[env-trinity] Times-Standard- Feds buying Trinity water for Klamath again

[Tom Stokely]

SALMON PROTECTION:

Feds buying Trinity water for Klamath again 

Eureka Times-Standard - 6/28/05
By John Driscoll, staff writer



The federal government is spending $618,000 to buy Trinity River water as an insurance policy against a fish kill on the Klamath River. 

 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation expects to sign an agreement soon with a slate of contractors it identified as the Sacramento River Exchange Group. It would buy 20,000 acre feet -- 6.5 billion gallons -- for about $30 an acre foot. 

 

"We've isolated a hunk of water and we've got a handshake," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken. 

 

A subcommittee of the Trinity Management Council will meet this week to determine what would trigger the release this fall. The size of the salmon run, the flows in the lower river, and the incidence of disease will all be considered. 

 

In 2002, up to 68,000 adult chinook salmon died of stress-related diseases in the lower river. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found low, warm water during a relatively large run was at the heart of the devastating fish kill. 

 

This year on the Klamath is considered a below-average year, and there is concern that low flows scheduled in August and September could endanger the salmon again. 

 

The Trinity water can't be carried over until next year if it isn't needed, McCracken said, creating a use-it-or-lose-it situation. If it isn't used, the bureau would try to sell it to irrigators in the Central Valley Project, but probably at a loss, he said. 

 

The U.S. Department of the Interior has repeatedly rejected requests to allow water promised to Humboldt County to be used for the same purpose. The county was pledged 50,000 acre feet before the Trinity River's dams and diversion were constructed. 

 

"Given the fact that Humboldt County is willing to donate its water it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to pay $600,000 for something the bureau could get for free," said Tom Stokely, a senior planner for neighboring Trinity County. 

 

The bureau has also spent millions in recent years -- $7 million this year -- on a program to buy water from farmers in the Upper Klamath Basin and send it downstream during the spring for young salmon. Prior to 2002, as many as 200,000 juvenile salmon died of diseases in the river. This year, 100,000 acre feet is being sent down the Klamath as part of the water bank. #

http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2942126,00.html#

 
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