Trinity River
From: Peter Fimrite, SF
Chronicle
Big, healthy chinook salmon are
all but leaping into fishing boats this summer off the California coast, but
the wriggling hordes could be in for trouble when they start heading up the
rivers on their annual egg-laying runs.
From: Damon Arthur, Redding
Record Searchlight
In a decision that prompted
threats of lawsuits from Central Valley farmers and requests for reimbursement
from power utilities, federal officials agreed today to increase the flow of
water in the Trinity River to prevent fish downstream from becoming sick or
dying.
Feds to
supplement Klamath River to aid salmon: Hoopa Valley Tribe calls plan 'too
little, too late'
From: Catherine Wong, Eureka
Times-Standard
Hoopa Valley Tribe officials are
calling the federal government's plan to release water from the Trinity
Reservoir into the Lower Klamath River to protect what is expected to be a
large return of salmon "too little, too late."
From: Press Release, Eureka
Times-Standard
The Bureau of Reclamation will
release additional water from Trinity Reservoir to supplement flows in the
Lower Klamath River in 2013 to help protect an expected large returning run of
adult Chinook salmon from a disease outbreak and mortality. The target date for
augmented flows in the Lower Klamath River is August 15. Because of the two day
travel time between Lewiston Dam and the Lower Klamath, the releases from
Lewiston Dam will begin in the early morning hours of August 13 and end in the
last week of September.
From: Devan Schwartz, Herald
and News
Days before Klamath River salmon
runs are expected in California, controversy surrounds federal actions meant to
prevent a massive fish kill, similar to one that took place in 2002.
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee
From: Matt Weiser, Modesto Bee
From: Matt Weiser, Fresno Bee
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
will release extra water from Lewiston Dam on the Trinity River next week in
hopes of preventing a large fish kill downstream on the Klamath River.
(The following comment is posted
to the above articles.)
Coalition response...Farmers along the San Joaquin Valley westside are again seeing a portion
of their water being taken away as Reclamation plans to send water down the
Trinity River for fall-run Chinook salmon in the Klamath River, which is not an
endangered species. Reclamation reports the extra water is expected to protect
an anticipated high number of returning salmon from a disease that is already
established in the Klamath. A salmon die-off occurred once back in 2002, which
is what Reclamation is hoping to avoid with extra water releases this year.
However, there were no supplemental releases from 2005 through 2011 and no
die-off of salmon either. So, where's the reasoning for this month's planned
action?
Taking an estimated 60,000 to
100,000 acre feet of water out of the system could further harm Valley farmers
who already experienced an 80 percent cut in their water supply this year from
the Central Valley Project.
Reclamation has claimed its
authority to take this action comes from obligations imposed by the Trinity
River Division Central Valley Project Act of 1955. However, the 2000 Trinity
River Restoration Record of Decision provides the water to meet those
obligations and, given proper planning, would have been sufficient to meet the
needs of this action without creating further undue impacts upon Central Valley
Project water and power customers, including wildlife refuges.
In July 2012, then-Regional
Director Donald Glaser of Reclamation said in a letter that a supplemental
release in August 2012 would not harm CVP water users this year. He stated that
Reclamation would identify any effects that might result from last year's
action. He also promised a long-term strategy for addressing fish flows. Water
users are still waiting for that plan in hopes that it will avoid such
situations that we are facing today.
We've seen this before: water
taken from farmers for environmental purposes with no proven benefits.
Desalination
From: Todd Fichette, Western
Farm Press
Recent media coverage of a twin
tunnel plan in California suggests that desalination technology is nearing a
cost-effective state.
One story points to water-starved
farming operations in California's San Joaquin Valley as the major benefactor
of a plan to pump sea water under the Sacramento and San Joaquin River Delta to
desalination facilities. A separate newspaper article suggests the process
could be up and running by 2038.
Coalition response...One important clarification needs to be made to Todd's blog---the water
that will be transported through the proposed tunnels is not sea water. Water
diverted into the tunnels will take place in the north Delta off of the Sacramento
River before it reaches the ocean. Farmers have been looking at new technology
for decades and I expect they will continue to do so.
Water Supply
From: Mike Wade, Bakersfield
Californian
Regarding the Aug. 7 letter
"Raise water prices so we'll learn to conserve": Many agricultural
water suppliers already employ tiered pricing, which increases the cost of
water for amounts used above a base amount at a base price. Kern County farmers
do not receive any subsidies for water they receive from the State Water
Project that is used to irrigate over a half-million acres of productive
farmland.
From: Tib Belza, Northern
California Water Association
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson
recently provided a fresh and compelling viewpoint in the Sacramento Bee that
the "State needs more water, not just improved sharing." The Northern
California Water Association (NCWA) and our partners in the North State Water
Alliance are committed to statewide water solutions that advance the economy,
environment, and quality of life in Northern California. We have been a strong
proponent that California needs a more comprehensive water plan than just a
narrow Delta solution. We share the Mayor's belief "that Governor Brown
can come up with an innovative solution when it comes to water policy,"
which should include his administration immediately developing a more
"comprehensive statewide water plan."
Water Storage
From: Mark Grossi, Fresno
Beehive
A federal leader last week
mentioned a study to raise San Luis Dam and expand the nearly empty San Luis
Reservoir in western Merced County, raising eyebrows all around. Why study
expansion of a reservoir holding 16% of its capacity? And why now?
From: Dawn M. Henley, Oakdale
Leader
The ability to store water for
regional reliability and sustainability as well as the State Water Resources
Control Board's (SWRCB) plan for San Joaquin River basin flows were the primary
topics of discussion at the Oakdale Irrigation District Board of Directors'
Aug. 6 regular meeting.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Rogene Reynolds,
Sacramento Bee
Re "Farming is a way of
life" (Letters, Aug. 7): The truth about the repayment status of the
Central Valley Project is that the repayment structure has not been calibrated
to pay for the project. See the report issued in March 2013 by Office of the
Inspector General for the U. S. Department of the Interior: "Central
Valley Project California: Repayment Status and Payoff."
Fisheries
From: Steve Knell, Modesto Bee
The July 28 letter "Too
little water for fish" unfortunately perpetuates the myth that because
salmon and stripers have co-existed since stripers were introduced to
California in the 1890s, there is no need for a predator removal program on the
Stanislaus or elsewhere.
This myth was debunked by the
National Marine Fisheries Service, which stated in its 2009 Biological Opinion
regarding the continued long-term operation of the CVP and SWP, "Predators
and their prey typically establish a dynamic equilibrium in abundance. As long
as the ecosystem is healthy and the prey populations are robust, predation
mortality becomes one of the factors affecting population dynamics of the prey
species. But, when multiple stressors reduce the health, fitness, survival and
abundance of the prey, and damage the ecosystem, the prey populations
decline."
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