A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 14, 2007
3. Watersheds
Fisherman targets river dams for loss of salmon - Inside Bay Area
Groups file new Yosemite protest; Amicus brief criticizes delay carrying out plan, environmental groups - Fresno Bee
Clash over Merced River back in court; Conservation groups at odds with plan by Park Service - San Francisco Chronicle
Fisherman targets river dams for loss of salmon
Inside Bay Area – 5/13/07
By Julia Scott, staff writer
HALF MOON BAY — Last summer, local fishermen like Mike Hudson saw their salmon season sharply curtailed when officials shut down 700 miles of Pacific coastline due to low salmon returns from the
To
"We cannot wait for another disaster like that to happen. We have to be a little more proactive and fix these problems before they happen," said Hudson, who is president of the Small Boat Commercial Salmon Fishermen's Association.
The plaintiffs contend that the reservoirs behind the first two dams along the Klamath have spawned destructive annual algae blooms that choke the oxygen out of the water, causing salmon to suffocate. Summer heat also penetrates the reservoirs salmon are trapped in, breeding parasites that infect the fish.
The Yurok and Karuk tribes have been the driving force behind the lawsuit. Their families live along the Klamath and their fishermen depend on the river for a living. It was their water-quality specialists who first noticed the algae blooms along the banks of the reservoirs two years ago, and who first gathered samples for testing.
The laboratory results, from October 2005, found the water so loaded with a liver-damaging toxin called mycrocystin that it was not recommended for human or animal consumption. The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board later posted the banks of the river with warning signs.
Leaf Hillman didn't need a warning sign to know there was a problem with water quality in the
"I've been swimming in the
Hillman has become accustomed to seeing small numbers of juvenile and adult fish dead on the banks of the river each June, July and August. The science has convinced him that there is a connection between sick salmon and the algae bloom that stretches past his home, which lies below the lowest dam on the river.
"It's like thick spinach floating on top of the water," Hillman said. "It's gross, and it doesn't smell good."
Portland-based PacifiCorp owns five of six hydroelectric dams along the Klamath and provides power to 17,000 households in
Klamath experts believe the algae forms in reservoirs with concentrated levels of phosphorous and nitrogen, byproducts of the pesticides and fertilizers that farmers apply to their crops in the upper Klamath basin. These elements eventually leach into the water, but cannot dissipate because the dams prevent the river from flowing at a natural rate.
Bill Kier of Kier Associates has studied the
"Rivers have a natural ability to clean themselves. When you stick dams across them and create ponds, you reduce that self-cleaning ability," he explained.
"The evidence appears to be that the reservoirs we have studied have the effect of concentrating nutrients and exacerbating algae development ... this may be in fact be responsible for killing a great deal of the juvenile salmon production each year in the river," added Kier.
PacifiCorp is facing other challenges. The company's 50-year license to operate the dams lapsed in spring 2006 during negotiations with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and it is now operating on a year-to-year license while the commission considers requiring the company to upgrade its dams.
Several federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have strongly recommended that PacifiCorp build a "fish ladder" system to help salmon climb over the dams to reach their spawning grounds. Last summer, a judge in
In an analysis released in March of this year, the California Energy Commission compared the cost to PacifiCorp of building the fish ladders with removing the dams completely. The study concluded that "it makes more economic sense" for PacifiCorp to remove the dams and buy replacement power from other sources. The company would save $114 million, and pass along that savings to ratepayers.
PacifiCorp spokeswoman Jan Mitchell said the company is in the midst of a mediation process with several
"We're working with a number of parties and we are trying to reach a resolution. If the parties can't achieve an agreement through the settlement process, we'll continue with the federal process and follow its recommendations," she said.
A fact sheet on PacifiCorp's Web site says the company would consider removing its dams "only if its customers' interests are protected and its property rights are respected." #
http://www.insidebayarea.com/search/ci_5887331
Groups file new
By Mark Grossi, staff writer
Seven conservation and recreation groups picked sides Friday against environmentalists over a lawsuit that last year stopped
The groups filed a document, called an amicus brief, to support the National Park Service in the 9th
The park service is appealing the November ruling, which blocked many projects, including the $35 million rebuilding of Yosemite Lodge. Federal officials last week filed arguments with the appellate court.
The lower court in
The National Parks Conservation Association, a national nonprofit organization among the seven groups, said the park service already has done the job.
"We think the [protection] program from the National Park Service is based on scientific methods," said Laura Whitehouse of the association.
The two environmental plaintiffs -- Friends of Yosemite Valley and Mariposans for Environmentally Responsible Government -- said the amicus filing is a repeat of the groups' position over many years.
"This is the list of usual supporters," said Greg Adair of Friends of Yosemite Valley.
Environmentalists last year convinced U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii that federal law requires the park's plan to have specific visitor limits at the river to protect sensitive areas.
Ishii ordered the park service to include a limit on visitors in a complete rewrite of the plan. But the seven groups supporting the park service said a 33-month delay is too much.
"Do we really want to wait that long?" asked Jerry Edelbrock, vice president of the Yosemite Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group that raises money for park projects. "We don't get involved in lawsuits. But we have projects affected by the injunction."
Among the Yosemite Fund's projects is replacement of
In addition to the Yosemite Fund and the National Parks Conservation Association, the seven groups include Friends of the River, California Trout, the American Alpine Club, the Access Fund and the Wilderness Society.
Jay Watson, former regional director of the Wilderness Society, also signed the amicus document as a private citizen. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/47284.html
Clash over Merced River back in court; Conservation groups at odds with plan by Park Service
San Francisco Chronicle – 5/12/07
By Bob Egelko, staff writer
Prominent environmental groups, including Friends of the River and the Wilderness Society, backed the federal government Friday in a legal dispute with other environmental advocates who have blocked a restoration and development plan for the Merced River in
The organizations asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii of
The plan that the judge overturned was "the best result for varied interests that seek to protect, preserve, restore and enjoy Yosemite and the Merced River corridor,'' the groups said in their court filing.
Many of those groups joined the Park Service in drafting a new blueprint for
But other environmentalists, led by a local organization called Friends of Yosemite Valley, contended the new plans would commercialize the park and turn it into a playground mainly for wealthy lodgers, recreational vehicles and tour buses.
"Our group has said new construction is a bad way to go,'' Greg Adair, executive director of Friends of Yosemite Valley, said Friday. His organization won the case before Ishii and will ask the appeals court to uphold the ruling.
In Friday's filing, groups backing the Park Service said Ishii's ruling would hinder protection of the river by delaying a management plan for two years and by requiring the agency to establish absolute limits on visitors to the park.
"Numerical limits ... do not address the cause of degradation,'' the groups said. They pointed out that some types of visitors can have more of an impact than others -- a motorcycle gang as opposed to a group of senior citizens, for example -- and said the Park Service's plan already has measures designed to keep people from harming the river and the landscape.
They include temporary caps on the number of people who can stay overnight, limits on parking spaces, tour buses and employee housing, and restrictions on access to sensitive areas.
"The Park Service plan reduces the human footprint in the valley,'' said Ron Sundergill, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association, which joined the court filing. Others signing the brief included California Trout, the Yosemite Fund, the American Alpine Fund and the Access Fund.
The Park Service, in a May 4 brief, also said Ishii's ruling effectively required fixed limits on park visitors by rejecting the agency's alternative measures.
But Adair said Ishii's ruling would not require numerical limits, and that his group does not support them. He said the judge had merely ordered the Park Service to restrict visitors' use of the park to a degree that would protect its resources, which Adair said includes "dealing with the quantitative aspect.'' #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/05/12/BAG2MPQ0FU1.DTL
####
No comments:
Post a Comment