[env-trinity] Times-Standard: Tribes blast feds’ Klamath plan

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20150803/tribes-blast-feds-klamath-plan


Tribes blast feds’ Klamath plan
This March 12, 2003 file photo shows the Trinity River flowing below the Lewiston Dam outside Lewiston. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released its plan to prevent the spread of disease among salmon returning to spawn in drought conditions for public review until Aug. 7, which includes releases from Lewiston Dam.Jeff Barnard — The Associated PressBy Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardPOSTED: 08/03/15, 11:45 PM PDT | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO# COMMENTSA federal plan to prevent a potential fish kill this summer on the lower Klamath River drew criticism on Monday from Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribe officials, who condemned the proposal as a lukewarm response to the threat of rising water temperatures and deadly parasites.The public review draft of the U.S. Interior Department Bureau of Reclamation’s preventative flow increase proposal includes a month-long flow increase from a Trinity River dam and a sizeable emergency release if conditions worsen. The proposed flow is just over half of what the tribes had requested in mid-July. As a result, the Hoopa Valley Tribe plans to protest the bureau’s proposal on Wednesday in Arcata at the Red Roof Inn, where the bureau is set to hold a public meeting on a separate long-term plan to protect fish on lower Klamath River. “It’s now come to the 11th hour and we’re still entertaining armchair quarterback approaches to protecting Klamath-Trinity River fish,” Hoopa Valley Tribal Fisheries Director Mike Orcutt said in a statement.Yurok Tribe senior fisheries biologist Mike Belchik said the bureau’s proposal also makes it unclear whether a release would ever occur even with a deadly parasite already being detected on fish huddled near one of the river’s tributaries.“We think that right now conditions on the river warrant a commitment of the release of a preventative flow,” Belchik said.The environmental assessment released last week would call for 32,000 acre-feet of water from Trinity Lake reservoir to be released from Lewiston Dam between around Aug. 19 and Sept. 20 to help flush away deadly pathogens and cool waters to promote further upriver migration by fall-run fish. The cooler waters would improve fish immune systems as warm waters caused by ongoing low flows can make the fish more susceptible to infection. The proposed dam releases would increase the flow of the lower Klamath river to 2,500 cubic feet per second — the same flow used in the 2014 releases. These types of preventative flows also occurred in 2003, 2004, and 2012 through 2014 and were implemented in the aftermath of a massive fish kill on the lower Klamath River in 2002 that left tens of thousands of fish dead due to an outbreak of the parasite known as ich.In their July proposal, the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes had requested the bureau release 63,700 acre-feet of water from Lewiston year to achieve a river flow of 2,800 cubic feet per second.However, bureau protocol under a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service states that a flow of 2,800 cubic feet per second can only occur if the fall-run Chinook salmon run is estimated to be above 170,000 fish. Only 119,000 fall-run Chinook are expected to return to the lower Klamath this year, which only requires a minimum 2,500 cubic feet per second flow.Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Public Affair Officer Louis Moore said that reservoir has to meet the demands of several water users, including those in the Central Valley, while also conserving enough water in the midst of an ongoing drought now in its fourth year.“In discussion, this number would seem to satisfy at least a minimum standard,” he said of the bureau’s flow rate.The tribes’ flow request is just under the 64,000 acre-feet of water the bureau released in 2014 to prevent a potential fish kill, which also included an unprecedented emergency release the bureau made in September 2014 after an ich outbreak was detected. This year’s proposed flow plan now includes the option for an emergency release of up to 51,000 acre-feet should high fish mortality, continuous high water temperatures or severe ich infection be observed. Orcutt said he found it interesting that the bureau would plan for a large emergency release rather than just releasing higher preventative flows as the tribes had proposed.“I think the logic is the preventative release means that you’re going to do whatever you can do on the conservation side of it to try to avert ever having to pull the trigger on an emergency release,” he said. “Last year we dodged a bullet. Will we this year? I’m not sure.”Three criteria would have to be met in order to trigger the preventative flows: the Yurok Tribe’s fishery in the Klamath River Estuary harvests 7,000 or more fall-run fish; average daily water temperature is greater than 73.4 degrees Fahrenheit for three consecutive days; and observed impacts to fish health and related river conditions.Bureau Public Affairs Officer Erin Curtis said that monitoring results from federal, state, and tribal agencies will allow for the bureau to decide if river conditions have worsened enough to warrant a preventative release. Curtis said that river conditions have improved over the last few weeks due to smoke from the ongoing wildfires shielding the waters from the sun and cooling them.Belchik said that the information already submitted is still enough to warrant a release, even with the shielding smoke.“Although there has been some improvement from the smoke and cloud coverage, we’re still really concerned for this fall given that we have the ich in the river here already,” he said.Even the bureau’s assessment acknowledges the risks associated with the low-flow conditions and the early ich outbreak.“Such high levels of ich present this early in the year indicate a significant risk for a large fish die-off in 2015,” the assessment states.North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman (D-Santa Rosa) called for quick action in a letter sent Monday to Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “Your agencies should be planning for a worst-case scenario that may fall well outside the scope of historical conditions,” Huffman’s letter states. The 2nd District lawmaker also called for long-term planning to address the issue.As of Aug. 2, Trinity Lake reservoir was at 33 percent capacity — less than half the historical average for that date, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The reservoir has several drawers, including water districts that supply farmers in the bureau’s Central Valley Project that receive water through the Clear Creek Tunnel diversion to the Sacramento River. County and tribal officials have stated that these irrigators will likely challenge the fish-kill preventative releases through a temporary restraining order as they have consistently done in years past. As to whether this injunction filing would delay the dam releases is “unknown,” according to Moore.The irrigator’s last attempt for a temporary injunction was denied by a federal judge in Fresno in September 2014.But what about that annual 50,000 acre-feet of Trinity River water promised to Humboldt County in the 1959 contract between the bureau? The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors had already formally requested the full amount earlier this year to be used to prevent a fish kill. The bureau’s current flow assessment currently does not include the county’s water, though bureau officials said it could be encompassed into the flow release.“We are working with all our contract to ensure as much water is delivered as possible,” Moore said, citing low water supply as a limiting factor.The lower Klamath River flow assessment is open for public comment through Friday and can be found online athttp://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=22309Contact Will Houston at 707-441-0504.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20150804/9bf6ea2d/attachment.html>