[env-trinity] Disease killing young Klamath River salmon

Sat May 23 13:20:37 PDT 2015

I respectively disagree, Tom. 

The PUCs have a cozy relationship with the regulated utilities (in my view)
and they would - perhaps after some counterarguments from their 'ombudsman'
offices - have allowed recovery of the fish-passage costs. 

I don't think the puny output of the KHP would have served as an argument
against incurring the fish-passage costs. I don't see that kind of
cost-effectiveness consideration being applied by the PUCs elsewhere. Do
you? 

The PUCs have allowed the dam removal cost surcharges to fall on the
ratepayers because a decommissioning deal was struck (lest we forget) at the
highest possible levels, by the two Governors and the Sec'y of the Interior.
The PUCs' surcharge imposition was pro forma given the political level of
that decommissioning deal-making

'Best,

Bill Kier

From: Thomas P. Schlosser [mailto:t.schlosser at msaj.com] 
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2015 12:44 PM
To: Kier Associates
Cc: Greg King; env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us
Subject: Re: [env-trinity] Disease killing young Klamath River salmon

No, simply incurring relicensing costs doesn't mean the PUC allows them to
be imposed on ratepayers. These costs would be unreasonable for the power
involved and could not be approved. This is why the PUCs have allowed the
dam removal cost surcharges to be imposed instead. It's why PacifiCorp
favors removal too, though they want it delayed as long as possible.

Sent from my phone

On May 23, 2015, at 8:35 AM, Kier Associates <kierassociates at att.net> wrote:

Greg

One comment: 

The fish/river conservation community did in fact sort of dance in the
street when the administrative law judge ruled for the fish agencies that
PacifiCorp would have to build fish ladders/somehow provide fish passage on
the river - but that's because members of the fish conservation community by
and large don't understand how the states regulate utilities like
PacifiCorp. 

Those fish-ladders/whatever would have clearly been a cost of doing
business, recoverable by PacifiCorp through its rate base. That is,
rate-payers would have paid for those fish-passage facilities. PacifiCorp
would have not only passed those costs on to its ratepayers with the express
permission of the two state PUCs but would have collected its usual profit
(something like 9 percent at the time of the administrative law judge's
ruling) on that $400 million.

'Not making a case for the KBRA here but simply trying to expose my
fish-conservation brothers and sisters to the mysterious ways of
state-regulated utilities economics

(I do agree that winning the Section 401 Clean Water Act permit from the
states needed to complete the hydro project relicensing process, would have
been a near impossibility given just how solid the cooperation was among the
Tribes, the states and the fish agencies in documenting and communicating
the adverse water quality impact of PacifiCorp's project. But I think it's
also worth noting that we have some PG&E hydro projects in CA, for which
relicensing has not been completed, that are running on yr-to-yr permission
from FERC - and have been doing so for decades) 

'Best,

Bill Kier

From: env-trinity
[mailto:env-trinity-bounces+kierassociates=att.net at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.u
s] On Behalf Of Greg King
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2015 4:36 PM
To: Thomas P. Schlosser
Cc: env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us
Subject: Re: [env-trinity] Disease killing young Klamath River salmon

Too bad all the alleged "greens" and tribal reps bought the PacifiCorp/Bush
Administration lie that negotiating with them for the KBRA - rather than
insisting that PC build the court-ordered fish ladders, whose nearly $400
million cost could have cajoled PC to tear down the dams, which weren't
worth that much; and rather than continue to pursue the required 401
Certification for the dams, which would have been very difficult for PC to
obtain given the virtual impossibility of the water behind the dams
satisfying this provision of the Clean Water Act; and rather than enforcing
the ESA biological opinion requirement of a minimum flow of 1,000 cfs at
Iron Gate - would be the Klamath's panacea rather than its undoing, as we're
seeing today with PC's and the irrigators' ongoing water grab. Combine this
folly with the underhandedness of many if not most of the people who
negotiated in favor of the corporate-government deal and it's no wonder that
today almost no one wants to step up to defend the beleaguered Klamath. What
a mess.

Thank you Tom, and the Hoopa Tribe, for continuing to move forward with
integrity. 

Greg King

On May 21, 2015, at 9:57 AM, Thomas P. Schlosser <t.schlosser at msaj.com>
wrote:

I grabbed the wrong KPOP by mistake; the 2015 Annual Operations Plan, page
2, calls for diverting 254,500 af to irrigation, a policy choice to favor
irrigation over fisheries requirements.

On 5/21/2015 8:09 AM, Thomas P. Schlosser wrote:

It's worth remebering that when Reclamation says (below) that there's too
little water to help now ("We decided that is not the most optimal use of a
very short water supply at this point," Person said.") they are still using
a 2014 Annual Operations Plan for the Klamath Project which, at page 2
calculates the project supply of water to be diverted from the Klamath at
239,000 acre-feet. This is what they consider to be "most optimal."
Tom

On 5/21/2015 6:32 AM, Tom Stokely wrote:

http://www.redding.com/news/local-news/disease-killing-young-klamath-river-s
almon_18847031

Disease killing young Klamath River salmon

Damon Arthur 

5:50 PM, May 20, 2015

5:51 PM, May 20, 2015

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JEFF BARNARD/AP PHOTO

SHOW CAPTION

KLAMATH RIVER, California - A disease flourishing in warm drought conditions
in the Klamath River is killing young salmon and steelhead trying to migrate
out to sea.

And while in some sections of the river disease has been found in nearly all
of the fish tested, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials also said Wednesday
the drought has left little water available to send downstream to improve
conditions.

The Klamath Fish Health Assessment Team says conditions in the river are at
orange, which means a fish kill is likely and federal and state agencies
need to be alerted.

"Orange is probably underplaying the crisis," said Craig Tucker, natural
resources policy advocate for the Karuk Tribe, one of several groups with
the assessment team that has biologists monitoring the river.

Scott Foott, project leader for the California-Nevada Fish Health Center in
Anderson, said about 90 percent of the fish from Klamath brought to his
center for testing have the disease, called ceratonova Shasta.

Foott didn't know how many fish were dying of the disease in the river, but
said mortality rate among fish with the disease is very high. Fish
biologists said conditions in the river are bad this year because of the
lack of rain and runoff from snowmelt.

Randy Turner, the fish health assessment team coordinator, said with low
flows and warm water, worms that carry the disease have flourished on the
streambed.

The problem isn't as bad in years when the river is cooler and runs higher
and faster in the winter and spring because the current kicks up the gravel
and cobble on the streambed, disrupting the worms' life cycle, he said.

The worst section of the Klamath River is from the Shasta River west of
Interstate 5 to more than 80 miles downstream to the Salmon River, Turner
said.

Brian Person, acting area manager of the bureau's Yreka office, said
Wednesday that after consulting with other agencies, they could not send
more water downstream to improve conditions for the fish.

"We decided that is not the most optimal use of a very short water supply at
this point," Person said.

The bureau, as well as other federal and state wildlife agencies, would
continue to monitor the fish in the river and could at some point decide to
send more water downstream if conditions change, Person said.

If the readiness level on the river goes from orange to red - which means a
fish kill is occurring - there is probably little officials can do because
so little water is available upstream in the river, Tucker said.

Even if more water was sent downstream there probably isn't enough available
to benefit the young salmon, Tucker said. And if they use extra water in the
spring to help the young salmon swimming out to sea, there might not be
enough water in the fall to help the salmon returning from the ocean to
spawn.

During the past few years bureau officials have had to release more water
from the Trinity River to prevent a different disease from killing spawning
salmon in the Klamath. That disease, called "ich," has affected areas below
where the Trinity flows into the Klamath River.

The young fish dying from the ceratonova Shasta in the Klamath River are
upstream of its confluence with the Trinity River, Turner said.

It is likely a large percentage of this year's salmon hatch will not make it
out to sea, which means there will be fewer adult salmon returning back
upstream to spawn in three years, Tucker said.

"I think we're definitely going to take a hit when the adults return," he
said.

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--

Greg King

President/Executive Director

Siskiyou Land Conservancy

P.O. Box 4209

Arcata, CA 95518

707-498-4900

gregking at asis.com

www.SiskiyouLand.org

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