[env-trinity] Trinity Journal: Judge won’t halt added flows, for now

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/environment/article_715a6abe-3306-11e4-9874-0017a43b2370.html
Judge won’t halt added flows, for now
By AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal | Posted: Wednesday, September 3, 2014 6:15 am
A federal judge refused to stop increased Trinity River flows now under way to prevent a fish kill in the lower Klamath River, but indicated he could decide differently in the future if the situation continues to be treated as a regular emergency.
The request for temporary restraining order to stop the higher flows was filed Aug. 25 in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento by the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District. They filed suit to stop the flows last year and were unsuccessful at that time as well.
In his decision issued Aug. 27, Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill said, “The potential harm to the plaintiffs from the potential, but far from certain, loss of added water supply in 2015 does not outweigh the potentially catastrophic damage that ‘more likely than not’ will occur to this year’s salmon run in the absence of the 2014 (flow augmentation releases).”
Citing poor conditions and fish behaving as if they were stressed in the lower Klamath River, the federal Bureau of Reclamation on Aug. 23 increased the release of water from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River that flows into the Klamath. The release increased from the 450 cubic feet per second that had been scheduled to 950 cfs. On Aug. 25 the release was increased again for a 24-hour spike flow of approximately 2,450 cfs. Currently the release is approximately 950 cfs, to be maintained until around Sept. 14, as needed to keep the flow in the lower Klamath at 2,500 cfs.
This will take approximately 25,000 acre-feet of water more than originally planned from Trinity Lake, and Reclamation has said planned diversions of water for Central Valley Project uses will not be changed to compensate.
Similar flow augmentations have been implemented in 2003, 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2014 – following the deaths of tens of thousands of fall chinook salmon prior to spawning in 2002 due to crowded conditions and disease.
Although he has twice refused to block the flow augmentations, Judge O’Neill’s decisions so far don’t apply to future years.
In fact, in last week’s ruling he put Reclamation on notice that the court will view future flow augmentations and requests to stop them in light of all circumstances, “including the fact that federal defendants repeatedly have treated as an ‘emergency’ circumstances that appear to merit a consistent, reasoned policy rationale.”
“Failure to heed this notice may disappoint defendants in future orders,” O’Neill wrote.
From Reclamation, Area Manager Brian Person said the agency began work last year on a long-term plan. The draft will discuss the biological need and the augmentation releases that have been implemented, water sources and means of acquiring the additional water. The goal is to have a draft available for stakeholder review by the end of this calendar year, he said.
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