[env-trinity] Trinity Journal - LaMalfa seeks to limit Trinity flows

Thu May 14 12:44:43 PDT 2015

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_1e6cf09e-f910-11e4-b3c5-af3607959fc0.html LaMalfa seeks to limit Trinity flows

 Posted:Wednesday, May 13, 2015 6:15 am  LaMalfa seeks to limit Trinity flowsBy AMY GITTELSOHN The Trinity Journal trinityjournal.com |0 comments  Congressman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, sponsored an amendment to a House appropriations bill to stop releases of water to the Trinity River that go beyond amounts called for in the Trinity River Record of Decision. LaMalfa formerly represented Trinity County in the state Senate and now represents the northeastern part of the state that makes up California’s 1st Congressional District. The additional releases of water in the late summer and into early fall have been implemented in several dry years to prevent a fish kill in the Klamath where the Trinity River flows. In 2002, an estimated 34,000 fall chinook salmon, many bound for the Trinity River, died before spawning in the lower Klamath of a pathogen outbreak attributed to crowded conditions, low flows and relatively warm water. The augmented flows were lauded by many fisheries advocates and Indian tribes but fought in court, unsuccessfully, by Central Valley Project water suppliers. The supplemental flows also have detractors in Trinity County concerned with Trinity Lake water levels and with power becoming more costly because water released to the river goes through fewer power plants than that diverted for CVP uses. LaMalfa said his amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill, which passed the House May 1, would prevent the Bureau of Reclamation from “diverting water from cities and farms beyond what is required by the Trinity Record of Decision (ROD). In 2013 and 2014, the Bureau ignored the ROD to divert even more water toward environmental purposes.” The state has been deprived of water that could supply hundreds of thousands of Californians in this historic drought, he said. Trinity County’s representative in the House, Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, voted against the bill. The description of water released to the Trinity River rather than piped through mountains to Whiskeytown Lake and the CVP as a diversion “tells you a lot about the twisted view of the universe emanating out of the Central Valley these days,” he said. LaMalfa’s amendment would take away “critical tools fisheries agencies and others need to ensure a healthy river and fisheries both in the Trinity and Klamath river,” he said. Huffman said he doesn’t believe the amendment has a chance of passing in the U.S. Senate as well, but “my concern is this is the first of probably dozens of attempts over the next several months to get to this result.” “Irrigators would love to have all the water in the Trinity River without any regard for our tribes and fishing economy or anything else,” he said. Reclamation has released a draft Long-Term Plan for Protecting Late Summer Adult Salmon in the Lower Klamath River which states increasing flow rates in the lower Klamath River as fish enter it was identified as the only effective way to minimize potential for disease outbreak. The draft plan addresses conditions under which there should be a heightened flow, sources of the water and cites Reclamation’s tribal trust obligations. A National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review process with opportunity for public comment is to be conducted to assess impacts to water supply and power generation, fisheries, tribal trust resources and other resources. That process and resulting Environmental Impact Report will not be completed in time for any augmentation flows needed this year, said Erin Curtis, public affairs officer for Reclamation. The agency plans to pursue a separate environmental review for a high flow in late summer/early fall in 2015.    

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