[env-trinity] Friant Settlement Status

[Byron]

SAN JOAQUIN RIVER RESTORATION:

River restoration plan advances; Judge grants additional time to finalize a
plan to put water back into San Joaquin River

Fresno Bee - 6/20/06

By E.J. Schultz and Mark Grossi

 

SACRAMENTO - Farmers and environmentalists say they are close to a historic
agreement to put water back into the San Joaquin River, but they need more
time to define the state's role in the restoration plan.

 

"We've really nailed down the details among the parties about what a
settlement should look like," Barry Nelson, a senior analyst with the
national Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an interview Monday.

 

He made the comments after lawyers on both sides told a federal judge that
they needed until the end of the month to get buy-in from the state.

 

The goal is to bring back water - and fish - into a river that has been
slowed to a trickle since Friant Dam was built in the 1940s. Farmers are
seeking a deal that doesn't destroy the Valley's farm-based economy.

 

"We're confident that what we negotiated has the support of the Friant
community," Dan Dooley, a negotiator for Friant Water Users Authority, a
quasi-governmental entity that represents east Valley farmers, told U.S.
District Judge Lawrence Karlton.

 

Karlton, who has threatened to schedule a trial if no progress is made,
agreed to let lawyers submit a written report by the end of June. By then,
lawyers said, they expect to have the state issues resolved.

 

"I am obviously significantly encouraged by everything you say," Karlton
told the lawyers.

 

Attorneys remained mum on specific points of the agreement. The general
public might not know the details of the deal until August. That is because
lawyers are expected to hold confidential briefings with interested parties
through much of the summer before finalizing an agreement.

 

The dealings are being watched closely throughout California as the outcome
could leave a lasting imprint on water policy along the 350-mile river, the
state's second-longest stream. 

 

Environmentalists have held the upper hand in the case for many years. The
lawsuit took a decisive turn in 2004 when Karlton ruled that the federal
government violated the law more than a half-century ago when it destroyed
two salmon runs.

 

The decision weighs heavily on east San Joaquin Valley farmers, who have
been irrigating with the river water for decades. They fear they will lose
water to restoration. 

 

The question now is how to restore the river, which runs dry in two places
as it makes its way from Friant Dam to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta. 

 

Coming into Monday's hearing there was hope that a final deal might be
announced. 

 

But lawyers said there still is too much ground to cover with the state.
While the federal government had joined the negotiations, the state, though
briefed, has not been directly involved.

 

Nelson said it didn't make sense to bring the state into talks until the
farmers and environmentalists had their differences resolved. With the two
sides now in basic agreement, they have begun negotiating with the state
over how the plan will be implemented.

 

For instance, state approvals will be needed to alter the stream bed or to
remove sediment, said Nancy Saracino, chief deputy director of the
Department of Water Resources. All told, restoration could take about 10
years, she said.

 

"The state will be actively involved in the long-term implementation in any
settlement that is reached," she said.

 

Work could begin "quite soon," said Saracino, noting that the state budget
now being negotiated includes about $10 million, over three years, for
restoration.

 

Total costs are expected to begin at around $100 million and could run much
higher. Financial help could come from a $5.4 billion natural resources bond
that recently qualified for November's ballot. The bond earmarks $100
million for restoration, though its passage is not a certainty.

 

Federal help also is expected because Friant is a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
dam.

 

Another state issue involves levee work. Levees on the west side of Fresno,
Madera and Merced counties belong to the state. The Lower San Joaquin Levee
District maintains 191 miles of these earthen walls, which prevent flooding
in high-water years such as this one.

 

Before dams and levees, the San Joaquin River historically spread across a
broad floodplain, making farming a risky business. The Chowchilla Bypass and
its downstream cohort, the Eastside Bypass, are channels that run east of
and parallel to the river, keeping high flows inside the levees.

 

Officials need to decide whether the levees will be moved or completely
taken out. They also will have to figure out where the river will run
because many miles of the old channel have not carried a river flow in more
than four decades.

 

Farmers on the Valley's west side are worried that a restored river would
flood their fields. Officials representing the farmers say they haven't seen
the settlement agreement yet.

 

"We cannot make any comments on it yet," said Steve Chedester, executive
director of the quasi-governmental entity San Joaquin River Exchange
Contractors Water Authority in Los Banos. 

 

 

Friant Dam talks yield little for settlement 

Stockton Record - 6/20/06

By Warren Lutz, staff writer

 

STOCKTON - A decision expected Monday over a historic settlement to restore
the San Joaquin River will have to wait at least two more weeks.


Despite settlement talks that took place all weekend, the parties involved
in an 18-year lawsuit to resuscitate the state's longest river told a
Sacramento court Monday that they have not yet agreed on everything.

Environmental groups are suing the federal government over Friant Dam, which
diverts 90 percent of upper San Joaquin River water to farmers and towns
near Fresno and points south - water that used to flow down the San Joaquin
and into San Francisco Bay.

For the past half-century, the dam dried up large sections of the river,
killing off once-prodigious salmon and steelhead runs and creating low flows
that plagued Delta farmers with salty water.

The judge hearing the case agreed Monday to give the parties one more chance
to settle.

"The parties have made substantial progress and are optimistic that they can
resolve the few outstanding issues in the next two weeks," said Hal Candee,
senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, one of the
parties in the suit.

In 2004, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled Friant Dam had destroyed
salmon runs and created severe water pollution in the Delta by drying up the
river. The federal government, which operates the dam, has been negotiating
with the other parties in the lawsuit since.

Earlier this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a letter to the court
pledging his support to a proposed settlement. The parties have been
discussing the settlement since then with state agencies.

The remaining issues involve "translating the governor's strong statements
of support into specific provisions for state participation in the
implementation of this settlement," Candee said.

Details of the intensely private negotiation process have been kept
confidential.

However, the NRDC and the Friant Dam Water Users Authority, a defendant in
the lawsuit, have suggested a settlement is close. The Friant authority has
said it already is considering other means of delivering water to its
members.

James Thompson, an attorney for the Friant group, said the parties have
agreed not to discuss the settlement process until it is over but said the
parties have reached an agreement in principle.

"I think that sounds pretty good," he said.

Previous reports have suggested it would take about 400,000 acre-feet of
water per year to restore the river below Friant. The dam holds 520,500
acre-feet of water, roughly enough to grow 210,000 acres of tomatoes. 

 

 

Judge gives more time to reach final San Joaquin River agreement

San Jose Mercury-News - 6/19/06

By Samantha Young, Associated Press staff writer

 

SACRAMENTO - A federal judge on Monday gave farmers and environmentalists
until the end of the month to reach an agreement that seeks to restore
year-round water flows to parts of the San Joaquin River, negotiations aimed
at bringing salmon runs back to one of California's most important
waterways.

 

Attorneys for both sides told U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton
that they have resolved key substantive issues to reverse the negative
effects of a dam built nearly 60 years ago.

 

A final agreement remained elusive, however, as attorneys continued to
negotiate details with state officials. Those details focused on how the
state Department of Water Resources would implement the final accord, they
said.

 

"Our hope and expectation is we'll be able to close (discussions) off by the
end of June," said Phil Atkins-Pattenson, an attorney representing the
Natural Resources Defense Council.

 

Details of the tentative agreement remain confidential under a court order.

 

Attorneys representing Central Valley farmers, environmentalists and the
federal Bureau of Reclamation had negotiated through Monday morning in hopes
of meeting a court-ordered deadline for a final plan to release more water
from Friant Dam, which was built in 1949 and created a reservoir that is now
a state recreation area.

 

The case dates to a 1988 lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense
Council. The environmental group was seeking to restore salmon runs after
the dam choked the flow of water along the San Joaquin, leaving many
downstream sections filled with tumbleweed.

 

The expected agreement would set in motion the largest river-restoration
project in state history, ensuring the river would run year round from below
the dam to where it enters the delta near Stockton.

 

The San Joaquin is a crucial link in the state's vast water-delivery
network. It helps irrigate Central Valley farm land and is part of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta, which supplies drinking water to more
than 20 million Californians as far south as Los Angeles.

 

"What we're trying to do is get fish back to the delta without sacrificing
the country's most productive agricultural economy," said Gregory Wilkinson,
a partner with Best Best & Krieger who is representing the Friant Water
Users Authority, a group that represents 15,000 farmers.

 

At a previous court hearing in April, the judge had threatened to impose his
own solution if the parties failed to reach an agreement by a deadline he
set for Monday. But as the deadline day arrived, Karlton said he was
"significantly encouraged" that an agreement appeared close and ordered the
attorneys to submit a written report by the end of the month.

 

"Last time we said we'd get this buttoned up by today," the judge said.
"Here we are getting closer." 

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Advisor, California Trout, Inc

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org

http://www.fotr.org

http:www.caltrout.org 

 

 

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