[env-trinity] City of Healdsburg News Release

[Byron]

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

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

 

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