[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 10/18/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

October 18, 2007

 

3. Watersheds

 

EPA files key report on Eel River

Eureka Times-Standard – 10/18/07

By John Driscoll, staff writer

 

Reducing landslides and ensuring stream banks are shaded may help struggling Eel River salmon and steelhead and improve water quality, a draft report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.

 

The recently released document, called a TMDL for Total Maximum Daily Load, looks to set limits on how muddy and warm the river should be allowed to get. The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board will develop its own similar report and put measures into place to attain the goals set in the EPA report.

 

”The major water quality problems in the lower Eel River and tributaries in this report are reflected in the decline of salmon and steelhead populations,” the draft report reads.

 

The federal government first put the Eel on a list of impaired water bodies in 1992, and the state has updated the listing as recently as 2006. The state did not draft its own TMDL report, and the EPA was sued. A consent decree resulting from the suit prompted the EPA to file its report before the Dec. 31, 2007 deadline.

 

The lower Eel is considered to be the Larabee Creek watershed and the main river south of Shively. The upper end of this section of the watershed is dominated by ranch lands and oak woodlands. The middle section runs largely through redwood and other timberland mostly owned by the Pacific Lumber Co. The lowest section runs through the Ferndale area's bottom lands, and includes the Salt River.

 

The focus of the report is aimed at fish, as coho, chinook and steelhead are all listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. Rearing conditions in the main Eel River and in the Salt River have been poor for years, the report reads.

 

Summer temperatures are described as stressful for fish in the Eel River -- reaching higher than 70 degrees at times -- with somewhat better conditions in the river's tributaries.

 

”The main stem has always been hot,” said EPA project leader Janet Parrish.

 

Increased shade along the wide portion of the lower river is unlikely to make much of a difference, the report reads, but more trees along tributaries could significantly improve conditions there. The use of groundwater in the area, the report reads, may remove a source of cool water in some parts of the river.

 

The EPA report maintains that the diversion of water to the Potter Valley Project to the south does not significantly affect temperature in the river.

 

While less sediment may be coming into the watershed than in years past, the report reads, more is stored in the lower river than before which results in a widening channel. The amount of sediment sent into the system is roughly half natural and half from land management practices, the report says.

 

That's not as unevenly split toward land management as in many watersheds on the North Coast, Parrish said. One thing that's different is that while most watersheds' runoff is primarily from roads, in the lower Eel landslides and logging are the main source, she said.

 

The EPA's draft report sets the allowable load of sediment into the watershed at 125 percent of estimated natural levels, which is strict enough to maintain state water quality standards. Reducing the risk of landslides through improved logging practices may be the best way to meet those goals, Parrish said.  

 

Find the whole document at: http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/tmdl/progress.html.  #

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_7212641