[env-trinity] Trinity Journal: High and dry

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/environment/article_d58b3a76-120a-11e4-adfa-001a4bcf6878.html
High and dry
By Sally Morris The Trinity Journal | Posted: Wednesday, July 23, 2014 6:15 am
“Barney” and “Pete”
“Barney” and “Pete” appear confused about the dry streambed. Browns Creek would normally be about two feet deep this time of year and up to 50 feet wide in spots. Some say excessive pumping, coupled with the drought, has caused the creek to go dry.
Seeing the largest creek tributary to the Trinity River running dry before water reaches the river and stranding native fish in isolated pools has prompted calls to the Trinity County Board of Supervisors to declare a local state of emergency due to drought conditions, though no such action has been taken yet.
The board is tentatively scheduled to hear a presentation from the State Water Resources Control Board at its next regular meeting Aug. 12 and possibly consider other measures to increase enforcement against illegal dams and diversions of water.
Though water wasn’t on the Trinity County supervisors’ agenda for its regular meeting this week, they heard about it during the open public comment period from a B-Bar-K Road resident whose property is adjacent to Browns Creek about two miles upstream from its confluence with the Trinity River below Douglas City.
Jerry Hauke, who has lived on the property for 20 years, said he’s seen the creek get low before, but never completely dry up as it has now, adding that since May he has been watching the flow fall and recover each day until last week when it suddenly dropped all in one weekend and never came back.
“It was a shock. Ordinarily, we’d still have water 50 feet across, up to two feet deep there and I’d be sitting on an inner tube. I never thought I’d see this and we’ve still got another 100 hot days to go,” he said, noting he monitors the creek flow each summer and since the end of May this year, it has fallen more than a foot. His homemade gauge is now high and dry as is most of the landscape where there is no water left for irrigating.
He suggested that the board not only declare a local state of emergency to get in line for emergency drought funding, but also declare a moratorium on new well drilling permits unless paired with a building permit for a dwelling, and rescind any well permits on properties where there is no residence.
Attributing the sudden drawdown of Browns Creek to too many marijuana gardens there and growers from elsewhere taking water after other sources run dry, Hauke suggested that local community water districts stop selling water to growers and require proof of county residency such as a county dump card in order to buy water to fill storage tanks.
He also requested increased enforcement efforts by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California Highway Patrol against water theft and suggested that the Trinity County Sheriff’s Department conduct any planned pot busts sooner rather than later during the harvest season after more environmental damage has been done.
Hauke encouraged the board to appoint District 3 Sup. Karl Fisher as the county’s temporary “water master” to ramrod emergency actions that may be taken. Fisher has previously recommended a moratorium on new well permits in the county and is working on a follow-up board discussion for the meeting Aug. 12.
After learning last week that Browns Creek has gone dry before reaching the river, Program Director of the Five Counties Salmonid Conservation Program Mark Lancaster of Weaverville enlisted help from the California Fish & Wildlife Service to patrol for illegal diversions. Some warnings were issued with the possibility of citations to come if illegal diversions aren’t stopped and structures that prevent fish passage aren’t removed.
Plans are also being made to rescue stranded coho salmon and steelhead trout caught in remaining pools with nowhere to go.
He said that even during the current extreme drought conditions it is highly unusual for Browns Creek, the largest Trinity River tributary that’s a creek and not a river, to completely dry up in its final two or three miles “which suggests that people are involved in the process. In the smaller little tributaries where there are no people, we still see flows, but in Browns Creek, everybody has a dam and a pump. Though one or two may not seem like they have an impact, cumulatively when people all turn their pumps on, it drains the creek.”
He added there are at least a dozen other creeks where the same situation exists, but Browns Creek is the largest and has been more closely monitored than others.
Noting it’s only the middle of July while the current dry conditions are more typical of late August or September “so who knows what we’ll see by then,” Lancaster said he has also asked that the Board of Supervisors declare a local state of emergency and is recommending increased scrutiny of and enforcement efforts against illegal diversions of water. He’s also asked to make a presentation Aug. 12 on water conservation measures people can be taking.
The 5C Program has worked to educate landowners about preparing for drought and how to voluntarily protect local water sources, prompting Lancaster to say “the frustrating thing for me is there are relatively simple designs that allow people to take out a tiny trickle over the whole day without drying up the creek.”
He said trickle systems draw a quarter of a gallon of water per minute, amounting to 360 gallons a day which is considered enough for a family of four, whereas a pump can draw 200 gallons per minute creating a huge, uncontrolled impact when multiple pumps are turned on all at once.
Another problem is that the Trinity County subdivision ordinance has always allowed people to use surface water from creeks as proof of water to develop land “so there is too much water diversion going on,” Lancaster said, adding that in what has become an exceptional drought year “people really need to be mindful of what is going on upstream and all around them.”
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