[env-trinity] Times-Standard - No plan yet for parched Klamath

[Tom Stokely]

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. 
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