[env-trinity] PRESS RELEASE: Northern California Tribes and Youth to ask Governor to Save Salmon at Redding Delta Tunnel Meeting

[Regina Chichizola]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 2, 2020

PRESS CONTACT:

*Georgiana Gensaw, Yurok Tribe (707) 954-5556*  ggensaw at yuroktribe.nsn.us

*Chief Caleen Sisk, Winnemem Wintu Tribe* (530) 229-4096
caleenwintu at gmail.com

Regina Chichizola, Save California Salmon (541) 951-0126
regina at californiasalmon.org

 Northern California Tribes and Youth to Ask Governor to Save Salmon at
Redding Delta Tunnel Meeting

The Department of Water Resources’ Delta Tunnel Is Part of A Larger Plan

 to Export Water for Agribusiness



El Pom (what is now known as Redding, CA): Yurok, Hoopa Valley, Karuk, Pit
River and Miwok Tribal members, the Yurok Tribe, and supporters will rally
in Redding today with local Indigenous people to protest the Department of
Water Resources’ Delta Tunnel proposal that threatens imperiled salmon and
North State water quality. They are calling on Governor Newsom to adhere to
his obligation, as required by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous People
<https://rights.culturalsurvival.org/undrip-article-19-consent-consultation-and-cooperation>,
to procure free, prior and informed consent from tribes for any project
that may impact their ancestral homelands. They are also asking for the
Governor to stand with them to fight the Trump administration's new water
diversion rules from California’s salmon rivers.

“We as a people are the Klamath River, and the Trinity is the Klamath, and
feeds into the Klamath, and also needs our protection,” Said Yurok Tribe
Chairman Joseph L. James. “In solidarity, the Yurok Tribe stands with the
Trinity River and all its tributaries recognizing that as the rivers’
steward we must speak out for the Trinity’s viability and fight for its
life.”

The proposed Delta Tunnel would be able to pump an additional 6,000 cubic
feet per second (for reference the flow of Klamath River was less than
1,000 cfs this month) from the Bay Delta estuary. The water, which would
come from the Trinity, McCloud and Sacramento river systems, would be
exported south, further threatening salmon and endangering the water
quality of the North State in addition to the Delta’s salmon stocks, smelt
and other species.

This rally comes just days after the state of California announced that
there will likely be salmon fishing restrictions this year due to a
projected low run fall Chinook salmon on the Klamath River; and, less than
a week after they announced that last year’s Klamath salmon returns were
about half of what was projected. The Trinity River, which is diverted into
the Sacramento River to feed the Central Valley water project is the
Klamath River's largest tributary. The Hoopa Valley, Yurok, and Karuk
people’s livelihood and lifeways are inextricably connected to the salmon
runs on the Trinity and Klamath Rivers. They say the Delta Tunnel, in
conjunction with the Sites Reservoir and new Trump water plan, could be the
death knell for California salmon.

“Despite many promises over the years to leave Trinity River flows intact,
we have uncovered evidence that there are plans to increase exports of
Trinity water to the Central Valley.  The Delta tunnel project only
increases the risks to the Trinity River.” explained Georgiana Gewsaw from
the Yurok Tribe. “Promises to protect the Trinity in the past were broken
time and again.  We say no more. The fisheries in the Klamath and Trinity
are at a breaking point, and we cannot endure any more. Simply put, the
Klamath and Trinity rivers are everything to us.”

The Winnemem Wintu are also traditionally salmon people and are working to
restore their salmon in the McCloud River. A recent report
<https://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/ag-environment/ucd-74-percent-of-native-fish-could-disappear-in-next-100-years/>
concluded that 45 percent of California’s fisheries are facing extinction
within 50 years. Loss of habitat, low river flows and poor water quality
are the main issues impacting the fish in the Klamath and Sacramento River
watersheds and Bay Delta.


“Truth and Healing cannot happen under Governor Newsom’s regime if the
state is going to support water projects that destroy our salmon runs,”
said Winnemem Wintu Chief and Spiritual leader, referring to Newsom’s
executive order
<https://www.gov.ca.gov/2019/06/18/governor-newsom-issues-apology-to-native-americans-for-states-historical-wrongdoings-establishes-truth-and-healing-council/>
apologizing for the genocides survived California Indigenous peoples around
the state. “We believe that whatever happens to the salmon will happen to
us as a tribal people, and this Tunnel is part of the larger plan that
would make the extinction of salmon final.”

Under the Newsom’s recently released water resilience portfolio
<http://waterresilience.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/California-Water-Resilience-Portfolio-2019-Final2.pdf>,
his administration is prioritizing the Delta Tunnel as well as the Sites
reservoir, a $14.7 billion, 1.8 million acre foot project that would also
be devastating for salmon and our communities’ water quality.

The public scoping meeting for the Delta Tunnel project will be at 6 p.m.
Monday, March 2 at the Sheraton Hotel at Turtle Bay, 820 Sundial Bridge
Drive, in Redding. A rally and press conference occur prior to the meeting
at 5:30 p.m. on the lawn outside the Civic Auditorium.

This comes on the heels of President Trump signing a record of decision
authorizing more exports of water from California rivers for Big Ag--in
violation of the best available science that found the water is needed to
protect endangered species--and a permanent contract with California’s most
powerful water broker, Westlands Water District. Trump’s Secretary of
Interior David Bernhardt, is a former lobbyist for Westlands. While
California’s Attorney General is suing
<https://www.oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-files-lawsuit-against-trump-administration-failing>
Trump’s administration to prevent the increase of water exports and protect
endangered species, Governor Newsom must realize promoting the Sites
reservoir and Delta Tunnel also ignores the science, endangers salmon and
violates the sovereignty of California’s tribes and salmon people.


For more information, follow Save California Salmon on Facebook or visit
www.californiasalmon.org.

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