[env-trinity] Shasta Dam Raising Proposal Questioned

[Tom Stokely]

      http://www.mtshastanews.com/articles/2005/05/25/news/01damraising.txt 

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      Shasta Dam raising proposal questioned

            By Earl Bolender Updated: Wednesday, May 25, 2005 2:02 PM PDT 
           
            About 60 people, including members of the Winnemem Wintu tribe of the McCloud River attended Friday's Watershed Roundtable to discuss the proposal to raise Shasta Dam by as much as 18.5 feet.  
      How much water would the raising of Shasta Dam between 6.5 and 18.5 feet actually produce? What would be the impact on humans and the environment by raising the dam? How much will it cost to raise the dam?

      These and other questions were asked and debated during Friday's fourth annual Siskiyou County Watershed Roundtable held to discuss the proposed raising of Shasta Dam. Approximately 60 people attended the roundtable, sponsored by the Upper Sacramento River Exchange and held at the Dunsmuir Community Building in Dunsmuir.

      The overall consensus of the audience, which included city, county and state officials, state and federal agency representatives and land and home owners from the south county, Redding and Lakehead, was that raising the dam would have little or no benefit.

      Comments were made that it would result in the destruction of public and private land around the lake and adversely affect the environment. Members of the Winnemem Wintu tribe in attendance voiced their objections, stating it would destroy ancestral land, much of which was already destroyed when the dam was built in 1938.  

      The proposed raising of Shasta Dam is part of the CalFed Bay-Delta Program initiated in 1995 as a state and federal partnership designed to help solve water problems associated with the San Francisco Bay Delta ecosystem. The idea of raising the dam is to provide additional water storage for the Bay-Delta during times of drought.

      A four-member panel representing both sides of the issue was on hand to provide updated information and viewpoints on the project and field questions from the audience.

      Members of the panel were: Vickie Newlin, Sacramento Valley regional coordinator for CalFed; Donna Garcia, the Bureau of Reclamation's Shasta Dam project manager; Mark Franco, Winnemem Wintu tribal head; and Steve Evans, Friends of the River conservation director.

      Newlin and Garcia said raising of Shasta Dam is one of the projects currently under consideration to provide a reliable water source to the Bay-Delta ecosystem.

      "The Bay-Delta system provides drinking water for 22 million Californians and impacts 750 plant and animal species," Newlin said. "CalFed is working with 24 different agencies to study the impact and benefits of raising the dam."

      She said the purpose behind raising the dam is to:

      € Provide water supply reliability.

      € Improve water quality of a depredated system that is hampered by drought and flooding.

      € Ecosystem restoration, including helping in the recovery of threatened salmon and other anadromonous fish.

      € Improve levee system integrity to provide flood protection, ecosystem benefits and protect water supplies needed for the environment, agriculture and urban users.

      Garcia said raising the dam by 6.5 to 18.5 feet could provide between 290,000 to 600,000 acre feet of water storage respectively.

      "It could increase the water supply during drought years by 70,000 to 150,000 acre feet per year, depending on how high the dam is raised," she said.

      Explaining what an acre-foot of water is, Evans said, "Imagine a swimming pool that is an acre in size with a foot of water in it. That's an acre foot."

      Garcia said raising the dam appears to be a feasible project, but she and Newlin said the proposal is still in its early stages of development with more studies and public input needed before any decision is made. They said it could be years before any firm decision is made.

      Garcia said Shasta Dam proposal is one of five surface storage projects currently being studied. Others are Sites and Los Vaqueros reservoirs expansion and in-Delta and upper San Joaquin storage facilities.

      Garcia added that there is not enough funding available at this time for all five projects and it may be discovered that other projects are more feasible, resulting in the Shasta Dam project being dropped.

      One of the questions brought up was how raising the dam would result in more water. Evans said the firm yield produced reliably on an annual basis is solely dependent on annual rainfall and snow levels.

      "Dams do not create water, they simply capture water," Evans said. "The fact is that Shasta Lake does not fill to capacity that often. This year was probably the fullest it's been. The lake has only filled 18 times in the past 50 years. That's an average of three times in 20 years. Where is the extra water storage going to come from?"

      While Newlin said one of the purposes of raising the dam is ecosystem restoration, Evans said there is a potential for damage that "is significant and far-ranging."

      "Shasta Dam is already the highest dam in California," he said. "When the existing dam was built, more than 90 percent of the Winnemem Wintu tribe's homeland was lost. Now they are in jeopardy of losing the remaining 10 percent.

      Evans said raising the dam even 6.5 feet would destroy the tribe's remaining cultural sites and be in violation of state law protecting sacred sites. Audience comments were also made that the proposal does not take into account recreational activities that could be threatened.

      It was suggested that instead of raising the dam, Bay-Delta water users, including farmers, look at water conservation measures.

      Evans said current projected construction costs for raising the dam 6.5 feet range from $282 to $356 million, with annual operation and maintenance costs of $19 to $20 million. To raise it 18.5 feet, he said construction costs range from $408 to $483 million with annual costs ranging from $28 to $34 million.

      "This is not competitive with the $50 to $150 per acre-foot currently paid by farmers who are the ones who consume most of the developed water in the Central Valley," he said.

      Franco said raising the dam even 6.5 feet would be "cultural genocide for our tribe." He said the water will rise to an elevation of 1,096 feet, destroying cultural land on the McCloud River, one of three rivers that feed Shasta Lake.

      "We are the Winnemem, meaning 'Middle River,'" he said. "There is the Sacramento River on one side and the Pitt River on the other. The McCloud is in the middle."

      Franco said if the raising of the dam is allowed to continue, it would destroy important Winnemem ceremonial and medicinal plant gathering sites.

      "Not having cultural access to our ancestral land would kill us," he said. "It is where our children learn how to be good people, gain the knowledge of what they are going to be in the future, and learn their relationship to the land and each other. We are fighting to preserve our culture for our elderly and our children"

      On September 12, 2004, members of the Winnemem Wintu tribe held a four-day "war dance" at the dam, complete with a sacred ceremonial fire to show they are ready to fight to protect their land along the McCloud River. It was the first time since 1887 that the Winnemem had evoked a war dance in opposition of a fish hatchery on the McCloud.

      Franco said it is not just the Wintu Winnemem who are threatened.

      "Nobody is telling you of the land you will lose, the homes that will be destroyed at Lakehead," he said. "We're in this together. Hopefully, you will stand by our side in this fight." 


     
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