[env-trinity] Chronicle: State sets minimum lake levels in attempt to save salmon

[Tom Stokely]

This decision will ensure the draining of Trinity Reservoir next year because there is no minimum water level established for Trinity, while there is for Folsom and Shasta.  I guess killing all the fish in the Sacramento River wasn't enough and now the state water board wants to kill all the fish in the Trinity River as well (if the drought continues).
TS
http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/State-sets-minimum-lake-levels-in-attempt-to-save-6701174.php


State sets minimum lake levels in attempt to save salmon
By Peter Fimrite 

Updated 6:26 am, Wednesday, December 16, 2015
California regulators set a minimum level of water that should be held behind Shasta and Folsom lakes Tuesday in an effort to avoid another catastrophic die-off of Sacramento River salmon, but they reserved the right to change the limit if El Niño rains fill up the reservoirs.The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously passed an order that set a minimum target level of 200,000 acre-feet for Folsom Dam and 1.6 million acre-feet for Shasta Dam by the end of October 2016. One acre-foot is enough to cover an acre of land in a foot of water, roughly the amount needed to supply a family of four for a year.The board, however, inserted language that would allow adjustments and changes in the carryover targets after a stream of farmers, agricultural representatives and water district officials marched up to the podium during the meeting in Sacramento and criticized the order as unnecessary and premature.“It sets arbitrary targets that in and of itself will create controversy that is counterproductive,” argued Ara Azhderian, the water policy administrator for the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, one of several representatives of water districts that primarily serve farmers. “It is premature to take these actions today, plain and simple.”
Virtually everyone agreed, nevertheless, that something needed to be done after about 97 percent of the winter-run chinook eggs, hatchlings and juvenile salmon died this year in the Sacramento River, which was too warm to support them. That’s millions of fish that didn’t make it out of the river, let alone into the ocean.
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It was the second year in a row that most of the juvenile salmon died in the soupy water released from Shasta Dam, a problem caused by a lack of snow on top of four years of drought. There just wasn’t enough cold water left behind the dam to release during spawning season, biologists said.“I hate to use a sports metaphor, but the count is 0 and 2 on temperature management,” said water board member Steven Moore. “We can’t strike out.”The minimum levels set by the board are significantly higher than the amount the lakes dipped to in October — a record low of 148,200 acre-feet in Folsom and 1.4 million acre-feet in Shasta. The federal plan for the preservation of salmon, known as a biological opinion, recommends a minimum of 2.2 million acre-feet be kept in Shasta.State resource officials are required by law to release enough cold water during spawning season to keep the Sacramento River at 56 degrees — the ideal temperature for young salmon — and the more water there is behind the dam, the colder the water gets.The levels at Folsom Lake are equally as important given that the reservoir got perilously close to dipping below 120,000 acre-feet, the level it needs for the intake valves to work. The lack of water had 500,000 suburban households on edge this summer and fall, including homeowners in Folsom, Granite Bay, Roseville and part of Sacramento.State and federal water resources officials coordinate releases from the two dams in an effort to maintain cold water and keep salinity levels down in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. If Shasta holds back water, other reservoirs, including Folsom, must release more water to prevent salty ocean water from contaminating the delta.The Sacramento River chinook salmon run is the last great migration along the giant Central Valley river system, which includes the San Joaquin River. The species, also known as king salmon, are born in the Sacramento River and pass through San Francisco Bay, roaming the Pacific Ocean as far as Alaska before returning three years later to spawn.Most of the salmon caught in the ocean and in the rivers are now bred in hatcheries, but there are still some wild fish, and those are the ones fisheries biologists are desperately trying to save. Winter-run chinook, which breed at a different time than other salmon, have been listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 1994.Peter Fimrite is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: pfimrite at sfchronicle.com Twitter: @pfimrite
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