[env-trinity] Hoopa Valley Tribe Klamath Press Release

[Byron Leydecker]

Media Contacts: Clifford Lyle Marshall (530) 625-4211 ext. 161 

Mike Orcutt (530) 625-4267 ext. 13

Tom Schlosser (206) 386-5200

 

HOOPA VALLEY TRIBE REJECTS KLAMATH RIVER DEAL BECAUSE IT

LACKS ASSURED WATER FOR FISH

 

Hoopa, Calif. - The Hoopa Valley Tribe of northern California will not
endorse

the latest draft of the Klamath River Basin Restoration Agreement (KRBRA)
because the

agreement lacks adequate water assurances for fish. Despite being in the
minority among

the negotiators, Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall said Hoopa would
never waive

its fishery-based water rights, as demanded by federal and other
negotiators, in a deal

providing no assurances for fisheries restoration.

 

"What began as dam removal negotiations got turned into a water deal.

PacifiCorp left the room two years ago and negotiations with the company
have since

been separate from this negotiation. The terms of this so-called restoration
agreement

make the right to divert water for irrigation the top priority, trumping
salmon water needs

and the best available science on the river," Marshall said. "Such an upside
down deal

threatens the goal of restoration and the Hoopa Tribe's fishing rights,"
Hoopa

Councilman Joe LeMieux said. "We cannot waive the rights of generations to
come.

Dangling a carrot like this will not work for Hoopa."

 

The Hoopa objections come after three years of negotiations with farm
irrigators,

environmental and fishing groups, government agencies, counties, and other
tribes. The

Tribe has been a leading advocate to protect water rights and fish habitat
in the Klamath

and Trinity rivers that run through their reservation. "We have worked for
years with all

the parties to forge an agreement that genuinely restores Klamath River
salmon habitat.

Unfortunately, this deal locks away too much water for irrigators with no
recourse for

salmon when the fish need more water. Salmon need enough water, plain and
simple,"

he said.

 

Marshall said the proposed billion dollar deal altogether ignores the
National

Academy of Science's recommendations in its November 2007 report on the U.S.
-

contracted Hardy Phase II Instream Flow Assessment in the Klamath River.

Congressional members have urged the use of the Hardy Report to protect coho
salmon

from jeopardy. Marshall said the deal also dismisses the only independent
scientific

reviews of the agreement itself. "This latest draft is not a modern
science-based river

restoration plan. It looks more like an old West irrigation deal, guarantees
for irrigators,

empty promises for the Indians."

 

The Tribal Chairman also said that agreement proponents talk about helping
the

river's fish, but no real fisheries restoration objectives, standards, or
assurances are in the

agreement. "Some parties seem to think there's no other way to remove the
dams. The

declining fish population tells us the river is being compromised to death.
Hoopa will

retain its rights to defend the Klamath. We will work with any and all
parties to remove

the dams and assure a restored healthy river." ###

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Friends of Trinity River, Chair

California Trout, Inc., Advisor

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 

415 519 4810 cell

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

 <http://www.fotr.org>  

 

 

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