[env-trinity] Various Articles/Spins on Trinity Issues- HVT, LA Times, Eureka Times Standard

Tue Apr 27 17:27:46 PDT 2004

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.#

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