[env-trinity] FW: Bush Tries to Raid Salmon Disaster Funds!

[Josh Allen]

Bush Tries to Raid Salmon Disaster Funds!

 

by Dan Bacher 

  

West Coast Representatives and leaders of fishing groups are outraged by
an attempt by the White House to yank $70 million in disaster funding
from commercial and recreational fishermen in order to pay for the
census. 

  

The Bush Administration's Office of Management & Budget (OMD) on Monday,
June 9 sent a proposal to Congress to amend the President's budget to
take $70 million of the $180 million that West Coast Representatives put
into the farm bill for disaster assistance for fishermen devastated by
fishing closures off the coast of California and Oregon and in Central
Valley rivers.  

  

West Coast Democrats reacted to the proposal by sending an angry letter
to President Bush calling his proposal to take the disaster funding from
fishermen in order to pay for a failed contract to the Harris
Corporation assigned to do the 2010 Census as "unconscionable." 

  

"This proposal is especially egregious when you consider that your
administration's water policies on all of the Pacific Northwest's major
salmon rivers are the reason this disaster funding is needed in the
first place," the letter said. 

  

The Representatives noted that three different courts have found the
administration's water plans for the Sacramento, Klamath and
Columbia/Snake Rivers to be illegal and in violation of the Endangered
Species Act. 

  

"These failed policies have resulted in over 80,000 dead adult salmon in
the Klamath River, record low returns to the Sacramento and
Columbia/Snake River systems, two fishery disaster declarations issued
by the Secretary of Commerce and two years of fishing closures impacting
thousands of families and small business," the letter continued. "The
states of California, Oregon and Washington estimated this year's
closure alone will have a $290 million impact on these fishing
communities. Scientists expect similar low returns to the Sacramento
next year and another closed season for most of the West Coast." 

  

Representatives Mike Thompson, Peter DeFazio, Darlene Hooley, Anna
Eshoo, Jim McDermott, Brian Baird, Doris Matsui, Lois Capps, Lynn
Woolsey, Earl Blumenauer, David Wu, Rick Larson, Sam Farr and Jay Inslee
signed the letter. 

  

"To suggest that the money to pay for this contract mistake is diverted
from emergency disaster payments is yet another blow delivered by your
administration to the fishing families and small businesses in the
Pacific Northwest," they stated. "It is a clear sign that your
administration is not committed to protecting these river systems and
has no interest in helping the fishing communities and economies reliant
on them." 

  

Dick Pool, president of Pro-Troll Fishing Products and coordinator of
Water for Fish (www.water4fish.org), <http://www.water4fish.org),>  said
news of the attempted raid of the disaster relief was "very distressing
considering the devastating financial impact that the salmon fishing
closure is having on the recreational and commercial fishing industries
of California." 

 

"I'm not surprised to see Bush trying to take away needed money from our
community," said Mike Hudson, president of the Small Boat Commercial
Fisherman's Association and coordinator of the SalmonAid Festival that
took place in Oakland on May 31 and June 1. "Through his actions over
the last few years, he has told us time and again that we don't matter
to him. What would you expect from a man who wants to declare dams as
natural structures and lets rivers run dry? That he would allow a dime
to find it's way into the pockets of hard working people who oppose
these dams, diversions and pollution of our waters?" 

  

The Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations continue to blame "ocean
conditions" for the sudden and unprecedented collapse of Sacramento
River fall run chinook salmon, while a broad coalition of recreational
anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes and conservationists
contends that increased water exports from the California Delta and
declining water quality play  a major role in the collapse. The Central
Valley fall chinook population has declined from over 800,000 fish in
2002 to under 60,000 this year. 

  

The decline of the Central Vallley fall run chinook parallels the
collapse of four pelagic (open water) species - delta smelt, longfin
smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad - in recent years. A
panel of state and federal scientists has pinpointed changes in water
exports as the number one reason for the collapse, followed by toxics
and invasive species. 

 

More recently, two studies conducted by Richard Dugdale, a San Francisco
State University oceanographer, contend that ammonia from Sacramento's
treated sewage discharge may be killing Delta smelt and other species
(Stockton Record, June 11). 

 

Fortunately, it is unlikely that the White House will be able to push
his proposal through Congress, based on strong opposition from both
Democrats and Republicans. 

 

"This request is a slap in the face to the scores of salmon fishermen in
Oregon who are struggling to make ends meet in the wake of the largest
salmon closure in West Coast history," said Senator Gordon H. Smith
(R-Oregon). "Rest assured there will be a strong bipartisan effort to
ensure that these cuts don't go through."

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