[env-trinity] Flow Schedule

[Byron]

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  <outbind://28/www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo>
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

 

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