (Mandatory) 3. Knowledge of the current theories, principles and practices of biology, botany, ecology, fish and wildlife management, or other natural resource disciplines as applied to river restoration. 4. Knowledge of the current theories, principles and practices of hydrology and geomorphology, pertaining to geofluvial systems and as applied to river restoration. Basis of Rating: Applicants meeting basic eligibility requirements will be rated against the mandatory KSA. Those meeting at least the mid-level definition will be determined to be "well-qualified" and will be referred to the selecting official. Pay, Benefits and Work Schedule: All Federal employees are required by PL 104-134 to have federal payments made by Direct Deposit. Travel and relocation expenses may be authorized in accordance with P.L. 89-516 and appropriate Federal regulations. Eligibility for specific relocation services will be determined at the time of selection. A Recruitment or Relocation Bonus may be authorized for this position. Eligibility will be determined at the time of selection. Conditions of Employment: Under Executive Order 11935, only United States citizens and nationals (residents of American Samoa and Swains Island) may compete for civil service jobs. Agencies are permitted to hire non-citizens only in very limited circumstances where there are no qualified citizens available for the position. As a condition of employment, male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must certify that they have registered with the Selective Service System, or are exempt from having to do so under the Selective Service Law. This is a supervisory position. If appointed to this position, you must serve a one year supervisory probationary period, unless you have already completed one as a supervisor. Other Information: If claiming 5 point veterans' preference, a DD-214 must be submitted. If claiming 10 point veterans' preference, both a DD-214 and SF-15 must be submitted. Your Social Security Number is requested under the authority of Executive Order 9397 to uniquely identify your records from those of other applicants' who may have the same name. As allowed by law or Presidential directive, your SSN is used to seek information about you from employers, schools, banks, and other who may know you. Failure to provide your SSN on your application materials will result in your application not being processed. Before being hired, you will be required to sign and certify the accuracy of the information in your application if you have not done this using an application form such as the OF-612. If you make a false statement in any part of your application, you may not be hired; you may be fired after you begin work; or you may be subject to fine, imprisonment, or other disciplinary action. Applicants must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of the announcement. Applicants with disabilities will receive consideration for reasonable accommodations in the hiring process for any physical, mental, or emotional impairment. Applicants should submit requests for reasonable accommodation with their job applications and provide supporting medical documentation. The decision on granting reasonable accommodation will be on a case-by-case basis. Selected applicant will be required to file annual Financial Disclosure Statements, Form 450. How To Apply: Applications must be received by the closing date of the announcement to receive consideration. All status candidates and reinstatement eligibles (current and former government employees) must submit a copy of their SF 50 showing career, career-conditional, or reinstatement eligibility. Applications mailed using government postage and/or internal federal government mail systems are in violation of agency and postal regulations and will not be accepted. This position has a positive education requirement; you must submit a copy of your college transcripts. Non-submission may result in your being rated ineligible. Please submit the following documents to the address provided in this announcement: (1) A written application for employment. You may use OF-612 (Optional Application for Federal Employment), a resume, or an alternative format. At a minimum, applications must be typed or printed clearly in dark ink and must include the following: a. Your Social Security Number is requested under the authority of Executive Order 9397 to uniquely identify your records from those of other applicants who may have the same name. As allowed by law or Presidential directive, your SSN is used to seek information about you from employers, schools, banks, and other who may know you. Failure to provide your SSN on your application materials will result in your application not being processed. b. Job Information - Announcement number, title and grade of the job for which you are applying. c. Personal Information - Full name, mailing address, day and evening phone numbers, country of citizenship, veteran's preference, reinstatement eligibility, highest federal civilian grade held. d. Education - High school (name, city, state and date of diploma or GED), colleges and universities (name, city, state, majors, type and year of degree). e. Work Experience - Paid and non-paid work experience related to this position, including job title, duties and accomplishments, employer's name and address, supervisor's name and phone number, starting and ending dates (month and year), hours worked per week, salary, and indicate if we may contact your current supervisor. f. Other qualifications - Job related training courses, job related skills (languages, computer software/hardware, tools, machinery, typing speed), job related certificates and licenses, honors, awards, and special accomplishments (publications, memberships in professional or honor societies, leadership activities, public speaking and performance awards). (2) Narrative assessment of your qualifications in terms of the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSAs) identified within this announcement. Describe experience (paid or unpaid), education, training and self-development as related to the KSAs. (3) All status candidates (current Federal government employees) must submit a copy of their latest non-award SF 50 showing career or career-conditional eligibility. (4) VEOA, Handicapped, disabled veteran, and others eligible under special appointing authorities must clearly specify this eligibility on their application and submit proof of appointment eligibility. If claiming 5 point veteran's preference, a DD-214 must be submitted. If claiming 10 point veteran's preference, both a DD-214 and SF-15 must be submitted. (5) Individuals who have special priority selection rights under the Agency Career Transition Assistance Program (CTAP) or the Interagency Career Transition Assistance Program (ICTAP) must be well qualified for the position to receive consideration for special priority selection. See Basis for Rating for definition of "well qualified". Federal employees seeking CTAP/ICTAP eligibility must submit proof that they meet the requirements of 5 CFR 330.605 (a) for CTAP and 5 CFR 330.704 for ICTAP. This includes a copy of the agency notice, a copy of their most recent Performance Rating and a copy of their most recent non-award SF-50 noting current position, grade level, and duty location. Please annotate your application to reflect that you are applying as a CTAP or ICTAP eligible. (6) Applicants are encouraged to complete the attached U.S. Department of Interior Applicant Background Survey, DI Form 1935. Collected data on applicants are used for statistical purposes only and will not be used as a means of identifying any applicant in particular. Failure to submit all required documents and information requested by the closing date of this announcement may result in your not receiving full consideration. Applicant's qualifications will be evaluated solely on the information submitted in their applications. Faxed materials will be accepted: 916-978-5563 E-mailed materials will be accepted: jobs at usbr.gov For additional information about this position please contact: Job Information Center 916-978-5471 Submit your application package to: U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 2800 Cottage Way Room E-1907 Sacramento, CA 95825-1898 Except where otherwise provided by law, there will be no discrimination because of color, race, religion, national origin, politics, marital status, disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, membership or non-membership in an employee organization, or on the basis of personal favoritism. OMB Control No.: 1091-0001 Expiration Date: 03/31/2006 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR APPLICANT BACKGROUND SURVEY - DI-1935 GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS In boxes 1 to 3, please print using capital letters only. Read each item thoroughly before circling the appropriate codes in boxes 4 and 5. Enclose this form with your application package or mail it directly to the same address. YOUR PRIVACY IS PROTECTED This information is needed to determine if our recruitment efforts are reaching all segments of the country, as required by Federal law. This is vital information not available from any other source. We can only get it directly from you. Your voluntary responses are treated in a highly confidential manner. They are not released to the panel rating the applications, to the selecting official, to anyone else who can affect your application, or to the public. This form will be destroyed after the position is filled. The only information associated with your name in our computer system is whether you have returned the completed form, so that we may follow up if no response has been received. Your responses are stored as a tally for the group of all applicants for this vacancy in a manner that cannot be associated with any individual application. No information taken from this form is ever placed in a Personnel file or Personnel data base. Thank you for helping us to provide better service. 1. Vacancy Announcement No.: 2. Position Title: 3. Name (Last, First, MI): 4. How did you learn about this position? (Circle up to three codes). 01- Private information service 02 - Magazine 03 - Newspaper 04 - Radio 05 - TV 06 - Poster 07 - Private Employment Office 08 - State Employment Office (Unemployment Office) 09 - Agency Personnel Department (bulletin board or other announcement) 10 - Agency or other Federal government recruitment at school or college 11 - Federal, state, or local Job Information Center 12 - Religious organization 13 - School or college counselor or other official 14 - Friend or relative working for this agency 15 - Friend or relative not working for this agency 16 - Internet or World Wide Web 17 - Other (Specify) 5. Identify yourself in each category: (Circle the appropriate codes) Ethnicity: D - Hispanic or Latino N - Not Hispanic or Latino Race (circle one or more) A - American Indian or Alaska Native B - Asian C - Black or African American G - Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander E - White Sex: M - Male F - Female Do you have any physical disabilities? Y - Yes N - No If yes, do you have a targeted* disability? Y - Yes N - No * The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission targets the following disabilities for extra recruitment efforts: Deaf, Blind, Missing Extremities, Partial/Complete Paralysis, Convulsive Disorders, Mentally Retarded, Mental Illness or Distortion Limb/ Spine. The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et. seq.) requires us to inform you that this information is being collected for planning and assessing affirmative employment program initiatives. Response to this request is voluntary. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB Control Number. The estimated burden of completing this form is 5 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions. Direct comments regarding the burden estimate or any other aspect of this form to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Director, Office for Equal Opportunity, 1849 C Street, NW, MS-5214 MIB, Washington, DC 20240. PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT GENERAL: This information is provided pursuant to Public Law 93-579 (Privacy Act of 1974), for individuals completing Federal records and forms that solicit personal information. AUTHORITY: Sections 1302, 3301, 3304, and 7201 of Title 5 of the U.S. Code. PURPOSE AND ROUTINE USES: The form will only be seen by DOI Personnel and Equal Employment Opportunity officials. Data summarizing all applicants for a position will be used to determine if we are effectively recruiting from all portions of the country, in conformance with the requirements of Federal law. Only summary data is reported, and only in a format which can not be broken out by individual applicants. No individual data is ever provided to selecting officials. EFFECTS OF NONDISCLOSURE: Providing this information is voluntary. No individual personnel selections are made based on this information. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon May 24 14:42:03 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 14:42:03 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] More on Current Klamath Fish Kill Message-ID: <017001c441d7$f6cfbcc0$506c3940@V51NH> To: Env-trinity Tim McKay did some sleuthing through Tribal and State biologists and found that there are indeed reports of a juvenile fish kill somewhere between Bauer Creek and the Scott River. The likely culprit is Ceratomyxa shasta, an endemic parasite to the Klamath River which allegedly has a polychaete worm as an intermediate host, and a somewhat complicated life history. As I recall, C. shasta doesn't exist in the Trinity River. In any case, additional flows from the Trinity River do not sound like they are a viable solution to the problem because the fish kill is upstream of the Trinity confluence. If anybody has any url references to C. Shasta or any other information, please pass it on through this list. There is much speculation about the cause of the outbreak of C. shasta as it relates to water quality, but I have seen nothing definitive. Below is an interesting perspective on the fish kill and water conditions in the Klamath River from Waterwatch of Oregon. Sincerely, Tom Stokely \***************************************************************************************************** Posted by Steve Pedery: Hi folks, Concern is growing over the potential for another Klamath River fish kill this spring and summer. Sick and dying fish have been reported in the mid-Klamath region, and the Bureau of Reclamation is now offering hatchery managers money to keep young salmon out of the river during the lethal low-flow conditions that are expected this summer. A press release on the potential fish kill is attached to this message as a Microsoft Word document, and pasted into this message below. PRESS RELEASE May 20, 2004 Contact: Steve Pedery, (503) 295-4039, ext. 26 Low Water Flows, Disease Hammer Klamath Salmon, Bureau Offers $$ to Delay Hatchery Releases Portland--With concerns that yet another juvenile salmon kill may be beginning on the Klamath River, the US Bureau of Reclamation has contacted local fish hatchery managers offering cash in exchange for delaying their releases of young salmon. The Bureau is also suggesting that managers release their fish into the river further downstream than normal in order to avoid the fish-killing low flow conditions that will affect the river this summer. Details on the Bureau's efforts to delay the release of young salmon from the Iron Gate Dam fish hatchery, or move the release to a point further downstream than normal, were reported in today's (May 20th) Klamath Herald and News newspaper. The Bureau has offered hatchery managers $65,000 to delay the release of young fish until the fall, when flow conditions in the river will finally improve. "Call me a radical, but I think fish need water," said Steve Pedery, Outreach Director of WaterWatch of Oregon. "Rather than pay fish hatcheries to keep salmon out of the river this summer, perhaps we ought to consider leaving more water in it." Biologists and survey crews from Klamath Basin Native American Tribes have begun work to document disease outbreaks in the mid-Klamath River, in an area running from approximately Iron Gate Dam down to the Scott and Shasta Rivers. In this region water releases from the Bureau of Reclamation's massive Klamath Irrigation Project are the primary source of flow. The size and severity of the current problem is not yet known, but kills of juvenile salmon have unfortunately become the norm on the Klamath River in recent years. Two weeks ago the Bureau announced that it was once again downgrading the water year classification for the Klamath Basin, a move which would reduce the amount of water held in Upper Klamath Lake and released to the Klamath River and area National Wildlife Refuges for fish and wildlife. As in previous years, the Bureau's move comes after large water deliveries were promised to irrigators within the Project. Under the new flow management regime, Klamath salmon will face similar flows to those of 2002--a year when thousands of juvenile salmon were killed in the spring and over 34,000 adult salmon were killed in the fall by low flows and disease. "Delaying the release of hatchery fish, or moving them downstream, might avoid the embarrassment of another major fish kill," continued Pedery. "Unfortunately the wild salmon and steelhead of the Klamath River will still be left to face lethal low-flow conditions this summer." The problems plaguing juvenile salmon in the mid-Klamath region highlight the fallacy of arguments that water diversions from the Trinity River are the primary source of the Klamath's woes. The Trinity joins the Klamath River a little over 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The region where fish are currently sick and dying is over 100 miles upstream. For more information on the environmental crisis in the Klamath Basin, visit www.onrc.org or www.waterwatch.org. -30- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon May 24 16:09:29 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 16:09:29 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Information on Ceratomyxa shasta Message-ID: <01bb01c441e4$2c422da0$506c3940@V51NH> Information on the parasite that is allegedly causing the current Klamath fish kill, Ceratomyxa shasta, can be found at the following 2 websites: http://www.pacificorp.com/File/File19355.pdf http://www.lsc.usgs.gov/fhb/leaflets/80.asp Thanks to Gary Thompson and Steve Towers for the references. TS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From aandazola at fs.fed.us Mon May 24 18:45:43 2004 From: aandazola at fs.fed.us (Anita M Andazola) Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 18:45:43 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] More on Current Klamath Fish Kill Message-ID: C. shasta has been found in Trinity fish, but not to the degree that plagues the Klamath. (See attached file: C.shasta.pdf) Anita Andazola, Fish biologist Lower Trinity Ranger District, Six Rivers National Forest 580 Highway 96, P.O. Box 68 Willow Creek, CA 95573 Office: 530.629.2118 x 319 FAX: 530.629.2102 "Our lives teach us who we are." Salman Rushdie "Tom Stokely" To: "env-trinity" Sent by: cc: env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn. Subject: [env-trinity] More on Current Klamath Fish Kill davis.ca.us 05/24/2004 02:42 PM To: Env-trinity Tim McKay did some sleuthing through Tribal and State biologists and found that there are indeed reports of a juvenile fish kill somewhere between Bauer Creek and the Scott River. The likely culprit is Ceratomyxa shasta, an endemic parasite to the Klamath River which allegedly has a polychaete worm as an intermediate host, and a somewhat complicated life history. As I recall, C. shasta doesn't exist in the Trinity River. In any case, additional flows from the Trinity River do not sound like they are a viable solution to the problem because the fish kill is upstream of the Trinity confluence. If anybody has any url references to C. Shasta or any other information, please pass it on through this list. There is much speculation about the cause of the outbreak of C. shasta as it relates to water quality, but I have seen nothing definitive. Below is an interesting perspective on the fish kill and water conditions in the Klamath River from Waterwatch of Oregon. Sincerely, Tom Stokely \***************************************************************************************************** Posted by Steve Pedery: Hi folks, Concern is growing over the potential for another Klamath River fish kill this spring and summer. Sick and dying fish have been reported in the mid-Klamath region, and the Bureau of Reclamation is now offering hatchery managers money to keep young salmon out of the river during the lethal low-flow conditions that are expected this summer. A press release on the potential fish kill is attached to this message as a Microsoft Word document, and pasted into this message below. PRESS RELEASE May 20, 2004 Contact: Steve Pedery, (503) 295-4039, ext. 26 Low Water Flows, Disease Hammer Klamath Salmon, Bureau Offers $$ to Delay Hatchery Releases Portland--With concerns that yet another juvenile salmon kill may be beginning on the Klamath River, the US Bureau of Reclamation has contacted local fish hatchery managers offering cash in exchange for delaying their releases of young salmon. The Bureau is also suggesting that managers release their fish into the river further downstream than normal in order to avoid the fish-killing low flow conditions that will affect the river this summer. Details on the Bureau?s efforts to delay the release of young salmon from the Iron Gate Dam fish hatchery, or move the release to a point further downstream than normal, were reported in today?s (May 20th) Klamath Herald and News newspaper. The Bureau has offered hatchery managers $65,000 to delay the release of young fish until the fall, when flow conditions in the river will finally improve. ?Call me a radical, but I think fish need water,? said Steve Pedery, Outreach Director of WaterWatch of Oregon. ?Rather than pay fish hatcheries to keep salmon out of the river this summer, perhaps we ought to consider leaving more water in it.? Biologists and survey crews from Klamath Basin Native American Tribes have begun work to document disease outbreaks in the mid-Klamath River, in an area running from approximately Iron Gate Dam down to the Scott and Shasta Rivers. In this region water releases from the Bureau of Reclamation?s massive Klamath Irrigation Project are the primary source of flow. The size and severity of the current problem is not yet known, but kills of juvenile salmon have unfortunately become the norm on the Klamath River in recent years. Two weeks ago the Bureau announced that it was once again downgrading the water year classification for the Klamath Basin, a move which would reduce the amount of water held in Upper Klamath Lake and released to the Klamath River and area National Wildlife Refuges for fish and wildlife. As in previous years, the Bureau?s move comes after large water deliveries were promised to irrigators within the Project. Under the new flow management regime, Klamath salmon will face similar flows to those of 2002--a year when thousands of juvenile salmon were killed in the spring and over 34,000 adult salmon were killed in the fall by low flows and disease. ?Delaying the release of hatchery fish, or moving them downstream, might avoid the embarrassment of another major fish kill,? continued Pedery. ?Unfortunately the wild salmon and steelhead of the Klamath River will still be left to face lethal low-flow conditions this summer.? The problems plaguing juvenile salmon in the mid-Klamath region highlight the fallacy of arguments that water diversions from the Trinity River are the primary source of the Klamath?s woes. The Trinity joins the Klamath River a little over 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The region where fish are currently sick and dying is over 100 miles upstream. For more information on the environmental crisis in the Klamath Basin, visit www.onrc.org or www.waterwatch.org. -30- _______________________________________________ env-trinity mailing list env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: C.shasta.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 38425 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue May 25 09:37:53 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 09:37:53 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Reminder for Klamath Science Conference Message-ID: <02b501c44277$14c1c080$506c3940@V51NH> >From Debra Becker debra_becker at usgs.gov This is a reminder that the Lower Klamath Basin Science Conference is only 15 days away. If you are planning on attending the conference please make registration a priority at this time. It will make it much easier for persons serving on the planning committee, to make all necessary logistical arrangements for the conference, if the majority of persons attending register prior to the first day of the conference. Your advance registration is greatly appreciated by planning committee. Thank you Debra __________________________ Register for the conference at: http://www.usbr.gov/research/activity/conferences/lower_klamath/registration/registration.cfm Once you register you will receive an email confirmation. The email confirmation will include a link to the website for completing science needs. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phiggins at humboldt1.com Tue May 25 10:01:25 2004 From: phiggins at humboldt1.com (Patrick Higgins) Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 10:01:25 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Ceratomyxa shasta In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20040525091353.01d6a178@mail.humboldt1.com> Hi Tom, Surfed KRIS web (www.krisweb.com) for C. shasta literature and came up with a couple: Scott Foott's paper on the 1995 out migrant mortality: Foott, J. S. 1995. Preliminary results of Spring 1995 Klamath River chinook smolt study (95-FP-01), Iron Gate Hatchery June release group. Unpublished memo. US Fish and Wildlife Service. CA-NV Fish Health Center. Anderson, CA. 6 pp. [75kb]** is at http://www.krisweb.com/biblio/klamath_usfws_foott_1995_springercshastamemo.pdf. More recent is: Foott J.S., R. Harmon, and R. Stone. 2003. FY2002 Investigational Report: Ceratomyxosis resistance in juvenile chinook salmon and steelhead trout from the Klamath River. U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California- Nevada Fish Health Center. Anderson, CA. 25 pp. [825kb] is at http://www.krisweb.com/biblio/klamath_usfws_foottetal_2003_cerat.pdf. If you go to the KRIS web home page and type ceratomyxa into the search it pops several others. C. shasta has part of its life cycle in marsh areas of the Klamath and can manifest itself in wet years. Studies of Klamath River salmonids indicate all have C. shasta resistance. Attempts to supplant Klamath River steelhead with larger Cowlitz River strain in the 1960's was thwarted immediately by a lack of resistance to C.shasta. Studies of Oregon Klamath Basin wild trout populations found only a small cut-off rainbow trout population in upper Jenny Creek (above Iron Gate) was non-C. shasta resistant. Trinity fish need to be somewhat resistant because they encounter C. shasta in the lower Klamath. Fish health depends a great deal on water quality, because disease organisms are omnipresent. When fish become stressed by high temperature, dissolved ammonia, crowding or a combination of water quality problems, then it sets up conditions for epidemics. And they are not uncommon on the mainstem Klamath in recent years. More Later, Pat Higgins KRIS Project Field Coordinator 791 Eighth Street, Suite N Arcata, CA 95521 (707) 822-9428 Don't forget that CD's of Klamath-Trinity KRIS are available by calling Kelly Sheen or Eric Flickwir at the Trinity RCD at (530) 623-6004. At 06:45 PM 5/24/2004 -0700, Anita M Andazola wrote: >C. shasta has been found in Trinity fish, but not to the degree that >plagues the Klamath. >(See attached file: C.shasta.pdf) > >Anita Andazola, Fish biologist >Lower Trinity Ranger District, Six Rivers National Forest >580 Highway 96, P.O. Box 68 >Willow Creek, CA 95573 >Office: 530.629.2118 x 319 >FAX: 530.629.2102 > >"Our lives teach us who we are." > Salman Rushdie > > > > > > "Tom > Stokely" > > To: > "env-trinity" > Sent > by: cc: > > env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn. > Subject: [env-trinity] More on Current Klamath Fish > Kill > davis.ca.us > > > > > > 05/24/2004 02:42 > PM > > > > > > > > > >To: Env-trinity > >Tim McKay did some sleuthing through Tribal and State biologists and found >that there are indeed reports of a juvenile fish kill somewhere between >Bauer Creek and the Scott River. The likely culprit is Ceratomyxa shasta, >an endemic parasite to the Klamath River which allegedly has a polychaete >worm as an intermediate host, and a somewhat complicated life history. As >I recall, C. shasta doesn't exist in the Trinity River. In any case, >additional flows from the Trinity River do not sound like they are a viable >solution to the problem because the fish kill is upstream of the Trinity >confluence. If anybody has any url references to C. Shasta or any other >information, please pass it on through this list. There is much >speculation about the cause of the outbreak of C. shasta as it relates to >water quality, but I have seen nothing definitive. > >Below is an interesting perspective on the fish kill and water conditions >in the Klamath River from Waterwatch of Oregon. > >Sincerely, > >Tom Stokely > >\***************************************************************************************************** >Posted by Steve Pedery: > > >Hi folks, > > >Concern is growing over the potential for another Klamath River fish kill >this spring and summer. Sick and dying fish have been reported in the >mid-Klamath region, and the Bureau of Reclamation is now offering hatchery >managers money to keep young salmon out of the river during the lethal >low-flow conditions that are expected this summer. A press release on the >potential fish kill is attached to this message as a Microsoft Word >document, and pasted into this message below. > > > PRESS RELEASE > > > > May 20, 2004 Contact: Steve Pedery, (503) 295-4039, ext. 26 > > > > Low Water Flows, Disease Hammer Klamath Salmon, Bureau Offers $$ to Delay > Hatchery Releases > > > Portland--With concerns that yet another juvenile salmon kill may be >beginning on the Klamath River, the US Bureau of Reclamation has contacted >local fish hatchery managers offering cash in exchange for delaying their >releases of young salmon. The Bureau is also suggesting that managers >release their fish into the river further downstream than normal in order >to avoid the fish-killing low flow conditions that will affect the river >this summer. > > >Details on the Bureau???s efforts to delay the release of young salmon from >the Iron Gate Dam fish hatchery, or move the release to a point further >downstream than normal, were reported in today???s (May 20th) Klamath Herald >and News newspaper. The Bureau has offered hatchery managers $65,000 to >delay the release of young fish until the fall, when flow conditions in the >river will finally improve. > > >???Call me a radical, but I think fish need water,??? said Steve Pedery, >Outreach Director of WaterWatch of Oregon. ???Rather than pay fish >hatcheries to keep salmon out of the river this summer, perhaps we ought to >consider leaving more water in it.??? > > >Biologists and survey crews from Klamath Basin Native American Tribes have >begun work to document disease outbreaks in the mid-Klamath River, in an >area running from approximately Iron Gate Dam down to the Scott and Shasta >Rivers. In this region water releases from the Bureau of Reclamation???s >massive Klamath Irrigation Project are the primary source of flow. The >size and severity of the current problem is not yet known, but kills of >juvenile salmon have unfortunately become the norm on the Klamath River in >recent years. > > >Two weeks ago the Bureau announced that it was once again downgrading the >water year classification for the Klamath Basin, a move which would reduce >the amount of water held in Upper Klamath Lake and released to the Klamath >River and area National Wildlife Refuges for fish and wildlife. As in >previous years, the Bureau???s move comes after large water deliveries were >promised to irrigators within the Project. Under the new flow management >regime, Klamath salmon will face similar flows to those of 2002--a year >when thousands of juvenile salmon were killed in the spring and over 34,000 >adult salmon were killed in the fall by low flows and disease. > > >???Delaying the release of hatchery fish, or moving them downstream, might >avoid the embarrassment of another major fish kill,??? continued Pedery. >???Unfortunately the wild salmon and steelhead of the Klamath River will >still be left to face lethal low-flow conditions this summer.??? > > >The problems plaguing juvenile salmon in the mid-Klamath region highlight >the fallacy of arguments that water diversions from the Trinity River are >the primary source of the Klamath???s woes. The Trinity joins the Klamath >River a little over 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The region where fish >are currently sick and dying is over 100 miles upstream. > > > > > >For more information on the environmental crisis in the Klamath Basin, >visit www.onrc.org or www.waterwatch.org. > > > -30- > > >_______________________________________________ >env-trinity mailing list >env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org >http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >env-trinity mailing list >env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org >http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue May 25 13:16:13 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 13:16:13 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] More Information on C. shasta Message-ID: <034701c44295$47b633e0$506c3940@V51NH> Below are some responses to my request for information on Ceratomyxa shasta. High temperatures seem to cause the parasite to overcome fish. phiggins at humboldt1.com wrote: Hi Tom, Surfed KRIS web (www.krisweb.com) for C. shasta literature and came up with a couple: Scott Foott's paper on the 1995 out migrant mortality: Foott, J. S. 1995. Preliminary results of Spring 1995 Klamath River chinook smolt study (95-FP-01), Iron Gate Hatchery June release group. Unpublished memo. US Fish and Wildlife Service. CA-NV Fish Health Center. Anderson, CA. 6 pp. [75kb]** is at http://www.krisweb.com/biblio/klamath_usfws_foott_1995_springercshastamemo.pdf. More recent is: Foott J.S., R. Harmon, and R. Stone. 2003. FY2002 Investigational Report: Ceratomyxosis resistance in juvenile chinook salmon and steelhead trout from the Klamath River. U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California- Nevada Fish Health Center. Anderson, CA. 25 pp. [825kb] is at http://www.krisweb.com/biblio/klamath_usfws_foottetal_2003_cerat.pdf. If you go to the KRIS web home page and type ceratomyxa into the search it pops several others. C. shasta has part of its life cycle in marsh areas of the Klamath and can manifest itself in wet years. Studies of Klamath River salmonids indicate all have C. shasta resistance. Attempts to supplant Klamath River steelhead with larger Cowlitz River strain in the 1960's was thwarted immediately by a lack of resistance to C.shasta. Studies of Oregon Klamath Basin wild trout populations found only a small cut-off rainbow trout population in upper Jenny Creek (above Iron Gate) was non-C. shasta resistant. Trinity fish need to be somewhat resistant because they encounter C. shasta in the lower Klamath. Fish health depends a great deal on water quality, because disease organisms are omnipresent. When fish become stressed by high temperature, dissolved ammonia, crowding or a combination of water quality problems, then it sets up conditions for epidemics. And they are not uncommon on the mainstem Klamath in recent years. More Later, Pat Higgins KRIS Project Field Coordinator 791 Eighth Street, Suite N Arcata, CA 95521 (707) 822-9428 Don't forget that CD's of Klamath-Trinity KRIS are available by calling Kelly Sheen or Eric Flickwir at the Trinity RCD at (530) 623-6004. Charles_Chamberlain at r1.fws.gov wrote: RE: C Shasta in the Trinity Adults returning to the Trinity are infected in the Klamath. But the parasite is not passed fish-to-fish and C. Shasta has not been detected in Trinity River juveniles until they enter the Klamath on their way to the estuary. It's speculated that Trinity River might not have the intermediate host, a polychaete worm. Charlie ashbaugh at ucdavis.edu wrote: Tom, I also found some references. One of these is the same as one found by Gary Thompson and Steve Towers. The google search turned up over 600 references. These two looked interesting: http://www.pacificorp.com/File/File19355.pdf http://www.pacificorp.com/File/File35474.pdf Lowell ------------------------------------------------------ Lowell L. Ashbaugh 677 Equador Place Davis, CA 95616 (530) 758-6722 (530) 752-2848 (work) http://trc.ucdavis.edu/ashbaugh/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue May 25 16:10:26 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 16:10:26 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity County Natural Resources Planner Position Available Message-ID: <040701c442ad$78856500$506c3940@V51NH> Please be aware that this position will be working under my direct supervision on issues related to the Trinity River Restoration Program. My existing Associate Planner is leaving and going to graduate school. If anybody is interested in this position, they can obtain an application from Trinity County Personnel at 530-623-1325. Tom Stokely Principal Planner Trinity Co. Planning/Natural Resources 530-628-5949 *************************************************************************************************** TRINITY COUNTY PLANNING DEPARTMENT ASSISTANT PLANNER $2,556.14 - $3,106.99 ASSOCIATE PLANNER $2,795.62 - $3,398.08 APPLICATION WILL BE ACCEPTED UNTIL 4:00 P.M., June 18, 2004. DEFINITION: Assistant: To perform professional planning assignments in the County Planning Department; to assist with and perform planning studies, environmental reviews, community design, and general plan preparation; to assist with planning policy formulation and implementation; to perform zoning enforcement; to explain Planning ordinances, regulation, and policies to the public; and to do related work as required. Associate: To perform the more complex professional planning assignments in the County Planning Department; to develop planning studies, environmental reviews, community design, and general plan preparation; to assist with planning policy formulation and implementation; to perform zoning enforcement; to explain Planning ordinances, regulation, and policies to the public; to provide lead direction and work coordination for other staff; and to do related work as required. QUAL QUALIFICATIONS: Knowledge of: General theory, principles, and practices of land use planning and their application to a variety of planning problems; purposes and procedures of public planning agencies, boards, and governing bodies; laws, rules, regulations, and policies affecting land use and zoning; research methods and statistical analysis; environmental impact of changes in land use; computers and software used in professional planning work. Ability to: Perform professional planning studies; environmental reviews, and zoning enforcement; read and interpret laws, ordinances, general plan elements, environmental impact statements, and other documents related to community planning and land use; collect, compile, and analyze technical, statistical, and other information related to public planning; read and interpret maps; prepare a variety of planning, environmental and zoning reports; operate a computer and use appropriate software in the performance of professional planning work; make effective oral and written presentations; effectively represent the Planning Department in responding to inquires, providing assistance, and dealing with public and community organization concerns about planning, land use, and zoning; establish and maintain cooperative working relationships. In addition to: Associate Planner must have the ability to: Perform more complex professional planning studies, environmental reviews, and zoning enforcement. Experience and Education: Any combination of experience and education that would likely provide the required knowledge and abilities is qualifying. A typical way to obtain the knowledge and abilities would be: Experience: Assistant Planner: One (1) year of responsible work experience in performing professional planning work. Associate Planner: Two (2) years of responsible work experience in performing professional planning work comparable to that of an Assistant Planner with Trinity County. Education: Equivalent to graduation from an accredited college or university with major work in planning, or closely related field is highly desirable. Special Requirements: Possession of, or ability to obtain, a current and valid California Driver's License. COMPLETE JOB DESCRIPTION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed May 26 09:38:27 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 09:38:27 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Reminder on Draft Trinity SEIS/EIR Public Hearings and Public Comment Period Message-ID: <04c601c44340$fc904de0$506c3940@V51NH> Please note that the previous notice had the correct dates for the public hearings, but the wrong days of the week identified. Also please note that the CEQA and NEPA deadlines for comments are different. If you want your comments considered under NEPA, you had still better get your comments in by the June 22, 2004 deadline. If anybody has any questions, please feel free to contact me at 530-628-5949. Tom Stokely Principal Planner Trinity Co. Planning Dept/Natural Resources ************************************************************************************************************** The Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Hoopa Valley Tribe, as federal co-lead agencies under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and Trinity County, as state lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), have made available for public review and comment the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (SEIS/EIR) for the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Program (Program). The Pursuant to NEPA, a 60-day public review period has been established for review of the SEIS/EIR. This review period began on April 23, 2004, and will end on June 22, 2004. A 75-day public review period has been established pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act. This review period began on May 9, 2004, and will end on July 22, 2004. Electronic copies of the SEIS/EIR are available for public review on the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific website for the Northern California Area Office at www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao (click on Projects/Activities/Documents, then on Trinity River - Restoration Program). Hard copies of the document are available for review at the Trinity County Planning Department at 190 Glen Road in Weaverville and 98A Clinic Ave in Hayfork, and at Trinity County Libraries in Hayfork, Weaverville, and Trinity Center. Electronic CD copies of the SEIS/EIR may be obtained at by contacting the Trinity County Planning Department and free of charge (subject to availability). The documents referenced within the SEIS/EIR are also available for public review at the CH2M Hill office located at 2525 Airpark Drive, Redding, California. Three public hearings have been scheduled to receive oral or written comments regarding the project's environmental effects: Tuesday, June 1, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m., Holiday Inn, 1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA Thursday, June 3, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30: p.m., Hoopa Fire Department, Highway 96, Hoopa, CA Thursday, June 10, 2004, at 7 p.m. or soon thereafter, at the Trinity County Planning Commission, Trinity County Board of Supervisors Meeting Room, Trinity County Library, 211 Main Street, Weaverville, CA Written comments are encouraged. Written comments on the Draft SEIS/EIR should be sent no later than June 22, 2004 to Mr. Russell Smith, Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 723, Shasta, CA 96087; telephone: 530-275-1554; fax 530-275-2441. Written comments submitted after June 22, 2004 pursuant to CEQA and prior to July 22, 2004 should be sent to Mr. Tom Stokely, Trinity County Natural Resources, P.O. Box 156, Hayfork, CA 96041-0156; telephone 530-628-5949; fax 530-628-5800. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed May 26 16:41:18 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 26 May 2004 16:41:18 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Herald & News-More refuge water going down Klamath River to boost flows Message-ID: <05c801c4437b$24d39160$506c3940@V51NH> KLAMATH RIVER BASIN More refuge water going down Klamath River to boost flows Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 5/25/04 By Dylan Darling, staff writer Water drained from the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge is being used to bolster flows in the Klamath River, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials announced Monday. "It's not a whole lot of water in the perspective of the Basin, but it is our chance to help wildlife on a couple of fronts," said Ron Cole, manager of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. Over the next month, about 8,500 acre-feet of water will be pumped off seasonal wetlands on the Lower Klamath refuge, adding about 150 cubic feet per second to the flows in the river. Draining the water will improve wetland habitat for birds, while the extra water will help protect salmon runs in the river, officials said. "I don't think there are any losers here," said Dave Eshbaugh, executive director the National Audubon Society's Oregon chapter. But some environmentalists say the move is just taking water away from already thirsty wetlands that are at the bottom of the Klamath Basin's water hierarchy. "There is just not enough water to go around - one interest or another is going to continue to suffer until we bring demand back into balance," said Bob Hunter, an attorney for WaterWatch. Federally managed water in the Klamath Basin goes first to protection of endangered species, second to American Indian tribes to meet trust responsibilities, third to the Klamath Reclamation Project and then to the refuges. The Fish and Wildlife Service manages two types of wetlands on the Lower Klamath Refuge, including permanent marsh that is flooded year-round, and seasonal wetlands that are allowed to dry out in summer months. With the draining of the seasonal marshes, Cole said officials are trying to mimic the rhythm of nature, with its fluctuating water levels. Over the last four years, when water has been tight, refuge managers have transferred water from seasonal wetlands to permanent marsh. The wildlife service spent $80,000 to install a pump and screen unit to "recycle" the water, said Larry Bigoni, a maintenance worker for the refuges. The pump pushed water back to the head of the refuge canal system, keeping levels up in the permanent marshes. But the recycling of water was starting to pull up salts from the soil, Cole said. With this summer's plan, there will be about 4,500 acres of permanent marsh and about 7,500 acres of seasonal wetland being drained. Water will be allowed to evaporate slowly from another 8,100 acres of seasonal wetland. Cole said the drying of wetlands give plants a chance to germinate and go to seed, providing food for wildlife. This fall the Bureau of Reclamation will buy at least 2,000 acre-feet groundwater to be spread over the refuge, said Christine Karas, deputy manager of the Klamath Project. Although that won't entirely replace the 8,500 acre-feet drained this summer, Cole said the timing of the 2,000 acre-feet in the fall will come at a critical time for migratory birds. And the timing of the refuge's water release will help the river and the Bureau, Karas said. "It is a lot help for the salmon downstream and it will also allow us to have higher lake levels," said Christine Karas, deputy manager of the Klamath Project. Earlier in the year, when the mountain snowpack looked healthy, Bureau officials thought Upper Klamath Lake would fill. But that didn't happen, and now the Bureau is looking for ways to boost flows on the river. Wendell Wood, Southern Oregon field representative for the Oregon Natural Resources Council, said it is better to have water coursing through the wetlands rather than being recycled. But he added that the underlying problem is not enough water being delivered to the refuges. "There is no denying that the river needs more water, but there is no denying the refuges need more water," he said. A month ago, the ONRC, along with WaterWatch, Earthjustice and the Wilderness Society, released a report outlining the problems the groups see in the six Basin refuges. The report, titled "Refuges in Peril," called for expansion of the refuges, and an increase in water allocation. Steve Kandra, president of the Klamath Water Users Association, said the groups that put out the report don't want to work with others in the Basin to find things that will help, like the refuge putting water downstream. "They put more money into a glossy brochure than into restoration efforts," he said. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From phiggins at humboldt1.com Thu May 27 08:32:03 2004 From: phiggins at humboldt1.com (Patrick Higgins) Date: Thu, 27 May 2004 08:32:03 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] More on Klamath Water/Hatchery Issue In-Reply-To: <002f01c441a1$0d9c3e60$8b6c3940@V51NH> Message-ID: <5.2.0.9.2.20040527060918.01eeade8@mail.humboldt1.com> Hi Again Tom, In addition to the disease reference in the flow and hatchery related article you sent out, there is also a troubling request to not only hold more Iron Gate Hatchery chinook to yearling size but "letting loose the ones that are released farther down in the river." Out-planting, as they call it in the hatchery business, can increase returns by diminishing competition and increasing survival by shortening the length of the river journey. It also has the potential to cause a ton of straying, which will have the effect of homogenizing stocks on Klamath River tributaries, including the Scott and the Shasta. The last stock transfer at Iron Gate was 1985-1988 with coho in planted in Middle Klamath tribs. A experiment to increase returns of Trinity River Hatchery steelhead by out-planting in the 1980's lead to massive straying. This policy is against what is recommended in the Klamath Long Range Plan and was disapproved by a committee of agencies and Tribes when Klamath-Trinity Hatchery policy was last reviewed in the early 1990's. The review was in response to a stock collapse, which may have been related to over-production of juvenile chinook in high return years in the mid- to late 1980's. I sat on a PFMC sub-committee that delved into reasons for low returns ("below the 35,000 wild fish floor") from 1990-1992, and hatchery operation was one of the few factors that appeared to stand out as a potential causal mechanism. Hatcheries, if operated inappropriately, can have a confounding effect on recovery of wild stocks. Any one wishing more information on the problems related to stock transfer can skim Chapter 5 (starts on p. 215) of the the Long Range Plan for restoring the Klamath (http://www.krisweb.com/biblio/gen_usfws_kierassoc_1991_lrp.pdf) or the SF Trinity Action Plan (Chapter 8), both of which I co-authored. Chapter 8 in the latter is specifically on the potential side effects of large scale hatchery operation: http://www.krisweb.com/biblio/sft_usbor_pwa_1994_sftplan/pwa27.htm#PotentialImpacts. The Humboldt Chapter of the American Fisheries Society passed a resolution in 1988 to try to curb California stock transfers of anadromous fish, which I could provide for anyone with a burning interest in the topic. Cheers, Pat Higgins At 08:09 AM 5/24/2004 -0700, Tom Stokely wrote: >It is rumored that there is a juvenile fish kill on the mainstem Klamath >River from Ceratomyxa. Can anybody provide additional information on this? > >Tom Stokely >530-628-5949 > >Salmon release date questioned >Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 5/20/04 >By Dylan Darling, staff writer > >Millions of hatchery-produced chinook salmon fingerlings are set to start >their swim to the Pacific Ocean down the Klamath River. > >But Bureau of Reclamation officials are asking if some of the salmon can >wait until fall to swim. > >The California Department of Fish and Game planned to release a million of >the tiny fall-run salmon into the river from the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery >today. Another million are set to swim on May 24 and another 3 million on >May 31. > >On May 13, the Department released its first million fingerlings. The >fingerlings are ready for release when about 90 of them weigh about a >pound together, said Mike Rode, staff environmental scientist for the >department. > >The state hoped to release the salmon soon because flows in the Klamath >River will be sharply curtailed in June, Rode said. > >The river flows will be less than expected because of a change in the U.S. >Bureau of Reclamation's water year type for the river because of a drop in >inflow to Upper Klamath Lake. The Bureau regulates how much water goes >down the river by guiding PacifiCorp's management of its Klamath >hydroelectric project dams. > >Dave Sabo, manager of the Klamath Reclamation Project, said he was in >discussions with the department this morning about the possibility of >holding a million of the salmon back until next fall and letting loose the >ones that are released farther down in the river. > >"But we didn't get an answer from them," he said. > >The Bureau offered to pay $65,000 for the holding of the salmon until >fall. Bureau officials are waiting for a response and should get it today, >Sabo said. > >Reports of a disease spreading among salmon between I-5 and the Scott and >Shasta rivers, prompted the request for a lower release spot. > >Concerned about the release of the salmon, the Klamath Water Users >Association wrote a letter to the department's regional manager. > >In it, the water users ask a number of questions about how the department >manages the salmon and suggests that the department coordinate its >releases with the Bureau's flows. > >Dan Keppen, water users executive director, said the water users are >concerned about the releases because when things go wrong with salmon on >the river, the Klamath Reclamation Project and its irrigators usually get >the blame. # > > >KLAMATH RIVER BASIN >Klamath farmers, fish short on water >Less-than-expected mountain runoff spurs fears of an irrigation shut-off >and a fish kill. >Associated Press - 5/21/04 > >KLAMATH FALLS ? The amount of water running out of the Cascade Range >snowpack has fallen below expectations, leading federal water authorities >to scale back releases for Klamath River salmon and urge farmers to >conserve on irrigation. > >The water shortage has revived fears that farmers could face another >irrigation shut-off like 2001 and the Klamath River could see another >massive fish kill like the one in 2002. > >"People are obviously going to tighten up their belt as much as they can, >but I?m not sure what else we can do," said Dan Keppen of the Klamath >Water Users Association, which represents farmers on the Klamath >Reclamation Project. > >Tribes along the Klamath River in California are concerned that lower >flows this fall could re-create conditions that killed 33,000 adult salmon >in September, 2002. > >"We?re really concerned, basically because we?re setting ourselves up for >a similar situation," said Toz Soto, fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe. > >The lack of runoff prompted the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to reclassify >2004 as a dry year, reducing by about a third the amount of water mandated >for threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River while leaving full water >deliveries to farmers on the Klamath Project in place. > >The bureau has been sending extra water down the river this spring to help >young salmon make their migration to the Pacific Ocean. > >Earlier this month, the Bureau of Reclamation paid farmers to tap private >wells for crops after realizing that Upper Klamath Lake, the primary >reservoir for the Klamath Project, was not filling. The water table has >since fallen in parts of the arid basin. > >"I?m real nervous about how this is going to turn out," said Dave Sabo, >Klamath Project manager for the bureau. "It?s critical that people pay >attention to what they?re using" for irrigation. > >Runoff from the mountain snowpack was originally predicted to be close to >average levels, leading to more water being released downstream through >the winter and early spring. Projections have since fallen to 38 percent >below average, Sabo said.# > > >_______________________________________________ >env-trinity mailing list >env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org >http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri May 28 10:16:07 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 10:16:07 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Redding Record Searchlight-Editorial: Assembly bill takes shackles off volunteers Message-ID: <005501c444d7$78c12dc0$c06c3940@V51NH> CREEK RESTORATION Editorial: Assembly bill takes shackles off volunteers Redding Record Searchlight - 5/27/04 When the right constituency comes calling, even the California Assembly can be provoked into doing the right thing once in a while. Although normally solicitous toward the wishes of unions, legislative Democrats appear increasingly likely to pass a bill easing senseless restrictions imposed by the state Department of Industrial Relations on volunteers' lending a hand on public works projects. Are they motivated by common sense? Anything's possible. What really raised the pressure for change, however, was fervent lobbying by environmental groups that saw an array of water-quality projects threatened by the state's new insistence that public money and volunteer labor should never mix. The headwaters of the dispute are right here in Redding, where the nonprofit Sacramento Watersheds Action Group was fined more than $33,000 for employing volunteers and Shasta College students on a state-funded project to clean up the Sulphur Creek canyon and build a trail on the Old Highway 99 roadbed. The Department of Industrial Relations ruled that SWAG should have paid the volunteers and students prevailing wage. Creek restoration is not the only volunteer activity in question. Facing similar resistance from labor unions and the Department of Industrial Relations, the city of Redding has been unable to move forward with its share of funding for the volunteer-driven construction of a small neighborhood park in the Vista Ridge subdivision. The implications of the policy are truly staggering. If park and creek projects can't use volunteers, what does that imply for school aides? Museum docents? Library storytellers? Anyhow, the creek lovers had the political chops to get a bill introduced by Assemblywoman Lori Hancock, D-Berkeley, and while it initially would have opened only a narrow exception for watershed projects, later amendments broadly allow volunteers and nonprofit groups to pitch in on public projects. This is a development worth cheering, though the bill is not law yet. While Doug LaMalfa's chief of staff said the north state's assemblyman would support AB 2690, the bill's progress opens an illuminating window onto the Legislature's mindless partisan split. As of Wednesday, it had passed through two Assembly committees on strict party-line votes, Democrats for and Republicans against. Republicans would favor any bill that encourages volunteerism and stretches tax dollars, we'd think. Did they actually read it or just see that it is sponsored by a Berkeley Democrat and automatically vote nay? (Not an outrageous guideline, actually, but occasional exceptions are warranted.) Whatever the process, the bill must pass the Assembly by Friday or it dies for the year. With the usual medley of special-interest bills, vanity proposals and fads in the legislative works, the volunteer bill is a rare measure that will clearly help all Californians. We hope it does not get crushed in the deadline stampede. # ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri May 28 11:18:59 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 11:18:59 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: Sick chinook in upper KR Message-ID: <00ae01c444e0$40c175c0$c06c3940@V51NH> Folks, Scott Foott is the guru of fish pathology for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This is his report on what they've found in dead juvenile Chinook from the Klamath River. ----- Original Message ----- From: Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 10:17 AM Subject: Sick chinook in upper KR > Eight histological samples of moribund juvenile Chinook , collected near > Kinsman Creek (Klamath R.) in mid-May, were submitted by the Arcata FWO to > the Fish Health Center last week. Examination of the tissues show that > ceratomyxosis and kidney disease caused by Parvicapusla were prevalent in > over half of the samples. The Center is currently performing a health > monitoring project in the lower Klamath River. Please contact me or Ken > Nichols with any questions. > > J. Scott Foott > U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service > CA-NV Fish Health Center > 24411 Coleman Hatchery Road , Anderson CA 96007 > Phone 530-365-4271 Scott_Foott at fws.gov > Fax 530-365-7150 > > From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri May 28 11:51:29 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 11:51:29 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Low Flows on Klamath River Result in Disease Outbreak Message-ID: Low Flows on Klamath River Result In Outbreak Of Disease by Dan Bacher An outbreak of disease in migrating wild salmon smolts on the Klamath River has led tribal, state and federal fishery biologists to fear yet another major juvenile fish kill on the Klamath River this spring. Lower than normal releases from Iron Gate Dam have resulted in water temperatures already up to 63 degrees in the Klamath below the dam. The low, warm flows are the result of the Bureau of Reclamation downgrading the water year type from a ?below average? to a ?dry year.? This reclassification will reduce the amount of water held in Upper Klamath Lake and released to the Klamath River and National Wildlife Refuges for fish and wildlife. ?We are finding a high incidence of Ceratomyxa Shasta disease - 50 to 80 percent - in the rotary fish traps that we operate on the Klamath at Happy Camp and above the mouth of the Salmon River,? reported Toz Soto, lead fisheries biologist of the Karuk Tribe. C. Shasta is a disease endemic to the river that has been responsible for past juvenile fish kills on the river. The disease becomes an epidemic when the fish get stressed in low, warm conditions. The Bureau recently dropped Iron Gate releases from 1800 cfs to 1500 cfs after the irrigation season began in the Klamath Basin. At the same time, agriculture is also diverting water from the Shasta and Scott rivers, major tributaries of the Klamath that have been beset with salmon and steelhead kills in recent years. ?The colder than normal weather has also diminished the snowmelt,? said Soto. ?The releases are well below the 50 year average - normally the flows would be 500 cfs more this time of year.? Steve Pedery, Outreach Director of WaterWatch of Oregon, noted that the Bureau?s move comes after large water deliveries were promised to irrigators within the Project, as was done in previous years. ?Under the new flow management regime, Klamath salmon will face similar flows to those of 2002?a year when thousands of juvenile salmon were killed in the spring and over 34,000 adult salmon were killed in the fall by low flows and disease,? said Pedery. Based on the high incidence of diseased fish, Soto believes? that many have probably already perished before making it down to Somes Bar. The Klamath is unique in that the water quality improves as the river courses downriver and receives water from more pristine tributaries like the Salmon River, Indian Creek and Clear Creek. The water released from Iron Gate is nutrient-rich, having received irrigation runoff from the farms of the Klamath Basin. ?The water quality in the main stem above the mouth of the Scott is really poor,? he stated. ?If we had better management on the Klamath, we would at least see a lower incidence of? disease. We?re looking at the results of poor water management; the same old story as in previous years.? There is still much to be learned about the disease. It isn?t found in pristine tributaries like the Salmon River, Indian Creek and Elk Creek, only in the main strem Klamath and the Shasta River. It is believed that the disease finds an intermediate host - a polychaete worm - in the riverine areas of reservoirs like Iron Gate and Copco, according to Soto. ?There is a yearly chronic fish kill on the river,? added Soto. ?It probably is a natural thing for some mortality to occur, but the current water management is definitely having an impact. We are hoping that we don?t find hundreds of thousands of dead salmon in the pools downriver next month like we did in the spring of 2000.? To date, the tribe hasn?t observed hatchery fish in the traps. The Iron Gate Fish Hatchery released a total of 3 million juvenile salmon into the river on May 13, 20 and 24. They plan to release approximately 2 million more fish in coming weeks, according to Kim Rushton, manager of the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery. The Bureau of Reclamation recently offered to pay the Department of Fish and Game $65,000 to to delay the release of the fish, along with advising them to release the fish downriver, according to an article in the Klamath Falls Oregon. Herald and News on May 20. However, Rushton said the hatchery is already planning to raise 900,000 fish to yearling size at Iron Gate as part of a program instigated in 1979. This will be 180,000 yearlings less than the DFG released last year, since the Fall Creek hatchery where the additional fish were raised has been shut down because of state budget cutbacks. He was not sure at press time whether funding for the yearlings would come from the state or federal governments. These yearlings will be released into the main stem of the Klamath in mid-November, when water conditions are cold and much more conducive to survival. ?The survival rate of these fish is 3 to 4 times that of smolts released in the spring,? said Rushton. The outlook for salmon survival this year isn?t looking good under the current river management regime. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2001 changed the policy to favor agribusiness over fish after Klamath Basin farmers protested the cut-off of irrigation water. Bush political adviser Karl Rove engineered the policy change in an effort to curry agribusiness support for the re-election of an Oregon Republican Senator. The result was a series of juvenile fish die-offs and the Klamath adult chinook fish kill of September 2002, the largest fish kill in U.S. history. The crisis that juvenile salmon now suffer in the Klamath River is a political one that requires a political solution - better long term, sustainable management of the Klamath watershed for fish and wildlife. ?The problems plaguing juvenile salmon in the mid Klamath region highlight the fallacy of arguments that water diversions from the Trinity River are the primary source of the Klamath?s woes,? said Pedery. ?The Trinity joins the Klamath a little over 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The region where fish are currently sick and dying is over 100 miles upstream.? From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri May 28 16:10:34 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 28 May 2004 16:10:34 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Re: Low Flows on Klamath River Result in Disease Outbreak References: Message-ID: <01eb01c44509$21b2ba80$c06c3940@V51NH> Please note that if a member of env-trinity wants to post a message to the list, it should be sent to env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org, not env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us. Have a great long weekend everybody. TS ----- Original Message ----- From: "Daniel Bacher" To: ; ; Sent: Friday, May 28, 2004 11:51 AM Subject: Low Flows on Klamath River Result in Disease Outbreak > Low Flows on Klamath River Result In Outbreak Of Disease > > by Dan Bacher > > An outbreak of disease in migrating wild salmon smolts on the Klamath River > has led tribal, state and federal fishery biologists to fear yet another > major juvenile fish kill on the Klamath River this spring. > > Lower than normal releases from Iron Gate Dam have resulted in water > temperatures already up to 63 degrees in the Klamath below the dam. The low, > warm flows are the result of the Bureau of Reclamation downgrading the water > year type from a "below average" to a "dry year." This reclassification will > reduce the amount of water held in Upper Klamath Lake and released to the > Klamath River and National Wildlife Refuges for fish and wildlife. > > "We are finding a high incidence of Ceratomyxa Shasta disease - 50 to 80 > percent - in the rotary fish traps that we operate on the Klamath at Happy > Camp and above the mouth of the Salmon River," reported Toz Soto, lead > fisheries biologist of the Karuk Tribe. > > C. Shasta is a disease endemic to the river that has been responsible for > past juvenile fish kills on the river. The disease becomes an epidemic when > the fish get stressed in low, warm conditions. > The Bureau recently dropped Iron Gate releases from 1800 cfs to 1500 cfs > after the irrigation season began in the Klamath Basin. At the same time, > agriculture is also diverting water from the Shasta and Scott rivers, major > tributaries of the Klamath that have been beset with salmon and steelhead > kills in recent years. > > "The colder than normal weather has also diminished the snowmelt," said > Soto. "The releases are well below the 50 year average - normally the flows > would be 500 cfs more this time of year." > > Steve Pedery, Outreach Director of WaterWatch of Oregon, noted that the > Bureau's move comes after large water deliveries were promised to irrigators > within the Project, as was done in previous years. > > "Under the new flow management regime, Klamath salmon will face similar > flows to those of 2002-a year when thousands of juvenile salmon were killed > in the spring and over 34,000 adult salmon were killed in the fall by low > flows and disease," said Pedery. > > Based on the high incidence of diseased fish, Soto believes that many have > probably already perished before making it down to Somes Bar. The Klamath is > unique in that the water quality improves as the river courses downriver and > receives water from more pristine tributaries like the Salmon River, Indian > Creek and Clear Creek. The water released from Iron Gate is nutrient-rich, > having received irrigation runoff from the farms of the Klamath Basin. > > "The water quality in the main stem above the mouth of the Scott is really > poor," he stated. "If we had better management on the Klamath, we would at > least see a lower incidence of disease. We're looking at the results of > poor water management; the same old story as in previous years." > > There is still much to be learned about the disease. It isn't found in > pristine tributaries like the Salmon River, Indian Creek and Elk Creek, only > in the main strem Klamath and the Shasta River. It is believed that the > disease finds an intermediate host - a polychaete worm - in the riverine > areas of reservoirs like Iron Gate and Copco, according to Soto. > > "There is a yearly chronic fish kill on the river," added Soto. "It probably > is a natural thing for some mortality to occur, but the current water > management is definitely having an impact. We are hoping that we don't find > hundreds of thousands of dead salmon in the pools downriver next month like > we did in the spring of 2000." > > To date, the tribe hasn't observed hatchery fish in the traps. The Iron Gate > Fish Hatchery released a total of 3 million juvenile salmon into the river > on May 13, 20 and 24. They plan to release approximately 2 million more fish > in coming weeks, according to Kim Rushton, manager of the Iron Gate Fish > Hatchery. > > The Bureau of Reclamation recently offered to pay the Department of Fish and > Game $65,000 to to delay the release of the fish, along with advising them > to release the fish downriver, according to an article in the Klamath Falls > Oregon. Herald and News on May 20. > > However, Rushton said the hatchery is already planning to raise 900,000 fish > to yearling size at Iron Gate as part of a program instigated in 1979. This > will be 180,000 yearlings less than the DFG released last year, since the > Fall Creek hatchery where the additional fish were raised has been shut down > because of state budget cutbacks. He was not sure at press time whether > funding for the yearlings would come from the state or federal governments. > > These yearlings will be released into the main stem of the Klamath in > mid-November, when water conditions are cold and much more conducive to > survival. "The survival rate of these fish is 3 to 4 times that of smolts > released in the spring," said Rushton. > > The outlook for salmon survival this year isn't looking good under the > current river management regime. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in 2001 > changed the policy to favor agribusiness over fish after Klamath Basin > farmers protested the cut-off of irrigation water. Bush political adviser > Karl Rove engineered the policy change in an effort to curry agribusiness > support for the re-election of an Oregon Republican Senator. > > The result was a series of juvenile fish die-offs and the Klamath adult > chinook fish kill of September 2002, the largest fish kill in U.S. history. > The crisis that juvenile salmon now suffer in the Klamath River is a > political one that requires a political solution - better long term, > sustainable management of the Klamath watershed for fish and wildlife. > > "The problems plaguing juvenile salmon in the mid Klamath region highlight > the fallacy of arguments that water diversions from the Trinity River are > the primary source of the Klamath's woes," said Pedery. "The Trinity joins > the Klamath a little over 40 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The region where > fish are currently sick and dying is over 100 miles upstream." > > From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sat May 29 10:51:15 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 10:51:15 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Change in Public Hearing Date for Trinity River Fishery Restoration Supplemental EIR Message-ID: <006f01c445a5$8c7ae080$956c3940@V51NH> NOTICE OF REVISED HEARING DATE FOR DRAFT TRINITY RIVER FISHERY RESTORATION SUPPLEMENTAL EIR The previous notice that was published in the Sacramento Bee on May 28, 2004 and the Trinity Journal on May 19, 2004 is hereby corrected by changing the date for the Public Hearing to receive oral comments before the Trinity County Planning Commission to July 8, 2004, at 7 p.m., or soon thereafter, from the previous date of June 10, 2004, at 7 p.m. The meeting will still be held at the Trinity County Board of Supervisors' Meeting Room, Trinity County Library, 211 Main St., Weaverville, CA. The other two public hearings remain at the same dates and locations as follows: Tuesday, June 1, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m., Holiday Inn, 1900 Hilltop Drive, Redding, CA Thursday, June 3, 2004, 4:30 - 7:30: p.m., Hoopa Fire Department, Highway 96, Hoopa, CA Pursuant to NEPA, a 60-day public review period has been established for review of the SEIS/EIR. This review period began on April 23, 2004, and will end on June 22, 2004. A 75-day public review period has been established pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act. This review period began on May 9, 2004, and will end on July 22, 2004. Electronic copies of the SEIS/EIR are available for public review on the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific website for the Northern California Area Office at www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao (click on Projects/Activities/Documents, then on Trinity River - Restoration Program). Hard copies of the document are available for review at the Trinity County Planning Department at 190 Glen Road in Weaverville and 98A Clinic Ave in Hayfork, and at Trinity County Libraries in Hayfork, Weaverville, and Trinity Center. Electronic CD copies of the SEIS/EIR may be obtained at by contacting the Trinity County Planning Department and free of charge (subject to availability). The documents referenced within the SEIS/EIR are also available for public review at the CH2M Hill office located at 2525 Airpark Drive, Redding, California. Written comments are encouraged. Written comments on the Draft SEIS/EIR should be sent no later than June 22, 2004 to Mr. Russell Smith, Bureau of Reclamation, P.O. Box 723, Shasta, CA 96087; telephone: 530-275-1554; fax 530-275-2441. Written comments submitted after June 22, 2004 pursuant to CEQA and prior to July 22, 2004 should be sent to Mr. Tom Stokely, Trinity County Natural Resources, P.O. Box 156, Hayfork, CA 96041-0156; telephone 530-628-5949; fax 530-628-5800. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Tue Jun 1 21:59:08 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 21:59:08 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Another Bush Regime Fish Kill in the Making Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Tue Jun 1 21:59:37 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 21:59:37 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Another Bush Administration Fish Kill in the Making Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Tue Jun 1 22:02:54 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 22:02:54 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Another Bush Administration Fish Kill in the Making Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jun 2 14:15:40 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 14:15:40 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] TAMWG Agenda for June 15 Message-ID: <008301c448e6$c2d2f660$4b6c3940@V51NH> awhitridge at snowcrest.net wrote: TAMWG population, Here's the proposed agenda for our June 15 meeting. I understand that this Friday the TRRP office will complete and distribute the updated FY05 budget draft that we'll discuss, and I believe the draft minutes from the April 1-2 meeting will be mailed from Arcata this week; I don't know of other new documents in the works for this meeting. As you'll see from the agenda, it might be good to review some previously-distributed documents (Program Evaluation Report; TAMWG Charter...) before the meeting if you don't have them memorized. Looking forward, Arnold Whitridge Draft Agenda TRINITY ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT WORKING GROUP Victorian Inn and Restaurant, Weaverville, CA 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 15, 2004 Time Topic - Purpose Action? 1. 8:30 Introductions; Adopt agenda; Approve minutes of April meeting Action 2. 8:40 Public Comment Period 3. 8:45 FY2005 TRRP Budget Doug Schleusner Action 4. 11:45 Modeling case study C.J. Ralph, Redwood Sciences Lab Likely effects on birds of riparian vegetation changes 12:00 Lunch 5. 1:15 Channel Rehabilitation Projects Rich Miller Action 6. 2:00 Executive Director's Report Doug Schleusner 7. 2:30 Followup to May 12 joint meeting TAMWG members Action Program Evaluation, Science Framework, Strategic Plan. 8. 4:00 Charter renewal; member appointments Mary Ellen Mueller 9. 4:15 Assignments and Calendars Action Review/assign tasks; schedule next meeting 10 . 4:30 Public Comment Period 4:45 Adjourn -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Jun 3 15:11:42 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 15:11:42 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] FW: Additional information on Fish Disease Message-ID: <200406032212.i53MBxeH009477@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> _____ From: Byron [mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 10:59 AM To: FOTR List (fotr at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us) Subject: Additional information on Fish Disease The following additional information, supplementing the AP article below on widespread Klamath fish disease, was sent to me by Marty Seldon, a member of the Northern California Council Fly Fishing Federation of America: Byron: Ceratomyxa, in the Protozoa category, has been known historically in open California waters such as Crystal Lake, Pit River, and the Trinity River.........Alex Calhoun, Inland Fisheries Management, 1966, Page 207. The added stress caused by low flows brings out the worst. Skitt fiske, Marty Seldon - FFF Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Jun 3 15:30:01 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 15:30:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] FW: Klamath Fish Disease Message-ID: <200406032230.i53MUJeH013159@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> Here's original story erroneously omitted. Biologists alarmed at disease outbreak in Klamath River salmon Associated Press - 6/2/04 By Jeff Barnard, staff writer GRANTS PASS, Ore. - The California Department of Fish and Game is worried that a parasite killing young salmon and steelhead migrating down the Klamath River to the ocean could kill hundreds of thousands in coming weeks as flows reduce. Young chinook, coho and steelhead infected with the parasite Ceratomyxa shasta began showing up in traps that sample the annual migration around May 1, said senior fisheries biologist Neil Manji of the department's Redding office. The parasite is found up and down the river, but the cause of the outbreak remains unknown. The parasite infestation injected another source of strain in continuing tensions over dividing scarce water between farmers on the Klamath Reclamation Project, endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, and salmon in the river. "We get put in a very awkward position," Manji said. "Do you want to use (water allocated for salmon) not to kill adult fish coming back or to help young fish go out?" Releases down the Klamath River have been reduced after it became clear drought conditions were worse than expected, but the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is meeting Endangered Species Act mandates for water for endangered suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and threatened coho in the Klamath River, said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken. The bureau has also provided extra water for the spring salmon migration though a water bank that buys water from farmers, and has worked with the California Department of Fish and Game to spread the release of millions of young salmon from the Iron Gate hatchery to reduce the strain on habitat, McCracken said. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has generally found water quality and temperatures to be good for fish, said spokesman Al Donner in Sacramento. The first sick fish were spotted in the trap farthest upriver. Over the course of the past month, up to 80 percent of the fish in traps showed symptoms of the parasite, and 50 percent were dead, Manji said. It is unclear if the same proportion can be transferred to the millions of fish in the river. The numbers raised concerns of a repeat of a 2000 fish kill that left an estimated 300,000 young salmon and steelhead dead from the same parasite and a fungus that attacks the gills, Manji said. The parasite appeared about two weeks before the release of millions of young salmon from the Iron Gate hatchery, making it unlikely the parasite infested the fish in the hatchery, or was a result of crowding in the river caused by the release, Manji added. He said he was concerned it would get worse in coming weeks, when flows are due to be reduced to conserve water for irrigation on the Klamath Reclamation Project, and the return of spawning adults this fall. _____ From: Salmon Coalition [mailto:rocinante at pelicannetwork.net] Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 2:30 PM To: Byron Subject: Re: FW: Additional information on Fish Disease Byron, Is there an attachment with this message? Or, was there an AP story meant to be included? jack Byron wrote: _____ From: Byron [mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net] Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 10:59 AM To:FOTR List (fotr at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us) Subject: Additional information on Fish Disease The following additional information, supplementing the AP article below on widespread Klamath fish disease, was sent to me by Marty Seldon, a member of the Northern California Council Fly Fishing Federation of America: Byron: Ceratomyxa, in the Protozoa category, has been known historically in open California waters such as Crystal Lake, Pit River, and the Trinity River.........Alex Calhoun, Inland Fisheries Management, 1966, Page 207. The added stress caused by low flows brings out the worst. Skitt fiske, Marty Seldon - FFF Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov Thu Jun 3 16:00:01 2004 From: BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov (Brandt Gutermuth) Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2004 16:00:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] NOAA Fisheries ESA hatchery policy + listings Message-ID: All - Attached is the link to the Federal Register which describes NOAA Fisheries new stance on hatchery vs. wild fish - also how that may effect several listed anadromous species. Regards- Brandt http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2004/pdf/04-12598.pdf From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Jun 3 23:26:45 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 23:26:45 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force to Meet in Klamath Falls Message-ID: <006f01c449fc$f0a2bdc0$376b3940@V51NH> NEWS RELEASE U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE - REGION 1 Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office 1829 South Oregon Street, Yreka, CA 96097 IDAHO - NEVADA - CALIFORNIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - HAWAII AND THE PACIFIC ISLANDS For Immediate Release Contact: June 1, 2004 Laurie Simons - Ecosystem Restoration Team Leader Phil Detrich- Field Supervisor (530) 842-5763 Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force to Meet in Klamath Falls, Oregon The Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force (Task Force) will meet at the Shilo Inn, Klamath Falls, Oregon, to discuss issues related to the restoration of salmon and other anadromous fisheries in the Klamath River. The meeting will take place on June 23, 2004, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm; and June 24, 2004, from 8:00 am to 1:30 pm. The Task Force is a Federal advisory committee that assists the Secretary of Interior in the formulation, coordination, and implementation of a 20-year program to restore the anadromous fisheries of the Klamath River Basin Conservation Area. The Task Force membership includes representatives of the commercial salmon fishing industry; the in-river sport fishing community; the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, and Klamath Tribes; Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Siskiyou, and Klamath Counties; the California Department of Fish and Game; Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife; U.S. Departments of the Interior and Agriculture; and the National Marine Fisheries Service. Topics to be discussed at this meeting will include the Trinity River Restoration Program, Klamath Fishery Management Council harvest management, Iron Gate Hatchery tagging, Klamath River TMDL development status, water appropriation issues in the Klamath Basin, restoration project proposals for funding, and progress of restoration planning, coordination, and projects in the Shasta, Scott, Salmon, Lower Klamath, and Middle Klamath sub-basins. Members of the public are encouraged to attend this meeting and offer comments and recommendations to the Task Force. For additional information, please contact Laurie Simons, at (530) 842-5763. X X X DRAFT AGENDA KLAMATH RIVER BASIN FISHERIES TASK FORCE MEETING June 23 - 24, 2004 Shilo Inn 2400 Almond Street Klamath Falls, Oregon June 23, 2004 9:00 am 1. Convene and opening remarks. John Engbring, Chair. Vice Chair is Allen Foreman, Klamath Tribes. Vice Chair for next meeting will be Allen Foreman. 9:10 2. Introductions of Congressional staff in attendance 9:20 3. Business a. Approval of minutes b. Adoption of agenda c. Report on Draft Addenda to the Long Range Plan resulting from Task Force review of recommendations from Mid-term Evaluation (Ronnie Pierce and Laurie Simons) d. Suggestion that the Task Force consider regularly agendizing presentations from timber, farming, and fisher communities to air concerns (Chuck Blackburn) 9:45 4. Brief review of last meeting actions/general correspondence/program update (Laurie Simons) 10:00 5. Brief Updates and Announcements a. Update on State coho recovery process (Neil Manji) b. Update on Shasta-Scott Recovery Team (Phil Detrich) c. Update on NOAA coho recovery planning (Irma Lagomarsino) d. Update on NOAA hatchery listing policy (Irma Lagomarsino) 10:15 6. Report from the Technical Work Group: progress on Task Force assignments (Petey Brucker) a. Mainstem Sub-basin Planning: need Task Force decision/direction on how to move forward on Mainstem issues ( Handout) b. Identification and discussion on Big Ticket Restoration Projects (Handout) c. Spring Chinook Volunteer Recovery Program (Handout) d. TWG review/recommendations for other proposal processes in Klamath Basin (CDFG etc.) 11:15 7. Report from Klamath Watershed Coordination Group (Neil Manji and Dave Hillemeier) Klamath Basin Compact Commission (Alice Kilham) Upper Klamath Basin Working Group (Jim Carpenter) 11:35 8. Presentation on the Trinity River Restoration Program: How it functions and recent issues (Doug Schleusner, Bureau of Reclamation) 12:15 9. Public comment 12:30 Lunch 1:45 pm 10. Planning for Klamath Project Operations and status of the Conservation Implementation Program (Christine Karas, Bureau of Reclamation) 2:15 11. Presentation on harvest management by the Klamath Fishery Management Council (Phil Detrich, Dave Bitts, Keith Wilkinson, Dave Hillemeier) 3:15 Break 3:30 12. Presentation on Iron Gate Hatchery tagging and mitigation numbers (Todd Olson, PacifiCorp, and Neil Manji, California Department of Fish and Game) 4:00 13. Report on outcomes of the Lower Klamath River Basin Science Conference (Irma Lagomarsino) 4:15 14. Proposal to prepare Accomplishments Report for Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program (Phil Detrich) 4:30 15. Report from Budget Committee on proposed 2005 Work Plan 5:00 16. Public comment 5:15 Recess 5:30-8:00 pm Social Hour - Join us at Antonio's Cucina Italiana, 1012 Main Street June 24, 2004 8:00 am 17. Report from Arcata Fish and Wildlife Office on Flow Study and other field studies (Randy Brown) 8:45 18. Klamath River TMDL development status (David Leland, North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board - TMDL Development Unit lead, and Steve Kirk, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality - Klamath Basin Coordinator) 9:15 19. Water appropriation issues in the Klamath River Basin in relation to anadromous fisheries restoration (Reed Marbut, Oregon Water Resources Department) 10:00 20. Public comment 10:15 Break 10:30 21. Reports from Sub-basin Coordinators on the status of sub-basin planning, coordination, and restoration efforts a. Scott River Sub-basin (Rhonda Muse, SRWC) b. Shasta River Sub-basin (Dave Webb, Shasta CRMP) c. Salmon River Sub-basin (Jim Villeponteaux, SRRC) d. Mid-Klamath Sub-basin (Will Harling, Karuk Tribe) e. Lower Klamath Sub-basin (Dan Gale, Yurok Tribe) 12:30 22. Task Force Decision on 2005 Work Plan 1:00 pm 23. Public comment 1:15 24. Recap and identify agenda to include in the next meeting 1:30 25. Next meeting is in Yreka, October 13-14, 2004. We need to schedule the February, June, and October meetings in 2005. Adjourn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sun Jun 13 08:11:31 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2004 08:11:31 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Talks collapse on fish kill suit Message-ID: <008501c45158$b7f6e740$956b3940@V51NH> Trinity County, Humboldt County, Eureka, Del Norte County, Arcata and perhaps others local governments (Fortuna?) filed a joint Amicus Brief in this case some time ago. It sounds like the trial will come too late to save this year's fish from another potential fish kill in the lower Klamath and the current Ceratomyxa juvenile fish kill in the Klamath. Despite Judge Armstrong's rulings, she did not order any change in Reclamation's operations for the Klamath Project. TS ********************************************************************* http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2210605,00.html Talks collapse on fish kill suit By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Talks to settle a lawsuit pressed by the Yurok Tribe against the federal government over the 2002 Klamath River fish kill have broken down. The Yurok Tribe has walked away from discussions with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation after the court-ordered mediation met an impasse this week. The tribe, along with the Hoopa Valley Tribe, is suing Reclamation for damages after 34,000 chinook salmon and other fish died in a hot, shallow river that fall. The Yuroks backed away from the discussions after Reclamation cut flows to the river when the National Resource Conservation Service predicted less water would flow into the river from snowpack than expected. The flows planned for the fall are as low as those during the year the fish died, although a federal water bank and a small amount of additional water are providing supplemental flows, mainly this spring. "What we had to do is assess whether the Bureau of Reclamation is genuinely interested in protecting our rights," said Yurok Tribe Executive Director Troy Fletcher. "It's clear to us that they're not." The lawsuit is part of another being pressed by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and other environmental groups. In July, a federal judge in Oakland found Reclamation's 10-year plan for the river didn't follow the law. Judge Saundra Armstrong also ruled that the Yurok and Hoopa Valley tribes had a legitimate grievance against the government for potential breach of tribal trust responsibilities. A trial is likely to begin in September, now that negotiations have failed. Both sides claim they are still willing to talk, however. Dave Sabo in Reclamation's Klamath Falls, Ore., office said he understands that the Yurok Tribe is frustrated with Klamath Irrigation Project operations. The project supplies water to about 200,000 acres on the central Oregon-California border. But he said Reclamation has taken steps, with the water bank and other additional flows, to meet provisions of the Endangered Species Act and the tribal trust. "It's really up to the Yurok what they want to do," he said. Fletcher said the tribe now is worried the river flows could again set up the lethal conditions on the lower river this fall, jeopardizing another run of chinook. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Jun 14 11:56:53 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 11:56:53 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath Herald and News- Parasite spreading concern on Klamath River Message-ID: <000c01c45241$c805ed40$a46c3940@V51NH> http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/06/10/news/top_stories/top1.txt Parasite spreading concern on Klamath River Published June 10, 2004 By DYLAN DARLING A parasite that is causing infection and death among young salmon in the lower Klamath River is raising concerns for federal and state officials and other water interests. The high level of infection in fish comes as a surprise because water conditions in the river are relatively good, sources say. "It has us real worried," said Dave Sabo, manager of the Klamath Reclamation Project. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials are worried that the Klamath Project will be blamed if something happens to salmon fingerlings being sent down the river from the Iron Gate fish hatchery near Yreka. The parasite Ceratomyxa shasta, called C shasta for short, is common in the main stem of the Klamath River system, from the Pacific Ocean to the Williamson River. The microscopic parasite spends part of its life floating in the river as a tiny, 3-millimeter-long worm, said Jerri Bartholomew, an assistant professor of microbiology at Oregon State University. The worms find their way into the digestive tracts of salmonid fish, which include salmon, steelhead and trout. Some fish are resistant to the parasite. Most are not. Inside the fish's intestine, the parasite feeds on tissue and reproduces, often killing the fish by causing an infection. Depending on the water temperature and other factors, the fish will die within 20 to 30 days after the parasite has entered it. The warmer the temperature, the faster the spread of the parasite and possible spread of infection. "We are seeing a high incidence of disease in our out-migrant fish," said Toz Soto, fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe, one of the downstream tribes. "It's always around, but we are really concerned because the infection rate seems to be really high this year," Soto said. In early May, scientists on the Klamath River started finding dead salmon fingerlings in traps between I-5 and the Scott River, said Al Donner, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The parasite has killed 50 to 80 percent of the young salmon in some places. At the Happy Camp trapping site on the river, tribal scientists found 75 to 80 percent of the young salmon headed downstream appear to be suffering from infection. Officials and scientists couldn't immediately estimate how many total fish the parasite might kill. It's presumed that some dead fish can't be seen in the murky water, and that birds consume many dead fish before they are seen by scientists. Adding to the mystery of the infection outbreak is the lack of stressful conditions often blamed when fish start dying. "The temperatures are good and the oxygen levels are good for fish," said John Engbring, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service's California and Nevada Operations office in Sacramento. He said scientists will continue to collect samples to try to figure out what is causing the parasite to spread. "At this point, we don't know if this is more natural, or if there are some human causes that are making it more significant," Engbring said. Sabo said the Bureau is doing what it can to help the situation, but higher flows might not be the answer. "We want to make sure that the fishery is as healthy as it can be," Sabo said. Observers hope the infection doesn't affect as many fish as it did in 2000, when an estimated 300,000 young salmon and steelhead died from the same parasite and a fungus that attacks the gills. The California Department of Fish and Game released more than 5 million fish from the Iron Gate Fish hatchery over the past month. The fingerlings were released a million at a time, about four or five days apart, with the first release on May 13 and the last on June 3, said Kim Rushton, hatchery manager. The hatchery also held back 900,000 young salmon to be released in the fall. The C shasta parasite is just one of the many dangers salmon face in their life cycle. Larger fish, birds, seals and fishermen all take a toll on fish populations. "You raise millions to get a few thousand back," Rushton said. He said the average return for each run of adult chinook salmon is 10,000 to 15,000. The hatchery needs 8,000 adults to collect eggs. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Jun 15 06:18:22 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 06:18:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] FW from George Guillen: Klamath Herald and News- Parasite spreading concernon Klamath River Message-ID: <001101c452db$3cb002e0$5d6b3940@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: George Guillen To: 'Tom Stokely' Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 7:28 PM Subject: RE: [env-trinity] Klamath Herald and News- Parasite spreading concernon Klamath River FYI, I think Dylan must have mis-quoted Dr. Barholomew: "The microscopic parasite spends part of its life floating in the river as a tiny, 3-millimeter-long worm, said Jerri Bartholomew, an assistant professor of microbiology at Oregon State University." ** WRONG - the free swimming microscopic parasite infects the an invertebrate host - a polychaete worm. It alternates between infecting this host and the infected fish. Most of the rest of the story is close enough. Also, I think based on the information provided at the Klamath Symposium it is clear that there are other variables the influence the life history of this parasite and it's intermediate worm host. The data presented by Dr. Bartholomew regarding the small scale distribution of the polychaete host points also to the need to consider habitat, velocity, and the role of nutrients. There is an urgent need to evaluate the effect of the "modified" river including flow regime, velocity, changed habitat, and nutrient dynamics on the survival of the "worm" and C. shasta. Maybe what is needed is evaluation and development of HSC for the worm host! However, flow is a controllable variable that should effect the density and transmission rate of the parasite, assuming all other modifying variables remain constant. George G. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] On Behalf Of Tom Stokely Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 1:57 PM To: env-trinity Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath Herald and News- Parasite spreading concernon Klamath River http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/06/10/news/top_stories/top1.txt Parasite spreading concern on Klamath River Published June 10, 2004 By DYLAN DARLING A parasite that is causing infection and death among young salmon in the lower Klamath River is raising concerns for federal and state officials and other water interests. The high level of infection in fish comes as a surprise because water conditions in the river are relatively good, sources say. "It has us real worried," said Dave Sabo, manager of the Klamath Reclamation Project. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials are worried that the Klamath Project will be blamed if something happens to salmon fingerlings being sent down the river from the Iron Gate fish hatchery near Yreka. The parasite Ceratomyxa shasta, called C shasta for short, is common in the main stem of the Klamath River system, from the Pacific Ocean to the Williamson River. The microscopic parasite spends part of its life floating in the river as a tiny, 3-millimeter-long worm, said Jerri Bartholomew, an assistant professor of microbiology at Oregon State University. The worms find their way into the digestive tracts of salmonid fish, which include salmon, steelhead and trout. Some fish are resistant to the parasite. Most are not. Inside the fish's intestine, the parasite feeds on tissue and reproduces, often killing the fish by causing an infection. Depending on the water temperature and other factors, the fish will die within 20 to 30 days after the parasite has entered it. The warmer the temperature, the faster the spread of the parasite and possible spread of infection. "We are seeing a high incidence of disease in our out-migrant fish," said Toz Soto, fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe, one of the downstream tribes. "It's always around, but we are really concerned because the infection rate seems to be really high this year," Soto said. In early May, scientists on the Klamath River started finding dead salmon fingerlings in traps between I-5 and the Scott River, said Al Donner, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The parasite has killed 50 to 80 percent of the young salmon in some places. At the Happy Camp trapping site on the river, tribal scientists found 75 to 80 percent of the young salmon headed downstream appear to be suffering from infection. Officials and scientists couldn't immediately estimate how many total fish the parasite might kill. It's presumed that some dead fish can't be seen in the murky water, and that birds consume many dead fish before they are seen by scientists. Adding to the mystery of the infection outbreak is the lack of stressful conditions often blamed when fish start dying. "The temperatures are good and the oxygen levels are good for fish," said John Engbring, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service's California and Nevada Operations office in Sacramento. He said scientists will continue to collect samples to try to figure out what is causing the parasite to spread. "At this point, we don't know if this is more natural, or if there are some human causes that are making it more significant," Engbring said. Sabo said the Bureau is doing what it can to help the situation, but higher flows might not be the answer. "We want to make sure that the fishery is as healthy as it can be," Sabo said. Observers hope the infection doesn't affect as many fish as it did in 2000, when an estimated 300,000 young salmon and steelhead died from the same parasite and a fungus that attacks the gills. The California Department of Fish and Game released more than 5 million fish from the Iron Gate Fish hatchery over the past month. The fingerlings were released a million at a time, about four or five days apart, with the first release on May 13 and the last on June 3, said Kim Rushton, hatchery manager. The hatchery also held back 900,000 young salmon to be released in the fall. The C shasta parasite is just one of the many dangers salmon face in their life cycle. Larger fish, birds, seals and fishermen all take a toll on fish populations. "You raise millions to get a few thousand back," Rushton said. He said the average return for each run of adult chinook salmon is 10,000 to 15,000. The hatchery needs 8,000 adults to collect eggs. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Jun 15 06:19:26 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 15 Jun 2004 06:19:26 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Humboldt County Fish and Game RFP Message-ID: <001c01c452db$628957a0$5d6b3940@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Nancy Kaytis-Slocum" > > REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS > > > > The Humboldt County Fish & Game Advisory Commission is granting the State > Fish and Game code violation funds for projects offering protection, > conservation, propagation or preservation of fish and wildlife within > Humboldt County. Prefer email requests: nkaytis at humboldt1.com or call > 786-4902 with your address for RFP form. Due July 1, 2004. > > P.S. We have approximately $3000 to grant during this cycle. > > From truman at jeffnet.org Sun Jun 20 12:19:38 2004 From: truman at jeffnet.org (Patrick Truman) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 12:19:38 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Crops or Salmon: Sac Bee Message-ID: <00b801c456fb$88789380$25c84240@default> http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/9722718p-10645719c.html Crops or salmon: What will it be? Indians gain on farmers in big battle By Tim Holt -- Special To The Bee Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, June 20, 2004 Injun Billy remembers as a boy running as fast as he could on the hot sand along the river so it wouldn't burn his feet. In those days, there were deep holes all along the meandering river, holes that were thick with salmon in the fall and spring. And there were eels and acorn soup to eat along with the salmon, cooked over open fires by the water. Injun Billy, also known as William Carpenter, 71, is a Hoopa tribal elder, who lived as a boy and young adult along the wild Trinity River. The 144-square-mile Hoopa reservation is in far northwestern California - a place so remote that the casino craze sweeping other California reservations has bypassed the tribe, which enjoys a relatively quiet, bucolic life, surrounded by forests and their river - or what's left of it. Today the sand bars and deep fishing holes of Injun Billy's early days are gone, as are 80 percent of the Trinity's fish. Today's Trinity River is a creature of the Bureau of Reclamation, and of the powerful economic and political forces that have shaped Northern California's water delivery systems. The bureau built the river's dams as well as the 11-mile tunnel that has diverted as much as 90 percent of the Trinity's water southward via the Sacramento River. In pre-dam days, before 1964, the river channel was periodically scoured out by high winter and spring runoffs from the lakes and tributaries of the nearby Trinity Alps. The more even, regulated flows of post-dam days limited this scouring, allowing sediment and vegetation to accumulate along the river's banks, filling up the fishing holes, clogging the gravel in spawning grounds and over the decades creating a straight, rectangular-shaped riverbed. Now this reshaped river, this creature of the federal government, is the subject of a tug-of-war in federal court. The river is currently at the center of a monumental legal battle between Central Valley water users and public utilities, led by the sprawling Westlands Water District, and the Hoopa and Yurok tribes that want river flows, and their fishery, restored. At stake for Westlands is no more than 10 percent of their federal water deliveries, but they have already been squeezed over the past dozen years by droughts and cutbacks for environmental needs. If the Indians do manage to regain the flows they feel they need for a healthy river, Westlands farmers would have to make up the difference in the open water market, at a cost substantially higher than the federally subsidized water they receive now. They and the Trinity Indians are in the fourth year of a legal stalemate that has recently prompted U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to step in and personally mediate the dispute. In the meantime, the river that passes by Injun Bill's home and that of the other 2,500 residents of the Hoopa reservation ebbs and flows according to which side of the legal battle is in the ascendancy. Lately the waters have been rising. For over half a century Westlands, the largest irrigation district in the nation, has been a major player shaping water delivery decisions in Northern California. By the early 1950s, its farmers had severely depleted their water supply, an underground aquifer. They began looking northward to replace it and soon found themselves paired with Northern California Congressman Clair Engle, who was looking for support for an extension of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) into the Trinity region. The resulting alliance helped secure funding for the Lewiston and Trinity dams and the 11-mile diversion tunnel through the mountains to the Sacramento watershed, a $225 million public works project that eventually turned the Trinity into a trickle of its former self. Since then, federally diverted and subsidized water has allowed Westlands to grow cotton in a parched and sun-drenched climate, to grow 90 percent of the nation's head lettuce and half its garlic. In round figures, its farmers grow a billion dollars worth of crops each year. During most of the post-dam period, the contest over the fate of the Trinity has been laughably one-sided, pitting one of the most powerful players in California water politics against a couple of small and impoverished Indian tribes. While Westlands and the rest of the CVP clients got their water, the Hoopas and the Yuroks, who live along the nearby Klamath River, got empty promises, beginning with Congressman Engle's vow that once the Trinity project was completed the Indians would still have all the water their river and its fish needed. In the 1970s through the 1990s, as it became obvious that the water exports were having a devastating effect on the river, the Indians received as their consolation prize an endless stream of federal studies telling them what they already knew, that the dams and diversions were killing their fishery. The political will to do something about it did not surface until the very last days of the Clinton administration, when Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt issued an order to ramp up the flows in the Trinity to 47 percent of their historic levels, a level that the government's voluminous studies had determined would bring the river's chinook and coho salmon and steelhead to sustainable population levels. That decision was promptly challenged in court by Westlands and several other litigants. They have effectively blocked implementation of Babbitt's decision up until the present day. But the balance of power between the Northern California Indian tribes and their principal adversaries, the San Joaquin Valley farmers, is beginning to tilt in favor of the Indians - a seismic shift in California water politics that has been a couple of decades in the making. As with other tribes around the West, the Hoopas have become increasingly sophisticated in their dealings with the government and their political adversaries. Starting in the early 1980s, they began hiring some well connected and highly respected advocates, including Seattle-based attorney Tom Schlosser, who specializes in tribal law, and Washington, D.C. lobbyist Joy Membrino, who in the 1990s helped shepherd through a series of laws that put Congress on record in support of the Trinity's restoration. Key language was inserted in a reform measure, the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, passed in 1992; it called for giving equal status to environmental needs in the allocation of CVP water, alongside those of farms and cities. And significantly, in this era of court-dictated river flows, the Hoopas have for the past three years had a tribal chairman who's a lawyer: Clifford Lyle Marshall, 47, who taught law at UCLA for two years. Last April the Hoopas persuaded a three-judge panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to send more water down the Trinity than they've ever seen in this post-dam era. The Indians successfully argued that while the Westlands case drags on, their economy and their culture are suffering. The extra water release was an emergency decree; the judges must still issue a ruling on the merits of the Westlands case. Westlands and its public utility allies are centering their case around the energy crunch California was experiencing at the time Secretary Babbitt issued his order. They argue that blackouts could result if releases from dams are altered to benefit fish rather than maximize power production. Up until now the Hoopas' legal moves have been defensive, a four-year-long effort to defeat the Westlands lawsuit and clear the way for implementing Babbitt's decision. But last March they went on the offensive, in a carefully worded letter to the Bureau of Reclamation challenging the upcoming renewal of its water contracts to clients all along the CVP system, including Westlands. In essence, the formal challenge from Hoopa attorney Schlosser charges the bureau with failure to follow the 1992 CVP reforms that, the Hoopas maintain, place their needs on an equal footing with the water users to the south. Looked at another way, the Indians are asking the government to start making good on the promise made by Congressman Engle a half century ago. The lengthy letter, full of legal citations, is clearly meant to be taken as a threat to litigate. As such - with intense, high-level efforts currently underway to resolve the legal conflict over the Trinity - it can also be viewed as a bargaining chip, something to be withdrawn if Westlands should happen to withdraw its lawsuit. Representatives of the Hoopas and Westlands have met in two closed-door negotiating sessions with Sen. Feinstein in Washington and at another session in Redding with her staff. Also involved in the talks are two Westlands allies, the Northern California Power Association and the San Luis and Delta Mendota Water Authority, a consortium of Central Valley water users. Representatives from the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have also been included. That the Hoopas are going into these negotiations on an equal footing with the other parties, with serious bargaining power, is a step forward from the days of empty promises and dead-end studies. Whether they will emerge from these talks with the flows they believe are necessary for a healthy fishery is another matter. Chairman Marshall, while tight-lipped about the actual content of the negotiations, is clearly ready to cut a deal. "If we have assurances that \[ex-Secretary Babbitt's\] Record of Decision will go forward, then we have no further reason to challenge the water contracts. That issue becomes moot," he said. Commenting generally on the negotiations, he struck an upbeat note in a recent interview: "We're encouraged. We think there's ultimately going to be a solution." The Westlands folks are more guarded, issuing this statement through their spokesperson, Tupper Hall: "We look forward to arriving at a fair and equitable resolution that provides for the restoration that the Trinity River needs, at the same time protecting the needs of California water and power users." Westlands has for some time maintained that the river and its fishery can be restored by undertaking physical improvements in the watershed, such as sediment reduction projects, that don't involve increasing river flows. A previous effort to broker a deal by the Interior Department's Bennett Raley, assistant secretary for water and science, fell through earlier this year. Raley's compromise proposal was rejected by the Hoopas because they felt it tilted too far in favor of the farmers. Under Raley's proposal, Trinity flows would have been brought up to sustainable levels only in wet years, meaning that any resulting gains in the fishery would be jeopardized in dry and normal years. There is a slender thread of tradition running through the Hoopa Valley, connecting members of the 10,000-year-old tribe. They are a stubborn, tenacious people, proud of their history, having successfully resisted all attempts by the government in the 19th century to remove them from their homeland. In the 20th century they helped lead Native American efforts to bring self-government to the reservations, ultimately wresting control from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. But now there aren't many Hoopa elders left. Speakers of the native language, and those who practice tribal crafts and traditions, have dwindled along with the fish. The thread of Hoopa tradition is still present in the valley, but it is as slender as the easily tangled lines on the gill nets of Mike Orcutt, 46, who oversees the Hoopa tribe's efforts to restore its fishery. One afternoon I watched a young Hoopa man struggle with the nets as Orcutt directed him from the wheel of his boat. Billy Matilton, 21, is a student at nearby Humboldt State College, and he'll be working this summer for Orcutt. But on this occasion he and Matilton are not out on the river on any official business; they're just checking to see what's been caught in Orcutt's nets. After a couple of hours of hauling in line, Matilton has tossed seven chinook into the boat. It is hard, sometimes frustrating work, dragging the fish in and frequently having to unsnarl them from the netting, but Matilton makes no complaints and seems inured to it. For someone majoring in fisheries management, a young man who plans to stay on the reservation after graduating and to make a career managing the river's fishery, it's all part of his apprenticeship, and a hands-on connection with a tradition that goes back thousands of years. Injun Billy has grown old and discouraged watching the decline of his boyhood river and its fish. Orcutt, of the next generation, has seen the river's levels go from a relative trickle to almost half its pre-dam flows this year, thanks to the judges' decree. In his 20 years with the Hoopa fisheries, he's seen that effort grow from a department with 12 employees to four times that number. "At least we're moving in the right direction," he says with guarded optimism. Because of their remote location, the Hoopas haven't been able to cash in on casino gambling. Instead, they're betting their future on the natural resources of their valley. For all but 40 of the last 10,000 years their river and its fishery have supported them, and they stubbornly hold on to the belief that it will do so once again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Writer --------------------------- Tim Holt, author of "Songs of the Simple Life," will make "A Case for the Simple Life" in a free talk next Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op in Sacramento. He can be reached at (530) 235-4034. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 5-0620crops01.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 10883 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 34303432633832393430623066313530?_RM_EMPTY_ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Jun 21 11:53:02 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:53:02 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Management Council Agenda June 29-30 Message-ID: <014d01c457c0$fd604a60$43b070d1@V51NH> TRINITY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL Draft Agenda: Tuesday - Wednesday, June 29-30, 2004 Trinity County Library, Weaverville, CA Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Time Topic and Purpose Discussion Leader Regular Business: 9:00 Introduction: Validation of agenda items; Mike Ryan, Chair Approval of 4/14/04 and 4/28/04 TMC minutes 9:15 Open Forum: Comments from the public Mike Ryan 9:30 Report from TMC Chair: Mike Ryan 9:45 Report from TAMWG Chair: Arnold Whitridge 10:00 Report from Executive Director: Project updates; Doug Schleusner Items of interest; program status; Q&A 10:15 Break Working Session: 10:30 TMC Subcommittee Report TMC Members Doug Schleusner 12:00 Lunch 1:00 TMC Subcommittee Report TMC Members Doug Schleusner 2.45 Break 3:00 TMC Subcommittee Report TMC Members Doug Schleusner 4:00 Summarize Action Items Mike Ryan 4:30 Adjourn for the day Mike Ryan Tuesday, June 29, 2004 Time Topic and Purpose Discussion Leader 8:00 Reconvene Mike Ryan Presentation: 8:15 FY05 Program of Work and Draft Budget Doug Schleusner 10:15 Break Working Session: 10:30 FY05 Program of Work and Draft Budget TMC Members Doug Schleusner 12:00 Lunch Working Session: 1:00 FY05 Program of Work and Draft Budget TMC Members Doug Schleusner 2.30 Break 2:45 Summarize Budget Action Items Mike Ryan Regular Business: 3:15 Open Forum: Comments from the public Mike Ryan 3:30 Calendars: Confirm next meeting date and location Mike Ryan (Tentatively September __ at Weaverville) 3:45 Adjourn Mike Ryan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Jun 22 10:34:34 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 10:34:34 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard-Thriving parasites may threaten salmon more than ever Message-ID: <00f301c4587f$37b339c0$30b070d1@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2225871,00.html What's killing Klamath's fish? Thriving parasites may threaten salmon more than ever By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Populations of salmon-killing parasites on the Klamath River appear to be growing in recent years, and scientists are trying to get a grip on why the problem is becoming so severe. In the past five weeks, biologists have been sampling juvenile chinook salmon and finding many of them infected with one or two parasites. One hits the fishes' digestive tract, the other their kidneys. While some suspect low flows and warm, poor-quality water are making the fish more susceptible to the parasites, scientists are just beginning to understand the scope of the problem. Some say the Klamath River is a system so out of whack that the parasites have begun to flourish in ways not common in parasite-host relationships. U.S. Fish and Wildlife pathologist Scott Foott said it appears the high rate of infection this year is a result of an exceedingly high dose of the parasites. The first parasite is Ceratomyxa shasta, which has been known to infect between 12 and 40 percent of juvenile salmon in recent years. The other is Parvicapsula minibicornis -- which has in the past been found in nearly all juvenile salmon. This year, some 63 percent of the little fish are thought to be affected so far. Foott could not say whether the die-off compares to the 2000 juvenile fish kill, when an estimated 200,000 succumbed to the diseases. C. shasta's intermediate host is a freshwater worm, and a similar host may hold P. minibicornis, though pathologists aren't sure. While both crop up along the length of the river, the problem appears most acute in the area just below the Klamath's lowermost dam, Iron Gate. "We're thinking that the hot spot for infection is probably in the upper reaches," Foott said. Foott said he doesn't know why. But he said some have suggested that the Klamath's flows are crimped by irrigation and hydropower at critical times of the year. Winter and spring flows may have previously scoured many of the intermediate hosts from the river, the hypothesis goes. A graph of the river's historic flows -- still a disputed topic -- generated from information by the National Marine Fisheries Service, shows a bell-shaped curve. After the dams were built on the Klamath, the graph shows more water coming down in late fall and winter, only to be cut back in the spring when water for the federal government's upstream Klamath Irrigation Project is stored. Foott said scientists may have missed a chance to study how big winter and spring flows affect the abundance of the parasites in 1997 and 1998, an el Ni?o year that dumped huge amounts of rain and snow in the watershed. Just two years later, though, more than 200,000 infected juvenile salmon died in the river. Portland, Ore.,-based PacifiCorps' hydropower dams also alter the river's flow regime. The reservoirs behind the dams also act to enrich nutrients and warm the already poor-quality river water let loose from Upper Klamath Lake. That sparks algae blooms that turns the water alkaline and drops the amount of dissolved oxygen in the lakes, according to research done by the Klamath Basin Tribal Water Quality Work Group. Salmon get stressed in such conditions, making them vulnerable to diseases. California and Oregon water quality officials have said the conditions are unacceptable. In contrast, the disease rate in Klamath tributaries like the far-cleaner Salmon and Trinity rivers are markedly lower. PacifiCorps six dams now in the federal relicensing process, and lower river proponents are pushing for a major investigation of the facilities' effects on water quality. 'Serious problem' This year was declared a dry year by the Reclamation Bureau. That was a change from the initial "below average" forecast, which would have allowed more water down the river. Through a multimillion-dollar water bank, Reclamation is supplementing the flows this spring. Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said there is another 10,000 acre feet -- 3.25 billion gallons -- available should state and federal wildlife agencies request it. He said the bureau hasn't heard anything from the agencies to date. The California Department of Fish and Game is still mulling over whether to use the water. While flows were cut back on Tuesday, and water temperatures are climbing, Fish and Game Fisheries Program Manager Gary Stacey said the relatively small amount of water might not do any good. "There's not a whole heck of a lot of water to go around," Stacey said. If water temperatures climb high enough to force the several million young fish in the system to crowd into the cooler mouths of tributaries, Stacey said, things could get worse. Temperatures above 70 degrees can cause the parasites to multiply rapidly, especially in crowded conditions, putting heat-stressed fish at even worse risk. Water temperatures at Klamath Glen hit 68 degrees on Friday. Fishermen are concerned that strung together, the 2000 fish kill, the 2002 adult fish kill that claimed 34,000 salmon, a spring die-off this year and another potential adult fish kill this fall could put the brakes on commercial, sport and tribal harvest. The 2002 fish kill was caused by a protozoan infection commonly called ich and a bacterial infection called columnaris. Fish and Wildlife found that low, warm water held up migration of the fish in the lower river, leaving them prone to infection. "There's a serious problem in that basin," said Eureka commercial fisherman Dave Bitts. "The signs are not good." He said Reclamation is ignoring a key element: That its operations are set up to prevent harm to threatened coho salmon, not chinook, which spend more time in the main channel of the river. The National Research Council, in its report on the Klamath, held the same view. As biologists try to piece together the disease complex, they are also faced with the reality of inconsistent funding. Foott said scientists need to figure out why C. shasta, for example, isn't found in Klamath tributaries even though its spores are released after spawning fish die. "It's not a well-funded effort at all," he said. Reclamation may be beginning to feel the importance of the issue. McCracken said the bureau is exploring the possibility of further funding state, federal and tribal efforts to monitor the problem. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Jun 22 10:33:42 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 10:33:42 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] John Driscoll Eureka Times Standard on Klamath Fish Parasite Message-ID: <200406221733.i5MHXvnd011627@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> What's killing Klamath's fish? Thriving parasites may threaten salmon more than ever By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Monday, June 21, 2004 - Populations of salmon-killing parasites on the Klamath River appear to be growing in recent years, and scientists are trying to get a grip on why the problem is becoming so severe. In the past five weeks, biologists have been sampling juvenile chinook salmon and finding many of them infected with one or two parasites. One hits the fishes' digestive tract, the other their kidneys. While some suspect low flows and warm, poor-quality water are making the fish more susceptible to the parasites, scientists are just beginning to understand the scope of the problem. Some say the Klamath River is a system so out of whack that the parasites have begun to flourish in ways not common in parasite-host relationships. U.S. Fish and Wildlife pathologist Scott Foott said it appears the high rate of infection this year is a result of an exceedingly high dose of the parasites. The first parasite is Ceratomyxa shasta, which has been known to infect between 12 and 40 percent of juvenile salmon in recent years. The other is Parvicapsula minibicornis -- which has in the past been found in nearly all juvenile salmon. This year, some 63 percent of the little fish are thought to be affected so far. Foott could not say whether the die-off compares to the 2000 juvenile fish kill, when an estimated 200,000 succumbed to the diseases. C. shasta's intermediate host is a freshwater worm, and a similar host may hold P. minibicornis, though pathologists aren't sure. While both crop up along the length of the river, the problem appears most acute in the area just below the Klamath's lowermost dam, Iron Gate. "We're thinking that the hot spot for infection is probably in the upper reaches," Foott said. Foott said he doesn't know why. But he said some have suggested that the Klamath's flows are crimped by irrigation and hydropower at critical times of the year. Winter and spring flows may have previously scoured many of the intermediate hosts from the river, the hypothesis goes. A graph of the river's historic flows -- still a disputed topic -- generated from information by the National Marine Fisheries Service, shows a bell-shaped curve. After the dams were built on the Klamath, the graph shows more water coming down in late fall and winter, only to be cut back in the spring when water for the federal government's upstream Klamath Irrigation Project is stored. Foott said scientists may have missed a chance to study how big winter and spring flows affect the abundance of the parasites in 1997 and 1998, an el Ni?o year that dumped huge amounts of rain and snow in the watershed. Just two years later, though, more than 200,000 infected juvenile salmon died in the river. Portland, Ore.,-based PacifiCorps' hydropower dams also alter the river's flow regime. The reservoirs behind the dams also act to enrich nutrients and warm the already poor-quality river water let loose from Upper Klamath Lake. That sparks algae blooms that turns the water alkaline and drops the amount of dissolved oxygen in the lakes, according to research done by the Klamath Basin Tribal Water Quality Work Group. Salmon get stressed in such conditions, making them vulnerable to diseases. California and Oregon water quality officials have said the conditions are unacceptable. In contrast, the disease rate in Klamath tributaries like the far-cleaner Salmon and Trinity rivers are markedly lower. PacifiCorps six dams now in the federal relicensing process, and lower river proponents are pushing for a major investigation of the facilities' effects on water quality. 'Serious problem' This year was declared a dry year by the Reclamation Bureau. That was a change from the initial "below average" forecast, which would have allowed more water down the river. Through a multimillion-dollar water bank, Reclamation is supplementing the flows this spring. Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said there is another 10,000 acre feet -- 3.25 billion gallons -- available should state and federal wildlife agencies request it. He said the bureau hasn't heard anything from the agencies to date. The California Department of Fish and Game is still mulling over whether to use the water. While flows were cut back on Tuesday, and water temperatures are climbing, Fish and Game Fisheries Program Manager Gary Stacey said the relatively small amount of water might not do any good. "There's not a whole heck of a lot of water to go around," Stacey said. If water temperatures climb high enough to force the several million young fish in the system to crowd into the cooler mouths of tributaries, Stacey said, things could get worse. Temperatures above 70 degrees can cause the parasites to multiply rapidly, especially in crowded conditions, putting heat-stressed fish at even worse risk. Water temperatures at Klamath Glen hit 68 degrees on Friday. Fishermen are concerned that strung together, the 2000 fish kill, the 2002 adult fish kill that claimed 34,000 salmon, a spring die-off this year and another potential adult fish kill this fall could put the brakes on commercial, sport and tribal harvest. The 2002 fish kill was caused by a protozoan infection commonly called ich and a bacterial infection called columnaris. Fish and Wildlife found that low, warm water held up migration of the fish in the lower river, leaving them prone to infection. "There's a serious problem in that basin," said Eureka commercial fisherman Dave Bitts. "The signs are not good." He said Reclamation is ignoring a key element: That its operations are set up to prevent harm to threatened coho salmon, not chinook, which spend more time in the main channel of the river. The National Research Council, in its report on the Klamath, held the same view. As biologists try to piece together the disease complex, they are also faced with the reality of inconsistent funding. Foott said scientists need to figure out why C. shasta, for example, isn't found in Klamath tributaries even though its spores are released after spawning fish die. "It's not a well-funded effort at all," he said. Reclamation may be beginning to feel the importance of the issue. McCracken said the bureau is exploring the possibility of further funding state, federal and tribal efforts to monitor the problem. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Jun 23 11:50:34 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 11:50:34 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Herald June 23 Klamath Dams Message-ID: <200406231850.i5NIond0024459@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> DAM OPERATIONS / KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Klamath people tell feds dams must go Eureka Times-Standard - 6/23/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer The time is now to consider bringing down dams on the Klamath River and breath life back into its fishery, dozens of speakers told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Tuesday. More than 200 people packed a large hotel conference room, all adamant that Portland, Ore.,-based PacifiCorp properly weigh its effects on the river. Most at the public hearing insisted the small amount of electricity produced by the facilities doesn't match the benefits restored salmon fisheries would have. "This is wrong, and this is a chance to right that wrong," said Yurok Tribal Chairman Howard McConnell. PacifiCorp, a division of Scottish Power, is seeking a 50-year license for Iron Gate, Copco I and Copco II, J.C. Boyle, Keno and Link River dams. All told, the dams generate 150 megawatts of electricity -- enough to supply 70,000 homes. McConnell pointed out that despite the dams, many on the Yurok Reservation are without power. He said PacifiCorp has failed to do the most basic studies on the dams' impacts to the river and its people. The license for the dams expires in 2006. FERC will determine the range of issues PacifiCorp must analyze. The agency said it hopes to have a draft environmental impact statement done in July 2005. The lowermost dam, Iron Gate, stops salmon from reaching historic spawning grounds in the upper river. Despite protest from American Indian tribes and fishermen, PacifiCorp has opted not to consider building fish ladders, opting only to look at trucking fish around the dams. The company has also resisted the idea of removing any of the dams, though lower river advocates, the National Research Council, and the California Energy Commission, among other groups, have encouraged such an evaluation. Nancy Stark, aid to California Assemblywoman Patty Berg, D-Eureka, read a statement asking FERC to demand an analysis of decommissioning all the dams. PacifiCorp has proposed plans to improve whitewater rafting, fishing and recreation at its facilities, and said it's open to exploring oxygenating water in the often fetid Iron Gate Reservoir. Yurok elder Richard Myers told the commission staff that the fish in the Klamath can't afford another 50 years of dams. The past few years, which have seen major die-offs of both adult and juvenile fish, have been troubling, he said. "We need to pray and make these men change their minds," Myers said, urging PacifiCorp to remove its dams. A number of speakers talked about the devastating impacts the dams and other problems on the Klamath have had on North Coast communities. The commercial salmon fishery in Northern California and Southern Oregon is all but closed in an effort to protect the Klamath's ailing stocks. Eureka commercial fisher Marge Salo said FERC shouldn't need an 80-pound document to "do the right thing." Salo said coastal communities are dying, while her boat is tied up. "I resent it," she said. "I really do." By deadline, dozens more still had not addressed the commission staff. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Jun 23 11:52:17 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 11:52:17 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard June 23 Klamath Rally Message-ID: <200406231852.i5NIqbd0024746@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> Tribes, fishermen rally for Klamath salmon Eureka Times-Standard - 6/23/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer About 100 American Indians, fishermen and environmentalists lined U.S. Highway 101 here with a message to federal regulators: Tear down the Klamath River dams. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is weighing Portland, Ore.,-based PacifiCorp's request for a 50-year license for six dams. The commission scheduled the public hearing at the Red Lion Inn after hundreds wrote in to complain that its other four meetings were all held inland -- far from the North Coast, which is most affected by the hydropower project. Protesters said the Scottish Power subsidiary's dams block salmon from reaching historic spawning grounds, and its reservoirs heat and foul water that is sent to the remaining fish runs on the lower river. That has in large part devastated a legendary fishery for Indians and commercial and sport fishermen, they said. Robley Schwenk, a Yurok Indian born on the lower Klamath in 1936, said he's watched as runs of salmon, lamprey, candlefish and sturgeon have plummeted. "There used to be a multitude of tourists and fish," Schwenk said. But PacifiCorp has ignored the idea of removing the dams, or even building fish ladders to pass salmon above the dams, he said. The National Research Council and the California Energy Commission have also called for an analysis of decommissioning at least one of the dams. Drivers in rush-hour traffic honked their horns in support of the protesters, who carried signs that said, "Save our Salmon" and, "Corporations swim in money, fish in water." Yurok tribal member Glenn Scott said he hopes to raise public awareness to the Klamath's problems. Massive fish kills, like the one in 2002, and the hundreds of thousands of young fish dying of diseases in recent years point to a troubled system, Scott said. "Fish can't afford to wait for better water," Scott said. Some said they've seen their livelihoods evaporate with increasing fishing restrictions meant to protect Klamath salmon. The Klamath's struggling salmon influence quotas and seasons from Oregon to San Francisco, driving hundreds from the industry in the past 20 years. Former commercial salmon fisherman and lower river fishing guide Craig Bell said there's no time to wait for action on FERC's part. Bell called for immediate interim measures to improve river conditions followed by a quick, complete analysis of the dams' effects. "We want some action fairly rapidly," Bell said. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sun Jun 27 05:53:20 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 05:53:20 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Salmon parasite still spreading questions Message-ID: <000201c45d33$d1408bc0$1c6b3940@V51NH> Please note that for all the money spent on downstream migrant smolt traps, the biologists still don't know how many smolts are moving downstream. We keep hearing that counting outmigrating smolts is the best measure of success of restoration efforts, but I don't see that the technology is there to do it and I'm not sure it ever will be. TS http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/06/24/news/top_stories/top4.txt Salmon parasite still spreading questions Thursday, June 24, 2004 4:08 PM PDT Published June 24, 2004 By DYLAN DARLING Scientists scoured 87 miles of the Klamath River last week for salmon fingerlings killed by a microscopic parasite. What they found was both unsettling, and uncertain. "Anyone on the river will tell you that there are fish dying every day," said Ron Reed, biologist for the Karuk Indian Tribe. Ceratomyxa shasta, or C shasta, has killed high percentages of salmon fingerlings found in traps along the river since early May, but it's hard to figure out how those numbers relate to the amount of fish that survived in the river, and to what is normal, officials said. Presence of the parasite raises concern for the 5 million salmon fingerlings released from the Iron Gate fish hatchery from late may to early June. Reports show 269 dead salmon fingerlings have been recovered from the Klamath River. But biologists say there's no way to extrapolate what percentage of the fish in the entire river system may have succumbed to the parasite. "Because this is the first year of this kind of survey it is hard to say if it is worse this year or different," said John Engbring, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's California and Nevada Operations office in Sacramento. Divers observed that C shasta has made its way downriver, affecting clumps of fingerlings in the lower part of the river's middle reach. The survey data were released at a meeting of the Klamath Fisheries Task Force, a group of federal and state officials, tribes and stakeholders that has meet three times a year since 1986. The meeting, being held in Klamath Falls at the Shilo Inn, started Wednesday and ends today. The C shasta parasite is common to main stem of the Klamath River, from the Pacific Ocean to the Williamson River. But there is no data on how many salmon it affects per year. "I don't think any of us know how this would compare to other years," Engbring said. "This is really a baseline." The parasite spends part of its life inside tiny, 3-millimeter long worms that float in the river's water, and the other part inside salmonid fish, which include, salmon, steelhead and trout. While inside the fish, the parasites eat away at the intestines, multiplying and causing a lethal infection. Fish with C shasta usually die. "Once they get it, they are the living dead," Manji said. Although the percentage of fish being found dead from C shasta in the four traps along the stretch of river is high - up to 95 percent - the number of fish caught in the traps is relatively low, said Neil Manji, fisheries biologist for California Department of Fish and Game. "You don't even know how many fish have gone by," he said. So trying to figure out how many fish are affected becomes a percentage game, he said. To try to get a better idea of how the parasite is affecting fish in the river, scientists blitzed the river last Thursday and Friday. Fourteen scientists from federal and state agencies, as well as American Indian tribes and private groups, fanned out from Happy Camp. Using kayaks, jet boats and rafts, as well as snorkels and underwater video cameras, they looked for signs of a fish dieoff on the stretch of river between Klamath and Big Bar. Along with C shasta, another parasite called parvicapsula, which attacks a fish's kidneys, has been found in Klamath River salmon. Manji said the parasite is similar to C shasta, and often fish get affected by both, so it is hard to tell which of the parasites caused a fish's death. The parasites have been infecting this year's hatch, which emerged from spawning beds, in and out of the Iron Gate hatchery, in December and January, which are now about the size of a human's pinky finger. People along the river are not the only ones concerned about the parasites. Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association, said Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators are worried that blame for the spread of the parasite could be put on the Project if "catastrophe theorists go wild." He said more research need to be done about the parasites. "We need to know how this relates to past years," Keppen said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sun Jun 27 06:01:59 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 06:01:59 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times-Standard -Editorial: Who gets the cost and who gets the benefit of Klamath dams? Message-ID: <000301c45d33$d64b7080$1c6b3940@V51NH> KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Editorial: Who gets the cost and who gets the benefit of Klamath dams? Eureka Times-Standard - 6/25/04 It's no surprise that hundreds showed up to tell the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that the dams on the Klamath are still hurting lower river communities. The good thing is, they were able to make it, after the Northcoast Environmental Center and others led a petitioned FERC to schedule a meeting in the most affected part of the watershed, instead of just listening to a few folks far inland. FERC must now weigh what issues need to be analyzed by dam owner PacifiCorp, out of Portland, Ore. There are a host of problems, and it will be no small task to look into them. But it seems incredible that the project would even be eligible for another 50-year license. It produces a marginal amount of electricity that the California Energy Commission says will be dwarfed by power plants soon to come on line in the region. PacifiCorp says the facility helps with peaking and flood control, too. The costs of the dams, though, are staggering, and they fall mostly on others beside PacifiCorp. They block hundreds of miles of spawning grounds in a river whose salmon runs are struggling. The reservoirs have profound effects on water quality, generating algae blooms which later suck oxygen from the water that goes downstream to fish. Candlefish, lampreys, and sturgeon barely manage to hang on. Tribal, commercial and sport fishermen lose, as do the economies the Klamath's once-heavy fish runs supported. Perhaps more alarming is that while PacifiCorp profits on the electricity generated by the dams, many American Indians on the Yurok reservation are still without power. That arrangement is unconscionable. Dam removal is complicated and expensive, but it needs to be an option. FERC must demand that PacifiCorp consider it an option. PacifiCorp's parent company, ScottishPower, touts its environmental record while proceeding to ignore perhaps the most practical element of its license application: Dam decommissioning. There is no doubt. The North Coast cannot afford to live under the shadow of these dams for another 50 years without at least being able to weigh its options. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Jul 1 16:53:01 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 16:53:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] OCAP Disaster in Full Bloom Message-ID: <200407012353.i61NrHEF002342@velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us> This disaster is available online, or by compact disc. Byron Mid-Pacific Region Sacramento, CA MP-04-049 Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken 916-978-5100 jmccracken at mp.usbr.gov For Release On: July 1, 2004 Central Valley Project Operations Criteria and Plan and Biological Assessment Available The Bureau of Reclamation has made available the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) and the related Biological Assessment (BA). The OCAP has been prepared to serve as a baseline description of the facilities and operating environment of the divisions of the Central Valley Project (CVP). The OCAP identifies many factors influencing the decision-making process and physical and institutional conditions under which the CVP currently operates. Regulatory and legal requirements are explained, and alternative operating models and strategies are described in the OCAP. In addition, Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) have entered into formal Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultation on coordinated CVP and State Water Project operations. The present version of the BA was transmitted to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and NOAA Fisheries. Reclamation and DWR have been working closely with FWS and NOAA Fisheries over several months developing and refining the BA. It is anticipated that FWS and NOAA Fisheries will complete Biological Opinions pursuant to ESA by the end of July 2004. DWR will work with the California Department of Fish and Game to complete necessary compliance pursuant to the California ESA. The OCAP and BA are available online at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/ocapba.html for informational purposes. For additional information, please contact Ms. Ann Lubas-Williams at 916-979-2068, TDD 916-979-2183, or e-mail alubaswilliams at mp.usbr.gov. To request a compact disk, please contact Ms. Sammie Cervantes at 916-978-5104, TDD 916-978-5608, or e-mail scervantes at mp.usbr.gov. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Jul 2 08:45:46 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 11:45:46 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] Oregonian, feds can't meet tribal requests; capital press- Restoration of 40 Trinity River sites Message-ID: <179640-22004752154546507@M2W085.mail2web.com> http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/10887699041474 20.xml Feds reply water can't meet tribal requests Native Americans on the Klamath River asked for extra releases to flush fish past parasite infestations Friday, July 02, 2004 MICHAEL MILSTEIN Federal water managers said there is not enough water in the Klamath Basin to release extra for diseased fish in the Klamath River as tribes downstream had requested. Upwards of 80 percent of young salmon collected in some parts of the river this year have been infected with often lethal parasites, said Gary Stacey of the California Department of Fish and Game. The parasites are native to the river system, but the outbreak this year seems severe, he said. He said low and warm water in what has become the latest of a series of dry years may be stressing fish, leaving them more vulnerable to disease. However, Al Donner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the die-off started in early May when water was clean, cool and more plentiful. "There's probably other stuff going on, too," Donner said. Managers of the federal Klamath Project, which supplies water to farmers on the Oregon-California line, control much of the water flowing into the Klamath River. They must maintain certain water levels in Upper Klamath Lake for endangered suckers while sending prescribed amounts into the river for threatened coho salmon. But increasingly dry conditions have left little extra water. It's an example of continuing tensions about the distribution of water among farms, wildlife and Native American tribes that depend on salmon. Protections for fish during a severe drought in 2001 meant that little water was left for farms. Tribes, working with state and federal biologists, asked project managers on Wednesday to send a surge of extra water down the river in hopes of pushing fish through diseased areas before they are infected. But U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials concluded there was not enough water to meet the request, said Christine Karas, deputy area manager. Releasing the water would have lowered Upper Klamath Lake below levels required by the Endangered Species Act, she said. "Everybody feels very bad about it," she said. "If we had the water, we would have tried it." Karas said officials would try to allow extra water for such a contingency in next year's planning. Mike Orcutt of the Hoopa Valley tribe said biologists did not know whether the extra surge of water would have helped the fish, but they thought it was important to try. The tribe remains concerned about a repeat of fish die-offs that have struck young and adult salmon in past years. Biologists have focused more study on the parasites and their effects this year, Donner said. Michael Milstein: 503-294-7689; michaelmilstein at news.oregonian.com http://www.capitalpress.info/Main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=792&ArticleI D=10662 Friday, July 02, 2004 Restoration of 40 Trinity River sites in the works By TAM MOORE Oregon Staff Writer cappress at charter.net KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. ? Yet another try at fixing fish habitat on the water-starved Trinity River begins this fall. This time around, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will let the powerful river do some of the work. Doug Schleusner, executive director of the BuRec Trinity Restoration Program, last week told the Klamath Fisheries Management Task Force that by 2007 over half of 40 separate bank restoration projects should be complete. ?Then, we are going to stop and see how it works,? said Schleusner. Adjustments in engineering, based on actual fish utilization of expanded spawning areas, will be made before the final sites are tackled. ?Our goal is to double the available spawning habitat,? Schleusner said. The Trinity, the largest tributary of the Klamath River, had most of its flow stored and diverted to bolster irrigation in BuRec?s Central Valley Project. Westlands Irrigation District, west of Fresno, is the primary user of Trinity water. Maximum flows for several decades amounted to 340,000 acre feet a year. Under the new plan, if it gets court approval in December, up to 647,000 acre feet a year could go downstream. Previous attempts to restore salmon and steelhead spawning habitat failed as bank-side willow growth re-established channels handling just a fraction of historic flows. The new project is coupled with increased Trinity flows specified in a 2001 Environmental Impact Statement that is still under revision as a result of lawsuits brought by Westlands, hydroelectric power generation agencies and others impacted by smaller diversions. Schleusner said the multi-year lead-up to this fall?s pilot restoration project is caused by the need to raise most Trinity River bridges so they can accept flows that mimic natural storm events. Until the bridge contracts are complete this summer, the maximum discharge from Lewiston Dam is 6,000 cubic feet per second. Under the EIS, flows up to 11,000 cfs would go downstream in extremely wet years. Schleusner said the extra water is expected to carve out new channels across gravel bars, creating acres and acres of spawning gravel. The demonstration project will be at Hocker Flat near Weaverville, involving land under three ownerships. Four other sites west of Weaverville are under engineering design this summer. The target is to complete 25 sites by the 2007. Trinity County and the Hoopa and Yurok American Indian tribes are doing major work on the supplemental environmental impact statement. It?s out for public comment this summer. Orville Wanger, the federal judge supervising the Trinity lawsuit, set a Dec. 23 deadline for filing the completed EIS with his court. Tam Moore is based in Medford, Ore. His e-mail address is cappress at charter.net. -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Fri Jul 2 10:15:42 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 10:15:42 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fwd: Lewiston Dam - Trinity River Release Message-ID: FYI - Release schedule for Lewiston Dam. __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ >>> Tom Morstein-Marx 07/02/04 09:28AM >>> Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From (CFS) To (CFS) 7/09/04 2000 2000 1900 7/10/04 0000 1900 1800 7/10/04 0400 1800 1700 7/10/04 2200 1700 1600 7/11/04 0200 1600 1500 7/11/04 2200 1500 1400 7/12/04 0200 1400 1350 7/12/04 2200 1350 1250 7/13/04 0200 1250 1200 7/13/04 2200 1200 1100 7/14/04 0200 1100 1050 7/15/04 0000 1050 950 7/16/04 0000 950 850 7/17/04 0000 850 750 7/18/04 0000 750 675 7/19/04 0000 675 600 7/20/04 0000 600 550 7/21/04 0000 550 500 7/22/04 0000 500 450 From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri Jul 2 10:46:16 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2004 10:46:16 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] My Latest Article: Tribes to Take Klamath River Battle to Scotland Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 7 07:49:01 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 07:49:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Herald and News- BuRec: No water to spare for Klamath fish Message-ID: <004301c46431$8c863fc0$416b3940@V51NH> Please note that the flows in August 2004 in the Klamath are projected to be as low as August 2002, just prior to the massive adult salmon (and other species) fish kill on the lower Klamath River. It was disclosed by Mike Ryan of BOR at a recent Trinity Management Council Meeting that Reclamation has found 13,000 af carried over from the 50,000 af of water ordered released by Judge Wanger in 2003, and an additional amount of water will be purchased from Sacramento Valley Water Right Contractors to "back up" into Trinity for release when needed to help the Lower Klamath later this summer and fall. Thus it proves again that water does flow uphill towards money. I do appreciate Mike Ryan getting the additional water from last year to help prevent a fish kill this year. There's probably a good chance that another massive fish kill can be prevented this year, despite the record low flows on the Klamath River. I will refrain from comment here on what I think of "renting" water for protection of public trust and tribal trust assets, but what happens if/when the money runs out? Yours truly, Tom Stokely Principal Planner Trinity Co. Natural Resources 530-628-5949 http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/07/06/news/top_stories/top3.txt Klamath Herald and News Bureau: No water to spare for fish Tuesday, July 6, 2004 2:15 PM PDT Published July 4, 2004 By DYLAN DARLING The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has nixed a proposal to send a big glug of water down the Klamath River to flush salmon out to sea. Too little water is flowing into Upper Klamath Lake, and most of the fish are already down the river, officials said. "We just don't have enough water to make it effective," said Cecil Lesley, chief of land and water operations for the Klamath Reclamation Project. In early June, downstream tribes and other groups at a science conference in Arcata asked for a one- or two-day "pulse" of water from Iron Gate Dam in Siskiyou County. They wanted to send lingering smolts down the river, out to sea and beyond danger from a parasitic disease. Concern about a fish die-off among the groups has been high because of the disease found in many young salmon caught in traps. The pulse would have used up 8,200 acre-feet of water in a day, said Christine Karas, deputy Project manager. "It's very unfortunate that we weren't able to do it," Karas said. Many questions remain about the parasite and how many fish might have been affected. Although high percentages of the sampled fish showed signs the disease, officials said there's no base-line data on how many fish usually get the parasite and it could be the disease is getting more notice because more attention is being paid to the fish. Although there is still concern about the parasite, Lesley said, an estimated 80 percent of the young salmon have made it out to the Pacific Ocean. "The bulk of the fish have moved downstream," Lesley said. During July, few fish will be in the river, so the Bureau plans to lower flows to their lowest levels of the year, with 700 cubic feet per second set for the first half and 600 cfs for the second half of the month. The flows will be the lowest since August 2002. Meanwhile, the Bureau has activated a contingency plan to fill the vault of its water bank, the water saved that allows more water to go down the river. Starting last Friday, the Bureau started an additional 450 cfs of ground water pumping from three wells around the Basin. Pumped ground water is used to supplement irrigation water or add to the flows in irrigation canals. With the addition, ground water will now make up half of the 75,000 acre-feet projected for the 2004 water bank. The rest of the water bank is made up by idling farmland, with water users paid to let fields lie fallow. So far, water managers have deposited 45,000 acre-feet in the bank, leaving 30,000 for the rest of the year. Lesley said it's easier for the the Bureau to use ground water because it can be turned on and off and the amount of water can be easily calculated. "It's a lot easier to control pumping than to control idling," Lesley said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 7 16:24:32 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 7 Jul 2004 16:24:32 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Postponement of Trinity Co. Public Hearing on Trinity River Fishery SEIR Message-ID: <01b101c46479$909dd620$506c3940@V51NH> The public hearing advertised for July 8, 2004, 7 pm, at the Trinity County Library before the Trinity County Planning Commission to accept public comments on the public draft Trinity River Fishery Restoration Supplemental Environmental Impact Report is being postponed to a later date (TBA) in July. A revised public notice with the new time, date and location of the public hearing will be published in the appropriate newspapers and via e-mail as soon as a special meeting of the Planning Commission can be scheduled. The deadline for submitting written comments under CEQA remains July 27, 2004 to me at the address below. Comments submitted to Russell Smith of the Bureau of Reclamation under the National Environmental Policy Act deadline in June 2004 need not be resubmitted. They will already be considered by Trinity County, the California Environmental Quality Act lead agency. If you have any questions or complaints, please feel free to contact me at 530-628-5949. Sincerely, Tom Stokely, Principal Planner Trinity Co. Planning/Natural Resources PO Box 156 Hayfork, CA 96041 530-628-5949 FAX 628-5800 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Jul 7 21:06:37 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2004 21:06:37 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Four Klamath River Tribes Head to Scotland 7/17 Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Jul 9 15:17:45 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 15:17:45 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Tribes heading to Scotland to seek salmon passage over Klamath Dams Message-ID: <00a601c46602$92579e80$826b3940@V51NH> http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/07/09/special_reports/science_technology/19_22_447_8_04.txt Special Reports: Science & Technology Last modified Thursday, July 8, 2004 9:54 PM PDT Tribes heading to Scotland to seek salmon passage over Klamath Dams By: JEFF BARNARD - Associated Press GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Indian tribes, commercial fisherman and conservationists are going to Scotland to pressure PacifiCorp's parent company to give salmon a way over dams on the Klamath River. Representatives of the Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and Klamath tribes, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Friends of the River plan to make their case at the July 23 annual general stockholder's meeting of Scottish Power in Edinburgh, Scotland. "We think its important that they see and talk to a real live Yurok and other Indians of the Klamath river," said Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, whose reservation lies along the lowest reach of the Klamath. "They need to see that we're human beings. They need to see we have culture and traditions that have been here since the beginning of time. And they need to see that their actions have very real impact on our people." The tribes, conservationists and fishing organizations met with PacifiCorp over the past two years discussing their desire to open 350 miles of habitat upstream of the dams to salmon. But when the utility sent its application for a new operating license to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last March, there was no proposal for restoring salmon passage. The coalition hopes to be able to get into the Scottish Power meeting as guests of stockholders and make their case to the company, said Craig Tucker of Friends of the River, a conservation group. They are also talking to investment groups that hold major blocks of Scottish Power stock. "Scottish power has an international reputation as a green energy provider," Tucker said. "I'm hoping that once they hear the story of what is happening on the Klamath directly, that they'll want to help." Glen Spain of the Pacific Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen, said it was important to educate the managers of Scottish Power about the cultural and economic harm their outdated dams were causing people in the Klamath Basin. Once the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, the Klamath River has produced only a fraction of its historic runs since the series of six dams was built was built between 1908 and 1962. To protect the Klamath's struggling salmon runs, federal fisheries managers have long cut back sport and commercial seasons off Northern California and southern Oregon. Though the dams only produce 151 megawatts, enough to power about 77,500 homes, PacifiCorp still considers them very valuable because they can be used to meet sudden demands for power, such as winter mornings when people turn on the furnaces in their homes. The utility has estimated building fish ladders to help spawning adults swim over dams and screens to keep young fish migrating downstream out of turbines would cost $100 million. It has said it would be more willing to consider hauling fish around the dams in trucks. PacifiCorp CEO Judi Johansen, who will attend the stockholders meeting, is willing to meet with the tribes beforehand to discuss a settlement process for license renewal, said spokesman Jon Coney. "The tribes are free to do this, but it's not really necessary, because we believe their best opportunity to air and resolve these issues surrounding the Klamath project is right here in the US," Coney said. "This is where the licensing process is taking place. We are nowhere near the end of this process and nowhere near the end of settlement discussions." Coney said Scottish Power takes "very seriously" the tribes' desire to restore salmon runs, as well as a $1 billion lawsuit the Klamath Tribes have filed against PacifiCorp for damages from the loss of salmon. Fletcher said none of the tribes along the river benefit from electricity produced by the dams, and all have been hurt by the loss of salmon, which are central to their culture. The fight over the dams comes on top of the long-standing fight over sharing scarce water between endangered suckers above the dams, threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River, and farms irrigated by the Klamath Reclamation Project, which was partially shut down during the 2001 drought to protect fish. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: empty.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From mjatty at inreach.com Fri Jul 9 16:11:22 2004 From: mjatty at inreach.com (Michael and Ruth Jackson) Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 16:11:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Tribes heading to Scotland to seek salmon passageover Klamath Dams References: <00a601c46602$92579e80$826b3940@V51NH> Message-ID: <000501c46612$9ac0fd40$f958fea9@home> Tom, This may take down a dam. What a great idea. Mike J. ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Stokely To: env-trinity Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 3:17 PM Subject: [env-trinity] Tribes heading to Scotland to seek salmon passageover Klamath Dams http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/07/09/special_reports/science_technolog y/19_22_447_8_04.txt Special Reports: Science & Technology Last modified Thursday, July 8, 2004 9:54 PM PDT Tribes heading to Scotland to seek salmon passage over Klamath Dams By: JEFF BARNARD - Associated Press GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- Indian tribes, commercial fisherman and conservationists are going to Scotland to pressure PacifiCorp's parent company to give salmon a way over dams on the Klamath River. Representatives of the Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and Klamath tribes, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Friends of the River plan to make their case at the July 23 annual general stockholder's meeting of Scottish Power in Edinburgh, Scotland. "We think its important that they see and talk to a real live Yurok and other Indians of the Klamath river," said Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, whose reservation lies along the lowest reach of the Klamath. "They need to see that we're human beings. They need to see we have culture and traditions that have been here since the beginning of time. And they need to see that their actions have very real impact on our people." The tribes, conservationists and fishing organizations met with PacifiCorp over the past two years discussing their desire to open 350 miles of habitat upstream of the dams to salmon. But when the utility sent its application for a new operating license to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last March, there was no proposal for restoring salmon passage. The coalition hopes to be able to get into the Scottish Power meeting as guests of stockholders and make their case to the company, said Craig Tucker of Friends of the River, a conservation group. They are also talking to investment groups that hold major blocks of Scottish Power stock. "Scottish power has an international reputation as a green energy provider," Tucker said. "I'm hoping that once they hear the story of what is happening on the Klamath directly, that they'll want to help." Glen Spain of the Pacific Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California commercial salmon fishermen, said it was important to educate the managers of Scottish Power about the cultural and economic harm their outdated dams were causing people in the Klamath Basin. Once the third-largest producer of salmon on the West Coast, the Klamath River has produced only a fraction of its historic runs since the series of six dams was built was built between 1908 and 1962. To protect the Klamath's struggling salmon runs, federal fisheries managers have long cut back sport and commercial seasons off Northern California and southern Oregon. Though the dams only produce 151 megawatts, enough to power about 77,500 homes, PacifiCorp still considers them very valuable because they can be used to meet sudden demands for power, such as winter mornings when people turn on the furnaces in their homes. The utility has estimated building fish ladders to help spawning adults swim over dams and screens to keep young fish migrating downstream out of turbines would cost $100 million. It has said it would be more willing to consider hauling fish around the dams in trucks. PacifiCorp CEO Judi Johansen, who will attend the stockholders meeting, is willing to meet with the tribes beforehand to discuss a settlement process for license renewal, said spokesman Jon Coney. "The tribes are free to do this, but it's not really necessary, because we believe their best opportunity to air and resolve these issues surrounding the Klamath project is right here in the US," Coney said. "This is where the licensing process is taking place. We are nowhere near the end of this process and nowhere near the end of settlement discussions." Coney said Scottish Power takes "very seriously" the tribes' desire to restore salmon runs, as well as a $1 billion lawsuit the Klamath Tribes have filed against PacifiCorp for damages from the loss of salmon. Fletcher said none of the tribes along the river benefit from electricity produced by the dams, and all have been hurt by the loss of salmon, which are central to their culture. The fight over the dams comes on top of the long-standing fight over sharing scarce water between endangered suckers above the dams, threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River, and farms irrigated by the Klamath Reclamation Project, which was partially shut down during the 2001 drought to protect fish. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > _______________________________________________ > env-trinity mailing list > env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org > http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity > From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Jul 13 11:02:44 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 11:02:44 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Wanger's Decision Message-ID: <20040713180251.28B432016287@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> The Ninth Circuit Court has reversed most of Judge Wanger's rulings. I'm getting the opinion soon, but I wanted to share this good news. I'll pass on more information when I receive it. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Jul 13 12:01:18 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 12:01:18 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Ninth Circuit Decision Message-ID: <20040713190633.E70752033070@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> If anyone wants a copy of the Ninth Circuit's decision overturning much of Judge Wanger's Trinity rulings, let me know. I'll send you a copy in pdf. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Jul 13 20:15:03 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2004 20:15:03 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Eureka Times-Standard -Court orders Trinity River flows restored Message-ID: <00eb01c46950$c2fbd280$556c3940@V51NH> Yahoo! http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2269464,00.html Court orders Trinity River flows restored By James Tressler The Times-Standard EUREKA -- In what's being called a major victory for North Coast tribes and fish advocates, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday stood by a 2000 plan to restore water to the Trinity River that's being diverted to the Sacramento Valley. The 9th Circuit overturned a lower court decision earlier this year that had ordered more environmental studies be done before the 2000 restoration plan is implemented. The appeals court ruled the existing studies in the plan were adequate. "Nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the (2000 Record of Decision), including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River," the court ruled. Tuesday's ruling is the latest in a battle over the Trinity River that has raged ever since water began being diverted to the Sacramento Valley in the 1960s. The ruling upholds a plan to restore the Trinity River ordered in 2000 by then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. North Coast tribes, local government leaders and fish advocates, who all see the restoration plan as key to repair the region's fisheries, have worked together to fight a lawsuit the Westlands Water District, San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority in the Central Valley have waged to stop the implementation of the restoration plan. "I got the phone call when I was in a meeting and I couldn't keep the smile off my face," said Hoopa Valley Tribe Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall. "It is a great day." Others who helped in the legal battle include Humboldt and Trinity county officials, fishermen's groups like CalTrout and the Yurok Tribe. "This is a gigantic leap forward," said Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith, a former commercial fisherman. "We were up against some of the most powerful forces in the Central Valley and it looks like perseverance has finally paid off." Smith and other leaders anticipate the Trinity's restoration will go a long way in rebuilding the fisheries in the Trinity and Klamath rivers. North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson also hailed the decision. "This is a great victory for the Hoopa Tribe and Northern California's coastal communities, whose economy and jobs have been decimated by declining fisheries," Thompson said, in a press release from Washington, D.C. Since the completion of the Lewiston and Trinity Dams on the Trinity River in 1963, up to 90 percent of the Trinity River water has been diverted to the Central Valley. The result has been the near destruction of the river's fishery. Salmon and steelhead populations are found in less than 10 percent of their historical range and most are either listed, proposed for listing or under status review for listing under the Endangered Species Act. The word from the Central Valley Tuesday was that officials there are evaluating the appeals court's decision. "We're looking at it very carefully and evaluating all our options," said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Westlands Water District. Hull characterized the court's decision as "mixed," meaning the court did uphold the lower court's decisions that at least two biological studies relied on in the 2000 plan were inadequate. Hull added that the district continues to be hopeful that a settlement can be reached. While he could not be specific on exactly how a loss in Trinity River water would impact Central Valley users, Hull did say the issue is complex and he hopes parties on all sides understand that Central Valley users will be affected. "Central Valley projects and facilities are enormously complex and interrelated systems," Hull said. "We recognize there is a need to address fisheries on the Trinity River. The problem is ... that we have to address those issues from a much broader, statewide perspective." Under the 2000 plan upheld by the federal appeals court Tuesday, the volume of water flowing to the Trinity will vary each year, depending on whether its a dry, normal or wet year. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 14 08:25:57 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 08:25:57 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Redding Record Searchlight-Hoopa rejoice after judges rule to cut diversions, boost salmon Message-ID: <003301c469b6$e0fc1e00$126c3940@V51NH> http://www.redding.com/redd/nw_local/article/0,2232,REDD_17533_3035788,00.html Lucas Mobley / Record Searchlight RAGING RIVER: Ray Raphael spins into a rapid on the Trinity River west of Junction City on Tuesday. A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on Tuesday upped the flows of river to boost dwindling salmon runs. More water heading down the river means less is diverted for hydroelectric power and crop irrigation. Trinity River flow to grow Hoopa rejoice after judges rule to cut diversions, boost salmon By Alex Breitler / Record Searchlight July 14, 2004 SAN FRANCISCO - More than three years after then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt canoed down the Trinity River and agreed to send more water for its narrow channels, a federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for the plan to be put into practice. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with American Indians, overturning most of a lower court's ruling in favor of irrigators and utility districts. Advertisement "We're ecstatic," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Changing the flow The Department of Interior's restoration plan would keep about 48 percent of the water in the Trinity River, diverting 52 percent for irrigation and power generation. In the past, up to 88 percent has been diverted. Flows would range from 368,600 acre-feet in a dry year to 815,200 acre-feet in an extremely wet year. One acre-foot of water supplies a family for one year. The plan would reduce the state's energy supply by one-tenth of 1 percent and diminish Westlands Water District's irrigation supply by about 5 percent. The tribe battled for increased flows to boost depleted salmon runs on the culturally cherished river, which cuts through the Hoopa reservation north of Willow Creek. "The science was upheld," Marshall said. "It was a costly and hard-fought battle, but we're pleased." Historically, more than two-thirds of the river's water has been diverted through a tunnel to Whiskeytown Lake, spinning turbines and generating electricity. From there, it flows down the Sacramento River and is pumped to farms in the San Joaquin Valley. At one time, up to 88 percent of the Trinity water was sent south. The Babbitt agreement would reduce that number to 52 percent. "It's really a total victory," said Tom Stokely, a Trinity County planner and advocate of river restoration. "Now we can actually focus on implementing the program instead of preparing endless environmental documents and fighting it out in court." Tupper Hull, spokesman for the plaintiff Westlands Water District, said irrigators were reviewing the 45-page ruling and had not yet decided whether they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Hull said the district, which covers 600,000 acres of farmland, was still hoping for a settlement. One such deal offered to the Hoopa tribe was rejected. "This is an issue that's gone on too long and been too divisive," Hull said. Westlands sued in 2000, claiming the federal government ignored other river restoration options aside from upping flows. A U.S. District Court judge in Fresno agreed, ordering more environmental review and capping river levels in the meantime. But the trio of 9th Circuit judges called the number of studies on the Trinity River "staggering" evidence of years of thorough scrutiny. Because of diversions, the river faced what amounted to extreme drought conditions for three decades. Federal biologists estimated in 1980 that fish populations had declined 60 percent to 80 percent over historical numbers. Trinity diversions "radically altered the Trinity River environment, destroying or degrading river habitats that supported once-abundant fish populations," wrote Judge Alfred T. Goodwin. Higher water flows would scour away encroaching plants and create a meandering, shallow channel with protected pools for spawning salmon. Fears of power loss for Redding Electric Utility and other providers are insignificant, the judge wrote, noting that higher flows on the Trinity would reduce the state's energy supply by one-tenth of 1 percent. Westlands officials have said decreased diversions would cost hundreds of farm jobs and deplete the district's water supply by about 5 percent. It's unclear exactly when the higher river flows will take effect. Four bridges are being reconstructed to stand up against all that water, and some homes and other structures need to be moved, Stokely said. Many other non-flow methods outlined in the restoration plan are already under way. The decision pleased Trinity County Supervisor Ralph Modine, who said the federal government must have spent a lot of money writing reports to back up what already amounted to two decades of scientific study. "It's wonderful news," he said. Reporter Alex Breitler can be reached at 225-8344 or at abreitler at redding.com. SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer/ap.asp?category=1110&slug=Trinity%20River Tuesday, July 13, 2004 ? Last updated 7:44 p.m. PT Appeals court OKs Trinity River increase By DAVID KRAVETS ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court Tuesday approved a congressional plan to increase flows into the Trinity River to restore fish habitat, reducing water to California farmers and hydroelectric plants. Most of the water in the Trinity, which originates in northern California's Trinity Alps and flows west into the Klamath River, has been diverted for decades to serve a fast-growing population in a state where much of the water is located far from where people live and farm. In 1984, Congress mandated the 112-mile-long river's restoration to combat dwindling supplies of salmon, steelhead and other aquatic life. In 2000, after years of study, the Interior Department approved a plan to increase Trinity water. The plan was backed by Indian tribes who use the waters for sustenance fishing, while farming and hydroelectric power interests opposed it. The Trinity is a major artery in a system of dams, tunnels, canals and reservoirs that supply 30 million people in the agricultural rich Central Valley. It churns turbines for nine power generating stations. The plan approved Tuesday diverts as much as 9 percent of the system's capacity. The utilities argued that the Interior Department's plan would decrease water that eventually reaches the parched Central Valley, and the government did not study what effect that would have on the millions of water users downstream. A spokesman for 600 California agricultural customers said farmers would likely get less water under the plan. "That's water that is all part of a flow regime that is an important part of this large, complex interconnected water system," said Tupper Hull of the Westlands Water District, an agricultural water supplier based in Fresno that challenged the plan. A spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Jeff McCracken, said the government did not study what effect the plan would have on farming because the law did not require it. He acknowledged, though, a "significant" amount of water would be taken out of the system. "If there were an endless supply, this wouldn't have gone to court," McCracken said. Westlands is considering asking the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its ruling, Hull said. The Yurok Tribe celebrated the decision. The state's poorest tribe, which fishes the river for a subsistence living, was hit hard in 2002 when thousands of salmon died because of low flows. The tribe's attorney, Scott Williams, said in the 1800s, the 5,000-member tribe gave up thousands of acres of land in exchange for a promise that its fishing would be protected. "It's been decimated by decades of dams, logging and diversions. This decision goes way toward repairing that broken promise," he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: TRINITY14a_d.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 5245 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 1x1.gif Type: image/gif Size: 49 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 14 08:34:01 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 08:34:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] SF Chronicle- Tribes win Trinity flow fight Message-ID: <004c01c469b7$fee26cc0$126c3940@V51NH> SAN FRANCISCO Tribes win Trinity flow fight Court gives green light to revival of salmon population Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer Wednesday, July 14, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two Northern California Indian tribes scored a victory in their effort to restore ancestral fisheries Tuesday when a federal appeals court gave the go-ahead for a plan to revive the Trinity River's once-thriving salmon population. The Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes have been waging a decades-long battle to increase the flow of water from a dam on the Trinity and boost the river's salmon population. On Tuesday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a deal the tribes reached with government agencies could be put in place, rejecting objections from a Central Valley water agency that benefits from diverted Trinity flows. Since the Trinity River Dam was built in 1964, 90 percent of the Trinity's water has been diverted to the Sacramento River for farmers and other water users. The result was an 85 percent drop in the Trinity's population of chinook salmon, which local Indians had fished for generations. In 2000 the Hoopa Valley Tribe, taking the lead in negotiations for the two tribes, devised a plan with the U.S. Interior Department and other federal and state agencies to try to restore the Trinity River fishery by reducing the amount of water diverted to 50 percent. The plan was immediately challenged by the Westlands Water District, a 600,000-acre agricultural tract on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that gets some of the water diverted from the Trinity. In a federal lawsuit, the district and other irrigation and power companies charged that the plan did not comply with federal environmental laws. But a unanimous federal appeals court rejected most of those challenges Tuesday and ordered the restoration plan to be implemented. "Twenty years have passed since Congress passed the first major act calling for restoration of the Trinity River and rehabilitation of its fish populations,'' Judge Alfred Goodwin wrote in the court's opinion. "And almost another decade has elapsed since Congress set a minimal flow level for the river to force rehabilitative action.'' Having disposed of the issues raised by the district and others, Goodwin concluded, "nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the (2000 agreement), including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River.'' The decision reverses most of a ruling in January by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno. He had found that the 2000 plan did not take into account the effect that increased flows in the Trinity would have on endangered species in the Sacramento River and the Delta. "This opinion is a clear victory for the anadromous fishery of the Trinity River and the future of our people,'' said Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Robert Franklin, senior hydrologist for the Hoopa Valley Fisheries Department, called the decision "a home run.'' "Budgeteers and administrators will see how quickly we can move forward to restoration,'' he said. Tupper Hull, a spokesman for the Westlands Water District, said there were some "mixed decisions'' in the ruling that could be interpreted in favor of his client. "We're evaluating them carefully, and we're evaluating all our options,'' he said. But he acknowledged that the decision "certainly is not good news'' for the district. The Yurok Tribe, which historically fished the Klamath River, became involved in the negotiations because it gave up hundreds of acres of aboriginal land in the late 1800s in return for fishing rights on the Trinity. "That promise has not been kept," said Scott Williams, a Berkeley lawyer who represented the tribe. He called the restoration plan and Tuesday's court decision "a good step toward repairing that broken promise.'' E-mail Harriet Chiang at hchiang at sfchronicle.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: pixel_gray.gif Type: image/gif Size: 35 bytes Desc: not available URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Jul 14 09:40:25 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 09:40:25 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Tom - Please call me ASAP About the Court Victory! 916-685-2245, ext. 24 Message-ID: >From: "Tom Stokely" <tstokely at trinityalps.net> >To: "env-trinity" <env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>, <salmon at pelicannetwork.net> >Subject: [env-trinity] SF Chronicle- Tribes win Trinity flow fight >Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 08:34:01 -0700 > > SAN FRANCISCO > Tribes win Trinity flow fight > Court gives green light to revival of salmon population > > Harriet Chiang, Chronicle Legal Affairs Writer > Wednesday, July 14, 2004 > > > >-------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Two Northern California Indian tribes scored a victory in their effort to restore ancestral fisheries Tuesday when a federal appeals court gave the go-ahead for a plan to revive the Trinity River's once-thriving salmon population. > > The Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes have been waging a decades-long battle to increase the flow of water from a dam on the Trinity and boost the river's salmon population. On Tuesday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a deal the tribes reached with government agencies could be put in place, rejecting objections from a Central Valley water agency that benefits from diverted Trinity flows. > > Since the Trinity River Dam was built in 1964, 90 percent of the Trinity's water has been diverted to the Sacramento River for farmers and other water users. The result was an 85 percent drop in the Trinity's population of chinook salmon, which local Indians had fished for generations. > > In 2000 the Hoopa Valley Tribe, taking the lead in negotiations for the two tribes, devised a plan with the U.S. Interior Department and other federal and state agencies to try to restore the Trinity River fishery by reducing the amount of water diverted to 50 percent. > > The plan was immediately challenged by the Westlands Water District, a 600,000-acre agricultural tract on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that gets some of the water diverted from the Trinity. In a federal lawsuit, the district and other irrigation and power companies charged that the plan did not comply with federal environmental laws. > > But a unanimous federal appeals court rejected most of those challenges Tuesday and ordered the restoration plan to be implemented. > > "Twenty years have passed since Congress passed the first major act calling for restoration of the Trinity River and rehabilitation of its fish populations,'' Judge Alfred Goodwin wrote in the court's opinion. "And almost another decade has elapsed since Congress set a minimal flow level for the river to force rehabilitative action.'' > > Having disposed of the issues raised by the district and others, Goodwin concluded, "nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the (2000 agreement), including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River.'' > > The decision reverses most of a ruling in January by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno. He had found that the 2000 plan did not take into account the effect that increased flows in the Trinity would have on endangered species in the Sacramento River and the Delta. > > "This opinion is a clear victory for the anadromous fishery of the Trinity River and the future of our people,'' said Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. > > Robert Franklin, senior hydrologist for the Hoopa Valley Fisheries Department, called the decision "a home run.'' > > "Budgeteers and administrators will see how quickly we can move forward to restoration,'' he said. > > Tupper Hull, a spokesman for the Westlands Water District, said there were some "mixed decisions'' in the ruling that could be interpreted in favor of his client. "We're evaluating them carefully, and we're evaluating all our options,'' he said. > > But he acknowledged that the decision "certainly is not good news'' for the district. > > The Yurok Tribe, which historically fished the Klamath River, became involved in the negotiations because it gave up hundreds of acres of aboriginal land in the late 1800s in return for fishing rights on the Trinity. > > "That promise has not been kept," said Scott Williams, a Berkeley lawyer who represented the tribe. > > He called the restoration plan and Tuesday's court decision "a good step toward repairing that broken promise.'' > > E-mail Harriet Chiang at hchiang at sfchronicle.com. > > > >_______________________________________________ >env-trinity mailing list >env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org >http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 14 15:25:52 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 18:25:52 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] Rep. Thompson Praises the 9th Circuit Decision Message-ID: <265000-220047314222552946@M2W091.mail2web.com> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Matt Gerien July 13, 2004 (202) 225-3311 Appeals Court Rules to Restore the Trinity River Rep. Thompson Praises the Decision WASHINGTON-Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Napa Valley) hailed today's ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court repealed a lower court's decision regarding the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) and ruled that the ROD should be fully implemented. "This is a great victory for the Hoopa Tribe and Northern California's coastal communities, whose economy and jobs have been decimated by declining fisheries," Thompson said. "More water in the Trinity River will help restore the Klamath Basin Fisheries." Since the completion of the Lewiston and Trinity Dams on the Trinity River in 1963, up to 90% of the Trinity River water has been diverted to the central coast. The result has been the near destruction of the river's fishery. Salmon and steelhead populations are found in less than 10% of their historical range and most are either listed, proposed for listing or under status review for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Through four administrations, the Department of Interior has worked to restore and maintain the Trinity River fishery. In 2000, the Trinity River ROD was issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide 47% of the original flows back to the River. The ROD was based on an exhaustive, peer-reviewed study of the Trinity River basin conducted over the past twenty-two years. In 2003 Judge Oliver W. Wanger ruled that the Trinity River ROD needed to be revaluated. Today's court decision reaffirms the science and methods of the Trinity River ROD. The Court states, "The number and length of the studies on the Trinity River...are staggering, and bear evidence of the years of thorough scrutiny given by the federal agencies to the question of how best to rehabilitate the Trinity River fishery without unduly compromising the interest of others who have claim on Trinity River water." "Today's ruling sustains over 20 years of scientific evidence that more water is needed for the fish on the Trinity River," Thompson said. # # # Elizabeth Murguia, District Representative Congressman Mike Thompson 317 3rd St., Suite 1 Eureka, CA 95501 (707) 269-9595 (707) 269-9598 FAX -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Jul 15 16:41:08 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 16:41:08 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Ninth Circuit Court Trinity Decision Message-ID: <20040715234632.74B292035AFA@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> This is one of the better articles I've seen written on the subject. Court Orders Restoration of Trinity River Flows! By Dan Bacher In a landmark decision greeted with jubilation by representatives of the Hoopa and Yurok tribes, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the release of flows proscribed under the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) of December 2000. "Nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the ROD, including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River," the Court ruled on Tuesday, July 13. "We're just elated," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. "Hoopa is a very happy town. The timing of the decision surprised us, since we were told the decision could go either way." Marshall said the decision would compel the federal Bureau of Reclamation to release 47 percent of river flows for fish and 53 percent for agriculture and power. Prior to the ROD, up to 90 percent of the river had been diverted to agriculture and power users, resulting in dramatic declines in salmon and steelhead populations. "This decision is awesome," said Marshall. "The river is a vital part of the economy of our tribe and the Northern California economy. The decision gives the river the priority it deserved in the first place. It means that the river will get water, salmon runs will come back, tourism will return, recreational fishermen will come back, people will be eating in the local restaurants, and the commercial salmon fishery may be sustained." Although Marshall said the court made its decision based on the law and over 20 years of scientific studies, the outpouring of support for Trinity River restoration by the public, newspapers and politicians through the state had a lot to do with the victory. "It wasn't a case of Indians versus farmers," emphasized Marshall. "The people of California raised their voice to support the Trinity River. The river should be regarded as a national treasure. We had a great alliance of people, with lot of efforts on many fronts. Public opinion drives public policy - and the people of California decided that for a small price, the Trinity River could be restored." The Westlands Water District, in conjunction with the Northern California Power Association and SMUD, filed suit against the federal government in 2000 right after former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt issued his ROD. However, a broad coalition of Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and environmental groups forced the SMUD and three members of the NCPA- Palo Alto, the Port of Oakland and Alameda to pull out over the past 1-1-/2 years. Whether Westlands, the largest federal irrigation project in the country, will appeal the case to the next step, the U.S. Supreme Court, is unknown at this time. "We are still reviewing the decision," said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Westlands Water District. "It is a complicated decision although it appears to overturn Judge Wanger's decision on a number of grounds. We are looking at the overall impact of the decision on Central Valley Project water users." Hull noted that Westlands is continuing to pursue settlement talks with the Tribes, even though these talks have been unsuccessful in the past. "We believe that there is still an opportunity for people of goodwill from the different parties to protect their interests, including the Trinity River fishery," said Hull. Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, said he is "optimistically enthusiastic" about the decision, but noted that litigation could continue if Westlands decides to appeal. "The bottom line is that the fish won in this round," said Fletcher. "Now there is a need to defend this ruling and to make sure that the ROD is implementing the decision." Tom Stokely, senior resource planner Trinity County, and Byron Leydecker, president of Friends of the Trinity River, were likewise optimistic about the outcome of the decision. "It is likely the SEIS that Judge Oliver Wanger ordered will disappear and that the ROD will move ahead," said Stokely. "We plan on finishing building the bridges that will be required to release more water down the river." Stokely said that the decision, when implemented, would result in an approximate doubling of the total volume of water released down the river. "Salmon need water to thrive, so this will have a very beneficial effect on the fishery," he noted. "After 39 years, the law has been finally upheld," said Leydecker. "On this one issue, the Bureau of Reclamation can't operate without regard to the law. We have a long way to go until we see full Trinity River restoration, but this is a major victory." Although this decision portends well for the future of salmon fisheries, the prospects for this year's salmon runs on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers are looking dire because of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's granted 100 percent of contract flows to agricultural water users in the Klamath Basin of Southern Oregon, according to Troy Fletcher. The Department of Interior, under pressure from Bush's political strategist Karl Rover to curry favor among agribusiness for the reelection campaign of a Republican Senator in Oregon, decided to cut off flows for fish and divert them to subsidized agribusiness in the Klamath Basin in 2001. The change in water policy by the Bush administration resulted in the largest fish kill in U.S. history in September 2002 when over 34,000 salmon perished. The majority of these fish were destined for the Trinity River, the Klamath's largest tributary. "We are extremely concerned that we will see a repeat of the 20002 fish this fall because the federal government decided to give water to agriculture at the expense of fish," said Fletcher. "After being classified as a below average year, the year was reclassified by the Bureau as a dry year in May. We need flows for fish throughout the year, but flows have been greatly reduced this summer." Hopefully, we will see a cooler-than-average summer and fall so an outbreak of disease among adult chinooks in warm water conditions doesn't take place like it did in September 2002. Meanwhile, we can thank the Ninth Circuit Court for upholding the law and science in ordering the implementation of the Trinity River Record of Decision. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Jul 15 17:14:28 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 17:14:28 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Ninth Circuit Court Trinity Decision - revised Message-ID: There were a few typos in the last article, so here's the revised and corrected version thanks dan Court Orders Restoration of Trinity River Flows! By Dan Bacher In a landmark decision greeted with jubilation by representatives of the Hoopa and Yurok tribes, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the release of flows proscribed under the Trinity River Record of Decision (ROD) of December 2000. ?Nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the ROD, including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River,? the Court ruled on Tuesday, July 13. ?We?re just elated,? said Clifford Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. ?Hoopa is a very happy town. The timing of the decision surprised us, since we were told the decision could go either way.? Marshall said the decision would compel the federal Bureau of Reclamation to release 47 percent of river flows for fish and 53 percent for agriculture and power. Prior to the ROD, up to 90 percent of the river had been diverted to agriculture and power users, resulting in dramatic declines in salmon and steelhead populations. "This decision is awesome," said Marshall. "The river is a vital part of the economy of our tribe and the Northern California economy. The decision gives the river the priority it deserved in the first place. It means that the river will get water, salmon runs will come back, tourism will return, recreational fishermen will come back, people will be eating in the local restaurants, and the commercial salmon fishery may be sustained." Although Marshall said the court made its decision based on the law and over 20 years of scientific studies,? the outpouring of support for Trinity River restoration by the public, newspapers and politicians through the state had a lot to do with the victory. "It wasn't a case of Indians versus farmers," emphasized Marshall. "The people of California raised their voice to support the Trinity River. The river should be regarded as a national treasure. We had a great alliance of people, with lot of efforts on many fronts. Public opinion drives public policy - and the people of California decided that for a small price, the Trinity River could be restored." The Westlands Water District, in conjunction with the Northern California Power Association and SMUD, filed suit against the federal government in 2000 right after former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt issued his ROD. However, a broad coalition of Indian Tribes, commercial fishermen, recreational anglers and environmental groups forced the SMUD and three members of the NCPA- Palo Alto, the Port of Oakland and Alameda to pull out over the past 1-1-/2 years. Whether Westlands, the largest federal irrigation project in the country, will appeal the case to the next step, the U.S. Supreme Court, is unknown at this time. ?We are still reviewing the decision,? said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Westlands Water District. ?It is a complicated decision although it appears to overturn Judge Wanger?s decision on a number of grounds. We are looking at the overall impact of the decision on Central Valley Project water users.? Hull noted that Westlands is continuing to pursue settlement talks with the Tribes, even though these talks have been unsuccessful in the past. ?We believe that there is still an opportunity for people of goodwill from the different parties to protect their interests, including the Trinity River fishery,? said Hull. Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, said he is ?optimistically enthusiastic? about the decision, but noted that litigation could continue if Westlands decides to appeal. ?The bottom line is that the fish won in this round,? said Fletcher. ?Now there is a need to defend this ruling and to make sure that the ROD is implementing the decision.? Tom Stokely, senior resource planner Trinity County, and Byron Leydecker, president of Friends of the Trinity River, were likewise optimistic about the outcome of the decision. ?It is is likely the SEIS that Judge Oliver Wanger ordered will disappear and that the ROD will move ahead,? said Stokely. ?We plan on finishing building the bridges that will be required to release more water down the river.? Stokely said that the decision, when implemented, would result in an approximate doubling of the total volume of water released down the river. ?Salmon need water to thrive, so this will have a very beneficial effect on the fishery,? he noted. ?After 39 years, the law has been finally upheld,? said Leydecker. ?On this one issue, the Bureau of Reclamation can?t operate without regard to the law. We have a long way to go until we see full Trinity River restoration, but this is a major victory.? Although this decision portends well for the future of salmon fisheries, the prospects for this year?s salmon runs on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers are looking dire because of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation?s granted 100 percent of contract flows to agricultural water users in the Klamath Basin of Southern Oregon, according to Troy Fletcher. The Department of Interior, under pressure from Bush?s political strategist Karl Rover to curry favor among agribusiness for the reelection campaign of a Republican Senator in Oregon, decided to cut off flows for fish and divert them to subsidized agribusiness in the Klamath Basin in 2001. The change in water policy by the Bush administration resulted in the largest fish kill in U.S. history in September 2002 when over 34,000 salmon perished. The majority of these fish were destined for the Trinity River, the Klamath?s largest tributary. ?We are extremely concerned that we will see a repeat of the 20002 fish this fall because the federal government decided to give water to agriculture at the expense of fish,? said Fletcher. ?After being classified as a below average year, the year was reclassified by the Bureau as a dry year in May. We need flows for fish throughout the year, but flows have been greatly reduced this summer.? Hopefully, we will see a cooler-than-average summer and fall so an outbreak of disease among adult chinooks in warm water conditions doesn?t take place like it did in September 2002. Meanwhile, we can thank the Ninth Circuit Court for upholding the law and science in ordering the implementation of the Trinity River Record of From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sat Jul 17 14:51:48 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 14:51:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Ninth Circuit Trinity Decision @ http://www.fotr.org Message-ID: <008c01c46c48$43f21440$6c6c3940@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: Byron Sent: Saturday, July 17, 2004 9:16 AM Subject: Ninth Circuit Trinity Decision A great number of people have asked me to send them a copy of the Ninth Circuit decision, and I continue to send them. However, a copy is available on our website: http://www.fotr.org Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Mon Jul 19 06:50:49 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 06:50:49 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Native American Tribes Appeal to E.U. for Help Message-ID: For Immediate Release July 19, 2004 For More Information Contact: In Scotland: Kelly Catlett, Friends of the River, 011-44-870-400-7293 room 262 ( Edinburgh Marriott) Jeff Mitchell, Klamath Tribes 011-44-870-400-7293 room 352 ( Edinburgh Marriott) Mobile 011-44-782-172-8594 After 7/24/04 contact in the US: Leaf Hillman, Klamath Tribes, 800-505-2785 x2040 Kelly Catlett, Friends of the River, 916-443-3155 x221 Native American Tribes Appeal to European Union for Help Brussels- Representatives of four Native American Tribes and a California based conservation group arrived in Brussels today seeking help from the European Union. At issue is a complex of hydropower dams that are having a devastating impact on salmon and other fish species in what was once America's third greatest salmon producing river: the Klamath. The dams are owned and operated by a subsidiary of the multi-national energy giant Scottish Power, headquartered in Glasgow. The tribes and their allies in the conservation and commercial fishing community explain that their traditional way of life and cultures are at stake. The Klamath, Hoopa, Karuk, and Yurok Tribes have lived along the Klamath since 'time immemorial' and their religious ceremonies and cultural practiced revolve around the salmon and other fish species. Jeff Mitchell, a member of the Klamath Tribe and acting emissary for the four Native American Nations that live along the Klamath River explains, "Our fundamental human rights are being denied and our way of life destroyed. In the 1800s the US government allowed the buffalo to be hunted into near extinction in order to destroy the way of life of Tribes in the Great Plains. Today, a similar event is taking place, this time the destruction of the salmon fishery threatens to destroy the tribes of Northern California and Oregon." The Tribes and their allies contend that Scottish Power is in a position to help. Scottish Power purchased PacifiCorp, a US based power company in 1999. Now PacifiCorp's Klamath River dams are being re-licensed by the US government. The dams currently block access to over 350 miles of historic salmon spawning grounds. Tribes, environmentalists, and fishermen are demanding that the new license require the company to provide fish passage the dams. The dams currently have no fish ladders. The river supporters suggest that some dams will need to be removed and others fitted with ladders in order for the fishery to survive. According to Kelly Catlett of the California based conservation group Friends of the River, "When Scottish Power purchased PacifiCorp, they inherited certain social and environmental responsibilities. This includes restoring the Klamath fishery." The Tribes and conservationists have been cultivating allies in Scotland, and last week MSP Robin Harper introduced a resolution in Scottish Parliament endorsing the campaign. So far Scottish Power has offered to talk to the group which leaves the Tribes and their allies "cautiously optimistic." But according the Mitchell, "We've had no shortage of talks. What we need is action before it is too late." Since construction of the first dam in 1917, salmon populations have plummeted to 10% of pre-dam levels. Some species such as the Candlefish have gone extinct, some salmon runs extirpated, and others listed as Threatened on the Endangered Species list. To view previous press releases see: http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/PressRoom.html To view previous news articles see: http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/CaliforniaRiverNews.php From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Jul 19 13:38:19 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 13:38:19 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Amendments to Klamath Long Range Plan Available Message-ID: <005f01c46dd0$55248b60$1d6b3940@V51NH> Dear Env-trinity subscribers, Below is a forward from the Yreka Office of the USFWS about addenda to the Long Range Plan for the Klamath River Restoration Program. I did NOT include the attachment, as it's 1.5 mb. If you'd like it, you can request one from Laurie Simons or go to the USFWS website. Tom Stokely >From: Laurie_Simons at r1.fws.gov >Subject: Revisions to the Long Range Plan > >Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:11:28 -0700 > >Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force members and Interested Parties: > >Attached are addenda to the Long Range Plan explaining the revisions that >the Task Force has approved in response to the Mid-term Evaluation >recommendations. To update your Long Range Plan, you could insert (or >replace) the attached addenda in Chapter 8 of the Plan. >These addenda will be available on our web site and the changes will be >incorporated in the web version of the Plan that Kier and Associates >maintains. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns. > >Thank you, > >Laurie > >(See attached file: Long Range Plan revisions with letter and addenda.PDF) > > >*********************************** >Laurie Stuart Simons, Ph.D. >U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service >1829 South Oregon Steet >Yreka, California 96097 >(530) 842-5763 >fax (530) 842-4517 >laurie_simons at fws.gov >*********************************** -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Jul 20 10:57:17 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 20 Jul 2004 10:57:17 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Nominations Sought for Nathaniel Bingham Memorial Award Message-ID: <004801c46e83$0064e580$986c3940@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2004 9:44 AM Subject: Nominations Sought for Nathaniel Bingham Memorial Award > |---------------------------------------+----------------------------------- ----| > | | | > | NEWS | U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE - | > | RELEASE | REGION 1 | > | | | > | | Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office | > | | 1829 S. Oregon St., Yreka, CA 96097 | > |---------------------------------------+----------------------------------- ----| > | | | > | | IDAHO - NEVADA - CALIFORNIA - | > | | WASHINGTON - OREGON - | > | | HAWAII AND THE PACIFIC ISLANDS | > |---------------------------------------+----------------------------------- ----| > > > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE > > July 12, 2004 > > For More Information Contact: > > > > Laurie Simons, Ecosystem Restoration Team Leader, or > > Phil Detrich, Field Supervisor, at (530) 842-5763 > > > > Nominations Sought for Nathaniel Bingham Memorial Award > > > > The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service invites nominations or applications for > > the seventh annual Nathaniel Bingham Memorial Award for significant > > contributions to restoration of salmon and steelhead populations or > > habitats of the Klamath River Basin. Since 1991, the Klamath River Basin > > Fisheries Task Force has worked to implement a Long Range Plan to restore > > healthy salmon and steelhead fisheries to the Klamath River. This > > anadromous fishery restoration program was authorized by Congress in 1986 > > with a twenty-year term. > > > > Progress of the program has been in large part due to citizen organizations > > and individuals who have made many valuable contributions to improvements > > in fisheries habitat and protection within the Klamath watershed. The U.S. > > Fish and Wildlife Service will annually recognize these efforts with an > > Outstanding Achievement Award to an organization and/or individual in the > > private sector. > > > > Nominations or applications need not be formal, but should include a > > summary of the achievements supporting the nomination, the name and phone > > number of the private nominee, and a contact name and phone number for > > organizations nominated. Applications or nominations for the 2004 awards > > should be provided to the following address no later than September 1, > > 2004: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office, 1829 > > South Oregon Street, Yreka, CA 96097. > > > > X X X > > From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 21 09:31:14 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 09:31:14 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Herald & News -Editorial: Ruling on Trinity River water should help Message-ID: <001701c46f40$262d2760$176b3940@V51NH> NORTH COAST RIVERS Editorial: Ruling on Trinity River water should help Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 7/20/04 Last week's court ruling that ordered more Trinity River water to be released in the lower Klamath River looks like good news for the Klamath Reclamation Project irrigators. After all, what's not to like about sharing the burden of meeting water demands for the lower Klamath River which, until now, has been unfairly and too narrowly made the responsibility of Klamath Project irrigators? The decision's not the complete answer, which demands a Basin-wide approach, but it is a key part. The decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel also may not be the final word. It could be appealed, either to 9th Circuit for a rehearing or to the U.S. Supreme Court. It also pits the competing needs of two agricultural areas over water use. If the matter ever came down to a contest of political muscle, central California has a lot more than the Klamath Basin. It does make sense, though, to look to the Trinity River for more of the solution to meeting the Klamath River's water problems. The 112-mile long Trinity enters the lower Klamath 43.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean. It's the Klamath's best source of clear, cold water. Certainly, it's better "fish" water than that which comes from the languid lakes of the Upper Klamath Basin. That water's warm to begin with, and gets warmer on its 200-mile journey to meet with the much colder Trinity. Warm water encourages fish diseases and water temperature is seen as one of the elements in the decline of Klamath River fish runs. The Trinity begins in the northern California mountains. Much of its flow was diverted decades ago into California's Central Valley to meet the needs of utilities, growing cities and agriculture. In last week's ruling, the court pointed out that Congress had approved a restoration plan for the Trinity 20 years ago and was still waiting for it to be implemented. The plan calls for sending 368,900 acre-feet to 815,000 acre-feet a year down the Trinity that otherwise would have gone elsewhere. The suit was brought by the Westlands Water District after a lower court decision said the water should be sent to the Klamath. The Yurok Tribe of northern California, which looks to Klamath River salmon and other fish to provide food, intervened in the suit. The decision points out the water issue's complexity and the competing interests involved. It also sends a message, we hope, that the Klamath Project shouldn't be solely responsible for solving the river's problems.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Jul 21 07:35:19 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 07:35:19 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Action Alert: Support Tribes' Efforts to Save the Klamath River! Message-ID: Good Morning! I urge everybody to participate in this action alert as soon as you get this! It takes less than a minute to send a message to Scottish Power by clicking on the FOR website. A delegation of Klamath River tribes, Friends of the River and fishermen is in Scotland now to urge Scottish Power to remove some dams and fit others with fish ladders to restore salmon and steelhead runs on the Klamath Dan Bacher SUPPORT TRIBES? EFFORTS TO BRING THE KLAMATH SALMON HOME! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join in the day of action, Wednesday July 21st Klamath fishery and Tribal cultures are at risk. Send your comments to Scottish Power! The Karuk, Yurok, ,Hoopa, and Klamath Tribes are working with Friends of the River and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations to ?Bring the Salmon Home? to the Upper Klamath Basin. Six dams without functional fish ladders stand in the way of restoration. We hope that by removing some dams and fitting others with ladders, we can open up over 350 of historic spawning habitat to salmon. Currently, a joint delegation is in Scotland, taking the story of the Klamath River directly to Scottish Power (NYSE- SPI) who owns PacifiCorp, who in turn owns and operates the Klamath dams. Considering Scottish Power?s reputation as a ?green? energy company, we are hopeful that once they learn more about the Klamath crisis, they will want to help save the salmon and the age old Tribal cultures that depend on the fishery. You can help! Learn more and send an email on Wednesday July 21 to Scottish Power by clicking here: http://capwiz.com/friendsoftheriver/issues/alert/?alertid=6090101&type=CU From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 21 11:35:53 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:35:53 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard- Studies show Klamath dams could be razed on the cheap Message-ID: <011401c46f51$8fdd5de0$366b3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2285497,00.html Studies show Klamath dams could be razed on the cheap John Driscoll The Times-Standard Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - Removing dams on the Klamath River might be better for their owner's pocketbook and fish too, studies commissioned by conservation groups contend. The groups are pressing federal regulators to thoroughly examine razing the five dams on the Klamath's mainstem, and the studies suggest the analysis would be worth the work. California Trout, American Rivers, Trout Unlimited and the World Wildlife Fund asked three experts to weigh the costs and benefits of taking down the dams, and what effects releasing huge amounts of sediments stored behind the dams might have on the ecosystem. A study done by Dennis Gathard of G&G Associates in Seattle found that it would cost only $40 million to tear down the four lowest dams. That's only twice the power company PacifiCorp's estimate of the annual cost of producing the electricity from the project. Federal fisheries agencies could demand PacifiCorp provide passage for migrating salmon and steelhead to spawning grounds cut off by the dams. Depending on the means of moving the fish, that could cost $150 million or more. "It's one of those costs companies have difficulty anticipating," said Gathard, who also contracts with PacifiCorp. The dams are widely agreed to be a root cause of the decline of salmon and other fish in the lightning-rod watershed. The lowermost dam, Iron Gate, blocks access to more than 300 miles of spawning grounds upstream. The six dams that are up for relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission produce 150 megawatts of power -- about 1 percent of that produced by PacifiCorp's parent company ScottishPower. The National Research Council has recommended studying the removal of the dams and the California Energy Commission has suggested that other regional power projects would more than make up for the loss of 150 mw once they are on-line. A preliminary analysis by David Marcus of Berkeley found that the value of the power that might be lost if the lower four dams were removed is $21 million. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries agency is likely to demand changes to the project. It wants a full study of dam removal and fish passage. But PacifiCorp maintains that water quality -- notoriously bad in its reservoirs -- might get even worse for fish if the dams were taken out, said spokesman Jon Coney. That's a view disputed by many lower river biologists, and Coney said it's too soon to make any decisions anyway. He said the negotiations over the project are far from over. Pressure is coming to bear from American Indian tribes, commercial and sport fishermen and environmentalists for ScottishPower and PacifiCorp to live up to the "green" image it portrays. Representatives from several groups and tribes are in Scotland this week at ScottishPower's annual shareholders meeting to draw attention to the Klamath. While PacifiCorp's application only addressed trapping and hauling salmon upstream by truck, Coney said PacifiCorp's CEO Judi Johansen is open to talks. "All options are on the table," Coney said, including dam removal. NOAA Fisheries Regional Administrator Jim Lecky said fish ladders are complicated and difficult to design. But building one that is efficient and has enough water flowing down it is preferable to trapping and trucking fish. Physical, biological and practical concerns will have to be weighed before the agency issues its demands, he said. "We're not going to demand passage at every dam just because we have the authority to," Lecky said. PacifiCorp is weighing the possibility of removing another dam on the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia River. FERC in 1996 ordered PacifiCorp to install fish ladders, which the company said would render the project uneconomical. The Yakima Indian Nation, an intertribal commission, and PacifiCorp sponsored a study of dam removal that found the costs would range from $14 million to $16 million. That's cheaper than the $30 million fish ladder project. But questions about the reality of the removal figure, the loss of the power and the environmental effects in the areas around the dam loom. Curtis Knight of California Trout said that federal and state money may be needed to persuade PacifiCorp to walk away from the project if that's deemed desirable. He said there's a general dearth of information on the idea, and hopes that the studies the groups commissioned will convince FERC the full analysis is warranted. "I can't say it's the right thing to do right now," Knight said. "We just need to check it out." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Jul 21 14:09:04 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 14:09:04 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Journal Article July 21, 2004 Message-ID: <20040721210915.2F659202FDD5@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> TRINITY RIVER RULING UPDATE By AMY GITTELSOHN With an appellate court ruling last week in favor of a plan to restore the Trinity River, full implementation of that plan -- including very high spring flows for wet years -- is expected in 2005 or 2006. Barring further legal action by the opposition, the remaining obstacles are structures. Although work to replace four bridges to accommodate higher flows is to be completed by the end of December, there are other issues in the flood plain that haven't been addressed, said Ed Solbos, implementation branch chief for the Trinity River Restoration Program. "We are trying very hard to be ready by the spring of '05," Solbos said, but measures also have to be in place to protect some houses and roads. So far it appears the Bureau of Reclamation will foot the bill for that work, although three programs will fund the bridge work. If that work cannot be completed this year, Solbos said that all efforts will be made to see that "we absolutely make the following year." "We're all thrilled with the ruling," Solbos said, "and we'll get the river ready." It already is ready for implementation in a "normal" water year in which the spring peak is 6,000 cubic feet per second at Lewiston. In fact, the appellate court allowed implementation of a normal year flow this year before its final decision was rendered last week. But the 8,500 cfs peak called for in a "wet" year would impact structures, as would the 11,000 cfs high in an "extremely wet" year. The decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was hailed as a victory by the Hoopa Valley Tribe which appealed a lower court decision blocking the higher flows. "I think it's essentially a total victory for the river and the tribes and for the sports users," said attorney Tom Schlosser, who argued the case for higher flows. Writing for a three-judge panel that heard the case, Judge Alfred T. Goodwin stated that with 40 years of diversion of Trinity River water to the Sacramento River Basin, Trinity River chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead trout populations "have been decimated by the decades of reduced water flows." Throwing out most of the rulings by U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger, Goodwin stated that there was no need for the supplemental report Wanger ordered with more information on mechanical alternatives and effects on power generation. The report did consider non-flow alternatives, he stated, and the authors were not required "to have considered every conceivable permutation of flow and non-flow measures." He noted that according to former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's Record of Decision of December 2000, the restoration plan would equate to "a reduction in the statewide electrical energy supply of approximately one-tenth of one percent." "The number and length of the studies on the Trinity River, including the EIS, are staggering," Goodwin stated, "and bear evidence of the years of thorough scrutiny given by the federal agencies to the question of how best to rehabilitate the Trinity River fishery without unduly compromising the interests of others who have claim on Trinity River water." Under the restoration plan, yearly flows will range between 369,000 acre feet in critically dry years to 815,000 acre feet in extremely wet years. On average, 52 percent of Trinity River water would still be exported for agriculture and other purposes. The program also includes 47 new habitat rehabilitation sites to be constructed, mostly bank feathers. Judge Wanger had not held up the stream bank work in his ruling, but it has yet to begin. The latest ruling by the appellate court came as a blow to the Westlands Water District which initiated court proceedings to block the high flows. Westlands spokesman Tupper Hull called the ruling "mixed" because the appellate court upheld Wanger's decisions on a couple of items, but acknowledged that "we're obviously disappointed the bulk of the ruling is unfavorable to Westlands and the Central Valley Project water users." In Westlands' favor, the appellate court agreed with Wanger that a mitigation measure insisted upon by the Fish and Wildlife Service to offset salinity in the Delta is too extreme and the implications had not been analyzed, and another agency exceeded its authority in stating that the restoration plan must be put into effect immediately. "We are looking at the ruling very carefully... It's mixed in terms of its impact on the record of decision," Hull said, adding that at this point Westlands has made no decision on how to proceed. "I expect they will petition for a rehearing by the 9th Circuit Court either by the full board or the same three, and if that's denied will petition for a Supreme Court review," said Schlosser, the attorney for the other side. "They'll throw some more money at this problem." However, Schlosser said he believes both efforts are likely to be rejected. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 21 14:28:58 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 14:28:58 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Some recent articles on Trinity Message-ID: <020901c46f69$bde57fc0$366b3940@V51NH> >From http://trinityjournal.com/ 7/14/04 Appellate court supports Trinity River restoration The long-awaited appellate court decision on Trinity River flows overturned most of a U.S. District Court judge's rulings that blocked a river restoration plan. A three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco found that the supplemental river report ordered by Judge Oliver Wanger was unnecessary. A draft of that document, known as the Trinity River Fishery Restoration Supplemental EIS/EIR, has already been released for public comment. Regarding the original river report that studied the restoration plan, the panel disagreed with Judge Wanger on issues such as the need he found for further study into mechanical alternatives rather than increased river flows. Trinity County Natural Resources Planner Tom Stokely said that this decision means the river restoration plan, with its increased flows, can proceed unless further appeals are pursued by opponents of the plan. On one side of the court battle were the Westlands Water District of Fresno and King counties and the Northern California Power Association. Appealing Judge Wanger's ruling was the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Trinity County, one of the agencies involved in preparing the original and supplemental reports, has not yet certified either report. The county was waiting to see what happened in federal court. A decision has not yet been made by the county as to whether the supplemental report is still necessary, given the appellate court decision, Stokely said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Supervisor Modine ill; return to board uncertain District 3 Supervisor Ralph Modine of Hayfork missed the last board meeting due to health problems, and he told the Journal Tuesday that he is unsure whether or not he will be back. "I don't know," said Modine, 59. "It all depends on whether we can deal with this." Modine said he has been suffering stomach pain for months, and "I've sort of been gritting my teeth." Recently, he said, the pain became unbearable -- and it's worse in stressful situations. Modine recently spent four days at Trinity Hospital for tests, and on Monday he saw a specialist in Redding. Modine is home now, but he said more testing has been recommended. "Some of it might be stress driven, but then there are other possibilities, so we're sort of weeding out all the possibilities," Modine said. "Then we'll just go from there." Modine was uncertain whether he'll be able to resume his board duties, and said he's upset that the board must function now with only four members. Roger Jaegel of Hayfork is slated to take Modine's seat as District 3 supervisor in January. ******************************************************************************* http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2273857,00.html Trinity River people eager for restoration By John Driscoll The Times-Standard For Hupa Indian Merv George, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to clear the way for restoration of the Trinity River is a prayer answered. George, a former tribal councilman who has long been involved in the battle over the river, said Tuesday's decision seems to reflect a change of heart in those looking in on the river from the outside. "When we pray to the creator, we pray for balance," George said. "We put a lot of stock in the creator to fix these kinds of things." The 9th Circuit's decision will put water behind the work of restoration. Some elements of the plan have been flowing along despite Central Valley irrigators' suit. The district court ruling that was overturned by the three-judge panel didn't block those projects. But some efforts will be helped along with more water, the central theme of the ruling. The plan splits the water between the Trinity River -- which will receive 48 percent of the water -- and Central Valley irrigators, like Westlands Water District, which led the suit to block the restoration. The dams on the Trinity River that have diverted water south since the early 1960s not only block spawning grounds for salmon and steelhead, but have changed the shape of the river below them. Gently tapered banks that provided spawning and rearing areas became steeper and unusable by fish. The channel changed from a V-shape to a U-shape as sediment built up along the banks. Heavy equipment will be used to help coerce the river back into something resembling its former shape. That effort -- which will take several years -- needs to be done with help from bigger flows, said Trinity County Senior Planner Tom Stokely. Other projects are needed to make way for the water. This summer, four bridges over the Trinity are being replaced and raised, necessary to put down heavy flows called for in very wet years. That would allow big flows -- except that there has been little progress in removing the old bridges and other structures that stand in the way. Spawning gravel will also be added to the river as it was last year, though more gravel additions have yet to be permitted, Stokely said. Stokely said he'll be relieved to see some genuine movement on the project now that the suit has been quashed. "To finally have that burden off our shoulders will really allow us to implement the program," Stokely said. Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries Director Mike Orcutt said staffing the effort and drawing regulatory agencies together to smooth permitting for the restoration work will be key. He said that with the water issue decided, all parties hold an interest in making sure it's used in the best way possible. "Let's engage on the constructive part of things -- hopefully collectively," Orcutt said. ************************************************ Note: Some of this article you may have seen, but I never saw this version. It's much longer. Sorry for the formatting. TS Indians Take Fight Against Klamath Dams to Scotland, By Eric Bailey Los Angeles Times, July 17, 2004 ORLEANS, Calif. - A delegation from some of California's poorest Indian tribes leaves for Scotland today to urge a multinational company to modify six dams that tribal biologists say have contributed to a 90% decline in salmon on the Klamath River. Along with environmentalists and North Coast commercial fishermen, the 18 tribal representatives plan to dramatize their concerns at the July 23 annual general stockholders meeting of ScottishPower. A U.S. subsidiary of that company owns and operates the Klamath River dams that have cut off the fish - on which the tribes have depended for generations - from their upriver spawning grounds. The dams, tribal leaders contend, have kept migratory fish out of 350 miles of upriver habitat while producing oxygen-robbing algae and unnaturally raising and lowering the river to the detriment of the fish. The tribes, which filed a $1-billion lawsuit against ScottishPower this spring asking for compensation, hope to use the trip to publicly pressure a firm that bills itself as environmentally responsible. Members of the Karuk, Yurok, Hoopa and Klamath tribes plan to dig a fire pit near the corporation's Edinburgh headquarters, smoke Klamath salmon over the embers and share it with stockholders. "We're going to take this fight right to the boardroom, right to the corporate headquarters, right to their shareholders," said Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribe of California. "We will go to the ends of the earth for the fish." The tribes and their allies have lobbied PacifiCorp for two years to do something about the dams - install fish ladders so salmon can crest the smaller of the dams, and perhaps even demolish the biggest of the six, the 173-foot-tall Iron Gate Dam. But officials at Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp, ScottishPower's U.S. subsidiary, say that removing any of the dams could backfire, because they help improve downstream water quality by letting upriver particulates and farm pollution settle in the reservoirs behind the structures. The company warns that fish moving upstream of the dams could face hazardous water conditions. "The challenge of the Klamath River is: There really isn't one silver-bullet solution," said Jon Coney, a PacifiCorp spokesman. "The tribes and their allies are free to go to Scotland. Our senior management is paying close attention. But the negotiations are here in the U.S." The trip to Scotland coincides with a renewal of tensions between the alliance of Indians, commercial fishermen and environmentalists, and a common adversary: upstream farmers in the Klamath Basin, a 200,000-acre swath of farmland straddling the Oregon-California border that is irrigated with water diverted from the Klamath. A congressional hearing on issues related to the Endangered Species Act is planned today in Klamath Falls, Ore., center of a 2001 water crisis that outraged farmers and prompted the Bush administration to intervene on their behalf. Irrigation water had been shut off for months by federal regulators intent on helping endangered suckerfish in Upper Klamath Lake and coho salmon in the river. Meanwhile, drought conditions and low flows continue to take a toll on what was once the West Coast's third most productive salmon-bearing river. This spring, a parasite killed more than half the river's juvenile salmon, stirring fear of a repeat of a die-off three years ago that left 33,000 adult salmon carcasses littering the banks. Though biologists continue to wrangle over how to address the river's ills, there is consensus that the fish decline springs from numerous factors, including the dams, low flows, warmer water, irrigation diversions, pollution, silt from logged hillsides, natural predators and a century of unfettered commercial fishing.> The series of dams dividing the lower and upper river have come under scrutiny lately because PacifiCorp must apply to the federal government for a new operating license by 2006. If nothing is done to aid the fish, the tribes say, they will try to persuade the government to block the license renewal. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fix this problem," said Craig Tucker of Friends of the River, which is helping fund the trip to Scotland. "The troubles caused by the dams need to be told." The dams were erected over more than 50 years that ended with the completion of Iron Gate in 1962. Their sole purpose is to provide power -and not much of that. The 151 megawatts they generate represent less than 2% of the electricity produced by PacifiCorp. But the firm considers it an important part of its power arsenal, providing energy during hot summer afternoons as air conditioners click on. The California Energy Commission, however, contends that loss of the dam's electricity would not significantly undermine the region's power supply. The state Water Resources Control Board recommends a study of dam removal, as does a California Fish and Game Commission team studying salmon recovery strategies. To tribes like the Karuk, the dams are a prime culprit in the decline of the fish. Along the river's boulder-strewn banks in California's far north, the Karuk have long clung to the ways of their forebears. Herded into military encampments during the Gold Rush, most escaped to return to their homelands. Today, many in the tribe of 3,400 live in poverty. The Karuk don't have a casino and control only a fraction of their ancestral territory - an area that was almost as large as Rhode Island. About 65% are unemployed, and many Karuk are still without electricity and phones. What they have are the fish: salmon and steelhead, eel-like Pacific lamprey and hulking green sturgeon. With dip nets in hand like their ancestors, tribal fishermen still work the Klamath's frothy pools when the salmon start running. As with neighboring tribes, the Karuk's culture, ceremonial life and subsidence revolve around the fish. Once, more than 1 million salmon returned to spawn every year. But now the migrating salmon have dwindled by 90%, according to tribal biologists. The spring run of Chinook salmon has all but disappeared. The sturgeon are teetering on the brink and stocks of lamprey, once so plentiful and prized for their nutritious meat, have plummeted. "Back in the day, we had 70 miles of river and more than 100 village sites, each with its own spot to fish," said Ron Reed, the Karuk's cultural biologist. "Today we're left with a handful of fishermen at Ishi Pishi." Ishi Pishi Falls - a steep section of Klamath rapids near Orleans - is among the Karuks' most sacred places. It lies in the shadow of a sheered-off mountain, dubbed Sugarloaf by white people but known as Auich to the Karuk, who believe it is where the first people came from. As salmon pause in calm pools below the falls before making another mad rush up the whitewater, tribal fishermen like Reed capture them with nets lashed to narrow oak poles bent into oval hoops. After the fish are dragged into the shallows, another tribe member clubs them with a wooden mallet. Walking to the edge of the rapids one day recently, Reed pointed to a cuff of smooth midstream rock, a clear sheet of water cascading around the top. To him it is a signpost. If there is water boiling across that rock, he said, there will be fish in the hole behind it. "There's a lot of technique and understanding to this," said Reed, his hair drawn up in a ponytail. "But there's very few fish anymore." PacifiCorp spent more than $10 million on environmental and engineering studies during the process of drafting its license-renewal application.> Spokesman Coney said the problem was that the Klamath was a river upside down. The water of most tributaries is cleanest at its source, but loads up with particulates and pollution as it runs to the river's mouth. The Klamath, in contrast, is dirtier in its upper reaches because of volcanic sediments and pollution from uses such as cattle ranching and farming. Studies by the firm indicate that the dams, about halfway down the run to the ocean, act as settling ponds, producing cleaner water for the last half of the journey, Coney said. The dam operator has found allies in Klamath Basin farmers. Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Assn., said razing the dams might prove "a terrible experiment" that would sully water quality in the lower river. Sending fish around the dams and into the compromised water upstream could amount to a death sentence, he said. "What we're seeing is a classic example of oversimplification and a whole lot of myth-making by the tribes and their allies," Keppen said. "I'm very skeptical that taking out those dams is going to help the way those protesters going to Scotland are saying." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Jul 21 18:56:34 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 18:56:34 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Public Hearing 8/12/04 on DRAFT TRINITY RIVER FISHERY RESTORATION SUPPLEMENTAL EIR Message-ID: <006701c46f8f$210e2c80$9b6c3940@V51NH> Dear Env-Trinity Subscribers, The following hearing notice appeared in the Trinity Journal on July 14, 2004. Even though it's more than likely that the Supplemental EIS/EIR process will be halted by the recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision, we already scheduled this hearing on the Public Draft TRINITY RIVER FISHERY RESTORATION SUPPLEMENTAL EIR. For a variety of reasons, we tried to hold the Planning Commission hearing in June and then July, but had to change it to August. Please don't get too excited about the possibility of the SEIR continuing, this is just something we need to get closure on. The deadline for written comments under CEQA is still July 22. The deadline for NEPA comments has already passed. My best guess is that the SEIS/EIR is a dead document, but I've seen nothing official yet. It could also change if the plaintiffs are successful in their appeals. Personally, after spending 10 years working on it, I'm happy to see it go away. Anyway, if you are confused and need clarification, please feel free to contact me at 530-628-5949. Yours truly, Tom Stokely Principal Planner NOTICE OF SECOND REVISED HEARING DATE FOR DRAFT TRINITY RIVER FISHERY RESTORATION SUPPLEMENTAL EIR The previous notice that was published in the Sacramento Bee and the Trinity Journal is hereby corrected by changing the date for the Public Hearing to receive oral comments on the Draft Trinity River Fishery Restoration Supplemental Environmental Report before the Trinity County Planning Commission to August 12, 2004 at 7 p.m., or soon thereafter, from the previous date of July 8, 2004, at 7 p.m. The meeting will still be held at the Trinity County Board of Supervisors' Meeting Room, Trinity County Library, 211 Main St., Weaverville, CA. Pursuant to NEPA, a 60-day public review period has been established for review of the SEIS/EIR. This review period began on April 23, 2004, and ended on June 22, 2004. A 75-day public review period has been established pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act. This review period began on May 9, 2004, and will end on July 22, 2004. Electronic copies of the SEIS/EIR are available for public review on the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific website for the Northern California Area Office at www.usbr.gov/mp/ncao (click on Projects/Activities/Documents, then on Trinity River - Restoration Program). Hard copies of the document are available for review at the Trinity County Planning Department at 190 Glen Road in Weaverville and 98A Clinic Ave in Hayfork, and at Trinity County Libraries in Hayfork, Weaverville, and Trinity Center. Electronic CD copies of the SEIS/EIR may be obtained at by contacting the Trinity County Planning Department and free of charge (subject to availability). The documents referenced within the SEIS/EIR are also available for public review at the CH2M Hill office located at 2525 Airpark Drive, Redding, California. Written comments are encouraged. Written comments submitted after June 22, 2004 pursuant to CEQA and prior to July 22, 2004 should be sent to Mr. Tom Stokely, Trinity County Natural Resources, P.O. Box 156, Hayfork, CA 96041-0156; telephone 530-628-5949; fax 530-628-5800. NOTE: If you Challenge the action or proposed action in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised through the public hearings and public comment period described in this notice, or in written correspondence. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Jul 26 10:46:49 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 10:46:49 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard Editorial by Yurok Chair- Remove the dams on the Klamath River Message-ID: <011201c47338$87dbac60$bb6c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2906~2294032,00.html?search=filter Remove the dams on the Klamath River My Word by Howard McConnell The Yurok Tribe is the most populous Indian tribe in California. Our reservation stretches from the mouth of the Klamath River at the Pacific Ocean to 44 miles upriver. For many years, our people did not have a voice in public affairs. We were even denied citizenship, though we fought and died alongside our fellow Americans in wars overseas defending the rights and freedoms we ourselves did not yet have. When we speak out on issues concerning life on the Klamath River, we speak with conviction for all people and creatures living in or near the lands the Creator gave to us to cherish and protect forever. This is our sacred mission and the purpose given to us. This purpose is enshrined in our Tribal Constitution. We are speaking now. We call upon PacifiCorp and ScottishPower's shareholders to take a bold, historic step forward in the preservation of a great species on a great river, the Klamath River, and remove the dams. We believe that they are poised to do so and we call upon all of our friends on the North Coast of California to support them. Very few times in one's life is there an opportunity to realize something truly great. I believe such a time is now. Together, the Yurok people and all the people who love and cherish this earth can help renew the strength and vitality of the salmon of this river. The existence of dams, these weapons of mass destruction, harms the life cycles of our salmon brothers. That's right, I say "salmon brothers." It is our belief that before there were any people, we were all kindred spirits. Spirits became birds, mammals, reptiles or fish. No creatures are more or less important than the spirits who became people. Thus, we believe all creatures are related as brothers and come from the same Creator. It is hard for me to lift a fish out of the water that has been trapped in my net and not hear him call out to me for help. And with so few salmon in the river these days, it is always with great respect that he will be food for my family and my people. I thank him and the Creator for the sacrifice of his life so that we can eat. Lately, the heavy burden I feel as I lift up my nets is not the weight of the fish, but of the heavy sadness that so few of my salmon brothers return these days. Our people have noted the steady decline in the numbers of salmon returning each year. In the early 1900s, prior to the first dams being built, this once great river yielded hundreds of thousands of salmon and steelhead. More than a million came back to the river each year in their migration to their ancient spawning grounds upriver. Now, the return of salmon is measured in the tens of thousands. The salmon harvests on the river are so restricted we cannot meet the basic subsistence and commercial needs of our people. All North Coast sports and commercial fisheries have suffered along with us. Maybe I will quit catching fish for my family, I think, but this will not solve the problem. The threats to my salmon brothers must be removed. The water quality and streambed access for spawning salmon must be restored. The Yurok Tribe will protect our salmon brothers and we call upon all who love the earth and the river to join us, especially PacifiCorp and ScottishPower. Removal of these dams would be a historic step to restoring Klamath River fish populations. This is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can save our salmon. Let's not allow this moment to pass and be lost along with the salmon forever. Howard McConnell is chairman of the Yurok Tribe. He lives in Klamath. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Jul 27 09:26:04 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 09:26:04 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: [tcrac] Passing of Bob Reiss Message-ID: <036601c473f6$6a794ce0$bb6c3940@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim French" To: Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 9:02 AM Subject: [tcrac] Passing of Bob Reiss > > > I was informed this morning that Bob Reiss passed away yesterday in > his car between Hayfork and Weaverville near Deerlick Springs. > > sadly, > > Jim French > From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Jul 27 11:18:03 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2004 11:18:03 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times-Standard - No plan yet for parched Klamath Message-ID: <040001c47406$1092d2e0$bb6c3940@V51NH> Please note that members of the Trinity River Restoration Program staff, the Trinity Management Council and Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group are shortly going to be putting together a plan for use of the extra water from the Trinity for late summer/early fall. Tom Stokely http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2297369,00.html No plan yet for parched Klamath By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Federal officials have yet to develop a plan to deal with a repeat of the 2002 fish kill on the Klamath River, even as flows in the lower river drop below that year's levels at this time. The flows are scheduled to level off, however, as water bought by the federal government begins to be sent down the river beginning in mid-August. That will keep river levels somewhat higher than they were in 2002. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is also looking to acquire more water to use in the event of such an emergency, but does not intend at this point to boost flows as a preventative measure. The agency has said in recent public meetings that it has acquired 25,000 acre feet of water from Central Valley water contractors at a price of $28 an acre foot. That water would come to the Klamath by way of the Trinity River, its colder, cleaner tributary. Reclamation is operating its Klamath Irrigation Project on the central California-Oregon border under a plan approved by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The bureau has dropped flows from lowermost Iron Gate Dam to 640 cubic feet per second. In accord with a restoration plan for the Trinity River, flows from Lewiston Dam are now at 450 cfs, after a large pulse of water sent down that river this spring. Flows at Klamath Glen, near the mouth of the river, are at 2,600 cfs. During September of 2002, flows averaged 1,990 cfs at Klamath Glen. That year, 34,000 migrating salmon -- mostly wild Trinity fish -- died in the river. The Yurok Tribe and others along the lower river cried foul, and said they'd warned of the disaster. The tribe is now pursuing litigation that alleges the bureau breached its tribal trust obligation to safeguard the fishery. A Fish and Wildlife report last year determined that low flows contributed to the fish kill, as did a large return of salmon, high water temperatures and other factors. This year, said Arcata Office Supervisor Irma Largomarcino of NOAA Fisheries, flows will be 230 cfs higher during September than they were in 2002. But how water from the Trinity River will be distributed, and what agency or group will decide that, is uncertain, she said. Some 13,000 acre feet of water is left over on the Trinity side, from a deal struck with Central Valley rice growers last year. But Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said the agency wants to be fully prepared, and is trying to round up more water. "I do know that we've been actively looking around," McCracken said. Tom Stokely, a senior planner for Trinity County, questioned why the bureau needs to pay for water, when it could honor Humboldt County's claim to 50,000 acre feet -- part of the 1955 Act authorizing the Trinity diversion project. "Why are we paying money to protect public trust resources?" Stokely said. The bureau is also required to maintain lake levels in Upper Klamath Lake to protect endangered sucker fish in the upper watershed. And flows into the lake are a mere 270 cfs, McCracken said. One difference is that this year, biologists are not expecting a large run of fish compared to the one that got clogged up and killed off in the lower river in 2002. The Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes are working with the federal government to identify triggers for releasing water should signs of a fish kill begin to emerge. "The gray part to me is the technical justification," said Hoopa Fisheries Director Mike Orcutt. Klamath Water Users Association Executive Director Dan Keppen said the bureau should have a set amount of water to use for fisheries purposes, but it shouldn't be automatically sent downstream -- that air temperature, water temperature and other factors should be considered. Otherwise, boosted cold flows from the Trinity could prompt fish to move upstream -- into inhospitable conditions if they choose to continue up the Klamath instead of the Trinity, Keppen said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Wed Jul 28 02:01:46 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 02:01:46 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Proposed gold mine threatens river refuge Message-ID: <410-2200473289146171@earthlink.net> Junction City, Trinity County -- When James Curran returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Marine sergeant in 1967, he sought out a refuge. He found it about 7 miles up Canyon Creek, a major tributary of the Trinity River. "It was so beautiful, so peaceful," recalled Curran, 60. "We've been here ever since." Curran ultimately got a job as a county social worker. He and his wife, Megan, raised two children, Michael and Caitlin, on their homestead, which has been transformed over the years into a vast garden of vegetable plots, fruit trees and greensward. Now in their 20s, Michael and aitlin still live on the property, working as river guides. But there is a potential intruder in the Currans' bucolic paradise: A proposed 23-acre open-pit gold mine, located on four separate but adjacent sites on the upper reaches of the creek in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The issue is bigger than Canyon Creek, say the Currans and their allies. They say the project threatens all the rivers in Northern California because it establishes a precedent for industrial-scale open-pit gold mining on federal land in the region. The Currans and their neighbors say the mine, proposed by Master Petroleum, a company controlled by partners Gloria Marshall and Cullen Thomas of Junction City, will scar the land and divert too much water from Canyon Creek and its tributary, the Big East Fork. Canyon Creek is known for its exceptionally cold, clean water, essential to the Trinity River's threatened salmon and steelhead runs. Additionally, say critics, the pits would be within 100 feet of the creeks, threatening them with polluted seepage. Open-pit mining differs significantly from dredge mining, which is commonly practiced on Northern California streams. Dredge mining employs a device that sucks up gold nuggets from the streambed; the amount of rock moved is minimal, though water siltation can occur. Open-pit mining involves the use of heavy equipment on the "benches" above a creek to dig through rocks and dirt to the gold-bearing stratum. Large amounts of water are required to process the recovered ore, and site reclamation is necessary to restore the land to a natural semblance. Master Petroleum could gain the right to establish the mine through the 1872 Mining Act, which allows private parties to stake claims on public lands Marshall and Thomas say fears about their proposal are overblown. They note that they have been extracting gold -- via open-pit methods -- from various spots on a 40-acre privately owned parcel adjacent to the proposed mine site for six years, and that they are in the process of restoring the areas where excavation has occurred. And Marshall said the mine will have no impact on anadromous fish (which ascend rivers from the sea for breeding). "The amount of water we'll use will not have an effect on the creeks," she said. "It's like a drop in the ocean." But critics of the project are not mollified. With a precedent set, they say, sensitive tributaries all along the Klamath and Trinity drainages would be vulnerable to open-pit mining, with much of their water used to process ore rather than sustain endangered salmonids. The Master Petroleum mine would use about 190,000 gallons of water a day for up to 22 days a month for 10 months out of the year -- more than the fisheries of the two affected creeks can tolerate, Michael Curran said, especially during dry years. As proposed, the mine would operate for up to 25 years. Another problem, say the Currans: The mine would be located cheek-by-jowl with the Trinity Alps Wilderness, one of the most heavily visited wilderness areas in the state. "The Canyon Creek trailhead services about 60 percent of the visitors to the wilderness area," said Caitlin Curran. "The area around the mine site is wild and heavily forested. This mine would be visible from the road, a blight on that landscape." Michael Curran also criticized restoration prospects for the mine. Downstream from the family homestead, said Curran, is a defunct open-pit mine considerably smaller than Master Petroleum's proposed project. It closed two decades ago, and restoration was attempted. "The only thing they've got growing on it is star thistle," he said. "It's barren." But Marshall says the project has been characterized inaccurately by opponents. "I just don't think people have been educated enough on the proposal," said Marshall. "We're within the guidelines for the riparian zones established by the U.S. Forest Service. We're going to restore the land. We won't have water-quality problems because the benches drain away from the creeks, not toward them." Gold, Marshall said, is a much-needed commodity, in demand by high-tech industries as well as jewelry manufacturers. "We're helping supply that commodity, and we're providing local jobs while we do it," she said. On two of the key points, Mike Mitchell, a supervisory natural resource planner for the U.S. Forest Service who is overseeing Master Petroleum's proposal, was in agreement with Marshall and Thomas. The amount of water the mine will use is equivalent to about 15 swimming pools a day, he said. "Considering the outflow of the creeks, that isn't much." Mitchell also said he believed sound restoration was possible after the mine's gold is played out. "I know some of the residents on Canyon Creek are unhappy about earlier restorations, and we'll be looking at that," he said. "I do think it can be done right." But the Hupa Indians, who live and fish along the Trinity, don't share Mitchell's sanguine view. In an e-mail to the forest service, Robert Franklin, a fisheries biologist employed by the tribe, argued that the proposed project would lead to irreparable impacts, including water-quality impairment, decreases in stream flows during periods critical to fish and degraded riparian zones. "Considering that the (federal) Wild and Scenic designation for the Trinity River is based on its outstanding anadromous fisheries, " Franklin wrote, "this project seems an inappropriate use for public land." Mitchell pointed out that the mine has not yet been approved. The forest service, he said, will take public comment through August, develop a list of alternatives and issue a draft environmental impact statement by spring of 2005. "If this project goes forward, it will be closely monitored and fully mitigated," he said. But the Currans believe there can never be adequate mitigation for open- pit mining on Canyon Creek. The issue, said James Curran, isn't about mining per se -- it's about industrial scale, destructive mining in sensitive areas. "We love miners," Curran said. "You have a dredge and want to take it into the river -- go for it. The impact is minimal. But this is horrendous. "And if it goes through, where will it stop? Technically, you could put open-pit mines all along the high bench on this creek, and along all the other creeks on the Trinity, and the Trinity itself, and the Salmon River on the Klamath. It'd be a catastrophe." E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin at sfchronicle.com. Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Jul 29 08:44:25 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 08:44:25 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Article Regarding Trip to Scotland by Klamath River Tribes Message-ID: Scottish Power Makes Commitment to Klamath River Tribes During Scotland Trip By Dan Bacher During a meeting with leaders of four Klamath River tribes on July 22, Ian Russell, Chief Executive of Scottish Power, said that he is ?committed to finding the right solutions? to the problems caused by the operation of a series of six dams that the corporation?s subsidiary, PacifiCorp, operates on the river. ?For this to be solved, we need high quality, well structured dialogue and we are committed to this,? said Russell. Russell also stated that ?the Tribes and Scottish Power have similar values? and spoke of having a deep respect for the sovereignty and history of the tribes. The meeting with Russell and Judi Johansen, the CEO and president of PacifiCorp, took place during the historic trip to Scotland by tribal leaders, including six representatives from the Yurok Tribe, five from the Klamath Tribe, eight from the Karuk Tribe and three from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Two representatives of Friends of the River and one representative of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Association also participated in the delegation. PacifiCorp?s dams block over 350 miles of historic spawning ground, degrade water quality and play a major part in the steady decline of what was once the third greatest salmon-producing river in the continental United States. PacifiCorp officials solicited input from the tribes and stakeholders over the past four years as their license application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was drafted. However, the final 80 lb. document didn?t include salmon restoration strategies or an evaluation of dam removal, two fundamental issues raised by the tribes, environmentalists and fishermen. The trip also took the group to the annual shareholders meeting of Scottish Power, where the group was wildly successful in putting the issue of Klamath River dams in front of the shareholders. During the meeting, tribal leaders asked the shareholders to ?search their hearts? and pressure the energy giant to remove dams to allow the salmon to reach their spawning grounds in the Klamath watershed. The delegation attracted wide media attention in Scotland, the United Kingdom and Europe ? as well as getting coverage in newspapers as far as away as Taipei, Taiwan. Not only did the group get a lot of attention from the media, but they also got a great reception from the Scottish people. As shareholders arrived, the delegates waved signs saying, ?Respect our fish, respect our people,? ?First the buffalo, now the salmon? and ?Red power meets Scottish power.? They danced and beat drums as they sang traditional songs. Motorists driving by honked in support. According to an article in the Glasgow Herald on July 24,?It was a simple message from a proud people. About 30 members of four native American tribes yesterday urged shareholders of a multinational energy giant to preserve their ancient culture.? ?Did we get a firm commitment from the corporation? No,? said Leaf Hillman, vice-chairman of the Karuk tribe and chairman of the Klamath River Inter Tribal Fish and Water Commission. ?Russell committed to maintaining an open line of communication and working toward a solution. That is not much different from what he have been hearing from PacifiCorp in the U.S during the FERC Renegotiation process.? However, Hillman said that he is extremely optimistic about the results of the trip. ?This is the first real shot across the bow of Scottish Power,? he stated. ?Before going to Scotland, I believe that we weren?t a blimp on Scottish Power?s screen. The chairmen of our tribes would probably not get past the secretary in Scottish Power?s offices. That has changed.? Hillman said that the support they received from the Scottish people was not unexpected, but the way they were treated by the shareholders was unexpected. ?During the shareholders meeting in the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, the shareholders demanded that Scottish Power listen to us,? said Hillman. ?They treated us with the utmost respect and dignity.? Merv George, director of the Klamath River Inter Tribal Fish and Water Commission and a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, was also greatly encouraged by the support the delegation received from the shareholders and the Scottish people. ?We brought up the noise level about the atrocities perpetuated on the Klamath not only to Scottish Power, but to the entire United Kingdom,? said George. ?During the shareholders meeting, the people completely embraced us. People were honking in support of us as they drove by and they took our handouts. It was amazing to see the level of support that we received. We pretty much hijacked the entire weekend with our issue. The Klamath River is definitely on Scottish Power?s radar screens now!? The tribes and supporters emphasized how that while they received none of the power or benefits from the operation of the dams, the dams have had a very negative impact on the river?s salmon, steelhead and other fish populations. He added, ?The bottom line is that we want to see the dams out of the river. In the Klamath Basin, it?s to everybody?s benefit ? fishermen, loggers, tribes and the local economy ? to get the resource restored.? Craig Tucker, outreach director of Friends of the River, said that although they didn?t get a binding commitment, they had a ?significant impact? upon Scottish Power. ?Before we went to Scotland, the upper management of Scottish Power had never even heard of the Klamath,? said Tucker. During the trip, Tucker said members of the delegation: ? Visited fish ladder facilities on Scotland?s largest river, where up to 11,000 Atlantic salmon ascend every year. ? Traveled to Brussels, Belgium to meet with representatives of the European Union regarding the need to pressure Scottish Power to remove the Klamath dams. ? Had a Member of Parliament, Robin Harper, introduce a resolution into the Scottish Parliament calling on Scottish Power to ?lead the way in taking active measures to reverse the decline in salmon numbers in what once was America?s third greatest salmon river.? ?The Klamath River issue goes beyond being an environmental issue,? concluded Tucker. ?With our trip to Scotland, the Klamath has now become an international human rights issue. Not only are the tribes denied a resource needed to sustain them in the modern economy, but they are denied the salmon that are a fundamental part of their religion.? As the tribes and supporters plan out their next step in their battle to restore the Klamath River, Tucker encouraged people to urge Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger to take a leadership role in the fight to ?bring the salmon home.? The tribes are looking to FERC to use its authority to protect tribal trust resources, but the CA Water Resources Control Board, under the Governor?s direction, can make demands on the license to protect fisheries. The target date for final license approval is March, 2006. For more information, contact: http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/ or http://www.klamathbasin.info/facts.htm. To file comments with FERC and for more information, also contact www.klamathwaterquality.com. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Jul 29 10:32:52 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 10:32:52 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times- Standard and Klamath Herald and News Editorials/Articles Message-ID: <007901c47592$14db2e00$806b3940@V51NH> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Editorial: Klamath plan needs to be solid Eureka Times-Standard - 7/29/04 Everyone knew months ago that this fall the Klamath River would be looking a lot like it did in 2002, when tens of thousands of fish died in a hot, shallow river. Despite the biological and political chaos that horrific event generated, federal officials are only now developing a plan to deal with another such possibility this year. The U.S. departments of Interior and Commerce have been scrambling to come up with water to let down the river in case the emergency arises. To date, Interior has bought up at least 25,000 acre feet of water at $28 an acre foot -- $700,000. It's buying it from California contractors that likely pay a lot less for that water themselves. Unfortunately, the government is buying water to protect a resource it is bound to protect, all the while ignoring Humboldt County's claim to 50,000 acre feet of Trinity River water -- which would likely be handed over for free to help salmon on the Klamath. Both the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the State Water Resources Control Board point at each other when they're asked which agency must free up the water, water that is clearly allocated to the county as part of the 1955 act authorizing the Trinity River diversion to the Sacramento River. In 2002, the government couldn't have acted more slowly to put water down the Klamath and open up the salmon run's tight quarters. In 2004, all we can hope is that the response will be faster. # KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Tribes: Dam removal on the table Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 7/28/04 By Dylan Darling, staff writer The chief executive officer of PacifiCorp's parent company, Scottish Power, vowed he will have the company do more to get salmon up the Klamath River, reported members of a multi-tribes delegation that was in Scotland last week. "He said dam removal is back on the table," said Jeff Mitchell, who made the trip, representing both the Klamath Tribes and the Klamath Intertribal Fish and Water Commission. Scottish Power CEO Ian Russell, along with PacifiCorp President and CEO Judi Johansen, met with some of the delegation the day before the company's annual general stockholders' meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, Friday. But a PacifiCorp spokesman in Portland said while the tribes are free to meet with whom they want, if they want changes, they need to stay involved with the stateside talks. "The real substantive talks of the process are the ones we have been holding out here all along," said Jon Coney, company spokesman. Representatives from the Klamath, Karuk, Hoopa and Yurok tribes, along with officials from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and the Sacramento-based conservation group Friends of the River, were in Scotland to go to the stockholder meeting because they weren't satisfied with how PacifiCorp was handling the issue of salmon passage in its application for a new 50-year hydroelectric dam license with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. During their meeting, Russell said he would pay attention to the Klamath salmon issue and that Johansen would meet with the tribes regularly, Mitchell said. Also while on the other side of the Atlantic, members of the group of about 20 split up, some meeting with investors in London and two others meeting with conservation groups and European Union officials in Brussels, Belgium, earlier in the week. The European Union is made up of 25 European countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Spain. It has a parliament with representatives from member countries. Mitchell, who along with Kelly Catlett, an attorney for Friends of the River, went to Brussels for three days, said they were able to meet with the equivalents of chiefs of staff for some members of the EU parliament and with one parliament member in person. He said the EU officials mostly just heard them out. In Scotland, the delegation made national television news broadcasts, were on the airwaves of the BBC and became regulars in the Scottish newspapers. "We were pretty much in the news every day," said Edward Guyer, a member of the Hoopa Tribal Council. They also got the attention of the Scottish Parliament, one of whose members drew up a motion to support the tribes in their effort to restore salmon even before the tribes got there. In part, the motion by Scottish Legislator Robin Harper said parliament "regards Scottish Power's failure to include salmon restoration strategies in its future plans as a failure and calls on Scottish Power to lead the way in taking active measures to reverse the decline in salmon numbers in what was once America's third greatest salmon river." Friday, the representatives from the different tribes gathered together for a demonstration outside the stockholder meeting. They sang, drummed and had a salmon bake during the four-to five-hour demonstration, according to an e-mail account by Kathy Hill, a member of the Klamath Tribes who was part of the delegation. Inside the meeting, Mitchell and Leaf Hillman, vice chairman of the Karuk Tribe, spoke before the stockholders. Hill wrote that their presentation must have been powerful. "As one shareholder told us when she left: 'I was shattered when I learned what has happened to you,' " Hill wrote. "Other shareholders expressed similar emotions, and we heard there were a few in tears." Hillman said the delegation went to Europe because after 2-1/2 years of meeting with PacifiCorp officials for a week per month, the company didn't include any plans for improved fish passage in its FERC application as the four tribes wanted. "That sent us a message that we need to do more than continue to talk to PacifiCorp," he said. Although the trip to Europe was expensive, it cost less than the meetings the tribes have been involved with over the last 2-1/2 years, Guyer said. He said it cost about $9,000 to send him and another member of his tribe on the trip, which was paid by an anonymous corporation. Mitchell said the costs of sending members of the Klamath Tribes was paid by tribes and "environmental friends." Hillman and Mitchell said the tribes will be back to meet with Scottish Power officials again, and they plan to go to next year's stockholders' meeting. They might even be back sooner, depending on how the continuing talks with PacifiCorp go stateside. "If we run into a stalemate, we'll be back," Mitchell said. He said the tribes might also come back to Europe to meet with other organizations and governing bodies, such as human rights committees and the United Nations. "I expect we will probably continue this and we will take it to a broader group of people on the other side of the world - it is not just a Klamath Issue," Mitchell said. PacifiCorp response disputes Klamath Tribes' lawsuit claims Portland-based PacifiCorp says that $1 billion in damage claims from the Klamath Tribes for the loss of salmon in the Klamath Basin are unjustified, according to papers filed in federal court in mid-July. The Tribes say the dams of the power company and its predecessors have blocked passage of Klamath River salmon, which they say were once a staple for their people. The claims were filed in May. The salmon migrated from the Pacific Ocean to the Basin to spawn. In response, the PacifiCorp said: - The hydroelectric facilities were designed and constructed in conformance with industry custom and state-of-the-art performance standards existing at the time of their construction. Most of the dams were put in during the first half of the 1900s. - The facilities were designed, constructed and are operated in compliance with state and federal law. - The Tribes damage claims shouldn't be allowed because they go against the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits excessive fines. # KLAMATH RIVER BASIN / ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUES Editorial: Don't dismiss tribal claims out of hand Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 7/27/04 It would be wise not to make too much or too little of the idea that the Klamath Tribes may file a raft of claims against the federal government. A tribal group is discussing the idea, as reported Sunday. A claim against the government for turning Crater Lake into a national park, for example, seems far fetched. It is far fetched. But far-fetched ideas sometimes bear fruit. Just let the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decide that the federal government owes an Indian tribe for a national park, and watch all hell break loose around here and across the nation. You'd see front-page stories from coast to coast about the possibility that the federal government would have to give up or pay for gems like Crater Lake, Yellowstone and Yosemite. It would make for a lot of interesting news and comment until the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in once again to put the 9th back in its place. But so far, all this is speculation. You never know what might happen in the courts. Absent a real lawsuit that cites an actual basis for a claim, there's not much to talk about. Except this: The Klamath Tribes clearly is trying to strengthen its hand in the overall struggle over Klamath Basin resources. Foremost for the tribes is land, restoration of the reservation that was sold when the tribal organization was terminated in the 1950s. This is the long-term objective of the tribes, and many of its members have been pursuing it almost from the moment of termination. Most of the Klamath Tribes' actions, including its positions in the water struggle, should be seen in this light. So should the idea that the Tribes are considering a gaggle of claims over Crater Lake, wildlife management and the like. Within the Klamath Basin, there's little support for restoring a reservation. That doesn't mean that courts or an unfriendly federal government might not force one on the Basin, or that support couldn't be generated if a reservation were part of an overall deal to settle the water struggle. As things stand today, though, the tribes have little chance at a land settlement. But time and things change. The Klamath Tribes have access to a fund of money, size unspecified, through its claims committee, and it has national backing from the likes of the Native American Rights Fund, headquartered in Denver. So long as the tribes can afford to field lawyers, it will attempt to advance the cause of tribal land. If just one claim sticks, that will change the overall position of all the players in the great Basin struggle. This is not something that anybody in the Klamath Basin can dismiss, no matter what anybody thinks of the idea of a restored reservation or the merits of the tribal claims.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Jul 29 10:38:59 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 10:38:59 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: July Klamath Congressional Field Hearing - What was Learned? Message-ID: <009101c47592$eed30ba0$806b3940@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Keppen To: Dan Keppen Cc: KWUA Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2004 9:51 AM Subject: July Klamath Congressional Field Hearing - What was Learned? This interview was publicly released by the National Water Resources Association earlier this week. July Klamath Congressional Field Hearing ? What Was Learned? Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Klamath Water Users Association, talked with the National Water Resources Association about the Congressional field hearing that occurred on July 17. Below is the transcript of the July 26 interview: NWRA: Can you tell us how the House Resources Field Hearing on the Klamath Water Users situation went? KEPPEN: A Congressional Field Hearing was held to specifically discuss the Endangered Species Act and the application of the ESA in Klamath project operations. Prior to the two hour hearing, we also had a rally out in front of the theater where the hearing took place that drew about 1,000 people. The hearing itself, I thought, was very constructive and positive despite how it?s been portrayed by some of our critics in statements made in the press. The things that stand out to me: First, everybody on the witness stand, which I believe included nine different interests representing tribes, conservation groups, irrigators and government agencies, all agreed that peer review is something that could help in how ESA is administered. Second, it was interesting to note that all the panelists also agreed that new storage facilities would also be beneficial toward helping solve problems we face in the Klamath Basin. I think those two messages came out loud and clear. Also in general, the Committee?s rehash of what happened in 2001 provided a very large media contingent with a clear understanding that the Project was drastically impaired in 2001 and that we have to make sure that that doesn?t happen again. Peer review via Congressman Walden?s bill is one way to help that from occurring again. NWRA: Yes I do know in 2001, the decision to shut off the water from the Klamath Water Users farmers was later found by the National Academy of Sciences to be a bad decision. Congressman Walden?s legislation would try to fix that situation because his legislation requires peer review in situations where jeopardy is determined. Was there any new information that came forward during the hearing that was helpful to the process? KEPPEN: A couple of things were brought out both in the testimony that was provided by the witnesses and also through the questioning of the witnesses by the Congressmen on the committee. First of all I think Dave Vogel, who is a scientist with nearly 30 years of experience, and much of that in the Klamath Basin, had very interesting testimony that talked about the kind of double standard that exists in the Endangered Species Act relative to criteria used to list and delist the species. As an example, he pointed out to the listing of the suckers, which have taken away from our flexibility to manage stored water for irrigation supplies. It was interesting to note that prior to the listing of the suckers, the Klamath Project was not even identified as a major stressor to those species, yet after listing occurred, the agencies and environmental groups just focused on the federal Klamath Project operations and now exclusively lake level management is what drives efforts to purportedly avoid jeopardizing the sucker fish. Dave also mentioned in his testimony that prior to the Coho being listed on the river that the Klamath Project operations weren?t listed as a significant stressor to the fish and yet after listing occurred, flow management out of the Klamath project became the primary mechanism to avoid jeopardizing the fish. I thought that was very riveting testimony, and it caught the attention of a lot of folks in the audience. For the 33 media outlets there, which was an incredible turnout from the press, they hopefully become aware of the fact that the so-called division that existed between fisherman, farmers and conservationists is not all that it is made out to be. Ralph Brown, a commercial fisherman who is also a County Commissioner for Curry County, Oregon testified that there?s great opportunity for farmers and fishermen to work together and in fact we have a lot in common, probably more in common than a lot of people realize. Bill Gaines of California Waterfowl Association testified to show the beneficial relationship that occurs between irrigated agriculture and the wildlife refuges served by the project. We are constantly battling myths in the Klamath Basin, myths driven by extreme environmental activists. One of those myths is that the farmers are destroying the refuges, and Mr. Gaines? testimony refuted that. The other myth is farmers and fisherman are at odds with one another. I believe Mr. Brown?s testimony showed that the two groups actually can have a very constructive working relationship. NWRA: Wasn?t it true that the farmers actually created the wetlands? KEPPEN: Well, the wetlands are primarily provided by the refuges themselves, which include large open bodies of water. The refuges serve as resting areas for the birds. 75% of the food that the waterfowl use comes from the adjacent farmland or the leaselands that are a part of the Klamath refuges. So it?s just another myth out there that the farmers are somehow ruining the refuges. The fact is that food that is provided by the farmlands is a huge benefit and is one reason why we get so many birds coming to this area. NWRA: You mentioned the need for additional storage. How much storage would you estimate to be sufficient in increasing the flexibility of the system? KEPPEN: We haven?t really developed hard conclusions about specific projects. What we?ve offered up as an association is a list of half a dozen projects that have been studied in the past, that we believe if they are studied relative to one another using the same screening criteria, will lead to one or two that will make the cut. These are the projects that we will need to push forward and develop. One of those projects that looks more promising is Long Lake, which would be an off-stream storage reservoir, similar to the proposed Sites Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley. Preliminary modeling shows that constructing that project, which stores about 350,000 acre-feet of water, would essentially take care of the regulatory demands that have been placed on the project in the last 10 years. That storage could exclusively be used to take care of the environmental needs driven by the ESA and to help refuge needs. Then the Upper Klamath Lake water supply, which was originally constructed for irrigation purposes 100 years ago, can be returned to the farmers, and that essentially will take care of many of your problems in most years. We don?t have the exact number as far as storage volume required because it?s such a complicated system, but it looks like somewhere in the ballpark of 500,000 acre-feet, which would solve most of our problems. NWRA: What is the next step for the Klamath Water users? KEPPEN: One thing we want to do is to continue to use the momentum from this hearing to shine light on some of these bills that have been proposed to help the Endangered Species Act, such as Congressmen Walden?s peer review bill, which passed the House Resources Committee last week. We want to continue to use momentum from the hearing to get attention focused on that issue. We continue to advocate and plead to our State and Federal leaders to come together in a forum of some sort and provide the leadership that we need to get the various stakeholders together and truly manage the Klamath River on a larger watershed-wide basis instead of continually focusing on our small sliver of the river basin. We will continue to advocate for an open process where the stakeholders who are effected the most will have a say in these decisions that can have such a huge impact on communities. Dan Keppen Executive Director Klamath Water Users Association 2455 Patterson Street, Suite #3 Klamath Falls, OR 97603 (541) 883-6100 - Fax (541) 883-8893 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Jul 29 15:26:56 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 15:26:56 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] NOMINATIONS REQUESTED FOR TRINITY RIVER ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT WORKING GROUP Message-ID: <01af01c475bb$29eabbc0$806b3940@V51NH> For Immediate Release: NOMINATIONS REQUESTED FOR TRINITY RIVER ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT WORKING GROUP A key milestone in the restoration of the Trinity River was reached in December 2000 when former Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt signed the Record of Decision for the Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration Final Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report. This decision outlined a series of actions, including the formation of the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group, an advisory committee now being chartered by the Secretary of the Interior under provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Public Law 92-463). When the charter is renewed, this committee will give interested stakeholders an opportunity to provide recommendations on policy, management, and technical subjects related to the Trinity River Restoration Program. Specifically, the Working Group will provide advice on the effectiveness of management actions in achieving restoration goals, alternative courses of action to achieve those goals, the priority of restoration projects, funding priorities, and other program components. The Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group, established by the Record of Decision is seeking nominations for members of the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group. A total of twelve to twenty members will be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior based on the nominations submitted. Nominations should represent a broad cross-section of agencies, organizations, and groups that are not otherwise represented on the Trinity Management Council. These interests may include, but are not limited to: residents of the Trinity River basin, recreational and commercial fishermen, commercial and recreational boaters, power utilities, irrigators, forestry associations, farmers and ranchers, public trust interests, tribal interests, and the general public. Nominees should be individuals authorized to speak on behalf of their respective constituent groups, with a demonstrated interest in and commitment to implementation of the Record of Decision. These representatives must also be free from any conflict of interest or financial gain resulting from the Trinity River Restoration Program. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the lead agency responsible for ensuring completion of the charter and receiving nominations for membership. Recommendations will be made to the Secretary of the Interior that result in a balanced committee with a broad-based cross-section of Trinity basin stakeholders. Nominees will be evaluated based upon the following criteria: a.. Knowledge of and association with the Trinity River, its watershed, and related resources b.. Knowledge of and experience in adaptive management c.. Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with competing interests -more- The Working Group will meet at least twice a year. While members serve without compensation, travel and subsistence expenses are reimbursable. Various technical subcommittees may be formed to assist in the operations of the Working Group. Upon selection, the committee will elect officers and develop working guidelines. Nominations should be submitted by September 20, 2004 to: Manager U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service California/Nevada Operations Office Attn: Dr. Mary Ellen Mueller 2800 Cottage Way Sacramento, CA 95825 Nominations should include the following information: ? Name and title or position of the nominee; ? Contact information (mail, e-mail, telephone, fax); ? Name and contact information of nominator (if self-nominated, so indicate); ? Description of the group or interest represented; ? Reasons why nominee should be appointed (not to exceed 2 pages); ? Statement that nominee does not have a conflict of interest or receive financial gain from any group or program associated with the Trinity River Restoration Program; ? Brief resume of nominee (not to exceed 2 pages); ? One letter of reference (for self-nominated individuals only). Questions concerning the nomination process may be directed to Vina Frye, Technical Support, for the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group at (707) 822-7201 e-mail:vina_frye at fws.gov or to MaryEllen Mueller, Designated Federal Official, at (916) 414-6464 e-mail: MaryEllen_Mueller at fws.gov ## -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From truman at jeffnet.org Sat Jul 31 08:36:39 2004 From: truman at jeffnet.org (Patrick Truman) Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 08:36:39 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] WR&TC Biomass Award Message-ID: <004101c47714$2d2ea760$65c84240@default> http://www.usda.gov/Newsroom/0290.04.html Watershed Research and Training Center (Hayfork, Calif.) - Hayfork Biomass Utilization and Value Added Model for Rural Development - $503,400 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Aug 2 09:56:43 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2004 09:56:43 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] AP's Don Thompson on Klamath Fish Message-ID: <20040802165651.8BFE120272EA@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Estimate of Klamath fish kill could double Associated Press - 7/31/04 By Don Thompson, staff writer SACRAMENTO -- The massive 2002 Klamath River fish kill, already counted as one of the nation's largest, could have killed twice as many fish as previously projected, the California Department of Fish and Game said Friday. Commercial fishermen said the larger projected kill could do even more harm to their industry next year, as the offspring of that fall's salmon run begin to return upstream from the ocean. They complained conditions this year could spark a repeat of the disaster. "Maybe as much as half the run died in one fell swoop," said Steve Pedery of the Oregon Natural Resources Council. The federal Bureau of Reclamation said it is prepared to release more water as needed this summer to avert another fish kill, and questioned the new higher kill estimate. The previous fish-kill estimate of 34,056 fish was "conservative," the department said in its final report on the incident: "Actual losses may have been more than double that number." "We're two years later. How do we know that?" countered Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken. The state report blamed near-record-low river flow for concentrating returning fall-run chinook salmon near the mouth of the river, where they were susceptible to bacterial infections. The result was "unprecedented" for the Klamath River and perhaps the largest salmon kill ever recorded on the West Coast, said report co-author Steve Turek, a senior state environmental scientist. Like other major kills on Oregon's Rogue River, California's Butte Creek, and British Columbia's Babine and Frasier rivers, the fatal combination seems to be lots of fish, not enough water, warm water temperatures and the presence of disease, the department found. Ironically, the fall run was larger than average that year, helping lead to the die-off that now threatens fishermen's limits. "Not many fish are coming back. Now we know why," said Glen Spain, regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. That will mean record low salmon runs next year and devastating losses for commercial fishermen up and down the West Coast, Spain said. His organization earlier this month asked President Bush for economic disaster relief for losses it said could run to hundreds of millions of dollars for fishing communities from Fort Bragg north to Coos Bay, Ore. Spain contended the federal government is creating the same conditions again this year by releasing too little and too warm water from the Klamath Basin, leading to "a perpetual drought on the lower river" to save irrigation water for farmers upstream. But McCracken said the government released sufficient water from the tributary Trinity River last year to avoid another Klamath fish kill, and is prepared to do the same this year if necessary. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Aug 3 12:11:58 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 12:11:58 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Flows Message-ID: <20040803191218.C6CD82003DB0@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> >From Douglas Schleusner: This email summarizes the action taken by the Trinity Management Council during its conference call yesterday, August 2. The TMC voted to recommend to Reclamation and the Fish and Wildlife Service that the currently available 36,300 AF be used for a proactive release from Lewiston Dam starting Aug 23 to benefit fall run fish entering the lower Klamath river. Attached is the recommended flow schedule (and graph). The flow schedule is very similar to what occurred last year. To minimize public safety risks, the ramp up from 450 to 1,650 cfs would begin on Sunday evening 8/22 and reach 1,650 cfs by early morning on 8/23. The attached flow schedule also includes a 60 cfs every other day to (as opposed to the constant 30 cfs per day ramp down rate used in 2003) for easier operations. Additionally, the TMC recommended that Reclamation seek an additional 13,700 AF (for a total of 50,000 AF) to provide an emergency reserve in case disease monitoring indicates additional action is needed. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: TMC rec 2004 fall releases.xls Type: application/vnd.ms-excel Size: 27136 bytes Desc: not available URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Mon Aug 9 07:26:01 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Mon, 09 Aug 2004 07:26:01 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Letter from Scottish Power Re. Klamath River Message-ID: Hello Activists! The following is the letter I received from Scottish Power today in response to my letter regarding restoring the Klamath River. Dan Dear Mr Bacher, Thank you for contacting ScottishPower regarding our subsidiary PacifiCorp's Klamath River Hydroelectric Project.? We hope you find the following information useful and informative.? First, please be assured that ScottishPower and PacifiCorp have a full appreciation for the issues raised by the Native American Tribal leaders and a long-standing respect for, and interest in, Tribal social, economic and cultural issues.? We are pursuing a collaborative working relationship with all Klamath Basin stakeholders, which includes the Klamath Basin Tribes. The Klamath River Basin is enormously complex, with myriad impacts and interests, including those of the Tribes, federal and state government regulators, irrigators, recreational users, fisheries, environmentalists and others.? All of these groups are affected not only by the river's management, but also by changes in climate, weather and other conditions impacting the vast and diverse ecology of the Klamath Basin. Federal agency intervention and decision making in response to these conditions also impacts PacifiCorp in its efforts to provide low cost electric power to its customers.? Our role and interest in the Klamath River creates an opportunity to demonstrate our corporate commitment to sound resource management, responsible environmental practices and sustainability. As you may know, the Klamath River originates in south central Oregon and flows into northern California.? PacifiCorp owns and operates a five-dam hydroelectric project on the upper Klamath River at a distance of over 190 miles from the river's confluence with the Pacific Ocean.? The project is licensed by the federal government and has been part of the fabric of the local community for nearly a century.? As part of project construction, PacifiCorp's predecessor worked with governmental agencies to establish and operate fish hatcheries in lieu of fish passage - a common approach at the time.? These hatcheries continue to produce millions of salmon and steelhead each year that provide for tribal, commercial and recreational harvest. PacifiCorp, along with Klamath Basin Tribes, state and federal fisheries agencies, commercial fisherman, and environmental groups, are very focused upon the health and prosperity of Klamath River fish.? A drought in 2001 brought national attention to the Basin as farmers protested irrigation shutdowns that were ordered by federal agencies to protect Klamath River sucker fish, a listed endangered species.? The Klamath again was in the national spotlight in September 2002 following a massive fish kill in the lower 40 miles of the Klamath River that resulted in over 33,000 dead salmon.? This fish kill appears to have been caused by an outbreak of parasites in the river, which some have attributed to poor federal river management. Since 2000, PacifiCorp has been engaged with over a hundred interested parties including state and federal resource agencies, local, national and international environmental groups, basin farmers and Klamath Basin Tribes as part of the process to renew the federal operating license for the project.? As part of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission relicensing, the federal government will conduct a comprehensive environmental review process of PacifiCorp's hydroelectric facilities and the environmental resources in the region. The environmental review will include an in-depth analysis of the fish populations and the best opportunities to restore and support Klamath River fisheries.? This process will enlist significant stakeholder and public participation.? It would be inappropriate for PacifiCorp or any Klamath Basin stakeholder to presuppose the review's findings, which could include additional fish passage measures, actual dam removal or a host of additional environmental restoration initiatives. Further, within the scientific community, there is real debate over the most viable solution to this important problem - driven in a large part by the issue of water quality in the Klamath Basin.? There are no easy solutions to the long-standing tensions between the various interest groups associated with the Klamath River system. ? Hopefully you are probably aware that PacifiCorp, (along with its parent company ScottishPower,) has a very strong environmental record.? PacifiCorp has received numerous awards for environmental stewardship and has successfully relicensed five other hydroelectric projects within the past five years. We are approaching the Klamath with the utmost seriousness and hopefulness, and we remain committed to productive discussions with all interested parties.? Along these lines, we are making every possible effort to bring about a positive outcome by transitioning into the next phase of collaborative work with all Basin interests, through which we hope to develop a negotiated outcome.? This new phase will include representation from a broad range of interests, including the Klamath Basin Tribes.? We sincerely hope that everyone will join us and contribute in a positive manner toward a negotiated outcome that balances all interests and makes the Klamath Basin a healthier ecosystem. Again, thank you for contacting us.? PacifiCorp values your opinions and ideas, and we welcome any comments you may have.? Please contact us toll-free at 1-800-532-1626 if we can be of further assistance. Yours sincerely, Gillan Rankin Corporate Social Responsibility Co-ordinator Internal 704 4797 External 0141 566 4797 gillan.rankin at scottishpower.com -----Original Message----- From: Dan Bacher [mailto:danielbacher at hotmail.com] Sent: 19 July 2004 18:21 To: Scottish Power Subject: Help save the Klamath Salmon and Native Cultures Dan? Bacher 3201 Eastwood Road Sacramento, CA 95821 July 19, 2004 Dear? Power: Sir or Madam: As a Californian proud of the diverse cultures and ecosystems of our great state, I write to ask your help and share some information. Your subsidiary, PacifiCorp, is currently relicensing the Klamath dam complex. By not working with local Native American Tribes, fishermen,? and environmentalists,? PacifiCorp is not living up to the 'green' reputation of Scottish Power. These dams block over 350 miles of historic spawning habitat and degrade water quality. We once hosted over a million returning salmon each year, but no more. The culture of the Hoopa, Yurok, Karuk,? and Klamath Tribes depend on the salmon. We need to restore this fishery. We appeal to you for help in saving this important resource. Sincerely, Sincerely, danielbacher at hotmail.com ************************************************************************ This e-mail is intended solely for the person or organisation to which it is addressed. It may contain privileged and confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are prohibited from copying, disclosing or distributing this e-mail or its contents (as it may be unlawful for you to do so) or taking any action in reliance on it. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please delete it then advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail to Gillan.Rankin at scottishpower.plc.uk. Without prejudice to the above prohibition on unauthorised copying and disclosure of this e-mail or its contents, it is your responsibility to ensure that any onward transmission, opening or use of this message and any attachments will not adversely affect your or the onward recipients' systems or data.? Please carry out such virus and other such checks as you consider appropriate. An e-mail reply to this address may be subject to monitoring for operational reasons or lawful business practices. This e-mail is issued by a Scottish Power Group Company. In sending this e-mail the sender cannot be deemed to have specified authority and the contents of the e-mail will have no contractual effect unless (in either case) it is otherwise agreed between that Scottish Power Group company and the recipient. The ScottishPower Group companies include, among others: Scottish Power plc, company number SC193794; Scottish Power UK Holdings Limited, company number SC232909; Scottish Power UK plc, company number SC117120; ScottishPower Generation Limited, company number SC189124; ScottishPower Energy Retail Limited, company number SC190287; ScottishPower Energy Management Limited, company number SC215843; ScottishPower Energy Management (Agency) Limited, company number SC222524; SP Dataserve Limited, company number SC215842.? All of which companies are registered in Scotland and have their registered offices at 1 Atlantic Quay, Glasgow G2 8SP, UK. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Aug 9 14:05:53 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 14:05:53 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] San Diego Union-Tribune -Environment of doubt greets efficiency report -State may eliminate water board system Message-ID: <001001c47e54$a8d069c0$8b6b3940@V51NH> STATE GOVERNMENT / PERFORMANCE REVIEW Environment of doubt greets efficiency report State may eliminate water board system San Diego Union-Tribune - 8/9/04 By Terry Rodgers, staff writer A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's team of government-efficiency experts to reduce and consolidate the state's environmental agencies is getting a thumbs down from several leading environmentalists. "All that's needed is minor adjustments, but the California Performance Review is recommending major surgery," said Encinitas resident Steve Aceti, director of the California Coastal Coalition. "It's way beyond what is needed to make things more efficient." Schwarzenegger's hand-picked efficiency commission, which did not include environmentalists, has called for reorganizing most of the state's environmental agencies under two new departments, Environmental Protection and Natural Resources. "People have the impression it's primarily a power grab at the executive level," Aceti said. "This is going to create a bigger, centralized bureaucracy and that may not be a better approach for environmental issues." Among the most controversial is a recommendation to eliminate the state's system of nine regional water quality boards, which enforce the federal Clean Water Act and the state's Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. "It's an incredibly bad idea," said Jack Minan, a University of San Diego law professor and chairman of the Region 9 San Diego Water Quality Control Board. "There would not be the check-and-balance of decision making at the local level." The regional board system is a decentralized approach to regulating and preventing water pollution. Decisions are made by board members, appointed from the community by the governor, who often tailor pollution-prevention programs and enforcement to reflect local conditions. "The regional boards are accessible to the average person and they allow more citizens to participate in protecting and preserving clean water," said San Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye, a longtime clean-water activist. Eliminating them, Frye said, "would be outrageous and counter-productive. The problem with these super agencies is that they are not efficient." Shelley Luce of Santa Monica-based Heal the Bay, a nonprofit environmental group, said the regional boards provide a local sounding board for grass-roots activists to push for cleaner water. Eliminating or weakening them, she said, "would be a disaster for water quality in California." The inconsistencies of the regional board system are well-known. San Diego's board has been honored by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for vigilant enforcement and adopting tough regulations to curb urban runoff pollution. In contrast, the Central Valley's board has balked at holding the agriculture industry to the same standards. Wayne Rosenbaum, a San Diego attorney and expert on the complex urban runoff regulations, said the business community strongly favors making the bureaucracy more user-friendly. "If you had a single statewide board you would obtain greater consistency and greater efficiency," Rosenbaum said. Most business and industry representatives cannot serve on the regional boards because of conflict-of-interest regulations barring anyone who is regulated by any of the board's clean-water permits, he said. A lengthy report recommending the changes says consolidating California's numerous environmental agencies will eliminate duplication and foster a more cohesive set of policies and interagency cooperation. While he supports the idea of making the government more efficient, Wayne Nastri, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency's Southwest Region, said improving the environment should remain the overriding goal. "Many states do things differently than California," Nastri said. "We believe we can work with any organizational structure. "It all comes down to the bottom line: Is the water purer, the air cleaner and the land better protected?" Former state Sen. Fred Keeley, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League, echoed similar concerns. "I think there has to be an agreement first on the management objectives," Keeley said. "We have to ask ourselves: What are we managing towards in the environment?" Keeley said the government-efficiency report should be treated like an Olympic diving match. "I would take out all the highs and then remove all the lows and try to deal with what's in between," he said. The California Performance Review Commission has scheduled a public hearing on the environmental portion of its report from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday at the University Lecture Hall of the University of California Riverside. The report is available on the Web at http://www.report.cpr.ca.gov/ # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Aug 9 16:20:46 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 16:20:46 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Eureka Times-Standard -Snubbed: Interior Department ignores Humboldt's request for Trinity water Message-ID: <00f601c47e67$8062b3e0$8b6b3940@V51NH> CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT / TRINITY RIVER Snubbed: Interior Department ignores Humboldt's request for Trinity water Eureka Times-Standard - 8/4/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer The U.S. Interior Department essentially chose not to answer Humboldt County's request for water promised as part of the project that diverts part of the Trinity River south. The county has been trying to secure some 50,000 acre feet -- 16 billion gallons -- it is allotted as part of the 1955 Trinity River Division Act. An April letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton was answered last week by Duncan Brown of the Office of the Executive Secretariat. It dodges the question. Brown replies that since a July decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals fully implements a restoration plan for the river, more water will flow down the Trinity anyway. Flows will increase under the plan to help restore the river's salmon, but the additional water will be sent down the river in the spring. Some 53 percent of the river's flows above Lewiston Dam will still be sent to the Sacramento River, where it's withdrawn by Central Valley irrigators. "This proposal will undoubtedly improve the habitat fish need to survive and multiply," Brown wrote. But Humboldt County officials hope to use the water in case an emergency arises on the Klamath River in the fall. The water could be used to raise and cool the lower Klamath River, where in 2002 between 34,000 and 68,000 chinook salmon died. State and federal studies have pointed to low flows as a key element that perpetuated the salmon-killing diseases. The Interior Department is in the process of buying the same amount of water, 50,000 acre feet, from Central Valley water contractors, for that purpose. Longtime environmental law attorney Michael Jackson said that the Bush administration, already knee-deep in western water conflicts, probably isn't willing to take up anything new before the November elections. "They're just flat out at 100 percent," Jackson said. "I presume they just don't want to think about it." Jackson said the county may now need to go directly to the State Water Resources Control Board, which could order the contract be honored. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Aug 9 16:45:39 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 16:45:39 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Schlosser Law Files on Trinity River, Indian Law and Hoopa-Yurok Settlement Message-ID: <012401c47e6a$fac40500$8b6b3940@V51NH> Dear subscribers, If you are interested in getting specific documents on the Trinity River and Indian Law, please go to the website: http://www.schlosserlawfiles.com It has a Trinity River section which includes links to various court documents on the Trinity River ROD and other related items. It's a great reference website. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Aug 9 18:09:41 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 9 Aug 2004 18:09:41 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Coho Listed by F&G Commission Message-ID: <01b701c47e76$b7e511a0$8b6b3940@V51NH> Klamath-Trinity coho are officially listed as threatened under CESA. FISHERIES PROTECTION Northern California's coho salmon now on endangered species list Associated Press - 8/6/04 SAN FRANCISCO - Northern California's struggling coho salmon population will get an extra layer of protection from the state's Endangered Species Act. The state Fish and Game Commission voted Thursday in Bridgeport to place coho salmon from San Francisco to Punta Gorda in Humboldt County on the state's "endangered" list. Coho from Punta Gorda to the Oregon border will be designated as "threatened." "It was time to bite the bullet here and list the species as endangered," said Sam Schuchat, commission vice president. "We're down to thousands of fish. If we hadn't done what we did today, the species is going to wink out of existence and be gone forever." Environmentalists who pushed for the listing hailed the vote, which now mandates that loggers, farmers and other developers seek special permits before embarking on projects that might harm the once-abundant fish. >From San Francisco to Oregon, the coho population has plunged 70 percent since the 1960s, and is estimated to be just 6 percent to 15 percent of its 1940s level despite the release of millions of hatchery-raised fish, according to the commission. Commercial harvests dropped off dramatically in the 1970s. In 2002, the state Department of Fish and Game released a comprehensive review on the coho, warning of impending extinction and recommending the protections. In February, the commission approved a $5 billion, 25-to-30-year plan to revive the species and restarted the process to seek protections. The massive recovery plan included more than 1,000 recommendations intended to boost the salmon population to the point that it can sustain recreational, commercial and tribal fishing, eventually resulting in its removal from the endangered list. "Recovering the species is a question of fixing thousands and thousands of little things across the state that add up to one giant thing," Schuchat said. Groups representing logging and farming interests have opposed the listing, saying it creates additional regulatory burdens and questioning whether the situation is as perilous as wildlife regulators describe. Farmers and ranchers monitoring the issue are "counting a lot of coho out there," said Pam Giacomini, director of natural resources and commodities at the California Farm Bureau. "That doesn't tell us that the coho are at risk of extinction." Federal protections already exist for the species, and Thursday's move will allow the state to request federal money for the recovery plan. Coho south of San Francisco Bay have been under state protection since 1995. - On the Net: Read the report: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/nafwb/CohoRecovery/ # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Aug 10 12:13:39 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:13:39 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee - Reliable Water for Western San Joaquin Valley Farms Message-ID: <004301c47f23$62948520$b46c3940@V51NH> AGRICULTURAL USE / CENTRAL VALLEY Farms look to longevity Reliable water supply lets local growers devote more acres to permanent crops. Fresno Bee - 8/8/04 By Robert Rodriguez, staff writer Rows of cotton, tomatoes and sugar beets are giving way to orchards of almonds and pistachios as farmers in western Fresno County search for more profitable crops. Within the sprawling 600,000-acre Westlands Water District -- the region's primary water source -- farmers say a more reliable water supply coupled with a booming market for nuts are driving the growth in permanent crops. The shift adds to the diversity of crops grown in the area and holds the promise of more year-round work for residents within the district's boundaries. Of the new permanent plantings within the district, almonds lead the way. Almond acreage grew by 29% to 37,554 acres from 2000 to 2003. During the same period, pistachio acreage rose by 117%, to 11,158 acres. And table grape acreage grew by 22%, to 1,235 acres. "We have always believed that the stability of water would result in farmers making the investment in permanent crops," said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Westlands Water District. "Just the fact that farmers are making more costly investments that produce higher-value crops is very encouraging." Hull said a combination of factors, including the purchase of 55,000 acres of drainage-impacted land and policy changes within federal regulatory agencies, have created a more dependable flow of water. The district also plans to purchase 45,000 more acres over the next two years. "There is no doubt that when you go into planting permanent crops you aren't going to do it without a reliable water supply," said Vince Marshall of Gragnani Farms. "Water is always an issue." Marshall and his family have planted about 1,000 acres of almonds, about half nonbearing. It takes about three years before a newly planted tree can produce a crop. Marshall realizes he is taking a gamble on planting a crop that won't earn money for several years, but he and other farmers are awed by the almond industry's performance over the past several years. Despite record crops that eclipsed one billion pounds, exports and domestic consumption are on the rise. Per capita consumption of almonds in the United States increased 57% between 1996 and 2000, according to the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. And domestic shipments, during the same period, increased 54%. In the almond industry, California reigns supreme, producing nearly 100% of the nation's supply and 88% of the world's almonds. This summer, almond exports topped $1 billion and are expected to reach $1.5 billion by year's end. Prices for almonds also are at a premium, ranging from $2.25 to $2.35 a pound for the nonpareil supreme variety of almonds. "Almonds is one of the greatest ag stories in the U.S.," said Susan Brauner, spokeswoman for Blue Diamond Growers in Sacramento. "And the outlook is just as good through the end of the decade." But Brauner said Blue Diamond officials caution growers against overplanting. Marshall said he realizes that every industry has its limits. That is why he and other west Fresno County growers are adding almonds as part of diverse operations. "We aren't going to put all our eggs into one basket," Marshall said. "Most of our ground is suitable for rows crops, and we need to have that option." The Gragnani family grows 15 commodities, including traditional west Fresno County staple crops such as cotton, onions, alfalfa, wheat and sugar beets. The family farms 12,000 to 14,000 acres, depending on the season and the crop's price. Economist Wendy Illingworth, who wrote a report for Westlands on the economic impact of land retirement, said permanent crops also can be more appealing because they are not tied to federal price support programs such as cotton. "We are talking about crops that don't have to worry about anything other than the market," Illingworth said. "These are crops that are independent of political issues." Illingworth's 2002 analysis found that as Westlands acquires land and takes it out of production, more water becomes available for land remaining in production. Westlands farmer Mark Borba, a cotton, garlic and processing-tomato grower, has debated for 10 years the decision to plant almonds. He recently planted 480 acres of almonds and will plant an additional 2,000 acres this fall. "We have watched this a long time, and we really believe almonds has a bright future and a potential for profit," Borba said. "That's more than can be said for other crops. And as cotton growers, we know we have a safety net right now, but we also know that won't be forever." Over the past three years, cotton acreage in Westlands has dropped by 32%, or 58,000 acres. At one time, Borba farmed about 9,000 acres of cotton, but he has whittled that down to 4,400. Borba also sees almonds as a good fit for Westlands' soil and sometimes irregular landscape. Unlike some row crops that depend on flat ground to accommodate sprinkler irrigation, almonds can be watered by drip irrigation on uneven terrain. Research by the University of California also has shown that drip irrigation is more efficient and requires less water than other irrigation methods such as flood irrigation or sprinklers. Pistachios also are being planted in greater numbers in west Fresno County. "I've seen fields that used to be dryland wheat and pastureland now with pistachio trees," said Bob Klein, director of research for the California Pistachio Commission. Klein said the pistachio industry is a relatively new one in California. Commercial production did not begin until the mid-1970s, when a 1.5 million-pound crop was produced on about 4,350 acres. The industry is now at 350 million pounds grown on 93,000 acres, with much of it centered in the San Joaquin Valley counties including Kern, Kings, Fresno, Madera and Tulare. "It's been profitable and it remains profitable," Klein said. Although Iran is the world's leading pistachio grower, Klein said California's nuts are superior in quality and preferred in Europe, Japan and Canada. About 40% of California's pistachio crop is exported. Health studies also have shown that eating nuts, including almonds and pistachios, is beneficial. Longtime west-side farmer John Diener is optimistic about Westlands' changing landscape. Diener has dabbled in wine grapes since 1997 and recently planted 30 acres of French colombard grapes. Diener said many of the new vineyards and nut crops are being planted on the district's western edge, along Interstate 5. The area's gentle slope protects crops from foggy weather and brackish water, a chronic problem in the district's poorly drained areas. Some farmers refer to the area as the "banana belt" for its temperate climate. While Diener agrees that Westlands will see more permanent plantings, he estimates that farmers will devote about one-third of their land to permanent crops. "We do feel secure about a portion of our water supply," Diener said. "But we are not going to take cotton acreage and turn that into permanent crops. We are not going to become a Selma or Kingsburg; we just don't have the water for that." Economist Illingworth said that while the switch to more permanent crops likely will lead to fewer jobs, there also is the potential for more year-round work for residents in the west side communities, including Mendota, Huron, Firebaugh, San Joaquin, and Tranquillity. Cities in west Fresno County suffer from high unemployment, largely because farm work is seasonal. Illingworth said it is too soon to say how many jobs have been created. "Over time, we still believe it will have an impact," Illingworth said. Rural city officials are hoping that will be true. Firebaugh City Manager Jose Antonio Ramirez said many workers lost jobs when some Westlands farmers took land out of production near his city. "Some of these people have gone to Hollister or Salinas to work because they can't find any here," Ramirez said. "We hear that farmers are planting more permanent crops, like almonds, and we hope that it leads to more jobs. We don't want to see them planting too much and overdoing it." Richard Fosse, director of the I-5 Business Development Corridor, said these changes on the west side remind local leaders that economic diversification is the key to survival. It's why communities such as Mendota, cantaloupe capital of California, are pursing a federal prison project. "But it's tough, real tough for some cities," Fosse said. "We are out in the middle of nowhere."# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Aug 11 18:08:59 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 18:08:59 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] ONRC Editorials on Klamath Crisis and Recent ESA Hearings Message-ID: <00dc01c48008$f3e855c0$606c3940@V51NH> Posted by Jim McCarthy (The following ONRC piece ran in the Bend Bulletin on 7/31 as an "In My View" Op-Ed under the headline "Walden doesn't care about the environment." Unfortunately, Bulletin op-eds are not available online.) In the minds of many Oregonians, the words "Klamath crisis" have become synonymous with drought, conflict, dying fish and wildlife, and political posturing. For four years, the drought plaguing this region has not lessened, but the ranks of politicians using the crisis to further anti-environmental agendas have swelled. On July 17th the basin was subjected to yet another round of posturing, this time in the form of a one-sided field hearing on the Endangered Species Act in Klamath Falls. Congressmen Greg Walden of Oregon and Wally Herger of California sponsored the Klamath's latest political theater production, aimed more at making political hay than finding real solutions to the Klamath's problems. It's hard to hold a fair hearing when you only invite the people who agree with you, and the event's witness list was packed with people opposed to fish and wildlife recovery efforts. Little discussion focused on the core problem facing the region-that federal and state officials have simply promised more water to irrigators, fishermen, and Native American tribes than the environment can safely deliver. Walden and Herger made scant mention of the massive fish kill that struck the Klamath River in 2002, when the Bush administration's decision to slash river flows resulted in the deaths over 34,000 salmon. Or the plight of the region's National Wildlife Refuges, where wetlands crucial to migratory birds and bald eagles are often left bone-dry by management decisions that favor high desert irrigation. The only folks who seemed interested in discussing the plight of the region's threatened fish ? as well as the four Native American tribes who depend upon them ? were the Native Americans themselves. But the hearing really wasn't about the destructive, man-made imbalances in the Klamath Basin, or finding solutions to the water crisis. It was about building support for Walden's "Sound Science for Endangered Species Act Planning" legislation in Congress-legislation that would suffocate the ESA and the fish and wildlife it protects under a mountain of red tape. Signed into law by President Nixon, the Endangered Species Act provides a safety net for bald eagles, sea otters, and other wildlife and plants on the brink of extinction, ensuring that activities like logging, dam building, and irrigation development do not push them over the edge. The law protects not only the animals and plants themselves, but also the places they call home. More importantly, the ESA preserves our natural heritage and way of life for future generations by keeping the sometimes frayed web of life strung together. Not surprisingly, the law isn't particularly popular with developers and other special interests. In the case of the Klamath Basin, where efforts to protect threatened fish and bald eagles during 2001's punishing drought meant water deliveries for irrigation were reduced, complaints from irrigation interests have spurred Walden to attempt to gut the ESA. Rather than seeking to repeal the popular law directly, Walden's bill would hamstring species recovery with well-placed bureaucratic obstacles. Under Walden's legislation, "sound science" would essentially mean "science that sounds good to the special interests that oppose conservation laws." Walden's bill would dictate what information federal biologists can consider when making decisions about how to protect vanishing species. It would also create new layers of bureaucracy and red tape by requiring agency decisions to undergo time-consuming ? and expensive ? reviews before biologists could act to help wildlife nearing extinction. Walden claims he is responding to a National Research Council report on endangered species recovery efforts in the Klamath Basin. But while Walden has said the NRC report shows poor science is often used in Endangered Species Act decisions, esteemed scientists who helped produce the report have a different opinion. As NRC panelists and UC Davis professors Peter Moyle and Jeffrey Mount wrote in December: "(The report) credited federal biologists for using the best information they had (in the Klamath Basin) and rejected claims they were using 'junk science' as some members of Congress claimed." More recently, Mount has said, "Let me make it perfectly plain: the. report did not fault the Endangered Species Act." For three decades, the Endangered Species Act has safeguarded America's precious natural heritage for future generations. The law isn't broke, and doesn't need of fixing. Congressman Walden should drop his wrong-headed bill, and get behind efforts to address the real problems that have caused fish and wildlife in the Klamath Basin to decline in the first place. ---------------------------------------------------- http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/07/19/viewpoints/op_ed/9919.txt Phasing out lease lands would benefit farmers, refuges, Basin residents Published July 19, 2004 By Jim McCarthy Guest columnist U.S. Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Wally Herger, R-Calif., brought some political theater to Klamath Falls this month, hoping to gain momentum for their efforts to dismember the Endangered Species Act. These elected officials claim the Klamath Basin's painful water woes will disappear if we eliminate protections for America's fish, wildlife, and the places they call home. Their prescription coincides with their anti-conservation views, as well as the financial interests of their major campaign contributors. But given the facts on the ground, their judgment is as flawed as the so-called Klamath solutions produced by the Bush administration - and backed by the two Congressmen - since 2001. To review their poor record: In 2002, the Bush administration chose to ignore the reality that there wasn't enough water to safely supply all of the Basin's competing needs. As a result, 34,000 Klamath River salmon died in what may have been the largest adult fish kill in American history. A recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report concluded low river flows - caused by irrigation diversions - sparked the kill. Since the fish kill, the administration has relied on a government water bank to maintain meager river flows, while leaving the region's crucial national wildlife refuge wetlands bone dry. This risky, shortsighted, and expensive plan depends heavily on federal tax dollars to pay irrigators to deplete vital groundwater, often putting neighboring wells at risk. Under this policy, both ends of the river lose. Eliminating the Endangered Species Act won't change the fact that the river needs water. The thousands of salmon killed in 2002 were mostly Chinook, a non-endangered species vital to the coastal economy and Native American tribes. The federal government guaranteed the tribes' rights to fish for Chinook long before the Klamath Irrigation Project existed. Those commitments include the water rights to maintain robust fish populations. Gutting the Endangered Species Act won't eliminate those rights, or change the fact that the tribes hold the most senior water rights in the basin. Not enough to go around With or without this law, conflicts over water will only increase until we fix the Klamath's central problem: too many users chasing too little water. In their rush to exploit the Klamath crisis, Walden and Herger have ignored or blocked fair and cost-effective solutions that would yield benefits for both ends of the basin. One solution is phasing out commercial farming lease program on Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges. This move would significantly reduce the heavy toll of summer irrigation on fish, wildlife, and fishing communities, while improving agriculture's economic strength, and increasing natural water storage and groundwater recharge. Walden and Herger have fought to protect the lease lands, but the Bureau of Reclamation program has actually drained tens of millions of dollars from the region. Between 1980 and 1996, irrigators leasing the refuge lands sent Washington, D.C., about $1.9 million a year in rents. A tiny fraction of that money trickled back to the Klamath, in payments to counties based on the rented federal acres inside their boundaries. For example, when $1.9 million in lease land fees went to Reclamation in 1996, a paltry $10,381 came back to Klamath County. Some $166,773 came back to Siskiyou County that year, and $32,994 came back to Modoc County. Thus in 1996, the lease land program drained nearly $1.7 million dollars from the Basin economy, never to return. This process goes on year after year. Certainly, the lease land program is a good deal for the handful of participating irrigators. But is it fair to the community? Because Reclamation offers good land for below market rates, lease land users have little reason to rent from private landowners. Who could blame them? But the millions spent to rent federal land will never help local landowners pay their mortgages, upgrade their farm equipment, or send their kids to college. The money just goes to Washington. Meanwhile, private land rental prices stay unprofitably low. Local landowners go bankrupt because they can't pay their mortgages. Elderly farmers can no longer rely on renting their land to finance a retirement. If phasing-out the lease land program means former lease land renters take their $1.9 million of annual rental business to local landowners, there is no doubt a phase-out will boost the local economy - and help keep the community whole. County finances would fare the same or better if the lease lands became refuge-managed marsh. Federal law requires the refuges to make yearly payments to local counties for the lands they manage, similar to Reclamation's annual lease lands payments. For example, between 1994 and 2003, the Klamath Basin refuges - not including the lease lands - paid Klamath County an average of $105,000 per year, or about $2.20 per acre. In 1996, the refuges paid Klamath County $2.88 per acre. Meanwhile, Reclamation rented the lease lands for $86 per acre on average - and gave Klamath County $1.88 per acre. Irrigation costs would drop A lease land solution could also significantly reduce irrigation costs after the Klamath Project's electrical subsidy expires in 2006. To keep water drained off of the lease lands, Tulelake Irrigation District pays approximately $40,000 yearly to pump an average of 90,000 acre-feet of water through Sheepy Ridge Tunnel. Post-2006, this cost is expected to rise to $700,000 annually. But if Tule Lake's lease lands were returned to wetlands, the refuge's potential water retention capacity would increase by some 100,000 acre-feet, reducing or eliminating potentially astronomical pumping costs while providing natural water storage to meet the needs of fish and wildlife. In addition, leaving significantly more water on Tule Lake refuge would mean better aquifer recharge and reduced pumping costs for well users in the area. If Walden supported a lease land phase-out instead of paying irrigators to mine Klamath aquifers, irrigators could see well levels rise. Right now, they're watching groundwater levels drop out from under them. A lease land phase-out is a fair deal for the whole Basin. It would reduce summer irrigation demand by some 50,000 acre-feet, during a time when flows and lake levels are critical for fish. This added water security - plus 100,000 acre feet of added water retention capacity - could be achieved entirely on public lands at low cost to taxpayers. Klamath communities should join in urging Walden and Herger to stop practicing political theatrics while the whole basin suffers, and show true leadership by supporting real solutions to the Klamath's problems. The Author Jim McCarthy is a policy analyst for the Oregon Natural Resources Council in Ashland. Jim McCarthy Policy Analyst Oregon Natural Resources Council PO Box 151 Ashland OR 97520 541-201-1058 jm at onrc.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Aug 11 18:11:08 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 18:11:08 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: Three More opinion pieces on Klamath Crisis Message-ID: <00e801c48009$4062e320$606c3940@V51NH> In order to provide a balanced perspective, I'm providing more opinions on the Klamath situation, courtesy of Mr. Dan Keppen of KWUA. Tom Stokely ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Keppen To: Dan Keppen Cc: KWUA Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 12:42 PM Subject: Three opinion pieces on Klamath The Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC) continues its efforts to downsize the KIamath Project and eliminate lease land farming near Tulelake and Lower Klamath Lake. Two editorials written by local landowners in response to a recent ONRC opinion piece that appeared in last week's Herald and News follow. Also, another ONRC letter to the Sacramento Bee, "Wildlife vs. Potatoes" - familiar theme - is included below. Herald and News: Klamath Falls, Oregon http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/08/02/viewpoints/op_ed/9915.txt ONRC using Basin issues to raise money for itself Published August 2, 2004 By LANE ROELLE - Guest columnist I would like to address a few of the issues that Jim McCarthy talks about in his commentary in the July 19 Herald and News. In my opinion, his entire commentary was full of half-truths, innuendo, misinformation and outright lies. Maybe the Endangered Species Act needs to be dismembered. Of the millions, maybe billions, spent on implementing the act, how many species has it saved? How many species have been delisted? Why do the environmentalists consider peer review dismembering? What do they have to conceal? Is it maybe their scientists know the outcome of their studies before they begin? I don't believe anybody thinks that the "water woes will disappear" by any one measure. I do believe what the elected officials want is true science behind the listing of any species. And if the Oregon Natural Resources Council was really concerned about wildlife, I would think they would want the equivalent. As for the "major campaign contributors," I didn't realize what a political powerhouse the Klamath Basin is, or that the Rockefellers and Nelsons farmed in the Basin. When it was reported that 34,000 fish died, the upper Klamath Basin received all of the blame for the entire fish kill the next day. McCarthy states that "...the Bush administration chose to ignore the reality that there wasn't enough water to safely supply all of the Basin's competing needs. As a result, 34,000 Klamath River salmon died." More than a year later it was reported in several articles that the fish die-off was caused by several mitigating factors. The environmental groups involved in the fish die-off first held responsible the upper Klamath Basin, and subsequently distorted their study to agree with their biased outcome. That is how these groups work: Find someone to blame, and then make their study fit their outcome. What wonderful science they practice. But the most ambiguous statements he makes are about the financial aspects of the lease lands. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that his figures are correct, but he doesn't once mention the money that the farmers earn off of the lease lands. He makes it sound as if these farmers derive absolutely no income off of these lands. He states "...$1.9 million a year in rents." Let's say, on the conservative side, that the lease payments are half of the costs to operate a lease, that indicates that another $1.9 million is going back directly into the Basin economy in seed, fertilizer, fuel, equipment, parts, college tuition and other things. His hyperbole continues with his saying "Local landowners go bankrupt because they can't pay their mortgages." They are going bankrupt because the banks are apprehensive about financing operating loans with the uncertainty of having water allocated year to year. Private land rental prices are market driven. Profit margins are slim in farming to begin with, and to suggest that not farming these lease lands would change that, is not only asinine, it is a lie. McCarthy would not know this because all of his education has come from a book. The only real basis for the ONRC to be involved in the Basin's problems is money. Without some type of critical crisis, the ONRC would not be able to dupe people into contributing to its cause. These environmental organizations, and the people who work for these organizations, contribute nothing to society. They wreak havoc on families that just want to make a living. When this beautiful Klamath Basin, which I love, is dried up and just another ghost town, these people will attack some place else. They don't even live here, to see the carnage they leave behind. They are no better than the illicit TV preachers who prey on little old widow ladies. Reality ignored Jim McCarthy (July 19 commentary) is a classic "windshield manager" from another country. He is critical of the official United States House of Representative field-hearing process that occurred at the Ross Ragland Performing Arts Center on July 17. This was a very important process of our government. McCarthy is critical of the proposals to enhance the Endangered Species Act. He uses the ploy of equivoque to polarize the issue. In McCarthy's mind, you are either for the current interpretation of the act, or you are trying to "dismember the ESA." Not one person involved with the hearing is trying to gut the law. The hearing focus was on ways to make a 30-year-old law better. Everyone on the panel of experts agreed that peer-reviewed science will improve the Endangered Species Act. McCarthy reminds me of a conversation I had 10 years ago with one of his comrades from Oregon Trout. The conversation ended with the statement to me: "The concept of sound, verifiable science that has been peer-reviewed is a concept that the environmental community will not support." As a windshield manager, McCarthy looks down on the Klamath Basin and sees a refuge for wildlife that is freckled with productive agriculture. His textbook solution to his perceived problem is to end refuge farming. While he tries to camouflage his socialist economic agenda with a flavor of capitalism, he ignores reality. Crop production in the Klamath Basin complements wildlife. Elimination of farming on the national wildlife refuges would do little to bolster our economy, and it would not save much, if any, water diverted from storage. McCarthy is wrong. The Oregon National Resources Council is wrong. We need irrigated agriculture in our nation and in the Klamath Basin. Dismantling our infrastructure will harm our society and it will harm wildlife. By staying in Ashland and trying to resolve perceived and real problems in Klamath Falls, McCarthy has exposed the agenda of ONRC. The agenda has become a mantra - dismantle productive agrarian communities for the benefit of society as a whole. I know of one very good example of the result of this direction. Perhaps McCarthy can spend this coming winter in North Korea. Take a whole bunch of photos through the windshield (read bars) and offer a policy analysis to the media in a country that is starving to death. William D. Kennedy Klamath Falls >From July 27th Edition of the Sacramento Bee: sacbee.com -- Letters to the editor -- Letters to the editor: Enron and California http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/letters/story/10150394p-11071178c.html Wildlife vs. potatoes Re "Water turns to bad blood," July 6: Conservationists, fishermen and Native American tribes support restoring marsh on 22,000 commercially farmed acres (known as "the leaselands") on Tule Lake and Lower Klamath national wildlife refuges to recover critical waterfowl habitat and help correct the destructive water imbalance in the Klamath Basin. But the article was mistaken that the proposal would require a purchase of the lands.The public already owns these lands. Returning them to marsh would only require changing government policy to recognize that our national wildlife refuges are for protecting wildlife not raising potatoes. A leaselands solution would help the Klamath's fish and wildlife by reducing summertime irrigation water demand while increasing natural water storage. It would also assist the local agricultural economy by shifting roughly $1.9 million in seasonal farmland rental business from federal government coffers to local private landowners, and reducing or eliminating the potentially astronomical costs of annually pumping water from the leaselands area after the Klamath irrigators' exclusive $10 million electricity subsidy expires in 2006. - Jim McCarthy, Ashland, Ore. Policy Analyst, Oregon Natural Resources Council +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ---------------- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by McAfee VirusScan Installed September 7, 2003 - Updated July 26, 2004 Dan Keppen Executive Director Klamath Water Users Association 2455 Patterson Street, Suite #3 Klamath Falls, OR 97603 (541) 883-6100 - Fax (541) 883-8893 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Aug 12 11:54:33 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004 11:54:33 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Flows to Increase from 450 cfs to 1650 CFS on Aug 22 Message-ID: <01c301c4809d$d084c740$606c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2330069,00.html KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Bureau wringing out Klamath-Trinity plan for fall Eureka Times-Standard - 8/12/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer The federal government is churning out a plan to boost flows for salmon on the Klamath River, but relief will come only from the river's main tributary rather than the Klamath itself. Last week, the Trinity Management Council recommended sending a burst of water down the Trinity River beginning in less than two weeks. It is designed to spur fish to migrate, then ramp back down. The impetus behind the plan is the 2002 fish kill, which killed 34,000 to 68,000 chinook salmon in the lower Klamath. A huge portion of the Trinity River run died before it ever reached the confluence of the two rivers. "What the recommendation was is very similar to last year," said Doug Schleusner, executive director of the Trinity River Restoration Program. In one day, beginning on Aug. 22, flows from Lewiston Dam would jump from 450 cubic feet per second to 1,650 cfs. After that, the flows would drop slowly to 450 cfs on Sept. 15. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is working on a final plan, which is expected this week. While Reclamation will slowly increase Klamath flows as well, there is no plan to exceed its regular schedule. In the event another fish kill begins, there is no dedicated amount of water that could be released from Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath, said bureau Deputy Area Manager Christine Karas. Karas said in an emergency, Reclamation could ask dam owner PacifiCorp to release water from Iron Gate Reservoir, but it would have to be filled again from Upper Klamath Lake. How that would happen while meeting the bureau's obligation to keep lake levels high enough for endangered suckers -- and after providing irrigation water to farms all summer -- is difficult to know. "We're going to be really tight in September," Karas said. Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, sees a dichotomy in the plan. He said Reclamation denies its operations harm fish on the Klamath River, but is using Trinity River water purchased at taxpayer's expense to bump up flows for salmon. All the while more water is flowing to irrigate farms than is being allowed down the river, he said. "It seems disingenuous," Fletcher said. Irrigators have argued that a combination of warm water -- like that in Klamath reservoirs -- and crowded conditions probably caused the 2002 fish kill. They've argued that releasing more warm water won't help. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife report last year pointed to a variety of factors leading to the fish kill, among them too little water. This year, California's Fish and Game Department attributed the salmon deaths largely to low flows -- the only tool available to prevent future die-offs. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Reclamation voted against a request from tribes at the Trinity Management Council meeting to put more water down the Klamath. Fish and Wildlife is working on criteria for releasing Trinity water, and hopes to send that to the bureau this week. Fisheries supervisor Mary Ellen Mueller said how the release will affect the different runs of salmon isn't known. There was no monitoring last year -- it is being proposed this year -- but Mueller said there's no evidence Klamath fish strayed up the Trinity, a concern voiced by some biologists. # ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Aug 13 09:59:36 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 12:59:36 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] Times-Standard-State review of Humboldt water request yields nothing Message-ID: <296530-220048513165936931@M2W044.mail2web.com> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2332705,00.html State review of Humboldt water request yields nothing By John Driscoll The Times-Standard The State Water Resources Control Board has decided it won't take action on a complaint from Humboldt County that aimed to get contracted Trinity River water released for fish in the Klamath River. Water board Division Chief Victoria Whitney said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation appears to be releasing enough water to meet minimum needs for salmon, and that a recent court ruling allows even more. Whitney said if the county wants to get the water to use for fish, state law requires it to be "taken under physical control rather than just (be) allowed to flow down the channel." Before the county could make use of the contract, Reclamation would have to get an order changing where the water can be used under permits for the Trinity River Diversion. The bureau has maintained that the water is presently sent downstream. But Humboldt County wants to use it at a specific time, as fish begin moving up the Klamath River. OTHER ARTICLES IN THIS SECTION 8/13/2004 - Eureka guardsman says he's ready to return to Iraq - Lawsuit filed against Eureka, North Coast Veterans Resource Center - Rescue groups upset about city's temporary lack of animal control - Cooper Gulch clean-up set for Saturday - Supervisors beef up argument in favor of tax hike - More candidates file in Ferndale - Greens stick with Cobb on California ballot - Bicycle Fun Rides set for Saturday - Orick man agrees to $11k in fines for ignoring building codes - Broken windshield leads to drug arrest In the lower Klamath, up to 68,000 fish died in 2002, in low, warm water. The bureau is expected to release a burst of water later this month to prevent another fish kill. "Ultimately what they're saying is the contract has no benefit at all for Humboldt County," said county Supervisor Jill Geist. Geist wrote the complaint earlier this year. She also asked the U.S. Interior Department, but it dodged the question of whether Humboldt County should receive the water it was promised in the 1955 Act authorizing the Trinity project. The project diverts water to the Sacramento River, where it's pumped to farms and cities, mainly in the San Joaquin Valley. Whitney wrote that if the bureau does not want to pursue an order changing the Trinity diversion permits, it would be up to the federal courts to enforce the contract. Geist said the county intends to exhaust every administrative avenue, and would not rule out taking legal action. Are the responses from the federal and state governments setbacks? "No, it's nice to have some response," Geist said. "It gives us direction on how we should proceed." -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri Aug 13 09:57:05 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 09:57:05 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] The American River's Hidden Fish Kill: 181, 000 Salmon Die Before Spawning Message-ID: The American River?s Hidden Fish Kill: 181,000 Salmon Die Before Spawning By Dan Bacher www.fishsniffer.com The Klamath fish kill of September 2002, when 68,000 salmon died spawning because of low, warm water conditions on the lower river, is considered the largest of its kind in U.S. history. However, another ?hidden fish kill? that took place on the American River in the fall of 2001, 2002 and 2003 is now vying for this dubious distinction. Only a few short miles from the State Capitol, an unprecedented environmental tragedy took place on the American River in the heart of Sacramento metropolitan area over the past three years. Huge numbers of adult chinook salmon returned from the ocean to spawn, but 181,709 of these fish perished before spawning. River advocates and fishery biologists blame the fish kills on bad water management by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and on the continuing lack of flow and water temperature standards on the American, while federal officials claim that they are forced to balance the needs of different users in managing the river. Thirty-seven percent of the run of 2003 ? 58,651 fish out of 158,516 fish ? died before spawning in the 22 miles of the river below Nimbus Dam in the fall of 2003. The vast majority of the total run, 147,103 fish, were natural spawners. according to Mile Healy, associate fishery biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, who coordinated a crew of workers to count and record the carcasses on the river during the annual post-spawning carcass survey. Huge die-offs of salmon before spawning also occurred in 2002 and 2001. The 2002 run lost 30 percent of the run, 35,432 fish before spawning. The 2001 run was the worst of all, with 87,626 fish perishing (67 percent) perishing before spawning. Healy blames the abnormally high pre-spawning mortality to lethally warm water conditions on the river. ?When you get a large run that encounters warm water conditions, a large proportion of the fish will be wiped out,? said Healy. The exact causes for the fish deaths are not known because no fish pathologists examined the fish. The salmon could have died from the outbreak of diseases such as ?Ich ?and ?Columnaris? that spread when the fish are crowded in low, warm water conditions. Or they could have perished from low levels of dissolved oxygen or the lethally warm water itself. The large numbers of salmon that returned were a surprise for many biologists, since the American has traditionally seen runs of around 35,000 king salmon. Then suddenly in 2000 a big run of over 100,000 fish arrived in the river. Good ocean conditions, a series of wet years, and habitat improvements resulting from the enforcement of the Endangered Species and Central Valley Project Improvement acts are among the factors that led to the large salmon returns. Unfortunately, the situation this fall looks as bad or worse than it did in the autumn of 2001. ?We anticipate another large fish kill like that of 2001 unless we can figure a way to dump into the system more cold water,? said Healy. The river releases from Nimbus Dam were only 1,000 cubic feet per second during the fall run of 2001. Similar low flows occurred during the fall of 2002 and 2003. The sad thing is that apparently little can be done to avert another huge fish kill rivaling that of 2001 this fall. ?The Bureau dropped 194,000 acre feet of water down the river in July,? said Healy. ?There are minimal reserves and no cold water is coming into the lake now.? The data documenting the pre-spawning mortality is as solid as it gets. A crew of 6 to 7 people on crews counted, marked and cut the fish three to four days a week from mid October through the end of December or into early January, depending on the year. ?These are real numbers, not an estimate, since the Fish and Game actually counted and cut the fish,? emphasized Felix Smith, the retired federal wildlife biologist who was the whistleblower in the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge scandal in the early 1980?s. The fact that the fish died before spawning is tremendous loss to the potential for fish restoration on the river. Each female salmon lays approximately 4000 to 5000 eggs, depending upon the size and year class of the fish. ?We?re talking about a serious egg loss and potentially millions of fish,? said Smith, a board member of the Save the American River Association. ?These fish kills on the American are like a knife in the ribs of the river?s fishery. We just can?t afford to lose such large numbers of fish.? He blamed the yearly disasters on the lack of adequate water flow and temperature standards on the American. The Save the American River Association, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Sacramento Valley Water Forum and other groups are supporting the establishment of flow standards for the American River to protect fisheries and aquatic resources and continue steps to restore the river ? and to prevent the loss of thousands of fish before spawning. The Water Forum, with the support of state and federal fishery agencies, has developed standards after years of hard work. They came out with a draft document in January 2004 that they would like to put before the State Water Resources Control Board in 2005. Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, claims the federal agency is doing everything it can to balance the interests of different water users in the midst of a low precipitation year. He attributes the low state of Folsom to a surprisingly dry spring and the need to meet water quality requirements for Delta smelt. ?We never got the spring melt that we anticipated,? said McCracken. ?We had projected 870,000 acre-feet of water, when all we got was 650,000 acre-feet in Folsom. It was the driest spring in 80 years.? He said the Central Valley Project and California Department of Water Resources have to meet water quality requirements for Delta smelt. 400,000 acre-feet of water is required, 100,000 of which was taken from Folsom for this purpose this year, according to McCracken Then there was the Jones Tract levee break, when federal and state water exports out of the Delta were cut. Once the Jones levee break was equalized, big releases from Shasta and Folsom began ??freshen the water for export use? in the federal and state water projects, said McCracken. ?We?re doing every thing we can to keep the cold water pool in Folsom,? contended McCracken. ?We spent $20,000,000 on a water temperature control device so that we can have cold water for the fish. It?s a tough balance trying to keep everybody happy.? However, John Beuttler, conservation director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said the problem is that CalFed, the joint federal and state interagency group that attempts to balance water for fish and wildlife with water export demands, ?stops at the State Capitol.? ?The Bureau can short the American of its water because there is no real obligation by the Bureau to protect the resources of the river without these water standards,? said Beuttler. ?Nobody is being held accountable to providing flows for fish.? Fish and Game Code 5939 requires the operators of any dam in the state of California to provide flows ?to keep fish in good condition.? Releasing lethally warm, low flows where thousands of salmon die before spawning is not keeping fish in ?good condition.? For 51 years, the federal government has ignored this mainly because the Bureau has the ability to cost river proponents millions in litigation ? and fishery advocates are reluctant to intervene because the cost of litigation is so high. ?The Bureau prefers to whack the flows of the American River because it is easy to do so,? said Beuttler. ?Every presidential administration has said they would achieve flow standards on the American River. The Water Forum has done a commendable job working with the different agencies and groups to develop water standards for the river.? Unfortunately, the Bureau of Reclamation wants a permanent dedication of ?b2 flows? (water dedicated to fish and wildlife under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act) if they are to support the standards. ?We have trouble with BOR on this, since use of b2 water is supposed to be determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service annually, based upon changing needs and conditions,? he explained. Leo Winterwitz, executive director of the Water Forum, emphasized that the flow standards are designed to protect fish, but don?t impact the water supply. ?The standards only rearrange the timing of releases to benefit the fish,? said Winterwitz. Winterwitz noted that one reason why Folsom is so low is because it is used as the ?work horse? by the Bureau to meet Delta water quality standards. It takes only one day for water from the American to reach the Delta, whereas releases from Shasta Lake into the Sacramento River take 4 to 5 days to reach the Delta. Meanwhile, as water standards are still in limbo, another enormous fish kill is expected on the American this fall ? and very little can apparently done about it because Folsom Lake is so low, with little cold water pool left. Folsom had only had 411,000 acre-feet of water, 43 percent of capacity, left at press time. The cold water pool is only a small proportion of this remaining water. This looming loss of wild chinook salmon comes at a time when the federal and state agencies, fishery conservation groups and environmental organizations are working so hard to restore salmon and steelhead populations throughout the West. The loss of these fish is a tremendous waste, especially when you consider that they could have provided a substantial boost to the fishery and the economy of northern California. ?For the past three years, we?ve had unbelievable fish kills on the American,? said Smith. ?The fact that sport and commercial fishermen couldn?t catch them and utilize them before they died without spawning is a great tragedy. These fish could have provided a substantial enhancement of the economy. The fish, a public trust resource, died because of insufficient temperature and flows.? Not only are king salmon impacted by the current management of the American, but steelhead, a listed species under the federal Endangered Species Act, also suffer from low, warm water conditions. Wild steelhead spend one to two years in fresh water before migrating to salt water and need cold water to thrive. While steelhead need water temperatures in the fifties, the current Bureau target for average daily water temperatures at Watt Avenue on the lower American River is 69 degrees during the summer. Bob Strickland, president of United Anglers of California, summed up the feeling of many anglers and conservationists when he said, ?Here?s another case where the fish don?t count. The water for farmers and other water users always comes before fish when it?s supposed to be the opposite. These fish kills are just devastating to the fishery that we are working to restore.? The time for the adoption of water standards on the American River is long overdue. For more information, contact the Save the American River Association, (916) 387-1763, or the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, 510-526-4049. From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri Aug 13 10:41:02 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Fri, 13 Aug 2004 10:41:02 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Take Action To Save the American River! Message-ID: Take Action To Save The American! by John Beuttler, conservation director, California Sportfishing Projection Alliance Since the inception of Folsom Dam on the American River some fifty years ago, the river has increasingly been jerked around by the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to export water to contractors and to meet salinity standards in the Delta. The lack of flow and temperature standards needed to protect fisheries and aquatic habitat have significantly impacted the natural reproduction of the river's salmon, steelhead and American shad. With no flow or temperature requirements to prevent dropping the flows when fish are spawning, or to protect them from lethal thermal temperatures, poor river management has taken a huge toll on its fisheries! According to Mike Healy, a biologist with the DFG, thirty-seven percent of the 2003 run, or 58,651 adults, died before spawning in the 22 miles of the river below Nimbus Dam in the fall of 2003. The vast majority were considered potential natural spawners. Big die-offs of pre-spawning salmon also occurred in 2002 and 2001. The 2002 run lost 30 percent of the run. The 2001 lost 87,626 fish or 67 percent before spawning! Most of this waste could have been prevented if flow standards were required as part of the agencies water right. The CSPA letter to BOR and the USFWS that follows goes into greater detail on this. CSPA is asking everyone to who reads this alert to ?stand up for the river and its fisheries? by contacting the BOR and urging them to take action now. I'd like to thank Dan Bacher, managing editor of the Fish Sniffer magazine, for providing the data acquired by Mike Healy. The addresses to send your letters are below. To make phone calls, contact: Lynnette Wirth, Deputy Director (916) 978-5100 or: Information Office: (916) 978 - 5100 / FAX (916) 978 ? 5114. California Sportfishing Protection Alliance 1360 Neilson Street / Berkeley / CA 94702 / 510-526-4049 August 11, 2004 Mr. Kirk Rodgers Mr. Steve Thompson Regional Director CA/Nevada Operations Manager Bureau of Reclamation U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2800 Cottage Way 2800 Cottage Way Sacramento, CA 95825 Sacramento, CA 95825 Re: American River Flow Standards Dear Mr. Rodgers and Mr.Thompson: The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, on behalf of our several thousand members, would like to inform you of our support for establishing flow standards to protect the anadromous fisheries and aquatic environment of the lower American River as proposed by the Sacramento Valley Water Forum. The proposed standards will correct the many years of fishery degradation due to BOR's flow releases from Folsom Dam. Since this proposal was developed through cooperation with your agencies, NOAA Fisheries and the California Department of Fish and Game, we urge your immediate action to adopt these flow standards. Such action would also help your agencies comply with the Central Valley Project Improvement Act to double populations of the river's naturally produced anadromous fisheries. As you are aware, adopting these standards will require the actions of the State Water Resources Control Board to amend the BOR's permit to operate Folsom Reservoir established under Water Right Decision 893. We urge you to immediately initiate action to amend Decision 893. Sincerely, John Beuttler, For the Board of Directors cc: Robert Treanor - Executive Director, California Fish & Game Commission Ryan Broddrick - Director, California Department of Fish & Game Celeste Cantu - Executive Director, State Water Resources Control Board Patrick Wright - Executive Director, California Bay-Delta Authority You can support CSPA?s conservation efforts by becoming a member. Donations are tax-deductible, greatly needed and most appreciated. Send checks to CSPA at 1360 Neilson Street, Berkeley, CA 94702-1116. Membership starts a $25. If you are a member, then you know of the good work we do, so sign up a friend and help us restore our fisheries! Questions? Call me at 510-526-4049. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Aug 17 11:18:10 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 11:18:10 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Chronicle-New push for consensus on major salmon stream Message-ID: <006a01c48486$8f026740$0b6b3940@V51NH> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/16/BAG2F88OHH1.DTL&type=science New push for consensus on major salmon stream - Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer Monday, August 16, 2004 Orleans, Siskiyou County -- The nearby Klamath River is seductively warm at this time of year, perfect for swimming. And that's the problem. The Klamath -- after the Sacramento, California's longest river -- was once one of the continent's great salmon and steelhead streams. But salmonids need cold water, something that has been woefully lacking in recent years, due to low flows and scorching summertime temperatures. The decline in the runs has put agricultural irrigators at odds with downstream Indian tribes, commercial fishermen and sport anglers. Politically, the situation is deadlocked, snarled in a welter of lawsuits and dueling press releases. The intractability of the conflict has enervated stakeholders as well as fish. This has led some of the involved parties to call for a new approach, a consensus strategy that would bring everyone to the table, to divvy up the water in an equitable fashion. There is precedent for such a tack: A similar impasse on the Sacramento River in the 1990s led to the creation of CalFed, a joint state and federal initiative that has resulted in extensive fisheries and wildlife-habitat restoration, and a more coherent water-distribution strategy. Few of the Sacramento River stakeholders are completely happy with CalFed, but most agree it is better than the endless animus and litigation that preceded it. As it stands now, the lion's share of the water from both the Klamath and its major tributary, the Trinity River, is diverted for agriculture. The natives and fishermen say diversions and dams are the primary causes for the disappearing fish. Farmers and ranchers claim that view is simplistic and say a number of factors are involved in the decline, including overfishing and logging. The battle has raged for years, but the situation reached a crisis in September 2002, when thousands of returning wild salmon and steelhead died from disease and heat stress. Early estimates put the loss at 34,000. A recent California Department of Fish and Game report said the final mortality figure was probably twice that. Things look somewhat better this year than they did in 2002. True, water temperatures in the lower river hit 74 degrees Fahrenheit earlier this month, far too warm for salmon. But the hot weather has moderated recently, and the river is cooling. Even more heartening is the promise of increased downstream flows. The U. S. Bureau of Reclamation, which controls the spigots on the Klamath system, has earmarked almost 40,000 acre-feet of cold, clear water for the Trinity River. The water should be released from Trinity Dam starting next week and continuing through mid-September. It will benefit both Trinity River fish and salmon on the lower Klamath. The bureau will also modestly increase the flows from upstream dams on the Klamath during the same period. "We've had cooler weather this year than in 2002, and that's been a big help," said Jack Ellwanger, a spokesman for the Klamath Restoration Council, a coalition of native and environmental groups. "The run is also smaller, so the fish aren't as crowded and stressed. We're seeing very little in the way of disease pathogens among the fish." The extra water, said Ellwanger, is particularly welcome, and particularly telling. "The big 2002 kill caused a huge outcry, caused a lot of public pressure, and now we're seeing the effect (the extra releases)," said Ellwanger. "Nobody wants to see a repeat of 2002." Still, profound tensions remain. Until more water is guaranteed for the Klamath and Trinity, the runs will remain imperiled, say fisheries advocates. "We're going to get more hot weather this year," said Wally Johnson, a Seiad Valley angling guide who fishes the Klamath. "We're not going to dodge any bullets. Until we get greater flows, we're going to see sick fish." Meanwhile, with water temperatures at least temporarily abated, the five hydropower dams on the upper river -- which are now up for relicensing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission -- are drawing scrutiny. None of the dams has any fish-passage mechanisms, meaning that salmon are denied spawning access to fully half of the 400 mile-long river. In its application for the license, which would be valid for 30 to 40 years if approved, the dam's owner -- PacifiCorp., a Portland, Ore.-based subsidiary of Scottish Power -- did not specify the addition of any fish- passage devices. That makes the proposal a no-starter for the Yurok, Hupa and Karok, the three tribes that live on the lower river. "Right now, this is the No. 1 issue for the tribes," said Leif Hillman, the vice chairman of the Karok tribe. "We're in a war of survival here -- we depend on the fish, and we always have." The tribes, said Hillman, want to see salmon reclaim the upper basin, the historic limits of their range. "For that, we need fish passage around the dams, or more appropriately, dam removal," he said. John Engbring, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supervisor for the Klamath region, said it was noted by several government agencies that PacifiCorp's application did not include any fish-passage measures. "Fish passage is a major issue on this river," Engbring said. "Right now, all the fish stop at Iron Gate Dam (near Yreka). There's another 200 miles of river above that." Dissatisfied with PacifiCorp's proposals to FERC, Hillman and other tribal leaders recently traveled to Scotland to press their concerns with executives of the utility's parent company, Scottish Power. The tribal members met with Scottish Power CEO Ian Russell and PacifiCorp CEO Judi Johansen. Later, Johansen said during an interview on Scottish television that PacifiCorp would look at all possible solutions to the fish- passage problems, including dam removal. That hint of a possible compromise has led some stakeholders to call for a more concerted drive for a consensus solution. Dan Keppen, the executive director for the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents farmers in the river's upper basin, looks to the CalFed process on the Sacramento River as a guide for the Klamath. "Right now, we're just beating each other up in the press and courts," said Keppen. "What finally broke the impasse on the Sacramento was Gov. (Pete) Wilson and President (Bill) Clinton appointing some people with real portfolios to the situation. They locked everyone up in a room until things got done. At this point on the Klamath, we need similar leadership from President Bush, Gov. Schwarzenegger and Gov. (Ted) Kulongoski (of Oregon) to bring the stakeholders together." Ellwanger expressed similar sentiments and said the process must be ambitious enough to address the entire Klamath ecosystem, not just the main river corridor. "We're talking about the restoration of a 15,000-square-mile bioregion," Ellwanger said. "For something of that scale, it's increasingly clear that the only way to get anything done is to have people talking to each other, not at each other." E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin at sfchronicle.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Aug 17 13:38:39 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 13:38:39 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath Indians to bend ear of dam owner Message-ID: <007001c4849a$2e16e960$166c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2336620,00.html KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Klamath Indians to bend ear of dam owner Eureka Times-Standard - 8/15/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer Representatives of four Klamath River tribes will meet with the CEO of dam owner PacifiCorp, just weeks after visiting its parent company in Scotland. Two Yurok tribal councilmen described the visit to Scotland as successful, having drawn the attention of ScottishPower to problems the tribe sees with the continued operations of its subsidiary's hydropower facilities on the Klamath, half a world away. More than two dozen people from tribes, fishing groups and environmental organizations traveled to Scotland last month, and some got the ear of Scottish Power CEO Ian Russell. Tribal representatives will meet with PacifiCorp CEO Judi Johansen in Redding on Monday. "He gave us his word that PacifiCorp would start negotiating with the tribes," said Councilman Sid Nix. The Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk and Klamath tribes are pressing for the removal of six dams on the Klamath. The facilities' license expires in 2006. The dams are in part responsible for the decline of salmon runs, but the tribes say they've also taken a toll on other fishes, like lamprey, candlefish and sturgeon. In PacifiCorp's draft application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the company proposed trucking salmon around the dams, but did not consider building fish ladders, which could be expensive. Nix said the tribes are committed to the removal of the dams, and believes the trip to Scotland advanced their cause. The California Energy Commission and the National Research Council have both recommended FERC analyze removal of some of the dams. Questions in that analysis might include the effects of dam removal on water quality and flow and how sediment trapped behind the dams can move out of the system. Yurok Councilman Richard Myers said many of the ScottishPower shareholders first learned about the effects of the dams during the tribes' visit. "They seemed to be good people, and want to return the salmon home," Myers said. Meanwhile, the tribes and fishing and environmental groups on Friday called on President Bush -- stumping in Portland, Ore., -- to release more water down the Klamath. They want to avoid a repeat of the 2002 fish kill, which wiped out 34,000 to 68,000 salmon. A plan is being hashed out by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this week to release water from Lewiston Dam on the Trinity River, the Klamath's main tributary. Fishermen on the lower Klamath have reported extremely warm water and a small number of fish that appear to be succumbing to gill rot, one of the symptoms of a disease that killed fish in 2002. They are concerned that the planned flows, expected to increase beginning Aug. 22, might come too late. The groups say the Bush administration's continued denial that it's irrigation project upstream on the Klamath prompted the fish kill doesn't square with its efforts to find, and buy, water to release from the Trinity. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Aug 17 13:42:14 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2004 13:42:14 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Co. Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day 9/11/04 Message-ID: <007901c4849a$af253de0$166c3940@V51NH> >From Barbara Rapinac brapinac at trinitycounty.org - Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day is Saturday, September 11th, 2004 at 3 Locations: Weaverville Transfer Station, 173 Tom Bell Road, Weaverville 8 am - 2 pm Hayfork Library, corner of Hwy 3 & Hyampom Road, Hayfork 8 am - 12 pm Van Duzen School, Van Duzen River Road, Mad River 8 am - 12 pm Free disposal to residential, commercials call and set an appointment This year you may also bring TVs and Computers Department of Transportation regulations limit the amount of these wastes you can haul to 125 lbs. hazardous waste, 5 gallons of liquid waste OR 20 gallons of used motor oil per vehicle For more information please contact See Ya There! Rap Barbara Rapinac, Technician Trinity County Solid Waste PO Box 2700 173 Tom Bell Road Weaverville, CA 96093 530-623-1326 x106; FAX 530-623-5015 brapinac at trinitycounty.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Aug 18 12:46:54 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (tstokely at trinityalps.net) Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 15:46:54 -0400 Subject: [env-trinity] (no subject) Message-ID: <91380-220048318194654149@M2W067.mail2web.com> TMORSTEINMARX at mp.usbr.gov wrote: Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From (CFS) To (CFS) 8/22/2004 1800 450 550 8/22/2004 2000 550 800 8/22/2004 2200 800 1050 8/23/2004 0000 1050 1300 8/23/2004 0200 1300 1550 8/23/2004 0400 1550 1650 8/24/2004 0000 1650 1590 8/26/2004 0000 1590 1530 8/28/2004 0000 1530 1470 8/30/2004 0000 1470 1410 9/1/2004 0000 1410 1350 9/3/2004 0000 1350 1290 9/5/2004 0000 1290 1230 9/7/2004 0000 1230 1170 9/9/2004 0000 1170 1110 9/11/2004 0000 1110 1050 9/12/2004 0000 1050 950 9/12/2004 0400 950 850 9/12/2004 0800 850 750 9/13/2004 0000 750 650 9/13/2004 0400 650 550 9/13/2004 0800 550 500 9/13/2004 1200 500 450 -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Aug 19 12:07:25 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 12:07:25 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard articles on Trinity Message-ID: <004b01c4861f$c4d33260$746b3940@V51NH> State review of Humboldt water request yields nothing - Eureka Times-Standard A river on edge: Watching the Klamath for signs of another disaster - Eureka Times-Standard -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- State review of Humboldt water request yields nothing Eureka Times-Standard - 8/18/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer The State Water Resources Control Board has decided it won't take action on a complaint from Humboldt County that aimed to get contracted Trinity River water released for fish in the Klamath River. Water board Division Chief Victoria Whitney said the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation appears to be releasing enough water to meet minimum needs for salmon, and that a recent court ruling allows even more. Whitney said if the county wants to get the water to use for fish, state law requires it to be "taken under physical control rather than just (be) allowed to flow down the channel." Before the county could make use of the contract, Reclamation would have to get an order changing where the water can be used under permits for the Trinity River Diversion. The bureau has maintained that the water is presently sent downstream. But Humboldt County wants to use it at a specific time, as fish begin moving up the Klamath River. In the lower Klamath, up to 68,000 fish died in 2002, in low, warm water. The bureau is expected to release a burst of water later this month to prevent another fish kill. "Ultimately what they're saying is the contract has no benefit at all for Humboldt County," said county Supervisor Jill Geist. Geist wrote the complaint earlier this year. She also asked the U.S. Interior Department, but it dodged the question of whether Humboldt County should receive the water it was promised in the 1955 Act authorizing the Trinity project. The project diverts water to the Sacramento River, where it's pumped to farms and cities, mainly in the San Joaquin Valley. Whitney wrote that if the bureau does not want to pursue an order changing the Trinity diversion permits, it would be up to the federal courts to enforce the contract. Geist said the county intends to exhaust every administrative avenue, and would not rule out taking legal action. Are the responses from the federal and state governments setbacks? "No, it's nice to have some response," Geist said. "It gives us direction on how we should proceed." # A river on edge: Watching the Klamath for signs of another disaster Eureka Times-Standard - 8/19/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer A handful of dead fish are floating in the Klamath River, and others are nuzzling up to cold creeks for relief from the hot water. As fishermen, American Indians and biologists watch for signs of diseases like those that killed tens of thousands of salmon in 2002, there is only one thing definite: Everyone is jumpy. "We netted the most beautiful 12-pound steelhead -- floating dead down the river," said fishing guide Tim King on Tuesday. The nervousness was nearly palpable the following day. Fishermen with furrowed brows asked state biologists what they'd found on a survey of the lower river. Even at 9 a.m. in the shade at the boat ramp in Klamath Glen on Wednesday, the water is 70 degrees. A big fall run of salmon, estimated to be 90,000 this year, have still not shown up. But a few steelhead and big chinook salmon were belly up. A check of their gills found them to have a touch of columnaris, which shows up as spots on the gills. "Basically the only thing missing for a fish kill are the fish," said California Department of Fish and Game biologist Sara Borok. She and others on the river as part of the Klamath Basin Fish Health Assessment Team thought the dozen or so fish they'd found probably succumbed to predators or a lethal hooking. The team of state, federal and tribal biologists, as well as stakeholders, was assembled last summer. The team will present to the public its observations and analysis at a meeting at the Yurok Tribal headquarters in Klamath at 7 p.m. today. With some disease showing, people are worried that the big slug of fish waiting to come up the river could get crowded into cooler spots and become infected like a kid in a flu-ridden kindergarten class. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is still deciding when to send a pulse of water down the Klamath's main tributary, the Trinity River. That should help raise and cool a very shallow and hot lower Klamath River, which has been averaging 72 to 74 degrees, temperatures that can stop fish from migrating. The question is when to do it. It takes several days for water released from Lewiston Dam to reach Blue Creek, where on Wednesday steelhead jostled in 10- to 20-degree cooler water. "When it's really low they seem to come right to here and just stack," said Yurok Tribe fisheries technician Mark Sanderson. So if the salmon run begins, gets sick, and crowds into areas like Blue Creek, the Trinity water could come too late. If the salmon run late, however, the pulse of water might be sent down before the need arises. The Trinity Management Council has recommended the water be released beginning on Sunday. Others have their own opinions. King, who has chronicled his observations on his website, said the federal government needs to release the water now. In 2002, Reclamation did not increase flows until well after the fish kill began, and the boost at the end of the event served mainly to flush some carcasses out of the river. State, federal and tribal biologists diving on the river recently have not seen signs that salmon have begun migrating up from the estuary. Lowering a remote camera into several well-used deep holes in the river, few salmon could be seen, although steelhead darted here and there. Reclamation has said it will likely release the water at the same time it releases its plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service project supervisor Mike Long said he does not believe the bureau is dragging its feet. "I don't think there's any hesitation about releasing the water if that's what's needed," he said. Flows from the Klamath's lowermost Iron Gate Dam will increase a slight 200 cubic feet per second on Aug. 24. Flows from the Trinity could go to 1,650 cfs on Sunday, then ramp back down until mid-September, if the bureau goes with the Trinity Management Council's recommendations. The team on Wednesday found about the same number of fish that had been reported by fishermen. In one backwater, a 35-pound chinook salmon lay dead, its skin drying on its bloated body. It showed signs of columnaris, but no one could say what killed it. "Hopefully not a sign of things to come," said Fish and Game biologist Wade Sinnen. "I wouldn't expect to see anything right now until big numbers of fish come up the river." That could be any time now. # ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Aug 19 16:07:27 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 19 Aug 2004 16:07:27 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Water Policy Conference, Nov 18 and 19 in LA Message-ID: <00be01c48647$ed3092c0$746b3940@V51NH> I'm not much on conferences, but I went to this conference once. I found it extremely worthwhile, even if it is in LA. Tom Stokely ************************************************************ AWARD NOMINATIONS AND SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATIONS SOUGHT BY THE CALIFORNIA WATER POLICY CONFERENCE The 14th annual California Water Policy Conference entitled, "California Dreaming: Time to Wake Up", will be held November 18 & 19, 2004 at the Wilshire Grand Hotel in Los Angeles. The planning committee is actively seeking award nominees and scholarship applicants for this event. This year the planning committee seeks to recognize individuals, public and nonprofit agencies and companies that enliven and expand the California Dream by pursuing environmental justice while advancing innovation, breakthrough technologies, community and collaborative programs, and/or new ways of thinking about water in California. Deadline for nominations is Wednesday, September 15. The scholarship application form for this conference is also available for download at the conference website. Anyone interested in attending the conference, but would not be able to attend without financial assistance is encouraged to apply. Last year 35 scholarships to the conference were awarded. The deadline for applying for a scholarship is Friday, September 17. For more information on the conference program and to download forms, visit the conference website at www.cawaterpolicy.org or contact Debbi Dodson at ddodson at san.rr.com or at 858-272-9627. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov Fri Aug 20 08:43:36 2004 From: AKRAUSE at mp.usbr.gov (Andreas Krause) Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2004 08:43:36 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Lewiston releases Message-ID: Late yesterday afternoon, the Finding of No Significant Impact was signed by the Bureau of Reclamation authorizing additional releases from Lewiston Dam. The Bureau of Reclamation adopted the flow scheduled recommended by the Trinity Management Council (shown below and also available on the Reclamation website at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vungvari/trinsch.pdf). From Through # Days Flow (CFS) 08/10/04 08/22/04 13 450 08/23/04 08/23/04 1 1650 08/24/04 08/25/04 2 1590 08/26/04 08/27/04 2 1530 08/28/04 08/29/04 2 1470 08/30/04 08/31/04 2 1410 09/01/04 09/02/04 2 1350 09/03/04 09/04/04 2 1290 09/05/04 09/06/04 2 1230 09/07/04 09/08/04 2 1170 09/09/04 09/10/04 2 1110 09/11/04 09/11/04 1 1050 09/12/04 09/12/04 1 750 09/13/04 09/30/04 18 450 __________________________________ Andreas Krause, P.E. Physical Scientist Trinity River Restoration Program P.O. Box 1300 (mailing address) 1313 South Main St. (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 Phone:530-623-1807; Fax 530-623-5944 __________________________________ From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Aug 23 10:45:02 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 10:45:02 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] SF Chronicle- Hupa Indians battle to reclaim Trinity River Message-ID: <003901c48938$ed835e80$106b3940@V51NH> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/08/22/ING8689JT21.DTL Hupa Indians battle to reclaim Trinity River Tim Holt Sunday, August 22, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hupa Indians of Northern California are a tenacious people. In the mid-19th century, when the U.S. Army tried to drive them out of their villages along the Trinity River, the Hupas simply waited them out, camping in nearby hills until the soldiers gave up and left. One hundred years later, the government has started draining their river, damming it and diverting most of its water through mountain tunnels to farmlands to the south. For the past 40 years, the Hupas have struggled in the courts and the halls of Congress to bring their river and its decimated fishery back to life. Up until now, this has involved a lopsided battle between the impoverished 2,500-member Indian tribe and Westlands, the largest irrigation district in the United States, one whose farmers grow roughly $1 billion worth of crops every year. But the balance of power is beginning to tilt in favor of the Indians -- a seismic shift in California water politics that has been a couple of decades in the making. Last month, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the permanent restoration of nearly half the Trinity's historic flows. The increased flows, which will take effect this fall, are part of a broader Trinity restoration program launched four years earlier by then- Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. It had been blocked until now by a lawsuit filed by the Westlands Water District, representing the farmers of the San Joaquin Valley. The judges' decision bodes well not only for the Hupas and their river but for the cause of restoring ravaged watersheds throughout the West. The decision, stripped down to its essentials, says that minimum standards for the health of a river take precedence over the demands of water consumers. The Hupas are looking out for their own interests, to be sure, but with their growing clout, they're adding an important new perspective to the debate over California's water supplies. They view their river as a life-sustaining force, one to be treasured and protected, not commoditized and drained. The San Joaquin Valley farmers, by contrast, began siphoning off the Trinity only after they'd depleted their groundwater and tapped out the rivers in their region. In their view, a river that flows to the sea is a waste of water. In the Indians' view, a river that flows naturally to the sea produces a healthy fishery. For all but 40 of the past 10,000 years, that has been the basic tenet of their survival. The next big task facing the Hupas is the physical restoration of their river, whose configuration was dramatically transformed by four decades of minimum flows. Heavy equipment will be needed to remove brush and sediment that filled up the old river's side pools. These quiet pools are crucial to the rearing of juvenile fish. Also, several bridges built during the low-flow era will need to be raised. The seeds of the Hupas' victory were planted in the 1980s, when they began hiring some well-connected and highly respected advocates, including Seattle attorney Tom Schlosser, who specializes in tribal law, and Washington, D.C., lobbyist Joe Membrino, who helped shepherd through a series of laws that put Congress on record in support of the Trinity's restoration. That, and countless studies by federal biologists, led to Babbitt's order to dramatically increase the river's flows to 47 percent of their historic levels -- the minimum needed, the studies showed, to increase fish populations to sustainable levels. The environmentalism of the Hupas, like that of West Coast commercial fishermen who fight for clean, free-flowing streams, grows out of their need to protect their livelihood and their way of life. But the Hupas' commitment goes even deeper than the calloused-hand environmentalism of the fishermen: The salmon the Hupas fight for is not only their staff of life but a centerpiece of their culture, one that involves elaborate ceremonies celebrating their return to the Trinity each year. Native Americans' deep reverence for the natural world has given them a mythical, iconic status within the environmental movement. But in the real world, they often live in the shadows, struggling with poverty and alcoholism. The Hupas have tied their future to the natural resources of their region -- they're too far off the beaten track to capitalize on the casino craze sweeping other reservations. Theirs is an important contribution to the public debate over California's increasingly scarce supplies of fresh water. They're bringing a healthy dose of sanity to a society that sometimes seems hell-bent on exhausting what we have left. Tim Holt is an environmental writer and the author of "Songs of the Simple Life." Page E - 3 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clear.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: chronicle_logo.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1013 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: chronicle_sections.gif Type: image/gif Size: 290 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: pixel_gray.gif Type: image/gif Size: 35 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Aug 23 10:47:28 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 10:47:28 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Articles on Trinity Fall Flows/EA/FONSI Message-ID: <003d01c48939$4291a940$106b3940@V51NH> Copies of the final EA and FONSI on the increased Trinity Flows are available on Reclamation's website at www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/ KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon www.katu.com http://www.katu.com/outdoor/story.asp?ID=70349 Feds release water to prevent Klamath salmon kill August 20, 2004 - By JEFF BARNARD GRANTS PASS, Ore. - The federal government has bought irrigation water to release down Northern California's Trinity River in hopes of preventing a repeat of conditions that killed more than 34,000 Klamath River salmon two years ago. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation arranged for the release of 36,000 acre feet from the Trinity Reservoir starting after midnight Sunday after federal fisheries biologists advised that water in the lower Klamath River was getting dangerously low and warm for fish. Low and warm water conditions were two primary factors cited in the deaths of more than 34,000 fish - mostly chinook salmon - in the lower Klamath River in September 2002 after gill-rot diseases raced through fish making their fall spawning run. Most of the fish died in the 43 miles of the Klamath below the confluence with the Trinity. Low water left riffles too shallow for fish to swim upstream, bunching them into pools where diseases moved quickly in warm and crowded conditions that left the fish weakened, according to state and federal reports on the fish kill. "These additional flows should improve water quality and lower water temperature, reduce the potential for fish disease and assist salmon in their upstream migration," said Steve Thompson, regional manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento, Calif. A similar release of extra water down the Trinity was made last summer, and no significant fish kill occurred. Representatives of an Indian tribe and commercial fishermen who both harvest Klamath River salmon welcomed the increase in Trinity River flows, but complained that more water should also be sent down the Klamath River, where one of the nation's most contentious battles over dividing water between fish and farms has gone on for years. "The government has no problem going out and finding water on the Trinity side, but refuses to put more water on the Klamath side," said Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, whose reservation lies along the lowest reaches of the Klamath. "There shouldn't be this disjointed management when you have the same agency responsible for controlling the tap at both ends." The tribe goes to trial Sept. 20 in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Calif., in a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation claiming the 2002 fish kill breached federal tribal trust obligations. The flows will follow recommendations from the Trinity Management Council, ramping up to nearly four times the current level, then ramping back down when the release is completed Sept. 13, said Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken from Sacramento, Calif. "There is no extra water here," said Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents California salmon fishermen. "All they are doing is restoring flows to approximately what they should have been if not for all the water diverted over the years." The water was purchased from irrigation districts in California's Central Valley Project, where for decades more than half the Trinity's flows have been diverted across a mountain range and down the Sacramento River. McCracken said he did not have the total paid for the extra water, but the going rate is about $60 per acre foot, which would come to about $2.2 million. McCracken said the action was the result of Fish and Wildlife recommendations, not the recent federal appeals court ruling that more of the Trinity's water should stay in the watershed for salmon, rather than being diverted for irrigation. McCracken said the bureau is already buying 75,000 acre feet of water from Klamath Reclamation Project farmers to put down the Klamath River for salmon, and must maintain federally mandated levels in Upper Klamath Lake, the source of the river, for endangered suckers. The bureau is to increase the extra Klamath River flows to 100,000 acre feet next year under terms of mandated by the Endangered Species Act. Additional water that could be released down the Klamath would not alleviate warm temperatures downstream, because it is much warmer than the Trinity Reservoir water, he added. (Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2350235,00.html Trinity flows will jump to help Klamath Eureka Times-Standard - 8/21/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer Water meant to cool and raise the lower Klamath River will begin coming down the Trinity River on Sunday. The water will rise suddenly on the Trinity as flows jump from 450 cubic feet per second to 1,650 cfs. Flows will then slowly decrease until Sept. 13. Some 36,000 acre feet -- almost 12 billion gallons -- will be released above the Trinity's normally scheduled flows over the three-week period. Biologists hope the water will stave off diseases that in 2002 killed as many as 68,000 salmon. Conditions on the lower Klamath River closely resemble those of 2002 -- though the fish run is projected to be only half the number of the salmon that migrated that year. The fish also have not begun to run up the river yet. Klamath flows are slightly higher this year than in 2002, and in September, releases from Iron Gate Dam will increase the flow 230 cfs. But steelhead and a few chinook salmon found dead on the river show signs of columnaris, and biologists and fishermen worry that if the fall salmon run begins to migrate before the Trinity water arrives, the fish could fall ill. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation bought the 36,000 acre feet of water from Central Valley water and power contractors. The Six Rivers National Forest is reminding swimmers, boaters and fishermen that the increased flows can pose a hazard. Cold, strong currents can be stronger than they look. Children should always wear a lifejacket on or around the water and adults are advised to wear personal floatation devices when on a boat. # Trinity River Flows Increase to Assist Fall Fish Migration on Lower Klamath and Trinity Rivers News release, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region - 8/20/04 Based on U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries recommendations, increased instream flows from Trinity River are set to start Sunday, August 22, 2004, the Bureau of Reclamation announced today. The Service and NOAA Fisheries, along with the Trinity River Management Council (TMC), recommended the increased flows as a proactive measure to avert any potential fish mortality in the 2004 fall salmon run. "Because many of the fish set to migrate through the Lower Klamath River are of Trinity River origin, Reclamation has acquired from willing sellers approximately 36,000 acre-feet of Trinity Reservoir water for these releases," said Kirk Rodgers, Mid-Pacific Regional Director for Reclamation. "We anticipate that the cost of acquiring this water will be non-reimbursable to water and power contractors in the Central Valley." Fisheries biologists say this type of release regime is designed to decrease water temperatures in the Lower Klamath River, thereby decreasing stress on migrating adult salmon and diluting the concentration of endemic fish pathogens, while also reducing the occurrence of physical barriers to migration such as shallow riffles. The flow schedule calls for an increase from the current 450 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 1,650 cfs, then gradually ramping back down to 450 cfs by September 13, 2004. This schedule uses the entire 36,000 acre-feet of Trinity water during the 3-week long increased flow regime. Ryan Broddrick, Director of the California Department of Fish and Game, said, "This action will not only improve conditions for the impending salmon migration, but it also sets an example of how federal, state, local and tribal agencies and private groups can work together toward a common goal." "Based on the conditions found by biologists monitoring the river in the last few days, we recommended to Reclamation that we proactively release additional water from the Trinity River to help salmon now beginning to enter the Lower Klamath," said Steve Thompson, Manager of the Service's California-Nevada Operations Office. "These additional flows should improve water quality and lower water temperature, reduce the potential for fish disease, and assist salmon in their upstream migration." Officials also credited the cooperation of the eight organizations on the TMC for providing valuable input. The TMC includes representatives of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes, the State of California, Trinity County, NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Forest Service, Reclamation, and the Service. Reclamation has prepared an Environmental Assessment (EA) under the National Environmental Policy Act and has determined that the increased releases will not have a significant effect on the environment. Due to the need to react quickly to the changing circumstances on the river, Reclamation was unable to provide a draft EA for public review and comment; however, copies of the final EA are available on Reclamation's website at www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov Mon Aug 23 17:57:15 2004 From: BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov (Brandt Gutermuth) Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2004 17:57:15 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Availability of Draft EA/EIR for Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Project Message-ID: The Bureau of Reclamation, the Federal lead agency, and the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the State lead agency, announce availability of an Environmental Assessment/Draft Environmental Impact Report (EA/DEIR) for the "Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78-79.1" (Project). The joint document is being prepared under guidance of the Trinity River Restoration Program and meets California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act requirements. The subject document - which reviews potential environmental impacts that might occur from implementing the first Trinity River Mainstem Fisheries Restoration EIS/EIR prescribed Channel Rehab project, is available for review and comment. At www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/, select "Northern California Area Office" and click on "Trinity River Mechanical Channel Rehabilitation Project EA." The Record of Decision (ROD) for the TRMFR EIS/EIR originally described 5 components that would need to be implemented in order to restore the attributes of a healthy and functioning alluvial river to the Trinity. The properly functioning river would provide habitat complexity and quality nursery habitat that now limit salmonid production. These 5 components were: 1. Variable annual instream flows based on the water year, 2. Physical channel Rehabilitation 3. Sediment Management(control of fine sediment and augmentation of coarse materials) 4. Watershed restoration 5. Infrastructure improvements to allow for higher flows. In addition, the ROD included provisions for an Adaptive Environmental Assessment and Management (AEAM) Program. This demonstration project is the first of many planned Trinity River physical channel rehabilitation projects (47 sites were originally identified for mechanical work). The proposed Project is located on the Trinity River, downstream of Junction City and below the Canyon Creek confluence. The purpose of the Project is to promote the alluvial processes necessary for restoration and maintenance of salmonid habitat in the Trinity River, which will be accomplished by re-contouring the bank and floodplain features. The Project is a necessary step towards restoration of the Trinity River's anadromous fishery as identified in the Interior Secretary's December 19, 2000, Record of Decision for the Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration Environmental Impact Statement. The EA/DEIR is available for a 45-day public review and comment period. It is online at www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/, select "Northern California Area Office" and click on "Trinity River Mechanical Channel Rehabilitation Project EA." The document is available for review at the Trinity River Restoration Program Office, 1313 South Main Street, Weaverville, and the Trinity County Library, 211 North Main Street, Weaverville. Comments must be received by close of business on October 6, 2004, and should be sent to: Mr. Brandt Gutermuth, Trinity River Restoration Program, P.O. Box 1300, Weaverville, CA 96093, or e-mailed to bgutermuth at mp.usbr.gov. For further information or to request a copy of the EA/DEIR, please contact Mr. Gutermuth at 530-623-1806 or Mr. Aric Lester, DWR, at 530-529-7365. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: DispAd.Logo.Hocker EA0804.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 26483 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Aug 24 10:46:28 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 24 Aug 2004 10:46:28 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE- Valley water deals ripped Message-ID: <007b01c48a03$9134ad20$b36c3940@V51NH> Valley water deals ripped Democrats suggest Bush administration 'payoff' for support from agribusiness. Sacramento Bee - 8/24/04 By Stuart Leavenworth, staff writer Six House Democrats are accusing the Bush administration of brokering sweetheart water deals with certain Central Valley farm districts that could affect how much water is available to California's cities and environment over the next 25 years. In an Aug. 20 letter sent to the Interior Department, the six California representatives - led by Rep. George Miller of Martinez and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi - say they are "extremely concerned" about the ongoing contract renewals and suggest they are being rushed to precede the November elections. "It looks like the Bush administration wants to hand a big payoff to agribusiness in exchange for their support," said Miller, who called on federal officials to delay signing the pacts until Congress and the public can review them further. Representatives of farm districts and the Bush administration rejected claims Monday that the contract renewals are being negotiated hastily. Bennett Raley, the Bush administration's point man on Western water issues, suggested that Miller was playing politics himself. "I'm fairly comfortable that Congressman Miller would be unhappy regardless of what we did, unless we established fairly punitive pricing requirements on contractors," said Raley, assistant interior secretary for water and science. David Guy, director of the Northern California Water Association, said the federal Bureau of Reclamation has been "very deliberate and very contemplative" in working on the contracts for several years. "They have to follow a whole set of federal laws. It's a big job," said Guy, whose group represents 70 farm water agencies in the Sacramento Valley. At issue is the amount of federal water that farmers and other contractors can receive from the Central Valley Project over the next quarter-century, and how much they will pay for it. The CVP controls about one-fourth of all water used in California, and for decades critics have blasted the Interior Department for skirting environmental commitments and pricing water so cheaply that it discourages conservation. In 1992, Miller spearheaded legislation - the Central Valley Project Improvement Act - that reallocated 800,000 acre-feet for environmental purposes, and left many farmers fuming. Since that time, Miller and other California Democrats have lost much of their influence on water policy as Republicans have taken control of Congress. Bush also has appointed several farm-friendly officials to top posts, including Raley, a Colorado lawyer who previously represented irrigation districts. Two months ago, federal officials proposed a new set of 40-year contracts for 140 old-time water users in the Sacramento Valley. Those pacts would entitle the so-called "settlement contractors" to receive 2.2 million acre-feet of water each year - enough for 4.4 million homes. That same month, federal officials also renewed contracts for 36 water agencies in Northern California with more junior water rights. It also is preparing a new long-term contract for Westlands Water District near Fresno, even though its contract doesn't expire for another three years. Hal Candee, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the Bush administration has wide legal latitude to encourage conservation through varied pricing but has refused to pursue those options. "California's water needs have changed dramatically in recent years, but these contracts just lock in the status quo," said Barry Nelson, who works with Candee at NRDC in San Francisco. As an example, Nelson pointed to Sacramento Valley farm districts that get benefits from Shasta Dam and other federal facilities but pay nothing for their base supply. Some of those districts then turn around and sell that water for more than $100 an acre-foot. "It's a huge windfall," Nelson said. Some in Congress are also frustrated that water contractors aren't promptly repaying the capital costs for CVP projects, as the law requires. "More than $1 billion of the original federal investment in the CVP remains unpaid after over 50 years," Miller and Pelosi said in their letter, which also was signed by Reps. Howard Berman, Anna Eshoo, Ellen Tauscher and Mike Thompson. Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento, said the contract renewal process, while obscure to many, has been conducted in the open. In recent years, the bureau has held scores of public meetings on the contracts, he said, and has put many of the documents on its Web site, www.usbr.gov/mp/. The bureau now is preparing nine sets of environmental reports that will assess the impact of the contracts. Unfortunately, said McCracken, the preparation of those reports has lagged behind the contracts themselves, making it difficult for the public to comment on their potential impact. Nelson, of NRDC, says the process isn't accidental. "From the beginning, the bureau has tried to make this as convoluted as possible, to make sure nobody noticed," he said. McCracken said officials understand some of the frustration. Once the environmental documents are completed, he said, "We will look and see if we need to extend the comment period."# ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Aug 25 14:44:23 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 14:44:23 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath-Trinity News- KFMC Opening and Trinity water to mean fewer dead fish? Message-ID: <003c01c48aec$b062dac0$c26c3940@V51NH> KLAMATH RIVER BASIN State needs fishery adviser for Klamath council Eureka Times-Standard - 8/25/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer California is seeking nominations for a key post on the Klamath Fishery Management Council, which recommends harvest limits for commercial and sport fishing to the federal government. The management council is an 11-member advisory committee that brings together fishermen, tribes and agencies to manage salmon and steelhead produced in the Klamath basin. The council narrowly avoided being de-funded last year. Inland California Congressman Wally Herger slipped language into an interior appropriations bill to yank the council's $110,000 in funding after it recommended changes to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's irrigation project on the Klamath following the massive 2002 fish kill. The council wrote two letters to U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, asking her to consider fish other than protected coho salmon when allocating water to the lower river. Herger, R-Chico, claimed the council had overstepped its bounds, but council members and others on the lower river saw it as a measure meant to stifle legitimate concern. But Rep. Mike Thompson struck a deal with the chairman of the House Interior Appropriations Committee to have the language taken out in conference, said the St. Helena Democrat's spokesman Jonathan Birdsong. "We caught it," Birdsong said. The management council meets three to four times each year to review the past year's harvest of chinook salmon, and the outlook for the coming year. The nominees for the vacant position should be willing to represent the sport fishery in the Klamath Management Zone. Nominations are due by Sept. 30. More information can be found at www.r1.fws.gov/yreka/kfmc.htm # RELATED Editorial: Trinity water to mean fewer dead fish? Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 8/24/04 If nothing else, the increased flow of Trinity River water into the Klamath River that began last weekend should tell people something. We hope it demonstrates more clearly the relationship between the temperature of water hitting the lower end of the Klamath, and fish mortality. Two years ago, 34,000 or more fish died in the lower Klamath from a disease that's always present in the water, but runs wild under certain conditions. Included in those conditions may well be high water temperatures, low river flow and the number of fish returning. The contention in 2002 was that more water should be taken from the Klamath Reclamation Project in the Upper Klamath Basin and sent down river. But it couldn't be shown that high-temperature water from this area would have helped the fish. What was far more certain was that farms in the Upper Klamath Basin would have been deprived of irrigation water. The Trinity River flows into the Klamath River 43.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean. Unlike the Klamath River's warm water, the Trinity's is cold, which should be more valuable to salmon - even critically so. In 2002, most of the fish deaths were below the confluence of the Trinity and the Klamath. Last year, more water was sent down the Trinity River and there was no fish die-off. We hope the same result comes this year, but even if so, it's too early to declare colder water is the cure-all. Other conditions may differ from 2002. One of the factors that led to the 2002 die-off, for example, was a heavy return of salmon. There was also speculation that changes in the river's channel from storms some years ago made it harder for the salmon to migrate upriver, which forced fish to congregate and become more susceptible to disease. In short, there are likely to be a number of factors involved when fish die in large numbers. The reason the amount of water in the river gets the attention is because it's one that agencies can control. We don't expect a definitive answer this year on the role that water temperature plays in fish die-offs. We hope, however, that if there continue to be fewer fish dying in years that colder water makes it downstream, people begin to realize that not all water is created the same.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Aug 26 17:06:23 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:06:23 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Letter to Sacramento Bee re. "Valley water deals ripped, " 8/24 Message-ID: To: Letters Editor, Sacramento Bee From: Dan Bacher Sweetheart Water Deals At Expense of Public Re: "Valley water deals ripped," 8/24: Rep. George Miller, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and four other House Democrats must be commended for their letter accusing the Bush administration of rushing to broker sweetheart water deals with Central Valley water districts preceding the November election. This attempt to curry favor with Central Valley agribusiness is just one in a series of environmental decisions by the Bush administration that have sacrificed fish and wildlife for cynical political objectives. This is the same administration that brought us the Klamath River fish kill of September 2002, where as many as 68,000 salmon died in low, warm flows because of a change in water policy that favored subsidized potato growers over salmon, the Klamath River tribes and recreational and commercial fishermen. The Bureau of Reclamation is pushing for new 25-year water contracts with agribusiness, but has only offered the public a brief window of opportunity, from July 2 to August 31, to comment on the deals. I completely support Miller?s request for an extension of the public comment period until 60 days after the new environmental analysis is completed. Dan Bacher, Sacramento From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Aug 30 11:01:22 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 11:01:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Federal Court Rules for San Joaquin River Salmon Flows Message-ID: <00ea01c48ebb$5c6d1de0$bd6c3940@V51NH> Below is the website where you can obtain Judge Lawrence Karlton's decision on the Friant Division and the San Joaquin River flows. I have also included numerous articles on the issue. Since most CVP long-term contract renewals are on the fast track and they include use of Trinity River water, there is probably some relevance to the Trinity River in this case, but I have not yet read it. Also, a bit of late breaking news- the plaintiffs in the Trinity Case- Westlands and NCPA (and probably the San Luis-Delta Mendota Water Authority), have apparently filed motions for reconsideration at the 9th Circuit Court of appeals. They still have another 45 days from August 27 to file appeals at the Supreme Court. Tom Stokely 530-628-5949 http://207.41.18.73/caed/DOCUMENTS/Opinions/Karlton/Naturalvspatterson.pdf Judge rules on 16-year Friant Dam dispute Associated Press - 8/28/04 By Terence Chea, staff writer SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge ruled Friday that the U.S. government violated California law when it built the Friant Dam near Fresno six decades ago, a decision that could settle a 16-year-old water dispute and restore water flows to the state's second longest river. The U.S. District Court judge in Sacramento decided in favor of environmentalists who sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Friant Water Users Authority in 1988 over the Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River. In the lawsuit, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups charged that the defendants violated state law by failing to release enough water to sustain the surrounding environment and wildlife. Agreeing with the environmentalists Friday, Judge Lawrence K. Karlton wrote, "There can be no genuine dispute that many miles of the San Joaquin River are now entirely dry, except during extremely wet periods, and that the historic fish populations have been destroyed." The San Joaquin River supported thousands of spawning Chinook salmon and other fish before the Bureau of Reclamation built the Friant Dam, about 20 miles northeast of Fresno, in the 1940s. The water now collects in Millerton Lake and provides irrigation to about 15,000 farmers and one million acres of farmland east of the river. But the dam diverts so much water that long stretches of the river run completely dry most of the year. Environmentalists argued that the river could be restored without hurting the region's farm economy, while opponents claimed restoring the river for salmon would take water away from farmers and residents. In 1999, the water authority and environmental groups agreed to negotiate a plan to restore 267 miles of the San Joaquin River, but talks broke down last year, sending the dispute back to court. NRDC officials said they were thrilled with Karlton's decision, which could send water through the Friant Dam for the first time in more than 50 years. Restoring the river will provide cleaner drinking water, more reliable irrigation water and salmon habitat, they said. "The federal court has finally acknowledged that this dam is subject to the same rules as all the other dams," said Barry Nelson, a NRDC senior policy analyst. "We can look forward to bringing a dead river back to life. An enormous number of people will benefit from a healthy river." The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns and operates the dam, wouldn't comment until its attorneys had a chance to review the judge's decision, said spokesman Jeff McCracken. The Friant Water Users Authority, which provides Friant Dam water to Fresno, Kern, Madera, Merced and Tulare counties, was "very disappointed" in the ruling, said general manager Ron Jacobsma, adding that its attorneys were considering various legal options. He warned that water releases could hurt San Joaquin Valley farmers. "Any loss of water to our service area would have a devastating effect," Jacobsma said. "This could have significant impact on the agricultural economy in the region and have economic consequences in the state." But California fishermen were excited about the prospect of restoring the San Joaquin River's salmon fisheries. "This has been a long time coming, but after 60 years, Judge Karlton has righted this wrong," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "We have now started down the road to restore one of the West Coast's premier salmon runs, and along with it, fishing jobs in California's coastal communities."# U.S. Illegally Dried River, Judge Rules For more than 50 years, jurist finds, federal agency violated laws protecting fisheries by diverting most of the San Joaquin waterway's flow to farming. Los Angeles Times - 8/28/04 By Mark Arax, staff writer FRESNO - In a major decision that could affect farming and development in the state's vast middle, a federal judge ruled Friday that the U.S. government has illegally dried up California's second-biggest river, the San Joaquin, by diverting most of its flow to agriculture. Siding with environmentalists in a 16-year-old lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that for more than 50 years the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has violated state and federal laws protecting fisheries by operating the river as an irrigation canal for farming. The violations occurred after the bureau dammed the San Joaquin River in the 1940s and shunted the flow to area farms, effectively destroying a historic salmon run and despoiling 80 miles of river from Friant Dam above Fresno to San Francisco Bay. "This means we can look forward to bringing a dead river back to life," said Michael Wall, a senior attorney with the National Resources Defense Council, which brought the lawsuit in 1988. "It's a tremendous victory for all Californians who deserve a healthy, living river." In a state that has long been a battleground for water wars, the dispute pitting farmers against Bay Area environmentalists ranks among the longest and nastiest. Kole Upton, a Chowchilla cotton and nut farmer who heads the Friant Water Users Authority, called the judge's decision a "big blow to the San Joaquin Valley." "This is going to drive farmland out of production," he said. "This valley is going to look like it did in the 1920s and '30s." He said the river irrigates more than a million acres of farmland between Merced and Kern counties, a swath of state where the desert has been made to bloom into the world's most productive farming region. Because farmers along the river are also seeking to convert their water for use by suburbs, Upton said, the decision could affect the pace of development in the state's Central Valley. "It's been 60 years since there was a Chinook salmon run on the San Joaquin River. The river is no longer in shape to sustain that old run," Upton said. "They're trying to turn back the clock. It's not unlike saying we need to go back to the way the Indians ran things." In his 41-page decision, Karlton wrote that before Friant Dam's construction, the salmon migrating up river made so much noise that they kept residents awake at night. He found that the Bureau of Reclamation's operation of the dam, which diverts more than 95% of the river's flow to farming, violated state fish and game laws. One statue, he said, provides that "the owner of a dam shall allow sufficient water at all times to pass through a fishway . to keep in good condition any fish that may be planted or exist below the dam." The San Joaquin River, in contrast, has two long stretches that are bone dry for much of the year. Karlton left open the question on a remedy. He could make a subsequent ruling or hand off to state officials or a state judge the question concerning how much water agriculture needs to give up to restore a healthy flow. "How to make the dry parts of the river flow again has yet to be determined," said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst for the National Resources Defense Council. "But this is a real solid ruling, and we're confident that it will stand and the river will come back." # Diversions ruined river, judge rules Sacramento Bee - 8/28/04 By Denny Walsh, staff writer The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation violated state and federal law by diverting most of the water from the San Joaquin River to agriculture for more than 50 years, a federal judge in Sacramento ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton found, in effect, the bureau reduced the river to a pathetic remnant of its glorious past. A fisherman recalled in court papers, "One almost could have walked across the river on the backs of the salmon when they were running." The judge wrote in a 41-page order, "There can be no genuine dispute that many miles of the San Joaquin River are now entirely dry, except during extremely wet periods, and that the historic fish populations have been destroyed." The specific question before Karlton was whether the agency is legally liable for the decimation of Chinook salmon and other types of fish that were native to the upper reaches of the river before construction of Friant Dam in the early 1940s. Karlton's answer is a resounding yes. "The bureau, by its own admission, releases no water" for preservation of native fish, the judge wrote. "Failure to release water from Friant Dam has rendered many miles of fish habitat unusable, especially in the stretch between the dam and the river's confluence with the Merced (River), and has also adversely affected water quality along the whole course of the river." In addition, lack of releases "has increased the temperature of the water, reduced the ability of the river to assimilate agricultural runoff and other pollutants, and substantially degraded riparian vegetation," he wrote. Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said the agency will have no comment until its review of the decision is completed. "We're very disappointed," said Ron Jacobsma, manager of the Friant Water Users Authority, which represents 22 of the 28 bureau contractors along the Friant-Kern Canal that serves thousands of farmers in Fresno, Tulare, Kern and Madera counties. "Any more downstream releases will really tighten the screws on farmers already scrambling to cope with an ever-decreasing supply of water." The authority delivered 1 million acre-feet of water this year, down from 1.4 million last year. Jacobsma contends a lot of things are needed to improve the river's condition, not just more water. "We don't want to dump a bunch of water down the river, not see any benefits for the fish, and have a devastating impact on our economy." In January, the judge will hear arguments on other issues raised in the 16-year-old lawsuit. He will later tackle the question of whether to take water away from agriculture. He noted in Friday's order that any remedy will have to be compatible with the bureau's mandate under the law governing the Central Valley Project. "Farmers throughout the valley have dedicated their lives and fortunes to making the desert bloom," Karlton wrote. "They did so in reliance on the availability of CVP water. That reality most likely should be taken into account when the court comes to address a remedy." Philip Atkins-Pattenson, a San Francisco attorney who represents the 14 conservation and fishing groups challenging the bureau's policies, said Friday the ruling "means that we can look forward to bringing a dead river back to life. It's a tremendous victory for millions of Californians who deserve a living river." Hal Candee, an attorney with the suit's lead plaintiff - the Natural Resources Defense Council - predicts the ruling will lead to "one of the most important restoration projects in state history." "It will benefit downstream farmers, who will get cleaner, more reliable water supplies," he declared. "It will benefit 20 million people in the Bay Area and Southern California, who rely on the Delta for their drinking water. And restoring the river's once thriving salmon fishery will bring back more jobs to our state." Jennifer T. Buckman, one of Friant Water Users Authority's attorneys, said it appears to her Karlton "misconstrued" an 11-week-old U.S. Supreme Court decision. The judge, however, found the factual scenario of his case is dissimilar to the one in the high court's new opinion. Buckman also said it appears that Karlton "misread" the California Fish and Game Code. Coupled with the federal Reclamation Act of 1902, that state statute requires the bureau "to release sufficient water to re-establish and maintain the historic fisheries," according to Karlton. Buckman also complained that the judge "seems to have ignored all the evidence we presented showing fish below the dam have maintained in good condition." The San Joaquin is the main artery of California's second-largest river system. It originates high in the Sierra, on snowy peaks southeast of Yosemite, and tumbles west into the Valley. The San Joaquin finally merges with the Sacramento River to form the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. The bureau built Friant Dam across the upper San Joaquin northwest of Fresno as part of the Central Valley Project. The river's flow is stored behind the dam in Millerton Lake. The river's fall-run Chinook salmon were reported extinct in 1949. Spring-run Chinook disappeared after unsuccessful rescue attempts in 1949 and 1950.# Ruling wins one for environment Modesto Bee - 8/28/04 By Mark Grossi, staff writer, Fresno Bee In a historic ruling, a Sacramento U.S. District Court judge Friday decided the federal government violated the law more than half a century ago when it built Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River and destroyed two salmon runs. The decision in the 16-year-old lawsuit sets the stage for the state's second-longest river to be reconnected from just west of Fresno to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, 230 miles away. Environmentalists say the ruling reverses a decades-old government philosophy of sacrificing the downstream habitat and wildlife to save a dying east San Joaquin Valley farm belt. Though nobody is opening the flood gates at Friant anytime soon, the ruling is a heavy blow to 15,000 farmers who irrigate 1 million east Valley acres with the river's water. "We're not surprised, but we are very disappointed," said Ron Jacobsma, general manager of Friant Water Users Authority, representing the farmers. "We are considering all our options, including appeal." The Natural Resources Defense Council, representing 13 conservation and fishing groups, applauded the decision by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton, who has been hearing the case since the 1980s. "The judge's decision brings a dead river back to life," said Hal Candee, senior attorney with NRDC. "Millions of people in this state deserve a healthy, living river." The next phase of the case will focus on how to fix the problem, Friant officials said. No one knows if Karlton will decide to rule on how to restore the river or turn the issue over to state officials. There is no date scheduled yet for that issue. With appeals and studies on the water requirements, it may be many years before a solution is found and the river is restored. Environmentalists believe it can be done without harming the farm economy. But since the beginning of the lawsuit, Friant officials have worried that a court might take a large portion of the irrigation water stored in Millerton Lake, northeast of Fresno, for restoration. The water supports a multi-billion-dollar farm economy from Chowchilla to southern Kern County. Many small cities, such as Lindsay and Strathmore in Tulare County, depend on the farm economy. "If we get a negative remedy, it's not just the farmers who will suffer," said Kole Upton, farmer and president of the Friant Water Users Authority. "We'll be obligated to tell city councils and boards of supervisors that they will have to talk about downsizing their areas, not growing." Officials for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which built and operates Friant Dam as part of the federal Central Valley Project, have not yet seen the decision and declined comment. The bureau is the main defendant in the case. In most summers since the bureau built Friant, the San Joaquin goes dry in two places -- Gravelly Ford east of Fresno and again on the Valley's west side beyond Sack Dam. The San Joaquin's channel refills at the confluence of the Merced River for its final 118-mile run to the delta. The environmental case for the river is more than a choice between fish and farms, said NRDC's Candee. The 350-mile river affects a huge slice of Central California and has an impact on water quality in the delta, which provides water for 20 million people in the state. Dante Nomellini of the Central Delta Water Agency, near Stockton, said: "Our people in the delta have been dramatically impacted by the Bureau of Reclamation's disgraceful management of the river. The plight of the San Joaquin needs to be remedied and this is a good first step." Candee added: "Restoring the river will be one of the most important restoration projects in state history."# Fear, hope flow from water ruling Restoration of San Joaquin River promises to be complicated process. Fresno Bee - 8/29/04 By Mark Grossi, staff writer Even before a 16-year-old lawsuit to restore the San Joaquin River took a major turn on Friday, state and federal officials had waited long enough to see more science on reviving the river. Officials last month took control of a publicly funded draft study to restore salmon runs on the 350-mile San Joaquin because feuding environmentalists and farmers kept it private for 17 months. The study was at a standstill. "A lot of people are interested up and down this river -- cities, farms, businesses," said state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow. "We want to move this into a classic public process." Snow's comments Wednesday on the $3.7 million study seemed prophetic by Friday when a federal court in Sacramento moved the restoration one step closer on the legal front. U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton in a 41-page decision wrote that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which built Friant Dam on the river, violated a state fishery protection law by not allowing a flow of water to keep the salmon alive. Farmers whose irrigation water comes from Millerton Lake at Friant are considering an appeal, saying the state decided in the 1950s that the fishery law did not apply to Friant. They fear the loss of irrigation supplies if water is released for salmon. "The evidence submitted by the defendants was largely ignored," said General Manager Ron Jacobsma of the Friant Water Users Authority, representing 15,000 east San Joaquin Valley farmers. But the environmental community, which filed the lawsuit in 1988, cheered. "This ruling will help restore one of the two great rivers that sustain the health of San Francisco Bay," said Grant Davis, executive director of The Bay Institute. "It is now time to begin restoring this vital resource for future generations." Karlton left open the question of how much water would be needed, but he gave farmers some hope: "Farmers throughout the valley have dedicated their lives and fortunes to making the desert bloom. They did so in reliance on the availability of [federal] water. That reality most likely should be taken into account when the court comes to address a remedy." The science currently snagged in the draft study may influence details of any remedy. Since 1999, scientists working with both the farmers and the environmentalists have been studying and performing tests on the river. The basic restoration strategy would involve releasing water from Friant Dam. But the river has run dry most years in two places since the dam was built in the 1940s, causing dramatic changes in vegetation and the channel. Restoring the flow will be complicated. State and federal officials believe they can review and release the restoration draft study by the end of the year. So what has been the holdup? It's a basic difference of viewpoints between farmers and environmentalists. In general, Friant farmers worry that the restoration would take too much of their river irrigation supplies, close down farms and undermine the economy of the farm belt from Chowchilla to Bakersfield. Friant officials believe the numbers in the unreleased draft study support those fears. But they also believe the study strategies do not go far enough in explaining what needs to be done. Environmentalists, represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council, say the alternatives in the draft study overstate the amount of water needed for restoration. They need peer review, NRDC says. State and federal officials put up public money and allowed NRDC and Friant take the lead in the study a few years ago as the two foes cooperated on a possible settlement to the 16-year-old lawsuit in federal court. But the cooperation dissolved last year, and the two went back to Karlton's court. Neither would release the contents of the draft because both would have to sign off on it. State and federal officials said the cooperation resulted in a lot of progress and further information about the river. But even after the study is reviewed and released, it would not determine a preferred restoration approach. "Our interests are broader," said Kirk Rodgers, regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, owner of Friant Dam. "We're not here to resolve the points of difference. We want to know what constitutes restoration and what it will cost. We want to move on to the next phase of study."# Judge: Friant Dam broke law Ruling in long legal fight could lead to restoration of San Joaquin River San Joaquin Record - 8/28/04 By Audrey Cooper, staff writer The federal government destroyed thriving salmon runs and created severe water- pollution problems in the Delta and San Joaquin County because of the illegal way it dried up portions of the San Joaquin River, according to a federal court decision released Friday. The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton clears the way for the restoration of the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam, a 319-foot monolith that water officials and environmentalists say is at least partially to blame for nearly every water-supply and water-pollution problem in San Joaquin County. The dam and accompanying canals divert more than 90 percent of the river's natural snowmelt to farms and towns located as far south as the Tehachapi Mountains. Under the decision, more water will almost certainly have to be released from Friant, although how much water will be released is still undetermined, attorneys said. Local environmentalists and water officials cheered the decision, which comes after 16 years of legal fights over the river. Farmers who rely on the water held at Friant Dam said they are studying their legal options, adding that the ruling could severely damage the southern San Joaquin Valley economy. There are plenty of reasons for local residents to care about what happens to the San Joaquin River: More water in the river could dilute pollution in San Joaquin County waterways. Higher flows could cut the algae that turn local waterways an unusual shade of bright green. East-county farms could get more water. More salmon might spawn in the river, and more water could put an end to the frequent fish kills in the Stockton Deep Water Channel. Also, Delta farmers could get irrigation water that is cleaner and less damaging to crops. And more water in the river could improve the taste of Stockton's drinking water because the city's fresh Sierra supplies are often shunted down the Stanislaus River and instead used to dilute the San Joaquin's meager flow. "This is fantastic news. The way the river has been managed up until this has been disgraceful and those of us downstream and in San Joaquin County have paid for it," said Dante Nomellini, manager for the Central Delta Water Agency. In the 41-page decision, Karlton ruled the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was liable for destroying a thriving salmon fishery when the agency built Friant Dam in the 1940s. Friant Dam holds back so much water that in places the river dries up completely. The riverbed is wetted upstream by inflowing tributary rivers like the Merced and Stanislaus. ::: Advertisement ::: Officials with the Bureau of Reclamation declined to comment on the decision. Residents who lived along the upper stretches of the San Joaquin River before Friant was built reported they would lie awake on some nights, unable to sleep amid the crashing, waterfall-like sounds of Chinook salmon fighting to find the best spawning sites. Today, those salmon runs are extinct. That violates state law, which says dams must release enough water to protect fish populations, Karlton ruled. Attorneys for the Friant Water Users Authority had argued that state and federal governments made a deal when they built the dam. That deal reserved the bulk of the river for agriculture, they argued. Karlton ruled those farmers' needs should be taken into consideration. But that didn't reassure Kole Upton, a farmer and chairman of the Friant Water Users Authority. "If they release more water, we're going to have big problems. We'll have to tell cities to cut back, and we will lose some farms. This will be drastic. We just won't be able to continue life like we have in the past because we simply won't have any water," he said. The lawsuit to get more water out of Friant Dam was led by the Natural Resources Defense Council and 13 other groups. Senior NRDC attorney Hal Candee said he was confident the river could be restored without harming Valley farms. Ronald Jacobsma, the consulting general manager of Friant Water Users Authority, said he felt Karlton ignored his agency's arguments. To John Banks, a self-described river rat who learned to fish on the river about 60 years ago with his grandfather, the court ruling was a victory. "We really had lost our river until this. There used to be salmon everywhere. Not anymore. If it ends up that more water is released from Friant, it will be a great day for all Californians," said Banks, a Stockton resident. # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Aug 30 18:39:42 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 18:39:42 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Westlands, et al., Request for Rehearing by Ninth Circuit Message-ID: <20040831013953.55C2C201DF5C@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> I have the filings for rehearing on Trinity decision now. Anyone who wants a copy of the two filings, please let me know. I will send them to you, Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Aug 31 09:13:52 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 09:13:52 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE-EPA appears set to relax standards for selenium Message-ID: <03c501c48f75$920408a0$bd6c3940@V51NH> It looks like somebody is getting ready for Kesterson 2 or finishing the San Luis Drain to the SF Bay. For information on plans to create Kesterson 2 and/or complete the San Luis Drain, see http://www.usbr.gov/mp/sccao/sld/index.html (The San Luis Drainage Feature Re-Evaluation and EIS). The article doesn't mention that with the selenate adjustment in the proposed new rules, the acute criterion would be 1,590 ppb selenium in water, much higher than the existing 20 ppb selenium acute aquatic life criterion. Also, the state of California has designated 1,000 ppb as the hazardous waste level for selenium, so what EPA is proposing is significantly higher than the state hazardous waste level. Also worth note is that water with selenate/sulfate is generally associated with subsurface agricultural drainage, NOT with mining runoff or refinery effluent. Somehow this has the appearance that the San Joaquin Valley water users who discharge selenium have had some influence with EPA in the proposed relaxation of selenium standards. Yours truly, Tom Stokely http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/environment/story/10576582p-11495494c.html Battle over toxic metal EPA appears set to relax standards for selenium, which led to deformities in waterfowl in 1980s. By Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Tuesday, August 31, 2004 Over the objections of several federal scientists, the Bush administration is preparing to relax national standards for selenium - a toxic metal that caused mass deformities of water fowl in California's Central Valley during the 1980s. The revised U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards are outlined in an EPA draft notice obtained by The Bee. Critics say the proposed standards are based on a study that even its author says was interpreted improperly. The standards follow years of lobbying by power companies, Valley farming interests and mining officials, all of whom say the current federal standards are overly restrictive. EPA officials declined to comment on the dispute Monday, saying they haven't made a final decision on the rule. "The notice you have is a draft. Until it is signed, it is not final," said Cathy Milbourne, an EPA spokeswoman in Washington, D.C. Scientists in other federal agencies, however, say it has been clear for weeks the EPA plans to adopt a selenium standard favored by industry and opposed by government biologists. The rule-making process has been controversial since 2002, when the EPA hired a contractor with long-standing ties to some industries seeking relief. Under the EPA draft notice, the agency plans to control long-term selenium toxicity by switching from a water-based standard to a fish-based standard. Industries would be allowed to discharge into waters until selenium reached a concentration of 7.91 parts per million in fish. EPA contends those levels will be safe for fish and most wildlife. Several non-industry scientists disagree. Joseph Skorupa, a researcher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says studies show birds lose 10 percent of their offspring after eating food containing 4 parts per million selenium. "At 8 parts per million, we are talking about a situation where more than 50 percent of the eggs would fail to hatch," said Skorupa, who has investigated selenium poisonings for more than two decades. In recent months, Skorupa and other scientists have been alerting EPA officials to what they call "fatal flaws" in evaluating selenium. "We thought they would go back and modify their criteria," said Dennis Lemly, a scientist with the U.S. Forest Service's Southern Research Station in Virginia. "So far, they haven't done that." Industry scientists say their research indicates selenium is less toxic than some biologists claim. They also say EPA's current method of regulating selenium - limiting levels to 5 parts per billion in water - is costly to certain businesses. "The power industry believes the 7.9 (parts per million) standard is more scientifically defensible than the current one," said Rob Reash, a biologist who works for Ohio-based American Electrical Power, the largest electrical generator in the country. He said power companies could save millions of dollars if the proposed standard is adopted. A natural element, selenium is considered to be beneficial in small quantities, but can be poisonous as it builds up in the food chain. That threat was illustrated vividly in the 1980s, when scientists started documenting hundreds of deformed and dying birds at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge near Los Banos. Federal biologists, including Skorupa, tracked the poisonings to selenium runoff to upstream farms, and have continued to document less-dramatic poisonings from the Central Valley to the Delta. Following the Kesterson episode, EPA set a water-based standard for selenium - 5 parts per billion - and started to regulate industries that discharge the metal in their wastewater. It's a big job. Across the country, selenium is released by phosphate mines in Idaho and copper mines in Utah. It drains from the piles of leftover ash at coal-burning power plants. It has been found downstream of mountaintop mining operations in West Virginia, and is in irrigation water across much of the West. Documents obtained by the Public Education Center, a nonprofit research group, show industries have lobbied for relaxed selenium standards over several years, even as the Fish and Wildlife Service has pushed for tougher limits. Since 1980, the power industry has spent about $10 million on selenium research, helping to fund several studies that discount the threats to wildlife, according to the Public Education Center. Hoping to sidestep disputes about its water standard, the EPA announced in 2001 it would start using fish concentrations, instead of water, to regulate selenium. Although scientists on both sides supported this approach, they quickly differed on EPA's choice of a consultant to lead the project - the Great Lakes Environmental Center. Since 2001, the Michigan-based consulting firm has worked for several power companies and trade associations, including American Electrical Power and the Electric Power Research Institute. Even more worrisome, say scientists for Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Geological Survey, is that the Great Lakes Environmental Center made significant mistakes in proposing a selenium standard for fish. In calculating a proposed standard, the Great Lakes center relied on a study by Lemly that examined selenium uptake and survival in blue gill, a common fish. But according to Lemly and Skorupa, the consultant misread the Lemly study and assumed he had studied 210 fish throughout the experiment. Lemly had removed 60 fish during two phases of the tests, meaning the survival rate was much lower than the consultant had assumed. "The Great Lakes Environmental Center made some fairly egregious errors," said Lemly in a telephone interview. Had the consultant correctly interpreted his study, he said, the appropriate standard should be closer to 4 parts per million instead of 7.91. Officials for the Great Lake center couldn't be reached Monday. Nor could Charles Delos, who is heading the selenium criteria changes for the EPA. Several months ago, Delos received a paper from five scientists criticizing the EPA's methodology, said Skorupa, who authored the paper along with Lemly, Theresa Presser of the U.S. Geological Survey and two others. According to the EPA draft notice, the agency acknowledges its proposed standard is "not necessarily designed to protect all terrestrial wildlife." On a separate track, the EPA is developing selenium criteria for California, although it is not known when those standards will be ready. Some California farm interests are lobbying for changes. The fish-based standard of 7.9 parts per million "is an important step towards a more reasonable selenium standard," the San Joaquin Valley Drainage Authority wrote EPA in 2002. In West Virginia, industries conducting mountaintop mining also are urging regulators to adopt the 7.9 ppm standard. Some industries are having trouble complying with the current standard, said Jason Bostic, regulatory affairs specialists for the West Virginia Coal Association. Bostic said he was unsure if selenium was building up in wildlife downstream of those mines. "We don't know," he said. "Selenium is very new for us." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ About the Writer --------------------------- The Bee's Stuart Leavenworth can be reached at (916) 321-1185 or sleavenworth at sacbee.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 155-selenium.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 38920 bytes Desc: not available URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Sep 1 09:12:22 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 09:12:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Federal Judge Says: Let the San Joaquin Flow Message-ID: Federal Judge Says: Let The San Joaquin Flow! by Dan Bacher After 15 years of litigation, fish advocates and environmental groups won a huge legal victory on August 27 when a federal court judge ruled that the Bureau of Reclamation illegally dried up the San Joaquin River when Friant Dam was built in the 1940?s. The ruling means that the bureau will have to release water from Friant Dam near Fresno for the first time in 55 years, according to the NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), the lead plaintiff in a broad coalition of fishing and environmental groups. ?There can be no genuine dispute that many miles of the San Joaquin River are now entirely dry, except during extremely wet periods, and that the historic fish populations have been destroyed,? said Judge Lawrence Karlton of the Eastern Federal District Court in his opinion. Writing of the dam?s damaging effects, the judge noted, ?In the words of the Department of Interior, Friant Dam?s operations have been a ?disaster? for Chinook salmon.? ?This is a tremendous victory for the people of California,? said Barry Nelson, senior policy analyst of NRDC. ?The Bureau operated the Friant Project in violation of California law for 55 years. The court says that the solution is to restore the historical salmon fishery of the San Joaquin. It is a very, very strong ruling.? The 13 other plaintiffs in the suit are Trout Unlimited, California Striped Bass Association, National Audubon Society, Stanislaus Audubon Society, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, United Anglers of California, CalTrout, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Sierra Club, Bay Institute, San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center, Friends of the River, and Nor-Cal Fishing Guides and Sportsmen?s Association. Jim Crenshaw, President of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said that this decision may well be one of the greatest victories for fish in the state's history. ?For more than a decade, our coalition has fought the federal government over the destruction of San Joaquin River due to the way the Bureau of Reclamation operated Friant Dam,? he stated. ?The federal bureaucracy destroyed one of the greatest rivers in the state and one of the state?s most important salmon fisheries. This historic decision vindicates our efforts and sends a long overdue message to our government that destroying rivers and fisheries is not legal, is not in the best public interest and will not be condoned.? Commercial fishing groups were also jubilant about the decision. ??This has been a long time coming, but Judge Karlton has finally righted this wrong,? said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. The Bureau of Reclamation was not able to comment on the decision at press time. ?The Department of Justice is in the process of reviewing the decision and deciding whether or not to appeal the case,? said Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the Bureau. The 41-page ruling is extremely well written, documenting the vibrant spring and fall salmon runs that ascended the San Joaquin before the dam was built. The Friant Project was constructed in a time of manic dam building throughout the state when environmental awareness was very low. Only a local sportsmen?s club and a brave Unitarian minister publicly opposed the project. The river?s spring run, estimated at several hundred thousand fish, was one of the largest chinook runs anywhere on the Pacific Coast. The historical fall run is conservatively estimated to have numbered 50,000 to 100,000 fish, according to Karlton. ?So many salmon migrated up the San Joaquin River during the spawning season that some people who lived near the present site of Friant Dam compared the noise to a waterfall,? said Karlton. ?Some residents even said that they were kept awake nights by the myriad salmon heard nightly splashing over the sand bars in the River.? The San Joaquin River is the second longest river in the state. It is the southernmost chinook salmon fishery on the Pacific coast and historically sustained a significant percentage of the ocean salmon fishery. Steelhead also ascended the river and its tributaries before Friant and other dams were built. NRDC led the coalition of conservation and fishing groups in suing the bureau over its operation of the dam and the renewal of water contracts for the Friant Water Users Authority, which represents irrigation districts on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley. The suit charged the bureau with violating Section 5937 of the California Fish and Game Code, which requires that ?the owner of any dam shall allow sufficient water to pass over, around or through the dam, to keep in good condition any fish that may be planted or exist below the dam.? The lawsuit was first filed in 1988, making it one of California?s longest running water disputes. ?Restoring the river will benefit everyone,? said NRDC senior attorney Hal Candee. ?It will benefit downstream farmers who will get cleaner, more reliable irrigation water. It will benefit the 20 million people in the Bay Area and Southern California who rely on the delta for clean drinking water. And restoring the river?s once thriving salmon fishery will help bring back more fishing jobs to our state.? Restoring the San Joaquin could be one of the largest environmental restoration projects in California history. The plaintiffs say it can be done without harming valley farmers. In fact, restoring the river will benefit downstream farmers in the Delta near Stockton who have suffered from low flows and poor water quality. ?The plight of the San Joaquin River is a national disgrace that must be remedied,? said Dante Nomellini of the Central Delta Water Agency, an irrigation district that supported the suit with an amicus brief. ?This decision is a good first step.? This legal victory promises to bring a long-dead river back to life. The coalition formed to achieve this victory shows the crucial need for environmental groups and fishing organizations to work together on fishery restoration efforts. Hopefully, the Bureau will not appeal this decision and will finally obey the law and let the river flow! From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Sep 1 11:33:57 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 11:33:57 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath Dams, Friant Decision/Sac Bee and Eureka Times Standard Message-ID: <20040901183923.75DF1202EDDB@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> SAN JOAQUIN RIVER Editorial: Reviving a river San Joaquin seems destined to flow again Sacramento Bee - 9/1/04 The San Joaquin River is the second-longest in California - when it is a river, that is. For many months in a typical year, this river no longer flows for much of its course from the southern Sierra Nevada to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Instead, it is a dry, dusty channel. The federal Central Valley Project, which captures the headwaters at Friant Dam and then conveys much of the flow away from the river channel and to Valley agriculture, is the reason for the San Joaquin's demise. The long-time existence of this plumbing and federal water contracts are not reason enough to kill a river, U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton has ruled, and justly so. Given the sorry state of this river, it's impossible to defend the status quo. Environmental groups that filed the lawsuit hailed the ruling, while farmers along the San Joaquin Valley who use most of the water for irrigation predicted economic catastrophe. But no final outcome is likely for some time, given the time it takes to hear appeals and the bureaucratic wrangling that is sure to continue. What does seem clear is that restoration of the river is no longer a matter of if, but rather of when. But what kind of restoration? How much? At what cost, and to whom? Karlton answered none of those questions in this initial ruling. He could throw the problem into the laps of state officials or divide the waters himself. Given the glacial pace of progress before the state Water Quality Control Board, a careful ruling by Karlton might lead to a more objective solution and would certainly take less time. A couple of things are clear, however. More study is needed - of how to maximize groundwater in a sustainable fashion, to alter water deliveries and to estimate the health of the river based on additional increments of water. Restoring a flow is one thing. Restoring a fishery, particularly a salmon fishery, would be another. While some environmentalists dream fondly of taking down Friant Dam, that won't ever happen. This is the one and only dam on this river, making it vital for flood control and water reliability. By the same token, farmers must reconcile themselves to the fact that some considerable amount of restoration will take place. A lasting solution is somewhere in this uncharted middle ground. Here is hoping that Karlton can find it. http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/10587302p-11506162c.html KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Settling on the Klamath's dams Eureka Times-Standard - 9/1/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer The owner of six dams on the Klamath River is hoping to have settlement talks under way as early as the fall, and has repeated its stance that no options -- including dam removal -- are off the table. Portland, Ore.,-based PacifiCorp's application for the relicensing of the dams has been accepted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Now the power company wants to open settlement negotiations with tribes, environmentalists and others, whose final terms would be adopted by federal regulators. Such a process has been used throughout the West to allow for more flexibility than is provided for in the onerous relicensing process. But how many groups -- and who will represent them -- will be allowed at the table is up in the air. "I think we've been clear that we haven't drawn a line in the sand," said PacifiCorp spokesman Jon Coney. "We haven't prejudged the outcome." Klamath Indian tribes, fishermen and environmentalists are just coming off a trip to Scotland, where they met with PacifiCorp parent company Scottish Power executives and attended its shareholders meeting. Scottish Power pledged that its subsidiary would talk with the groups. Last month, PacifiCorp CEO Judi Johanson met with several Klamath tribes. Yurok Tribe Executive Director Troy Fletcher said the Yuroks have told PacifiCorp they want to negotiate with the understanding that their goal is to see the dams removed. But the tribe also wants to see the full effects of such an effort studied, something the company has left out of its federal license application. "We believe PacifiCorp is poised to do the right thing and the Yurok Tribe is going to do everything we can to help restore fish to the Upper Klamath Basin," Fletcher said. Salmon once ran far up the Klamath, maybe well into the Sprague and Williamson rivers that feed Upper Klamath Lake. As the dams went up, salmon were cut off from their historic spawning grounds. A lawsuit from tribes on the upper Klamath asks for $1 billion in compensation for treaty rights to fish for salmon in the upper watershed. Coney said that lawsuit could complicate settlement talks. The hydroelectric project today produces about 151 megawatts, enough to serve 77,500 homes. Coney said it's a source of cheap power that doesn't pollute -- an assertion questioned by many who hold that its reservoirs degrade water quality. Coney could not say what removal of the project might mean to its ratepayers. The California Energy Commission has stated that new, larger power projects coming on line regionally would more than supplant the power PacifiCorp generates. And Scottish Power bills itself as an environmentally minded company, and could face a public relations backlash if PacifiCorp isn't willing to consider eliminating some of its impacts. In fact, the tribes and groups that traveled to Scotland were the source of a minor media frenzy in a country whose residents were largely unfamiliar with Scottish Power's interests in the Klamath River. One of the key elements likely to come up during settlement talks is the cost of dam removal. Some preliminary estimates have been thrown around, but the price is likely to be in the tens of millions of dollars, and PacifiCorp would probably expect federal assistance in bearing the burden. "I think it's inevitable that federal funding of dam removal is going to come up," Coney said. How many dams might come out would obviously affect the cost, and different groups might advocate different approaches. Craig Tucker of the Sacramento-based Friends of the River said Keno Dam could be left, and the other dams are fair game, but Iron Gate Dam, in his opinion, has to go. The National Research Council and the California Energy Commission have advocated that removal of at least Iron Gate Dam be considered. The differing opinions mean as many groups that are committed to the process should be allowed at the table, Tucker said. But instead of following other successful models, PacifiCorp seems intent on dictating the shape of the negotiations, he said, something that might only lead to lawsuits once the settlement terms are clear. "The last thing the Klamath needs is another lawsuit," Tucker said. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Sep 2 11:57:56 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 11:57:56 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Draft EA/FONSI Available for Shasta and Trinity River Divisions Long-Term Water Service Contracts Message-ID: <20040902185804.BDE25200DD2C@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Reclamation issued the following press release August 31 - the documents are accessible online. Mid-Pacific Region Sacramento, CA MP-04-063 Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken 916-978-5100 jmccracken at mp.usbr.gov For Release On: August 31, 2004 Environmental Documents Available for Renewal of Shasta and Trinity River Divisions Long-Term Water Service Contracts The Bureau of Reclamation announces the availability of the Draft Updated Environmental Assessment (EA) and the Draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the proposed long-term Central Valley Project (CVP) water service contracts between Reclamation and the Contractors within the Shasta and Trinity River Divisions of the CVP. The proposed contracts are for the delivery of up to 55,050 acre-feet of CVP water per year. The water service Contractors that are covered under this Draft Updated EIS/Draft FONSI include Bella Vista Water District, Clear Creek Community Services District, City of Redding, City of Shasta Lake, Shasta Community Services District, Shasta County Water Agency, Centerville Community Services District, Keswick County Services Area, Mountain Gate Community Services District, and the U.S. Forest Service. Depending on the Contractor, Reclamation proposes to renew the water service contracts for agricultural and/or municipal and industrial uses. Eight of the ten proposed contracts would be renewed for up to 40 years. Contracts with Bella Vista Water District and Clear Creek Community Services District (water service districts with agricultural water users) would be renewed for up to 25 years. On July 2, 2004, a 60-day public review and comment period was initiated for these contracts. The forms of contract are available on-line at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvpia/3404c/index.html, click on 2004 Forms of Contract. The Draft Updated EA/Draft FONSI were prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and are available for a 30-day public review and comment period. The documents are available online at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvpia/3404c/index.html, click on Draft EAs/FONSIs and scroll to Shasta and Trinity River Divisions Contractors. The draft documents may also be reviewed at Reclamation's Shasta Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, California. Written comments must be received by close of business on Friday, October 1, 2004, and should be sent to: Dr. Buford Holt, Bureau of Reclamation, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Redding, CA 96019. Comments may also be e-mailed to bholt at mp.usbr.gov or faxed to 530-275-2441. For additional information or to request a copy of the Updated Draft EA and/or Draft FONSI, please contact Dr. Holt at 530-275-1554. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Sep 3 15:24:51 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2004 15:24:51 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] TAMWG Meeting Location Changes to Weaverville Civil Defense Hall Message-ID: <009201c49204$d4ef6600$a16c3940@V51NH> The location for next week's TAMWG meeting on September 8 and 9 has been relocated to the Weaverville Civil Defense Hall. The meeting begins on the 8th at 1 pm. See you there! Tom Stokely -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sat Sep 4 12:12:29 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 12:12:29 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Correction-TAMWG Meeting Starts at 9 am 9/8 Message-ID: <002601c492b3$2572d360$726c3940@V51NH> Please note that the TAMWG meeting on 9/8 starts at 9 am, not 1 pm as I had previously stated, and it's at the Civil Defense Hall in Weaverville, not the Weaverville Library. You can find the TAMWG meeting agenda and minutes at the website: http://www.ccfwo.r1.fws.gov/ Supporting documents are also included on that website. I have attached the TAMWG meeting agenda for your perusal. It's a pdf file, otherwise, I'd just insert it as text below. TS -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: tamwg_sept_04_agenda.pdf Type: application/octet-stream Size: 11141 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sat Sep 4 17:48:06 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sat, 4 Sep 2004 17:48:06 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: Patrick Kennedy comes to Hoopa Message-ID: <009601c492e2$4dac05c0$726c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2378355,00.html# Eureka Times-Standard One from the Kennedy clan tours Hoopa By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Friday, September 03, 2004 - HOOPA -- Rep. Patrick Kennedy floated down the Trinity River, met with tribal leaders and toured some of the key ventures of the Hoopa Valley Tribe on Thursday. The 37-year-old Kennedy is in his fourth term in Congress, and sits on the House Appropriations Committee. A Rhode Island Democrat, he is vice chairman of the Congressional Native American Caucus. Raft guide and tribal member Chuck Carpenter explained how salmon spawn as Kennedy and members of the Cabezon Tribe of Mission Indians floated through a riffle. It's a river running strong for this time of year, as releases from an upstream reservoir pour down, trying to stave off a potential fish kill on the lower Klamath River. "This river means a lot," Carpenter said. "It's our whole world. Our elders looked at the river as a mystical place." Kennedy is touring American Indian tribes on a trip out West, and will head to New Mexico today. He sees himself as an advocate for tribes, which are often overlooked or ignored in federal legislation. "We have to take inventory, each session, of a myriad of bills that impinge upon sovereignty," Kennedy said. For example, in Homeland Security legislation, tribes often aren't mentioned as governments. So instead of the typical federal to tribal government relations, tribes are left to deal with states for security resources, Kennedy said. He said he works to fix bills so they reflect tribal sovereignty. The Hoopa Valley and Cabezon tribes are two of 10 tribes working on tribal trust issues outside of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, said Danny Jordan, self-governance and commerce director for the Hoopa Tribe. The tribe has a set of business codes that allow development of businesses under its own regulations, he said. Since the tribe's casino is small, it has concentrated more on non-gaming efforts, like timber and a cannery, Jordan said. That has required an improvement in infrastructure. One of the latest endeavors is a treatment facility that will pump water from the Trinity River to serve some 800 homes, including houses in the Bald Hills area that didn't see phone service until the 1980s. Kennedy's tour follows another tour by his cousin Caroline Kennedy in the 1980s. And Patrick Kennedy said his uncle, Robert Kennedy Sr., was a champion of American indigenous people at a time when no one was paying attention to them. The Taos Pueblo was the first tribe to endorse Robert Kennedy Sr. when he ran for president in 1960, Patrick Kennedy said. He'll visit the Pueblo today. "For me, building relationships in Indian country is important," Kennedy said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Sep 8 10:14:12 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 10:14:12 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] 2 Articles from Times Standard on Klamath Conservation Implementation Program Message-ID: <000901c495de$a52721a0$976c3940@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,127%257E2896%257E2383878,00.html Klamath program to be aired before public Monday, September 06, 2004 - The Times-Standard The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will tap five communities in the Klamath River basin in the coming months, trying to find some consensus in an effort to put in place an ambitious federal plan. The Conservation Implementation Program is fashioned after one on the Colorado River, and aims to restore the Klamath's ecosystem and recovery of endangered suckers and threatened coho salmon. The bureau said the plan will also help meet tribal trust obligations -- including improvement of chinook salmon stocks -- and allow continued irrigation. Finding consensus on the Klamath River is not unlike finding water on the moon, however. Long a watershed used by diverse and sometimes conflicting interests, the river system became a lightning rod in 2001, when Reclamation shut off water to upstream farms to protect salmon and suckers. The next year, Reclamation delivered full irrigation supplies to farms, and up to 68,000 salmon died in the river. Both events created an uproar and generated major political interest in the river, which was once the third largest salmon producer on the West Coast. Dams, logging, fishing and other activities also affect the Klamath. Taking a page from the contentious Colorado River struggle, the bureau earlier this year released a draft plan for the Klamath's recovery. If there is any consensus, it's that most agree the Klamath's complicated problems will never be solved unless the basin is considered in its entirety. Five meetings will be held to garner ideas from various parts of the basin. * Sept. 16 at the Miner's Inn, 122 East Miner St. in Yreka. * Sept. 29 at the Arcata Community Center in Arcata. * Sept. 30 at the Klamath Community Center in Klamath. * Oct. 21 at Chiloquin Auditorium, 501 Chiloquin Blvd. in Chiloquin, Ore. * Oct. 22 at the Klamath County Fairgrounds, 3531 South Sixth St., Klamath Falls, Ore. All meetings are from 6 to 9 p.m. The draft conservation plan can be found online at www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao/docs/CIP-ProgramDoc.pdf or by calling 541-883-6935. Written comments should be sent to Christine Karas, Deputy Area Manager, Bureau of Reclamation, Klamath Basin Area Office, 6600 Washburn Way, Klamath Falls, Ore., 97603. . . . . . . . . . . 2) Humboldt Supes discuss Klamath Tuesday http://www.times-standard.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,127%257E2896%257E2383880,00.html Eureka Times-Standard Supervisors to hear a proposed 'solution' to Klamath water woes By James Tressler The Times-Standard Monday, September 06, 2004 - EUREKA -- Humboldt County supervisors Tuesday will revisit the ongoing struggle over water use on the Klamath River. John Elliot, chairman of the Klamath County Board of Commissioners, is expected to brief the supervisors on an idea to develop a water storage project at Long Lake Valley, located near the Upper Klamath Basin. According to the Klamath board's report, the project could store 350,000 acre-feet of water annually without the construction of a dam. The Long Lake project, if it ever happens, could also provide capability to deliver colder water to the river on demand with little adverse environmental effects, thus stabilizing flows on the Klamath lake and river. "This project may have the potential to be a significant part of the overall solution for water issues in the Klamath Basin," the report concludes. "However, for that to be determined, the project needs to be studied at a sufficient level of detail." According to the report, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation studied such a proposal in the 1980s, but their findings on whether such a project would stabilize the basin were inconclusive and called for more study. Klamath tribes, the Oregon Farm Bureau and the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors are among some 25 agencies and groups that have supported embarking on further studies. The board meets at 9 a.m. in the supervisors' chambers at the county courthouse. Elliot's presentation is scheduled for 10 a.m. -------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Sep 8 11:51:18 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 11:51:18 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times Standard, Klamath Conundrum Message-ID: <000d01c495de$ac3131c0$976c3940@V51NH> This article is a little stale, but the information is still relevant. TS http://www.times-standard.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,127%257E2896%257E2370796,00.html Klamath's conundrum By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - EUREKA -- Calls for leadership and cooperation were mixed with a sense of desperation from fishermen and tribes at a hearing on the Klamath River basin's ecological maze of pitfalls and politics. More than 100 people pressed into the City Council chambers here on Monday to hear from regulators, tribes, irrigators and fishermen. Led by Rep. Mike Thompson, most speakers agreed that diverse interests need to work together to restore the Klamath basin on a large scale. "I'm one who believes it's been piecemeal at best," the St. Helena Democrat said. The hearing comes as the federal government is releasing billions of gallons of water purchased from Central Valley water users down the Trinity River. The releases are meant to cool and raise the lower Klamath River, where the specter of a massive fish kill like that in 2002 still looms. For now, conditions on the river have improved. But fishermen are still worried that the offspring of the 2002 fish kill may not be numerous enough to allow fishing next year. When federal fisheries managers laid out studies being done to determine the effects of the increased flows, Thompson grew frustrated, asking how the effort might be sped up. He said restoration projects on Klamath tributaries won't do much unless there is water in the river. Thompson likened it to paving the side streets while neglecting the highway. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Project Manager Dave Sabo said there must be a reduction in demands on the system from all sides, especially as precipitation appears to be dropping off and average temperatures are rising in the basin. Throughout the meeting, nearly every interest voiced disappointment in Reclamation's water bank, used to boost flows to fish downstream. This year, more than 80,000 acre feet has been released -- water bought for $5.5 million from irrigators in the Klamath Irrigation Project. The project will use a total of about 240,000 acre feet this year. Next year, Reclamation will try to buy 100,000 acre feet for $7.5 million. "We hate the water bank," said Klamath Water Users Association Executive Director Dan Keppen, "but it was sold to us as a temporary solution." The basin runs from the Sprague and Williamson rivers in Oregon, into the warm, shallow Upper Klamath Lake, down through a series of dams and to the sea at Klamath. It also picks up water from the Scott and Shasta rivers, and its main tributary the Trinity River -- tapped by Central Valley water and power users -- and its water supplies refuges for waterfowl on both sides of the central Oregon-California border. Not considered in plans regulating the Klamath Irrigation Project are chinook salmon, lamprey or sturgeon valuable to several downstream Indian tribes. Troy Fletcher, executive director of the Yurok Tribe, said the federal government has shirked its responsibilities and refuses to seek a permanent reduction in demand from the project. "It's the goal of the federal government to operate this project as the status quo," Fletcher said. The tribe will go to court in September to attempt to prove Reclamation's operations were behind the deaths of up to 68,000 chinook salmon in 2002. Commercial fishermen were also critical of the government's actions on the river. Eureka fisherman Dave Bitts said he's highly concerned that the fish kill, and a juvenile fish kill that claimed perhaps 200,000 fry that same year, could shut down salmon fishing from the Columbia River to Monterey. He said fishermen would seek federal compensation if it happens. He also addressed Sabo's calls for compromise, saying there was no more room to give on the fishing industry's side. Heavy restrictions on fishing for Klamath fish have reduced the industry by 80 percent in recent decades, he said. Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations advocated reducing agricultural demand for water, removing some of the river's dams, and restoring the Scott and Shasta rivers. "This isn't rocket science," Grader said. "What we really need is leadership to do it." Klamath County, Ore., Commissioner John Elliot raised the idea of creating more storage to give the project flexibility by storing up to 500,000 acre feet of water in the upper basin. Environmentalists at the meeting raised concerns about federal timber sales in the watershed that they claimed would further harm salmon by silting in streams. Toward the end of the meeting, Thompson asked Keppen to bring together irrigators and elected representatives to collaborate with other interests in the basin. Keppen said the constant stream of litigation and press releases hasn't been helping anyone, and Thompson agreed. He looked back on 2002, when he delivered dead fish to the door of the U.S. Interior Department. "I hope I never have to bring 500 pounds of dead salmon to Washington again," Thompson said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Sep 8 10:30:15 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 10:30:15 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] McCloud River Indians to hold WAR DANCE at Shasta Dam Message-ID: Winnemem Wintu Tribe www.winnememwintu.us . Media Contact: Charlotte Berta Cell: 916-207-2378 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOTE: PRESS CONFERENCE: 4 PM 9/12/04 AT SHASTA DAM SITE McCloud River Indians to hold WAR DANCE at Shasta Dam Redding, CA September 8, 2004 The Winnemem (McCloud River) Wintu Tribe have called for a ?War Dance? to be held at Shasta Dam, north of Redding, California, beginning September 12th through September 16th. The tribe is alarmed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation?s proposal to raise the dam because they lost much of their homelands, and their salmon, when the dam was first constructed. ?Any raising of the dam, even a few feet, will flood some of our last remaining sacred sites on the McCloud River,? sites we still use today,? says Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Spiritual and Tribal Leader. ?Village sites, burial grounds, and ceremonial grounds will all be lost forever,? she continued. The last time the Winnemem invoked the War Dance was in 1887 when a fish hatchery on the McCloud River was the enemy and protecting the salmon and the Wintu way of life was the focus. One hundred seventeen years later the specter of Shasta Dam, already an implement of destruction to the Winnemem, looms large. Again, the Wintu are under siege. ?We prayed on it. On what it was we were supposed to do about the raising of the dam and we were told to hold a war dance,? said Sisk - Franco. ?Our ancestors showed the way with the dance against the fish hatchery and this is the path that was shown to us. We gave up a lot of our homeland for the sake of the California people, and got nothing in return. Now you want to take our sacred places, and again we get nothing in return. How is this fair, over and over again? This is not right,? she said. ?This is too much to ask of a people.? When Shasta Dam was first proposed, Congress passed a law authorizing the federal government to take the lands and burial grounds that the Winnemem had for a thousand years. Promises were made to the tribe that still have not been kept. The Tribe is asking that the BOR resolve these long standing debts before proceeding with its studies. The Tribe also wants the BOR, as part of the ongoing CALFED process, to increase water storage and meet California?s growing thirst, to study alternatives to raising the dam such as better management practices for the existing reservoir and conservation options, as well as better protection of the fish populations. But the most important issue is the threat that raising the dam poses to the cultural resources along the McCloud River, sites that are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as Traditional Cultural Properties. At risk are burial grounds that include the victims of the massacre at Kaibai (K? ? bay) Creek, Puberty Rock, where the young women?s coming of age ceremonies are held, and Children?s Rock, where the young ones place their hands for blessings to make them good people and help them understand and magnify whatever special gifts they hold, said Mark Franco, Headman of the tribe?s Kerekmet Village. ### FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE WINNEMEM, THE 1887 WAR DANCE, THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MC CLOUD RIVER CULTURAL SITES AND THE CURRENT ISSUES OVER THE RAISING OF SHASTA DAM, VISIT THE WINNEMEM WINTU TRIBE WEB SITE AT www.winnememwintu.us . FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE PRESS CONFERENCE, INTERVIEWS, or PHOTOGRAPHY - CALL Charlotte Berta - Cell: 916-207-2378 ALSO: Mark Franco, Headman of Kerekmet Village, Caleen Sisk-Franco (530) 275-2737 On September 12, 2004 at a site near Shasta Dam, just before dusk, a sacred ceremonial fire will be lit, a drum will beat, a song will begin, the fast will start, and an ancient dance will be under way. For the next 4 days, the fire, the drum, the songs and the dance will carry the prayers of the Winnemem people. The dance is being held under a permit issued by The Bureau of Reclamation. (BOR) The Tribe has held several meetings with the BOR to raise questions about the feasibility of the BOR?s plans, the impacts it will have on the tribe and their way of life, and the troubled history between the tribe and the BOR. From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Sep 8 10:34:11 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 10:34:11 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] McCloud River Indians to hold WAR DANCE at Shasta Dam Message-ID: Winnemem Wintu Tribe www.winnememwintu.us . Media Contact: Charlotte Berta Cell: 916-207-2378 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOTE: PRESS CONFERENCE: 4 PM 9/12/04 AT SHASTA DAM SITE McCloud River Indians to hold WAR DANCE at Shasta Dam Redding, CA September 8, 2004 The Winnemem (McCloud River) Wintu Tribe have called for a ?War Dance? to be held at Shasta Dam, north of Redding, California, beginning September 12th through September 16th. The tribe is alarmed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation?s proposal to raise the dam because they lost much of their homelands, and their salmon, when the dam was first constructed. ?Any raising of the dam, even a few feet, will flood some of our last remaining sacred sites on the McCloud River,? sites we still use today,? says Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Spiritual and Tribal Leader. ?Village sites, burial grounds, and ceremonial grounds will all be lost forever,? she continued. The last time the Winnemem invoked the War Dance was in 1887 when a fish hatchery on the McCloud River was the enemy and protecting the salmon and the Wintu way of life was the focus. One hundred seventeen years later the specter of Shasta Dam, already an implement of destruction to the Winnemem, looms large. Again, the Wintu are under siege. ?We prayed on it. On what it was we were supposed to do about the raising of the dam and we were told to hold a war dance,? said Sisk - Franco. ?Our ancestors showed the way with the dance against the fish hatchery and this is the path that was shown to us. We gave up a lot of our homeland for the sake of the California people, and got nothing in return. Now you want to take our sacred places, and again we get nothing in return. How is this fair, over and over again? This is not right,? she said. ?This is too much to ask of a people.? When Shasta Dam was first proposed, Congress passed a law authorizing the federal government to take the lands and burial grounds that the Winnemem had for a thousand years. Promises were made to the tribe that still have not been kept. The Tribe is asking that the BOR resolve these long standing debts before proceeding with its studies. The Tribe also wants the BOR, as part of the ongoing CALFED process, to increase water storage and meet California?s growing thirst, to study alternatives to raising the dam such as better management practices for the existing reservoir and conservation options, as well as better protection of the fish populations. But the most important issue is the threat that raising the dam poses to the cultural resources along the McCloud River, sites that are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places as Traditional Cultural Properties. At risk are burial grounds that include the victims of the massacre at Kaibai (K? ? bay) Creek, Puberty Rock, where the young women?s coming of age ceremonies are held, and Children?s Rock, where the young ones place their hands for blessings to make them good people and help them understand and magnify whatever special gifts they hold, said Mark Franco, Headman of the tribe?s Kerekmet Village. ### FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE WINNEMEM, THE 1887 WAR DANCE, THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MC CLOUD RIVER CULTURAL SITES AND THE CURRENT ISSUES OVER THE RAISING OF SHASTA DAM, VISIT THE WINNEMEM WINTU TRIBE WEB SITE AT www.winnememwintu.us . FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE PRESS CONFERENCE, INTERVIEWS, or PHOTOGRAPHY - CALL Charlotte Berta - Cell: 916-207-2378 ALSO: Mark Franco, Headman of Kerekmet Village, Caleen Sisk-Franco (530) 275-2737 On September 12, 2004 at a site near Shasta Dam, just before dusk, a sacred ceremonial fire will be lit, a drum will beat, a song will begin, the fast will start, and an ancient dance will be under way. For the next 4 days, the fire, the drum, the songs and the dance will carry the prayers of the Winnemem people. The dance is being held under a permit issued by The Bureau of Reclamation. (BOR) The Tribe has held several meetings with the BOR to raise questions about the feasibility of the BOR?s plans, the impacts it will have on the tribe and their way of life, and the troubled history between the tribe and the BOR. From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Sep 8 11:55:06 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 08 Sep 2004 11:55:06 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Cool Releases Bring Salmon, Steelhead Into Klamath System Message-ID: Here's my latest article. Thanks to Ed Duggan for his informative report that I incorporated into the article. Dan Cool Releases From Trinity Bring Salmon and Steelhead Into Klamath System by Dan Bacher Releases of cold water from the Trinity River have spurred the migration of king salmon and steelhead into the lower Klamath River ? and prevented a fish kill like that of September 2002 that many anglers feared. The releases have also resulted in improved salmon and steelhead fishing on the lower Trinity. ?Due to increased flows from Trinity and Iron Gate dams, the lower Klamath water temperatures have dropped better than 10 degrees and are bringing in some fresh salmon and steelhead,? reported Ed Duggan, fishing guide. The Trinity flows, after going up to 1650 cfs, are down to 1210 cfs and will continue to ramp down 60 cfs daily, reaching 1050 cfs by about September 11. The releases will return to 450 cfs on September 14. Mike Orcutt, fisheries program director of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, said the 36,000 acre feet of water being released down the Trinity includes 11,000 acre feet that the Bureau of Reclamation purchased from the Metropolitan Water District and 23,000 acre feet from Sacramento area water contractors. He added that the Yurok Tribe also got 2600 acre-feet of water released from Iron Gate Dam for cultural purposes. Keith Parker, Fish Sniffer reader and Yurok tribal member, has been regularly fishing the lower Klamath for salmon and steelhead. During August, Parker widely circulated an action alert urging the Bureau of Reclamation to promptly release the water from Trinity Lake when he and other anglers encountered salmon dying from gill rot disease in the low, warm water conditions. ?The cool water has made an incredible difference,? said Parker, who had just got on the river in his jet boat on Labor Day morning. ?The water temperature, in the seventies several weeks ago, has dropped to 63.4 degrees. On Saturday, September 4, three of us landed 9 king salmon.? Parker and his buddies fished roe and spinners from Blue Creek down and found chinooks in every hole. In addition to the salmon, they also landed three steelhead over 5 pounds while using Glo Bugs and Zonker and Blondie flies. ?All of the salmon and steelhead were bright fish,? noted Parker. ?When I fished the river 10 days before when the water was still warm, many of the salmon were already dark.? However, Parker believes that the bulk of the salmon run still hasn?t entered the mouth of the Klamath. ?There is a large school of salmon reported in the ocean off Crescent City, so we expect the main run to move into the river any day,? he added. ?The salmon action in the lower Klamath has been in spurts,? confirmed Owen Chew at Little Ray?s Tackle Box in Klamath Glen. ?The heavy pressure of 70 boats slowed the fishing down on Labor Day. There are a lot of fish in the river and fishing has been best in the evenings because of heavy fishing pressure in the mornings.? The adult chinooks are averaging 16 pounds each, with the biggest reported so far this season weighing 32 pounds, according to Chew. Large numbers of jacks are also showing in the Klamath. On the Trinity, the fishing has also dramatically improved with the increased flows. ?The half pounders have showed up and are giving fly fishers super action with the occasional adult in the mix,? said Duggan. Meanwhile, Duggan said fall run salmon arrived in the valley just in time for Labor Day weekend. ?While the town of Willow Creek celebrated ?Bigfoot Days,? the salmon started frolicking in the river,? said Duggan. ?There have been reports of 20-pounders being landed below Big Rock and up in Salyer. A good amount of half-pounder action at the mouth of South Fork helped make the weekend. There were lots of fly fishers working the river all the way up to Del Loma.? Steve Key, who was staying at the Del Loma Park, caught and released over 20 half-pounders and a nice 20 in. adult steelhead just as the holiday started. The park also saw some 20 pound salmon in camp as well as a 23 inch steelhead. The Willow Creek weir will not go in until after Sept 15. The Junction City weir has been counting fish all along except for when the water flows came up, noted Duggan. The Lower Klamath creel count (quota) has reached 589 below the Weitchpec Bridge (Highway 96). The number of fall-run chinook salmon below the Highway 101 Bridge has reached 227. ?The magic number we are looking for on the Lower-Klamath quota is 2,350. After that, only jacks can be harvested,? said Duggan. As soon as the bulk of the fall run moves into the system, anglers can expect increasingly good action for the hard-fighting chinooks that the Trinity and Klamath rivers are noted for. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Sep 8 14:37:19 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 8 Sep 2004 14:37:19 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times-Standard - Humboldt Co. Supports Investigation of New Klamath Water Storage Message-ID: <010901c495f9$bea9a240$976c3940@V51NH> KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Klamath water storage request turns into regional diplomacy gambit Eureka Times-Standard - 9/8/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer A presentation about a vague water storage project in the Upper Klamath Basin turned into a pitch to get divided interests on the Klamath River talking. The polarized upper and lower Klamath watershed has been a flash point for divisiveness over the past several years. But Klamath County, Ore., Commissioner John Elliot and the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday expressed a sincere desire to change that. The deepest rifts between the two regions began in 2001. That year the federal government cut off water to most farms in its central Oregon-California border irrigation project to protect salmon and suckers. In 2002, it crimped water to fish in the Klamath River -- and up to 68,000 salmon died. Board Chairwoman Jill Geist said she believes everyone is tired of fighting, and told Elliot she hopes the region's leaders can get together. "We're not going to be in agreement," Geist said, "but at least we can develop those commonalties." Elliot agreed. Elliot traveled to Humboldt County to ask for support for studying a new water storage project. An idea hatched decades ago, the idea is to use Long Lake, a natural bowl, to form a large reservoir, and then send the water -- expected to be colder and cleaner than Upper Klamath Lake's -- down the Klamath for fish. As conceived, the Long Lake project could trap perhaps 350,000 acre feet of water from winter and summer precipitation, then pipe the water to the Klamath River as needed. That could allow more Upper Klamath Lake water to be used by irrigators, increasing the flexibility of the federal Klamath Irrigation Project. "The only elastic band in the Klamath watershed is the Klamath project," Elliot said. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation keeps Upper Klamath Lake at a certain level to protect suckers, but must send enough water downstream to support salmon. That has the potential to squeeze water supplies to farmers. Many downstream interests contend the operation harms salmon, and point to the 2002 fish kill as evidence. The storage project has not been defined in any detail, and it's unknown who would study the proposal. Supervisors suggested Humboldt State University and Oregon State University be involved. Humboldt County on Tuesday agreed to write a letter to Reclamation voicing support. Tim McKay of the Northcoast Environmental Center was skeptical of the proposal, and suggested that other options be examined. "We need to keep our eyes on the prize and not be mesmerized by smoke and mirrors," McKay said. Others voiced cautious support for the study. Dave Hillemeir, a lead biologist with the Yurok Tribe, said he'd support the analysis, but cautioned that winter and spring flows are crucial for young salmon, and any study should look at the effects of storage on other species, like lamprey and sturgeon. Eureka commercial fisher Marge Salo told Elliot that the solution is to get people from around the Klamath Basin together and talk about their concerns. "We need to all start speaking with one voice," she said. # http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2387629,00.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From truman at jeffnet.org Mon Sep 13 15:11:31 2004 From: truman at jeffnet.org (Patrick Truman) Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 15:11:31 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Water Contracts Message-ID: <00b601c499de$a0ca04c0$39c84240@default> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/13/BAGPI8O2V01.DTL CENTRAL VALLEY Bush's water contracts criticized Opponents say feds failed to follow environmental law Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer Monday, September 13, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Bush administration is negotiating 40-year federal water contracts to Central Valley farmers without producing environmental impact documents for public review -- a move, say critics, that undermines landmark legislation designed to end California's water wars. Led by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, several congressmen have petitioned the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to reopen and extend public comment periods for a large number of pending water contracts. The contracts cover deliveries from the Central Valley Project, a huge federal and state water diversion system that delivers water to farmers and cities in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Santa Clara County also receives water from the CVP. The problem, say the bureau's critics, is that the official public comment period closed on contracts for about 150 Sacramento Valley rice growers without the environmental documents in hand. This, they claim, is a violation of the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act, federal legislation that redistributed CVP water to ensure that wildlife and fisheries got a bigger share. "Basically, they put the cart before the horse," said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The 1992 act, Nelson said, requires that "a draft environmental impact statement and draft statements on potential impacts to salmon must be made available for public review during the comment period." "They have not been made available," he continued. "The bureau can now make its decision on renewing these contracts without the public knowing the environmental costs." Frank Michny, a Northern California regional environmental officer for the Bureau of Reclamation, said there had been unexpected delays in compiling the environmental documents. "We have received the requests from Miller (and others) to reopen and extend the comment periods," Michny said. "Those requests are now under active consideration, though no final decision has been made." The project transports as much as 7 million acre-feet of water a year -- mainly to agriculture, which receives 90 percent of the deliveries. The contracts in dispute, which are administered by the federal government and won't come up for renewal for 40 years, account for more than 2 million acre- feet of water. Other pending contracts are for 25-year periods. Michny said no contracts will be approved until the public has had a chance to review draft environmental documents. But the form such review takes is critical, said Tom Kiley, a spokesman for Miller. "It's one thing if it's part of the formal comment that makes it into the public record -- that has a bearing on the final decision," Kiley said. "To simply 'make the documents available' in an informal way after the comment period closes isn't enough." The only documents that were available during the comment period, said Nelson, were those that pertained to the mechanics of the water contracts -- details such as delivery dates and the amounts and prices of the water. But even there, said Kiley, troubling questions remain. "A lot of these contracts say the obligation of the (farmer) to pay has been waived because of 'payment capacity analysis,' " Kiley said. "We can't tell what these analyses are. We've asked, but we haven't gotten a response." The bottom line, said Kiley, is that in those cases the water is free to the farmers. That, he said, is a direct violation of the 1992 act, "which states that beneficiaries must pay for their water." Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said water prices are somewhat flexible, with farmers paying what they can afford. "This ability to pay (clause) is part of congressional law," McCracken said. Those demanding that the public comment period be reopened also note that when farmers get a deal on their water, they are not encouraged to conserve one of the state's most precious resources. And if the farmers get a break on what they pay for their water, as the critics contend, that slows down the rate at which the government gets repaid the cost of building the system. The farmers and other water users are to pay back a little more than a third of that cost -- but although the first water was delivered in 1939, $1.2 billion is still owed. McCracken said that commitment will be honored. "Congress has told us the (CVP) must be paid for by 2030, and paid for by the beneficiaries," he said. "We will make sure that is done." In a letter sent to Miller on Wednesday, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner John Keys wrote that CVP water rates to farmers were "adjusted annually based upon operation and maintenance cost." Nevertheless, wrote Keys, the bureau expects the project to be paid for by the 2030 deadline. Keys defended the bureau's pricing policies, noting that the project's wholesale water prices to irrigation districts ranged from $14 to $44 an acre- foot. "CVP water is some of the most expensive water in the state today," Keys wrote. Kiley challenged Keys' claims that the water is sold at a premium. "Even at $44 an acre-foot, it's incredibly cheap," Kiley said. "In Southern California, cities are paying close to $900 an acre-foot. That's a whole order of magnitude higher." E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin at sfchronicle.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: clear.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: chronicle_logo.gif Type: image/gif Size: 1013 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: chronicle_sections.gif Type: image/gif Size: 290 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Sep 14 11:04:53 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 14 Sep 2004 11:04:53 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Various Trinity-Klamath-CVP Articles- Fish Kill Trial, etc. Message-ID: <00ac01c49a85$583c6f20$7d6c3940@V51NH> http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/09/10/news/community_news/cit5.txt Friday, September 10, 2004 Archives Judge puts fish death trial on ice Thursday Published September 10, 2004 Tribes, government debate blame for massive fish die-off By DYLAN DARLING The courtroom debate about what caused 34,000 salmon to die on the Klamath River in Fall 2002 was delayed again Thursday. A trial pitting the Yurok Tribes against the federal government and the Klamath Water Users Association, set to start on Sept. 20 in Oakland's District Court, was postponed, said Judge Saundra B. Armstrong's court clerk. No new trial date has been set because motions to dismiss the case, submitted by both the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the water users, will be considered in a hearing on Oct. 26, said Lisa Clark, court clerk. Depending on what Armstrong decides, a new trial date could be set or the case could be thrown out of court. At the heart of the potential trial is determining whether the Bureau's Klamath Project contributed to the die-off of salmon on the lower Klamath River in 2002. The Bureau and the water users have moved to have the case dismissed because they say the court doesn't have proper jurisdiction and because the plaintiffs, who have a reservation on the river, are asking for relief that doesn't match any damages. "They are asking for a future specific requirement that the government gives them more water, even though this is trying to redress something that happened in 2002," said Andrew Lloyd, an attorney which is representing the water users in the case. The Yuroks have said they want more water to flow down the river from the Klamath Project to prevent another fish kill caused by infection and disease like that seen in September 2002. Federal officials routinely don't comment on pending litigation. The potential trial is an off-shoot of an overarching case that was set for the courtroom in Spring 2003. In that case, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and other downstream interests, along with they Yurok Tribe, sued the federal government to release more water down the Klamath River from Iron Gate Dam. The water users entered the case as interveners on the side of the defendants. The trial for the original case was canceled the day it was set to begin in May 2003 and Armstrong said she would come out with a written decision, except for the issue of what caused the death of the salmon. For that, she said, a trial was needed. In her written decision made in July 2003, Armstrong said the Bureau needed to tweak two parts of its biological opinion, or guiding document for the management for the river, to bring the Project into compliance with the Endangered Species Act. She didn't give a time frame on when the changes needed to be made. The Bureau has made one of them and is still working on the other. **************************************************************** http://www.times-standard.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,127%7E2896%7E2395428,00.html Fishermen want salmon plan now By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Saturday, September 11, 2004 - Fishermen and fishing businesses repeated their call to the federal government this week to begin preparing for a possible closure or restriction of salmon fishing next year due to past disease outbreaks on the Klamath River. This fall's salmon run on the Klamath could be among the lowest on record. Since opportunities to fish for salmon up and down the West Coast are affected by the weak Klamath stocks, fish managers could be forced to close or clamp down on fishing to protect the salmon. In the spring of 2002, as many as 200,000 juvenile salmon perished from diseases while they were migrating. Biologists won't know how much damage that did until the 2- and 3-year-old fish born that year return this fall, but the implications are grave. Fish managers will determine in March how many -- if any -- salmon can be taken and still leave enough spawners to perpetuate the stocks. Eureka commercial salmon fisherman Dave Bitts said commercial fishermen are trying to reduce their take of 4-year-old salmon by imposing a 28-inch limit and reducing the number of fish they take this year. "Otherwise, there's not a whole lot we can do," Bitts said. But the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and others are calling for the federal government to take responsibility for the fish kill. They want the Bush administration to develop either a disaster relief program or a means to allow fishermen to target more abundant stocks in 2005. The federation wrote to the Bush administration in July asking it to begin planning for a possible fishery meltdown. To date there has been no reply. It also wrote to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, asking the council to plan for the worst. The council divvies up fish among commercial fishermen, tribes and sport fishermen each year. "Planning for alternative fishing scenarios or designing a disaster relief program for the impacted fisheries takes time, and waiting until next March until addressing the matter would be highly irresponsible," wrote the federation's Zeke Grader. Bitts said the problem is especially galling because most other West Coast rivers are producing well. On the Klamath, juvenile fish have been dying in recent years and the September 2002 fish kill claimed up to 68,000 salmon in an otherwise abundant run. Bitts said he hopes a solution can be found that will allow fishing. "I'd much rather fish the ocean than fish the mailbox," Bitts said. ********************************************************************************* http://www.sanmateocountytimes.com/Stories/0,1413,87~11268~2397083,00.html Article Last Updated: Sunday, September 12, 2004 - 4:08:28 AM PST Bay-Delta bill runs into small snag in the U.S. Senate By Erica Werner, Associated Press WASHINGTON -- Key California lawmakers said Friday they're optimistic about getting a Senate vote soon on a final version of a landmark bill authorizing the California Federal Bay-Delta Program. A $389 million CalFed bill passed the House in July, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said at least one major provision couldn't make it through the Senate, and she's been working since then to resolve the problem. Overall, the legislation, in the works for a decade, would authorize numerous water projects to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and ensure water supplies for millions of people. The provision that's problematic would allow the secretary of the interior to approve select water projects without congressional signoff. Congress would be given 120 days to say no but would not be asked to say yes. Feinstein said senators of both parties would balk at that. She said she's hopeful the Senate will act soon on a bill without the so-called pre-authorization language, and that she thinks the House will accept the bill that way. "The House would have to accept that," Feinstein said in an interview. "I see that happening, because getting a bill is too important, and we have a united community. We have the governor helping, we have all of the water agencies on board, so there is very solid support for this bill." Often when different versions of bills pass the House and Senate, a conference committee is appointed to resolve the differences, but Feinstein said there weren't plans for a conference committee on the CalFed bill. That means the version that passes the Senate would be the final version. It would have to win approval from the House as well, then go to the president. Feinstein has been working with House Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. Pombo's hoping for Senate passage before the fall congressional recess set to begin in early October, his spokesman said. "The chairman is optimistic that, with Sen. Feinstein's partnership, we will be able to deliver a good bill to the president before recess. He is committed to working with her in every way he can to make sure we do," said Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: blue.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 3pix.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Sep 16 09:54:17 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 09:54:17 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] AP Story- CALFED Bill passes Senate Message-ID: <01f201c49c0d$d0435cc0$ab6c3940@V51NH> September 16, 2004 CalFed passes Senate; $395 million for California water projects Associated Press - 9/15/04 By Erica Werner, staff writer WASHINGTON - The Senate passed the long-fought CalFed water bill Wednesday, authorizing $395 million to restore California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and ensure a reliable water supply for millions of farmers and residents. The sweeping, six-year bill would enact the first major changes to California's water systems since the 1960s. Differences with a version passed by the House in July must still be resolved before the legislation can go to the president for his signature. The bill authorizes feasibility studies for several major new storage projects, among them enlarging Los Vaqueros reservoir in Contra Costa County and raising the Shasta Dam. It authorizes $90 million for ecosystem restoration programs and contains provisions to expedite approvals of 49 recycling projects. It requires a feasibility study for restoring the Salton Sea and includes an Environmental Water Account to ensure water for fisheries. After a decade of dispute over the California Federal Bay-Delta Program among environmentalists, farmers, residential users and others, the passage was a victory some thought would never happen. The bill passed by unanimous consent with no debate. "Passage of this legislation was a long time coming and it is the result of hard work to reach a bipartisan consensus involving a wide range of stakeholders," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D.-Calif. and the bill's lead author, said in a statement. House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, also cheered passage of the legislation. "House and Senate passage of CalFed has been sought for nearly a decade by all of us who have a vested interest in meeting California's water needs for the 21st century," he said in a statement. Aides to both Pombo and Feinstein said they were optimistic about getting a final bill passed that can be signed by the president before the end of the year. But a hurdle still remains. The bill passed by the Senate on Wednesday leaves out so-called pre-authorization language that would allow the secretary of the Interior to approve four specific water storage projects without congressional signoff. Congress would be given 120 days to say no but would not be asked to say yes. Feinstein had insisted the bill could not pass the Senate with that language. But some Republican House members view the language as key in guaranteeing that the storage projects, which they view as central to a good water bill, will happen. The four projects in question are the Los Vaqueros enlargement, the Shasta Dam raise, surface storage on the Upper San Joaquin and Sites Reservoir in the Antelope Valley. Under the Senate version of the bill, feasibility studies are authorized for those projects. "Somebody's got to give," said Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy. Lawmakers will be under pressure to reach a compromise and get a final bill to the president. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has been involved, and Schwarzenegger wrote a letter supporting CalFed and has raised the issue in private talks with lawmakers, said his resources secretary, Mike Chrisman. If the legislation stalls, the administration may get more involved, Chrisman said. "It's very, very important," Chrisman said. "At this stage of the game, given where we are with CalFed, the federal government stepping up with these kinds of dollars is very important to us completing our commitment to all of the parties." Water agencies and business groups applauded the passage of the bill through the Senate, but environmentalists complained it puts creating new water storage ahead of ecosystem restoration. Nearly two dozen environmental organizations sent a letter to Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D.-Calif., this week criticizing the bill.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Sep 16 12:52:39 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 12:52:39 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Chron-State's tribes play big role in museum Building to open on National Mall Message-ID: <027e01c49c26$b9da5380$ab6c3940@V51NH> State's tribes play big role in museum Building to open on National Mall http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/16/MNG0T8PNMR1.DTL - Edward Epstein, Chronicle Washington Bureau Thursday, September 16, 2004 Washington -- These are the headiest of days for the Hupas of Humboldt County and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in Palm Springs and the 107 other federally recognized Indian groups in California. The Smithsonian Institution opens its 18th museum Tuesday, the $219 million, 250,000-square-foot National Museum of the American Indian, kicking things off with a procession of Native Americans in tribal garb followed by a six-day First Americans Festival along the National Mall just west of the U.S. Capitol. The Agua Caliente Band and the Hupas will play major roles in the new museum, whose curved shape and craggy exterior of Kasota dolomitic limestone from Minnesota stand in sharp contrast to the gray granite Greek temples along the National Mall. "It's an historic, once-in-a-lifetime event,'' said Richard Milanovich, chairman of the Agua Caliente tribe, a band that owns two thriving casinos, a bank and a stake in a hotel and contributed $500,000 to help build the museum. "For Indians in particular, it will bring out the self-esteem that's been lacking in not being represented in such a place as the National Mall,'' added Milanovich, whose ancestry is part Serbian American and part American Indian. Milanovich, along with about 60 other members of his band and their families, is attending the events in Washington this weekend. The museum opened Wednesday for a preview intended to show off a place created in consultation with Indians from across the Western Hemisphere. The discussions allowed the tribes a say about how to tell the world their story of an ancient civilization that was almost destroyed by five centuries of contact with Europeans but has persevered into the 21st century from Chile north to the Arctic Circle. "This institution speaks to all of us about cultural memory, remembrance and future,'' said W. Richard West Jr., the museum's director, who is also a peace chief of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma and a 1971 Stanford law school graduate who now sits on the university's board of trustees. Part of the Indians' pride in the museum, which is expected to draw about 4 million visitors a year, is that tribes and individuals raised $100 million privately for its construction. The biggest donors, at $10 million each, were three tribes from Connecticut and New York that have thrived in recent years running big casinos. Other major donors include the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, created by the founder of Hearst Corp., which publishes The Chronicle. Another $119 million came from Congress. West has headed the museum for about 14 years. It was created by Congress in 1989 to take over the collection of George Gustave Heye (pronounced high), a wealthy New Yorker who more than a century ago started assembling a collection of Indian artifacts that eventually grew to an estimated 800,000 items. The new museum building occupies the last major open space on the 200- acre mall that stretches west from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. West also oversees a smaller museum named for Heye in lower Manhattan and a storage and research center in Suitland, Md. The new museum, which displays about 8,000 items, is physically striking. Situated on a 4.5-acre piece of land nearest to the Capitol on the Mall, its main entrance is from the east, in keeping with the tradition of many tribes. Inside, the first thing visitors encounter is a vast atrium called the Potomac, named not for the nearby river but for the source of the river's name, the Piscataway word meaning "where the goods are brought in.'' The circular Potomac, which will be used for performances of Indian dance and music, sets the architectural theme for the entire building, which doesn't contain a single straight line. Traditional Indian architecture scorned boxes, since the point of buildings was to blur the line between the indoors and nature. The whole museum evokes American Indians' view of harmony with nature, love of the land, and an abiding view of injustice at the hands of governments across the hemisphere. It's certainly the only museum in Washington with a small garden where corn, tobacco, beans and squash were growing Wednesday. On the museum's fourth and top floor in the Our Universe section is an exhibit on three ceremonial dances of the Hupas -- a healing ceremony, a plea for abundant harvests and a rite to ward off misfortune. The tribe chose its own curators to design the exhibit and explain the deeper meaning to visitors from outside the tribe. At the museum's Mitsitam Native Food Cafe, the upcoming opening was eagerly awaited by Faye Wright, a Klamath Modoc Indian from Klamath Falls, Ore. , who moved across the continent just to work in the museum. "I'm thrilled to be here," said Wright, who landed a job as a cashier in the restaurant. "This is a very big event for our people. I said I'll do anything to work here.'' Members of her tribe are coming to Washington for next Tuesday's grand procession along the mall. "It's a small tribe,'' she said. "But the Klamaths will be here for the parade, and I'll be marching right along with them.'' E-mail Edward Epstein at eepstein at sfchronicle.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Sep 16 13:18:32 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 13:18:32 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee- More on San Joaquin River Ruling Message-ID: <028f01c49c2a$57527e00$ab6c3940@V51NH> SAN JOAQUIN RIVER / ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUE Fight surfaces in salmon ruling Orange Cove mayor, others say water shift would hurt economy. Fresno Bee - 9/16/04 By Mark Grossi, staff writer Orange Cove Mayor Victor Lopez rallied Wednesday for a war against a court ruling that he fears will take water from farmers and jobs from Central California to restore salmon in the San Joaquin River. "I cannot believe that fish would take the place of food," said Lopez, whose community depends on farm-related jobs. "We are going to fight together in the San Joaquin Valley to reverse this decision." Lopez joined 10 other speakers at Fresno City Hall to announce their battle against the ruling handed down last month from U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento. Karlton decided the federal government's operation of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin violates a state law protecting downstream fish. It resulted in the death of two Chinook salmon runs in the 1940s. The 16-year-old lawsuit now will turn to possible fixes, meaning the river will eventually need more water for restoration. East Valley farmers, who use river water, could lose irrigation supplies in the process. Farm officials Wednesday speculated any significant loss of water could take a deep bite out of the $4.5 billion east-side economy. Studies have not been completed on water needs and economic effects. But leaders from Lindsay, Kerman and Chowchilla as well as the United Farm Workers said they don't want to give up the river. "It's not just Fresno County," said Kerman Mayor Pro Tem Trinidad Rodriguez. "It's going to affect this whole Valley. We have been left out of the picture time and time again." Assembly Member Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said he wanted to convene a hearing with state and federal officials in October over the possible effects. The Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental legal group that filed the river lawsuit, said that the farm economy would not suffer. The defense council said river restoration can take place without harming the economy. "This is not a fish-versus-people issue," said lawyer Michael Wall. Fresno-area environmentalist Lloyd Carter said Karlton's ruling showed sympathy toward farmers and indicated the river's restoration would be done in a reasonable way. Carter said much of the river's water for decades has been diverted at Friant Dam south into Tulare and Kern counties, far from the river's natural run to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Northern California. The delta is home to many farming acres and huge pumps used to send water down the California Aqueduct to Southern California residents. Environmentalists said those people will get cleaner water when the San Joaquin is restored. "Farmers downstream on the river will be happy as will the 20 million Californians who get their drinking water from the delta," Carter said. But that may be years from now. An appeal of the federal court's August ruling is expected from the Friant Water Users Authority, representing water agencies and farmers from Chowchilla to Bakersfield. The river's water supports 15,000 farmers, working about 1 million acres. Ground-water supplies would soon be drained if they lost river water, officials said. Economic ruin would follow, they said. Ed Murray, mayor of Lindsay in Tulare County, said his city knows about economic devastation. The city reeled from a killing frost that virtually wiped out the citrus crop in 1990-1991. "We had 67% unemployment," he said. "The crime rate quadrupled. It took us three years to get it under control."# http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/9149354p-10050126c.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From ember at hoopa.net Thu Sep 16 14:43:17 2004 From: ember at hoopa.net (emelia peach berol) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 14:43:17 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee- More on San Joaquin River Ruling In-Reply-To: <028f01c49c2a$57527e00$ab6c3940@V51NH> Message-ID: <6BC5AB2C-0829-11D9-82FF-000393B04804@hoopa.net> Ha ha, oh my god I am going to die laughing ... that is really funny, these people are so out of touch that they forgot that fish is FOOD .... and what an important food, for centuries .... I haven't been eating much cotton and alfalfa lately, have you? or petroleum products, either for that matter, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides .... thank God. Oh this is really too much .... and what about all the people in the Valley suffering from asthma and lung cancers, and poisoned drinking water .... yes, let's talk about environmental justice. Good idea. Ember On Thursday, September 16, 2004, at 01:18 PM, Tom Stokely wrote: > SAN JOAQUIN RIVER/ ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUE > Fight surfaces in salmon ruling > Orange Cove mayor, others say water shift would hurt economy. > Fresno Bee - 9/16/04 > By Mark Grossi, staff writer > > > Orange Cove Mayor Victor Lopez rallied Wednesday for a war against a > court ruling that he fears will take water from farmers and jobs from > Central California to restore salmon in the San Joaquin River. > > "I cannot believe that fish would take the place of food," said Lopez, > whose community depends on farm-related jobs. "We are going to fight > together in the San Joaquin Valley to reverse this decision." > > Lopez joined 10 other speakers at Fresno City Hall to announce their > battle against the ruling handed down last month from U.S. District > Court Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento. Karlton decided the > federal government's operation of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin > violates a state law protecting downstream fish. It resulted in the > death of two Chinook salmon runs in the 1940s. > > The 16-year-old lawsuit now will turn to possible fixes, meaning the > river will eventually need more water for restoration. East Valley > farmers, who use river water, could lose irrigation supplies in the > process. > > Farm officials Wednesday speculated any significant loss of water > could take a deep bite out of the $4.5 billion east-side economy. > > Studies have not been completed on water needs and economic effects. > But leaders from Lindsay, Kerman and Chowchilla as well as the United > Farm Workers said they don't want to give up the river. > > "It's not just Fresno County," said Kerman Mayor Pro Tem Trinidad > Rodriguez. "It's going to affect this whole Valley. We have been left > out of the picture time and time again." > > Assembly Member Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said he wanted to convene a > hearing with state and federal officials in October over the possible > effects. > > > > The Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental legal group > that filed the river lawsuit, said that the farm economy would not > suffer. The defense council said river restoration can take place > without harming the economy. "This is not a fish-versus-people issue," > said lawyer Michael Wall. > > Fresno-area environmentalist Lloyd Carter said Karlton's ruling showed > sympathy toward farmers and indicated the river's restoration would be > done in a reasonable way. > > Carter said much of the river's water for decades has been diverted at > Friant Dam south into Tulare and Kern counties, far from the river's > natural run to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Northern > California. > > The delta is home to many farming acres and huge pumps used to send > water down the California Aqueduct to Southern California residents. > Environmentalists said those people will get cleaner water when the > San Joaquin is restored. > > "Farmers downstream on the river will be happy as will the 20 million > Californians who get their drinking water from the delta," Carter > said. > > But that may be years from now. An appeal of the federal court's > August ruling is expected from the Friant Water Users Authority, > representing water agencies and farmers from Chowchilla to > Bakersfield. > > The river's water supports 15,000 farmers, working about 1 million > acres. Ground-water supplies would soon be drained if they lost river > water, officials said. Economic ruin would follow, they said. > > Ed Murray, mayor of Lindsay in Tulare County, said his city knows > about economic devastation. The city reeled from a killing frost that > virtually wiped out the citrus crop in 1990-1991. > > "We had 67% unemployment," he said. "The crime rate quadrupled. It > took us three years to get it under control."# > > http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/9149354p-10050126c.html > > ? > > _______________________________________________ > env-trinity mailing list > env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org > http://www2.dcn.org/mailman/listinfo/env-trinity -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 5356 bytes Desc: not available URL: From wkier at pacbell.net Thu Sep 16 15:09:55 2004 From: wkier at pacbell.net (Kier Associates) Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 15:09:55 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee- More on San Joaquin River Ruling In-Reply-To: <6BC5AB2C-0829-11D9-82FF-000393B04804@hoopa.net> References: <028f01c49c2a$57527e00$ab6c3940@V51NH> Message-ID: <4.1.20040916145934.00b6e770@postoffice.pacbell.net> Poor old Orange Cove. It's population is mostly Hispanic. Mostly farm workers. When they're not on trucked-in water, they're drinking groundwater that's 50% herbicides and pesticides. Whenever the water buffaloes feel threatened they tell the mayor of Orange Cover to get his troops out there and holler bloody murder. The growers bused the Orange Cove population en masse to those 1995 mtgs to shut down the SJR restoration planning element of the CVPIA. Orange Cove is to the SJ Valley water wars what the Hispanic population, generally, is to the wars that W has started in the Mideast. Cannon fodder. It would be funny, maybe, if it weren't so damned tragic. Bill Kier At 02:43 PM 9/16/2004 -0700, emelia peach berol wrote: > > Ha ha, oh my god I am going to die laughing ... that is really funny, these > people are so out of touch that they forgot that fish is FOOD .... and what > an important food, for centuries .... I haven't been eating much cotton and > alfalfa lately, have you? or petroleum products, either for that matter, > pesticides, herbicides, fungicides .... thank God. > Oh this is really too much .... and what about all the people in the Valley > suffering from asthma and lung cancers, and poisoned drinking water .... > yes, let's talk about environmental justice. Good idea. > > Ember > > > On Thursday, September 16, 2004, at 01:18 PM, Tom Stokely wrote: > >> >> SAN JOAQUIN RIVER/ ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUE >> Fight surfaces in salmon ruling >> Orange Cove mayor, others say water shift would hurt economy. >> Fresno Bee - 9/16/04 >> By Mark Grossi, staff writer >> >> >> Orange Cove Mayor Victor Lopez rallied Wednesday for a war against a court >> ruling that he fears will take water from farmers and jobs from Central >> California to restore salmon in the San Joaquin River. >> >> "I cannot believe that fish would take the place of food," said Lopez, whose >> community depends on farm-related jobs. "We are going to fight together in >> the San Joaquin Valley to reverse this decision." >> >> Lopez joined 10 other speakers at Fresno City Hall to announce their battle >> against the ruling handed down last month from U.S. District Court Judge >> Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento. Karlton decided the federal government's >> operation of Friant Dam on the San Joaquin violates a state law protecting >> downstream fish. It resulted in the death of two Chinook salmon runs in the >> 1940s. >> >> The 16-year-old lawsuit now will turn to possible fixes, meaning the river >> will eventually need more water for restoration. East Valley farmers, who >> use river water, could lose irrigation supplies in the process. >> >> Farm officials Wednesday speculated any significant loss of water could take >> a deep bite out of the $4.5 billion east-side economy. >> >> Studies have not been completed on water needs and economic effects. But >> leaders from Lindsay, Kerman and Chowchilla as well as the United Farm >> Workers said they don't want to give up the river. >> >> "It's not just Fresno County," said Kerman Mayor Pro Tem Trinidad Rodriguez. >> "It's going to affect this whole Valley. We have been left out of the >> picture time and time again." >> >> Assembly Member Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, said he wanted to convene a hearing >> with state and federal officials in October over the possible effects. >> >> >> >> The Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental legal group that >> filed the river lawsuit, said that the farm economy would not suffer. The >> defense council said river restoration can take place without harming the >> economy. "This is not a fish-versus-people issue," said lawyer Michael Wall. >> >> >> Fresno-area environmentalist Lloyd Carter said Karlton's ruling showed >> sympathy toward farmers and indicated the river's restoration would be done >> in a reasonable way. >> >> Carter said much of the river's water for decades has been diverted at >> Friant Dam south into Tulare and Kern counties, far from the river's natural >> run to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Northern California. >> >> The delta is home to many farming acres and huge pumps used to send water >> down the California Aqueduct to Southern California residents. >> Environmentalists said those people will get cleaner water when the San >> Joaquin is restored. >> >> "Farmers downstream on the river will be happy as will the 20 million >> Californians who get their drinking water from the delta," Carter said. >> >> But that may be years from now. An appeal of the federal court's August >> ruling is expected from the Friant Water Users Authority, representing water >> agencies and farmers from Chowchilla to Bakersfield. >> >> The river's water supports 15,000 farmers, working about 1 million acres. >> Ground-water supplies would soon be drained if they lost river water, >> officials said. Economic ruin would follow, they said. >> >> Ed Murray, mayor of Lindsay in Tulare County, said his city knows about >> economic devastation. The city reeled from a killing frost that virtually >> wiped out the citrus crop in 1990-1991. >> >> "We had 67% unemployment," he said. "The crime rate quadrupled. It took us >> three years to get it under control."# >> >> >> http://www. >> fresnobee.com/local/story/9149354p-10050126c.html >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> env-trinity mailing list >> env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org >> >> http://www2.dcn.org/mai >> lman/listinfo/env-trinity > > > _______________________________________________ > env-trinity mailing list > env-trinity at mailman.dcn.org > > http://www2.dcn.org/mail > man/listinfo/env-trinity -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri Sep 17 07:50:57 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Danielbacher) Date: Fri, 17 Sep 2004 09:50:57 -0500 Subject: [env-trinity] [SPAM?] Re: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: jkopccjvhu.bmp Type: image/bmp Size: 2258 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Music_MP3.zip Type: application/octet-stream Size: 0 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Sep 20 11:27:48 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 11:27:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Klamath Task Force - October 13-14, 2004, Yreka Message-ID: <009801c49f3f$8a0d4ce0$c76c3940@V51NH> Dear Klamath Task Force Interested Parties: The next meeting of the Klamath Task Force is October 13-14, 2004, in Yreka, California, located at the Yreka Community Center at the northern extreme of North Oregon Street in Yreka, just past Yreka High School. Please see the attached Draft Agenda below. If you have questions, please contact Laurie Simons at laurie_simons at fws.gov, or me. (See attached file: October 04 Draft Agenda.doc) Thank you, Darla Darla N. Eastman U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service Contracting/Administration Supervisor 1829 South Oregon Street Yreka, California 96097 Tel: (530) 842-5763/Fax: (530) 842-4517 DRAFT AGENDA Klamath River Basin Fisheries Task Force October 13-14, 2004 Yreka Community Center Yreka, California October 13, 2004 9:00 AM 1. Convene and opening remarks. John Engbring, Chair, and Allen Foreman, Vice Chair. Vice Chair for next meeting is Irma Lagomarsino. 9:15 2. Introductions of Congressional staff in attendance 9:30 3. Business a. Adoption of agenda b. Approval of minutes c. Budget Committee meeting is November 17, 2004, 10:00 am, Yreka Fish and Wildlife Office 9:45 4. Brief review of last meeting actions/general correspondence/program update (Laurie Simons) 10:00 5. Brief Updates and Announcements a. Update on State coho recovery process (Neil Manji) b. Update on NRCS Farm Bill (Bill Gardiner) c. Update on NOAA recovery planning process (Irma Lagomarsino) d. Update on Klamath Fishery Management Council (Phil Detrich) e. Status of Klamath River anadromous fisheries (Neil Manji) f. Status of Accomplishments Report (Petey Brucker, Laurie Simons) 10:30 6. Status of Klamath Project continuing operations and Conservation Implementation Program (Dave Sabo, Bureau of Reclamation) 11:15 7. Report from Klamath Watershed Coordination Group (Dave Hillemeier) Klamath Basin Compact Commission (Alice Kilham) Trinity Management Council (Mike Orcutt) Upper Klamath Basin Working Group (Jim Carpenter) 11:40 8. Public Comment 12:00 Lunch 1:15 9. Report from Technical Work Group (Petey Brucker) 2:00 10. Groundwater hydrology in the Upper Klamath River Basin (Kenneth Lite, Oregon Department of Water Resources) 3:00 11. Presentation of Nathaniel S. Bingham Memorial Awards and Task Force Appreciation Award (John Engbring) 3:15 Break 3:30 12. The Five Counties Salmonid Conservation Program (Mark Lancaster, Trinity County) 3:45 13. Reconfiguring diversion structures to provide fish passage in the Scott River Watershed (Gary Black and Rhonda Muse, Scott River Watershed Council) 4:15 14. Public Comment 4:30 Recess 5:00 - 6:30 PM Field Trip to visit project sites in the Scott River Watershed with Gary Black and Rhonda Muse. Please form car pools and meet at the designated place in the Scott Valley by 5 pm. 7:00 - 9:00 PM Social Hour at Casa Ramos in Yreka. Have drinks and/or dinner with us. Reconvene - October 14, 2004 8:00 15. An Economic analysis of recreation benefits in the Klamath River Basin (Aaron Douglas, U. S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins, Colorado) 9:15 16. Presentation from the Klamath Basin Fish Health Assessment Team on the status of anadromous fish health (California Regional Water Quality Control Board) 10:00 17. Public Comment 10:20 Break 10:40 18. Klamath River Flow Study Update (Tom Shaw, Arcata Fish and Wildlife Office) 11:30 19. Trinity River Restoration Program desired condition and flows and their benefits to Klamath Basin anadromous fish (Doug Schleusner, Trinity Restoration Program) 12:00 20. Government Accountability Office audit of the Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program (John Engbring) 12:30 21. Discussion on priorities for funding in 2006 1:00 22. Public Comment 1:20 23. Recap and Summary of Assignments and Motions (John Engbring) Next meetings are: February 9-10, 2005 in Crescent City; June 15-16, 2005 in Yreka; and October 19-20, 2005 in Klamath Falls. 1:30 PM Adjourn After meeting excursion: Please sign up by 1:15 with Laurie or Darla if you plan to go. 3:00 - 5:00 Salmon are running to Iron Gate Hatchery and the adjacent Bogus Creek. Come see them in the hatchery and with videography in the creek and hear about how they are handled with Mark Hampton of the California Department of Fish and Game. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Tue Sep 21 07:54:50 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Danielbacher) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 09:54:50 -0500 Subject: [env-trinity] [SPAM?] Re: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: kudezhwsvo.bmp Type: image/bmp Size: 2142 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Fish.zip Type: application/octet-stream Size: 0 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Sep 21 09:40:52 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 09:40:52 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee September 21 San Joaquin River Decision Message-ID: <20040921164106.83B452006C0E@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Bill McEwen E-Mail Bill Battle cry on water rings hollow Bill McEwen / The Fresno Bee (Updated Tuesday, September 21, 2004, 5:30 AM) The sky fell -- again -- the other day. Farmers and politicians played Chicken Little after a federal judge ruled in favor of more water in the San Joaquin River and less in canals irrigating east-side farms. I should've brought a hard hat. Instead of offering a strategy that makes river restoration work for everyone, the big people gathered at Fresno's City Hall talked the same tired talk. Salmon vs. people. This is the end of San Joaquin Valley life as we know it. Let's fight these know-nothing judges and environmentalists until our dying breath. If you listened closely, you could hear the sounds of "Yesterday." That special time when a farmer's troubles seemed so far away, and cheap water was here to stay. Ag has sung "Yesterday" so many times, it just might be the fifth Beatle. Instead of living in the past and waging more legal battles, the Friant Water Users Authority ought to face reality. Although irrigation water diverted from the San Joaquin has made the desert bloom, it also has brought surplus crops, a Third World economy and decades of double-digit unemployment. Now is the time for small towns such as Lindsay and Orange Cove to diversify their economies. It's also time for politicians representing these towns to deliver legislation that will retrain and educate farmworkers who lose their jobs. Instead of pandering for votes by saying salmon shouldn't come at the expense of farm jobs, these same politicians ought to lead efforts to increase water storage on the river. There are two problems with Friant Dam: It wasn't built high enough, and it was built in the wrong location. Storing more water in heavy rain and snow years would provide extra water for farms and fish. Among the possibilities is constructing a large reservoir at Temperance Flat above Friant. Critics say it would cost too much. Given the demand for water in California, the reservoir would be a bargain. If I were on the payroll at Friant Water Users Authority, I'd push a whole different message than the one last week. I'd resume negotiations with the Natural Resources Defense Council, lead plaintiff in the 16-year-old lawsuit about the river's future. Farmers and environmentalists worked out agreements on water releases from the Kings River long ago. Why not the San Joaquin? I'd tell the public that east-side farmers want a healthy, fish-filled San Joaquin flowing from the Sierra uninterrupted to the delta. And I'd point out that keeping more water in the river benefits farmers along the river. For east-side farmers, it's all about the future now. To keep the water flowing to their liking, they need a bigger reservoir on the San Joaquin. That requires a new tone and a new way of selling themselves. You don't rally public support for such a huge project with the stale cry of fish vs. farms. You can't pretend it's OK to destroy a great and scenic river that is the heart of the Valley. You can't keep trotting out Manuel Cunha and Victor Lopez to say the sky is falling on farms and farmworkers. The future is here. Wake up and deal with it. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image006.gif Type: image/gif Size: 2332 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image005.gif Type: image/gif Size: 853 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 851 bytes Desc: not available URL: From CVPAssn at aol.com Tue Sep 21 11:57:51 2004 From: CVPAssn at aol.com (CVPAssn at aol.com) Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 14:57:51 EDT Subject: [env-trinity] Hupa Tribe on the Washington Post Front Page Today Message-ID: (http://ad.doubleclick.net/click;h=v3|318d|0|0|*|v;10810403;0-0;1;10261524;2321-160|600;6870537|6888433|1;;~sscs=?http://altfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck /3914-19266-2151-4?mpt=3655428) (http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/wpni.artsandlivingarticle/museums/nmaidcopt=ist;dir=nmainode;dir=artsandliving;dir=museums; dir=nmai;page=article;kw=;ad=ss;ad=bb;pos=ad21;sz=160x600;tile=20;abr=!ie;ord= 1095793012808?) _washingtonpost.com _ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/) A Journey of Many Lifetimes For the Hupa and Other Indians, Museum Honors Past and Present By David Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, September 21, 2004; Page A01 < HOOPA, Calif. -- The white buckskin headrolls embroidered with red woodpecker scalps were packed. So were the sashes spangled with iridescent mauve hummingbird crests. Luggage quandaries had been resolved: Costco nesting boxes and Tupperware bowls to keep woven hats from being crushed. Canvas duffels to preserve rolled-up maple bark skirts. Everything had to go carry-on. No one trusted the precious items to be checked. Now in the quiet of the morning before he was to fly to Washington for today's opening of the $219 million National Museum of the American Indian -- before this morning's unprecedented Mall procession of some 20,000 Indians from Alaska to South America in full regalia -- a Hupa medicine man named Merv George Sr. drove his Dodge truck to the top of Bald Hill to remember what the journey was for. The museum will open at last after 15 years of planning in an honored position close to the Capitol. "Kind of fitting," mused George: "First peoples here, last place on the Mall." He looked over his ancient valley. The rising sun glinted off the Trinity River winding among the homes and schools of the reservation. Steep hills of fir and pine rose on either side. He descended to the river, to a jagged outcropping of rock. Here the tribe launches the Boat Dance during what it considers a 10-day world-renewal ceremony every other year. Tribal members still take comfort in the old spirits. The regalia they will wear in the procession today and that will be unveiled in the new museum are what they never stopped wearing at home in ceremonies said to restore balance to the universe. The disastrous advent of the white man did not kill the spiritual core of this culture. It is not just an exhibit -- it lives. But inhabitants of Indian Country from Cherokee to Pine Ridge to Hoopa Valley aren't sure the rest of America understands -- so this is what the journey is for. Not just to experience one of the largest collections of native artifacts in the world or the six-day festival on the Mall this week. But also: "To show we still do this," George, 60, said, standing on the Boat Dance grounds, where participants are said to gather up all the prayers that were ever said and ever will be said. "We got modern things now. We got cars. But our basic root -- this is still what we do. Our basic lives are still tied to this." As native people throughout the Western Hemisphere prepared for the mental and physical journey to Washington -- capital of the land-grabbing empire, now attempting to write a new chapter -- Emmilee Risling, 15, checked her uniquely Hoopa look in the dining room mirror. It was two days before departure. Her father, Gary, is the wildland fire chief on the Northern California reservation, but he commutes an hour from the family's home on the coast near Arcata. Emmilee's mother and great-aunt fussed with details while she tried on a white cape made of conical dentalium shells. It had been handed down for generations, while her dress of buckskin, clam shells, pine nuts and beargrass was newly made by one of her aunts, a lawyer. She also wore a woodpecker sash dating back to the 1870s and a woven hat. "My culture is really important to me," said Emmilee, president of her sophomore class and vice president of the Native American Club. "That's the way I've been raised." Her tribe is one of the 24 that will have exhibits when the museum opens. These exhibits will rotate to other tribes every few years. The Hupa still feel humiliated by how they were treated in an old exhibit at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The regalia were mismatched, songs were mislabeled, according to tribe members. About 2,300 people belong to the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Scientists, who trust in carbon dating, say campfires have burned in the valley going back 10,000 years. The Hupa, who place their faith elsewhere, say their people have lived in this remote place since the beginning of time. (The people are Hupa, the place is Hoopa.) Emmilee had never been to Washington. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be with this many different Indian tribes," she said. But first she needed moccasins. The Hupa don't wear moccasins during their dances. Feet must touch the Earth directly. But tribe members had heard of the gravel paths on the Mall, and they worried about broken glass. Clad in a Bob Marley T-shirt, Emmilee set out moccasin-shopping with her mother. After enduring two stores and wincing at all the souvenir Indian footwear -- "Mom, I think I'd rather wear flip-flops!" -- Emmilee found moccasins handmade by a tribe in Montana. After shopping, Emmilee visited her great-aunt's home in Eureka. The girl laid out her aunt's heirloom regalia on the living room rug. Aunt Viola Risling, a petite eighty-something woman, sat on a couch with her Maltese dog. "We live like this," she said, gesturing around the modern American living room, "but we're trying to save our culture." She asked Emmilee to explain the dances and regalia to a visitor. The White Deerskin Dance renews and restores balance to the world. The Jump Dance wards off misfortune. The Brush Dance aids the sick. The Flower Dance marks a girl's passage into womanhood. Participants summon the dances down from the k'ixinay, the spirits, who are always dancing. The Hupa take over the dances for 10 days at a time to beseech the k'ixinay (pronounced "ki-hinn-ae") to answer their prayers. As in any religion, Hupa believers run the gamut from literal-minded fundamentalists to more liberal interpreters of the stories. "I hope Emmilee will continue doing it so it will go on," Aunt Viola said. The regalia have mystical meanings, but they also evince the Hupa's location between Pacific coast culture and high timber country -- a marriage of shells and nuts, woven river roots and upland grass and ferns. The tribe believes that spirits inhere in such elements of the land, and incorporating them gives the garments spiritual resonance. The woodpecker is revered as a fellow woodland spirit with family values, mating for life. Aunt Viola's regalia are not for sale or loan to outsiders. "I've got to keep my own things for our dances," she said. "They can't go to the Smithsonian!" Part of this journey is mental. Between the generation of young people like Emmilee Risling and members of the older native generation like her great-aunt, there is a middle generation that came of age during an especially activist period for American Indians. Members of this generation are the link between a past of culture destruction and a present when a museum on the Mall could be contemplated. The Risling clan is emblematic. Aunt Viola's brother, David Risling Jr., is considered a father of Indian education who first imagined such a museum 30 years ago. Emmilee was traveling to Washington with her aunt and uncle, Lois Risling, 55, and Steve Baldy, 54, who are also members of the tribe. The Rislings say the white man appeared only two lifetimes ago: Lois Risling was 10 when her great-grandmother, Nancy Sherman, died; she was more than 100 years old. Sherman, in turn, was a girl in the 1850s when white settlers entered the valley. When she was in graduate school at Stanford University, Lois Risling came across an anthropological text about the Hupa. It contained a picture of her grandmother -- illustrating the skull measurements of her people. Lois joined in the Indian activism of the late 1960s. She was part of the nonviolent occupation of Alcatraz in 1969. "I don't think we thought of ourselves as radicals," she said. "I think we thought of ourselves as Indian people doing what had to be done." Baldy, 54, took part in the occupation of a surplus military base near Davis, Calif., in 1970. That led to the founding of D-Q University, an Indian institution still open today. Baldy was president for several years. Lois Risling, now director of Indian community development at Humboldt State University in Arcata, doesn't think a museum on the Mall can make everything right between Indians and America. Her worst fear is that the museum will be held up as an excuse not to take action on other problems in Indian Country. But she sees it as an important turning point. "It's a statement and a recognition: We are," she said. "We were here first, and we continue to be here. That's the concept of a living museum. This is a recognition by the United States of America that Indian people are a part of America." Postcards from the reservation: One evening at dusk, children were playing in the river. There was a rope swing -- suspended from the highway overpass. The kids dangled merrily, dropped with a splash, and did it again. There are trailer homes and beautiful wooden ranchers, a couple restaurants and gas stations, a supermarket, no traffic lights. The Lucky Bear Casino is one room. Few gamblers find their way to Hoopa Valley -- a mixed blessing -- so the Lucky Bear only breaks even. But it provides 20 to 30 jobs. Unemployment is about 60 percent. The tribe was one of the first to take over all governing functions from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, in the early 1990s. Its budget is $65 million. Clifford Lyle Marshall, Hupa tribal chairman, sat in the spacious, modern tribal council chamber. He was not making the trip to Washington. He was troubled that so much Hupa regalia will remain under glass during the Smithsonain's temporary exhibition. He believes regalia are for dancing, and he worried that some visitors might think this is a museum to the past. Still, he applauded the effort. "I'm not boycotting anything," he said. "I've got a budget to do. I feel I've got to take care of business." A short drive upriver leads to Hoopa Valley High School, where a Hupa language class was in session. The taped voice of a departed elder filled the room, telling a story in the native tongue. The dozen students answered questions in Hupa. "These guys represent who's going to fill my shoes," said the teacher, Melodie George, 37, daughter of Merv George Sr. and one of a handful of fluent speakers. "I don't want to be the last Hupa speaker." Her daughter, Kayla Rae Carpenter, 16, was in the class. Two years ago, the tribe held a Flower Dance for her, the coming-of-age ceremony. It was the first Flower Dance in Hoopa Valley in a generation. Since then there have been several. Back downriver, at one of the nicer houses, Merv George Jr. opened a freezer in his garage and pulled out a stiff woodpecker. The bird's body was black, its scalp velvety red. George, 31, is administrator of an intertribal fish and water commission. On his own time, he makes regalia. It took him five years to craft two Jump Dance headrolls, each decorated with about 50 woodpecker scalps. He will wear one on the Mall today, and his son, Merv George III, 7, will wear the other. His wife, Wendy George, a tribal council member, made dresses for their three daughters to wear today. George and his father and sister consulted with Smithsonian curators on the Hupa exhibit, to get it right this time. He held up his headroll. "This is my flag," he said, "who I am as a person first." Somewhere over America, the in-flight movie for the Rislings was "The Alamo," with the scene in which Davy Crockett tells a bloody tale of killing Creek Indians. The characters use such words as "squaw" and "redskin," which the Rislings consider derogatory. A flight attendant announced the defeat of the Washington Redskins. After arriving in Washington, Baldy, Lois Risling and Emmilee Risling dropped their regalia at the hotel and paid a night visit to the museum. Its doors were locked for one more day, but they could see this monument from the outside for the first time. The limestone curves were floodlit against the dark sky. The visitors took in the scene, saying little. Lois Risling felt drawn to the plants and herbs growing in the native-style landscape. She and Baldy found ferns that grow in Hoopa Valley. Boulders called grandfather rocks are scattered on the grounds. Risling patted them with a happy sigh. Back home, during ceremonies, you draw strength from boulders. Risling senses her people won't be specimens this time. No more skull measurements of her great-grandmother. "If the inside is as impressive as what's out here, it's going to be a tremendous wonderful thing," she said. "There's something familiar about it -- and something new." ? 2004 The Washington Post Company -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Sep 22 11:37:42 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 11:37:42 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] BEE- California tribes join in opening of national museum Message-ID: <012901c4a0d3$3f782ac0$4a6b3940@V51NH> Indians celebrate cultural milestone California tribes join in opening of national museum By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Walking behind a banner proclaiming "Save the Klamath Salmon," about 20 Yurok from Northern California stood as a stark reminder that on a day of national Indian celebration Tuesday, problems back home should not be forgotten. Two years ago, the Yurok Tribe watched helplessly as more than 30,000 salmon washed up dead on the banks of the Klamath River that runs through their fractured reservation. Tuesday's procession to the ceremony opening the National Museum of the American Indian was seized as an opportunity to protest federal water policy that they blame for the fish kill. "We have water problems, and fish is one of our staples," said Lawrence Orcutt, who at 76 was the elder in the Yurok group attending the ceremony. Thousands of American Indians flowed in a river of celebration, feathers and smiles through Washington on Tuesday, heading for Indian country. Their destination was the new National Museum of the American Indian, a towering, honey-colored mesa of limestone and glass that faces east toward the rising sun in a desert setting of tall grass and boulder-bordered pools of water. Their purpose was to mark the nation's belated recognition of who they are and who they were. Drums thudded, chants rose, feet stamped, and faces were framed in elaborate headdresses of turkey and eagle feathers as the tribes rolled along the National Mall. Yet beyond the ceremony lay memories. A member of a Wisconsin tribe explained that his streaks of white face paint spelled out his name: "Rain clouds filled with thunder." "This is all great," he said with a wry grin. "But I want my land back." How much land? "About 16 million acres," he shot back. Coming from coast to coast, the tribes were dressed in clothes ranging from the ubiquitous blue jeans to regalia preserved by lost generations, proudly identifying themselves to a world that knew them as stereotypes. Their banners ranged from the Cherokees of Alabama to the Chippewas of Wisconsin, the Paiutes of Arizona, the Navajos of New Mexico and the Aleuts of Alaska. The mood of the marchers was relaxed and amiable. They talked of the museum as a place where their culture at last was identified and defined for what it was. "We are proud of who and what we are. But this gives us a sense of belonging," said a woman of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina as she marched with her people. >From the Pauma tribe of California, Sue Castillo said, "This is a coming together. This gives us a sense of self. We always had our own identity as tribes and communities, but we always lived in our own world. This tells who we are." Ned Barton of Fayetteville, N.C., a member of the Haliwa Saponi tribe, was one of those who spoke of the lesson to be learned from the new museum. "This gives us a sense of belonging," he said. Women of the Tohomo O'odham Nation of Arizona wielded crooked wooden sticks as they played a traditional game called toka, while others moved to a rain dance, and there rose a haunting chant to the sun. As they moved toward the museum, a $219 million structure that took 15 years to build, there awaited them a place of prisms and light, of ancient pottery and a wall of golden ornaments, but also a reminder of the history of Indian country. There are totem poles and ivory sculpture. There is a star room with a black ceiling pinpointed by lights. One gallery is devoted to modern Indian artwork, and other exhibits focus on the history and culture of the first Americans. "Visitors will leave here knowing Indians are not part of history," said W. Richard West Jr., a member of the Southern Cheyennes who is founding director of the museum. "We are still here and making contributions." Bill Pearson, another Yurok elder, said he journeyed to Washington not just to support his tribe, but also in the hope that "we get our salmon thing worked out." With American Indians filling the National Mall, Orcutt, Pearson, 73, and the others were inspired, even hopeful. "When we get together, we should be a powerful voice," Orcutt said. "I am proud to be an Indian." The political message the Yuroks carried, rare as it was on this day of festive traditional dress and dancing, did not overshadow the moment. Delores Sitts is a Yurok who now lives in Selma, N.C. But she was not about to miss the day of celebration with the people from her homeland. She wore a traditional necklace made with long dentalium shells and ruby-red money beads. Clam and abalone shells were sewn into her dress, and her hat was made from maidenhair fern and dried porcupine quills - all symbols of the tribe's connection to the rugged northwestern California coast. "To me, this makes me feel proud," she said. "You feel it in your heart. It's like one big family." Former tribal chairwoman Sue Masten, a past president of the National Congress of American Indians, said the museum gives American Indians a place on the National Mall. "For us, it is important that the United States formally recognize native culture, tradition and history, with all the other museums on the Mall," she said. "It focuses the attention on Native Americans, that our culture, our traditions and our religions are still thriving despite all the assaults. We are still alive." The Yurok delegation was a mix of political and cultural leaders. Orcutt, for example, is the tribe's keeper of regalia - the traditional clothing, headwear and ceremonial items that often hold spiritual significance. "This is the first time something like this has ever happened," said Orcutt, casting his gaze out over the endless gathering of colorfully dressed Indians. "I am a private person, but this is really something." Yurok Tribal Council member Lyle McKinnon said he toured the museum on Monday and was awed by the experience. His only disappointment, he said, is that so far no Yurok artifacts are on display. But with artifacts in regular rotation out of the museum's stunning and reverential Cultural Resource Center in suburban Maryland, McKinnon said, "Maybe we can get Yurok items in there next." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Sep 23 12:25:32 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 12:25:32 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Water For All Action Alert: Support Recognition of Winnemem Wintu Tribe Message-ID: Dear Water Activists, Please support the Winnemem Wintu (Middle Water People) in their fight to stop the raising of Shasta Dam, which would result in flooding of sacred lands and loss of traditional way of life by taking action at http://capwiz.com/friendsoftheriver/issues/alert/?alertid=6389796&type=CO The U. S. Bureau of Reclamation has proposed raising the 602 foot Shasta Dam any where from 6 to 200 feet as part of a greater CALFED plan to increase water storage for a thirsty, wasteful and ever growing California.?Raising the dam would flood the many of the last remaining sacred sites of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. Cultural devastation of this scale is akin to razing the Vatican. In 1851 the Winnemem signed a treaty with the U.S. Government ceding all their lands in exchange for a 35 square mile reservation. Congress never ratified the treaty, no reservation was established, yet the U.S. government took possession of Winnemem lands. Additionally, the Tribe was stripped of its tribal status in the mid-eighties due to a technicality. Members of the Winnemem have been attending hearings on the proposed dam expansion in recent months, but they are at a disadvantage because the tribe is not formally recognized under federal law. You can help the Winnemem Wintu tribe by urging Senator Feinstein to support legislation restoring tribal status to the Winnemem Wintu. To take action please click http://capwiz.com/friendsoftheriver/issues/alert/?alertid=6389796&type=CO More information: McCloud River Indians Hold "War Dance" To Stop Shasta Dam Expansion by Dan Bacher (www.fishsniffer.com) For the first time in 117 years, the Winnemem (McCloud River) Wintu Tribe held a four-day "War Dance" at Shasta Dam that ended at dusk on September 16. The dance's purpose was to protest the Bureau of Reclamation's proposal to raise the dam anywhere from 6 1/2 to 200 feet as part of the CalFed Program. The tribe of 125 members, based in Redding, lost much of their remaining homelands and their salmon when the dam was constructed in 1937.? "Any raising of the dam, even a few feet, will flood some of our last remaining sites on the McCloud River - sites we still use today," said Caleen Sisk-Franco, Winnemem Spiritual and Tribal Leader. "Village sites, burial ground and ceremonial grounds will all be lost forever." On September 12, just before dusk, tribal members lit a sacred ceremonial fire, beat a drum, began singing and started their fast. Eight barefoot men danced from dusk on Sunday through dusk on Thursday. The tribe held the dance under a permit from the Bureau. Over 125 people supported the tribe either in the press conference held before the dance or during the dance.? Representatives of environmental and fishery restoration groups, including Steve Evans of Friends of the River and Dave Fink of California Trout, spoke in support of the tribe. The Hoopa Valley Tribe from the Trinity River and members of the Miwok, Redding Rancheria, Pit River and Shasta Toyon tribes also supported the dancers. Besides flooding sacred sites, a higher dam would hurt salmon, steelhead and other fisheries on the Sacramento River, since the main purpose of the proposal is to provide more water to export to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and other water users . It would result in a smaller cold-water pool in Lake Shasta, creating the possibility of increased pre-spawning mortality of chinook salmon. "We received emails of support from people all over the world as we conducted our dance," said Charlotte Berta, a member of the tribe. "The War Dance is used to ask for protection before we go into battle. We danced to tell the dam that it is our enemy and not the people. We danced for our people and all our relations. We danced to ask for protection of the waters, the salmon and ourselves. We are going into battle, though not a physical one, and we danced to give notice to the dam." Sisk-Franco said the last time the tribe invoked the "War Dance" was in 1887when a fish hatchery on the McCloud River was considered the enemy and protecting the salmon and the Winnemem way of life was the focus. "We prayed on what it was we were supposed to do about the raising of the dam and we were told to hold a war dance," said Fisk-Franco. "Our ancestors showed the way with the dance against the fish hatchery and this is the path that was shown to us. We gave up our homeland for the sake of the California people and got nothing in return. Now you want to take our sacred places and again we get nothing in return." The tribe lost all of its ancestral land on the McCloud River in 1851 when the federal government signed a treaty with them. In return, the tribe was supposed to receive a 25 square mile reservation, but the treaty was never ratified, and the government illegally seized the land anyway. Eventually, individual tribal members were given allotments along the McCloud River, but their land was completely flooded by Shasta Dam in 1937. When Shasta Dam was first proposed, Congress passed a law authorizing the federal government to take the lands and the burial grounds that the Winnemem had for a thousand years. "Promises were made to the tribe that still have not been kept," said Sisk-Franco "The tribe is asking the BOR to resolve these long standing debts before proceeding with these studies. The tribe, as part of the ongoing CalFed process to meet water storage and meet California's growing thirst, wants to study alternatives to raising the dam such as better management practices for the existing reservoir and conservation options, as well as better protection of the fish populations." The dam expansion would flood the burial ground that includes victims of the massacre at Kaibai Creek; Puberty Rock, where the young women's coming of age ceremonies are held; and Children's Rock, where the young ones place their hands for blessings to make them good people and to help them understand and magnify whatever special gifts they hold, according to Mark Franco, Headman of the tribe's Kerekmet Village. Bureau of Reclamation officials claim that dam expansion could help fish by providing steadier flows in the Sacramento River and maintaining colder water temperatures for migrating salmon and steelhead, but the tribe and environmental groups disagree. "The Bureau says a higher dam is needed to benefit the salmon, but in fact they are changing the operations in a way that will eliminate the cold water pool in Shasta Lake," said Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River. "They are actually proposing to reduce the amount of water in the reservoir by exporting more water south. This dam expansion is tied into supplying Bureau contracts with irrigators while increasing Delta diversions." Whereas under current operations the Bureau has to maintain cold water 58 degrees and lower in the river down to Red Bluff, the Bureau's proposal would move the required cold water zone upstream to Balls Ferry. Operational changes could result in 26 percent mortality on Sacramento River spring chinooks in dry years and in up to 100 percent mortality in critically dry years, according to Evans. Raising the dam would also impact houseboat owners, marina operators and fishermen on Shasta Lake, as well as potentially inundate sections of the McCloud River, a world-class wild trout fishery. "The Bureau claims that the purpose of the dam is to help the salmon," concluded Berta. "But look at the facts: the Bureau in 1937 put in a big dam with no fish ladder that prevented salmon from getting upstream. Now they are saying that making the dam higher is supposed to help the salmon? They are not talking to native people who know all about the habitat of the salmon. We could provide them with a lot of information that would help them restore salmon populations." The Winnemem is not a federally recognized tribe - in a bureaucratic snafu, the federal government mistakenly left the tribe out when it transcribed a list of recognized tribes - and the tribe supported a bill authored by Colorado Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell that would make a "technical correction" to give the tribe federal recognition. However, the Winnemem rider to the technical correction bill, slated to be submitted to the Senate the week of September 20, was pulled. Passage of the technical correction was considered a sure thing until Senator Feinstein's office said she would not vote for it if it contained the language for the Winnemem restoration of federal recognition, according to Berta. Since it's a technical correction, it contained several other issues, and based on the 100% requirement for passing, the Winnemem rider was pulled in order to get the other issues passed. For more information, visit the Winnemem Wintu website at www.winnememwintu.us . Juliette Beck California Campaign Director Water for All Public Citizen 510-663-0888 ext. 101 www.citizen.org/california ********** To unsubscribe, please send a email to listserv at listserver.citizen.org with "unsubscribe waterforallca" in the message subject. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Sep 24 15:28:41 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 15:28:41 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Management Council Agenda for 9/29-30 Message-ID: <004801c4a285$e2c492a0$766c3940@V51NH> If anybody wants any of the supporting information for this meeting, please send me a private e-mail to tstokely at trinityalps.net. Tom Stokely Draft Agenda TRINITY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL Wildland Fire Facility; Hoopa, CA September 29-30, 2004 Wednesday, September 29, 2004 Time Topic and Purpose Discussion Leader Regular Business: 9:00 Introduction: Validation of agenda items; Approval of Mike Ryan, Chair 6/30/04, 7/27/04, 8/2/04, and 8/20/04 TMC minutes 9:15 Open Forum: Comments from the public Mike Ryan 9:30 Report from TMC Chair: Mike Ryan 9:45 Report from TAMWG Chair: Arnold Whitridge 10:00 Report from Executive Director: Project updates; Doug Schleusner Staffing; Q&A Working Session: 10:15 TMC Subcommittee Report: Non-Budget Items Curtis Anderson TMC Members 11:00 Break Working Session: 11:15 TMC Subcommittee Report: Non-Budget Items Curtis Anderson TMC Members 12:30 Lunch (provided by Hoopa Valley Tribe on-site) Working Session: 1:30 TMC Subcommittee Report: Non-Budget Items Curtis Anderson TMC Members 3:00 Break 3:15 TMC Subcommittee Report: Non-Budget Items Curtis Anderson TMC Members 5:00 Adjourn for the day Mike Ryan Thursday, September 30, 2004 Time Topic and Purpose Discussion Leader Presentation and Discussion: 8:30 Fall Flows Monitoring Results; Fish Run Data Joe Polos, FWS Neil Manji, DFG Presentation and Discussion: 9:15 Role of Fisheries Management in TRRP George Kautsky, HVT Dr. Dave Hankin 9:45 Break Presentation and Discussion: 10:00 Draft Action Plan: TRRP Science Program Andreas Krause, TRRP Curtis Anderson, SubCom Presentation and Discussion: 11:00 Science Framework and ESSA Contract Dave Marmorek, President, ESSA 12:00 Lunch (provided by Hoopa Valley Tribe on-site) Working Session: 1:00 Discuss and Finalize FY05 Budget TMC Members Doug Schleusner 2:45 Break 3:00 Discuss and Finalize FY05 Budget TMC Members Doug Schleusner Regular Business: 4:30 Open Forum: Comments from the public Mike Ryan 4:45 Calendars: Confirm next meeting date and location Mike Ryan (Tentatively December __ at Weaverville) 5:00 Adjourn Mike Ryan Hoopa, Willow Creek, and Weaverville Hotels Hoopa Tsewenaldin Inn Hwy 96 P.O. Box 219 Hoopa, CA 95546 530-625-4294 Willow Creek Bigfoot Motel 39039 Hwy 299 P.O. Box 508 Willow Creek, CA 95573 530-629-2142 www.bigfootmotel.com Willow Creek Motel 375 Hwy 96 Willow Creek, CA 95573 530-629-2115 Weaverville Best Western Victorian Inn 1709 Main Street Weaverville, CA 96093 530-623-4432 www.bestwestern.com (look for Weaverville hotels) 49er Gold Country Inn 718 Main Street Weaverville, CA 96093 530-623-4937 http://www.goldcountryinn.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Sep 27 09:26:15 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 09:26:15 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Plans to Increase Delta Exports Creates Opposition to CALFED Message-ID: <005901c4a4ae$bddda1e0$1f6b3940@V51NH> http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/10882601p-11800215c.html Major shift mapped for Delta water By Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, September 26, 2004 Under pressure from some of California's biggest cities and farm districts, federal and state officials are planning major changes in how water is stored and distributed across the state, including increased pumping of supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The proposed changes, outlined in an obscure state-federal document called the Operations Criteria and Plan, sets the stage for California's most far-reaching plumbing shifts in a decade. Under the plan, water contractors would increase pumping from the Delta by 27 percent, sending more to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Less water would flow to the San Francisco Bay and less would be reserved for endangered salmon during the driest of droughts. Increased pumping from the Delta originally was envisioned under Cal-Fed, a state-federal water collaboration launched in 1994. But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation unveiled other proposals only recently, and those are coming under fire from environmentalists, Delta farmers and sportfishing groups. All sides agree the liquid power struggle will be a major test of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his water lieutenant, Lester Snow. Schwarzenegger has styled himself as a business-friendly, pro-environmental governor who can solve entrenched disputes. But solutions don't come easy in the Delta, where there are symbolic shadings and big stakes attached to any effort to move water around. "The key decision-maker will be Governor Schwarzenegger," said Tom Graff, an Oakland-based lawyer for Environmental Defense, a group that has fought past plans to increase water exports from Northern California. "At some point, he and his appointees will have to decide if they uphold the environmental commitments of Cal-Fed." Created with a eye toward raising all boats in the Delta, Cal-Fed once was touted as a $8.6 billion "fix" for the estuary. The program has multiple goals of increasing water supplies for farms and cities while restoring fish hurt partly by water diversions. It's still unclear if those goals can be reconciled. The largest estuary on the West Coast, the Delta has lost roughly half its historic flow into San Francisco Bay because of upstream water diversions. If state and federal officials turn on the pumps at the wrong time, they can suck fish and larvae toward and into the pumps. The diversions also can worsen water quality for Delta farmers and the Contra Costa Water Agency by drawing salt and bromides up the estuary. In recent years, Cal-Fed has helped water managers coordinate a complex system of raising or lowering pumping rates to meet environmental demands. A special pool of water - the Environmental Water Account - helps compensate water districts hurt by unexpected restrictions on Delta pumping. Despite those successes, Cal-Fed has few vocal champions. Water users say the program has spent about $500 million buying potential habitat to help fish and wildlife but has done little to prevent future water shortages. Environmentalists say fish stocks remain a fraction of their past numbers, and note that Delta water standards still are violated. Frustrated with Cal-Fed's open meetings and often plodding process, California's big water users teamed up with state and federal officials last August, and quietly negotiated their own plan for increasing Delta pumping. It became known as the Napa agreement. For decades, the state Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation have maintained separate reservoirs, separate aqueducts and separate pumping plants in the Delta. Napa promised to change all that. For the first time, state contractors would be able to store their water in the federal government's big reservoirs. Federal contractors, meanwhile, could ship some of their water through the state's Harvey Banks Pumping Plant and its 11 massive electrical pumps, which suck water 244 feet up in elevation and deliver it to the California Aqueduct. Integrating these water works hasn't been controversial; the plan to increase pumping is. The Napa pact would allow the Banks plant to ramp up its regular pumping rates about 27 percent, from 6,680 to 8,500 cubic feet per second. State officials say the extra water would come from outflow to the Bay. The state's two largest water agencies - Westlands Water District, with 570,000 acres in irrigation, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, with 18 million customers - stand to be major beneficiaries. Those districts and others may end up gaining several hundred thousand acre-feet of water, said Tim Quinn, a vice president for Metropolitan. In addition, the increased pumping capacity could lay the groundwork for more sales of water from Northern California rice farmers to Southern California. To those excluded from the talks, the Napa meeting was less a breakthrough than a backroom deal, and a betrayal of Cal-Fed's principles. Delta farm districts, environmental groups, sportfishing interests and many mid-size urban districts were not at the table. At the urging of U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, and state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, the Napa signatories later crafted side agreements with Delta farmers, who fear that extra pumping could foul their water supply. But environmentalists were not included. "A lot of groups in the conservation sector are getting ready to wash their hands of the Cal-Fed process," said Steve Evans of Friends of the River, a Sacramento-based conservation group. "It is clear that major agencies are acting outside of Cal-Fed ... ." Up until the last few years, irrigation districts in the San Joaquin Valley were voicing the same complaints. Farmers lost supplies when President George H.W. Bush signed the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act, which allocated more water for the environment. Many farmers were skeptical that Cal-Fed would come to their aid. In 2001, however, President George W. Bush took office and agribusiness gained new clout. Interior Secretary Gale Norton appointed Bennett Raley, a lawyer for Colorado ranchers, to manage Western water issues. She also hired Jason Peltier, a lobbyist for Central Valley irrigation districts, to handle Cal-Fed. Two years ago, farmers won back some of their water when Bush and his appointees declined to appeal a court ruling challenging implementation of the 1992 act. South-of-Delta farmers now are pushing for extra water guarantees, said Thad Bettner, deputy general manager of the Westlands Water District, because they fear their existing supplies will be lost as California cities grow. If federal and state officials implement key parts of the Napa pact, Westlands and other water exporters could see immediate gains. Federal water for San Joaquin Valley wildlife refuges could be moved through the state pumps, freeing up more capacity in federal pumps for irrigation supplies. In exchange, the federal Bureau of Reclamation would assume some of the state's responsibilities for meeting Bay-Delta flow requirements. Quinn, the Metropolitan vice president, said increased pumping would occur only when it wouldn't hurt fish and water quality. He dismisses claims of a water grab by Southern California, noting that Cal-Fed has long planned to increase the capacity of the pumps. Graff and other environmentalists, however, say it is clear that Southern California is relying more heavily on the Delta because of the Colorado River drought. Earlier this year, Environmental Defense came across financial documents filed by Metropolitan that show the agency plans to boost Delta diversions to 1.7 million acre-feet by 2008, and has steadily increased diversions the last several years. "All this whining from urban water agencies about the supposed lack of balance in Cal-Fed is hogwash," said Evans. Metropolitan, he said, "is receiving nearly double the water they received just a few years ago." Hoping to make the pumping plan more palatable, Cal-Fed has come up with supplemental proposals to improve water quality in the estuary, a fig leaf for Delta farmers and urban agencies. Environmentalists say those plans do little for fish, and they are even more troubled by the Operating Plan and Criteria, which shows how the Bureau of Reclamation expects to meet future water demands. According to that operating plan, the bureau proposes to end decade-old protections for endangered winter-run salmon in the upper reaches of the Sacramento River. Winter-run salmon lost their historic spawning grounds when the bureau built Shasta Dam in the 1930s. Surviving fish were nearly wiped out during the drought of 1975-77, when the bureau nearly emptied Shasta and warmed up the river. After winter-run salmon were added to the federal Endangered Species List in 1989, the agency was ordered to carry over 1.9 million acre-feet of water in Shasta every year. Those reserves ensure that salmon have cold water to survive a drought, but they also hamper the bureau in meeting its contract obligations. This year, with pressure building on the bureau to ship more water through the Delta, the agency is proposing to end the carry-over storage requirement and reduce the stretch of river where it must legally maintain cool water temperatures. Reclamation officials contend they can protect salmon without these hard-line restrictions. Marian Echeverria, a spokeswoman for the bureau, said the agency now has access to water sources that weren't available back in the early 1990s. Even with those assurances, some environmentalists and Delta farmers fear Northern California will bear the brunt of the proposed changes. Delta farmers say their irrigation supplies will become more salty as more freshwater is shipped south. "This process needs a whole lot more daylight," said Tom Zuckerman, a lawyer for the Central Delta Water Agency. He suspects federal officials are rushing the process so they can sign new, long-term contracts with water districts by year's end. The outcome could hinge on NOAA Fisheries, a federal agency charged with protecting endangered salmon and other ocean-migrating fish. NOAA biologists initially wanted to issue what is known as a "jeopardy opinion" under the Endangered Species Plan. Such a ruling would have blocked the bureau's plan, but NOAA hasn't yet issued a final decision. Another wild card is Schwarzenegger and his director of water resources, Snow, who worked as regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation in the Clinton administration. Snow says state and federal officials erred by not holding recent public workshops on the operating plan. "It wasn't very artfully handled," he said in an interview last week. Nonetheless, said Snow, critics are jumping the gun. The Department of Water Resources, he said, is studying how planned Delta diversions would affect fisheries and flows to the Bay. The public will have ample opportunities to comment on any final proposal, which would need to meet both federal and state environmental laws, he said. Snow said he also is awaiting the opinion from NOAA Fisheries and will examine it closely. "We will not stand by and allow a lessening of salmon protections that will cause problems for the state," said Snow. "If NOAA Fisheries does something that gives the bureau a free pass, we are going to catch that." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From nec at northcoast.com Tue Sep 28 09:59:29 2004 From: nec at northcoast.com (Tim McKay) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 09:59:29 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Needed Friends of the Klamath River! Message-ID: PLEASE ATTEND THESE IMPORTANT MEETINGS! The Bureau of Reclamation is launching a new initiative to restore or reform the practices in the Klamath Basin. BOR's approach is a "proposed multi-participant, basin-wide Conservation Implementation Program (CIP)." "Recent natural resource conflicts in the Klamath Basin have highlighted the need for a basin-wide forum to identify and implement solutions to these conflicts." The BOR says... The problem is that there are multiple forums designated and designed to deal with Klamath issues...so the question arises as to which forum contains substance and which are just and empty shell. We may not be happy about this shell game...but for the future of the Klamath it may be the only game in town, or is it? The BOR says that "the purpose of the CIP is to (1) largely restore the Klamath River ecosystem to achieve recovery of the Lost River and Shortnose suckers and substantially contribute to the recovery of Coho salmon, (2) contribute to the Tribal Trust responsibilities of the Federal government, and (3) allow continued, sustainable operation of existing water management facilities and future water resource improvements for human use in the Klamath Basin. Reclamation will facilitate the program, compile and incorporate the comments into a final draft CIP for public review, with interested parties directing the CIP and its activities." A draft CIP is online, they say, at: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/kbao/docs/CIP-ProgramDoc.pdf or by calling 541-883-6935. Here on the Klamath Coast two meetings are being held this week from 6--9 p.m.. Wednesday, September 29, Arcata Community Center, 321 Community Parkway, 736 F Street, Arcata... Thursday, September 30, Klamath Community Center, 219 Salmon Avenue, Klamath... I'll be attending both, and I'll hope to see you there...Humboldt Bay area people wishing to car pool to Klamath should let me know by calling 822-6918... Written comments on the draft CIP may be sent to Ms. Christine Karas, Deputy Area Manager, Bureau of Reclamation, Klamath Basin Area Office, 6600 Washburn Way, Klamath Falls, Oregon 97603...for more information contact Ms. Rae Olsen, public affairs office (541) 880-2543... Tim McKay, executive director, (707) 822-6918 (w), 677-3172 (h) Northcoast Environmental Center 575 H Street Arcata CA 95521 www.yournec.org From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 4 14:14:48 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 4 Oct 2004 14:14:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Sac Bee 10/2/04 Administration's "Science" Message-ID: <20041004212021.B20FC2039B93@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Well, it isn't just the American River and salmon, it's also steelhead and you can include the Sacramento River as well, to say nothing of the fate of the Delta. Northern California fisheries never have been so threatened. DELTA FISHERIES Rewrite softens report on risks to fish Sacramento Bee - 10/2/04 By Stuart Leavenworth, staff writer Officials at a federal fisheries agency ordered their biologists to revise a report on salmon and other endangered fish so that more water can be shipped to Southern California from the Delta, according to interviews and internal agency documents obtained by The Bee. Biologists with NOAA Fisheries, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, concluded in August that a plan to pump more water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could jeopardize endangered salmon and other fish. NOAA administrators in Long Beach, however, overruled the biologists and supervised a rewriting of their analysis. That, in turn, removed the last major obstacle to a plan that could send more water south, affecting how much is reserved in Northern California, including for salmon in the American River. NOAA officials say the revisions were justified. Agency biologists made some errors and "unsubstantiated conclusions" in their original draft, said James Lecky, an agency administrator in Long Beach who ordered the revisions. Some agency employees, however, say some of the changes had no basis in science and substantially weaken protections for endangered winter-run salmon, steelhead trout and other fish. "I haven't seen anything this bad at NOAA since working here," said one agency biologist who asked that his name not be used. "The Sacramento office (of NOAA Fisheries) is totally demoralized." At issue is a state-federal plan for operating the massive network of reservoirs, aqueducts and pumping plants that move water around California. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources are planning major changes for those facilities, partly to free up water that can be shipped through the Delta. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave its blessing to the plan in August, but NOAA Fisheries has sought extensions in releasing its own analysis. Documents obtained by The Bee explain why. In August, NOAA biologists issued a draft stating that the plan "is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of Sacramento winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley Steelhead," as well as spring-run salmon. The document outlined several measures the Bureau of Reclamation could adopt to reduce impacts on fish, but the document was never signed. Instead, Lecky delivered the draft to his counterparts in the Bureau of Reclamation, who offered suggestions on revisions, he said. Lecky said such document sharing is commonplace as federal agencies undergo what is known as a consultation under the Endangered Species Act. NOAA officials wanted to ensure they had appropriately interpreted the bureau's plans, he said, and receive feedback on their own analysis. A copy of NOAA's latest draft, however, shows that administrators have altered the report in ways that go beyond mere word changes. The updated version, 289 pages and dated Sept. 27, no longer concludes that winter-run salmon or other fish could face extinction by the extra water diversions by state and federal facilities. The report concludes that the new operations would likely reduce the juvenile population of winter-run salmon by 5 percent to 22 percent, but says that agencies can help minimize those losses by monitoring and adapting. The latest version also softens the wording for how the Bureau of Reclamation can avoid future impacts on fish. In the original report, NOAA biologists called on the Bureau of Reclamation to reserve 450,000 to 600,000 acre-feet of water in Folsom Lake by September to provide adequate supplies for returning salmon and steelhead. The latest version changes the wording from "shall maintain" to "shall target" the extra water. In addition, the latest draft no longer calls for a minimum flow standard for the American River, as the original did. The state Water Resources Control Board called for an American River flow standard in 1988, but federal officials haven't yet agreed to one. A former state official who now works for a leading environmental group reviewed the two versions and said he was stunned by the revisions. "The September draft guts the minimal protections that were in the earlier version," said Jonas Minton, a former deputy secretary for the Department of Water Resources. "The new version includes commitments to talk instead of commitments to protect fish." Minton, who now works for the Planning and Conservation League, agreed that supervisors often make routine changes to a scientific document. "It's an entirely different thing to change science for political purposes," he said. In an interview, NOAA's Lecky disputed that political appointees had pressed for changes. Everything has been handled within NOAA's Southwest Regional Office in Long Beach, he said. Lecky declined to comment further on the revisions, saying The Bee had obtained a "predecisional document" that was subject to further review. Sources say a final version could be released next week. Formerly known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA Fisheries enforces the Endangered Species Act for fish that spend part of their lives in the ocean, such as salmon. In recent years, NOAA has become embroiled in several controversies over water allocations and fish. In 2002, NOAA biologist Michael Kelly warned that the Reclamation Bureau's water plans in Oregon could lead to fish kills downstream on the Klamath River. Later that year, warm water and disease killed about 77,000 returning salmon, according to a report by the California Department of Fish and Game. Kelly later resigned from NOAA after another disagreement with Lecky. In recent months, the Bureau of Reclamation has been pushing to sign long-term contracts with irrigation districts and finalize plans for shipping more water through the Delta. Some of California's most powerful groups - including the Chamber of Commerce, Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California - are lobbying for extra water. Environmentalists suspect this pressure prompted some of NOAA's recent actions, although they acknowledge they can't prove it. Bureau of Reclamation officials say the public will have full opportunity to comment on any changes in water operations. The Bureau and the Department of Water Resources have scheduled an informational meeting in Sacramento on Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Best Western Expo Inn, 1413 Howe Ave.# http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/10948842p-11866210c.html Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Oct 6 10:29:03 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 10:29:03 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] City of Healdsburg News Release Message-ID: <20041006173443.A65F9202EDD2@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> TRINITY RIVER Healdsburg City Council decides to drop out of Trinity River litigation News release, City of Healdsburg - 10/5/04 HEALDSBURG - At their Oct. 4 meeting here the Healdsburg City Council unanimously agreed to send a resolution to the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) asking the agency to stop legal actions blocking the restoration of the Trinity River in Humboldt County. The council's vote follows a pattern of other political entities that have voted to pay a little more for their energy instead of ruining the river's fishery. Healdsburg joins Palo Alto, Alameda and the Port of Oakland in withdrawing their NCPA member support from the lawsuit. The Sacramento Metropolitan Utility District (SMUD) also voted to pull out of the lawsuit last year after the Hoopa Valley Tribe asked them to not block restoration of the river. On July 13, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court ruled in favor of the federal Department of Interior (DOI) and the Hoopa Valley Tribe (HVT) by granting more water for the Trinity River fishery. The NCPA and the Westlands Irrigation District have litigated for four years to continue taking water from the river for agricultural and hydropower uses. After the ruling NCPA and Westlands asked for a rehearing of the issue by a complete panel of Ninth Circuit Court judges. Hoping to avoid delays in restoration work, the Hoopa Valley Tribe asked Healdsburg city councilpersons to withdraw their support of the rehearing strategy. The Healdsburg action is significant because Vice-Mayor Jason Liles is Chairman of the NCPA Legislative Committee. "It's time to get out of this," Liles told his fellow councilpersons during the meeting. Mayor Lisa Wittke Schaffer agreed, "I was touched by the fact that this river is literally part of the Hoopa Valley people." The council heard testimony from local environmentalist Brian Gegan and a representative of the tribe. A letter from Hoopa Valley Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall noted, "I know that Healdsburg residents have often advocated to protect the beautiful rivers in your area. For this reason I am confident many of them would thank your for a vote to protect the Trinity River." The NCPA, a consortium of northern California political entities, benefits from relatively cheap hydropower from the flows of the Trinity River diversions. Mike Orcutt, Director of the HVT Fishery Department, said NCPA would continue to receive hydroelectric benefits when the river restoration plan goes forth. "The restoration plan still exports the majority of the water out of the river; but it leaves enough water for a healthy fishery." Marshall said education was the key to getting NCPA members to drop the lawsuit. "We are grateful to all of the elected officials who have been fair-minded enough to recognize the Trinity River can be saved with little impact on power rates," said Marshall. He said some decisions were a blend of environmental ethics and energy pragmatics. "Communities are converting to other forms of energy so they don't have to ruin the Trinity River," said Marshall. The NCPA is a primary litigant blocking a Record of Decision (ROD) signed in 2000 by then Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt after 20 years of study and negotiations with the Hoopa Valley Tribe. The NCPA, Westlands Irrigation District and SMUD immediately filed a lawsuit against the Department of Interior (DOI) preventing the ROD restoration work. The Hoopa Valley Tribe joined the DOI in defense of the ROD in 2001. Since l964 the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has diverted most of the river's water, in some years up to 90%, to the Central Valley Project for agricultural and energy uses. Because fish populations in the river were devastated by dams and low stream flows, Congress began studying how to restore the river in the l980's. The ROD allows 53% of the river's water to be exported, while leaving 47% in the river for fishery rehabilitation. "Energy and agriculture will continue to benefit from the waters of the Trinity River," said Marshall. "The difference will be that the river and the fish won't die." Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Oct 6 15:24:22 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 15:24:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] CalFed Message-ID: <20041006222941.B2C292006A9F@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> This is from a very informed source: "This afternoon, the House passed the Senate version of the CALFED bill on a voice vote. There were no amendments. There was no recorded vote. Miller made a floor statement. I'll send it around when I get it. Many of you signed on to a letter just before the Senate acted on this bill. That letter helped to blunt a couple of the problems in the bill. Thanks for your help. "H.R. 2828 remains a deeply flawed bill. First, it has provisions that are likely to interfere with ecosystem restoration efforts. It redirects funds from the CVPIA Restoration Fund to the EWA, where these funds will be used to purchase water for water users. It also creates reporting requirements that apply only to federal land purchases for ecosystem restoration that are likely to interfere with restoration activities. Second, the bill fails to address the "Napa" problem -- the fact that federal agencies are now bypassing CALFED through back room deals. OCAP is the latest example of this trend, which is turning the CALFED public involvement efforts into a sham." >From my point of view, CalFed, and this bill have become counter to everything we try to accomplish for fish in this state. Incidentally, the water purchases are made mostly by buying it from the Bureau at highly subsidized prices and selling it back at market prices (or the reverse it water goes to irrigators). It has made the Kern County Water Agency (or whatever it's named) for example, wealthy beyond its wildest dreams. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Oct 6 11:51:49 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 11:51:49 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Save California Salmon Action Alert: Meeting Time & Location Change! Message-ID: Here?s my revised action alert on saving Central Valley salmon. Please note the change in the time and place of the Bureau of Reclamation?s meeting on Thursday, October 7. Below the action alert is a press release on the meeting from the Bureau, followed by Stuart Leavenworth?s outstanding article in the Sacramento Bee on Saturday, October 2. Thanks! Dan Action Alert: Save California Salmon - Block the Contracts! It is very clear that the Department of Interior intends to destroy the fisheries on the American, Sacramento and other rivers in order to give corporate agribusiness more water to grow cotton, alfalfa and other subsidized crops. That's why the Bureau of Reclamation is so hell bent on signing the Central Valley contracts without proper environmental review and public comment. According to Stu Leavenworth?s article in the Bee on Saturday, October 2, the Bureau appears to be writing off the American River as a fishery: the revised water plan eliminates temperature and flow requirements on the American! What is happening on the American River is just a window into the future. The Bureau last week arbitrarily dropped flows on the American River to 1,000 cfs from 1,500 cfs. Unless we get an unusually cold fall, we will see pre-spawning mortality that will be even worse than the fish kills that occurred on the American River over the past three years! A total of 181,709 salmon died before spawning on the American over the past three years, greatly surpassing the Klamath fish kill of 2002, when 68,000 adult fish died before spawning. But these fish kills are just the beginning of even worse fishery disasters yet to come if the Bureau has its way. Everybody needs to raise hell with their legislators to stop the water contract renewal process and plans for shipping more water south until the needs of fish are taken into account. Here?s three actions that we can do. First, everybody should write a letter to their Senators and Congressman demanding that the Bureau immediately halt the CVP contract renewal process and plans to move more water south by expanding South Delta export facilities. Second, everybody interested in the future of our fisheries should attend the informational meeting sponsored by the Bureau and the Department of Water Resources in Sacramento on Thursday, October 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the California Bay-Delta Authority 650 Capitol Mall, 5th Floor ? Bay-Delta Room. I will be there to ask some hard questions about the Bureau's plans and to write an article on the meeting. Though this is a public information meeting, not a public comment session, I encourage everybody to ask real tough questions of the Bureau?s plans to ship northern California water south! Save California Salmon - Block the Contracts! Dan Bacher Bureau of Reclamation Press Release: Mid-Pacific Region Sacramento, CA MP-04-0CAP2 Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken 916-978-5100 jmccracken at mp.usbr.gov For Release On: October 6, 2004 Location and Time Changed for Public Information Meeting on the Operations Criteria and Plan Biological Assessment The Bureau of Reclamation and California Department of Water Resources have scheduled a public information meeting as an update on the consultation of the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) Biological Assessment (BA). NEW MEETING LOCATION AND TIME Thursday, October 7, 2004 10 a.m. ? 1 p.m. California Bay-Delta Authority 650 Capitol Mall, 5th Floor ? Bay-Delta Room The BA describes future operations with certain new facilities and operating criteria in place and was prepared to facilitate compliance with State and Federal Endangered Species Acts. Regulatory and legal requirements are explained and planning models and strategies are described in the BA. The BA identifies many factors influencing the decision-making process and physical and institutional conditions under which the projects currently operate. A separate OCAP document was prepared to serve as a baseline description of the facilities and operating environment of the Central Valley Project. The BA and OCAP is accessible online at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/index.html. To request a copy or CD, please contact Ms. Sammie Cervantes at 916-978-5104, TDD 916-978-5608, or via e-mail at scervantes at mp.usbr.gov. For additional information, please contact Ms. Ann Lubas-Williams at 916-979-2068, TDD 916-979-2183. # # # Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, with operations and facilities in the 17 Western States. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. Visit our website at http://www.usbr.gov. Rewrite softens report on risks to fish By Stuart Leavenworth -- Sacramento Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, October 2, 2004 http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/environment/story/10948835p-11866210c.html Officials at a federal fisheries agency ordered their biologists to revise a report on salmon and other endangered fish so that more water can be shipped to Southern California from the Delta, according to interviews and internal agency documents obtained by The Bee. Biologists with NOAA Fisheries, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, concluded in August that a plan to pump more water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could jeopardize endangered salmon and other fish. NOAA administrators in Long Beach, however, overruled the biologists and supervised a rewriting of their analysis. That, in turn, removed the last major obstacle to a plan that could send more water south, affecting how much is reserved in Northern California, including for salmon in the American River. NOAA officials say the revisions were justified. Agency biologists made some errors and "unsubstantiated conclusions" in their original draft, said James Lecky, an agency administrator in Long Beach who ordered the revisions. Some agency employees, however, say some of the changes had no basis in science and substantially weaken protections for endangered winter-run salmon, steelhead trout and other fish. "I haven't seen anything this bad at NOAA since working here," said one agency biologist who asked that his name not be used. "The Sacramento office (of NOAA Fisheries) is totally demoralized." At issue is a state-federal plan for operating the massive network of reservoirs, aqueducts and pumping plants that move water around California. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources are planning major changes for those facilities, partly to free up water that can be shipped through the Delta. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave its blessing to the plan in August, but NOAA Fisheries has sought extensions in releasing its own analysis. Documents obtained by The Bee explain why. In August, NOAA biologists issued a draft stating that the plan "is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of Sacramento winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley Steelhead," as well as spring-run salmon. The document outlined several measures the Bureau of Reclamation could adopt to reduce impacts on fish, but the document was never signed. Instead, Lecky delivered the draft to his counterparts in the Bureau of Reclamation, who offered suggestions on revisions, he said. Lecky said such document sharing is commonplace as federal agencies undergo what is known as a consultation under the Endangered Species Act. NOAA officials wanted to ensure they had appropriately interpreted the bureau's plans, he said, and receive feedback on their own analysis. A copy of NOAA's latest draft, however, shows that administrators have altered the report in ways that go beyond mere word changes. The updated version, 289 pages and dated Sept. 27, no longer concludes that winter-run salmon or other fish could face extinction by the extra water diversions by state and federal facilities. The report concludes that the new operations would likely reduce the juvenile population of winter-run salmon by 5 percent to 22 percent, but says that agencies can help minimize those losses by monitoring and adapting. The latest version also softens the wording for how the Bureau of Reclamation can avoid future impacts on fish. In the original report, NOAA biologists called on the Bureau of Reclamation to reserve 450,000 to 600,000 acre-feet of water in Folsom Lake by September to provide adequate supplies for returning salmon and steelhead. The latest version changes the wording from "shall maintain" to "shall target" the extra water. In addition, the latest draft no longer calls for a minimum flow standard for the American River, as the original did. The state Water Resources Control Board called for an American River flow standard in 1988, but federal officials haven't yet agreed to one. A former state official who now works for a leading environmental group reviewed the two versions and said he was stunned by the revisions. "The September draft guts the minimal protections that were in the earlier version," said Jonas Minton, a former deputy secretary for the Department of Water Resources. "The new version includes commitments to talk instead of commitments to protect fish." Minton, who now works for the Planning and Conservation League, agreed that supervisors often make routine changes to a scientific document. "It's an entirely different thing to change science for political purposes," he said. In an interview, NOAA's Lecky disputed that political appointees had pressed for changes. Everything has been handled within NOAA's Southwest Regional Office in Long Beach, he said. Lecky declined to comment further on the revisions, saying The Bee had obtained a "predecisional document" that was subject to further review. Sources say a final version could be released next week. Formerly known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA Fisheries enforces the Endangered Species Act for fish that spend part of their lives in the ocean, such as salmon. In recent years, NOAA has become embroiled in several controversies over water allocations and fish. In 2002, NOAA biologist Michael Kelly warned that the Reclamation Bureau's water plans in Oregon could lead to fish kills downstream on the Klamath River. Later that year, warm water and disease killed about 77,000 returning salmon, according to a report by the California Department of Fish and Game. Kelly later resigned from NOAA after another disagreement with Lecky. In recent months, the Bureau of Reclamation has been pushing to sign long-term contracts with irrigation districts and finalize plans for shipping more water through the Delta. Some of California's most powerful groups - including the Chamber of Commerce, Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California - are lobbying for extra water. Environmentalists suspect this pressure prompted some of NOAA's recent actions, although they acknowledge they can't prove it. Bureau of Reclamation officials say the public will have full opportunity to comment on any changes in water operations. The Bureau and the Department of Water Resources have scheduled an informational meeting in Sacramento on Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Best Western Expo Inn, 1413 Howe Ave. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Writer --------------------------- The Bee's Stuart Leavenworth can be reached at (916) 321-1185, sleavenworth at sacbee.com. From mjatty at sbcglobal.net Wed Oct 6 20:53:38 2004 From: mjatty at sbcglobal.net (Michael & Ruth Jackson) Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 20:53:38 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] new address Message-ID: <000901c4ac21$3a78a5a0$778f7d44@domainnotset.invalid> Please add me to the env-trinity mailing list. My new e-mail address is mjatty at sbcglobal.net. Thank you. Michael B. Jackson From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Oct 7 09:07:07 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 09:07:07 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee Opinion- It's time to mop up west side's water debacle Message-ID: <017b01c4ac87$b3b59200$936c3940@V51NH> http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/v-printerfriendly/story/6375439p-7319866c.html It's time to mop up west side's water debacle Years of irrigation have taken a toll, and now political, environmental and economic forces may soon put an end to the vision. (Updated Monday, March 17, 2003, 5:33 AM) Toxic foam bubbles out of a pipe where the San Luis Drain empties into Mud Slough, which in turn empties into the San Joaquin River. The drain contains tail water contaminated with selenium and other toxic minerals that drain from ag land on the west side. (Mark Crosse / The Fresno Bee) E-mail This Article Printer-Friendly Format Receive the Daily Bulletin Subscribe to Print Join a Forum Large-scale farming on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley grew out of a grand vision: make a parched desert bloom and fill its barren acres with small family farms. That vision was driven - and greatly altered over the years - by political and economic forces. It was America's public policy to move people westward, and it was America's pride that we could rearrange nature to bring the water where we wanted it. Later, during the Great Depression, it was a national policy to employ as many people as possible on great public works projects. Out of those forces came the Central Valley Project. It supplies water to the Westlands Water District, which distributes it to member-growers. That has made the desert fertile, and created vast wealth. _____ Related item _____ . The history of the Westlands Water District. Now a harsh reality intrudes: We are likely to see the end of west-side farming in the next 25 to 50 years, at least on its present grand scale. That would mean the end of $1 billion in annual production of cotton, fruits, vegetables and feed, and the loss of some 25,000 jobs, or at least most of them. A whole string of west-side communities could become the 21st-century equivalent of Gold Rush ghost towns. If nature has a sense of humor, it's probably laughing at us now. This was the deal: Farmers on the east side of the Valley would get the San Joaquin River water that once flowed all the way to the sea. West-side growers would get other water from up north, by way of the CVP, at a subsidized rate. But water applied to the topsoil on the west side carries salts and metals with it down through the ground until it hits a nearly impermeable layer of clay. There it backs up, and builds up toward the surface again. When it gets too close to the crops' roots, they die, and the soil is poisoned. The used water must be drained somehow. The scientists and engineers knew that all along. They started to build the San Luis Drain to carry contaminated water to San Francisco Bay, and got as far as the Kesterson Reservoir in western Merced County. Then a combination of increasing costs and rising environmental concerns put a halt to the drain. The water just sat there at Kesterson. In the mid-1980s came a shock: Thousands of birds began dying at Kesterson, deformed by selenium the irrigation water carried. It is galling to many growers that a solution - the drain - is known to exist but hasn't been built. And it's not likely to be built, either. The fiscal, political and environmental concerns that halted the San Luis Drain in the early 1980s are even larger now. Another alternative, drilling through the Coast Range to carry the contaminated water to the Pacific Ocean, is even less appealing to taxpayers and environmentalists. A third alternative, evaporation ponds, is freighted with awful images of Kesterson's dead and deformed birds. Some count on technology to provide an answer. That's possible, but it isn't on the horizon. And right now is when we have the problem. Some growers sued the federal government for its failure to complete the promised drain. They won a lavish settlement, but it may be a pyrrhic victory. Under the settlement, some 33,000 acres that have become too contaminated to farm will be taken out of production. That may presage the future for the entire Westlands district, or much of it. Today Westlands is not crowded with family farms, as in the early vision, but instead has about 600 growers on 600,000 acres. The costly water subsidies that keep it alive make less and less sense in a changing global economy. Taking most of the district's land out of production, as in the recent settlement, is the best course. The current water contract with the federal government expires in 2007. That may be too soon to craft a workable retirement solution, but the next contract, if there is one, should be for only about 10 years. Landowners should be fairly compensated for their land, but they shouldn't be handed the sort of bonanza some of them got in the recent settlement. The greater concern should be for the people in the small communities of the west side, whose lives and livelihoods could be devastated by land retirement. Their voices are seldom heard in these discussions. That must change. Nor should Westlands end up owning the retired land, as in the settlement. Above all, when the land is retired, the water should go back to the federal government for other uses. Westlands shouldn't be permitted, as many suspect it intends, to turn itself into a water broker, marketing water instead of crops. Humans have made a costly mess of the west side. Give it back to nature to redeem. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 323-vision5.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 10797 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: story_resources.gif Type: image/gif Size: 421 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: email_article.gif Type: image/gif Size: 100 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: printer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 102 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: bulletin.gif Type: image/gif Size: 100 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: subscribe.gif Type: image/gif Size: 97 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: forum.gif Type: image/gif Size: 122 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Oct 7 09:25:40 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 09:25:40 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE- CVP OCAP Meeting Rescheduled Message-ID: <01e601c4ac8a$4c29f920$936c3940@V51NH> I can send anybody a copy of Machado's letter if you send a private e-mail request to me. Tom Stokely tstokely at trinityalps.net http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/california/story/11004191p-11921378c.html Officials reschedule meeting on reservoirs By Stuart Leavenworth Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, October 7, 2004 SACRAMENTO - Facing an uproar from fisheries advocates, state and federal water agencies have changed the time and location of a meeting today on plans for modifying operations of reservoirs across the state. Sport fishing groups and environmentalists are angry about plans to ship more water to Southern California, leaving less in reservoirs for salmon and other fish. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the state Department of Water Resources have been evaluating these changes in a document called the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP). The bureau and DWR scheduled a public meeting on the plan for this morning at a Howe Avenue hotel. After hearing that hundreds of people might show up, the agencies rescheduled it for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at the California Bay Delta Authority, 650 Capitol Mall, fifth floor, in Sacramento. The Bee reported Saturday that regional administrators for NOAA Fisheries, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, ordered staff biologists to revise initial findings that OCAP could jeopardize endangered salmon and other fish. State Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, sent a letter Wednesday, asking top officials at the NOAA to investigate. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 64313730623035333430303832633930?_RM_EMPTY_ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Oct 7 09:29:47 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 09:29:47 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] CALFED Bill Passes Congress, sends to President Message-ID: <01f301c4ac8a$e0142f20$936c3940@V51NH> It is my understanding that most environmental, conservation and fishery groups opposed this legislation as "unbalanced." The claims that this is a consensus bill with environmental interests on board is a farce. TS House passes $395 million CalFed bill, sends it to president Associated Press - 10/6/04 By Erica Werner, staff writer WASHINGTON - The House of Representatives passed a sweeping $395 million California water bill Wednesday, sending the milestone legislation to the president after a decade of dispute. The bill to authorize the California Federal Bay-Delta Program, better known as CalFed, aims to restore California's fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and ensure a reliable water supply for millions of users. It represents the first major changes to California's water systems since the 1960s. "This historic bill is a giant step forward in resolving California's water supply problems," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. "When it comes to water, nothing is easy. Everything is hard," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who worked with Pombo to champion the legislation. The bill passed on a voice vote and President Bush is expected to sign it soon. The CalFed legislation seeks to satisfy often-warring groups of farmers, environmentalists and residential users with provisions on storage, restoration and recycling. It authorizes feasibility studies for several major new storage projects and includes $90 million for reconstructing levees. It contains ecosystem restoration projects, provisions to expedite approval of 49 recycling projects and an Environmental Water Account to ensure water for fisheries. Water flows to thirsty Southern California are increased, and the bill requires a federal feasibility study on restoring California's largest lake, the Salton Sea, which is suffering from increasing salinity. The House approval came after Pombo and other House members decided they could accept the version of the bill passed by the Senate last month. The bill leaves out so-called pre-authorization language that would have allowed the secretary of the Interior to approve four specific water storage projects without congressional sign-off - enlarging Los Vaqueros reservoir in Contra Costa County, raising the Shasta Dam, surface storage on the Upper San Joaquin, and the Sites reservoir in the Antelope Valley. Some California House Republicans believed the pre-authorization language was necessary to guarantee needed storage projects would get built, but key Senate leaders opposed it. In the end Pombo and other House members were satisfied with language in the Senate bill that pressures Congress to act quickly on the projects once feasibility studies have been conducted. If Congress doesn't act, the Interior secretary would have to declare the CalFed program "out of balance" and recommend ways to regain balance between environmental and storage measures. The bill "creates storage as the linchpin for implementation of all CalFed elements," Pombo said. "This bill ensures that the program will be carried out in balance with new water storage or else the program will simply not exist." Lawmakers also got a commitment from Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico, Republican chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, that he would try to include $11 million for the feasibility studies in a spending bill for the 2005 fiscal year. The studies for the four storage projects have an overall pricetag of about $50 million, of which the federal share is about $28.5 million. Environmental groups have expressed fears that streamlining storage projects would override concerns about the effect on the environment, and have favored more conservation programs instead. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pressed lawmakers to get the legislation passed. He and Pombo spoke Tuesday night, and Schwarzenegger faxed Pombo a letter assuring him that the state would come up with its share of funding for the feasibility studies. "Every aspect of our golden state - the people, the environment, agriculture and industry - benefits from this balanced legislation," the governor said in a statement Wednesday. Congressional appropriators would have to determine exact funding levels for projects in the bill later. But without the authorization bill, no money could be appropriated. The bill spans six years, through 2010. The CalFed program, a state-federal effort, has been in the works for a decade. The current effort stems from a 2000 agreement, reached after years of negotiations, on a package of projects to ensure water for different groups of users.# -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Oct 7 10:03:07 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 10:03:07 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Energy and Water Report Message-ID: <20041007170316.87308205590C@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> If anyone wants a copy of this report, let me know: bwl3 at comcast.net. I'll send you a copy. The following from Natural Resources Defense Council: We are pleased to announce the release of the NRDC/Pacific Institute report Energy Down the Drain: The Hidden Costs of California?s Water Supply. The report, which can be downloaded at http://www.nrdc.org/water/conservation/edrain/contents.asp, examines the energy required for water use in California. Water conveyance and use require enormous amounts of energy. Yet most of our water policy and planning fails to consider the connections between these two resources. California has a uniquely energy intensive water supply. Bringing water from Northern to Southern California involves lifting that water 2000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains?the highest lift of any water system in the world. The State Water Project, which delivers that water, is the single largest energy user in the state, representing 2 to 3% of California?s energy use. Consumers then use large additional amounts of energy to heat and circulate that water. Water use and energy use both peak during summer months, especially in hot summer areas like Southern California. So water use strains the power grid at the worst possible time. Energy Down the Drain? presents three case studies that detail the important energy implications of water supply decisions. For instance, the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), which currently serves nearly 3 million people, estimates that by 2020 it will need at least an additional 100,000 acre-feet of water per year. The NRDC-Pacific Institute study found that taking additional water from the State Water Project and building a seawater desalination plant would consume the most electricity, while improving water efficiency and conservation efforts could save San Diego 767 million kilowatt hours (kWh) ? enough electricity power 118,000 households for a year. The report also studied proposals to retire drainage-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Decades of irrigation have caused toxic salts to build up in the soil, rendering it practically infertile. The study found that taking this land out of production and using the water to help the environment could save enough energy for 18,000 households. However, transferring the water to cities could dramatically increase energy use. The report lists five key findings: * Waterconservation lowers energy use and energy bills; * Waterrecycling is a highly energy efficient water source; * Retiringagricultural land may increase energy use if the water is transferred toother agricultural or urban uses; * Retiringagricultural land can save energy if the water dedicated to theenvironment; and * Divertingwater above dams costs power and money. The report also includes specific recommendations to guide policymakers and potential future legislation. For example, it says that California?s Urban Water Management Planning Act should be revised to require water suppliers to consider the energy implications of their water management options. And it recommends retiring drainage-impaired farmland in the San Joaquin Valley and using the water saved to help restore the San Francisco Bay Delta. This has been a summer of record-breaking energy use and continued drought. Our report findings indicate that smart water policy can save enormous amounts of energy and water, while helping California clean the air and avoid power shortages. We hope this report will help spark a dialogue on how to better integrate energy considerations into water policy. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Oct 7 16:52:23 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 16:52:23 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Guest Comment: Salmon Memorial, Sacramento News & Review Message-ID: Here's my "Guest Comment," titled "Salmon memorial," in today's issue of Sacramento News & Review (10/7). It's archived online at http://www.newsreview.com/issues/Sacto/2004-10-07/guest.asp Guest Comment Salmon memorial By Dan Bacher The American River is a treasure that winds its way through the heart of the Sacramento metropolitan area. It plays host to large annual migrations of king salmon, steelhead, shad and striped bass every year, making it one of the most popular recreational fisheries in the country. Unfortunately, biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game are expecting a massive fish kill of fall-run chinook salmon on the American River this year because of lethally warm water conditions. There is little cold water left in Folsom Reservoir because the Bureau of Reclamation continues to follow a management plan for Folsom that favors agribusiness and other water users over fish. In the past three years, a total of 181,709 adult salmon died before spawning, surpassing even the Klamath River fish kill of 2002, where as many as 68,000 salmon perished. The American?s fish died because of lethally warm water conditions. Thirty-seven percent of the run of 2003--58,651 out of 158,516 returning adult chinooks--died before spawning, according to Mike Healey, Department of Fish and Game associate fishery biologist. The vast majority of these fish were natural spawners. In the fall of 2001, 87,626 fish (67 percent of the run) died before spawning. The annual fish kills are expected to continue until adequate water flow and temperature standards are adopted on the American. The Save the American River Association (SARA), United Anglers, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the Sacramento Valley Water Forum and other groups are supporting the adoption of water standards to protect fisheries and restore the river. The water forum produced a draft document in January 2004 that it would like the State Water Resources Control Board to consider in 2005. The problem is that the bureau wants a permanent dedication of ?b2 flows?--water dedicated to fish and wildlife under federal water reform legislation--if it is to support the standards. Conservation groups contend that the use of this water is supposed to be determined by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service annually, based on changing needs and conditions. The time for adoption of flow and temperature standards is long overdue. As Allen Wade, SARA president, said, ?We don?t want to turn the annual Salmon Festival into a memorial every year.? For more information, contact SARA at (916) 387-1763. Dan Bacher is managing editor of Elk Grove's The Fish Sniffer magazine and board member of United Anglers of California From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Oct 7 17:28:00 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 17:28:00 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Bureau of Reclamation Water Management Imperils American River Fish Message-ID: Bureau of Reclamation Water Management Imperils American River Fish by Dan Bacher (published in the current edition of the Fish Sniffer magazine that came out today) The American River and its fisheries are threatened as they have never been before. The fish kills over the past three years, when over 181,709 salmon died before spawning, will become even worse if the Bureau of Reclamation, under the Bush administration, is able to break federal and state law protecting fisheries and move forward with its plans to take more water from the Delta and the American River. ?I am convinced that what is going on right now is as big of a threat to the future of our American River, yet more sinister, than if the Folsom South Canal at Nimbus Dam had been completed,? said Jim Jones, longtime river activist and past president of Save the American River Association. I was on the river fishing for salmon on Monday, September 27, with Randy Buffington, fishing guide. Randy had caught four kings to 20 pounds in the morning, while I hooked a bright chinook in the afternoon. The water was already low, at 1500 cfs, and good numbers of fish had already arrived in the river, as evidenced by the many bright chinooks that we saw jumping. A few days later, all hell broke loose when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation dropped the flows to 1250 cfs and then down to 1,000 cfs. Felix Smith, retired federal biologist and the whistleblower in the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge Scandal, and Rob Titus, DFG biologist, both criticized this decision for threatening the adult salmon that are arriving in the river now, as well as the over summering steelhead. ?The idea that the American River could be at 1,000 cfs throughout the adult king salmon holding and spawning season is revolting,? said Smith. ?The water the Bureau is trying to conserve was lost during the months of June, July and the first two weeks of August. That water also cost us a lot of temperature control. Until the Bureau accepts the fact that it can reduce Delta pumping, there will be no protection against the Bureau's operation of the Folsom/Nimbus project for the contractors south of the Delta.? Smith emphasized that the Bureau?s responsibility to meet the "Good Condition" of Fish & Game Code 5937 is independent of its water right. ?These flow and temperature fluctuations are not good for the American River ecosystem,? said Smith. Rob Titus, DFG biologist, was very concerned about these flow reductions not only from an ecological standpoint, but also with regard to process. ?Why hasn't the American River Operations Group been convened to discuss the costs and benefits of the extreme reductions,? said Titus, referring to the group formed to balance the water needs of fish and water users. Titus also said that with the so-called relaxation of the temperature requirement at Watt Avenue there may be a ?growing perception that a green light exists to push conditions for over summering steelhead to the absolute edge.? ?Recall that the agreement to temporarily relax the 65 F requirement is based almost entirely on water management realities and not the environmental preferences of steelhead,? said Titus. ?We are seeing signs of stress in some of the juvenile steelhead we are monitoring in the form of what the pathologist refer to generically as ?rosy anus.?? Titus and other DFG biologists were collecting steelhead on October 5 so the DFG fish pathology lab could get a better idea of what may be causing this alarming condition. Based on the information provided to them so far, this condition is almost certainly associated with some form of stress, possibly temperature related. ?We have carried the steelhead this far through the season, so let's not kill them all now by trying to push the envelope just a little bit too much,? concluded Titus. Thuy Washburn of the Bureau of Reclamation responded to the biologists? concerns. ?With the lack of storage, we concluded that it would be best to conserve the water now and still have adequate temperatures and hope to slow the salmon from coming up early,? she explained. She said that they plan to increase the flows when the majority of salmon show up in mid October. Then the release will increase to 1,500 cfs and possibly up to 1750 cfs. Unfortunately, the way the river is being operated now appears to be just a window into the future of the American River and other Central Valley fisheries. According to an article by Stuart Leavenworth in the Sacramento Bee on Saturday, October 2, officials of NOAA Fisheries, a federal agency designed to protect salmon, ordered their biologists to revise a report on salmon and other endangered fish so that more water can be exported to Southern California through the Delta. The Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Water Resources are planning ?major changes? to the reservoirs, aqueducts and pumping facilities that move water around California, freeing up more water for export. According to Leavenworth, ?In August, NOAA biologists issued a draft stating that the plan ?is likely to jeopardize the continued existence of Sacramento winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead,? as well as spring-run salmon ? and recommended measures to reduce these impacts.? However, the Bureau. under pressure from Central Valley contractors, changed the report to be less favorable to fish and more favorable to water contractors. The revised document dramatically impacts the American River, already besieged by low flows, as well as other Central Valley rivers. First, the latest draft no longer calls for a minimum flow standard for the American River as the original did. Fishery and environmental groups have been pushing for flow and temperature standards for years, but the Bureau has been stalling on adopting them. Second, the document ?softens the words for how the Bureau can avoid future impacts on fish,? said Leavenworth. ?In the original report, NOAA biologists called on the Bureau of Reclamation to reserve 450,00 to 600, 000 acre of water in Folsom Lake by September to provide adequate supplies for returning salmon and steelhead. The latest version changes the wording from ?shall maintain? to ?shall target? the extra water,? said Leavenworth. Jim Jones is outraged by the current state of affairs on the American. Jones contends that it is clear that the Bureau of Reclamation is dragging their feet and not acting in a collaborative way ? and is acting in concert with agribusiness to stop the implementation of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act of 1992. ?The Bureau of Reclamation, Westlands, and other water users, are hell-bent on getting long term contracts signed that will mean delivery of more water--and less for fish and wildlife,? Jones said. ?Their mission is to get these contracts signed BEFORE a new standard is written, and what we must do is prevent that from happening. Otherwise, the opportunity to provide needed protection will be foreclosed. What we are seeing this year is a window to the future--only worse.? Jones recommended that anglers send letters of outrage to their Congressmen, especially Representatives Richard Pombo and John Doolittle, demanding that the Bureau uphold state and federal law and protect the fish of the American and other Central Valley rivers before any water contracts are signed. ?These guys have been getting a free ride long enough,? concluded Jones. Note: The flows from Nimbus Dam will go back up to 1500 cfs over the next several days, the result of pressure by biologists, fishermen and environmental groups. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Oct 8 08:43:14 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 08:43:14 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Times-Standard -Healdsburg opts out of Trinity suit Message-ID: <045401c4ad4d$876d70c0$936c3940@V51NH> Eureka Times-Standard http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2454559,00.html# Healdsburg opts out of Trinity suit Friday, October 08, 2004 - The Times-Standard Yet another city has bailed out of a suit that aims to block the full restoration of the Trinity River. The Healdsburg City Council on Monday unanimously decided to send a letter to the Northern California Power Association asking the group to drop out of the litigation. The vice mayor of the city, Jason Liles, is also chairman of the association's legislative committee. The move follows several other entities that have opted out of the suit brought against the restoration plan for the river. The Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, the Port of Oakland, Palo Alto and Alameda have all withdrawn their support for the suit waged by the power association and Westlands Water District, the Central Valley irrigation interest that benefits the most from the diversion of most of the Trinity's water from above Lewiston Dam. Up to 90 percent of the river's flow has been diverted since the project was completed in the 1960s. In 2000, former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed a decision leaving nearly half the Trinity's water in the river. Westlands and the power association sued, and the Hoopa Valley Tribe intervened in the suit against Interior. The river bisects the Hoopa Reservation. In July, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cleared the way for increased flows on the Trinity. Westlands and the power association have appealed. -------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Oct 8 10:38:22 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 10:38:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] AP and Monterey Herals- Not everybody happy with CALFED and water export plans Message-ID: <052501c4ad5d$9d662f60$936c3940@V51NH> They call CALFED a "consensus"? OPERATIONS Delta water transfer debated Fisherman and environmentalists pan proposed plans to send water down south Associated Press - 10/7/04 By Don Thompson, staff writer SACRAMENTO -- A day after Congress sent President Bush ambitious legislation to restore California's vulnerable Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, state and federal water regulators pushed ahead with plans to divert more CalFed water to Southern California despite concerns over endangered wildlife. The federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources want to integrate their parallel reservoir and pumping systems and sign long-term water contracts with rural irrigation districts and urban water districts. That could alter everything from the amount of scarce water flowing to thirsty crops and parched Southern California, to water available for fish in the Delta and in rivers from the American in Sacramento to the Trinity and Klamath in northwestern California. California's two Democratic U.S. senators and a half-dozen Democratic House members, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, have called for delays and more information before water regulators act. But the agencies continued with an informational hearing that played to a packed auditorium and went an hour overtime Thursday, though officials promised nothing that will endanger wildlife will be finalized without a complete environmental review. "Why wasn't this run through CalFed? Why have a CalFed?" wondered Dennis O'Connor, consultant to the state Senate Committee on Agriculture and Water Resources, referring to what is formally known as the California Federal Bay-Delta Program authorized Wednesday by Congress. The agencies have been working with CalFed, said Susan Ramos, Reclamation's assistant regional director. But the pending water contracts that would send more water flowing to Los Angeles and San Diego were hammered out in a series of closed-door sessions in Napa in July 2003. The contracts lasting 25 to 40 years would have a "massive impact" on California's complex circulatory system, in which water from Northern California is channeled through the Delta and pumped south over the Tehachapi Mountains, said Hamilton Candee, senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council. One agreement would send 27 percent more water through the state's Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near Stockton. "It's what's driving this train," Candee said. "Somebody wants to get those contracts signed by the end of the year" before a potential change in administrations. Fishing organizations complained the proposals would hurt vulnerable stocks, potentially endangering fall run salmon returning up the American River. More than 180,000 have died the last three years, complained activist Dan Bacher, eclipsing the 68,000 killed in the massive 2002 Klamath River die-off. The problem is an age-old one in California, said Mark Rockwell, vice president for conservation for the Northern California Federation of Fly Fisherman. "There isn't enough water to go around -- and if there is it it's not at the right temperature" to sustain fish, Rockwell said. Regulators and critics now are both waiting for an environmental assessment of the dangers from the pending water agreements to salmon and other endangered fish if more Northern California water is pumped through the Delta to the southern half of the state. # On the Net: Read the relevant Bureau of Reclamation documents at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/index.html. http://www.trivalleyherald.com/Stories/0,1413,86~10669~2454077,00.html# CALFED PROGRAM CalFed bill hailed by water users, criticized by environmentalists Associated Press - 10/7/04 By Brian Melley, staff writer SACRAMENTO - A joint federal and state water program intended to unite farmers, city folk and nature lovers was hailed by water users Thursday, but criticized by environmentalists who said a congressional reauthorization bill did not do enough to improve habitat. President Bush is expected to sign the $395 million California Federal Bay-Delta Program bill passed Wednesday by the House of Representatives that aims to restore the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The system feeds the nation's most productive farm land while providing drinking water to 22 million Californians. The bill, which has been the subject of six years of debate and negotiations and has shrunken from once seeking more than $1 billion, reauthorizes the so-called CalFed program that was conceived to improve water supply and quality and save threatened wildlife. Tim Quinn, a vice president for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California serving 18 million people, called the bill historic for making peace among factions who have long fought over the state's limited water supply. Farmers throughout the Central Valley and water agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California were all united in their support of the bill, which had support from both parties in the state's congressional delegation, he said. ''Californians have never been this united on how to manage their water in the future,'' Quinn said. ''It's a turning point.'' Environmental groups, however, said the bill was flawed because it doesn't authorize additional money for ecosystem restoration, said Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Nelson said money in the program once devoted to bringing back salmon can now be diverted to buying water. He also said rigorous reporting required for people selling land to federal agencies to restore habitat will make it cumbersome and slow improvements. ''It's painfully ironic that a bill that's supposed to promote restoration is interfering with restoration activities,'' Nelson said. CalFed was started a decade ago as a long-term multibillion project bringing the first major changes to California's water systems since the 1960s. The state, the federal government and water users are supposed to pay a third each for the program, but Congress has not reauthorized the bill, costing the state millions in the past few years. Under the bill passed Wednesday, $90 million will be spent to reconstruct levees and several major storage projects will be studied. It will also speed approval of 49 water recycling projects and ensure water for fisheries. Water flows will increase to Southern California, and the feasibility of restoring the Salton Sea, which is suffering from increasing salinity, will be studied. Supporters of the bill said it will increase the flexibility to move water through a system of canals, reservoirs and the delta, an intricate web of levees and rivers where the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers join and flow to San Francisco Bay. ''It balances the program as it was designed to be balanced,'' said Jeff McCracken of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. ''The balance now is it's going to go ahead and look at water supply and continue to look at restoration. It's always looked at restoration.'' Carl Zichella of the Sierra Club said the balance now tilts in favor of large water users. He said environmental rules to save threatened and endangered species were required to offset years of damage from dams and reservoirs. ''The ability to save ecosystems,'' he said, ''I think is in question now.'' The California Bay-Delta Authority that coordinates the program chose not to comment on criticism. ''It's not our job to debate stakeholders in the program,'' said spokesman Keith Coolidge. Tom Birmingham, general manager of Westlands Water District that consists of nearly 600,000 acres of arid farmland in the San Joaquin Valley, said the bill was a breakthrough that would improve conditions for farmers and other users. If implemented as originally envisioned, he said the program has the potential to eliminate the state's longtime water conflicts. But he added that some groups will probably always be opposed to pumping more water south of the delta.# http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9868152.htm -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Fri Oct 8 12:20:21 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 12:20:21 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Canyon Creek Mine Message-ID: <20041008192030.02662203241C@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> My understanding is that the Forest Service is allowing the planned gold mining operator on Canyon Creek to proceed with the felling of trees (and this is underway) despite the generally accepted understanding that an EIS is required. This is disastrous news for the Trinity River and its restoration. I also understand that a large group of concerned citizens that has been fighting this proposed operation is attempting to contact the Forest Service (without success). Perhaps Sharon Heywood could be helpful here - it needs immediate attention. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Oct 11 14:52:48 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 14:52:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Congresspersons Request Probe of CVP OCAP Biological Opinion Message-ID: <00fa01c4afdc$a8455b00$586b3940@V51NH> http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/9877179.htm Posted on Sat, Oct. 09, 2004 Dems demand inquiry into salmon study By Mike Taugher CONTRA COSTA TIMES More than a dozen congressional Democrats called for an investigation Friday into allegations that an analysis of how California salmon might be affected by the state's water system was politically manipulated. The 300-page study examines how politically charged plans to rejigger operation of dams and pumps that deliver water through the Delta from Northern California to Southern California will affect several species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. The lawmakers said they feared there was an ongoing "catastrophic failure of oversight" that could drive salmon and steelhead toward extinction. "I would hope the inspectors general would investigate these allegations immediately," said Rep. George Miller, one of 19 members to seek the investigation. "There is a great deal at stake." Miller, D-Martinez, was reacting to the differences between two versions of the salmon report: one written late this summer by biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries office and a second version that contained revisions by the agency's managers. The latter version, if made final, would make it far easier to renew long-term water contracts in the Central Valley and boost the capacity of Delta pumps that deliver water to Southern California. Although the study, called a "biological opinion," has yet to be finalized, the Times obtained portions of the earlier draft and a full copy of the most recent draft. The versions have key differences, most notably that the earlier version says water operations will jeopardize the continued existence of some fish species, and the later draft does not. The differences were first reported in the Sacramento Bee last week in a story that prompted the congressional letter. In addition, the earlier draft contains a requirement that would have forced the Contra Costa Water District to shut down one of its water supply canals for six months a year. The revised report says only that the agency must monitor salmon caught in the canal. A Contra Costa water official said the earlier version was in error because biologists had wrongly assumed the canal at Rock Slough was used for all of the district's water supply, an assumption that led them to conclude more fish were being killed there than actually were. "That was a goof," said Contra Costa Water District assistant general manager Greg Gartrell. Jim Lecky, the assistant regional administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who oversees the salmon report, said there were other errors. "I reviewed my staff's work and I didn't think they did a good job," Lecky said. "There were a bunch of errors in their assumptions about the project." The congressional letter is the latest in a series of efforts by Miller to slow down and examine plans by federal water managers in California. For weeks, he has been trying to get the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to reconsider plans to renew dozens of long-term water contracts for farmers and others throughout the Central Valley that Miller considers unduly favorable to water users. In addition, water officials are looking to increase the capacity of pumps that move water from the Delta to Southern California. Both the contract renewals and the increased pumping hinge on the salmon study, which technically is a review of a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation document called the "Operations, Criteria and Plan" that describes how the state's two largest water delivery projects, the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, will be operated. The congressional letter suggests the bureau, "in its haste to finalize water contracts in California, has improperly undermined the required NOAA fisheries environmental review process." Reclamation Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said his agency had no improper influence on the biological opinion. "We never saw the earlier draft that had the alleged different opinion in it," McCracken said. Earlier in the week, state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Stockton, asked for an independent scientific review of the biological opinion. Lecky said the issue was being blown out of proportion. "This is a typical consultation process," he said. "It's nothing out of the ordinary." http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9878072.htm Posted on Sat, Oct. 09, 2004 Probe of water report urged Article says analysis rewritten By ERICA WERNER Associated Press WASHINGTON - Leading Democrats called for an investigation Friday into a report that federal biologists rewrote an analysis that said a water transfer plan could hurt endangered salmon in northern California. In a letter to the inspectors general of the Interior Department and the Commerce Department, the House members said the report suggested a ''catastrophic failure of oversight.'' At issue is a recent report in The Sacramento Bee that said federal biologists evaluating the effects of shifting millions of gallons of water to Southern California from rivers in the north were ordered by their superiors to revise a conclusion that the plan would hurt endangered salmon. Biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration initially found that the water project would harm fish in many rivers in Northern California, including salmon in the American River. But NOAA administrators overruled the findings and supervised a rewriting of the analysis, according to documents obtained by the Bee. An updated version, dated Sept. 27, no longer concluded that winter-run salmon or other fish could face extinction by the extra water diversions. The reported actions ''may further undermine public confidence in the Bureau of Reclamation's and NOAA fisheries' ability to appropriately manage the resources that the public has entrusted to them,'' the Democrats wrote. The letter was signed by 19 House members led by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., and including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., top Democrat on the House Resources Committee. NOAA officials, including the assistant regional administrator who supervised the rewriting, contended the revisions were justified. ''This was just supervisor-employee stuff. I received a draft document that had some errors in it and when those were corrected it changed the conclusion,'' James Lecky, assistant regional administrator for the southwest region for NOAA, said in an interview Friday. He said he was confident the conclusion that fish would not be harmed was accurate, but noted that a final version of the report still has not been issued. ''What got leaked was a very preliminary draft, and then a subsequent more developed draft that had some different conclusions in it,'' he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Oct 12 09:53:35 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 09:53:35 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE- Wintu Unhappy with CALFED Message-ID: <006201c4b07c$0463d020$156c3940@V51NH> Indians seeking a voice on dam http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/california/story/11029272p-11946260c.html Lack of tribal status hinders Wintu in Shasta debate By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, October 9, 2004 WASHINGTON - As legislation calling for a study of raising Shasta Dam heads to the White House for President Bush's signature, a small band of Redding-area Indians whose sacred grounds would be flooded by the project is fighting the clock - and casino politics - for a bigger voice in the decision. It shouldn't be this difficult, said Caleen Sisk-Franco, the exasperated spiritual leader and principal tribal chief of the Winnemem Wintu. Sisk-Franco insists that a bureaucratic mistake decades ago is what unknowingly cost the Wintu their status as a federally recognized tribe. But rather than fixing the problem, she said, the government is giving the Wintu the runaround. "We don't know who makes decisions, but we've never come across someone who does," she said. The timing couldn't be more critical. A freshly minted deal reauthorizing the huge state-federal water program known as Cal-Fed anticipates raising Shasta Dam to store more water for eventual shipment to Central and Southern California, and the legislation includes the project as one of four for study on a fast track for construction. A month ago, the Wintu staged a "war dance" at Shasta Dam to demonstrate their opposition to the proposed project. It was their first such dance since 1887, when the Wintu protested construction of a fish hatchery on the McCloud River. Sisk-Franco said she is under no illusion that the Wintu could halt expansion of the dam. "That would take a lot of people, a lot of studies," she said. But the Wintu desperately want to be able to press the case for better management of Shasta Dam's water releases before their sacred lands are flooded again. That requires a seat at the table, which the Wintu get only if they are a recognized tribe. "Why are they going to raise the dam when they haven't even brought its 30-year-old flood plan up to date?" Sisk-Franco asked. "It doesn't make sense. Why not manage the water a little closer, with a little more expertise, and see if you can yield more water than they are right now?" There are about 125 Wintu, roughly 30 of whom live communally on a 42-acre Jones Valley ranch that they hope one day will be officially recognized as Indian country. But the Bureau of Indian Affairs doesn't officially consider the Wintu a tribe despite their documented 150-year history along the McCloud River, and even though the government maintains a cemetery for Wintu moved from old tribal graves when Shasta Lake began forming behind the dam six decades ago. The status of that cemetery, and their long history and inclusion in a string of federal Indian laws, should be enough to qualify them as a tribe, the Wintu maintain. But for some unexplained reason, Sisk-Franco said, the cemetery ended up under the control of the Bureau of Land Management and not as Indian country held in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Without tribal recognition, the Wintu don't have the sovereign status that would require the federal government to treat them on a government-to-government basis in deciding the fate of what remains of their sacred homelands. It's not that the concerns of the Wintu are being ignored, Bureau of Reclamation officials say. But the Wintu have only the status of any other group of citizens, rather than the clout of a sovereign people. Last month, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee's chairman, Colorado Republican Ben Nighthorse Campbell, introduced legislation to clarify the tribal status of the Wintu. The legislation declares that there has been an ongoing trust relationship that should have qualified the Wintu for recognition, and it requires that their 42-acre farm, now operated as a nonprofit corporation, be established as a tribal reservation. Campbell made clear when introducing the bill that he was doing so only because the Wintu have asked him to. He said his interest was to "initiate discussion of the tribe's status among all interested parties." So far, the Wintu have not made much progress with their congressional representatives. Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, whose district includes the Redding area, said he believes the Wintu should take their case to the BIA's Office of Acknowledgment and Records. "The Winnemem Wintu have not exhausted the administrative avenues available to them," Herger said. "I do not believe Congress should be in the job of circumventing executive authority and process to show one group preference over another." But that process is astonishingly slow and bureaucratic. "On paper it should take about two years," said BIA spokesman Gary Garrison. "Unfortunately, it's running as a 10-to 15-year process." And that's for the lucky tribes. Of 296 petitions for tribal recognition that have been filed over the past several decades, only 60 have been resolved, and nine were by acts of Congress. The last petition to be decided involved the Cowlitz Indians of Washington state, and that took 27 years, Garrison said. Sisk-Franco said she also hasn't gotten very far with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who she had hoped would have sponsored their legislation. The San Francisco Democrat is focused on unraveling the deal that gave the small Lytton Band of Pomo Indians the right to develop a huge casino at San Pablo. That deal is the result of a tribal recognition bill sponsored by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, four years ago. Sisk-Franco said that Campbell's staff told her that when he recently tried to put together a package of Indian legislation, including the Wintu provision, for last-minute congressional approval, Feinstein balked. Calls to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee were not returned. But Howard Gantman, Feinstein's press aide, essentially confirmed that account, saying that Feinstein's priority now is an up-or-down vote on her Lytton legislation. As to what Feinstein thinks of recognizing the tribal rights of the Wintu, Gantman said, "She is seeking additional information." Sisk-Franco said she believes that the Wintu have become victims of a fight over Indian gaming in which they are not involved. The Wintu don't want to engage in gaming, she said, and their tribal recognition bill specifically prohibits it. But the lesson she's learning is that California Indians with well-documented cases for tribal recognition can speed up the process dramatically by joining forces with a gaming partner with the bankroll and lobbyists to get what they want. "Congress is forcing California Indians to go casino," she said. "They're punishing us and saying we had better not go casino, but every tribe that goes casino gets recognized." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the Writer --------------------------- The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or dwhitney at mcclatchydc.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related link: . Winnemem Wintu Tribe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 64313730623035333430303832633930?_RM_EMPTY_ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Oct 13 07:23:42 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 07:23:42 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Water Grab Press Event at Discovery Park Today! Message-ID: Friends of the River ? Natural Resources Defense Council ? Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations ? Planning and Conservation League? The Bay Institute ? Delta Keeper NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: October 13, 2004 Contacts: Steve Evans, Friends of the River: (916) 442-3155 x221 Barry Nelson, Natural Resources Defense Council: (415) 205-6703 Mindy McIntyre, Planning and Conservation League: (916) 313-4518 Zeke Grader, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations: (415) 561-5080 Environmental Groups Warn That Backroom Deal to Increase Delta Diversions Threatens Water Quality and Endangered Salmon CalFed Program to Solve State Water Problems at Risk of Falling Apart SACRAMENTO, CA. (October 13, 2004) ? In a move reminiscent of California?s past history of back room water deals, state and federal agencies are preparing to finalize plans to increase diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Environmental and fishing groups say the complex plan, if approved, would further degrade delta water quality and spell disaster for struggling fisheries in many Northern California rivers and streams. The California Bay Delta Authority will discuss the scheme at a meeting today at 1:00 p.m. at 650 Capitol Mall in Sacramento. The plan was developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and a few favored water districts, while excluding environmental and fishing groups and other stakeholders. ?Kiss Northern California rivers goodbye if the state and federal agencies get the plumbing in place to suck more water out of the delta,? said Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River. ?Already, water exports are killing salmon and poisoning water quality in upstream rivers and the delta. Increasing diversions will only add to the problem, while subsidizing corporate cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley and urban sprawl in Southern California.? The plan ? known as the Operating Criteria and Plan (OCAP) ? by state and federal officials would increase the capacity of pumps near Tracy in order to siphon enormous amounts of additional water from the delta to provide new supplies of cheap water to large agribusinesses and urban developers. Last year the bureau and DWR met secretly with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Westlands Water District and Kern County Water Agency to forge the so-called Napa Agreement, a deal to divvy up the additional water they hope to pump from the delta. Conservation groups and elected officials condemned the deal as a raid on Northern California?s water supply lacking public involvement or oversight. Recently, Senators Boxer and Feinstein, 15 representatives led by Congressman George Miller, and state Senator Mike Machado, chair of the Agricultural and Water Committee, criticized the deal, demanding an opportunity for more public involvement. Yet the bureau and DWR are seeking immediate approval to begin implementing the deal under OCAP. ?The Bureau of Reclamation and agribusiness are trying to bring to the bay-delta the same style of management that led to disasters on the Columbia, Klamath and Trinity Rivers, ignoring science while deal-making in smoke filled rooms,? said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations. ?These agencies are putting hard working fishing families out of work to provide corporate welfare for Central Valley agribusiness.? Conservationists say the plan could cause the collapse of CalFed, the state-federal cooperative program to restore the bay-delta, while improving water quality and providing reliable supplies for state water users. ?The state and federal agencies are turning CalFed into a sham,? said Barry Nelson, senior policy analyst with NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). ?CalFed was intended to develop balanced solutions in an open process. The goal was to restore water quality and a healthy environment for the entire state, not just provide more water for a few favored water districts. We?ve seen in recent years that cooperative efforts work, but the Napa Deal and OCAP are a huge step backward. They represent a return to confrontation and back room deals at the expense of water quality and healthy fisheries.? Scientists say that proposed changes in upstream dam operations to provide for increased delta pumping could lead to the extinction of the Sacramento River?s endangered winter run Chinook salmon. That?s because draining reservoirs to move water to the pumps could result in higher temperatures than the fish can tolerate later in the year, especially in dry years. Christina Swanson, Ph.D., fisheries biologist for The Bay Institute, noted that NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency charged with protecting salmon, recently was accused of buckling under political pressure when it modified a draft report finding that the winter run could be endangered even further. ?It?s clear that the agencies are taking their marching orders from the Bush administration,? she said. ?If they don?t like the scientists? findings, they simply sweep the data under the rug.? Conservationists say that increased pumping is totally unnecessary. ?There are cost effective strategies for meeting California?s water needs,? said Mindy McIntyre, water policy specialist for the Planning and Conservation League. ?Our solutions include conservation, water recycling and groundwater desalination. We can meet the growing demand at a lower cost without further imperiling wildlife and water quality.? # # # PRESS ADVISORY For Immediate Release: October 12, 2004 For more information: Craig Tucker, Friends of the River: 916-207-8294 Environmental Groups Warn That Backroom Deal to Increase Delta Diversions Threatens Water Quality and Endangered Salmon CalFed Program to Solve State Water Problems at Risk of Falling Apart WHAT: Despite concerns voiced by conservation groups, scientists, local farmers and elected officials, state and federal agencies are moving ahead with plans to divert ever increasing amounts of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta to satisfy the thirst of San Joaquin agribusiness and Southern California Developers. A large coalition of conservation and fishing organizations are hosting a press conference to highlight the disastrous effects such diversions could have as well as the secrecy in which these policies were developed. WHO: Friends of the River, Planning and Conservation League, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations, the Bay Institute, Delta Keeper WHEN: Wednesday, October 13 at noon. WHERE: Discovery Park, by the riverside. The park is located beside I-5 in downtown Sacramento. From I-5 take the Richards Blvd. off-ramp then go west to get to the South entrance of the park, or follow the Garden Highway exit east from I-5 to find the North entrance. Signs denote the park's location from I-5. From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Oct 13 07:26:55 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 07:26:55 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Water Grab Press Event at Discovery Park Today! Message-ID: Friends of the River ? Natural Resources Defense Council ? Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations ? Planning and Conservation League? The Bay Institute ? Delta Keeper NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Release: October 13, 2004 Contacts: Steve Evans, Friends of the River: (916) 442-3155 x221 Barry Nelson, Natural Resources Defense Council: (415) 205-6703 Mindy McIntyre, Planning and Conservation League: (916) 313-4518 Zeke Grader, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations: (415) 561-5080 Environmental Groups Warn That Backroom Deal to Increase Delta Diversions Threatens Water Quality and Endangered Salmon CalFed Program to Solve State Water Problems at Risk of Falling Apart SACRAMENTO, CA. (October 13, 2004) ? In a move reminiscent of California?s past history of back room water deals, state and federal agencies are preparing to finalize plans to increase diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Environmental and fishing groups say the complex plan, if approved, would further degrade delta water quality and spell disaster for struggling fisheries in many Northern California rivers and streams. The California Bay Delta Authority will discuss the scheme at a meeting today at 1:00 p.m. at 650 Capitol Mall in Sacramento. The plan was developed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and a few favored water districts, while excluding environmental and fishing groups and other stakeholders. ?Kiss Northern California rivers goodbye if the state and federal agencies get the plumbing in place to suck more water out of the delta,? said Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River. ?Already, water exports are killing salmon and poisoning water quality in upstream rivers and the delta. Increasing diversions will only add to the problem, while subsidizing corporate cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley and urban sprawl in Southern California.? The plan ? known as the Operating Criteria and Plan (OCAP) ? by state and federal officials would increase the capacity of pumps near Tracy in order to siphon enormous amounts of additional water from the delta to provide new supplies of cheap water to large agribusinesses and urban developers. Last year the bureau and DWR met secretly with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Westlands Water District and Kern County Water Agency to forge the so-called Napa Agreement, a deal to divvy up the additional water they hope to pump from the delta. Conservation groups and elected officials condemned the deal as a raid on Northern California?s water supply lacking public involvement or oversight. Recently, Senators Boxer and Feinstein, 15 representatives led by Congressman George Miller, and state Senator Mike Machado, chair of the Agricultural and Water Committee, criticized the deal, demanding an opportunity for more public involvement. Yet the bureau and DWR are seeking immediate approval to begin implementing the deal under OCAP. ?The Bureau of Reclamation and agribusiness are trying to bring to the bay-delta the same style of management that led to disasters on the Columbia, Klamath and Trinity Rivers, ignoring science while deal-making in smoke filled rooms,? said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations. ?These agencies are putting hard working fishing families out of work to provide corporate welfare for Central Valley agribusiness.? Conservationists say the plan could cause the collapse of CalFed, the state-federal cooperative program to restore the bay-delta, while improving water quality and providing reliable supplies for state water users. ?The state and federal agencies are turning CalFed into a sham,? said Barry Nelson, senior policy analyst with NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council). ?CalFed was intended to develop balanced solutions in an open process. The goal was to restore water quality and a healthy environment for the entire state, not just provide more water for a few favored water districts. We?ve seen in recent years that cooperative efforts work, but the Napa Deal and OCAP are a huge step backward. They represent a return to confrontation and back room deals at the expense of water quality and healthy fisheries.? Scientists say that proposed changes in upstream dam operations to provide for increased delta pumping could lead to the extinction of the Sacramento River?s endangered winter run Chinook salmon. That?s because draining reservoirs to move water to the pumps could result in higher temperatures than the fish can tolerate later in the year, especially in dry years. Christina Swanson, Ph.D., fisheries biologist for The Bay Institute, noted that NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency charged with protecting salmon, recently was accused of buckling under political pressure when it modified a draft report finding that the winter run could be endangered even further. ?It?s clear that the agencies are taking their marching orders from the Bush administration,? she said. ?If they don?t like the scientists? findings, they simply sweep the data under the rug.? Conservationists say that increased pumping is totally unnecessary. ?There are cost effective strategies for meeting California?s water needs,? said Mindy McIntyre, water policy specialist for the Planning and Conservation League. ?Our solutions include conservation, water recycling and groundwater desalination. We can meet the growing demand at a lower cost without further imperiling wildlife and water quality.? # # # PRESS ADVISORY For Immediate Release: October 12, 2004 For more information: Craig Tucker, Friends of the River: 916-207-8294 Environmental Groups Warn That Backroom Deal to Increase Delta Diversions Threatens Water Quality and Endangered Salmon CalFed Program to Solve State Water Problems at Risk of Falling Apart WHAT: Despite concerns voiced by conservation groups, scientists, local farmers and elected officials, state and federal agencies are moving ahead with plans to divert ever increasing amounts of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta to satisfy the thirst of San Joaquin agribusiness and Southern California Developers. A large coalition of conservation and fishing organizations are hosting a press conference to highlight the disastrous effects such diversions could have as well as the secrecy in which these policies were developed. WHO: Friends of the River, Planning and Conservation League, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations, the Bay Institute, Delta Keeper WHEN: Wednesday, October 13 at noon. WHERE: Discovery Park, by the riverside. The park is located beside I-5 in downtown Sacramento. From I-5 take the Richards Blvd. off-ramp then go west to get to the South entrance of the park, or follow the Garden Highway exit east from I-5 to find the North entrance. Signs denote the park's location from I-5. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Oct 13 21:20:20 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 21:20:20 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Flow Reduction for Trinity River Flows Message-ID: <006001c4b1a5$1f273580$860aadcf@V51NH> Project: Lewiston Dam Please make the following changes to the Trinity River Date Time From (CFS) To (CFS) 10/15/04 2100 450 400 10/16/04 0100 400 350 10/16/04 0500 350 300 By: Tom Morstein-Marx tmorsteinmarx at mp.usbr.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Oct 14 10:37:14 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 10:37:14 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: KWUA Media Advisory: Landmark Klamath Agreement Signed Message-ID: <000601c4b2b6$f778d620$910aadcf@V51NH> I was able to obtain a copy of the MOA inserted below this message. I confess I'm unclear as to what this will really result in. Tom Stokely ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Keppen To: Dan Keppen Cc: KWUA Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2004 1:40 PM Subject: KWUA Media Advisory: Landmark Klamath Agreement Signed Earlier today, a historic watershed agreement was signed by the governors of Oregon and key cabinet secretaries of the Bush Administration. A copy of the U.S. Interior Department press release follows. Attached, is a copy of the reaction of the Klamath Water Users Association to this development. A copy of the Memorandum of Agreement is available at www.doi.gov --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Office of the Secretary Contact: Dan DuBray For Immediate Release: October 13, 2004 202-208-6416 Interior Secretary Gale Norton Announces Klamath Watershed Coordination Agreement Duluth, Minn. - Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced a landmark agreement between four cabinet-level federal agencies, the President's Council on Environmental Quality, and the States of Oregon and California, committing to future cooperation and collaboration in Klamath River watershed activities, and pledging to make those activities a priority in their respective agencies. "The people of the Klamath Basin cherish the land and its natural beauty and desire to hand their way of life down to future generations," Norton said. "Together, we have an opportunity to work toward a vision that includes clear waters, abundant fisheries, increased waterfowl, a vibrant agricultural community, and an end to the legal fighting among the various interests, which continues to poison the relationships among its people." Norton made the announcement this afternoon in a telephone conference call with reporters. Participating with Secretary Norton was California Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman - representing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger -- and David Van't Hof, natural resource advisor to Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. Secretary Norton stressed that the agreement will focus on and prioritize mutual efforts in the entire Klamath watershed. The agreement will enhance coordination and communication among the signatories, tribal and local governments, and other interests as they work to resolve water quantity, water quality, and fish and wildlife resource problems in the entire basin. "Specifically, this will include coordinating work to recover threatened and endangered fish, enhance anadromous fish runs, improve wildlife habitat and water quality, and provide water for irrigation and other beneficial uses," Norton explained. "The agreement confirms that each party will set its own budget priorities, but encourages joint awareness of one another's plans and collaborative action based on common goals." Although all the parties to the agreement have long been active in the watershed, efforts have not been coordinated to specifically establish work priorities or concentrate resources to resolve the Basin's complex problems. Last year, the National Academy of Science's National Research Council released a study underscoring that Klamath Basin issues should be addressed in an integrated and comprehensive way for a lasting resolution. The respective federal and state agencies and offices will manage their own activities and resources, including the expenditure of their own funds, in pursuing the objectives of this coordination agreement. The agreement supports the creation of the Conservation Implementation Program (CIP), a stakeholder-driven, watershed-wide, ecosystem restoration program. The CIP is a long-term approach that will identify the Basin's critical needs, set priorities and measures of success for addressing those issues, and monitor progress in resolving them. Representatives of the States of Oregon and California, the Klamath River Basin Working Group, and the Environmental Protection Agency have been meeting to address the need for better coordination. The signatories to the agreement include Gale A. Norton, Secretary,Department of Interior; Ann M. Veneman, Secretary, Department of Agriculture; Donald L. Evans, Secretary, Department of Commerce; Michael O. Leavitt, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. President Bush established the Klamath River Basin Working Group on March 1, 2002, to advise him of the immediate and long-term actions necessary to enhance water quality and quantity, and to address the other complex economic and natural resource issues in the Klamath River Basin. The group -- comprised of the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce, and the Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality -- is chaired by Secretary Norton. -- DOI -- [Editors Note: A copy of the Memorandum of Agreement is available at www.doi.gov] Dan Keppen Executive Director Klamath Water Users Association 2455 Patterson Street, Suite #3 Klamath Falls, OR 97603 (541) 883-6100 - Fax (541) 883-8893 ******************************************************************************************* Klamath River Watershed Coordination Agreement The Klamath River Basin has long been renowned for its strong agricultural economy, its premier waterfowl viewing on the Pacific Flyway, its National Wildlife Refuges, National Parks and National Forests, its lakes and rivers, its fishery, wildlife and timber resources, and its hunting and fishing opportunities. Over the past decade, however, the Klamath River Basin has been in the forefront of national attention due to contentious resource issues related to water allocation, water quality, protection and recovery of threatened and endangered fish, and maintenance of sustainable irrigation and anadromous fish runs. California, Oregon and the federal government have targeted efforts and resources to address these complex Klamath Basin issues. Establishment of the President?s Klamath River Basin Working Group has improved coordination among federal agencies and focused additional federal resources on addressing environmental, Tribal, and agricultural concerns. Better coordination among the States and the federal agencies is needed to maximize the benefits of these efforts and available resources. Last year, the National Academy of Sciences released a study that confirmed that the Klamath Basin issues must be dealt with in an integrated and comprehensive way for a lasting resolution of the issues in the Basin. Representatives of the States of California and Oregon, the President?s Klamath River Basin Working Group and the Environmental Protection Agency have been meeting to address this need for better coordination. Coordination will bring to bear science-based attention to identify and address the environmental, economic, agricultural, and Tribal trust needs of the Basin and its communities. We recognize that resolution of the complex issues of the Klamath Basin will take many years, close coordination, and consistent, focused application of available programs and resources. Accordingly, we the undersigned agree to the following: 1. The State and Federal Klamath Basin Coordination Group, co-chaired by designated representatives from Oregon and California state governments, is formally established. It will consist of the appropriate designees of the two states, the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency. 2. The members of the Klamath Basin Coordination Group and their respective agencies and staffs are to place a priority on their Klamath Basin activities and on their coordination and communications with one another and with tribal governments, local governments, private groups and individuals, to resolve water quantity, water quality and fish and wildlife resource problems in the basin. They should work diligently to recover the threatened and endangered fish species in the Klamath basin, enhance anadromous fish runs, improve and protect fish and wildlife habitat and water quality, and provide water for irrigation and other beneficial uses. They should also move expeditiously to identify existing funding sources to accomplish these ends. 3. The State and Federal Klamath Basin Coordination Group should implement an aggressive, coordinated approach to allocate existing resources to the extent possible toward short-term opportunities that will improve conditions in the basin. These short-term actions are important, both to demonstrate a coordinated intergovernmental approach and to reduce the likelihood of year to year crises in the Basin. 4. As a vehicle to develop a long-term management approach, a common vision, and integrated planning, the state and federal agencies which are signatories to this coordination agreement should develop and implement the Klamath Basin Conservation Implementation Program concept which will meld a scientific oversight body, the broad communities of Klamath Basin interests, and resource agencies to identify the Basin?s critical water quality, water quantity, and fish and wildlife restoration problems, set priorities and measures of success for addressing those issues through consensus, and monitor progress in resolving them. It is further mutually agreed that: A. All commitments made by the signatories to this coordination agreement are subject to the availability of funds and each agency?s budget priorities, statutory authorities and legal obligations. Nothing in this agreement, in and of itself, obligates the signatory entities to expend appropriations or to enter into any contract, assistance agreement, interagency agreement, or other financial obligations. B. The respective federal and state agencies and offices will handle their own activities and utilize their own resources, including the expenditure of their own funds, in pursuing the objectives of this coordination agreement. C. This coordination agreement does not create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable by law or equity against the signatory entities, their officers or employees, or any other person or third party, and does not direct or apply to any person outside of the agencies covered by this agreement. D. This coordination agreement may be signed in counter parts and will take effect upon the date of the last signature of the parties below, and shall remain in effect for five years from the date of execution. This agreement may be extended or amended upon written request of any of the parties below and the subsequent written concurrence of the others. Any of the parties may terminate their participation in this coordination agreement with a 60-day written notice to the others. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Oct 15 06:18:03 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 06:18:03 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: Public Hearing Scheduled on Draft EIS Message-ID: <006701c4b2b9$67b92fa0$910aadcf@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: To: "Tom Stokely" Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:45 AM Subject: Public Hearing Scheduled on Draft EIS > Folks - Reclamation issued the following press release today, Thursday, October 14, 2004. > Thank you > Sam Cervantes > Public Affairs Office > Bureau of Reclamation > 916-978-5104 > > --------------- > > > > > Mid-Pacific Region > Sacramento, CA > > MP-04-082 > > Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken 916-978-5100 > jmccracken at mp.usbr.gov > For Release On: October 14, 2004 > > Public Hearing Scheduled on Sacramento River Settlement Contractors Draft Environmental Document > > The Bureau of Reclamation announces the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed long-term renewal of Central Valley Project settlement contracts between Reclamation and up to 145 Sacramento River Settlement Contractors. The proposed contract renewals allow for the continued diversion of up to approximately 1.8 million acre-feet of Base Supply water per year and approximately 380,000 acre-feet of Project Water per year for agricultural and municipal and industrial uses for an additional 40 years. > > A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, October, 27, 2004, at the Monday Afternoon Club, 120 North Lassen Street, Willows, CA, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. > > The Draft EIS was prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and was made available for a 45-day public review and comment period on October 8, 2004. To access the draft document online, go to www.usbr.gov/mp/cvpia/3404c/index.html, click on Draft EISs, and scroll to Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Renewal of Sacramento River Settlement Contracts. The associated long-term contracts began a separate 60-day public review on July 9, 2004. > > The Draft EIS can also be reviewed at the following Reclamation offices: Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, CA; Red Bluff Division Office, 22500 Altube Road, Red Bluff, CA; Willows Office, 1140 West Wood Street, Willows, CA; and Regional Office, Public Affairs Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA. > > Written comments must be received by close of business on Monday, November 15, 2004, and should be sent to: Mr. Buford Holt, Bureau of Reclamation, Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, CA 96019. Comments may also be faxed to Mr. Holt at 530-275-2441 or e-mailed to bholt at mp.usbr.gov. For additional information or to request a copy of the draft document, contact Mr. Holt at 530-276-2047, TDD 530-275-8991. > > # # # > Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, with operations and facilities in the 17 Western States. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. Visit our website at http://www.usbr.gov > From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Oct 15 06:27:29 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 06:27:29 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Articles on New Klamath Agreement Message-ID: <00ba01c4b2ba$b8912e40$910aadcf@V51NH> http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2467475,00.html# Feds, states to work together on Klamath conundrum By John Driscoll The Times-Standard Thursday, October 14, 2004 - An agreement among the federal government and the states of California and Oregon aims to be a nexus for solutions in the Klamath Basin, but many are skeptical that it can result in real-world changes. The agreement was announced Wednesday by U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman and Oregon Natural Resources Adviser David Van't Hof . The Klamath River Watershed Coordination Agreement appears to be a vehicle for cooperation between state and federal agencies dealing with the complex fish, wildlife and agriculture quandaries in the basin. The agreement comes with no funding or financial obligations, but instead calls for a coordinated approach to allocating existing resources. It is to work hand-in-hand with a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation program, called the Conservation Implementation Program, which has been undergoing public scrutiny at recent meetings. In a teleconference, Norton said the harsh conflicts in the basin stemmed in large part from everyone in the basin vying for a limited supply of water. "We had not been planning ahead," Norton said. "We had not foreseen all the problems that would have arisen. Today, we're able to plan." She said the agreement could insulate the basin from the year-to-year conflicts plaguing agriculture, fish and wildlife refuges. Chrisman said collaboration with communities and tribes will help meld the science and information being developed in the basin. How exactly such an agreement would affect on-the-ground realities -- like disagreements over flows for fish and water deliveries for agriculture -- is unknown. Some doubted genuine solutions, especially for communities on the lower river, would result. "There's a lot of discussion about collaboration, coordination and compromise," said longtime fisheries scientist Bill Kier. "But the fundamental fact of life in the Klamath Basin is that it's overcommitted and oversubscribed by government programs." He wondered if such an agreement might restrain the agencies involved. For example, in the case of the State Water Resources Control Board's insistence that hydropower dam operator PacifiCorp mitigate water quality problems before certifying its dams. Yurok Tribe Executive Director Troy Fletcher said he's supportive of the states and federal agencies working together, but is concerned it will only continue the status quo. The tribe also supports the restoration activities that might occur through such an arrangement, he said, but remains focused on water as the key to a healthy salmon fishery. "The projects don't pay dividends unless there's water in the river," Fletcher said. The bureau's Klamath Falls area manager Dave Sabo said he believes the agreement will lead to more coordination that may point out that flows aren't the end-all to restoration. "I could shut the irrigation project down and it's not going to solve the problems of the Klamath basin," Sabo said. But the California Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have pointed to low flows as the main -- if not the only -- culprit in the 2002 fish kill. That September, up to 68,000 chinook salmon died in the river. That came after years of reduced fishing quotas along the West Coast, set because of the river's weak stocks. Dan Keppen of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents irrigators in the federal irrigation project on the central California-Oregon borders, saw reason to be optimistic. He said the time is ripe for such an arrangement, citing both states' governors' interest in finding solutions for the basin's woes. "I just think it sends a pretty strong signal that that's where people should spend their time," Keppen said. "I think we need that." Asked if the announcement, which affects the swing state of Oregon, was related to the upcoming presidential election, Norton said the agreement was bipartisan and not political. ******************************** Thursday, October 14, 2004, 12:00 A.M. Pacific http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2002062672&zsection_id=2002015020&slug=klamath14m&date=20041014 Klamath pact promises cooperative approach By MATTHEW DALY The Associated Press WASHINGTON - The Bush administration and the governors of California and Oregon said yesterday they have agreed to work together to resolve water issues in the drought-stricken Klamath Basin. Interior Secretary Gale Norton said the agreement would help the two states and four federal agencies as they work with farmers, Indian tribes, fishermen, conservationists and other groups that use the chronically dry basin along the California-Oregon border. "The people of the Klamath Basin cherish the land and its natural beauty and desire to hand their way of life down to future generations," Norton said. "Together, we have an opportunity to work toward a vision that includes clear waters, abundant fisheries, increased waterfowl, a vibrant agricultural community, and an end to the legal fighting ... ." The new Klamath River Watershed Coordination Agreement expands on a 2-1/2-year-old effort among federal agencies that deal with Klamath issues. A Cabinet-level working group, headed by Norton, includes representatives of the Interior, Commerce and Agriculture departments, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency. Leaders of all four agencies have pledged to work together to ensure that farmers in the Klamath Basin have access to sufficient water, while complying with Indian trust obligations and protecting salmon and other threatened fish. The new agreement builds on that work by including the two states in the process, Norton and other speakers said in a teleconference with reporters. In a change, the states will take a lead role on Klamath issues, and federal agencies will join them as they try to resolve disputes over water quantity and quality, as well as fish-and-wildlife resource problems, Norton said. No federal or state agency will give up any budgetary or other authority as a result of the agreement. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Sat Oct 16 16:22:44 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 16:22:44 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Article by Dan Bacher on Up To One Million Acre Feet of Additional Water Shipments South of Delta Message-ID: <20041016232812.F0E1A2063DDB@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> State And Federal Government Rush Plan To Increase Delta Diversions by Dan Bacher The state and federal governments are attempting to rush through a complex plan that would expand the pumping capacity of the Delta pumps, paving the way for more water to ship south to the Westlands Water District and Southern California. Environmental, fishermen's groups and Indian tribes argued during two public meetings in Sacramento held jointly by state and federal agencies in Sacramento on October 7 and October 12 that the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) would spell doom for salmon, steelhead and other fish now recovering from years of massive water diversions and habitat degradation. "Kiss Northern California rivers goodbye if the state and federal agencies get the plumbing in place to suck more water out of the Delta," said Steve Evans Conservation Director of Friends of the River. "Already, water exports are killing salmon and poisoning water in upstream rivers and the Delta. Increasing diversions will only add to the problem, while subsidizing corporate cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley and urban sprawl in Southern California." The public meetings appear to be "dog and pony shows" masquerading as attempts to get "public input" when the real decisions have already been largely made behind the scenes in backroom secret agreements like the "Napa Agreement" last year. The state Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the federal Bureau of Reclamation plan to integrate their parallel storage and pumping facilities and sign 25 to 40 year contracts with San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts. The Bureau and DWR are seeking immediate approval to begin implementing the water deal, in spite of criticism by 15 representatives led by Congressman George Miller, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein and State Senator Mike Machado that not enough public involvement or oversight was included. The Bureau, DWR and a few favored water districts developed the joint-state federal plan away from public scrutiny. They completely excluded Indian tribes, fishermen's organizations and environmental groups from the process. Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, at the October 7 meeting referred to an explosive Sacramento Bee story that documented how NOAA Fisheries biologists were ordered to revise a draft biological opinion to be less protective of winter run chinooks. He asked the Bureau's Chet Bowling whether he knew of any political interference with the OCAP biological opinion and whether the report would be peer reviewed. "I don't have personal information on that," Bowling responded. When Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe questioned whether the expansion of Shasta Dam was being considered under the biological opinion, Bowling said it wasn't on the table in the OCAP review process. "This is a life and death issue for our tribe, since the raising of the dam would flood several of our sacred sites," said Mulcahy. "The raising of Shasta Dam is a key component of the expansion of the storage capacity of the state and federal projects. When I bring this up at a meeting, they say we can talk about one piece of the plan but not another. The problem is that you can't talk about one piece of the plan without talking about the other. And all of this plan is contingent on Shasta Dam being raised to provide more capacity for water storage." And when I asked a federal biologist how the Bureau of Reclamation's OCAP process was going to deal with the extensive pre-spawning salmon mortality in the American River (181,709 over the past three years) because of low, warm water, he responded that fishermen were catching less fish in the ocean and too many fish were moving in to the river for the available habitat. In a press conference on October 12, representatives from conservation organizations and Indian tribes vigorously attacked the OCAP process. One of the problems about this process is that it is very hard to get a straight answer on how much water will be actually exported. In an interview with Bob Simms of KFBK Radio, a Bureau of Reclamation official, Jeff McCracken contended that the water exported by the federal government through 2020 would be actually less than it is now. Environmental groups argue that the Bureau and state are practicing a "shell game' where the amount of water they claim is destined for export is different depending upon whom they're talking to. According to Barry Nelson, policy analyst of the Natural Resources Defense council, the Bureau is operating two different sets of books. "They told the fish agencies that just under 700,000 acre feet of water - 61 percent of capacity, will be diverted. At the same time, they have told Westlands Water District in their 12a pricing documents that they will give them 100 percent of their deliveries, 1,100,000 acre feet of water," he stated. Nelson said the plan proposes to export 600,000 additional acre-feet of water. This is separate from proposed transfers within the system. "OCAP provides for a massive increase in Delta diversions," said Nelson. "They are turning Calved into a sham. CalFed was intended to develop balanced solutions in an open process. The Napa Deal and OCAP are a huge step backward. They represent a return to confrontations and back room deals at the expense of water quality and healthy fisheries." Zeke Grader said now is a good time to actually reduce water diversions, rather than signing new long-term water contracts that provide for more diversions. Grader emphasized that Central Valley salmon provide 90 percent of the salmon caught commercially and recreationally off the California coast, as well as a large percentage of fish taken off Oregon and Washington. "The Bureau of Reclamation and agribusiness are trying to bring to the Bay-Delta the same style of management that led to disasters on the Columbia, Klamath and Trinity Rivers, ignoring science while deal-making in smoke filled rooms," he stated. "These agencies are putting hard working fishing families out of work to provide corporate welfare for agribusiness." The subversion of science, the exclusion of the public from the real decisions regarding their public trust resources and the favoring of agribusiness and big municipal water districts over other water users smacks of political corruption and deal making at its worst. "It appears that the agencies are taking their marching orders from the Bush administration," said Christina Swanson, fisheries biologist for the Bay Institute. "If they don't like the scientist's finding, they simply sweep the data under the rug." And restoring water to rivers like the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam, as ordered under a recent federal court decision, seems even more improbable with an increase in water exports. "There are five year old catfish in the San Joaquin below Friant that haven't learned how to swim yet," quipped John Banks of the California Striped Bass Association. The OCAP process is clearly yet another example of political science triumphing over natural science - and the fish, Indian tribes, recreational anglers and commercial fishermen are all losing. Everybody concerned about this blatant water grab should send a letter immediately to the Congressman and Senators asking them to suspend the water contract process until the public has more real input into the OCAP Process. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri Oct 15 11:07:48 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:07:48 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Salmon/Perch Combo Adventure on the Klamath (Draft) Message-ID: A Salmon/Perch Combo Adventure On The Klamath by Dan Bacher Anglers who fish the upper Klamath River below Iron Gate Dam have become very spoiled with the sensational fishing that they have experienced most years over the past decade. While catching one to two fish per rod is a great day on the Sacramento River, anglers going on drift boat trips on the Klamath in the high desert country of Siskiyou County are used to hooking up to 20 fish in a day. However, the fishing is tougher this year, since the salmon appear to be less aggressive than they usually are. By most standards, the fishing on a trip that Richard Alves, Fish Sniffer Webmaster, and I made with Al Kutzkey, fishing guide, was good. We hooked over eight king salmon, landing three to 20 pounds, as well as releasing a half dozen beautiful wild and hatchery rainbows to 15 inches, but the fishing was still slower than it has been on previous trips we?ve made with Kutzkey. We started off back bouncing salmon roe in the first hole below the hatchery. I hooked and released a 15 pound salmon in the first 5 minutes, but didn?t land another salmon for several more hours. Meanwhile, Richard hooked several fish that came unbuttoned, but he finally landed a hard-fighting 20 pounder after the sun came out downriver. The guides and anglers were definitely working for their fish. We saw one woman land five fish, but she was the high rod that day. We saw anglers fishing with Billy Jesperson, Ron Denardi, and Mick Thomas hooking fish also. ?The fish aren?t taking the bait as aggressively as they normally do and I?m not sure why,? said Kutzkey. ?We are hooking 6 to 12 salmon a trip, but landing them some days is tough.? All of the fish that we hooked were taken by back bouncing or side drifting bait with salmon eggs, but Kutzkey said he is starting to see a little bite on plugs in the early morning hours. ?The bite has been slow in the early morning, but has been coming on as the sun gets on the water and is slowing around noon,? he noted. Most of the salmon have been averaging about 10 to 13 pounds, but Kutzkey reported nailing a couple of 30 pounders and a lot in the twenties over the past few weeks. The biggest he?s heard to date is a 37 pounder. Surprisingly enough, the numbers of fish the hatchery is seeing are only a few hundred behind those of last year at this time. For example, the hatchery had received 4,244 salmon by Tuesday, October 12, the day after our trip. In comparison, the hatchery had received 4,517 fish by the same date last year, according to Kim Rushton, manager of the Iron Gate Fish Hatchery. The hatchery received 32,000 king salmon last year ? and Rushton expects to see the same amount of fish show again this year. This is well above the average hatchery return, 17,000 fish, over the last 20 years. The hatchery took 37,000 fish in 2002 and 72,000 in 2001, the record for the hatchery. ?The anglers are reporting slower fishing than normal this year, but our hatchery returns are only down several hundred fish from last year,? Rushton confirmed. After we finished salmon fishing, I decided to try Iron Gate Reservoir for yellow perch from the bank. Albert and his dad, Tim, love to eat the perch out of the lake, so they fish the lake frequently in the spring. After stopping to get worms and hooks at the Hornbrook Chevron, I drove up Copco Lake Road to the reservoir, going all of the way to the end to the Klamath River inlet. Only two anglers were fishing in the inlet, the father son angling team of Gary Phillips Sr. and Jr., who were on a combo perch fishing/deer hunting trip. Although they didn?t bag any deer, Gary Jr. was pulling out a big yellow perch about 12 inches long just after I had parked the car. The lake was down about 10 feet, with a layer of mud along the shoreline., and I slogged through the mud, meanwhile catching several perch. ?There?s some space over here, so feel free to join us,? said Gary Sr. ?Tie a loop on the line about 2 feet above the line and put on a Kahle snelled hook.? I did just that and soon began catching one fish after another, all perch in the 8 to 11 inch class, while using a threaded nightcrawler. The Kahle hook really made the difference in getting good a good hook set. For the next two hours, I had a total blast fishing with them and lost count as I put a bunch of tasty perch into the ice chest. I finally disciplined myself to get out of there to make the five-hour drive back to Sacramento. Between salmon, trout and perch, I had a lot of fun hooking fish, even though the salmon fishing wasn?t as good as it normally is. The steelhead run has rebounded over the past four years on the Klamath River. Kutzkey and other river guides are expecting to see another excellent run this season. The steelhead are expected to follow the spawning salmon into the river within the next few weeks. For more information about fishing the Klamath River and Iron Gate Lake, contact: Kutzkey's Guide Service, 710 Lane Street, Yreka, CA 96097, Phone: 530-842-2229. Note: The river is still really low at this time, with releases of only 900 cfs from Iron Gate Dam. Be careful when rowing a drift boat and expect to hit a few rocks. From danielbacher at hotmail.com Sat Oct 16 16:07:09 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Sat, 16 Oct 2004 16:07:09 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fishermen, Enviros, Tribes Blast Plan to Export More Delta Water Message-ID: State And Federal Government Rush Plan To Increase Delta Diversions by Dan Bacher The state and federal governments are attempting to rush through a complex plan that would expand the pumping capacity of the Delta pumps, paving the way for more water to ship south to the Westlands Water District and Southern California. Environmental, fishermen?s groups and Indian tribes argued during two public meetings in Sacramento held jointly by state and federal agencies in Sacramento on October 7 and October 12 that the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) would spell doom for salmon, steelhead and other fish now recovering from years of massive water diversions and habitat degradation. ?Kiss Northern California rivers goodbye if the state and federal agencies get the plumbing in place to suck more water out of the Delta,? said Steve Evans Conservation Director of Friends of the River. ?Already, water exports are killing salmon and poisoning water in upstream rivers and the Delta. Increasing diversions will only add to the problem, while subsidizing corporate cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley and urban sprawl in Southern California.? The public meetings appear to be ?dog and pony shows? masquerading as attempts to get ?public input? when the real decisions have already been largely made behind the scenes in backroom secret agreements like the ?Napa Agreement? last year. The state Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the federal Bureau of Reclamation plan to integrate their parallel storage and pumping facilities and sign 25 to 40 year contracts with San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts. The Bureau and DWR are seeking immediate approval to begin implementing the water deal, in spite of criticism by 15 representatives led by Congressman George Miller, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein and State Senator Mike Machado that not enough public involvement or oversight was included. The Bureau, DWR and a few favored water districts developed the joint-state federal plan away from public scrutiny. They completely excluded Indian tribes, fishermen?s organizations and environmental groups from the process. Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations, at the October 7 meeting referred to an explosive Sacramento Bee story that documented how NOAA Fisheries biologists were ordered to revise a draft biological opinion to be less protective of winter run chinooks. He asked the Bureau?s Chet Bowling whether he knew of any political interference with the OCAP biological opinion and whether the report would be peer reviewed. ?I don?t have personal information on that,? Bowling responded. When Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe questioned whether the expansion of Shasta Dam was being considered under the biological opinion, Bowling said it wasn?t on the table in the OCAP review process. ?This is a life and death issue for our tribe, since the raising of the dam would flood several of our sacred sites,? said Mulcahy. ?The raising of Shasta Dam is a key component of the expansion of the storage capacity of the state and federal projects. When I bring this up at a meeting, they say we can talk about one piece of the plan but not another. The problem is that you can?t talk about one piece of the plan without talking about the other. And all of this plan is contingent on Shasta Dam being raised to provide more capacity for water storage.? And when I asked a federal biologist how the Bureau of Reclamation?s OCAP process was going to deal with the extensive pre-spawning salmon mortality in the American River (181,709 over the past three years) because of low, warm water, he responded that fishermen were catching less fish in the ocean and too many fish were moving in to the river for the available habitat. In a press conference on October 12, representatives from conservation organizations and Indian tribes vigorously attacked the OCAP process. One of the problems about this process is that it is very hard to get a straight answer on how much water will be actually exported. In an interview with Bob Simms of KFBK Radio, a Bureau of Reclamation official, Jeff McCracken contended that the water exported by the federal government through 2020 would be actually less than it is now. Environmental groups argue that the Bureau and state are practicing a ?shell game? where the amount of water they claim is destined for export is different depending upon whom they're talking to. According to Barry Nelson, policy analyst of the Natural Resources Defense council, the Bureau is operating two different sets of books. ?They told the fish agencies that just under 700,000 acre feet of water ? 61 percent of capacity, will be diverted. At the same time, they have told Westlands Water District in their 12a pricing documents that they will give them 100 percent of their deliveries, 1,100,000 acre feet of water,? he stated. Nelson said the plan proposes to export 600,000 additional acre-feet of water. This is separate from proposed transfers within the system. ?OCAP provides for a massive increase in Delta diversions,? said Nelson. ?They are turning Calved into a sham. CalFed was intended to develop balanced solutions in an open process. The Napa Deal and OCAP are a huge step backward. They represent a return to confrontations and back room deals at the expense of water quality and healthy fisheries.? Zeke Grader said now is a good time to actually reduce water diversions, rather than signing new long-term water contracts that provide for more diversions. Grader emphasized that Central Valley salmon provide 90 percent of the salmon caught commercially and recreationally off the California coast, as well as a large percentage of fish taken off Oregon and Washington. ?The Bureau of Reclamation and agribusiness are trying to bring to the Bay-Delta the same style of management that led to disasters on the Columbia, Klamath and Trinity Rivers, ignoring science while deal-making in smoke filled rooms,? he stated. ?These agencies are putting hard working fishing families out of work to provide corporate welfare for agribusiness.? The subversion of science, the exclusion of the public from the real decisions regarding their public trust resources and the favoring of agribusiness and big municipal water districts over other water users smacks of political corruption and deal making at its worst. ?It appears that the agencies are taking their marching orders from the Bush administration,? said Christina Swanson, fisheries biologist for the Bay Institute. ?If they don?t like the scientist?s finding, they simply sweep the data under the rug.? And restoring water to rivers like the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam, as ordered under a recent federal court decision, seems even more improbable with an increase in water exports. "There are five year old catfish in the San Joaquin below Friant that haven't learned how to swim yet," quipped John Banks of the California Striped Bass Association. The OCAP process is clearly yet another example of political science triumphing over natural science ? and the fish, Indian tribes, recreational anglers and commercial fishermen are all losing. Everybody concerned about this blatant water grab should send a letter immediately to the Congressman and Senators asking them to suspend the water contract process until the public has more real input into the OCAP Process. From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 18 10:15:23 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:15:23 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Public Hearing Scheduled on Draft EIS on CVP contracts Message-ID: <20041018172042.2ABCC2033070@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Two weeks after notifying the contractors that there would be a public hearing on this draft EIS, word just came that Reclamation is also announcing it to the public via the following press release. Please note that the location has now changed but the date and time are the same. -----Original Message----- From: [mailto:scervantes at mp.usbr.gov] Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:46 AM Subject: Public Hearing Scheduled on Draft EIS Folks - Reclamation issued the following press release today, Thursday, October 14, 2004. Thank you Sam Cervantes Public Affairs Office Bureau of Reclamation 916-978-5104 --------------- Mid-Pacific Region Sacramento, CA MP-04-082 Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken 916-978-5100 jmccracken at mp.usbr.gov For Release On: October 14, 2004 Public Hearing Scheduled on Sacramento River Settlement Contractors Draft Environmental Document The Bureau of Reclamation announces the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed long-term renewal of Central Valley Project settlement contracts between Reclamation and up to 145 Sacramento River Settlement Contractors. The proposed contract renewals allow for the continued diversion of up to approximately 1.8 million acre-feet of Base Supply water per year and approximately 380,000 acre-feet of Project Water per year for agricultural and municipal and industrial uses for an additional 40 years. A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, October, 27, 2004, at the Monday Afternoon Club, 120 North Lassen Street, Willows, CA, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Draft EIS was prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and was made available for a 45-day public review and comment period on October 8, 2004. To access the draft document online, go to www.usbr.gov/mp/cvpia/3404c/index.html, click on Draft EISs, and scroll to Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Renewal of Sacramento River Settlement Contracts. The associated long-term contracts began a separate 60-day public review on July 9, 2004. The Draft EIS can also be reviewed at the following Reclamation offices: Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, CA; Red Bluff Division Office, 22500 Altube Road, Red Bluff, CA; Willows Office, 1140 West Wood Street, Willows, CA; and Regional Office, Public Affairs Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA. Written comments must be received by close of business on Monday, November 15, 2004, and should be sent to: Mr. Buford Holt, Bureau of Reclamation, Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, CA 96019. Comments may also be faxed to Mr. Holt at 530-275-2441 or e-mailed to bholt at mp.usbr.gov. For additional information or to request a copy of the draft document, contact Mr. Holt at 530-276-2047, TDD 530-275-8991. From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 18 10:51:37 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:51:37 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Associated Press October 14 Message-ID: <20041018175147.4FA692070D5F@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> More implications of CalFed and other initiatives (OCAP, SDIP, Napa, and Contract Renewals) to ship water south. This DOES relate to the Trinity River. DELTA State risks lawsuits, infighting over Delta, environmentalists warn Associated Press - 10/14/04 By Don Thompson, staff writer SACRAMENTO - California is at risk of returning to the days when lawsuits and constant infighting stalled water policy and efforts to restore the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, 21 environmental groups warned Wednesday. Congress just last week sent President Bush a bill authorizing the California Federal Bay-Delta Program, better known as CalFed, after a decade of dispute. But the environmental groups are upset state and federal water agencies are proceeding unilaterally with approving dozens of water contracts that would send more water flowing from Northern California through the Delta to Los Angeles and San Diego. The agreement was hammered out in a series of closed-door sessions in Napa in July 2003, while the environmental groups said it should have been negotiated in public through CalFed. "The back room deals have turned the CalFed process into a sham," said Barry Nelson of the National Resources Defense Council. "The program's falling apart." His was one of the 21 groups appealing to the authority at its meeting Wednesday to pressure the federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources to start over and work through CalFed. The alternative is a return to the pre-CalFed years marked by protracted battles between farmers, fishermen, environmentalists and residential users over scarce water, the critics said. "This is the reason CalFed was created, was to prevent this kind of dumb mistake from happening," Nelson said. The environmental groups, which include commercial and sport fishermen, contend the agreements would harm Northern California rivers and wildlife, along with water quality and quantity in the Delta. Water regulators say that's not the case. "We understand their concerns, many of which apply to decisions that have yet to be made," responded CalFed spokesman Keith Coolidge. The public - and the interest groups - will have plenty of opportunity to weigh in, he said. "It would be unfortunate if we could not reach a collaborative agreement and would revert to lawsuits," Coolidge said. "We're trying not to get there." http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peni nsula/9911167.htm?1c Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 18 10:52:09 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:52:09 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Consolidated Waterways Information Message-ID: <20041018175218.8D78B2070D5C@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Important for fishers who want to know what's happening in California rivers they want to fish. WATERSHED RESEARCH State Enhances Web Site, Creates Central Location For California Waterways Data News release, California Department of Water Resources - 10/13/04 SACRAMENTO - A comprehensive access point for data related to the health of California's waterways has been created at www.baydelta.ca.gov. Thanks to a joint effort by four state agencies and the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory the Web site has been enhanced to allow state waterways information to be available to users on an ongoing basis. "Scientists, engineers, stakeholders, decision makers and the general public will all now have a place to gain information on the health of California's waterways," said Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman. "This is a great step in allowing scientists and engineers access to the data they need to inform decision makers and the public about the health of our state's water system." The California Resources Agency in partnership with the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA), the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the State water Resources Control Board and the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory have created a central location where waterways data may be retrieved. Previously, factual information had been located among various agencies making the data difficult to locate and retrieve. Inconsistent formats also required even more time to merge the data before analyses could be done. Working together, the five entities implemented a data management and sharing system that consolidated environmental data from many different sources into a consistent format in one location. More than 50 other organizations currently contribute data voluntarily to the Web site. In addition, the state agencies and Moss Landing Marine Laboratories are using their combined resources to include information from more groups throughout the state in an ongoing expansion of their data sharing process. Each of the five entities contributes to the Web site in different ways: The Resources Agency's CERES system ( http://ceres.ca.gov/) facilitates the overall process by cataloging the various environmental monitoring programs throughout the state. Cal/EPA is working with the U.S. EPA to integrate the state's environmental regulatory data. DWR manages data sharing for the network and provides distribution services to support the system. The SWRCB created the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) that along with Moss Landing Marine Laboratories is gathering and combining data about surface water quality. SWAMP has developed standards required for water boards, or any group collecting environmental monitoring data, using funds from Propositions 13, 40 and 50. More information on the SWAMP Program is available at: http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/swamp This effort will expand the information currently available through the California Data Exchange Center (CDEC). CDEC makes available river flow, snow survey, weather, and Delta water quality and related information at: http://cdec.water.ca.gov . http://www.publicaffairs.water.ca.gov/newsreleases/2004/10-13-04swamp.cfm Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 18 10:52:41 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:52:41 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Public Hearing Scheduled on Draft EIS on CVP contracts Message-ID: <20041018175250.1F3542070D66@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Two weeks after notifying the contractors that there would be a public hearing on this draft EIS, word just came that Reclamation is also announcing it to the public via the following press release. Please note that the location has now changed but the date and time are the same. -----Original Message----- From: [mailto:scervantes at mp.usbr.gov] Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 10:46 AM Subject: Public Hearing Scheduled on Draft EIS Folks - Reclamation issued the following press release today, Thursday, October 14, 2004. Thank you Sam Cervantes Public Affairs Office Bureau of Reclamation 916-978-5104 --------------- Mid-Pacific Region Sacramento, CA MP-04-082 Media Contact: Jeffrey McCracken 916-978-5100 jmccracken at mp.usbr.gov For Release On: October 14, 2004 Public Hearing Scheduled on Sacramento River Settlement Contractors Draft Environmental Document The Bureau of Reclamation announces the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed long-term renewal of Central Valley Project settlement contracts between Reclamation and up to 145 Sacramento River Settlement Contractors. The proposed contract renewals allow for the continued diversion of up to approximately 1.8 million acre-feet of Base Supply water per year and approximately 380,000 acre-feet of Project Water per year for agricultural and municipal and industrial uses for an additional 40 years. A public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, October, 27, 2004, at the Monday Afternoon Club, 120 North Lassen Street, Willows, CA, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. The Draft EIS was prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and was made available for a 45-day public review and comment period on October 8, 2004. To access the draft document online, go to www.usbr.gov/mp/cvpia/3404c/index.html, click on Draft EISs, and scroll to Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Renewal of Sacramento River Settlement Contracts. The associated long-term contracts began a separate 60-day public review on July 9, 2004. The Draft EIS can also be reviewed at the following Reclamation offices: Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, CA; Red Bluff Division Office, 22500 Altube Road, Red Bluff, CA; Willows Office, 1140 West Wood Street, Willows, CA; and Regional Office, Public Affairs Office, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA. Written comments must be received by close of business on Monday, November 15, 2004, and should be sent to: Mr. Buford Holt, Bureau of Reclamation, Northern California Area Office, 16349 Shasta Dam Boulevard, Shasta Lake, CA 96019. Comments may also be faxed to Mr. Holt at 530-275-2441 or e-mailed to bholt at mp.usbr.gov. For additional information or to request a copy of the draft document, contact Mr. Holt at 530-276-2047, TDD 530-275-8991. From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 18 10:50:16 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2004 10:50:16 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Contra Costa Times October 9 Message-ID: <20041018175541.B5D542070D6E@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> This is from more than a week ago, but I've been gone (aren't you're lucky). It is significant to the Trinity River as well as all other Northern California rivers. It's what I've been haranguing you about for a long time. It is IMPORTANT. FISHERIES PROTECTION Dems demand inquiry into salmon study Contra Costa Times - 10/9/04 By Mike Taugher, staff writer More than a dozen congressional Democrats called for an investigation Friday into allegations that an analysis of how California salmon might be affected by the state's water system was politically manipulated. The 300-page study examines how politically charged plans to rejigger operation of dams and pumps that deliver water through the Delta from Northern California to Southern California will affect several species of threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead. The lawmakers said they feared there was an ongoing "catastrophic failure of oversight" that could drive salmon and steelhead toward extinction. "I would hope the inspectors general would investigate these allegations immediately," said Rep. George Miller, one of 19 members to seek the investigation. "There is a great deal at stake." Miller, D-Martinez, was reacting to the differences between two versions of the salmon report: one written late this summer by biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries office and a second version that contained revisions by the agency's managers. The latter version, if made final, would make it far easier to renew long-term water contracts in the Central Valley and boost the capacity of Delta pumps that deliver water to Southern California. Although the study, called a "biological opinion," has yet to be finalized, the Times obtained portions of the earlier draft and a full copy of the most recent draft. The versions have key differences, most notably that the earlier version says water operations will jeopardize the continued existence of some fish species, and the later draft does not. The differences were first reported in the Sacramento Bee last week in a story that prompted the congressional letter. In addition, the earlier draft contains a requirement that would have forced the Contra Costa Water District to shut down one of its water supply canals for six months a year. The revised report says only that the agency must monitor salmon caught in the canal. A Contra Costa water official said the earlier version was in error because biologists had wrongly assumed the canal at Rock Slough was used for all of the district's water supply, an assumption that led them to conclude more fish were being killed there than actually were. "That was a goof," said Contra Costa Water District assistant general manager Greg Gartrell. Jim Lecky, the assistant regional administrator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who oversees the salmon report, said there were other errors. "I reviewed my staff's work and I didn't think they did a good job," Lecky said. "There were a bunch of errors in their assumptions about the project." The congressional letter is the latest in a series of efforts by Miller to slow down and examine plans by federal water managers in California. For weeks, he has been trying to get the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to reconsider plans to renew dozens of long-term water contracts for farmers and others throughout the Central Valley that Miller considers unduly favorable to water users. In addition, water officials are looking to increase the capacity of pumps that move water from the Delta to Southern California. Both the contract renewals and the increased pumping hinge on the salmon study, which technically is a review of a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation document called the "Operations, Criteria and Plan" that describes how the state's two largest water delivery projects, the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, will be operated. The congressional letter suggests the bureau, "in its haste to finalize water contracts in California, has improperly undermined the required NOAA fisheries environmental review process." Reclamation Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said his agency had no improper influence on the biological opinion. "We never saw the earlier draft that had the alleged different opinion in it," McCracken said. Earlier in the week, state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Stockton, asked for an independent scientific review of the biological opinion. Lecky said the issue was being blown out of proportion. "This is a typical consultation process," he said. "It's nothing out of the ordinary." http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/politics/9877179.htm Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Fri Oct 22 16:30:33 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 16:30:33 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Comments to NOAA Message-ID: <20041022233052.5B0A920F66F9@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> I today - the final day for public comment - sent the following comments on Endangered Species Act Consultation Addressing Coordinated Operations of the Central Valley Project, State Water Project, and the Operational Criteria and Plan ("OCAP") to the National Marine Fisheries Service. The comments relate particularly to the Trinity Division of the Central Valley Project. October 22, 2004 Via Email and Facsimile Mr. Rodney McInnis, Regional Administrator National Marine Fisheries Service 501 West Ocean Blvd., Suite 4200 Long Beach, CA 90802-4213 Attention: Mr. James Lecky Re: Endangered Species Act Consultation Addressing Coordinated Operations of the Central Valley Project, State Water Project, and the Operational Criteria and Plan ("OCAP") Dear Mr. McInnis and Mr. Lecky: On behalf of the more than 2,000 members of Friends of Trinity River and the more than 6,000 members of California Trout, Inc., we write to express our continuing concern over the ongoing Endangered Species Act ("ESA") consultation between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ("Bureau") and the National Marine Fisheries Service ("NMFS") on the coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project ("CVP"), State Water Project ("SWP"), and the June 30, 2004 Long-Term Central Valley Project Operations Criteria and Plan ("OCAP"). Despite NMFS's refusal to allow CALFED or members of the public to have any role in reviewing drafts of your Biological Opinion, a number of unofficial drafts have been circulating around California's water community, including a recent draft BO that finds "no jeopardy" as to all listed species under NMFS' jurisdiction. It is our understanding that this proposed determination of "no jeopardy" is based in part on several critical errors in your staff's treatment of the Trinity River Division of the CVP. For example, we understand that NMFS has mischaracterized the environmental baseline of the Trinity River. We refer you to the following instructions, which are provided in the Endangered Species Act Consultation Handbook, Procedures for Conducting Section 7 Consultations and Conferences (USFWS/NMFS, 1998): Therefore, a section 7 analysis of the project's effects on listed species is done in the same way as new projects. When analyzing these water projects, as well as water contract renewals for Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) programs and ongoing discretionary operations of Bureau and Corps of Engineers water facilities, use the same approach as for other types of section 7 analyses. - The total effects of all past activities, including effects of the past operation of the project, current non-Federal activities, and Federal projects with completed section 7 consultations, form the environmental baseline; - To this baseline, future direct and indirect impacts of the operation over the new license or contract period, including effects of any interrelated and interdependent activities, and any reasonably certain future non-Federal activities (cumulative effects), are added to determine the total effect on listed species and their habitat. (Emphasis added.) Clearly, it is the effect of past operations that are relevant, not the operations themselves. Yet, we understand that NMFS is blurring this distinction, and including within the proposed baseline not only these effects, but the operations themselves. Under the handbook quoted above, the result of the operations' impacts are clearly part of the baseline, but the operations that produced those impacts should have no bearing on future operations. Because, as directed by the Consultation Handbook, the consultation "is done in the same way as new projects," including those past operations in the baseline is inappropriate. Because you characterize the environmental baseline as including past operations (and not just the present condition resulting from past operations) you reach the conclusion that the proposed action is to provide ADDITIONAL water to the Trinity River. Obviously, the purpose of the proposed action is to withdraw water from the Trinity River. Just because the action agency proposes to take less water than it did in the past, does not mean they are adding water to the river as a new project. This error is only made possible by your mischaracterization of the environmental baseline. We submit that avoidance of this twisted logic is precisely why the Consultation Handbook directs you to consider the environmental baseline as if it were a new project. Because of this basic mischaracterization of the environmental baseline, you end up concluding that there is no take of SONCC coho; that the CVP is a net benefit to SONCC coho; and that there are, therefore, no terms and conditions necessary to minimize take. This is a blatant obfuscation of the federal government's responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act. We remind you that you have an obligation to avoid and minimize take of listed species as long as you can do so without making major changes to the proposed action. Actual take of SONCC coho will continue to occur for a variety of reasons directly related to the proposed action, and there are a variety of ways to minimize this take. For example, safety of dam (SOD) releases take SONCC coho salmon. You cannot ignore this take by simply implying that the Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP) will result in an improved condition. A SOD release in the spring of 2004 caused the lethal take of hundreds of juvenile coho salmon on the Trinity River. You must acknowledge this take, factor it into your jeopardy analysis, and find ways to minimize it. Additionally, by completely ignoring take such as this, you end up not giving take authority under the Incidental Take Permit, and the action agency will be liable for unauthorized take. Additionally, the 2004 Trinity Management Council Subcommittee's Trinity River Restoration Program Evaluation Final Report describes a variety of shortcomings in the TRRP's implementation. The Subcommittee also provides recommendations for getting the TRRP back on track to fulfill the intentions of the Trinity Flow Evaluation Report and the TRRP ROD. The recommendations include getting back on schedule with physical restoration projects that would minimize the take by SOD releases. Therefore, you should consider making at least some of the Subcommittee's recommendations Terms and Conditions of the Incidental take Permit You also claim that you cannot address the effects of Trinity Hatchery operation due to lack of time. We would argue that a lack of time is irrelevant, and that you must consider the hatchery's effects in order to complete a jeopardy analysis. At the minimum, you should make the initiation of consultation on the hatchery a condition of the Incidental Take Permit, not a Conservation Recommendation. The draft biological opinion also does not explain what it means to use a 90% exceedence forecast instead of a 50% forecast in determining water year types. A 50% forecast is fair if you are trying to balance the needs of fish and water users; a 90% forecast arbitrarily favors water users. The level of exceedence used to set annual water deliveries is discretionary and you at least need to provide a rationale for choosing 90%. Over time, a 90% forecast will reduce the effectiveness of the TRRP, which, viewed one way, will create take of SONCC coho. Thank you for considering these comments. Sincerely, Byron W. Leydecker, Chairman, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri Oct 22 18:39:21 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2004 18:39:21 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Water Export Threat Sharpens Protest of Water Contract Extensions Message-ID: P R E S S?? R E L E A S E For Immediate Release Contact: Craig Tucker - 916-442-3155 Michael Jackson - 530-283-0712 John Merz? - 530-345-1865 Water Export Threat Sharpens Protest of Water Contract Extensions Citing the threat of massive exports of water from the Sacramento Valley, numerous organizations are protesting the US Bureau of Reclamation??s (USBR) plan to renew Sacramento River Settlement Contracts for over two million acre feet of water. USBR is holding a hearing in Willows on October 27 (3-6 pm at Monday Afternoon Club, 120 North Lassen Street) on the environmental review of the Settlement Contract? Renewals.? Organizations protesting these renewals and the environmental review will be attending and testifying. "?As proposed, these contracts will encourage water exports which in turn will lead to fewer working farms, lower reservoirs, less boating and fishing recreation, and dry wells"?, according to Sacramento Valley Environmental Water Caucus co-chair Michael Jackson. Jackson points out that the proposed renewals provide more water than the districts have historically used and promises deliveries for the next forty years, "?To ensure that we have the flexibility we'?ll need to contend with future growth or droughts here in our Valley, we should limit the life and amount of these contracts," he stated. The contract renewals are governed by the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act, which allows individual farmers to sell the water that they don't use to grow crops. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Bureau of Reclamation's own files reveal that all but two of the Settlement Contractor water districts would receive allocations for more water than they have historically used totaling several hundred thousand acre-fee of water annually. "Southern California developers are eager for us to export more of our water to promote new growth there, and San Joaquin Valley corporate farms want more water because state public trust laws require that rivers they have traditionally relied upon such as the Trinity and San Joaquin leave enough water in the stream to restore healthy native salmon runs,? explained river advocate? and SVEWC co-chair John Merz.?"The result of the increased exports from the Valley will be less water in our rivers when our fish and wildlife needs the flow.? Groundwater pumping is not covered in the contracts and there are no clauses prohibiting a farmer from selling their contract water and replacing it with well water.? In the last drought, farmers in the Valley used groundwater to replace the surface water that they exported. ?It is not fair to other farmers and to anyone on a well to allow water exports without true groundwater? protection laws,? said Lynn Barris, a local farmer and member of Valley Water Protection Association.? ?Water districts should only be allowed to use the public??s water in the amounts that their farmers need, after they have implemented water conservation practices. And they shouldn?t be allowed to sell the water they take from our rivers and replace it with additional groundwater pumping.? Fishing clubs, river protection organizations, state and national environmental groups, local business owners, and others will provide details of their concerns about the environmental review of the Sacramento Settlement Contract Renewals at the hearing in Willows. They will also be there to protest against the damage these contracts will do to the local economy, fishing and recreation,? groundwater supplies, tax dollars and other concerns. For more information about the issues being raised by these protesting organizations, contact Craig Tucker, Friends of the River (916-442-3155) or Michael Jackson SVEWC (530-283-0712). From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 25 09:37:22 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 09:37:22 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] NOAA Decision Message-ID: <20041025164310.BF9B920BDBFC@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Yeah, and pigs can fly. The established policy/procedure process was not followed. See my letter of last Friday, the final day for comments. Since the ruling has been made, it's obvious the agency did not bother to review extensive comments from several organizations. If anyone wants more factual information to review, let me know. There's a mountain of it. You'd have to start by reading OCAP, which is about 700 pages, as I recall. This issue is critical to Northern California rivers. Delta water shift will not hurt endangered species, agency says Associated Press - 10/23/04 By Don Thompson, staff writer SACRAMENTO - A federal agency ruled Friday that shifting more Northern California water to Southern California will not jeopardize five threatened or endangered species of fish. The ruling clears the way for the federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources to sign long-term water contracts with rural irrigation districts and urban water districts. They also can continue with plans to pump more water through the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to thirsty Southern California. Environmental groups have fought the expected decision by NOAA Fisheries, formerly known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, alleging it was politically motivated. They cite draft biological opinions that said the water transfer would imperil the fish. Jim Lecky, NOAA Fisheries' assistant regional administrator for protective resources, denied any outside influence or improper altering of the final decision. Changing the ultimate recommendation was "just typical project management oversight and supervision," Lecky said. "There was some analysis that was faulty and needed to get a second look, and that's what we did." The three major species at the heart of the opinion are the Sacramento River winter chinook run, the Central Valley spring chinook run, and the Central Valley steelhead. Also considered was danger to Southern Oregon-Northern California Coast coho salmon and Central Coast steelhead. The 350-page decision concludes none are likely to be jeopardized. It includes requirements to try to minimize fish kills by maintaining cold water in the Sacramento River to aid winter run salmon and establishing fish kill thresholds that would require the Bureau of Reclamation to stop pumping water through the Delta, Lecky said. A task force would help set cold water requirements each May 1, based largely on how much water had been stored from the winter rain and snowfall, he said. Friday's decision "will become the underpinning ... of long-term contracts that the bureau will consider later this year," Lecky said. The federal reclamation bureau and state water department want to integrate their parallel reservoir and pumping systems, sign dozens of water contracts lasting 25 to 40 years, and send 27 percent more water south through the state's Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near Stockton. California's two Democratic U.S. senators and a half-dozen Democratic House members, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, have called for delays and more information before water regulators act. Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council criticized the agency for signing the biological opinion before the inspector generals of the Commerce and Interior departments complete their investigations of whether the reclamation bureau improperly influenced NOAA Fisheries to alter initial draft findings that the water transfer could endanger fish species. "What the bureau is attempting to do is bring Klamath-style management to the Bay and Delta," Nelson said. The reference was to alleged political influence on federal decisions affecting the Klamath River in Northern California and south-central Oregon that allegedly contributed to one of the nation's largest fish kills in 2002. Nelson, also criticized the state and federal water agencies for continuing with the proposed water transfers unilaterally, instead of working through the open and collaborative California Federal Bay-Delta Program, commonly known as CalFed. He had not seen Friday's decision and could not comment on its specifics. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Oct 25 09:45:28 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 09:45:28 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] LA Times and Contra Costs Times on shipping all water south. Message-ID: <20041025165111.7B5852006C43@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> More on pigs can fly, or take care of political influential friends "decision making." And the decision was made ON THE DAY on which final comments were due. So much for public input. More Delta Water May Head South Reversal of findings that changes in the Shasta Dam system could harm salmon has some in Congress charging political interference. Los Angeles Times - 10/23/04 By Bettina Boxall, staff writer The National Marine Fisheries Service issued an opinion Friday that opens the door to increased water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The agency concluded that additional pumping from the delta, as well as changes in dam operations, would not seriously harm endangered or threatened salmon species. That reversed earlier draft findings by its biologists that could have stymied plans to send more water south to the farms of the San Joaquin Valley and the cities of Southern California. In an August draft letter, never publicly released but leaked to the media, the agency said that increased pumping and other proposed changes in the federal water system were "likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of the Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead. The agency's regional administrator also had written to county officials in Northern California saying the agency was concerned that a significant amount of spawning grounds would be lost if water managers moved ahead with plans to alter Shasta Dam operations. The draft revisions, made after a consultation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, was overseen by Jim Lecky, the Marine Fisheries' assistant regional administrator for protected resources. He said Friday the earlier findings that salmon would be jeopardized had been based on faulty analysis. "I'm pretty familiar with the system and the fish in the system, and my guys didn't a do a good job," said Lecky, a career biologist with the agency. But the reversal of opinion, also leaked in advance to the media and made official Friday, has sparked congressional allegations of political interference. Earlier this month, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) and 18 other members of Congress asked the inspectors general of the Interior and Commerce departments to investigate whether federal political appointees had played a role in overriding the initial findings. In response, the offices have launched a review. Environmentalists have also decried the reversal, saying it was done to ease the way for potentially massive water exports to powerful Central Valley farm interests and Southern California water agencies. Taking more water from the delta, they warn, will undermine the fragile gains that have been made with salmon runs. "This administrative revision is an outrageous and despicable sacrifice of sound science on the altar of expediency," contended Bill Jennings of the environmental group DeltaKeeper. "It's disheartening to see a trustee agency succumb to political pressure and reject the expert opinions of its own scientists in issuing a biological opinion that it knows may push endangered species over the brink of extinction." Lecky rejected the suggestions of political tinkering. "That's just blatantly not true," he said, describing the agency's consultation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as routine. "We have to come to a common understanding of the project. It requires frank discussions and exchanging documents." Lecky said his biologists had erred in assuming the Shasta Dam operation changes would substantially reduce spawning habitat for the winter-run chinook. Although water managers would no longer be required to maintain certain temperatures in a portion of the river, that would not prevent the fish from using it. "It affects [the habitat] - that's much different from a total loss," Lecky said. "When we corrected that analysis, the argument for jeopardy was no longer [valid]." Tina Swanson, senior scientist with the Bay Institute, countered that when Sacramento River temperatures rose during a 1970s drought, the salmon population crashed. "It's extremely clear you have to maintain these conditions to keep the fish alive," she said. Although the number of winter-run Chinook has climbed from a low of 211 in the early 1990s, the population has yet to top 10,000. It reached 9,757 last year, and state fish and game biologists estimate this year's population at about 9,000. Water plan gets agency approval Contra Costa Times - 10/23/04 By Mike Taugher, staff writer The federal agency responsible for protecting California's imperiled salmon and steelhead gave its approval Friday to a sweeping plan that helps clear the way for water agencies to increase pumping of Delta water to Southern California. The document says that continuing to operate the dams and pumps in California's two largest water projects will not drive salmon or steelhead to extinction. More importantly, perhaps, the document removes a major obstacle to two hotly contested initiatives: a new batch of 25-year federal water contracts for some of the state's biggest farm districts and other water users, including the Contra Costa Water District; and plans to boost the pumping capacity of the Delta's state-owned pumps by more than 25 percent. The report by the National Marine Fisheries Service already has come under fierce criticism because earlier, leaked versions concluded water operations would jeopardize some salmon runs. Later versions of the report showed the agency reversed those conclusions and determined the projects pose less risk to salmon and steelhead. More than a dozen members of Congress, led by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, charged federal agencies with politically manipulating the biologists' conclusions. In response, the offices of inspector general in two federal departments are investigating. Jim Lecky, the assistant regional administrator in Long Beach who ordered the changes and issued the final document on Friday, defended the final report and said the earlier versions had serious shortcomings. "This was just an issue of an inadequate analysis," Lecky said, adding he ordered corrections. "When they did (the corrections), the rationale for a jeopardy opinion was not sustainable." Critics say the revisions are reminiscent of changes to water operations in the Klamath River basin during the last several years, where they claim politically motivated changes to help water users resulted in dramatic salmon kills. "What's very clear is the Bureau of Reclamation is trying to bring Klamath-style water operations into the Central Valley," said Barry Nelson, a water policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The document issued Friday amounts to a final approval for an otherwise obscure document called the "Operations Criteria and Plan" for the federal government's Central Valley Project, which includes Shasta Dam and other north state reservoirs, Delta pumps and canals to San Joaquin Valley farms. The project also serves the comparatively small Contra Costa Water District. The document spells out how that project is run now and how it will run in conduction with the State Water Project, which includes Oroville Dam and other reservoirs, larger Delta pumps and a 444-mile canal that primarily serves urban southern California. The cooperation between the two projects became highly controversial because details were negotiated privately last fall in a way that primarily benefits large water users, critics say. Representatives of the Contra Costa Water District, environmental groups and Delta farm districts were not included in those talks, which resulted in a package of proposals known as the Napa Agreement. "It's water supply at the expense of everything else -- make decisions in the back room and freeze out everybody else," said Nelson. With the plan now approved, federal water managers can move forward with issuing new 25-year water contracts for their customers. Miller, who has authored legislation that reformed Central Valley Project operations in 1992, has accused the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation of proposing contract terms that defy the intent of his legislation. "It's unfortunate -- but not at all surprising -- that this important document was released after business hours on a Friday," Miller said in a statement. "I have not yet had a chance to read the opinion, but we'll be taking a careful look at it. If the Department has not appropriately addressed the concerns that political interests have been allowed to override scientific evidence, further investigation may be required." Miller and others are concerned because in an earlier draft of the report, federal biologists concluded the water operations would threaten the existence of spring-run chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead. The final version concludes those runs would not be jeopardized. The difference is important because when federal biologists declare jeopardy, they gain the ability to require major changes in how much water is released from dams, when pumps can be run and how hard and any other aspect of the project they deem critical. The lack of a jeopardy finding means the Bureau of Reclamation can proceed with its plans without substantial modification. In addition, federal water managers sought, and received, approval to do away with a requirement that they hold 1.9 million acre-feet of water in Shasta Dam over the winter to ensure there is enough cold water for spawning winter-run salmon. Water officials said that requirement is no longer needed because a device has been installed that allows them to more easily release cold water. The agency also received approval to shorten the length of the Sacramento River that must be kept cold. Lecky said by keeping a shorter stretch of river at low temperatures, water managers can save cold water for use later in the year for spring-run chinook. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Oct 28 10:07:44 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 10:07:44 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] NOAA Releases Gutted Report to Justify Water Exports Message-ID: Tom - here's the article. Thanks for refreshing our memories on the Calfed Fiasco. dan bacher NOAA Fisheries Releases Gutted Report To Justify Increased Delta Diversions by Dan Bacher NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for protecting anadromous and marine fisheries, on October 22 released a controversial report that gave the ?scientific? green light for more Delta water to be exported from Northern California to Southern California. The biological opinion claims that the proposed water transfers would not jeopardize the survival of five fish species, including the endangered Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon, the threatened spring-run chinook and the threatened Central Valley steelhead. A coalition of environmental, fishing and tribal groups blasted the biological opinion as ?politically motivated? ? and one more example how science is discarded for political expedience under the Bush administration. The document would allow the Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources to export more Delta water to Southern California urban and agricultural water districts despite the impacts on protected fish. ?This is not sound science, this is political science, and an invitation for litigation from concerned citizens,? said Trent Orr an attorney with Earthjustice. ?If it turns out the science was manipulated to favor water exporters and at the expense of California's endangered fish, NMFS should expect a legal tornado from sport fishers, the outdoor community, and conservation groups who refuse to turn back the clock on species recovery.? An early draft of the report revealed that the Operations Criteria and Operations Plan (OCAP), proposed jointly by the state and federal governments, would have disastrous impacts upon the protected fish. According to an October 2 Sacramento Bee article entitled ?Rewrite softens report on risks to fish,? biologists in the Sacramento office of NOAA Fisheries contended that an order came down from higher ups in the Bush administration to revise the report from a ?jeopardy? to a ?no jeopardy? opinion. Jim Lecky, NOAA Fisheries assistant regional administrator for protective resources denied the charges that the final report was altered for political reasons. ?I wasn?t convinced that the staff?s data was accurate, so I had it revised,? said Lecky. ?There was a lot of controversy over the moving of the proposed temperature compliance standard of 56 degrees upstream 20 miles from the Bend Bridge to Balls Ferry.? Lecky said the change was necessary because the Bureau has been unable to meet temperature standards over 50 percent of the time since 1993, when the original biological opinion was written. ?If you use all of the water to maintain this standard early in the run, you will run out of cold water in August and September,? noted Lecky. ?In the final report, we describe a system akin to what we are doing now.? He also disagrees with the contentions of biologists that the change would eliminate spawning habitat. ?There would still be plenty of spawning habitat,? he stated. ?When the water temperature is 56 degrees at Balls Ferry, the temperatures are 57 to 58 degrees at Bend Bridge. The mortality starts at 57-1/2 degrees and works up to 62 degrees, where the eggs mortality is pretty complete.? He cited a Bureau of Reclamation model that said an increase in egg mortality of only one percent would result if this change was implemented. ?This doesn?t reflect our capacity to manage the flows on a daily basis through a temperature management group,? he claimed. Lecky also denied charges by biologists that the increase in Delta exporting capacity to 8500 cfs would result in the killing of millions of fish in the state and federal joint pumping facility. ?The plan expands the window to operate the pumps when the winter run chinooks are migrating,? he stated.? To limit fish mortality, the movement of fish across the Delta will be monitored by early consultation between NOAA Fisheries, the Bureau and Department of Water Resources after the South Delta Improvement Project is implemented. The Delta Cross Channels and new barriers will be operated so as to minimize salmon from being killed in the pumps. However, Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River, criticized the report for changing from mandates to ?squishy targets? in managing water standards below Shasta Dam and operating the Delta pumps. ?Instead of saying that Shasta Lake is losing cold water storage, they say they are creating adaptive management targets,? he explained. The final report, by allowing the cold water storage to be decreased through increased water diversions, effectively results in the loss of 20 miles of prime spawning habitat, according to Evans. The Bureau?s contention that only one percent mortality would occur as a result of the change in water temperature standards on the river is absurd. ?The Bureau?s supplemental EIS to the Trinity River Record of Decision said that there could be up to 100 percent mortality of winter run during a drought year if the temperature standards are moved upstream,? said Evans. ?With a reduction in the cold-water pool caused by massive pumping of Delta water as the capacity is increased to 8500 cfs, the Bureau will increasingly have a problem meeting these squishy targets.? Also, the biological opinion allows for the continued operation of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, in spite of the $8 million that have been spent by Calfed in a project to permanently raise the dam and provide alternative pumping facilities. Rep. George Miller? (D-Martinez) and 18 other members of Congress have asked the inspectors general of the Interior and Commerce departments to investigate whether federal political appointees had played a role in overriding the initial report. Miller said the charge of political manipulation of the study is "especially troubling? given the recent history of political intervention in NOAA Fisheries' review process, which resulted in the ?well-documented and catastrophic failure to protect the fish of the Klamath River." ?The Bureau is a rogue agency that acts as if it can do whatever it wants,? concluded Evans. ?The NOAA biological opinion facilitates the plan to divert more water and sign long-term water contracts.? In a related development, President Bush on October 25 signed the $395 million CalFed bill. Although hailed by Senator Diane Feinstein as meeting California?s water needs in a ?balanced manner,? environmental groups have criticized the bill for funding studies to expand water storage and not doing enough to restore fish habitat. From tstokely at trinityalps.net Thu Oct 28 18:16:43 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 18:16:43 -0700 Subject: [env-trinity] Fw: Calfed $, Grants $, Regional Plan, MWD Chief steps down, CPR/Water, Federal Updates, CALFED bil Signed by President, Sac Valley transfers & contracts, being 3rd party no party, Message-ID: <00a601c4bd54$f4a25b80$a76c3940@V51NH> These articles are compiled (with emphasis added) by John Mills, from Jeff Cohen's California Water news. They all have some direct or indirect relation to the Trinity-Klamath system. Editorial: Watered-down hopes For new reservoirs, don't expect subsidies Sacramento Bee - 10/26/04 California's congressional delegation did something rare and important recently. It managed to agree on legislation to advance water and Delta/river habitat projects in California. As a political achievement, particularly for Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy, this is one to relish. But the political success had its price - or more accurately put, its scaled-down price. There's a lesson here - to be wary of relying so much on Washington - that California's water community is slow to learn. To get this bill through Congress, Feinstein and Pombo had to shrink this funding bill from an estimated $2.4 billion down to $395 million to be stretched over four years. That is a reduction of more than 80 percent. California's wish list of water and habitat projects, however, has not decreased by 80 percent. If anything, it has grown. Finance - the mismatch between the supply of subsidies and the demand - is the biggest challenge for Cal-Fed. This is the name given to the state/federal effort to better manage the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and simultaneously make progress on the water needs of humans and fish. Cal-Fed has been remarkably successful at getting more than a dozen state and federal agencies to co-manage the Delta, and at providing better science. It derived its ambitious list of restoration, reservoir and conveyance projects - with a cost perhaps as much as $30 billion - during the late 1990s, when the federal and state governments were running big surpluses. That's no longer the case. Cal-Fed is studying whether to build a new generation of reservoirs, but the new federal legislation contains no funds to actually construct any of them. The most ardent proponents of reservoirs seem to be banking on considerable federal help in building them. That seems more than a little backward in terms of logic. If any given water supply project has merit, whether it is desalination or conservation or a reservoir, shouldn't the water districts that would benefit be lining up to make the investments directly? Consider the State Water Project. This system of dams and aqueducts was built by the state borrowing the funds and the water districts paying off the debt. This is a reliable method of financing projects. But with future projects, the challenge is identifying who benefits from them (and thus who has to pay off the debt). That may sound simple. But it's not. Politically, a tempting solution is to find somebody else to pay (as in state or federal subsidies). Neither, however, seems a likely source for all the desired funds, or anything close. The future Cal-Fed projects that will actually be built will be the ones that figure out the financing. Press Release from the Commissioner's Office Contact: Trudy Harlow, (202) 513-0574 or Avra Morgan, (303) 445-2906 For Release: October 26, 2004 The Request for Proposals for the Water 2025 Challenge Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2005 is now available online at www.grants.gov (keyword search: Water 2025). Additional information about the Challenge Grant program, including frequently asked questions and answers, is available at www.doi.gov/water2025 . The Challenge Grant Program is seeking proposals from irrigation and water districts that want to leverage their money and resources in partnership with Reclamation, to make more efficient use of existing water supplies through water conservation, efficiency and water marketing projects. The program is focused on achieving the outcomes identified in Interior Secretary Gale Norton's Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West, particularly through water conservation and efficiency, water markets and collaboration, with an emphasis on projects that can be completed within 24 months and that reduce future water conflicts. "The goal of Water 2025 -- and these challenge grants -- is to support realistic, cooperative approaches and tools that have the most likelihood of successfully addressing water challenges in basins where crisis and conflict are preventable," Secretary Norton said. "Water 2025 is focused on local solutions in partnership with local water users." The deadline for submitting proposals is January 21, 2005. Selection and award is anticipated by July 1, with implementation beginning in early August, 2005. However, depending on the number and type of proposals received, funding for some proposals selected in Fiscal Year 2005 may be awarded in the beginning of Fiscal Year 2006, to ensure efficient administration of all Challenge Grant projects. The Water 2025 Challenge Grants encourage voluntary water banks and other market-based measures, promote the use of new technology for water conservation and efficiency, and remove institutional barriers in order to increase cooperation and collaboration among federal, state, tribal, and private organizations. Eligible applicants include irrigation and water districts, tribal water authorities, and entities created under state law with water delivery authority, which may include water user associations, water conservancy districts, canal, ditch and reservoir companies, and municipal water authorities. Applicants must also be located in the western United States, as identified in the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, as amended and supplemented -- specifically, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Those not eligible for funding under the Challenge Grant Program include other state governmental entities, Federal governmental entities, universities, individuals, and other entities without water delivery authority. Supervisors join forces with Sonoma to develop regional water plan Eureka Times-Standard - 10/27/04 By James Tressler, staff writer Humboldt County has and probably will continue to fight its neighbors across the state over the protection of its water resources, but the county could stand a better chance of getting millions of dollars for water-related projects using a team approach. That was the rationale Humboldt County supervisors applied Tuesday in voting unanimously to sign an agreement with the Sonoma County Water Agency to develop a regional water needs plan. Other counties, including Del Norte, Mendocino, Lake and Siskiyou, are also expected to come on board in the coming weeks. Starting next year the state will award hundreds of millions of dollars in Proposition 50 monies, which will go toward water projects ranging from coastal protection, sewer and water infrastructure to meet housing needs, safe drinking water and watershed restoration. Because there's a limited amount of money and the state will divide the money between Southern and Northern California -- with the line drawn at Santa Barbara -- the Sonoma agency earlier this year pitched the idea of the North Coast counties joining forces. Humboldt County has about $27 million in unmet water needs, ranging from watershed restoration projects to sewer and water infrastructure developers say is critical to building new housing subdivisions. The county, working with cities, special districts and fisheries and watershed restoration groups, will immediately identify projects to pursue the first round of grants, some $160 million available in the spring. Meanwhile, they'll also work with the other counties over the next year on a regional list of projects for the next round in 2006. Not everyone is excited about the agreement. Dr. Denver Nelson, who serves on the county Fish and Game Commission, reminded the board Tuesday that the county has fought Sonoma County for decades over water diverted from the Eel River. Nelson also argued that the county could avoid spending millions of dollars on watershed restoration if rivers such as the Eel, Trinity and Klamath had adequate flow levels in the first place. Chairwoman Jill Geist and 1st District Supervisor Jimmy Smith, both of whom will serve on a subcommittee that will prioritize projects, said they don't think the agreement will hamper the county's ability to continue fighting to restore diverted waters to the Eel River. Both also said they see the agreement as a golden opportunity. "We need to move beyond the single issue of arguments over the Eel River with Sonoma County," Smith said. "I think this is an opportunity to look at the greater needs of the greater region and spend that time trying to prioritize." Lisa Renton, representing the Sonoma County Water Agency, echoed the supervisors' hopes that the regional plan will benefit all parties. Second District Supervisor Roger Rodoni voiced concerns that the regional plan could translate into more laws that could hamper timber companies and other businesses. "I worry about what we're going to give up in this plan," Rodoni said. But Community Development Services Director Kirk Girard, who will help the county identify and prioritize local projects, said the county has identified water use as a key element in its general plan, which is being updated. Girard said the board can have some say on how the regional agreement will affect local businesses in which Proposition 50-related projects it chooses to pursue. The other counties besides Sonoma and Humboldt are considering the regional agreement, but haven't yet signed on. In Humboldt County, the McKinleyville Community Services District has agreed to be a partner in developing the plan. Other cities and districts are expected to consider the idea soon. # LOCAL DISTRICTS MWD Chief Gastelum to Step Down Los Angeles Times - 10/27/04 By Tony Perry and Jason Felch, staff writers Ronald Gastelum announced Tuesday that he plans to retire as president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California after five years of guiding the agency through controversy, cutbacks and an ambitious search for water to accommodate the region's growing needs. Gastelum, 58, said he would leave his $297,000 a year post Dec. 31. He said he had no specific plans for the future. "It's been a good run, and now it's time to move on," Gastelum said. MWD board Chairman Phillip Pace praised Gastelum for helping the Los Angeles-based agency face "more factors of uncertainty" than during any time in its 76-year history. Among those factors are a devastating drought in the Western states and a decision by the federal government to bow to demands from other states to reduce California's overreliance on the Colorado River. Under Gastelum, the MWD was a party to a historic agreement divvying up Colorado River water. The agency also enhanced conservation and recycling efforts, launched desalination and storage programs, and tried to make peace with its largest and unhappiest member agency, the San Diego County Water Authority. Water officials from Washington to El Centro said Gastelum brought a civility to the bitter arena of California water disputes. As water wholesaler to local agencies serving 17 million people in six counties, the MWD is central in nearly any discussion of water in California. Bennett Raley, the top official in the Bush administration on Western water matters, said Gastelum would be remembered for helping prepare Southern California for a cutback in water from the Colorado River and helping Nevada and California end their decades of squabbling. Steve Hall, executive director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies, said Gastelum's temperament was different in the high-stakes world of water where feuds are common and interagency grudges are slow to die. "He didn't have any ideology," Hall said. "He just wanted to find practical solutions." But Tom Graff, regional director of the California branch of Environmental Defense, said many environmentalists were alarmed that under Gastelum, the MWD had increased its water purchases from Northern California. "As a person, he was a competent and cagey leader," Graff said. "He did tilt to the L.A. view of things instead of the Orange County-San Diego view of things." Graff defined the latter view as a preference for local water projects rather than seeking water from Northern California.# Panel supports many parts of California government overhaul Associated Press - 10/21/04 By Ben Fox, staff writer IRVINE - A proposal to reform California's government by privatizing some functions and eliminating others won a qualified endorsement from the group charged with collecting public testimony on the massive overhaul. The bipartisan California Performance Review Commission ended a series of public hearings Wednesday at the University of California, Irvine with a draft report agreeing with many of the changes proposed by a team organized by the governor to eliminate government waste. But the 21-member commission also urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reject some proposals, including elimination of the Air Resources Board, a requirement that public university students do volunteer service or moving game wardens and park rangers into a new homeland security agency. The commission's report is vague at points to reflect the consensus of a diverse commission on the 1,200 recommendations for streamlining California's bureaucracy - including many that have prompted sharp criticism and could result in the loss of thousands of state and local government jobs. Schwarzenegger has not spelled out which of the recommendations, some of which require legislative approval, he will pursue. A spokeswoman, Ashley Snee, said he would most likely seek reforms separately rather than all at once. Chon Gutierrez, the co-chairman of Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review study, which came up with the proposals, said about 30 of the recommendations will be altered because of factual errors uncovered during the public hearings. The rest will be sent to the governor's office for consideration, he said. Commission member J.J. Jelincic, the president of the California State Employees Association, said his union, which represents more than 100,000 workers, will fight against mass privatization of government services and other elements that he said reflect the influence of business lobbyists. "The draft report is vague enough that it's something I can at least live with even if I don't agree with all of it," Jelincic said. "The biggest problem continues to be that there is a real underlying assumption that public employees can't do the job and they need to contract it out." In its report, the commission said it agrees with the governor and the California Performance Review team that the state's government needs to adopt improved technology and reorganize aspects of the bureaucracy. It also agreed that the state should evaluate the state's more than 100 boards and commissions, though the public testimony convinced them to keep the Air Resources Board and the regional water quality control boards. The commission disagreed with a suggestion from former Gov. George Deukmejian that the state create a Citizen Oversight Commission over the troubled prison system. Commissioners also rejected outright a proposal to require public university students to perform volunteer service. Earlier, Jelincic sharply criticized the closed-door process used by the governor's team to draft the performance review proposals, and he called for the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate allegations that business groups influenced the 2,700-page document. "To be blunt, there is no excuse for allowing people or organizations with a blatant conflict-of-interest to play a dominant role in shaping public policy for their own advantage," he wrote in a letter to the commission. Schwarzenegger launched the reorganization effort in January, calling the state bureaucracy a "mastodon frozen in time" that needed to be reviewed from top to bottom to eliminate waste and duplication. The administration said the recommendations would save $32 billion over five years, but the state's Legislative Analyst put the savings at $10 billion to $15 billion.# STATE AGENCIES / WATER BOARDS Spare some state boards, panel urges the governor Sacramento Bee - 10/21/04 Staff report A commission assembled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to gauge public reaction to a 2,500-page plan to overhaul state government is urging the governor to scrap some of the California Performance Review's recommendations and spare the California Air Resources Board and regional water quality control boards from elimination. While the California Performance Review Commission has yet to formally forward its recommendations to Schwarzenegger, commissioners discussed their thoughts Wednesday in Irvine at the last of eight public hearings on the report. In a telephone interview after the hearing, commission co-chairman Bill Hauck said the boards regulating the automobile industry and water quality are nationally respected and give the public access to environmental decision-making. The CPR recommends eliminating 1,153 paid and unpaid posts on 117 boards and commissions, and transferring functions to a consolidated system of agencies under the executive branch. Hauck said some boards may be unnecessary, but that commissioners are concerned that eliminating all of them could limit the public's ability to know what's going on and to have input into government. "We don't want to make it more difficult for people to access the decision-making process in state government," Hauck said. Reducing boards and commissions would save an estimated $34 million a year in a state with a $105 billion budget.# EPA Issues Updated Guidelines for Water Reuse EPA's Office of Water and Office of Research and Development, in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (U.S. AID), have approved and are now distributing a 2004 Guidelines for Water Reuse Manual (EPA625-R-04/018), which recommend water reuse guidelines, along with supporting information, to help water and wastewater utilities and regulatory agencies, particularly in the U.S. "This updated toolkit will help water managers advance water conservation and sustainability efforts at home and abroad," said Benjamin Grumbles, Acting Assistant Administrator for Water. The document updates the 1992 Guidelines document by incorporating information on water reuse that has been developed since the 1992 document was issued, including expanded coverage of water reuse issues and practices in other countries. It was developed via an EPA Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Camp Dresser McKee and an Interagency Agreement with U.S. AID, along with extensive contributions by many volunteers. The updated Guidelines document is being distributed (in both printed and CD formats) by EPA's Office of Research and Development/Technology Transfer Program as one of their Manuals of Practice. Copies of the updated manual can be ordered via the website www.epa.gov/ttbnrmrl and has been posted in pdf form at http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/pubs/625r04108/625r04108.pdf . For further information contact Robert Bastian at 202 564 0653. Stormwater Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination Manual Now Available The Center for Watershed Protection and the University of Alabama, under a grant from EPA, have produced a comprehensive manual for municipalities that must develop and implement programs to find and correct illicit discharges to their storm sewer systems. The new manual includes detailed information on creating and managing a program, and a comprehensive guide to field and lab protocols. The new manual and supporting materials can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.cwp.org/idde_verify.html Secretary Norton Praises President's Signing of Landmark CALFED Legislation News release, U.S. Department of Interior - 10/26/04 WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Gale Norton today praised President Bush's signing of landmark legislation that authorizes $389 million for a major environmental initiative to restore California's critical Bay-Delta estuary while also addressing the needs of urban and agricultural waters users. The president signed the Water Supply Reliability and Environmental Improvement Act, popularly known as CALFED, on Oct. 25, 2004. The legislation provides federal authorization for a long-term collaborative plan for environmental restoration and enhancement of the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary. The initiative also calls for making needed improvements in statewide water supplies, flood control and water quality. "This landmark legislation represents the culmination of a strong bipartisan effort by the California Congressional delegation to secure California's water future," Norton said. "As the largest and most comprehensive water-management plan in the nation, the CALFED program is a national model of collaborative resource management. The Department of the Interior affirms its commitment to working with the State of California and water and environmental interests to address California's water needs." "I want to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of Chairman Richard Pombo, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Chairman Pete Domenici, and Rep. Ken Calvert in working to craft this bill," Norton continued, "and for working so hard with the many stakeholder interests in California that support this program. With the President's signature, the CALFED family can now take on the most challenging phase in its decade long history -- implementation." CALFED is a partnership of 24 California and federal agencies and representatives of California's environmental, urban and agricultural communities that is built on the common recognition that their missions and interests can be accomplished best through collaboration and cooperation. CALFED agencies have spent $1 billion over the last decade to significantly improve the ecological health of the Bay-Delta watershed by restoring and protecting habitat and enhancing the environment for fisheries and wetlands. The CALFED Program includes actions to recover species listed under the state and federal endangered species acts. The newly signed legislation ensures that CALFED will continue species and ecosystem restoration using the best available science. The legislation also will drive forward state and federal efforts to modernize California's water-management infrastructure. CALFED is pursuing the construction of new water storage reservoirs, groundwater storage programs, water recycling and conservation programs. The CALFED program contains many elements to assist Southern California in reducing its use of water from the Colorado River, which will cause water and environmental benefits to ripple up the Colorado River basin to the other six states that rely on the river. "CALFED's great strength is its requirement of balanced progress toward the primary objectives of ecosystem restoration, water supply and reliability, water quality, and levee system integrity," Norton said. "This legislation reinforces this goal by mandating continuous progress across all program elements." # TRANSFERS / SACRAMENTO VALLEY Water transfers protested Marysville Appeal-Democrat - 10/26/04 By Harold Kruger, staff writer Citing the threat of water exports from the Sacramento Valley, environmental and other groups are protesting the Bureau of Reclamation's plan to renew Sacramento River settlement contracts for 40 years. "As proposed, these contracts will encourage water exports which in turn will lead to fewer working farms, lower reservoirs, less boating and fishing recreation, and dry wells," said Michael Jackson, co-chair of the Sacramento Valley Environmental Water Caucus. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday in Willows. There are up to 145 contracts for about 1.8 million acre-feet of base supply per year and approximately 380,000 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water per year. CVP water users in Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Sutter, Yolo and Sacramento counties are affected. The Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District is the largest Sacramento Valley CVP contractor at 825,000 acre-feet. "To ensure that we have the flexibility we'll need to contend with future land use decisions or droughts here in our valley, we should limit the life and amount of these contracts," Jackson said. The contract renewals are governed by the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act, which allows individual farmers to sell the water that they don't use to grow crops. The Natural Resources Defense Council contended that the Bureau of Reclamation's own files showed that all but two of the water districts would receive allocations for more water than they have historically used, totaling several hundred thousand acre-feet of water annually. "Southern California developers are eager for us to export more water to promote more sprawl," said John Merz, co-chair of the Sacramento Valley Environmental Water Caucus. "At the same time, San Joaquin Valley corporate farms want more Sacramento Valley water because recent court decisions in favor of the public trust now require that enough water be left in rivers such as the Trinity and San Joaquin to support their fishery." Groundwater pumping is not covered in the contracts and there are no clauses prohibiting a farmer from selling their contract water and replacing it with well water. In the last drought, farmers in the valley used groundwater to replace the surface water that they exported. "It is not fair to other farmers or to anyone with a well to allow water exports without true groundwater protection laws," said Lynn Barris, a farmer and member of Valley Water Protection Association. "Water districts should only be allowed to use the public's water in the amounts that their farmers need after they have implemented water conservation practices. And they shouldn't be allowed to sell the water they take from our rivers and replace it with additional groundwater pumping." Fishing clubs, river protection organizations, state and national conservation groups, local business owners and others will provide details of their concerns at the Willows hearing.# Being a 3rd Party is No Party CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT / WESTLANDS / ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE ISSUE Comment: No place to call home on west side Fresno Bee - 10/26/04 By Bill McEwen, staff columnist When growers, lawyers and federal officials negotiated a complicated $140 million deal that retired thousands of acres of poisoned farmland in Westlands Water District, everybody walked away with something. Except farmworkers. Their reward for working land that has fed and clothed millions of people? Eviction. "As land retirement takes place, you see the result," says west Fresno County grower Ed O'Neill, whose 5,700-acre ranch is leaving production. "People who have lived on farms their whole lives end up jobless and homeless the same day." O'Neill isn't talking about migrant pickers who follow the crops from region to region. The people he's talking about are foremen, tractor drivers, irrigators and other hands who've lived in rancher-supplied housing for decades. Somehow, during all of the negotiations plotting the future of Westlands, no one remembered to figure out where farmworkers would live when land was retired. That has Dora Reyes wondering where her family of nine will move. Her husband has worked 25 years for a ranch that has a row of 10 mustard-colored stucco houses at San Diego and Adams avenues. "If I could find a place today, I'd move," Reyes says. Westlands originally said it would retire 200,000 acres. Now it envisions 100,000 retired, leaving 470,000 in production. The district predicts that because of improved water reliability and supply, it will add 3,047 jobs by 2020. But housing is scarce in west-side communities such as Firebaugh and Mendota. "If you walk down the main streets, you have one view of town," says Firebaugh City Manager Jose Antonio Ramirez. "But if you walk down the alleys, you see the other side. People are living wherever they can - in garages, in sheds - because there's not enough housing." Westlands says some evicted families have received $3,000 in relocation money from ranch owners. The district started working with state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and Fresno County officials this month to see that farmworkers on retired land don't become homeless. The California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation also is involved. Florez says he hopes to have a relocation plan by the end of November, and Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson says housing will be available. "Right now, we know of 20 families on the Murietta Farm who will have to vacate by August of 2005," Larson says. "If they stay in the area, we are going to find housing for them, but they will have to pay for it." With Florez as their watchdog, the displaced families likely will receive relocation money and find new places to live. Many of them will find work on nearby farms. But a bigger question remains: Why doesn't Fresno County allow farmworkers to live in subdivisions close to the land they work? Westlands has a bright economic future in the long term and will need workers for years to come. Yet the county has turned down a proposal by the nonprofit Westside Housing and Economic Network for a subdivision near Westside Elementary School in Five Points. The Habitat for Humanity project, which included land and houses donated by O'Neill, had qualified for two federal grants and a private grant. The county rejected the offer, saying its general plan required growth to be directed toward cities. In addition, Larson says the land where the subdivision would have gone has water problems. The county needs to focus on the bigger picture. Approving rural west-side subdivisions isn't the same as caving into corporate developers and allowing leapfrog sprawl outside Fresno or Clovis. A few rural subdivisions won't stretch public services too thin or spur a land rush in Mendota, Firebaugh and Huron. Farmworkers should be able to live close to their work instead of driving 50 to 100 miles daily on dangerous, two-lane roads. They should have the opportunity to buy homes. "The days of the farm labor camps are over because of the regulatory cost," O'Neill says. "There's less housing for farmworkers, and they must drive long distances from town to get to work. They work long, hard hours and are not in shape to be driving those long distances." You'd think that Fresno County - which touts agriculture as its marquee industry - would want to set the standard for treating farmworkers. You'd think the county would want to find innovative ways to help workers and agriculture succeed. You'd think the county would listen to Albert Miller, a Westside Housing and Economic Network board member. "The farmworker is a segment of society that no one wants to recognize," Miller says. "But without them in the fields, there are no fields." Right now, the county has the opportunity to address the problem of the west side's rapidly dwindling housing stock for farmworkers. First, it should team with Westlands to save the homes on retired land instead of seeing them demolished or destroyed by vandals. Many of these homes are clean and sturdy. They should remain occupied or be moved to where they can be lived in again. Second, the county should reconsider its position on rural, self-help subdivisions, such as the one proposed in Five Points. Saying no is easy. It takes leadership and ingenuity to solve this complicated problem. # Hydropower BUSH ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES RESTRICTING APPEALS ON DAMS The Bush administration has proposed giving dam owners the exclusive right to appeal Interior Department rulings about the way dams should be licensed and operated, which would prevent states, Indian tribes and environmental groups from making their own appeals. The proposal is similar to language in stalled energy legislation. Most privately owned dams were constructed and granted their 30-to-50-year federal licenses before federal environmental laws required protection for fish and other river life. Licenses for more than half of the nation's privately owned dams are to come up for renewal in the next 15 years. Lynn Scarlett, assistant interior secretary for policy, management and budget, who approved the proposed rule, said dam owners "would be facing an extremely high cost and very uncertain benefits. Giving them some ability to voice their concern and present alternatives seemed appropriate." The proposal has drawn criticism from Democrats in Congress, the attorneys general of several states, Indian tribes, environmental groups and some high-level officials and scientists in the Interior Department. Within the agency, some attorneys have said the appeals proposal is unconstitutional because it violates due process and equal protection guarantees. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Sun Nov 7 10:53:06 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Sun, 07 Nov 2004 10:53:06 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Bush "Victory" Spells Disaster For Wild Salmon! Message-ID: VOTERS ELECT FOUR MORE YEARS OF CRISIS FOR PACIFIC SALMON AND STEELHEAD PORTLAND, OREGON? ?? The outcome of the 2004 Presidential Election spells disaster for wild fish runs native to the Pacific Northwest, according to fish conservation experts. "Kerry is not the only loser," said David Montgomery, a salmon researcher and professor at the University of Washington.? "This does not bode well for wild salmon." Salmon experts are concerned about a proposed new fisheries policy covering the Columbia River Basin, which includes?many rivers and streams in Oregon and Washington.?? The government's plan would roll back?wild fish protections that have been years in the making.? "The Bush Administration has already pushed forward an agenda that threatens native fish, " said Bill Bakke, Executive Director of the Native Fish Society, a Portland-based conservation organization.? "They now have four more years to work on weakening the Endangered Species Act and stripping away the legal protections that our salmon and steelhead need to survive." The Bush Administration policy calls for counting wild and hatchery fish collectively, creating the appearance of abundant numbers in the rivers.? However, many of those fish are genetically?inferior hatchery stocks that compete with wild fish for food, shelter and spawning grounds.? Scientists agree that hatchery-raised fish pose a serious threat to the survival of wild salmon and steelhead. ?Even scientists who work for the Bush Administration have taken a stand against this damaging policy.??After the government refused to?accept their findings ? which clearly showed the negative impact of hatchery fish???they published their research?in the March 26, 2004 issue of Science magazine. Bakke has extensively reviewed studies on this topic, and?it validates the government team's findings.? ?Hatchery salmon have been identified as one of the main causes of salmon decline,? Bakke said.? He has called the Bush Administration policy an ill-conceived plan that "shoves us back to the damaging fish policies of the 1870s" and " spells extinction for native salmon runs." Opponents of the Bush Administration's plan are galvanizing for a fight at a public hearing on the proposal to be held November 9th at Portland's Doubletree Columbia Hotel.?? Conservation groups and fishermen are expected to testify against the policy. For further comments or to set up an interview with Bakke or Montgomery, contact Paige Wallace at the Native Fish Society, (503) 977-3133. ? ??????????????????????? ??????????????????????? ??????????? ??????????? ### Paige Wallace Development & Communications Coordinator Native Fish Society PO Box 19570 Portland, OR 97280 (503) 977-3133 www.nativefishsociety.org ? From rickpruitt at earthlink.net Mon Nov 8 17:05:26 2004 From: rickpruitt at earthlink.net (Richard Pruitt) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 17:05:26 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Monster Slash Message-ID: <410-2200411291526187@earthlink.net> http://www.monsterslash.org Richard Pruitt rickpruitt at earthlink.net Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Nov 8 17:40:33 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 17:40:33 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] CalFed Message-ID: <20041109014044.5C92120000B7@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Cal-Fed bill does not ease all water concerns Capital Press - 11/5/04 By Chip Power, staff writer FRESNO - A massive cash infusion to help the ailing San Francisco Bay Delta has not created Walden Pond-like ripples of ease and well-being. The delta provides irrigation water for the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most intensively farmed agricultural regions, and is the source of drinking water for more than 20 million Californians in addition to providing an ecosystem for salmon. The Cal-Fed bill includes $90 million for pre-authorized levees and levee stability projects; more than $180 million for pre-authorized water quality improvement projects throughout California, including drinking water; and $90 million for fish and wildlife enhancements. Signed into law late last month, it also establishes a "trigger" mechanism for the implementation of storage projects. Once a project feasibility study is completed, Congress must authorize the project. If it does not, the secretary of the Interior Department must declare an "imbalance" in the Cal-Fed program and prescribe what must be done to restore balance. "By moving from an endless state of planning and paralysis by analysis into the stages of implementation, this law will finally deliver the resources we need for our economy and our environment," said House Resources Committee Chairman Richard W. Pombo, R-Tracy. "We will enhance Delta water quality, improve delivery and secure future supplies of water - the lifeblood of California's agricultural economy," he said. Cal-Fed will help fuel California's economy, according to the California Farm Water Coalition. The Golden State's agricultural exports are valued at nearly $7 billion. Each $1 billion in agricultural exports creates 27,000 jobs, the trade group estimates. The coalition also broadly supports the addition of new reservoir capacity to serve urban and agricultural users. Environmental groups are wasting no time restating their opposition to new dams, at least ones whose costs would be borne by taxpayers and not beneficiaries. The National Resources Defense Council, often at odds over farm water groups over the consequences of irrigation projects, last week said it wanted to undo certain agreements between regulators and water users, complaining that they were "back room deals" not debated in the sunshine. The council stated that some changes outlined in an obscure state-federal document called the Operations Criteria and Plan foreshadow big changes in how water is pumped and allocated as part of the Cal-Fed system. Under the plan, according to the San Francisco-based group, water contractors would increase pumping from the delta by 27 percent, sending more to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Less water would flow to the San Francisco Bay and less would be reserved for endangered salmon during droughts. Meantime, nearly all of the Central Valley Project water contracts have expired. The federal Bureau of Reclamation has said they are being renewed legally and with public input. Critics contend that the Bureau of Reclamation is proposing to renew the water contracts without needed reforms, which weakens the effectiveness of Cal-Fed. Historically, ag-related groups have complained that Cal-Fed has an inherent bias against industry in favor of the environment. Agriculture's detractors argue the opposite - that irrigators get their way without any regard for long-term environmental consequences Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Nov 8 17:46:36 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 8 Nov 2004 17:46:36 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Ninth Circuit Decision on Trinity Message-ID: <20041109014640.7726320000B4@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today denied rehearing the Westlands Water District and NCPA litigation on the Trinity River restoration Record of Decision. This obviously is good news for Trinity. However, there could be further legal action deferring Trinity restoration. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Nov 10 11:15:49 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 10 Nov 2004 11:15:49 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Ninth Circuit Trinity Decision - Eureka Times Standard Message-ID: <20041110191607.58964200009D@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> TRINITY RIVER Appeals court won't reconsider Trinity decision Eureka Times-Standard - 11/10/04 By John Driscoll, staff writer A federal appeals court refused to hear again the Westlands Water District's suit against a restoration plan for the Trinity River. None of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' active judges voted to hear the case again. The decision is the latest victory for the Hoopa Valley Tribe and fishing and environmental interests that have fought for years to cut diversions from the Trinity to the Sacramento River, where Westlands and other irrigation districts get their water. Westlands said it hasn't decided whether to seek a U.S. Supreme Court review. Some say the Supreme Court is unlikely to hear the matter given last week's ruling. Westlands, however, said there are unresolved issues that need to be addressed. The suit by Westlands and the Northern California Power Agency has led to extensive delays in putting in place a congressionally supported plan authorized by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2000. It calls for just under half the Trinity's water to remain in the river. The 9th Circuit earlier this year ordered the program to move forward. "It was clear to us from the beginning that the economic interests that have been draining this river for profit did not care about keeping the river and its fishery alive," said Hoopa Tribal Chairman Lyle Marshall. "They have been stealing our water for decades and we knew they would not let go of it easily." Up to 90 percent of the Trinity's water above Lewiston Dam has been sent to the Sacramento since the diversion project was built in the 1960s. A collapse of the once spectacular salmon runs in the river can be traced to that time. Westlands spokesman Tupper Hull said the district is disappointed in the decision, but said developments like the reauthorization of CalFed -- a program to restore the Sacramento Delta and shore up water supplies -- and other collaboration between state and federal water project contractors is promising. "The outlook for farming on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley is probably better today than in a long time," Hull said. Marshall said the tribe can now pay more attention to problems on the Klamath River, into which the Trinity flows. In 2002, between 34,000 and 68,000 salmon died in the lower Klamath, claiming most of the Trinity's fall run of chinook salmon. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Thu Nov 11 08:27:48 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 08:27:48 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Fish Activists Forge Ahead After the Election Message-ID: Fish Restoration Activists Forge Ahead After the Election by Dan Bacher Since the reelection of President George W. Bush in one of the most widely contested elections in U.S. history, fishery and river restoration activists have been regrouping and deciding how best to move forward. The Bush administration distinguished itself for the damage its policies caused to salmon, steelhead and other fisheries during the past four years. Anglers and conservationists can expect to see similar challenges face us in the next four years. Key events over the past four years include: ? The Klamath River fish kill of September 2002, where over 68,000 salmon died after the Department of Interior diverted river water to farmers at the expense of fish. ? High pre-spawning mortality - 181,709 salmon over the past three falls - on the lower American River due to low, warm water conditions caused by Bureau of Reclamation mismanagement of Folsom Dam. ? A series of administration-imposed rewriting of scientific reports to benefit agribusiness and industry at the expense of fish and wildlife. The most recent example was when higher-ups in the federal government ordered NOAA fisheries scientists to revise a biological opinion from ?jeopardy? to ?no jeopardy? on the dangers of increased Delta diversions to endangered fish. The list could go on and on. However, what are the prospects for the years ahead? ?The outcome of Tuesday?s election will very likely intensify the challenges we all face protecting and restoring healthy, natural rivers,? said Rebecca Wodder, president of American Rivers. ?If the past is any indication, we can expect the Bush administration and its allies in Congress to look the other way as our streams grow more polluted, to place rivers last in line for their own water, and to encourage the poorly planned sprawl development to make both of these problems so much worse.? However, Wodder said there is cause for optimism. ?During the past four years, local river and watershed organizations, individual activists, the science community and national groups - the river movement ? have accomplished a lot despite the political climate in Washington and elsewhere.? She cited successful battles to defeat attacks on the Clean Water Act, as well as the removal of over 110 dams in 20 states. Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations, believes the problems that California and Pacific Northwest fisheries have experienced over the past four years will be amplified. ?The results of the election aren?t good from the standpoint of our three main rivers, the Columbia, the Klamath and the Sacramento,? said Grader. ?Each had its problems under the Bush administration and I expect them to get worse. Most people consider themselves pro-fish and for the environment, so bringing the issues of our fisheries into the public spotlight is our only hope.? He said that fish activists should continue putting political pressure upon the National Marine Fisheries Service to convince them to back their biologists, rather than bending to political interference in writing biological opinions. ?De watering streams or continuing dam operations that harm fish is a big economic issue,? emphasized Grader. ?We need to get the administration to realize that these fish have economic value.? Craig Tucker, outreach director of Friends of the River, concurred that the election outcome makes the task of fish restoration more difficult on the federal level. ?The Department of Interior plays a big role in issues that we?re working on, including Klamath Dam relicensing, renewal of the Central Valley contracts and the proposed enlargement of Shasta Dam,? said Tucker. He forecasts that restoration efforts will increasingly focus on litigation. ?In the past, we have used litigation as a last resort,? said Tucker. ?With the reelection of the president, we can expect to rely more on litigation in our environmental battles.? On the state level, Tucker is more optimistic, since Governor Schwarzenegger recently signed all three bills that FOR sponsored. This legislation includes Senator Wes Chesbro?s bill strengthening the environmental protections for California's Wild & Scenic Rivers ( SB 904); Senator Mike Machado?s Delta Water Use bill (SB 1155) mandating the state Department of Water Resources to develop a plan to meet water quality standards for the Bay Delta estuary; and a bill requiring Sacramento and other cities to use water meters. In the coming years, Tucker said FOR is researching the possibility of extending state ?wild and scenic? status to Cache Creek, the North Fork of the Stanislaus and the Clavey River. Bob Strickland, president of United Anglers of California, forecasts that we will see increasing attempts to remove environmental protections for fish and wildlife with four more years of the Bush administration. ?My feeling is that the administration won?t do a thing to protect the environment and natural resources,? said Strickland. ?For this reason, it is crucial that fishermen and the environmental groups work together for clean air and clean water. We need to look at the whole resource, not just trees and fish.? On the state level, Strickland urged environmental and fish groups to make sure that all diversions are properly screened to prevent the entrapment of juvenile salmon and steelhead. He also believes that to promote water conservation, state legislation requiring water meters for agricultural users should be considered. The effectiveness of litigation as a tool for fish restoration was demonstrated by recent court victories by the Hoopa Valley Tribe in their decades-long struggle to restore the Trinity River. The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 5 rejected a petition by the Westlands Water District and the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) to prolong the Trinity River litigation with a rehearing. ?This is yet another hard-fought legal battle in our efforts to save the Trinity River,? said Clifford Lyle Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. ?We are pleased that the court has upheld its decision because continued litigation will only cause undue delays with the restoration of the river.? ?The court system is where the water wars are fought,? added Billy Colegrove, vice-chair of the tribe. ?Maybe the farmers will see the light at the end of the tunnel and see that restoration is good for them as well as the fish.? We face many challenges in the coming four years to restore and enhance our salmon, steelhead and other fisheries. That is why it so crucial that recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian tribes, environmental groups and small farmers put aside our differences to work for the common cause of the fish and the environment. From bwl3 at comcast.net Fri Nov 12 11:03:27 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:03:27 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] More on Ninth Circuit Trinity Decision Message-ID: <20041112190336.1345D2000482@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Apparently Dan Keppen, of the Klamath Water Users, believes Trinity water should solve inadequate water problems and its effects in the Klamath River because the Interior Department is unwilling to pursue any rational Klamath solution. See third paragraph from bottom. This is folly, and ultimately destructive to the Trinity. Trinity flows have been provided temporarily to provide water to save fish in the Lower Klamath. That has been a TEMPORARY fix in the absence of a Klamath solution for its problems by an Interior Department that refuses to face reality. TRINITY RIVER Trinity River restoration will flow on Legal battle over water closer to conclusion after court decision Klamath Falls Ore. Herald & News - 11/10/04 By Dylan Darling, staff writer A longstanding legal battle over water in the Trinity River came closer to conclusion last Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request by water users in the Central Valley of California to reconsider an earlier decision allocating more water to support fish runs in the Trinity. The Trinity River flows into the Klamath River near the Pacific Ocean. The water levels in both rivers came under increased scrutiny after a fish kill occurred below their confluence in the fall of 2002. Water from the upper Trinity River is diverted into the Central Valley for use by irrigators, city water districts and a power company. Indian tribes have for years sought to decrease the amount of water diverted. "It's a victory for the Tribe," said Billy Colegrove, vice chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe. "It's been a long, hard-fought battle and the Tribe is happy with the results." With the request for a rehearing rejected, the only option left for the water users is to take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. "We are certainly disappointed with the court's decision," said Tupper Hall, spokesman for Westlands Water District, which has more than 600,000 acres of farmland in western Fresno and Kings counties and is one of the districts involved in the case. In April, the 9th Circuit sided with the Hoopa Valley Tribe and Yurok Tribe, and ordered implementation of a federal plan drawn up 20 years ago to reduce diversions and carry out habitat restoration efforts on the river. The case has been in federal court since 2000. As the case worked its way through the legal system, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger issued rulings on how much water should flow down river. Hall said the district has 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court. He said the district's lawyers are evaluating its options. A system of reservoirs, pipes, pumps and tunnels pull water from the Trinity River and dump it into the Sacramento River and the Central Valley Project. If the 9th Circuit ruling stands, a federal plan for higher flows and restoration in the Trinity will be in place by next irrigation season. "Our work is just beginning," said Mike Orcutt, director of the Hoopa Valley Tribe's fisheries department. Dan Keppen, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association in Klamath Falls, said it is unclear whether the 9th Circuit ruling will be good or bad for the Klamath Reclamation Project. He said the group of officials that oversees management of water in the Trinity will need to ensure that the higher flows are timed properly. "If it is cold water and it is at the right time, it is a good thing," he said. He said more water should be added in the spring and fall. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Tue Nov 23 13:22:08 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 13:22:08 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] DRAFT TAMWG Agenda 12/8/04 Message-ID: <00fc01c4d1a4$3b817c80$6e2bc1d1@V51NH> Draft Agenda TRINITY ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT WORKING GROUP Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA December 8, 2004 Time Topic - Purpose Discussion Leader 1. 9:00 Introductions; Adopt agenda; Approve September minutes 2. 9:10 Report on new TAMWG Charter Mike Long, DFO and membership appointments 3. 9:20 Open Forum; Public Comment 4. 9:30 Critical Path for 8,500 cfs and 11,000 cfs dam releases - documentation of scientific baseline Rod Wittler, TMAG - floodplain preparations Ed Solbos, RIG 5. 10:30 Science Framework Workshop #1 and next steps Rod Wittler 6. 11:15 Restoration Program Priorities Byron Leydecker 12:30 Lunch 7. 1:30 Fall flows monitoring report Arcata FWS office 8. 2:15 Response to November 3 TMC letter TAMWG members on Klamath River Management and supplemental Trinity fall flows 9. 2:30 TAMWG operations- subcommittees; TAMWG members participation in TRRP planning processes; interaction with TMC 10. 3:30 Executive Director's Report Doug Schleusner 11. 4:00 Open Forum; Public Comment 12 . 4:15 Identify agenda items for next meeting; discuss meeting date 5:00 Adjourn -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Nov 24 14:39:18 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 14:39:18 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Hocker Flat Project Message-ID: <20041124224432.BE65A2000099@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> The following message today is from Doug Schleusner, Trinity River Restoration Program executive director: "I'm pleased to announce that I just signed the Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for the Hocker Flat Channel Rehabilitation Project. It is expected that DWR will complete the CEQA certification process by December 3. This allows us to move forward with the contract package, which should be awarded in mid-March. Construction is scheduled to occur from May to September, 2005. Thanks to Ed Solbos, members of his staff, our CEQA lead agency DWR, and all of you on the planning/design team who have worked so hard to get us to this point. "All NEPA/CEQA documents, including the final EA/EIR and FONSI, are posted on the BOR website at www.usbr.gov/mp/NEPA ." Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov Wed Nov 24 15:32:55 2004 From: BGUTERMUTH at mp.usbr.gov (Brandt Gutermuth) Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:32:55 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site FONSI-EA/Final EIR Message-ID: Dear All- Let's celebrate completion of another step towards implementation of ROD required Trinity River Channel Rehabilitation projects. The Final Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78-79.1 EA/Final EIR and its associated Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program are now available at: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=275. Construction should start next spring/summer. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Brandt PS - If this is your 2nd Holiday email announcement of this, be happy. The list server likes embedded text rather than large Adobe attachments (with scanned signatures). My first list serve submittal was rejected (but maybe only temporarily)! ___________________________________ Brandt Gutermuth, Environmental Specialist Trinity River Restoration Program PO Box 1300 (mailing) 1313 Main Street (physical address) Weaverville, CA 96093 (530) 623-1806 voice; (530) 623-5944 fax Bgutermuth at mp.usbr.gov ___________________________________ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COVER LETTER FROM THE EA/FEIR November 10, 2004 Dear Readers, Working together under guidance of the Trinity River Restoration Program (TRRP), the federal lead agency, Bureau of Reclamation, and state lead agency, California Department of Water Resources (DWR), have prepared this Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and Environmental Assessment/Final Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Site: Trinity River Mile 78 to 79.1 (FONSI-EA/Final EIR). The purpose of the proposed Hocker Flat Rehabilitation Project is to promote the alluvial processes necessary for the restoration and maintenance of salmonid habitat in the Trinity River. This project is identified in the Interior Secretary's December 19, 2000 Record of Decision (ROD) as a necessary step towards restoration of the Trinity River's anadromous fishery. The Hocker Flat project area is located on the Trinity River immediately downstream of Junction City. At this site, the lead agencies propose to conduct rehabilitation activities that consist of vegetation removal, riparian berm removal, floodplain construction, material transportation, material stockpile and disposal, revegetation, and monitoring. These activities are expected to rescale the river channel and floodplain, within the riverine rehabilitation areas, and to result in development of more complex river and floodplain habitats over time. No activities would be conducted below the river's edge as part of the proposed project. Construction is planned between mid 2005 and 2006. The enclosed FONSI-EA/Final EIR includes the EA/Draft EIR (incorporated by reference), a list of persons and agencies commenting on the EA/Draft EIR, written comments, Lead Agency responses to comments, revised EA/Draft EIR text, and a Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program (MMRP) for the proposed Project. This document meets National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements for review and disclosure of environmental impacts associated with the project. It will also be used to support necessary permit applications as well as to identify and adopt appropriate monitoring and mitigation plans. The associated EA/Draft EIR may be reviewed at the TRRP Office at 1313 South Main St. in Weaverville and at the DWR office located at 2440 Main Street in Red Bluff. Electronic copies of the EA/Draft EIR are currently available on the Bureau of Reclamation's Mid-Pacific website for the Northern California Area at: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=275. Copies of this FONSI-EA/Final EIR will also be available on Reclamation's websites at: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=275 and DWR's website at: http://www.nd.water.ca.gov/dpladb/pubs in late-November 2004. If you have any questions concerning this document or the process, please contact Brandt Gutermuth, TRRP environmental specialist, at 530-623-1806 or Aric Lester, DWR environmental scientist, at 530-529-7365. Sincerely, Dwight Russell, Chief Douglas Schleusner Northern District Executive Director Department of Water Resources Trinity River Restoration Program CEQA - Lead Agency NEPA - Lead Agency From truman at jeffnet.org Fri Nov 26 09:59:32 2004 From: truman at jeffnet.org (Patrick Truman) Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 09:59:32 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] BLM Land SWap Message-ID: <001b01c4d3e1$b4b6d5c0$75472a42@default> Land swap worries biologists State fights BLM deal to trade Salt Creek site for Trinity area By Alex Breitler / Record Searchlight November 26, 2004 They begin their journeys hundreds of miles apart, some splashing up the Sacramento River and others up the Trinity. But salmon and steelhead in the two large river systems could be affected if the Bureau of Land Management swaps just a few hundred acres of land in Shasta County with a private land- owner in the Trinity area. The state Department of Fish and Game recently voiced its opinion, recommending 215 acres in the Salt Creek drainage west of Redding remain in BLM hands. Biologists fear potential development on so-called "Area 51" would harm salmon and steelhead in Salt Creek near its joining with the Sacramento. Millions have been spent in that area to help fish spawn. But the BLM says it's obli- gated to aid fish in the Trinity by acquiring 566 acres in the Grass Valley Creek watershed of eastern Trinity County. Sediment from those rapidly eroding slopes threatens to wash into the river, where fish populations have already declined because of massive water diversions. So some people are asking which fish will suffer most, those in the Sacramento or those in the Trinity Fish and Game comes down squarely on the side of the Sacramento. "We ask the BLM to consider not only how important the Salt Creek drainage is to anadromous fish, but also what developing that property will mean to listed fish species," states a letter to the BLM signed by Fish andGame Regional Manager Donald B. Koch. The BLM has been trying to dispose of the land since 1993. Nestled amongst homes off the end of Victoria Drive, the quiet wooded area is too costly to manage due to fire danger and problems like trespassing, the agency says. However, Area 51 has become popular with mountain bikers, walkers and the neighbors who live on its fringes. "We have to make these difficult decisions," said BLM's chief of resources Francis Berg. "I wish we could do it all, but we have limited resources." Fish and Game points to the investment that's already been made for fish in the Salt Creek area of the Sacramento. Since 1997, the government has injected 96,050 tons of spawning gravel in the river at the mouth of Salt Creek, says Koch's letter. What's more, $20 million has been spent to improve fish passage at the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District diversion dam not far downstream. Those efforts, Koch wrote, were meant to encourage spawning between the diversion dam and Keswick Dam -- the same stretch of the Sacramento where Salt Creek emerges. Although Area 51 is about two miles up Salt Creek from the confluence, Fish and Game fears development could dump sediment into the creek's lower reaches, where steelhead and salmon have been documented. The Trinity land, on the other hand, sits upstream from a dam and some ponds that are already in place to catch erosion. Despite the dam, the BLM says it can't ignore federal laws requiring protection of the Trinity River's aquatic resources. The dam in that watershed is merely an "extra safeguard" against sediment washing into the river, the agency says. The BLM should still strive to acquire land, thereby protecting, that watershed, said Steve Anderson, the BLM's Redding area director. Only small segments of Salt Creek are found within Area 51 itself, the bureau says. The other tributary channels flow only seasonally. The bureau's other motive in taking the Trinity land is to consolidate its holdings, a longstanding goal since the agency owns 250,000 acres scattered across Northern California. The Trinity land is already surrounded by BLM parcels. About 75 letters were received during a recent public comment period, Anderson said. The public will have another chance to weigh in once an environmental assessment is completed. Also, land-swap opponents took their case to the BLM's Northwest Resource Advisory Council meeting earlier this month in Ukiah. The council, a cross section of citizens that makes land management recommendations to the agency, agreed to put the topic on the agenda for its next meeting on Feb. 3 in Redding. The council will also tour Area 51 and two other land-swap sites, said the BLM's Anderson. Appraisal values in the proposed Area 51 swap have not been disclosed. But Anderson did say the Trinity landowner would have to fork over about $150,000 in additional dollars. That landowner, Joe Rice of Salmon Creek Resources in Humboldt County, has not returned calls seeking comment on his intentions with the Shasta land. The BLM has said Rice is involved in the forest products industry. Besides neighbors and Fish and Game, the deal's other critics include a land-swap watchdog group based in Washington and a Lakehead Realtor who looked into the proposal on behalf of a friend. Don Abercrombie sent a letter to the BLM concluding that the Shasta County land would likely be valued from $1.5 million to $2 million due to its potential for residential development. The remote Trinity County land, on the other hand, would not exceed $125,000, he estimated. At least one neighbor's letter included a picture of a fish swimming in what was said to be the upper reaches of Salt Creek. Walkers have been urged to carry cameras to document any fish they might see. The BLM has traded about 40,000 acres in the past decade, some of which it says have accomplished important conservation goals. As for Area 51, other alternatives will be considered in its assessment, Berg said. "There are no final decisions here," he said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: spacer.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 1x1.gif Type: image/gif Size: 49 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Sun Nov 28 13:49:22 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 13:49:22 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Various Klamath-Trinity/CVP Stories- Weak salmon runs/Millions for Klamath projects, etc Message-ID: <003701c4d594$2191dce0$762bc1d1@V51NH> http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041122/STATE/411220331/1042 KLAMATH RIVER BASIN Salmon returns weak at Klamath Researchers find more disease among river's young Chinook Associated Press - 11/22/04 BY Jeff Barnard, staff writer HORNBROOK, Calif. -- Walking the banks of Bogus Creek, state fisheries biologist Mark Hampton stopped and pointed to a black-and-white shape in the shallow water -- a battered female chinook salmon lying on its side and thrusting its tail into the gravel to dig a nest for its eggs. This fall, the returns of chinook salmon to Bogus Creek and the Shasta, Scott and Salmon rivers -- Northern California tributaries to the Klamath River -- have been disappointing. Estimates based on fish and carcass counts are showing less than 25 percent of last year's returns and less than 10 percent of the strong returns of 2000. The reasons are difficult to nail down, but the more researchers look, the more disease they are finding in young chinook migrating down the Klamath River. The fish that survive to reach the ocean are finding less food than they did a few years ago. Meanwhile, an El Ni?o building in the South Pacific could reduce the mountain snowpack that feeds the Klamath River and make food even more scarce for salmon in the ocean. The disease and ocean conditions come on top of the continuing struggle to balance scarce water between threatened coho salmon and farms on a federal irrigation project along the Oregon-California border. A drought in 2001 prompted the federal government to shut off water to most farms on the Klamath Reclamation Project. The health of the Klamath's chinook salmon also has widespread effects because when runs are down, harvests in the ocean off Southern Oregon and Northern California are cut back to allow more to return to the river to spawn. Declines blamed on habitat loss, poor water quality and overfishing prompted Congress to initiate a rebuilding effort in 1986, which led to increased research that has uncovered an alarming rate of disease. Understanding the role that diseases play in salmon returns is becoming increasingly important in the rebuilding effort, said Nick Hetrick, fisheries program leader for Fish and Wildlife in Arcata, Calif. That's where Scott Foott comes in. He is a fish pathologist at the agency's California-Nevada Fish Health Center who has been studying fish diseases in the Klamath Basin. Samples taken from traps and seining indicate that as many as 80 percent of young Klamath chinook are infested with the parasite parvicapsula minibicornis by the time they reach the ocean. It doesn't appear to be fatal, but it weakens fish by making their kidneys less efficient at filtering their blood, Foott said. Another parasite, Ceratomyxa shasta, infests the intestines. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of young chinook swimming down the Klamath get infested with it, and nearly all of them die. Biologists don't know how many salmon are spawned in the wild in the Klamath Basin, so they cannot estimate how many are being killed by disease. Overall, though, the chances of salmon surviving from egg to spawning adult generally are tiny. The numbers of chinook smolts released from Iron Gate Hatchery on the Klamath River that survived to return to the hatchery averaged less than 1 percent from 1979 to 1999, said Hampton, a biologist with the California Department of Fish and Game. "This disease problem hits much harder in some years than other years," he said. "We're just now finding out what it's doing." The fish do not appear to become infested with C shasta in their home tributaries, Foott said. It all appears to happen after they enter the Klamath. The rate of infestation appears to be related to the prevalence of a tiny worm, found in fine sand at the bottom of river pools and in algae that grows on rocks, that serves as an intermediate host for the parasite. "The general thought is, if you have high concentrations of (the worm) in the upper river ... you are creating this condition of a higher rate of infection than you normally have," Foott said. "It could be a cyclic phenomenon. It could be due to a lack of flushing flows in winter. These are just open questions right now. "A river is a very dynamic creature. When you turn it into a drainage canal, it doesn't operate like it used to." Diseases could become another issue in the debate about water allocations in the basin. Right now, the timing and amount of flows down the Klamath River are dictated by the needs of coho salmon under the Endangered Species Act. That could change if the Yurok Tribe wins a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation demanding more water for chinook and other fish to fulfill tribal trust responsibilities. Also, PacifiCorp is seeking a new license to operate dams in the basin. Beyond anyone's control are changing conditions in the ocean based on climate drivers such as El Ni?o in the South Pacific and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation in the North Pacific. Because an El Ni?o is building, the Northwest might see a warmer winter and less precipitation, producing less snowpack in the mountains to feed salmon streams. The ocean is likely to be warmer close to shore off Oregon California and Washington, making for less upwelling. http://www.eurekareporter.com/Stories/fp-11240413.htm It appears Chinook salmon are spawning at record low numbers this fall. "In the main tributaries - the Scott, Shasta and Salmon rivers - the numbers of spawning Chinook appear to be lower than ever," said Nat Pennington, Salmon River Restoration Council Fisheries Program coordinator. "As of now our numbers are lower than the lowest numbers ever." The Salmon River Restoration Council is a nonprofit that "works with tribes and agencies to monitor fish numbers in the Klamath and its tributaries," Pennington said. The California Department of Fish and Game has recorded fall Chinook spawning numbers since 1978 from numbers attained by the Klamath Basin Cooperative Chinook Spawning surveys, Pennington said. Local tribes, the U.S. Forest Service, DFG, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, local schools and community groups have been involved with counting Chinook for the survey, he said. The Chinook salmon count began on Oct. 18 and most of the tributaries'counts for the Klamath are completed now, with a few tributaries still being counted until Dec. 2. The total numbers of the final count will not be known until January or February, he said. Pennington said the Salmon River enters the Klamath at Somes Bar on the Humboldt County line and "hosts populations of all the remaining anadromous fish runs still present in the Klamath." Anadromous means species of fish which spawn in fresh or estuarine waters of the United States and which migrate to ocean waters. The salmon run appeared to be average earlier this year, he said. "The Yurok tribe commercial harvest in the Klamath estuary caught their quota of 12,698, as did recreational fishers, which were allotted 2,350," Pennington said. "Upriver the Karuk Tribe . was only able to catch 100 fall Chinook for their over 3,000-member tribal roll. The Karuk are only allowed to fish with traditional dip nets at Ishi Pishi Falls near Somes Bar. Their harvest this year was hampered by the small run size and low flows in the Klamath." Salmon die after they spawn. However, cooperative fish counts had only found 57 carcasses three quarters of the way through the counting season compared to the 70 carcasses found at this same time period in 1999, the lowest spawning year on the Salmon River up to this point, Pennington said. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the California Fish and Game Commission regulate fishing and protect fish populations along the Pacific Coast, he said. The Magnuson Act requires that at least 35,000 spawning Chinook salmon be accounted for in the Klamath River basin every year. If for three years in a row at least 35,000 Chinook salmon have not spawned, then the PFMC and the CFGC will stop commercial and recreational fishing of Chinook salmon, he said. "I don't think we're going to meet that this year," said Sara Borok, associate fisheries biologist for DFG. She said this means there will not be as many harvestable fish. "The size of the Klamath fall Chinook run affects the future salmon fishing regulations and commercial quotas from San Francisco to Southern Oregon," Pennington said. A low year can really set back the amount of fish that commercial and recreational fishers can catch, he said. The Klamath River Basin Fishery Resources Restoration Act is a 20-year program created in 1986 to restore salmon and steelhead runs on the Klamath River basin. The Klamath Act created the Klamath River Basin Conservation Area Restoration Program and with it a federal advisory committee - the Klamath River Restoration Task Force. "We're now in the 18th year of that act and it does not look like the goal of the act has been successfully accomplished," Pennington said. He said the task force has done a good job, but it has not been able to address major current issues because of political sensitivities surrounding the Klamath basin. "It is looking like it will be below 700 salmon returning to spawn on the Salmon River, which is the worst year on record for returns in this river," Pennington said. Last year was a good year with 3,300 Chinook salmon spawning in the Salmon River. As of Nov. 18 a total of 76 had been counted, Borok said. Throughout the basin all counts for spawning salmon are at about 25 percent of last year, Borok said. The lowest salmon spawning run for the entire Klamath basin was in 1992. Those salmon spawned one of the largest runs in 1995 which means there was a good survival rate. "We're seeing real good jack runs or two-year-old (salmon) returns this year, which means next year's three-year-olds and the following years four year olds should be strong runs," she said. Last year was the lowest jack run in 26 years. This year there are four times as many two-year-old jacks so far, Borok said. "The future doesn't look too bad. It's kind of scary for now," she said. The spawning numbers will be used for setting quotas for harvest for next year. Borok said people will not be able to keep as many fish for next year. "Unless we fix the whole system (the Klamath basin) we're probably going to lose the whole fish run," Pennington said. "The entire basin seems to be broken." For more information contact Nat Pennington or the Fisheries Program at fisheries at srrc.org. Smith, Wyden secure funding for Basin projects Published November 22, 2004 http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/11/22/news/top_stories/atop3.txt H&N Staff Report A massive federal spending bill approved in Congress over the weekend includes millions of dollars for the Klamath Reclamation Project as well as city and county projects and a new program being developed at OIT. Funding for projects in Oregon was announced Sunday by Oregon Sens. Gordon Smith, a Republican, and Ron Wyden, a Democrat. The money is included in the omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2005, which starts July 1. It now awaits President Bush's signature. The bill provides for a $27 million budget for the Klamath Reclamation Project. Dave Sabo, Project manager, said Reclamation officials requested that amount for the upcoming fiscal year. He expects, however, that some will be cut as the year proceeds. "I don't know what my final budget is," he said. Last year's budget appropriation was $25 million, but the Project ended up getting about $22 million, Sabo said. In this year's request, $8 million would go to the Bureau's water bank program, and $10 million to support federally required fish monitoring and studies and water supply enhancement program. Much of the rest would go for operation and maintenance of the Project, paying the Project's staff and other annual costs. Another $1 million is set aside for water quality and flow measurement equipment on the project, according to the release. Oregon will share the money with the state of California. Oregon Institute of Technology will receive $120,000 for a program it is developing. "We are excited about this new funding," said OIT President Martha Anne Dow. "This money will be used to advance OIT's major initiative this year, which is our vision for a new Center For Health Professions." "It will help us advance our business plan for the center, including expanding our network of support in Oregon for the construction of a new facility on the Klamath Falls campus," she said in a statement issued this morning. OIT's business model focuses on three strategic initiatives - increased enrollment capacity, upgraded facilities, and expanded outreach, she added. "We appreciate tremendously the support of our Congressional delegation in making these funds available. I especially want to recognize the support of Rep. Greg Walden and Senators Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden have provided to this OIT initiative," Dow said. The city of Klamath Falls will receive $250,000 to do preliminary work on its wastewater treatment facility, and $200,000 to be used for infrastructure improvements on the facility. City Manager Jeff Ball said the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will be making stricter standards for businesses and governments that add any waste products to their local rivers and lakes, and the money the city receives will go to meeting the higher standards. Ball said the higher standards have been in the works for a while. "This has been going on for 15 years and the study money will help us determine what we need to do in terms of improvements to meet the new standards," Ball said. The city is not yet sure how infrastructure money will be used, but Ball said it is considering either making improvements to the current treatment plant or finding a land-based method to treat wastewater. Local delegates that brought federal money to Klamath Falls should be acknowledged, Ball said. "The grant money is something Mayor (Todd) Kellstrom and I went back to Washington, D.C., and worked on earlier this year. We really appreciate our delegates that worked on this. It really helps the whole community," Ball said. The Klamath County Public Health Department also received $75,000. There was no information immediately available on how the money would be used. Also in the bill are: $1 million for the Rogue River Basin Project. $631,000 for the management and operation of the Deschutes Project. $500,000 for the Deschutes Ecosystem Restoration project. $1.2 million for terminal construction at the Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport. 0 0 0 Dylan Darling, Angela Torretta and Doug Higgs contributed to this report. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11527399p-12429402c.html Concrete solution for water? Raising Shasta Dam's height looms large among ideas to boost state's dwindling storage. By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 2:15 am PST Monday, November 22, 2004 Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here. REDDING - From Highway 151, Shasta Dam emerges through the fog and rain like an awesome apparition, a giant wall of concrete whose power generators humming eerily far below add to its supernatural dimension. As California looks for new ways to increase water supplies in the face of mounting shortages, this monstrous 602-foot facade holding back the Sacramento River seems destined to grow even taller. It's a perfect spot for expansion, although it's not the only site under intense scrutiny in this scramble for new water storage. Shasta Dam was designed to be 800 feet tall, so adding concrete to its top presents no significant engineering obstacles. "This is like adding a room on a house, rather than building a new house," said Michael J. Ryan, the Bureau of Reclamation's Northern California area manager, whose small office overlooks the dam, the lake and, on a clear day, Mount Shasta looming large in the distance. But most importantly, the clean, cold water it would add to the state's supply is exactly what water managers are looking for. A taller dam means additional downstream protection against floods, more downstream supply for farms and cities and, because Shasta Lake would be deeper, more cold water to send downriver when the salmon are looking for a place to spawn. A recently enacted federal water bill governing the state-federal San Francisco Bay-Delta restoration and water program commonly known as Cal-Fed revs up studies to add as much as 18.5 feet of concrete to the top of the dam. That would boost the size of the lake behind by some 15 percent, or 636,000 acre-feet - enough water for 1.2 million households. At an estimated cost of nearly $500 million, the project would be relatively cheap. Under the Bureau of Reclamation's current timetable, construction could be under way in five years and completed in 10. All that looks promising for Northern and Central California, where water shortages in a normal year are expected to be 1.4 million acre-feet by 2020 - and three times that in a drought year. But for some whose lives and businesses are on the upstream side of Shasta Dam, adding 18.5 feet of concrete to Shasta Dam is a disaster in the making. "It's dubious at best," said Steve Barry, owner of Holiday Harbor Resort and Marina and president of the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association. "And the proposal doesn't even take into consideration the impact on recreation," he said, estimating annual revenues from shore-side businesses on the plus side of $80 million. "This is going to put some guys out of business." When the lake is at full crest, an 18.5-foot raise would mean that houseboats popular with tourists will be stranded on one side or the other of the Pit River Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific Railroad over the lake. Layton Hills, heir to the Hills Bros. Coffee fortune, oversees from his Mill Valley office the Bolli Bokka Fishing Club, which brothers Austin and Reuben Hills started on the McCloud River in 1904. The club's historic houses are among those that would go underwater, he said. "It's too bad," Hills said. "One is a log cabin dating from the 1860s, and another is the so-called rock house made out of river cobble from about 1915. The regular clubhouse dates from around 1924." Nearby, on the club's 4,000-acre property, is an old Wintu Indian village site and burial ground that would be inundated. Environmentalists also are organizing to fight any raise to the dam. "I have a lot of problems with raising the dam," said Steve Evans, conservation director at Friends of the River in Sacramento. "For one thing, it violates state law that protects the McCloud River from any more dams or reservoirs." But more than that, said Evans and others, state and federal water planners seem stuck in the old mold of looking for new dams and reservoirs to find water that can be benignly obtained from better operations of facilities they've already got. "I don't think there is anyone in the environmental community who believes there is any general benefit from this kind of stuff," he said. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chief author of the Cal-Fed bill, is irritated by this sudden surge in opposition to the Shasta raise. "I believe it is a God-given right as Californians to be able to water gardens and lawns," the California Democrat said. "The state is growing by 700,000 to 1 million people a year. It is going to need new water storage." Not until she was contacted by Hills' lobbyist had anyone complained about raising Shasta, she said, adding that raising the dam was considered the "most benign" of the water storage projects in the bill. "This is one family with a private facility there," she said. "And that's all I am going to say about this." Raising Shasta Dam has been under on-again, off-again consideration for at least two decades. Some of the most detailed studies date back to the 1980s, when Don Hodel, who served as energy secretary and then Interior secretary under President Reagan, proposed the project as an alternative source of water for San Francisco if Hetch Hetchy Dam in Yosemite National Park were knocked down. >From an engineering standpoint, it's a piece of cake. The dam, built between 1938 and 1945, was originally planned to be 200 feet taller. At 800 feet, it would have been the highest and biggest in the world. Sheri Harral, public affairs officer at the dam, said World War II and materials shortages associated with the war effort led to a decision to stop construction at 602 feet. "The thinking was to come back and add on to it if ever there was a need to," Harral said. "They started looking at raising it in 1978." If Shasta Dam had been built up to its engineering limit in 1945, it is arguable that Northern and Central California would not be facing a critical water shortage now. According to a 1999 Bureau of Reclamation study, a dam 200 feet taller would be able to triple storage to 13.89 million acre-feet of water. Still, tripling the size of Shasta Lake, on paper at least, would store nine times the projected 2020 water deficit for the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Tulare Lake basins during normal water years. But the Bureau of Reclamation concluded in its 1999 report on Shasta Dam that raising it by 200 feet would be prohibitively expensive - $5.8 billion. Given what's under discussion now in the Cal-Fed process, however, the cost of a maximum raise of Shasta is not that far out of line with other projects authorized for study by the recent California water bill. One of the projects with growing political support is damming a small valley west of Maxwell and pumping it full of excess Sacramento River spring runoff. That project could cost as much as $2.4 billion to store 1.8 million acre-feet. Other projects under intense investigation include quintupling the size of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County to add as much as 400,000 acre-feet of capacity for perhaps $1.3 billion, and 1.2 million acre-feet of storage on the Upper San Joaquin River for roughly $800 million. Two smaller projects also are being looked at. Steve Hall, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, said a combination of projects is most likely, because where the additional storage is in relation to where the water is needed can be as important as total storage or cost. Still, it's hard to see how raising Shasta Dam doesn't figure into the final mix. The sure signs of inevitability are what have Shasta Lake business owners concerned. "Southern California is losing access to Colorado River water," said Bob Rollins, general manager of Digger Bay and Bridge Bay resorts. "I don't know where Los Angeles is going to get that water, but I assume it is going to start coming out of here." About the writer: The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or dwhitney at mcclatchydc.com. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Dec 1 10:26:08 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 10:26:08 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] AP Story on Planned Delta Pumping Increase South Message-ID: <20041201183122.03E7F20000B6@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Plan to release more California delta water stirs controversy Associated Press - 11/30/04 By Juliana Barbassa, staff writer FRESNO -- A plan to increase fresh-water pumping from the San Joaquin-Sacramento river delta is pitting Central Valley farmers who want the water for their crops against environmentalists and delta farmers who fear the move will undermine years of fishery and water quality restoration efforts. The proposal would increase the amount of water pumped out of the delta, a fragile ecosystem that already supplies water for 22 million Californians as far south as Los Angeles and irrigates millions of acres of Central Valley farmland. The increased flow would help stabilize the amount of water delivered to farmers in the western half of the Central Valley, giving them the ability to better plan for long-term or higher-value crops, farmers in the region said. Those farmers, who have had their water flows limited over the past decade as water was diverted to wildlife refuges, say it is time they get the water they were promised. But environmentalists say the move could reverse years -- and millions of dollars worth -- of ecosystem restoration work. Reducing fresh water flows to the delta could affect its water quality by increasing salinity and temperature, possibly threatening the salmon that have been slowly returning to the region's rivers, advocates say. Opponents to the plan also say it undermines a decade of cooperation under CalFed, a state-federal water management program designed to balance the water supply demands of urban and rural users with environmental considerations. "This is an old-fashioned water grab," said Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Since 1992, CalFed has overseen the spending of about $500 million in state and federal funds to reverse some of the damage that 150 years of mining and water diversion did to the delta. The effort has helped restore the delicate balance between fresh water from the mountain rivers and salt water from the San Francisco Bay that is essential to salmon and other species of marine and plant life. The restoration effort has brought back a naturally reproducing salmon population that had almost disappeared. In the early 1990s, only a few hundred winter-run Chinook salmon were making their way through the Golden Gate Bridge, through the delta and up Sierra Nevada rivers like the Tuolumne, Merced and Sacramento. Now, thousands of fish fight the currents to make their way up the rivers every winter. At the center of the current controversy is the state-operated Harvey O. Banks pump, nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Tracy. The linchpin in California's Byzantine plumbing system, it currently sucks more than 4 billion gallons of water a day out of the delta. The proposal would increase its pumping limit by up to 25 percent. For the past 12 years, water agencies that serve farmers in the Central Valley have endured federally mandated water cutbacks so that water quality could be improved and fisheries could be restored, said Tupper Hull, a representative of Westlands, an agency that delivers delta water to nearly 600,000 acres of farmland. Growers working about 1 million acres in the western valley have been getting only between 40 percent and 70 percent of their water allotment, while nearly 1 million cubic feet of water they had relied on annually was used for wildlife restoration. "The impact of that was felt down in the Central Valley," said Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Reclamation. "It's been very hard to give them the water they need." Now, farmers are pointing to the increased numbers of salmon swimming up Sierra Nevada rivers, and saying it's time for state and federal agencies to send them their share of water. An increased flow of fresh water from the delta would give Central Valley farmers a more reliable water supply, they say. "It would let us do better planning, and it would give us more confidence to invest in higher-value crops," said Jean Errotabere, who farms 3,500 acres of lettuce, almonds, garlic and other crops in the Westlands. "It would help us plan better. When we make investments, we can't have uncertainty be a part of it," said Dan Errotabere, who farms 3,500 acres of lettuce, almonds, garlic and other crops in the Westlands. He is the irrigation district's chairman. But environmental groups and farmers who work the low-lying islands inside the delta's meandering canals want the water cutbacks to Central Valley farmers to remain in place. They worry that the increased pumping will affect the delicate ecological balance of the delta. That could degrade water quality, kill thousands of endangered fish and further alter river flows, said Nelson of the NRDC. Water quality is "absolutely a question of survival" for delta farmers, said Dante John Nomellini, who represents the Central Delta water agency. The agency serves about 120,000 acres of farmland in western San Joaquin County. It doesn't make sense to take more water out of the delta while water quality is still a worry for farmers, urban users and environmentalists in the region, Nomellini said. "We could blend this into a workable solution that could be beneficial to the exporters, the people in the delta and the fish and wildlife," he said. "But there's a lot of work to be done." Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Dec 1 11:44:49 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 11:44:49 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SACBEE- Salmon refuges may be curbed Message-ID: <012101c4d7de$398a6820$696c3940@V51NH> http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/11624265p-12513856c.html Salmon refuges may be curbed Commercial interests protest, but U.S. says fisheries won't suffer. By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, December 1, 2004 WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is proposing drastic reductions in critical habitat areas for endangered West Coast salmon and steelhead trout, a move commercial fishing interests said ignores the economic and environmental benefits of restored salmon and healthy rivers. The reductions could amount to as much as 90 percent of the habitat once designated in California for the fish, said Jim Lecky, assistant regional manager for the Southwest Region of the National Marine Fisheries Service, and as much as 80 percent of the once-designated critical habitat in the Pacific Northwest. While the impact of the reductions is unclear, potentially it could lead to such things as relaxed regulation of logging operations that silt rivers and streams or fewer new requirements for watershed improvements by operators of hydroelectric dams as a condition for re-licensing. But the proposed reductions don't mean that huge amounts of riverbank and protected watershed are suddenly going to be opened to development, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which overseas the National Marine Fisheries Service. That's because much of the riverbanks and streams that would fall outside critical habitat areas under the proposal already are protected under other state or federal policies, such as environmental or agricultural regulations. The changes also would not harm fish populations, federal fishery managers said. The reductions are a result of better information and mapping about where fish actually go in the rivers, federal fishery managers say. That information has allowed the agency to scale back the areas where the most work and the highest protections are needed to save the fish from extinction. "This proposal seeks to protect critical salmon habitats and meet the economic needs of the citizens of the Pacific Northwest and California," said Bill Hogarth, fisheries administrator for the NOAA. The proposal follows improved fish stocks throughout the West over the last four years, fishery managers said. "Since 2000, 13 of the 16 listed runs of salmon in the Pacific Northwest, and three of the four Northern and Central California runs for which NOAA Fisheries has recent data, have experienced significant improved numbers," the agency said. But Glen Spain, Northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations in Eugene, Ore., said he has grave misgivings about the administration's intentions. The federation is one of the organizations that has gone to court repeatedly over how the agency has handled endangered fish. "The problem with the administration is that it has grossly overestimated the cost and underestimated or eliminated any consideration of the benefits of salmon restoration to the West Coast economy," Spain said. "The administration has a long history of either ignoring critical habitat designations or cutting them back for specious economic reasons." Spain said that in the case of critical habitat studies for bull trout, "the political appointees in the administration actually ordered the economists to eliminate all discussion of the benefits of restoration and emphasize only the costs." Recovery of salmon species through habitat restoration has a cost to landowners, Spain said. "But it also has cost the commercial fishing industry tens of thousands of jobs to lose these stocks" in an industry that was once worth $1 billion a year, he said. Additionally, restoration of the fish habitat has considerable value in the form of cleaner water for drinking and recreation, and healthy rivers that minimize washouts and siltation, Spain said. "As goes salmon, so goes much of the West's resource-based economy," he said. Lecky of the National Marine Fisheries Service acknowledged that economic data have not been wrapped into the agency's new proposal. "We looked at the biological benefits but didn't monetize all of them," he said. And because the economic impacts were not done for all the species, he said, the agency decided not to include any in its proposal. The proposal, which will be published in the Federal Record today, calls for a 60-day public comment period. Any final designations are certain to be months away, maybe years, because more lawsuits are virtually inevitable. The administration was under a time crunch to get the proposal out. In a settlement to one of the long string of lawsuits, Tuesday was the deadline for releasing the newly proposed designations. The agency is proposing separate rules for the 13 species listed in Washington, Oregon and Idaho and the seven species listed in California. While the salmon runs at issue in California are in rivers in the northern and central parts of the state, steelhead trout are found as far south as Camp Pendleton near San Diego, which is being excluded largely on national security grounds. Despite the proposed reductions, the federal cost of administering the Endangered Species Act program for the fish still will amount to as much as $500 million a year - as much as $200 million of that in California. In the Pacific Northwest, administration officials concluded that the massive hydroelectric dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers do not jeopardize fish survival and will not come down. The plan relies instead on making improvements at the Snake River dams and four other dams downstream on the Columbia to aid the migration of juvenile salmon. By the end of the decade, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans on installing "fish slides" or weirs at all eight dams that will guide the young salmon away from turbines and spillways. The plan also calls for spilling water over the dams and increasing river flows to flush the fish downstream to the ocean, for continued barging of fish past the dams and for habitat improvements. About the writer: a.. The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or dwhitney at mcclatchydc.com. Les Blumenthal of The Bee Washington Bureau contributed to this report. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 34303339366234363431616531643730?_RM_EMPTY_ Type: application/octet-stream Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Dec 1 14:30:51 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 14:30:51 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Environmental Water Gets Cut Again Message-ID: <20041201223102.7F7572000998@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> As the subject indicates, environmental water (Miller/Bradley legislation b2 water) gets cut back yet a third time. Never has the 800,000 acre feet of water for the environment in that legislation been provided. These proposed actions, in combination with other initiatives - OCAP, SDIP, Contract Renewals - ultimately will affect all Northern California rivers with the exception of the Klamath. Natural Resources Defense Council Butte Environmental Council California League of Conservation Voters California Sportfishing Protection Alliance California Trout Clean Water Action Defenders of Wildlife Deltakeeper Environmental Defense Friends of the River Friends of TheTrinity River Marin Conservation League Mono Lake Committee Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations Planning and Conservation League Public Citizen Sacramento River Preservation Trust San Francisco Baykeeper Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society Save San Francisco Bay Association Sierra Club California Southern California Watershed Alliance December 1, 2004 Lester Snow, Director Ryan Broddrick, Director Department of Water Resources Department of Fish and Game 1416 Ninth Street 1416 Ninth Street Sacramento, CA 95814 Sacramento, CA 95814 Re: Proposed Weakening of CVPIA Environmental Protections Dear Mr. Snow and Mr. Broddrick: We are writing regarding a letter, dated November 22, addressed to both of you from Kirk Rodgers and Steve Thompson. The letter is entitled "Integration of CVPIA Actions with the Environmental Water Account," but it appears to be principally a proposal to weaken implementation of Section 3406(b)(2) of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (B2). Although we agree that CVPIA actions should be coordinated with the EWA, it is both unwarranted and unrealistic to ask the EWA to take on some of the obligations of the CVPIA, as the letter suggests. As you know, the important B2 provision devotes 800,000 acre-feet of CVP water annually to the primary purpose of ecosystem restoration, particularly the restoration of anadromous fish. Under the Interior proposal, the availability of CVPIA water to restore anadromous fish would be further diminished. We are deeply concerned that this proposed rollback could have serious impacts on the Bay-Delta ecosystem and on the CALFED program. It is a painful irony that the Department of Interior has released a proposal that would be so damaging to CALFED, just as Congress has authorized full federal participation in the program. We have attached a letter, dated October 13, from the environmental community regarding the development of the OCAP. This letter was discussed extensively at the last Bay-Delta Authority (BDA) meeting. Please note that this letter specifically refers to our concern regarding rumors of a proposed rollback of the B2 policy. At that meeting, Deputy Assistant Secretary Peltier indicated that he was not aware of any proposal to rollback the B2 policy. Unfortunately, it is now clear that such an effort was, by that date, well under way. There was a consensus at the BDA meeting that state and federal agencies must do a much better job of involving the CALFED process and stakeholders other than their contractors. The new proposed B2 rollback will be a key test of this commitment. Unfortunately, the November 22 Interior letter fails to discuss any role for the CALFED program. Although the November 22 letter is not clearly written, it appears to be similar to a proposal that has been under development for several months in confidential discussions between the Bureau and CVP contractors. Although that document has not been publicly released, we have obtained a copy. Despite a long history of interest in this issue, none of our organizations have been invited to participate in discussions regarding either of these documents. The primary goal of this proposal appears to be to turn the restoration priority of the CVPIA on its head. The CVPIA dedicates the B2 water to the "primary purpose" of "fish, wildlife and habitat restoration." The existing B2 policy dedicates "approximately 200,000 acre-feet" of this B2 water to fishery restoration actions on upstream tributaries (May 9, 2003 DOI B2 Policy, p. 4). (It is important to note that, as discussed below, we do not believe that the existing policy dedicates enough water to the primary purpose established by the CVPIA.) Thus, these upstream restoration actions are established as a priority, although the policy does allow some B2 water to be applied to compliance with the State Board's Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. The November 22 proposal and the related confidential draft proposal, however, appear to establish the WQCP as the top priority for the use of B2 water and restoration as the lowest priority. The result of this proposed change in the B2 policy could be that, in some years, hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of B2 water would no longer be available to implement restoration actions. We strongly oppose this proposal, which contains serious problems and raises important questions for your agencies. The proposal would violate state and federal requirements that CALFED develop a balanced program. State and federal law require the CALFED Bay-Delta Program to develop a balanced program to achieve the co-equal objectives of improved ecosystem health, water quality and water supply reliability. Several federal actions, however, threaten to redirect water and funding dedicated to fisheries restoration in order to benefit south of Delta water users. These actions include: the current proposed B2 rollback; the May 9, 2003 B2 rollback; the environmental rollbacks contained in the OCAP; as well the proposal to use federal CVPIA restoration funds to help pay for compliance with the ESA. The ROD promises multiple benefits from the CALFED program. The clear pattern of rollbacks in the past year and a half, however, appears to be designed to increase CVP deliveries by weakening environmental protection and restoration programs. It is inconceivable that the CALFED program could be found to be in balance when agencies are weakening one program area to benefit another. The proposal would violate CALFED ROD requirements regarding the EWA. The proposal appears to suggest that when, as a result of this rollback, Interior refused to use B2 water to implement fishery restoration actions, those actions could be provided by the EWA. The ROD clearly states that "(t)he EWA has been established to provide water for the protection and restoration of fish beyond water available through existing regulatory actions related to project operations" (ROD, p. 54). B2 actions are explicitly written into the CALFED ROD as part of this regulatory baseline. However, the new Interior proposal would use the EWA, rather than B2 water, to implement baseline restoration actions. Thus, this proposal would violate the key ROD requirement that explicitly prohibits the use of the EWA to replace existing baseline protections. Do your agencies support this fundamental revision of the EWA? The proposal would expand the burden placed on an under-funded EWA. The proposal relies on the EWA to replace hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of B2 water that would be redirected away from upstream restoration actions. However, the EWA is already over-allocated and under-funded. Over the past several years, it has fallen far short of the level of assets required by the ROD. In addition, as some of us have noted previously, CALFED agencies have, on several occasions, chosen not to dedicate permanent water assets to the EWA. The addition of new responsibilities would significantly increase the likelihood that the EWA will fail, harming both the environment and the water users who rely on it to provide improved water supply reliability. In short, we simply do not believe that the proposed strategy to use the EWA to replace the reallocated B2 water would work. Do your agencies have a proposal to provide the additional funding - perhaps more than $20 million in some years - that would be required by this proposal to expand dramatically the EWA? Do your agencies propose that SWP water or funds be made available, when needed, to provide these upstream restoration actions? The proposal would threaten the viability of the EWA by expanding it to include upstream actions. The ROD states that "(t)he EWA focuses on resolving the fishery/water diversion conflict at the CVP/SWP Delta export pumps" (ROD, p. 54). The Interior proposal, however, would expand the EWA to include upstream restoration actions. By expanding the purpose of the EWA as defined in the ROD, the proposal would open up the EWA to requests from literally dozens of interests to help meet their upstream regulatory requirements. Has DWR or DFG surveyed water users to determine what other proposals are likely to be forthcoming to take advantage of this proposal to expand the EWA beyond the Delta? Has DWR or DFG evaluated the merits of this proposed new use of EWA water, in comparison with other potential upstream uses of EWA water? Given that water users continue to refuse to pay additional user fees to support the EWA, how would DWR and DFG determine what upstream restoration actions deserve public funding? The proposal would shift the burden of implementing fisheries restoration actions from the CVP to the State. To date, the majority of the funding for the EWA has come from state taxpayers. Therefore, to the extent that the proposal would use the EWA to provide water for upstream restoration actions, the proposal would result in state funding being used to pay for a federal environmental rollback. We strongly oppose this proposal to shift the burden of restoring the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Do your agencies propose that state taxpayers pay the cost of this federal rollback in ecosystem restoration requirements? The draft policy would undermine the CALFED ecosystem restoration program. State and federal taxpayers have dedicated hundreds of millions of dollars to the goal of restoring the health of the Bay-Delta ecosystem. The proposed rollback could undermine this investment of public funds. For example, this rollback could directly undermine CALFED's fisheries and riparian restoration efforts. These impacts on the CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Program have not been analyzed. Will DFG commit to undertaking an analysis of these impacts? Will your agencies support an examination by the CALFED ecosystem restoration program and the CALFED science program of these impacts? Agencies must evaluate the cumulative impacts of regulatory rollbacks on CALFED ecosystem restoration efforts. Unfortunately, this is not the first proposed rollback of a key environmental protection in the Bay-Delta ecosystem. Since the ROD was written, the Department of Interior has already weakened the B2 policy once. Through the OCAP process, federal agencies have also weakened environmental protections for the Sacramento River. As discussed previously, state and federal agencies have failed to provide the EWA with the amount of water required by the ROD. In addition, the current EWA financing plan assumes that funding will be redirected from ecosystem restoration actions to paying for the EWA. Will your agencies support an analysis of the cumulative impacts of these actions on the CALFED ecosystem restoration program? In particular, will your agencies commit to undertake modeling to determine the specific restoration actions and the amount of water dedicated to restoration in the CALFED baseline that could be lost as a result of these rollbacks? Will your agencies commit to working with CALFED to develop a strategy to replace these lost assets, without further raids on ecosystem restoration funds? The proposal undermines the CALFED ROD call for increased water dedicated to upstream restoration actions. Scientific work in recent years has reinforced the importance of upstream actions to restore the estuary's anadromous fisheries. This need is reflected in the ROD requirement for an additional 100,000 acre-feet of water per year to provide for restoration actions above the baseline (ROD, p. 36). The proposed Interior rollback would eliminate one of the most powerful tools to implement upstream flow-related fisheries restoration actions. Thus, in terms of upstream restoration actions, the proposal would move backwards, when the ROD calls for more forward progress. The draft proposal conflicts with federal court rulings regarding the management of B2 water. The most recent Ninth Circuit ruling regarding B2 states that Interior's allocation of this water must give "effect to the hierarchy of purposes established in Section 3406(b)(2)" (Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, June 3, 2003, p. 5). This is an area in which the existing policy and the environmental community prevailed. However, Interior's new proposal fails to meet this test. Rather than establish restoration actions as the "primary purpose" as required by the CVPIA, the new proposal would establish restoration as the lowest priority for the use of B2 water. We believe that this ruling requires Interior to devote more, not less, B2 water to fisheries restoration. (Environmental Defense explained this position in greater detail in a letter to Assistant Secretary Raley dated June 10, 2003.) The flaws in Interior's proposal are even clearer when one recognizes that the State Board has not adopted any requirements to implement its salmon doubling narrative standards. Mere compliance with the WQCP cannot "give effect" to the restoration mandate in the CVPIA. Far from implementing this ruling, the new Interior proposal ignores clear direction from the Ninth Circuit. We agree with the additional concerns expressed by The Bay Institute, in a letter dated November 29, 2004 regarding the management of the EWA and B2 water. The proposal violates CALFED ROD requirements regarding the Delta conveyance program. The proposed action is described as an attempt to coordinate B2 operations with the EWA - a key part of the CALFED Delta management plan. This rollback is designed to allow the CVP to convey more water through the Delta to South of Delta customers. The ROD clearly states that the CALFED conveyance program must "complement ecosystem restoration" (ROD, p. 48) and that this program must avoid "adverse impacts to fisheries protection" (ROD, p. 49). By harming existing upstream restoration programs, including fisheries restoration, the proposal would violate this ROD requirement. CALFED, other agencies and the public must be provided with adequate time for involvement prior to action on this proposal. We agree with the consensus at the past BDA meeting that state and federal agencies must do a much better job of fully involving CALFED, all state and federal agencies and the public in CALFED-related issues. The Interior proposal provides agencies with another opportunity to restore the relevance of CALFED. Unless state and federal agencies are fully committed to addressing the issues of fisheries restoration, upstream reservoir operation, EWA management and funding, and Delta management through CALFED, then we question the need for its continued existence. Will your agencies ask the Department of Interior for a delay in final action adequate to resolve the above questions through an open and transparent process? We believe that the proposal contained in the November 22 letter is fatally flawed, which leads us to a final question: Will your agencies request that Interior withdraw this proposal? We are writing to you directly because we believe that it is time for a frank and open discussion regarding the continued usefulness of the CALFED program for addressing key water management issues. We would greatly appreciate your response to the questions and concerns outlined above. In order to facilitate discussion, we request that this response be provided prior to the upcoming BDA meeting. We thank you in advance for your responses. Sincerely, Barry Nelson Natural Resources Defense Council Lynn Barris Butte Environmental Council Sarah Rose California League of Conservation Voters Richard Izmirian California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Brian Stranko California Trout Jennifer Clary Clean Water Action Kim Delfino Defenders of Wildlife Bill Jennings Deltakeeper Spreck Rosekrans Environmental Defense Steve Evans Friends of the River Byron Leydecker Friends of The Trinity River Bob Raab Marin Conservation League Frances Spivy-Weber Mono Lake Committee Zeke Grader Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations Karen Douglas Planning and Conservation League John Gibler Public Citizen John Merz Sacramento River Preservation Trust Sejal Choksi San Francisco Baykeeper Waterkeepers Northern California Craig Breon Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society David Lewis Save San Francisco Bay Association Jim Metropulos Sierra Club California Conner Everts Southern California Watershed Alliance Felix Smith Cc: Senator Diane Feinstein Senator Barbara Boxer Congressman George Miller Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher Senator Don Perata Senator Mike Machado Senator Sheila Kuehl Assemblywoman Fran Pavley Assemblywoman Lois Wolk Terry Tamminen, Cal EPA Gary Hunt, Bay-Delta Authority Kirk Rodgers, BOR Steve Thompson, FWS Patrick Wright, Bay-Delta Program Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Dec 2 09:18:05 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 09:18:05 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Los Angeles Times December 2 Message-ID: <20041202172315.726BA2000469@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Point Man on Western Water Is Stepping Down Interior Department's folksy Bennett Raley pushed marketing to shift supplies -- and finally got California to go on a water diet. Los Angeles Times - 12/2/04 By Bettina Boxall and Tony Perry, staff writers Bennett Raley, architect of the Bush administration's Western water policies for the last three years, announced Wednesday he was leaving his job as assistant secretary of the Interior for water and science. Raley oversaw federal policy during a particularly challenging time, when the demands of a fast-growing region collided with drought. Yet he insisted there was plenty of water in the West - it was just a matter of shifting its uses through water marketing, an approach that many think represents the future of Western water management. In California, Raley may be remembered best as the folksy but firm bureaucrat who finally made good on the federal government's long-standing threat to put California on a water diet. He did it by forcing the state to agree to stop using more than its share of the Colorado River, freeing up water for other Western states. A major disappointment of his tenure was a failure to resolve one of the West's angriest contests for water: the struggle that pits the irrigation demands of farmers in the Klamath River basin along the California-Oregon border against the needs of Native Americans and other fishermen who rely on healthy downstream flows to sustain salmon and other fish. "At least we got people back to where they are at least working with each other," Raley said. Commenting on his resignation, Raley, a Colorado water lawyer with two teenage daughters, said, "The primary reason is family." He added: "But also I believe in jobs like this, you have a limited shelf life. You have to do your best and move on." His efforts at compromise gave short shrift to the environment, say conservationists who argue that he helped weaken fish and wildlife protections. And while Western agricultural interests stand to profit handsomely from the farm-to-city water transfers that Raley championed, he angered one of the West's biggest irrigation districts, in California's Imperial Valley, by questioning its water use. "I'm sorry I've made some people unhappy, but I sleep well at night," said Raley, who grew up in a Colorado ranching family and never gave up his cowboy boots. He said he planned to resume his law practice and that he had no political aspirations. He also said he doubted his departure would signal a shift in the administration's water policies. Raley's resignation is effective Friday. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton named Tom Weimer, principal deputy under Raley, as acting assistant secretary, but did not say who would permanently fill the position. "Bennett has been the linchpin of this administration's Western water policy, tackling some of the most contentious issues facing the region during a prolonged period of drought," Norton said. "As the lead federal negotiator on the 2003 Colorado River Water Delivery Agreement, he helped to bring certainty and predictability to the long-term water supplies of Colorado River basin states," she added. "The agreement resolved issues that had divided water users in the lower Colorado River basin for more than 70 years and led to the largest transfer of water from agricultural use to urban use in U.S. history." The complicated deal calls for California to phase out its use of Colorado River surplus deliveries and for the giant Imperial Irrigation District to sell some of its Colorado water to San Diego. To forge the agreement, Raley cajoled, imposed cutbacks and questioned Imperial's water use. No agency got all that it wanted, and numerous prickly details are still being resolved - including a controversial plan to fallow farmland in the Imperial Valley. A plan to protect the inland Salton Sea from rising salinity levels also has yet to be finalized. Stella Mendoza, a member of Imperial's governing board, said she wished Raley good luck, but that she was not sorry to see him go. "I always felt he was not a friend of" the Imperial Irrigation District, she said. "The best interests of the valley were not on his agenda. We were threatened with the taking of our water and we were forced to act prematurely. I felt at times the board was being intimidated." Raley's cowboy boots and folksy ways never fooled her, she added. "He tried to convince us he was one of us." Still, getting California to agree to stop taking more than its share of the river was widely seen as a historic breakthrough. Ronald R. Gastelum, president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which long relied on the surplus Colorado water, called Raley "pragmatic" and a "problem solver" who "also came to terms with the fact that there are a lot of changes in California, and that it is not going to be business as usual." Brenda Southwick, managing counsel of the California Farm Bureau, said Raley was straightforward. "Overall, the thing we most appreciated about him was that he was a straight shooter. You pretty much knew where he stood." While conservationists prefer water marketing to new dams, they faulted Raley for dragging his feet on environmental protections and too closely catering to the needs of the federal government's biggest water customer, Western agriculture. "Bennett Raley has been the architect of the return of the water policies of the 1940s and 1950s," said Barry Nelson, senior policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "He's worked very hard to protect the interests of a small set of highly subsidized agricultural interests and ignored the needs of the modern West. He's been tremendously anti-environment." Nelson cited the Klamath Basin in Northern California, where more than 30,000 salmon perished in 2002 after river flows were reduced to increase irrigation deliveries. He also pointed to what he called the Interior Department's "glacial movement" in restoration of the Trinity River, also in Northern California. He further criticized Raley for not backing funding for wastewater reclamation projects to benefit urban areas. "He's also not been very interested in solving the water supply needs for urban areas," Nelson said. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Dec 2 10:55:08 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 10:55:08 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] San Francisco Chronicle Editorial Message-ID: <20041202190025.DD73320000B3@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> FISHERIES PROTECTION Editorial: Slow-fading salmon San Francisco Chronicle - 12/2/04 Restoring salmon and steelhead trout runs in West Coast rivers is a monumental challenge. Dams, farming, logging and population growth all contribute to declines that border on extinction. What will it take to fill streams again with these silvery fish, symbols of nature and a clean, thriving environment? There are lots of answers, but don't expect any good ones from the Bush administration. Step by step, it is rolling back policies and changing rules to undercut a revival of these fish. The latest is a plan to cut protections for rivers, which are the vital nurseries of the fish to spawn and grow before heading out to sea. The proposal wipes out 80 percent of the habitat controls that prevent timber cuts and roads that muddy the clear-flowing water needed by the fish. The shift also helps developers who want to build near streams, another activity that can lead to lower water quality. It's a giveaway to business and a loss for the environment. Coming a month after the presidential vote, the move seems timed to minimize fallout for President Bush. The cuts in river protections aren't the only dismaying setback for salmon. Earlier, the administration tried to count hatchery-raised fish along with slim numbers of wild fish to show that populations weren't endangered. Also, this week Bush officials formally buried talk of taking down federal dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers that obstruct migrating fish. Removing the eight major dams -- a radical step, to be sure -- had at least stayed on the table in a long-running argument in the Northwest about salmon losses. Salmon and steelhead are no match for the White House's political calculations. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Dec 3 11:16:33 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 11:16:33 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Dec 8 TAMWG meeting cancelled Message-ID: <01a001c4d96c$9b944f60$506b3940@V51NH> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Arnold Whitridge" To: TAMWG Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 10:51 AM Subject: Dec 8 TAMWG meeting cancelled > TAMWG, > >> I've just been informed by FWS Arcata personnel that the December 8 TAMWG > meeting can't take place because the FACA-required notice was not published > in the federal register. Apparently, the proposed notice never left > Sacramento, and nobody in Washington knew the meeting was scheduled. I > don't fully understand FACA's provisions, but it might be illegal for > federal employees to attend even a non-noticed, informal (and unreimbursed) > gathering of TAMWG members. In any case, the Dec 8 meeting is cancelled. > FWS has promised to call each member to explain this directly. I believe > the TMC meeting scheduled for Dec 9 and 10 will proceed as scheduled, > unaffected by our misadventure except of course that they'll have to make > do without any new TAMWG advice. > > Arnold > From bwl3 at comcast.net Fri Dec 3 11:24:18 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 11:24:18 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] TAMWG Meeting Message-ID: <20041203192423.3B225200009D@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> The TAMWG meeting planned for Wednesday, December 8 in Redding has been cancelled. Notice of the meeting does not appear to have been posted in the Federal Register within prescribed time limit. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Mon Dec 6 15:28:25 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 15:28:25 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity Management Council Meeting Dec 9 and 10 in Redding Message-ID: <023901c4dbeb$4a6447e0$226c3940@V51NH> Draft Agenda TRINITY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA December 9-10, 2004 Thursday, December 9, 2004 Time Topic and Purpose Discussion Leader Regular Business: 8:30 Introduction: Validate agenda items; Approve TMC Mike Ryan, Chair Minutes for 6/30/04, 7/27/04, 8/2/04, 8/20/04, 9/30/04 9:00 Open Forum: Comments from the public Mike Ryan 9:15 Report from TMC Chair: Mike Ryan 9:30 Report from TAMWG Chair: Arnold Whitridge 9:45 Report from Executive Director: Project updates; Doug Schleusner Staffing; Q&A Action Item: 10:00 Ways to Improve TMC - TAMWG Interactions Mike Ryan (Identify tasks, make assignments) Arnold Whitridge 10:30 Break Action Item: 10:45 Integrated Critical Path (RIG/TMAG) for Ed Solbos, RIG April 2005 Releases (8500 cfs) Rod Wittler, TMAG (Status report; validate/modify objectives; time schedule) Action Item: 11:45 Channel Rehab Site Revegetation Design Robert Sullivan, TMAG Philosophy Using Hocker Flat as an Example (Validate/modify objectives; costs) 12:30 Lunch Information Item: 1:30 Update on Klamath Water Operations and Dave Sabo, BOR Conservation Implementation Plan (CIP) Christine Karas, BOR (Possible action based on presentation/discussion) 2:30 Break Action Item: 2:45 NEPA/CEQA and Permit Compliance Strategy Ed Solbos (Status report; validate/modify proposed process) Tom Stokely, County 4:00 Adjourn for the day Mike Ryan - over - Friday, December 10, 2004 Time Topic and Purpose Discussion Leader Information Item: 8:30 Fall Update on Fish Returns, Hatchery Neil Manji, DFG Operations Information Item: 8:45 Summary of Science Framework Rod Wittler Workshop 1 and Next Steps (Possible action based on presentation/discussion) Information Item: 9:30 Spring Chinook Egg Viability Thermal Study Keith Marine, NSR Information Item: 10:15 Draft Strategic Plan Update Doug Schleusner (Status; possible action based on presentation/discussion) 10:30 Break Information Item: 10:45 Canyon Creek Gold Mining EIS: Status and Joyce Andersen, USFS Ways to Participate in the Process (Possible action based on presentation/discussion) 11:45 Lunch Action Item: 1:00 Coastal Salmon Recovery Program: Grant Neil Manji, Process and Strategy for New Proposals Doug Schleusner (Identify tasks, make assignments) Regular Business: 2:00 Open Forum: Comments from the public Mike Ryan 2:15 Calendars: Confirm next meeting date and location Mike Ryan (Tentatively March __ at Weaverville) 2:30 Adjourn Mike Ryan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Dec 8 17:49:59 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 08 Dec 2004 17:49:59 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Bush Adminstration Abandons Salmon Protection Message-ID: NOAA Fisheries Abandons Salmon Restoration by Dan Bacher At a meeting in Sacramento this fall, Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations, jokingly renamed NOAA Fisheries as ?No Fisheries? to describe the damage done to this federal agency by the Bush administration. NOAA Fisheries, a federal agency supposedly ?dedicated to providing and preserving the nation?s living marine resources and their habitat,? definitely lived up to its new nickname on December 1 when it released a proposal that would slash habitat protection for endangered and threatened salmon stocks in California and the Northwest. The proposals could reduce up to 90 percent of ?critical habitat? set aside for the fish in California and as much as 80 percent of the habitat in the Pacific Northwest, according to Jim Lecky, the assistant regional manager for the Southwest Region of the agency. ?This proposal seeks to protect critical salmon habitats and meet the economic needs of the citizens of the Pacifica Northwest and California,? said Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries administrator, in spite of the fact that the proposal actually reduces, rather than maintaining or expanding ?critical habitat.? The Endangered Species Act (ESA) requires the federal government to designate ?critical habitat? for any species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. NOAA defines ?critical habitat? as ?specific areas on which are found physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species, and which may require special management considerations of protection.? Fishery and environmental groups fear that increasing reliance on the perceived ?economic needs? of landowners in making fish habitat decisions will result in increased siltation of spawning beds through logging, the de-watering of streams through agricultural diversions and the encroachment of urban development on pristine watershed. This reduction of ?critical habitat? will put already precarious salmon and steelhead runs at the edge of extinction. The agency contends that federal restoration efforts have already resulted in substantial improvements in salmon runs ? and the costs of restoration to landowners must be considered in setting aside habitat for salmon. ?This proposal emphasized salmon restoration as a top priority and recognized the many voluntary conservation efforts and collaborative agreements that are already underway to achieve that goal,? said Bob Long. NOAA Fisheries? northwest regional administrator. ?The designations are designed to identify the most beneficial biological habitat for salmon, while also defining the scope of the costs associated with designating certain areas.? Since 2000, three of four listed Northern and Central California salmon runs and 13 of 16 listed Pacific Northwest salmon populations have experienced ?significant improved numbers. Nearly all salmon populations have increased greatly and current levels are now well above ten-year averages,? the agency claimed. However, Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen?s Associations said the proposal would only protect stretches of streams already occupied by fish, totally disregarding the thousands and thousands of miles of streams where salmon and steelhead have been exterminated because of dams, water diversions and habitat degradation. ?NOAA is eliminating plans to recolonize stretches of river where the fish have been eliminated because of habitat destruction,? said Spain. ?They are ignoring the need to protect habitat that was historically occupied by the fish ? and where the fish could be living again if they were restored.? Historical habitat where salmonhave been extirpated is most dramatically demonstrated in California in the case of the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam, where a huge spring run of salmon was completely exterminated to provide water for corporate agribusiness. Also, the Bush administration?s ?economic analysis? ignores all of the benefits to the sportfishing and commercial fishing industries, only considering the benefits to agribusiness, the timber industry and land developers. ?They use over-inflated costs of protection in their analysis, but won?t consider the economic benefits of restoration,? said Spain. ?This administration has a long history of ignoring the benefits and emphasizing the costs of restoration through a biased economic analysis.? He cited the case of the bull trout where administration political appointees? ordered the scientists studying critical habitat to eliminate all discussion of the benefits of restoration. The current proposal is the culmination of a long history of legal battles between fish advocates, the ?wise use? movement and the federal government. In April 2002, NOAA Fisheries withdrew the 2000 critical habitat designations, in response to a legal challenge by the National Association of Homebuilders, after a federal court ruled that the agency did not adequately consider the economic impacts of the critical habitat designations. The PCFFA and other plaintiffs, in turn, filed another lawsuit, arguing that the agency had failed to designate in a timely manner critical habitat for the 19 Evolutionarily Significant Units (ESUs) for which critical habitat had been vacated. The parties entered a settlement where NOAA Fisheries ultimately agreed to file the critical habitat designations for the 19 ESU?s covered by the vacated rule, plus Northern California steelhead, by November 30. Spain noted that the new NOAA proposal is contrary to the stated fishery restoration policies of the four Pacific states - to recover salmon and steelhead populations as fast as possible to harvestable levels. ?They are trying to do as little as possible as long as possible until the problem goes away,? said Spain. ?Yes, the problem will go away - when the fish become extinct!? Public hearings on the proposals will be held in January 2005 in various locations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California to receive comments and feedback on the proposal. I encourage everybody concerned about salmon and steelhead recovery to attend these hearings and send their comments. Details of the public hearings will soon be posted on the NOAA Fisheries website: www.nwr.noaal.gove/1salmon/salmsa/rithab/Chsite.htm. Following the public comment period and hearings, the final rules are slated to be completed by June 2005. On the same day that the administration reduced critical habitat for salmon, NOAA Fisheries ruled out the possibility of removing dams on the Columbia and Snake rivers to protect 11 endangered runs of salmon and steelhead. Other recent decisions that favored landowners and water barons over fish include the agency?s ?no jeopardy? biological opinion regarding endangered Central Valley fish, designed to pave the way for more Delta exports, and the agency?s inclusion of both hatchery and wild salmon under ESA-protected populations of salmon. There is no doubt that NOAA Fisheries has become the ?No Fisheries? agency, where the only ?science? practiced is political! From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Dec 9 13:22:31 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 13:22:31 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Renewal Long-Term Contracts San Luis Unit Message-ID: <20041209212235.64A4B2000096@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Notice was filed today in the Federal Register, and the deadline for public comments on the San Luis Unit Long-Term Contract Renewal EIS, including Westlands Water District, is January 24. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Dec 9 13:29:50 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 13:29:50 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] San Luis Contracts Message-ID: <20041209212954.830E72000464@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Incidentally, a copy of the San Luis Unit Long-Term Contract Renewal Environmental Impact Statement can be obtained from: Mr. Joe Thompson U. S. Bureau of Reclamation 1243 N Street Fresno, CA 93721-1813 Email: jthompson at mp.usbr.gov Fax: 559 478 5397 Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Dec 9 14:15:26 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 14:15:26 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Correction San Luis Unit EIS Message-ID: <20041209221530.0E3A32000096@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Joe Thompson was good enough to call to let me know that the email address I provided for him was incorrect. The correct email address is: hthompson at mp.usbr.gov This is important, needless to say, because another person has the address I sent in my last message. Any email messages sent to that address, therefore, would be received by the wrong person. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hthompson at mp.usbr.gov Thu Dec 9 14:00:54 2004 From: hthompson at mp.usbr.gov (Joe Thompson) Date: Thu, 09 Dec 2004 14:00:54 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] San Luis Contracts Message-ID: To all concerned: My correct email address is hthompson at mp.usbr.gov. The rest of the contact information is correct. Joe Thompson Environmental Specialist U.S. Bureau of Reclamation SCCAO Fresno, CA Office: 559.487.5179 Cell: 559.860.9481 >>> "Byron " 12/9/2004 1:29:50 PM >>> Incidentally, a copy of the San Luis Unit Long-Term Contract Renewal Environmental Impact Statement can be obtained from: Mr. Joe Thompson U. S. Bureau of Reclamation 1243 N Street Fresno, CA 93721-1813 Email: jthompson at mp.usbr.gov Fax: 559 478 5397 Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org From bwl3 at comcast.net Mon Dec 13 08:17:24 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 08:17:24 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SF Chronicle December 13 Message-ID: <20041213162241.DD3232000B7A@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Concerned about salmon and steelhead? See bold, underlined type in article. New sales reignite timber battles Bush allows harvest of larger, older trees in northern counties Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer Monday, December 13, 2004 Kimberly Baker of the Klamath Forest Alliance approaches ... * Printable Version * Email This Article Cecilville, Siskiyou County -- They're just over the lip of a rutted dirt road and down a precipitous slope about 600 yards: scores of conifers scattered along a creek, all slashed with blue paint. They differ from the trees comprising the surrounding forest in that they're bigger -- much bigger, some exceeding 3 feet in diameter. In fact, they're the last truly large trees in this part of the Salmon River basin. And the blue paint means they'll be cut soon. This is the Meteor timber sale, one of a series of controversial timber sales authorized by the Bush administration for the Klamath, Six Rivers, Shasta-Trinity and Mendocino national forests, all in northwest California. Biologists consider the northwest forests one of the richest terrestrial ecosystems in the hemisphere, supporting a vast array of temperate woodland species. Heavily logged in the 1970s and 1980s, the forests have been slowly healing. But new sales such as the Meteor, say environmentalists, are threatening that recovery. They say the sales are an under-the-radar attempt by the administration to gut the Northwest Forest Plan -- a view rigorously countered by the U.S. Forest Service. Scott Greacen, the national forest program coordinator for the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) in Garberville (Humboldt County) -- a small organization that is suing the forest service in an attempt to stop the impending logging -- said the agency has expedited the sales by overturning key provisions of the plan, a 1994 program devoted to promoting sustainable forestry practices and enhancing wildlife and fisheries in Washington, Oregon and northern California. Foremost among these, said Greacen, are rules that require surveying and monitoring of sensitive woodland species. The rules were given real teeth after a series of lawsuits in the late 1990s compelled the forest service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management to apply them rigorously, Greacen said. As a consequence, timber harvests were greatly reduced throughout the forests -- and the direct beneficiaries, said Greacen, were the northern spotted owl, the Pacific fisher, the salmon, steelhead, salamanders and other species that had been so devastated by earlier logging. "These rules are at the heart of the whole Northwest Forest Plan," said Greacen. "Without them, the plan is just a document, with no real authority on the ground." Greacen said the rule changes will allow logging of the last old-growth trees over much of the northwest forestlands, fragmenting crucial wildlife habitat and reducing the value of established reserves where timber cutting generally is proscribed. He also criticized a rule change that shifts the emphasis away from possible logging impacts on individual watercourses to impacts on entire watersheds -- a change, he said, that will harm recovering populations of salmon and steelhead. "A sale that will severely degrade a stream could still be approved because it would be viewed within the context of the larger landscape," Greacen said. "But that's an absurd rationale, because the impacts aren't felt across an entire watershed -- they're concentrated on the specific stream where the logging occurs." Matt Mathes, a spokesman for the forest service's California region, acknowledged the revisions in the plan, but said the sales merely represent full implementation of the plan, which authorizes logging in some areas. Under the original program, Mathes said, numerous reserves for old-growth trees were identified -- havens for the species dependent on mature forest systems. Except for thinning programs, timber cutting is prohibited in the reserves. However, Mathes noted, "There were also 'matrix' areas where some harvest would be allowed, so that the little timber towns of northern California, Oregon and Washington wouldn't be left high and dry." All the sales now authorized are in these matrix areas, said Mathes. "If there's an attempt to undermine (the 1994 plan), it isn't the forest service that's responsible," said Mathes. "It's the groups trying to halt these sales. We recognize that stopping all harvest would have a devastating effect on these rural communities. The survey and management rules in particular were paralyzing the full implementation of the 1994 plan." Art Harwood, the president of Harwood Products, a Mendocino County timber mill, welcomed the changes. "Basically, the 1994 plan was no good because it didn't work," Harwood said. "It specifically stated that there would be harvests allowed in the matrix areas, but there has been virtually no logging since implementation. So perhaps this will be an improvement." The wisdom of logging the bigger trees as a way of reducing wildfire risk -- which the plan listed as a secondary goal of timber harvest -- is another point of contention. Peg Boland, the forest service supervisor for the Klamath National Forest, said cutting some larger trees in the forest -- such as those from the Meteor sale -- would help finance fuel reduction programs. "One purpose (of the sales) is certainly to get timber to market, but the revenues we receive are also very helpful in our efforts to remove excess fuels," Boland said. But most environmentalists and some foresters say fire risk cannot be reduced by removing larger trees. "Wildfire risk is best reduced by pulling out the ladder fuels, which includes thinning stands of smaller trees," said Fred Euphrat, a Sonoma County consulting forester whose specialty is sustainable timber production in northwest forest ecosystems. Euphrat said the plan's combination of reserves and matrix areas is sound in theory -- but focusing on harvesting larger trees is problematic. "That does nothing to reduce wildfire risk -- in fact, it makes it worse," he said. "Stands of large, widely spaced trees are relatively resistant to fires." In addition, many biologists say that species associated with the old- growth forests cannot be adequately protected if larger trees are removed. Rocky Gutierrez, a professor of wildlife biology at the University of Minnesota who is an authority on the northern spotted owl -- long considered the endangered species poster child for ancient forests -- said judicious thinning can enhance forest biodiversity. "By removing the smaller trees, you accelerate the development of old- growth characteristics," said Gutierrez. "You also achieve a degree of fireproofing." But if a program of fire hazard reduction involves targeting larger trees, said Gutierrez, "you have to view that with suspicion." Regardless of how the fight plays out, it is unlikely it will lead to a renewal of the wholesale clear-cutting that ravaged the northwest forests in the 1970s and 1980s. That's due partly to the fact that most of the big firs and pines already have been cut; there are plenty of trees, but they're generally small. And while many professional foresters favor some kind of regulated harvest of the older trees that remain, others say it's time to leave the surviving big timber alone. "I read an editorial in a forestry journal recently that said we need to decide that old-growth is off limits, and it resonated with me," said Laurence Fox, a professor of forestry at Humboldt State University in Arcata. "Old growth is such a lightning rod," he said. "I'm not sure harvesting it is worth the controversy. We've been saying for some time now that we understand ecological restoration, that we know how to rehabilitate damaged watersheds. Perhaps now we need to get on with it." Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 2904 bytes Desc: not available URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Dec 14 09:30:03 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 09:30:03 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] SF Chronicle Monday, December 13 Message-ID: <20041214173008.303952000B77@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> EDITORIAL A water giveaway Monday, December 13, 2004 * Printable Version * Email This Article Health .Main Opinion Page .Chronicle Sunday Insight .Chronicle Campaigns SF Chronicle Submissions .Letters to the Editor .Open Forum .Sunday Insight WHO OWNS California's water? That issue, which has shaped California's history, is at the heart of a legal battle that could gut implementation of the Endangered Species Act in California and place insurmountable hurdles in the state's ability to manage its water. The controversy dates back to the extended California drought in the early 1990s, when the federal government held back water from two San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts to protect the Chinook salmon and delta smelt populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. A private law firm, Marzulla & Marzulla, sued the federal government on behalf of the irrigation districts -- which in turn represent 285 growers in the area. The suit claimed that withholding the water represented an illegal ''taking'' of property, prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. In 2001, John Wiese, a judge in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., ruled in the grower's favor. The ruling effectively overturned decades of California law. For years, it had been accepted that our water is owned by the people of California, and not by those who have signed contracts to use it. ''You can acquire rights to use water, but you can never acquire ownership of water in the same way you can a piece of land, or an automobile,'' said Joseph Sax, a UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law professor who helped prepare a brief against the water districts' claims. Wiese in effect ruled that the users of the water, through their local water districts, owned the water. He ordered the federal government to pay the growers $14 million in damages, which, with interest and attorneys' fees, has grown to $26 million. ''This could have a devastating impact on regulating water in the public interest in California,'' Sax told us. But instead of appealing the case to a higher court -- which the federal government typically does when it has to pay out large sums of money - - the Bush administration is reportedly on the verge of reaching a settlement with the growers, to the alarm of state officials. On Dec. 1, California's Water Resources Control Board, representing the Schwarzenegger administration, urged the Bush administration to appeal Wiese's decision and to consider having the case transferred to the California Supreme Court. In a letter to three Bush cabinet secretaries, water board chairman Arthur Baggett Jr. wrote that Wiese's ruling could ''fundamentally change the way water resources are managed in California.'' State Attorney General Bill Lockyer has made a similar request. Even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, charged with managing the nation's fisheries, has urged the administration to appeal the ruling, arguing that ''liability was wrongly decided.'' All Californians should be concerned about the Justice Department's apparent eagerness to go along with a flawed ruling in a single court that could have a disastrous impact on the environment, as well as determine who controls water in California for decades to come.. Urge Attorney General John Ashcroft to stand up for taxpayers and the environment by appealing this ruling. E-mail him at askdoj at usdoj.gov. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: image006.gif Type: image/gif Size: 70 bytes Desc: not available URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Dec 15 10:23:11 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:23:11 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Study shows federal subsidies go to largest farms Message-ID: <00b301c4e2dc$0ff1bdc0$186c3940@V51NH> http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/10420390.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp Posted on Wed, Dec. 15, 2004 Study shows federal subsidies go to largest farms JULIANA BARBASSA Associated Press FRESNO, Calif. - A handful of farms get most of the water, and the subsidy dollars, delivered by the country's largest federal water supply project, according to a new study by a national environmental organization. The Central Valley Project, authorized in 1936 to support family farms, now funnels up to $416 million of subsidized water to agricultural giants in California's Central Valley, with the top 10 percent of agricultural water users getting 67 percent of the water, the Environmental Working Group study released Wednesday found. This is a perversion of the project's initial intent - and very expensive to taxpayers, said Bill Walker, the organization's vice president for the West Coast. "The system is broken," Walker said. And fixing it is more important than ever, Walker said, since the Central Valley's water districts are currently going through contract negotiations that could lock in millions of acre feet of water deliveries for decades to come - a time when the state's booming population is expected to increase demand on the limited resource. But representatives of Westlands Water District, the biggest beneficiary of the federal water project, called the report's conclusions "irresponsible." The rate charged for water from the CVP is determined by law, they said, and the only break farmers get is on repayment of the $3.6 billion in public money used to build the project, an amount that is being returned over decades with no accruing interest, water contractors said. By 2002, water users had only paid back 11 percent of the initial building cost, in part because they've been locked into decades-long contracts that set their water rates lower than what was necessary to pay back the construction costs, the report said. Farmers argue they pay that debt back to the public by generating jobs and revenue in a region plagued by double-digit unemployment, and producing the fresh fruits and vegetables that feed the nation. Water "is a resource that should be available to a variety of users - and there isn't any question the public benefit outweighs the cost in this situation," said Thomas Birmingham, the general manger for Westlands Water District Westlands Irrigation District, a political heavyweight that encompasses about 550,000 acres in Fresno and Kings counties, gets more than a quarter of the water delivered by the CVP. In 2002, it paid $13.4 million for its 721,258 acre feet of water - a deal bolstered by a subsidy of at least $23.9 million, according to the environmental group's calculations. Westlands is home to some of the largest enterprises served by the Central Valley projects - farming conglomerates like the 25,000 acres of nuts, tomatoes and other vegetables owned by the Woolf family. Back when the federal water project was built, a farm was "what a man and team of mules could work," Stuart Woolf said. "We've moved beyond that," he said, adding that the main beneficiaries of the solid agricultural economy that rests on the back of operations like his family's and the federal water project are "those who eat and wear clothes," he said. But many experts who have worked to reform the 60-year-old federal water project, like Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, warned that contract negotiations under way could "provide these same handouts to these same special interests for decades to come." ON THE NET: Environmental Working Group: http://www.ewg.org/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Wed Dec 15 10:24:52 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 10:24:52 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] LA Times - Farmers Fill Up at Federal Water Trough Message-ID: <00b401c4e2dc$1201b200$186c3940@V51NH> http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-subsidize15dec15,1,338149.story?coll=la-headlines-california Farmers Fill Up at Federal Water Trough Big growers on Fresno County's west side reaped at least $24 million in 2002 water subsidies, an activist group says. By Mark Arax Times Staff Writer December 15, 2004 HURON, Calif. - This is a valley that wears its mistrust of the federal government proudly. >From Bakersfield to Modesto, handmade signs planted firmly in San Joaquin Valley farm soil call for the death of activist federal judges. Bumper stickers shout the primacy of private property and gun rights. But the payments that flow into the valley from Washington, D.C. - those are a different matter. Nearly a third of the population in this farm belt relies on some form of federal public assistance, figures show, one of the highest such dependency rates in the nation. And then there is the federal support that few locals like to talk about: the water and crop subsidies that keep the wealthiest citizens in tall cotton. Each year, a score of big farmers on Fresno County's west side receive millions of dollars in price supports and subsidized water for their cotton, nut, tomato, garlic, onion and grape crops. A report by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit trying to reform the agricultural subsidy system, shows that farms in Huron and the surrounding area received, by the most conservative measure, $24 million in water subsidies in 2002. That figure does not include millions more in cotton and wheat subsidies. The report comes as the federal Bureau of Reclamation is renegotiating its long-term contracts with agricultural users in the Central Valley Project, the nation's largest irrigation system. The negotiations have raised concerns among environmentalists, who say that the U.S. government is about to give farmers another sweetheart deal. Farmers respond that the inexpensive water allows them to compete in a global market flooded with cheap foreign crops. The report, released today, measures the water use of each farm tied to the Central Valley Project. The biggest farming operation in Fresno County, run by the Woolf family, used 29,000 acre-feet of water to irrigate 19,000 acres of crops. That is enough water to fill more than 37,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, the report said. "The figures show very clearly that despite the fact that the CVP was conceived as a way to support small family farmers, that subsidy today is overwhelmingly going to the largest and richest farms," said Bill Walker, one of the report's authors. The amount of water that each farm draws from the project is a matter of public record. The watchdog group, which each year assesses crop subsidies to farms nationwide, calculated the value of the water by using three different formulas. Farmers who saw only excerpts of the report didn't take issue with the most conservative formula, which yielded the $24-million-a-year subsidy figure. But one formula, which based the water's value on what it would cost to replace it in today's market, was criticized by farmers. That formula calculated the total yearly subsidy to farmers on Fresno County's west side at $110 million. For farmers throughout the Central Valley Project, the figure was $416 million. "This is a supposed analysis that is based upon false assumptions and some hypothetical fair market value for water that doesn't exist," said Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, the biggest irrigator in the California Valley Project. " A lot of our farmers are using drip irrigation. They are among the most efficient water users in the world, right up there with farmers in Israel." The debate is hardly new. Over the decades, as the San Joaquin Valley has grown into the most productive agricultural region in the world, politicians and bureaucrats have grappled with the issues of water and the size of farms. The old Jeffersonian ideal held that cheap water was a means to develop the West with small and mid-sized farms. The Central Valley Project, which began construction in the mid-1930s, grew out of that ideal. But the economies of scale - efficient big farms swallowing up inefficient small ones - have dictated otherwise. Reclamation law no longer prohibits cheap federal water from going to farms larger than 160 acres. Farms up to 960 acres can qualify. Even so, prominent farm families in western Fresno County have found a way to obtain subsidies for even larger holdings. By dividing their 10,000- and 15,000-acre operations into 960-acre chunks, many growers in the Westlands district have managed to receive a lion's share of the project's water - more than 25% in many years, the report said. The Britz family, for example, has divided its Westlands holdings into nine separate entities, each one receiving crop and water subsidies. In 2002 and 2003, the Britzes received more than $1 million in crop supports and nearly $300,000 in water subsidies. The Britzes could not be reached for comment. The Woolf family has weaned itself from crop subsidies by replacing cotton and wheat - crops that receive price supports - with vegetables, almonds, pistachios and grapes. But the family's water subsidy in 2002 was at least $710,000, the report found. Stuart Woolf, president and chief executive of Woolf Enterprises, said his family has spent millions of dollars to convert from flood irrigation to more efficient drip irrigation. "This study gives the impression that we're big water wasters," Woolf said. "The reality is, we don't have enough water to use, and we have to manage every drop." "The Environmental Working Group is raising some good questions, but I would encourage them to come visit our farm and learn a little bit about the careful way we manage water resources. We're good stewards." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Dec 15 12:13:39 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:13:39 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Water Subsidies Message-ID: <20041215201355.5017920000A5@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> For those wanting to see the full report on water subsidies to huge irrigator landowners issued by Environmental Working Group, its website is: http://www.ewg.org/ Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Dec 15 13:17:22 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 13:17:22 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Trinity ROD at Stake Message-ID: <20041215212232.AE3562000982@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> KLAMATH BASIN FISHERIES Comment: President Bush should keep the promise to the Trinity River Eureka Times-Standard - 12/12/04 By State Sen. Wesley Chesbro The effort to restore the Trinity River took a long step backwards last week when the Bush administration declared war on the salmon of the Pacific Northwest. The administration published a proposal in the Dec. 1, 2004, Federal Register calling for an "80 percent reduction in designated habitat for endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead," according to news reports. It is especially bad news for Northern California because it may mean restoration of the Trinity River will be shortchanged. The federal agencies are justifying less protection for salmon by saying fish runs "have experienced significant improved numbers." This politically motivated assertion flies in the face of the reality of the 68,000 Klamath and Trinity river fish that died in 2002. Since 1955, the United States has broken promises to protect and restore the Trinity River's fish habitat. That is when Congress authorized taking Trinity River water for the Central Valley Project. California Congressman Clair Engle promised, "not one bucketful of water which is necessary to this (Trinity River) watershed" would be diverted until the needs of the river's fishery were satisfied. Despite these assurances the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has taken up to 90 percent of the river's water in some of the years since diversions began in l964. In 2000 Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt promised to restore the river in a Record of Decision (ROD) after 20 years of cooperative studies with the Hoopa Valley Tribe. Before the ink had dried on the ROD, Westlands Water District and the Northern California Power Agency filed a lawsuit stopping restoration of the river. But this summer the U.S. 9th Circuit Court ruled in favor of the ROD. That means the tribe has the water for the river. But the water is only part of the restoration equation. Non-flow measures like riverbed gravel repair, riparian foliage and bridge improvements are also needed to make the river a healthy fish habitat. The courts have given the tribe and the North Coast the water, but now they must battle a fiscally stalled BOR for non-flow improvements. By not providing enough money for the river's restoration, the Bush administration is continuing the flow of broken promises on the Trinity River. President Bush must not renege on the Trinity River ROD. The time is right for the restoration of the river and its fishery. We have won the water in court, now the president should give the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation enough money to finish restoration work before the river's natural fishery dies. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Dec 16 12:43:00 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 12:43:00 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Long Beach Press Telegram Dec 15 Message-ID: <20041216204305.8788520009B6@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT Editorial: Pulling the plug on handouts Long Beach Press Telegram - 12/15/04 These farm subsidies don't make sense. In 1936 the federal government began offering cheap, subsidized water to California farmers in an effort to encourage Western settlers to start small family farms. Yet nearly 70 years later the federal government is still doing it and now the subsidies are massive and primarily going to large, wealthy corporate farming operations. Does this sound to anyone like a prudent use of taxpayer money? Federal farm subsidies are a nationwide problem. What began as an earnest attempt to assist family farms has become an indefensible handout of taxpayer funds to some of the largest farming corporations. A study released Monday by the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based group opposed to federal farm subsidies, took aim at one specific subsidy: California's Central Valley Project. The project provides one-fifth of California's total water use to farms at prices far below market value. The study found that taxpayers are subsidizing water use to the tune of $416 million a year, based on the current market value of water. The state's largest, wealthiest farms are getting the lion's share 67 percent of the subsidized water went to the top 10 percent of farms, the study reports. One large farm received nearly $4 million in water subsidies alone, not including crop subsidies and other federal discounts. The subsidies are inherently unfair, favoring one type of business over another at the expense of U.S. taxpayers. Also, there are consequences to disrupting the market with a flood of subsidies. Competition from subsidized American crops have forced many Mexican farmers out of business, many of whom then come to the U.S. to work illegally. The subsidies also put small and medium-sized California farms at a major disadvantage. Smaller farms generally favor high-value crops and use more efficient irrigation techniques. Technically the Central Valley Project is supposed to benefit only farms of 960 acres or less, but farms get around that restriction by subdividing lots into 960-acre parcels. Until 1982, only farms of 160 acres or less were eligible for the cheap water. If there ever was a sound argument for federal intervention in the farming business, that day has long passed. Sending hundreds of millions of dollars to farming operations is not only antithetical to American free-market ideals, it's a foolish misuse of taxpayer money. The Central Valley Project will soon come up for review. Pulling the plug on California's water subsidies would be a good place to start cutting off the flow of farm handouts nationwide Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tstokely at trinityalps.net Fri Dec 17 09:39:18 2004 From: tstokely at trinityalps.net (Tom Stokely) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 09:39:18 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Dr. Alan Lloyd, New CALEPA Secretary to Replace Terry Tamminen Message-ID: <008a01c4e45f$a6ae8de0$766b3940@V51NH> original from:>> "Branham, Jim" 12/16 1:16 PM >>> We are pleased to announce today that Governor Schwarzenegger has appointed Dr. Alan Lloyd to be the new Secretary for Cal/EPA (http://www.governor.ca.gov ) . As many of you know Dr. Alan Lloyd has worked tirelessly as the Chairman of the California Air Resources Board since 1999, first appointed by Governor Davis and then reappointed by Governor Schwarzenegger. As Chairman, Dr. Lloyd was committed to cultivating a mindset and an attitude throughout government, industry and society that zero-and-near-zero emission technologies can be put to use now or in the immediate future to help the state meet its air quality goals. He initiated the environmental justice focus within the agency and led the efforts resulting in the adoption of the Environmental Justice Policy and actions to be followed up by the Board. We welcome him to our team and look forward to working with him to restore, protect, and enhance our precious environment, public health, and economic vitality. Please join us in welcoming Dr. Alan Lloyd, Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Fri Dec 17 13:28:56 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 13:28:56 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee December 17 Message-ID: <20041217212904.A24AB2000B8D@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> I could comment, but I won't. PROJECT Water ruling caught in federal fight Feinstein is against $26m award to five irrigation districts. Fresno Bee - 12/17/04 By Michael Doyle, staff writer WASHINGTON - A multimillion-dollar Central Valley water dispute has caught the Bush administration in a California tug-of-war. Fearing an expensive precedent, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein this week urged the administration to appeal a $26 million judgment awarded to five Valley irrigation districts. Feinstein joined other top state officials in warning of bad fallout from a settlement some think could be imminent. "This precedent could make it impossible for the state and federal agencies to protect and manage the San Francisco Bay-Delta, the heart of the state's water system, without vastly increased public expenditures," Feinstein cautioned in a letter to three Bush administration Cabinet secretaries. The California Attorney General's Office and chairman of the state Water Resources Control Board are likewise urging the Justice Department not to settle with the Corcoran-based Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District and Kern County Water Agency. But tugging from the other side, Westerners long skeptical about federal environmental laws have been publicly and privately rooting for a settlement with the water districts. Tracy Republican Richard Pombo, chairman of the House Resources Committee, told The Bee this month that he's heard a settlement is near. He wants the farmers to win. "It's a matter of contract and what the contract says," Robin Rivett, an attorney with the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation, said Thursday. "It's a very strong case that the property owners had their property taken from them." Rivett, whose group filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the farmers, said he actually would see some benefit in a government appeal. Convinced that the government would lose in the appellate court, he said this would extend the legal precedent further than the current ruling by the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The Tulare and Kern districts and three others sued the federal government over undelivered irrigation water. The undelivered water helped preserve valuable smelt and salmon protected under the Endangered Species Act, but it also hurt farmers' pocketbooks. "At issue is not whether the federal government has the authority to protect the winter-run Chinook salmon and delta smelt," U.S. Court of Federal Claims Judge John Paul Wiese noted in his April 2001 opinion, "but whether it may impose costs of their protection solely on [the water districts]." Wiese concluded the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against the government's uncompensated taking of private property applied to the diversion of contracted-for irrigation water. That means the water districts must be reimbursed for their losses. Wiese's initial opinion and subsequent calculation of damages - $13.9 million plus $9.8 million in interest plus attorney fees - sparked considerable debate both inside and outside the federal government. Attorneys noted they hadn't seen similar cases of Fifth Amendment financial claims compelled because of the Endangered Species Act. "The interpretation of California law in [Wiese's] opinion could fundamentally change the way that water resources are managed in California, to the serious detriment of California taxpayers and resources users," Art Baggett, chairman of the state Water Resources Control Board, said in his own letter sent to the Justice Department, Interior Department and Commerce Department this month. The Commerce Department oversees the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which in March reminded the Justice Department that it, too, had been urging an appeal for the past three years. Baggett and Feinstein, along with the state Attorney General's Office, want the case shipped to the California Supreme Court, where technical questions of state water law could be resolved in favor of the environment. In particular, they note the state's responsibility to "protect public trust uses" of water. "If there was to be a referral to the state court, it should have happened years ago," Rivett retorted. The case also inspired other Westerners to file similar claims. In April, the city of Stockton, San Joaquin County and the Stockton East Water District used similar reasoning to file a half-billion-dollar lawsuit over the federal government's failure to deliver water from New Melones Reservoir. Separately, farmers in the Klamath Basin along the California-Oregon border filed their own $1 billion claim over irrigation shortfalls. In all three cases, the Washington-based firm of Marzulla & Marzulla is pressing the claims. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Fri Dec 17 14:02:31 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 14:02:31 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Fresno Bee December 17 In-Reply-To: <20041217212904.A24AB2000B8D@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Tue Dec 21 18:06:25 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 18:06:25 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Overturn centuries of California Water Law Message-ID: <20041222021131.E4ACC2000B81@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> Despite much clamor from many diverse political sources, Wiese's largesse is formalized into a settlement. Stand by for more great news. The writing is messed up because it was copied from a pdf file. IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS TULARE LAKE BASIN WATER STORAGE DISTRICT, et aI. Plaintiffs A. No. 98-101L Judge John P. Wiese UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Defendant. SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT Plaintiffs TULARE LAKE BASIN WATER STORAGE DISTRICT, a California water storage district, HANSEN RANCHES, a general partnership, the KERN COUNTY WATER AGENCY, a political subdivision of the State of California, LOST HILLS WATER DISTRICT a Californa water distrct, H.P. ANDERSON & SONS, a general parership, WHEELER RIGE-MACOPA WATER STORAGE DISTRICT, a Californa water storage distrct, THE JOSEPHSON FAMILY LIVING TRUST dated July 12, 1991 , THE BROWN FAMILY LIVING TRUST dated September 26, 1991 , and M- B FARING CO., a general parnership, Plaintiffs ) and Defendant UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, by and through their attorneys of record, and hereby agree as follows: Plaintiffs and Defendant have engaged in good faith settlement negotiations to avoid fuer litigation. By way of compromise and settlement, the UNITED STATES shall pay to Plaintiffs the sum of Sixteen Milion Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars ($16 700 000.00), as full SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT - PAGE 1 and final payment of all claims arsing out ths action, including those by Plaintiffs and interests if any, derivative of Plaintiffs. The payment shall be made by wire transfer in the amount of $16 700 000.00 to the account of WHEELER RIDGE-MACOPA WATER STORAGE DISTRICT at Wells Fargo Ban, ABA 12/000248, FFC Kern County Treasurer, Acct 4160101358. The distrbution of that payment as among the Plaintiffs (and interests, if any, derivative of Plaintiffs ' claims) and as between Plaintiffs and their counsel in this dispute shall be a matter left to Plaintiffs and their counsel. The paries shall enter into a voluntar dismissal ofthis action with prejudice pursuant to Rule 41 (a)(1) of the Rules of the Cour of Federal Claims. Plaintiffs agree to accept ths payment as full, complete and final resolution of all claims, including, but not limited to, all claims that Plaintiffs did assert or could have assered in their complaint (and amendments, if any, thereto) in this or any other action for just compensation, interest, attorneys ' fees and other litigation expenses , or for any other form of relief arsing from the facts pled in the complaint on file herein (and amendments, if any, thereto). Ths agreement is the result of compromise and settlement, and shall not be constred as an admission by Defendant of any legal or specific monetar liability as to any or all of Plaintiffs ' claims for just compensation , interest, attorneys ' fees and other litigation expenses or any other kind of legal or equitable relief, nor shall ths settlement be interpreted to constitute a precedent or arguent in ths or any other case. The paries agree to execute any and all documents necessary to consumate this settlement, including but not limited to signed authorizations from each of the Plaintiffs SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT - PAGE 2 expressing approval of this Settlement Agreement and such authorizations as wil express the approval of interests, if any, derivative of Plaintiffs. Such authorizations must be provided by Plaintiffs and received by the United States prior to the distrbution of fuds and the dismissal of Plaintiffs ' complaint. Dated: December 1!, 2004 MAULLA & MARULLA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA the Plaintiffs Fred R. Disheroon, Counsel for the United States SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT - PAGE 3 Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From danielbacher at hotmail.com Wed Dec 22 08:49:56 2004 From: danielbacher at hotmail.com (Daniel Bacher) Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:49:56 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] Report Reveals Enormous Cost of Agricultural Water Subsidies Message-ID: New Report Reveals Enormous Cost of Agricultural Water Subsidies by Dan Bacher A small group of wealthy farmers receive the vast majority of water and subsidies from the federal Central Valley Project, concludes a groundbreaking report issued on December 15 by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). The study was issued as Indian tribes, anglers, commercial fishermen and environmental groups are challenging the negotiation of long term contracts between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and CVP growers because of their disastrous impacts upon salmon and other fish populations. The EWG investigation is the first to name individual recipients of water subsidies in California. It concludes that the CVP, authorized in 1936 to support family farmers, is providing up to $416 million of subsidized water at the expense of fish and the environment. It dispels the erroneous notion that many people still have of agriculture being made up of individual yeoman farmers in the Jeffersonian tradition ? right out of the classic Grant Wood painting of a farmer holding a pitchfork, with his wife standing steadfastly beside him. ?It confirms that large agribusiness operations ? not the small family farmers that federal projects were intended to benefit ? are reaping a windfall from taxpayer-subsidized cheap water,? according to the report, written by Bill Walker and others. In 2002, the largest 10 percent of the farms received 67 percent of the water, for an average subsidy worth up to $349,000 each at market rates for replacement water, according to the study. Twenty-seven large farms each received subsidies each worth $1 million or more at market rates, compared to a median subsidy for all recipients of $7,076. The report contends that one farm ? Woolf Enterprises of Huron, Fresno County - received more water by itself than 70 CVP water user districts, for a subsidy worth up to $4.2 million at market rates. Woolf Enterprises is a member of the huge Westlands Water District, a district that Craig Tucker of Friends of the River describes as the ?Darth Vader of California water politics.? Among other revelations of the report include: ? CVP farmers get about one fifth of all the water used in California, at rates that by any measure are far below market value ? In 2002, the average price for irrigation water from the CVP was less than 2 percent of what LA residents pay for drinking water, one tenth the estimated cost of replacement water supplies and about one eighth of what the public pays to buy its own water back to restore the San Francisco Bay and Delta. The report says, ?The original intent of the federal water projects, set out in the Reclamation Act of 1902, was to encourage Western settlement by small family farms. Today, artificially cheap irrigation water in the Central Valley has led to a host of problems, including the inefficient use of water, devastation of fish and wildlife habitat and severe toxic pollution.? George Miller (D-Martinez), the author of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act that made fish and wildlife a purpose of the project for first time, hailed the release of the study. Miller has been very critical of attempts by the Bush administration to ?fast track? Central Valley water contract renewals without sufficient public notice and comment regarding the impacts of increased water diversions on endangered and threatened fish. ?We have known for years that the Bureau of Reclamation rewards its favored customers with cheap water at the expense of everyone else, including the American taxpayer,? he said. ?Now the Environmental Working Group has calculated that price tag ? and at over $400 million, it is staggering.? ?What is especially outrageous is that the Administration is secretively negotiating long-term water contracts worth billions of dollars that would provide these same handouts to these same special interests for decades to come, while the rest of California is either running short of water or paying top dollar for it. I wrote a water reform law in 1992 to end these costly giveaways, but the Bureau of Reclamation is ignoring the law and the public and trying to lock in these subsidies for generations.? Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Westlands Water District, blasted the study, claiming that the report ?completely cooks up a fanciful description of the subsidies.? He said the actual cost of water to individual farmers in the district is not 7 to 8 dollars per acre-foot, as the study contends. ?That?s the cost to the irrigation district,? he stated. ?The individual farmer in the district will actually pay $20 to 90 per acre foot.? He was particularly critical of the report?s conclusion that the average price of irrigation water was less than 2 percent of what LA residents pay for drinking water. ?First off, LA is paying for taking the water twice as far, twice the cost of conveyance. Then they have to pump the water over the Tehachapi Mountains, all at enormous cost? he said. ? Then the water is treated with chlorine and then shipped through water systems to homes ? all of that, too, at enormous cost. To make this comparison doesn?t make much sense. This is junk economics.? However, Walker emphasizes that CVP farmers are receiving between $60 million and $416 million in water subsidies each year, depending on how the ?market value? of the water is defined. The subsidy amounts are the difference between what should have paid for the water minus what they actually paid. The subsidy was calculated at three different rates ? the Bureau of Reclamation?s ?full cost? rate ($60 million), the State Environmental Water Account rate ($305 million), and the Replacement Water Rate ($416 million). The State Environmental Water Account rate is the difference between the average CVP rate and the price paid for CVP water by the Environmental Water Account, a state-federal joint agency, to restore fish and wildlife habitat in the Bay-Delta. The Replacement Water rate is obtained by comparing the average price for CVP water to the estimated coast of replacement water supplies from proposed dams and reservoirs on the San Joaquin River. ?No matter what market value is used for comparison, the total subsidy to CVP farmers exceeds the actual amount they paid in 2002, about $48 million. That means that CVP water users are getting a minimum discount of 55 percent below market value, ranging up to almost 90 percent, for the water they receive,? the report states. As a solution, the study advocates far-reaching water policy reform. ?Reforms to make details of water subsidies public, limit the amount and value of water subsidies to large farms, and encourage conservation by pricing water at rates closer to market value are needed to end the disaster for taxpayers and the environment by the Central Valley Project,? the report advises. I commend Bill Walker and the other writers of the Environmental Working Group study for doing the first real in-depth analysis of federal water subsidies and their impacts in the Central Valley. For years, fishing and environmental groups have complained about the cost of federally subsidized irrigation water projects on fish and wildlife, especially on salmon and other anadromous species. This report documents with hard data how a project meant to benefit small farmers has in fact mainly served the needs of the Westlands Water District and other large Central Valley agribusinesses ?with enormous costs to the taxpayers, fish and the environment. To read the full report, go to: http://www.ewg.org From bwl3 at comcast.net Wed Dec 22 12:57:26 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 12:57:26 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] LA Times December 22 Message-ID: <20041222210241.7DFDB20017B3@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> U.S. to Pay $16 Million in Water Rights Case Feds settle with Central Valley farmers who sued when deliveries were cut to help endangered fish. Los Angeles Times - 12/22/04 By Bettina Boxall, staff writer The Bush administration announced Tuesday that it has agreed to pay $16.7 million to a group of Central Valley farmers and irrigation districts whose water deliveries were cut to protect endangered fish. State officials had strongly urged the administration not to settle the farmers' claims, arguing that such a precedent could make it prohibitively expensive to protect endangered species. But the payment was immediately hailed as a significant victory by property rights advocates and critics of the Endangered Species Act. "This is a very strong precedent," said Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the House Resources Committee, which is headed by one of the act's most vocal detractors, Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy). "This should really fire a shot across the bow of federal regulators, reminding them that their actions have consequences and their actions cost money." The U.S. Department of Justice settled the case despite widespread warnings that it would lead to a flood of similar claims. The California attorney general's office, the Schwarzenegger administration and attorneys for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration all wrote the Justice Department in the last year, asking the Bush administration to appeal a U.S. Court of Claims ruling in favor of the farmers. Justice officials had little comment on their decision not to heed those recommendations. "This settlement is the result of careful and deliberate negotiations between the parties," said department spokesman Blain Rethmeier. The Claims Court ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Roger Marzulla, a former Justice Department official in the Reagan administration who is pursuing similar claims in three other cases. Although the settlement contains language stating that it establishes no legal precedent, Marzulla said the case "establishes the fundamental principal that the government is free to protect the fish; it simply has to pay for the water it takes to do so. "The federal government," he added, "has recognized it can't come on like a bull in a china shop and seize all the water it wishes without paying for it." Calling the ruling "ill-conceived and poorly reasoned," state Chief Deputy Atty. Gen. Richard Frank said the Bush administration's decision to settle the case was disappointing. "I'm not going to say it will produce a sea change in federal law and policy, but it will generate additional claims and controversy." In a statement, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the settlement was a "mistake that will establish a precedent that could require the public to pay tens of millions of dollars to water users in many cases where even a small portion of their anticipated deliveries are needed to protect endangered salmon or other fish." The case grew out of a drought in the early 1990s, when the State Water Project reduced deliveries to irrigation contractors to aid two fish species protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, the delta smelt and the Chinook salmon. Marzulla, a leader in the property rights movement, argued that the farmers had a property right to the water and that when federal environmental protections forced a reduction in deliveries, that amounted to a taking under the U.S. Constitution. U.S. Claims Court Judge John Paul Wiese agreed, awarding the plaintiffs $14 million, plus attorneys fees and interest. Attorneys in the case expected that to total $26 million. The settlement leaves it up to plaintiffs and attorneys to decide how to divvy up the $16.7 million. The plaintiffs include the Kern County Water Agency, several farm operations and the Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District, which serves mega-farmer J.G. Boswell. Sue Ellen Wooldridge, solicitor for the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees the Endangered Species Act, said she didn't think the case would have a broad effect because federal water contracts have shortage provisions that effectively insulate them from takings claims. "I think the ramifications are limited," she said. "The federal contracts contain the shortage provisions which the courts have interpreted as allowing [the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation] to protect the species without causing a taking." In urging an appeal of Wiese's decision, state officials said it undermined state law by finding that the end user of the water, the irrigation districts, held a property right to the water. Under California law, they said, the Department of Water Resources holds the rights to the water it diverts for farm and municipal use. Environmentalists condemned the settlement, saying it amounted to an invitation for more claims. "By settling rather than fighting this case, the Bush administration is simply encouraging more of these legal attacks against our water quality laws and other public safeguards," said Hal Candee, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "That hurts the taxpayers as well as the environment." Marzulla has filed similar takings claims for $1 billion in the Klamath Basin, where fish protections forced irrigation cutbacks on the Oregon-California border, and for the city of Stockton and irrigators who lost deliveries from the New Melones Dam in the Central Valley. He said he is preparing another case in Ventura County. "I think it is helpful to have this case resolved so we can pursue resolution of the other cases," Marzulla said. Interior Secretary Gale Norton previously served as a legal advisor to a property rights group founded by Marzulla's wife, Nancie. But Marzulla said Norton recused herself from the Tulare case and played no role in it. "She has had nothing to do with the prosecution of the Tulare case," he said Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bwl3 at comcast.net Thu Dec 23 09:36:00 2004 From: bwl3 at comcast.net (Byron ) Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 09:36:00 -0800 Subject: [env-trinity] AP in New York Times - Settlement Agreement with Water Districts Message-ID: <20041223174116.279AC200046A@mx.dcn.davis.ca.us> See last two paragraphs in bold U.S. Agrees to Pay for Diverting Water to Aid Two Rare Fish By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 23, 2004 SACRAMENTO, Dec. 22 - The federal government has agreed to pay four California water districts $16.7 million for water that the government diverted a decade ago to help two rare fish in the Central Valley, officials said Tuesday. The settlement came after a federal judge awarded $26 million to the water districts a year ago. The debate over appealing that decision or settling the case grew into a larger debate over the Endangered Species Act and privacy rights. Advertisement Some politicians, including Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, urged the government last week to fight the decision, while the chairman of the House Resources Committee, Representative Richard W. Pombo, Republican of California, urged the government to agree with the judge's ruling that the water districts were entitled to money for water they had lost. Environmental groups feared that the ruling would force the government to pay millions of dollars each time it reserved water to help threatened wildlife. But the water districts argued, and the judge ruled, that they deserved compensation under the Fifth Amendment, which protects private property from government seizure. The water districts said in a statement that Senior Judge John Wiese of the Court of Federal Claims had carefully safeguarded states' rights to make water allocation decisions even as he protected property rights. The four agencies are the Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District, the Kern County Water Agency, the Lost Hills Water District and the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District. They will get their legal costs on top of the water's market value for water diverted to aid endangered winter-run Chinook salmon and threatened delta smelt. Senator Feinstein said the decision "could seriously harm California's historic water rights system." "This precedent could make it impossible for the state and federal agencies to protect and manage the San Francisco Bay-Delta, the heart of the state's water system," without vastly increased expenditures, she said. Byron Leydecker Chair, Friends of Trinity River Consultant, California Trout, Inc. PO Box 2327 Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327 415 383 4810 ph 415 519 4810 ce 415 383 9562 fx bwl3 at comcast.net bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary) http://www.fotr.org http://www.caltrout.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.gif Type: image/gif Size: 73 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image002.gif Type: image/gif Size: 360 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image003.gif Type: image/gif Size: 73 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image004.gif Type: image/gif Size: 73 bytes Desc: not available URL: