[env-trinity] Redding Record Searchlight-Hoopa rejoice after judges rule to cut diversions, boost salmon

[Tom Stokely]

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. 

     
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"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. 
  
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