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<span>Controversy surrounds State Water Board’s Bay-Delta Plan, Trinity River</span>
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<ul class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-list-inline"><li><span class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tnt-byline">By Francisco Martínezcuello
California Local News Fellow
The Trinity Journal</span></li><li class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-hidden-print">
14 hrs ago</li><li class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-hidden-print"><a href="https://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_7e9d4acc-cd45-11ef-81c7-0b12ef603351.html#tncms-source=login" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_7e9d4acc-cd45-11ef-81c7-0b12ef603351.html#tncms-source=login</a></li><li class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-hidden-print"><br></li></ul></span></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-share-container ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-content-above"><form method="post" class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-save-list-7e9d4acc-cd45-11ef-81c7-0b12ef603351-form ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-save-asset-to-list" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">
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<div id="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tncms-region-article_body_top" class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tncms-region ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-hidden-print"></div>
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<div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-preview"><p>The
California Water Resources Control Board has announced an opportunity
for the public to participate in working meetings intended to update the
Bay-Delta plan. Written comments on the draft must be received no later
than Jan. 10.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-preview"><p>The State
Water Board is tasked with adopting and updating the Bay-Delta Water
Quality Control Plan (Bay-Delta Plan), which outlines water quality
measures and flow requirements to ensure the reasonable protection of
beneficial uses within the watershed.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>The
Bay-Delta watershed includes the Sacramento and San Joaquin River
systems, the Delta, Suisun Marsh and San Francisco Bay. According to the
State Water Board website, the Bay-Delta Plan objectives were
established in 1995 and updated in 2006 with minor modifications.</p></div>
<div id="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tncms-region-article_instory_top" class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tncms-region ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-hidden-print"></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>Tom
Stokely is a Salmon and Water Policy Consultant for Save California
Salmon. He takes issue with the way the State Water Board manages the
Trinity River. “The Trinity River is in the unfortunate position of
being in a different region than the Bay-Delta,” he said.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>There
are nine regional water quality control boards in California. The North
Coast Region is managed by the North Coast Regional Water Control Board
which has its own plan with very specific water quality objectives for
temperature in the Trinity River. But the Trinity River is also diverted
to the Sacramento River which is in the Central Valley Regional Water
Control Board. “They’re essentially relying on it to meet the
requirements of the new Bay-Delta Plan,” Stokely said, “without giving
the Trinity River any protection whatsoever.”</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>State
Water Board modeling indicates there will be more water taken from
Trinity Lake to meet the Bay-Delta Plan objectives, including for what
they call voluntary agreements. Stokely said the State Water Board is
looking at two options: restoring a percentage of full natural flows,
and voluntary agreements. The voluntary agreements were negotiated
between water agencies as well as the Department of Water Resources and
the Bureau of Reclamation. “But the deal they came up with didn’t
include anybody in the Trinity River Basin, Trinity County, Humboldt
County, neither the Hoopa Valley Tribe, nor the Yurok Tribe,” he said.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>The
voluntary agreements are nuanced and intended to be commitments or
compromises. But when it comes to the Trinity River, Stokely said it’s
one-sided. “Not to mention it won’t actually help fish in the Central
Valley, either,” he said. “It will basically degrade water quality and
flow conditions for almost all the listed species in the Central Valley
streams. So, they’re claiming it’s a wonderful thing, but it’s not.”</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>Exporting
more water from the Trinity River will impact the temperature of the
river which will affect spawning, incubating and rearing salmon like the
federally threatened coho.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>Stokely
referenced a critical moment in November 2021, when the Trinity River
Hatchery suffered nearly 75% egg mortality from warm water because of
low Trinity Lake storage and the lack of cold water to meet downstream
temperatures.</p></div>
<div id="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tncms-region-article_instory_middle" class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tncms-region ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-hidden-print"></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>The
Bay-Delta Plan temperature objective is inadequate, according to
Stokely. “The bottom line is that the Trinity River basically has
virtually no protection from what we call temperature-dependent
mortality of chinook as well as coho eggs.”</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>Stokely
said he has been the only person speaking up and advocating about the
Trinity River at the State Water Board working meetings. “The State
Water Board does not care about the Trinity River, and they’re just
going to basically drain every drop of water out of Trinity Lake during
the next major drought until we have nothing but dead fish,” he said.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>The
Trinity Journal reached out to the State Water Board regarding the lack
of advertising about these workshops. A spokesperson responded via
email.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>“The written
comment period on the draft Sacramento/Delta updates to the Bay-Delta
Plan was extended to Jan. 10, 2025. In addition, State Water Board
staff will be holding a series of working meetings to receive additional
oral input (beyond that provided during a multiday public workshop held
this fall) on the draft updates. Staff also plan additional outreach to
tribes and others as appropriate, and following these processes, will
release an additional draft of the updates to the Bay-Delta Plan for
further public input before the board’s consideration of these updates. </p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>“Additionally,
staff has held four public workshops, with a final one planned for Jan.
23. A media advisory was distributed prior to the previous workshops
and will be sent out before the Jan. 23 session.”</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>At the time of this publication, they did not respond to an interview request.</p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>The Hoopa Valley Tribe did not respond to an interview request also. </p></div><div class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-subscriber-only"><p>The Bay-Delta Plan draft can be found online at <a href="http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/drft-sacdelta-Bay" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/docs/2024/drft-sacdelta-Bay</a> Delta Plan Updatesbdplan-updates.pdf.</p></div></div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.trinityjournal.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Farticle_7e9d4acc-cd45-11ef-81c7-0b12ef603351.html%3Futm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook%26utm_campaign%3Duser-share" title="Share on Facebook" class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tnt-share-link ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-fb" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span title="" class="ydp690915afyiv3388575758gmail-tnt-stack">
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