[env-trinity] California Salmon News: California to Fight Trump Plan, Tribal Water Rights Upheld , Trinity At Risk, Scott Dam Removal , Selenium Alert, and Giving Tuesday for SCS Water Protector Fund

Tue Nov 26 15:31:12 PST 2019

California Salmon News: California to Fight Trump Plan, Tribal Water Rights
Upheld, Trinity Threatened, Humboldt To Meet 12/10, Scott Dam Removal,
Grasslands Ag. Permit Meeting 12/5 and Giving Tuesday (and December) for
SCS Water Protector Travel Fund

News: AP: Federal Court: Klamath Basin Tribal Water Rights Outrank Farmers'
Rights

A federal appeals court has found that the water rights of Klamath Basin
tribes take priority over those of farmers who sued the federal government
in 2001 for reducing their irrigation water supply after a dry year.The
decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is a key step
forward toward the tribes’ goals of restoring the Klamath Basin ecosystem
and saving chinook and coho salmon, the Yurok tribe said Sunday in a
statement...

“The ruling means that “rather than fighting irrigators or the federal
agencies about the existence of our rights, we can move forward in
determining what water the ailing fish populations need. This is a key step
forward in reclaiming and restoring the Klamath River ecosystem,” said Amy
Cordalis, the Yurok tribe’s general counsel.”

https://www.opb.org/news/article/klamath-basin-tribal-water-rights-agriculture-farmer-lawsuit-federal-ruling/

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article237340484.html

Morning Star Gali: Gov. Newsom needs to give more than lip service to
at-risk California native tribes

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/article237340484.html

“California needs to change course on water. Even without the new water
operations, California has been facing a crisis. Nearly half of our fish
are in danger of going extinct. If something does not change, the Central
Valley’s water will be unusable due to pollution and diversions. This year,
the Klamath salmon run did not show up. These salmon are a major food
source for the state’s three largest tribes, which live in rural areas and
face food insecurity.

The fact is that our once-abundant salmon have been devastated by dams and
diversions. Salmon runs that once numbered in the millions, nourished
Native peoples and fed the state’s economy now return each year in the
hundreds or less. We are on the brink of losing the salmon.

This loss would have widespread health, economic and cultural impacts.
Already some of California’s native communities have suicide rates that are
12 times the national average, and diabetes and heart disease rates that
are over 3 times the average. Studies have linked these health issues to
the loss of salmon.”
 California to Sue Over Trump Water Plan
<https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/25/california-to-sue-over-trump-water-plan/>
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/25/california-to-sue-over-trump-water-plan/

“Regina Chichizola, co-director of Save California Salmon, pointed out this
is the first time California has decided to do a separate environmental
analysis than the federal government on state and federal water operations
in the Central Valley.

“It is time for California has to get serious about protecting our water,”
said Chichizola. “We applaud the fact that the Governor plans to sue the
Trump administration on the doctored Biological Opinion for operations of
the Central Valley federal and state water projects, but we also need him
to understand that California’s salmon and drinking water in a state of
crisis and to direct state agencies to take appropriate action.”
Editorial: Gov. Newsom’s Delta water plan is merely ‘Trump lite’

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/11/24/editorial-governor-sends-mixed-message-on-delta-water/
Lawsuit challenging president’s environmental threat is welcome, but
governor’s alternative also ignores science

“We should all care about preserving endangered species, but for those who
don’t, consider this: The Chinook salmon are merely the canary in the coal
mine when it comes to preserving the estuary’s health. Further degradation
to the Delta will ultimately threaten the quality of the drinking water for
Northern California residents.

On the same day the governor announced his lawsuit against the Trump
administration, the state rolled out a 610-page draft environmental report
<https://water.ca.gov/-/media/DWR-Website/Web-Pages/Programs/State-Water-Project/Files/Deliv-42DEIRv1-112119-Volume-I_ay_19.pdf?la=en&hash=FA4DB4BDFE72DFE791F187AE5D796B0BB89177AC>
outlining its proposal for future pumping operations in the Delta.
Shockingly, the plan substantially mirrors the president’s approach.”

My Word: Trinity River Under Threat, Will Our County Fight Back?
https://www.times-standard.com/2019/11/23/my-word-trinity-river-under-threat-will-our-county-fight-back/

“When it comes to federal water policy, there is no question we have a fox
in charge of the hen house.

David Bernhardt, our current Secretary of Interior, has been bought and
paid for by his former client, the Westlands Water District. Trump and
Bernhardt have promised Central Valley farmers that water will no longer be
wasted by flowing into the ocean. This promise is playing out in the new
Trump Water Plan, the proposed permanent water contract for Westlands, and
a proposal for a new reservoir in the North State, Sites Reservoir, that
will impact the Trinity River.

There are a lot of stories circulating in the media about the unethical
actions of Bernhardt and Governor Newsom’s reluctance to fight Trump on
water. The stories are about Bernhardt’s effort to get rid of the
scientists that concluded the new Trump Water Plan will lead to jeopardy of
endangered species in the Delta.  Then there is his work to give Westlands
a permanent water contract to irrigate poisoned selenium ridden lands and
to sell it to cities at a huge profit, and to acquire federal facilities.

What is not being covered is the impact these projects will have on the
Trinity and Klamath Rivers, and the governor’s reluctance to stop them. “
 Saving Salmon, Will overhauling Scott Dam save native fish?

https://www.bohemian.com/northbay/saving-salmon/Content?oid=9360901

“Salmon three feet long seem to clog the water as the chrome-colored fish,
fresh from the ocean, begin their journey upriver toward the high-elevation
gravel riffles where they were born. Here, in the remotest tendrils of the
watershed, they will lay and fertilize the eggs that ensure the next
generation of salmon.

At least that's how it once was early each autumn on the Eel River. But
nature's security system for fish survival is only as good as the health of
a river. In the case of the Eel, a local power company built a dam on the
Eel's main fork in 1920. As a result, Chinook salmon lost access to about
100 miles of spawning habitat. Steelhead, which swam farther upstream into
smaller tributaries, suffered even greater impacts. Intensive in-river
commercial fishing, water diversions, logging and other land degradation
took their toll, too. Today, annual salmon runs in Eel River that once may
have totaled a million or so adults consist of a few thousand. Lamprey
eels, too, have dwindled.

Now, there is serious talk of removing Scott Dam, owned by PG&E since 1930.”

Action Alert – Tell the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to Withdraw
Support for Sites Reservoir and Protect Trinity River on Dec. 10!

More info at  https://www.facebook.com/events/458453541694465/
<https://www.facebook.com/events/458453541694465/> or
https://www.californiasalmon.org/

 Please attend the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday,
December 10, 2019 at 9 am, 825 Fifth Street, Eureka.  Check the Board’s
agenda for a specific morning time at
https://humboldt.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
<https://humboldt.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx?fbclid=IwAR3ozis8byZIBEtRfRmIgmcdhe_alX7ITFe_hi7zWSGx6_Hq9sVua2ybk5k>
) and arrive early to get through security.

Encourage the Board of Supervisors to approve sending two letters to the
Sites Project Authority and the Bureau of Reclamation. The first letter to
the Sites Project Authority withdraws the Board’s conditional support for
the proposed Sites Reservoir in the western Sacramento Valley until a
specific condition is placed on the project’s water rights to not take
water from the Trinity River, to protect Humboldt County’s 1959 water
contract with the Bureau of Reclamation for 50,000 acre-feet of Trinity
River water, and to protect the 2017 Lower Klamath River Record of Decision
that provides Trinity River water In drier years to prevent a repeat of the
catastrophic 2002 Lower Klamath River adult salmon fish kill.

 Please come out and email and call these representatives and ask them to
support the resolutions:

Supervisor Estelle Fennell: 707-476-2392 efennell at co.humboldt.ca.us

Supervisor Virginia Bass: 707-476-2394 vbass at co.humboldt.ca.us

Supervisor Rex Bohn:  476-2391 rbohn at co.humboldt.ca.us

Letters to the Editor on Trinity River resolution can be sent to:

letters at times-standard.com

letters at northcoastjournal.com

Action Alert: Testify, and Write LTEs, for Clean Water: No 25 Year Permit
to Discharge Selenium into Our Rivers, Delta and Bay

Thursday, Dec. 5 9am

Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Valley-Regional-Water-Quality-Control-Board/191459850879855?eid=ARARS9mIcT6HQw4b_aVAx-UJ8SfjgKLpqD95cU9B8kYxNY-wdINL1pKyXwawWY6dut_W9fxrn9H3EaXs>

11020 Sun Center Drive, #200, Rancho Cordova, California

More information at https://www.facebook.com/events/2438402193047340/ or
https://www.californiasalmon.org/

It is time to stand up for our drinking water and fish. After two decades
of promises to cease toxic discharges of selenium and other contaminants
into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the Bureau of Reclamation and the
Regional Board are poised to  allow another quarter century of continued
toxic discharges into the Delta through permitting the Grasslands Bypass
Project "GBP"

These toxic discharges come from piping water from agriculture drains in
California's "poisoned lands" in the East San Joaquin Valley to the San
Joaquin River. Fish and Wildlife Service has said some of these lands are
so toxic that retiring them is the only way to control their pollution.

In the 80's these discharges caused major birth  defects in birds in the
Kesterson refuge. Now they now discharged into the San Joaquin River above
where millions of Californians' drinking water comes from. There is even a
proposal to pipe agriculture waste water to the SF Bay.

These discharges, which contain not only selenium but also boron and
pesticides, frequently exceed violate water quality standards and have lead
to water quality violates as far away as the San Francisco Bay.

PLEASE COME TESTIFY AGAINST THE GRASSLANDS BYPASS PERMIT ON  DECEMBER 5TH!
If your drinking water or fish come from the Bay Delta or SF Bay you could
consume this agriculture pollution. Do not let California permit decades
more of relaxed standards will impact the entire aquatic food chain,
endangered and commercially harvested salmon, migratory birds, recreational
fisheries, and communities that rely on the Delta for drinking water.

Please also write Letters to the Editor urging the Central Valley Water
Board to deny the Grasslands Bypass permit and to instead fighti toxics
pollution in the San Joaquin River and Bay.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/letters-to-the-editor/

https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/submit-letter/

https://www.recordnet.com/opinion/99999999/submit-letter-to-editor

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/letters-editor/item/How-to-submit-Letters-56188.php

Dec. 3: Donate to Save California Salmon’s Water Protector’s Travel Fund
for #GivingTuesday

This #GivingTuesday
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/givingtuesday?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG>
December 3rd and throughout December we are raising funds for Save
California Salmon's Water Protector and Youth Protector's travel fund.

Anyone that donates over $60 gets a free Save California Salmon T-shirt and
anyone that donates over $100 receives a free sweatshirt. We have a lot of
woman's and men's styles.

All the funds raised will be used as direct support so that native people,
and other water protectors, can testify at public hearings and attend
rallies and cultural events related to saving California's salmon and
protecting our drinking water.

Currently we are organizing with our communities to #StoptheTrumpWaterPlan
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/stopthetrumpwaterplan?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG>
and create a California water plan that protects salmon and drinking water,
to #StopWestlands
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/stopwestlands?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG>'s
new permanent water contract, to stop a pollution permit that allows
selenium discharges into the state's drinking water supply, the San Joaquin
River, and San Francisco Bay, to stop the Sites Reservoir and Pacific
Connector Pipeline, to stop toxic spraying in the Smith River estuary, and
to #UnDamtheKlamath
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/undamtheklamath?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG>
and #UnDamtheEel
<https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/undamtheeel?source=feed_text&epa=HASHTAG>
Rivers

All the meetings related to the North State's salmon, rights and water
quality happen many hours from our communities. This fund makes sure that
low income protector, including youth and families can attend these
meetings and related rallies and trainings.

https://www.facebook.com/donate/993705544320821/10100470530021170/

https://www.patagonia.com/actionworks/grantees/save-the-klamath-trinity-salmon/

For more information on any of these alerts go to californiasalmon.org or
contact Regina Chichizola at regina at californiasalmon.org or Isaac Kinney at
Isaac at californiasalmon.org
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