[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 10/29/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

October 29, 2007

 

3. Watersheds

 

WATERSHED PROTECTIONS:

Rescue planned for fish in danger; Endangered trout project unrealistic, some say - Ventura County

 

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WATERSHEDS:

Tribe holds Congress to river restoration promises - Eureka Reporter

 

DELTA ISSUES:

Guest Column: Dam distraction won't help save Delta - Sacramento Bee

 

 

WATERSHED PROTECTIONS:

Rescue planned for fish in danger; Endangered trout project unrealistic, some say

Ventura County – 10/28/07

By Zeke Barlow, staff writer

 

Ten years after the steelhead trout was placed on the endangered species list, an outline has been released on how to recover the species.

 

Scientists hope the outline will not only lead to increased steelhead populations, but also create watersheds in which a menagerie of species will thrive in healthier ecosystems.

 

"Even though we couch the recovery in terms of a single species, when we are protecting water quality or riparian habitats, we are providing protection for dozens, if not hundreds of species," said Mark Capelli, area recovery coordinator with the National Marine Fisheries Service, which drew up the plan. An outline for recovery is mandated after a species is placed on the endangered species list.

 

Parts of the plan detailing changes that need to happen are almost guaranteed to be controversial in the often contentious world of water use in Southern California.

 

"We have to take care of the fish, you can't just ignore that," said Dana Wisehart, general manager of the United Water Conservation District. "But we have to find a way to balance it fairly so it doesn't destroy our agriculture and our industry here."

 

The changes the plan highlights in Ventura County include:

 

- Tearing down the Matilija Dam on the Ventura River.

 

- Finishing components of a fish passage around the Robles Diversion on the Ventura River.

 

- Approving fish passage around the Freeman Diversion on the Santa Clara River.

 

- Evaluating and creating fish passage around the Santa Felicia and Pyramid dams on Piru Creek.

 

The outline does not have regulatory teeth and can not force any agency to make the changes it proposes. However, other parts of the endangered species act do have the power to issue fines or prison time for killing an endangered species.

 

More specific details about what needs to happen and what number of steelhead makes a viable population are expected sometime next year.

 

The outline is designed to paint a broad-brush picture of the recovery, Capelli said. It doesn't go into great detail of what needs to happen on every watershed. Instead, it discusses the larger requirements of unobstructed waterways, clean water and plenty of habitat. But it is the first official document that looks at the long road to recovery, which is likely to take decades. It is science-based and does not take social or political issues into consideration.

 

"There is no more equivocations about how do to it," said Russ Baggerly, chairman of the Casitas Municipal Water District board, who has been an outspoken advocate for the steelhead. "We have a document that gives us this really clear road map of how to bring back the fish."

 

David Pritchett, also an advocate, agreed.

 

"Now, instead of just being another environmental activist, we can point to the final document" for scientific backup, he said.

 

However, once the details of the outline are fleshed out, issues over certain parts of it are certain to be contentious.

 

Wisehart believes the guidelines on the number of steelhead expected to one day live in the Santa Clara River will be higher than what were historically there. She doesn't want undue restraints put on her agency if the goal is to restore more fish than are needed.

 

"It's a laudable goal, but if the fish were never here in these numbers historically, it's not realistic," she said.

 

Also, the idea of putting a fish passage around the massive Santa Felicia dam is incomprehensible, she said.

 

But Paul Jenkin, the environmental director of the Ventura County Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, said the plan's call for a new way of thinking about water use is needed.

 

"I don't think we can continue to see rivers drying up and fish stranded and dying," he said. "It's going to require some significant change in a lot of watersheds." #

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/oct/28/rescue-planned-for-fish-in-danger/

 

 

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA WATERSHEDS:

Tribe holds Congress to river restoration promises

Eureka Reporter – 10/28/07

 

The Hoopa Valley Tribe of Northern California has notified Congress and San Joaquin River restoration supporters of the tribe’s concern the plan for the San Joaquin is fiscally gluttonous and could drain restoration funds from the Trinity River, which bisects the Hoopa Valley Reservation.

“They risk killing a living river and the fish in it if the San Joaquin legislation (HR 24/S. 27) becomes a new consumer of California’s river restoration funding,” said Hoopa Valley Tribal Council Chairperson Clifford Lyle Marshall.

In an Oct. 23 letter, the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council asked 10 members of California’s congressional delegation to change the funding mechanism for the San Joaquin River restoration and support legislation authored by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson and co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. George Miller (HR 2733) to ensure the promise of restoration for the Trinity River.

In the letter, the tribe also notes federal funding shortfalls for the restoration of the Trinity River are allowing fish habitat to worsen. “Our tribal fishery is failing because of a collapse of the fish populations in the Klamath and Trinity rivers,” Marshall noted.

The Hoopa Valley Tribal Council sent the letter to key members of Congress stating, “We need your assistance to ensure that the federal government’s prior commitment and trust responsibility for Trinity restoration are not sacrificed to the San Joaquin settlement.”

Since the San Joaquin settlement was first introduced in the fall of last year, the tribe has said the legislation’s funding mechanism will be used by the administration to divert restoration monies from the Trinity River restoration program approved in December 2000.

Congressional representatives, environmental groups, water and power contractors in the Central Valley and administration officials have asked the Hoopa Valley Tribe not to oppose the San Joaquin legislation. The tribe’s letter replies the tribe can only drop opposition to the San Joaquin restoration if funding for the Trinity River restoration is assured with HR 2733.

Marshall said the federal government betrayed its promises to restore the Trinity River when administration officials refused to support HR 2733 during a Sept. 18 House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing on the bill. The tribe supports HR 2733 as a way to bolster sagging federal restoration efforts on the Trinity River.

“We support river restoration throughout California, but Congress must recognize the San Joaquin restoration legislation could allow the Interior Department to create a billion-dollar vortex that will suck up available restoration funding for California rivers, including the Trinity,” Marshall said.

He said the Trinity River restoration project is underfunded by $8 million annually and is seven years behind schedule, according to estimates developed this year by the secretary of the Interior Department and the tribe. “Shifting limited funds to San Joaquin will reduce funding for Trinity River restoration further,” he said.

“Funding for the Trinity needs to be identified and confirmed now because conditions have worsened for the Trinity and Klamath rivers fishery.”

Marshall said the Trinity River is the only tributary to the Klamath River producing quantities of salmon available for local harvest.

“If the Trinity River goes down, so goes fishing for native people, sports fishermen and the commercial fishing industry for 900 miles of the Northern California and Oregon coastline. The San Joaquin will take decades to restore. Funding for the Trinity will produce immediate returns on investment and immediate benefits to the coastal communities that rely on the salmon.”

Marshall said the Hoopa Valley Tribe would like to continue talks with Sen. Dianne Feinstein about restoration of the Trinity River.

“The Senator has been a friend to the Trinity River in the past. I think she is concerned that the Bureau of Reclamation is only committing half of the money it should on the government’s promise to restore the Trinity River. Congressman Thompson’s Bill will fix the annual funding shortfall. We hope she will introduce the same bill in the Senate.”

The federal government began diverting Trinity River waters to the Central Valley in l964, but promised enough water would be retained for the river’s fish and wildlife. Since then, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has allowed up to 90 percent of the river’s water to be diverted. In the l980s, Congress recognized the diversion had caused an 80 percent reduction in salmon populations. In 1992, the Central Valley Project Improvement Act was passed to create funding for environmental restoration of California rivers harmed by commercial water users.

In 2000, a Record of Decision agreement was signed by the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the U.S. Department of Interior for meeting federal trust responsibilities to restore and maintain the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s fishery. Since then, the tribe has had to litigate against Central Valley interests opposed to giving up water for fishery restoration and fight for restoration monies from the BOR.

“The San Joaquin settlement is the latest blow to Trinity River restoration,” Marshall said. #

http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=30030

 

 

DELTA ISSUES:

Guest Column: Dam distraction won't help save Delta

Sacramento Bee – 10/27/07

By Spreck Rosekrans, senior analyst for the Land, Water & Wildlife Program at Environmental Defense and a member of the Delta Vision Stakeholder Coordination Group

 

It's the end of a dry year in which a federal court ruled that exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta, which provide 15 percent of the state's total water supply, must be reduced to prevent the extinction of bellwether endangered fish. The supposed solution is a proposal to spend billions of taxpayer dollars for new surface storage to address both water supply needs and the Delta's environmental woes.

 

The proposal to build new reservoirs is less than half-baked. Despite vigorous efforts, there is no common understanding of how the reservoirs would be operated, who would pay for the local cost-share portions or how the reservoirs would provide environmental benefits.

 

The dam debate is a distraction. Our political leaders need to focus on what we must do today, and tomorrow, to save the West Coast's largest estuary and hub of our water supply system. This once-bountiful system is in deep trouble. Increased diversions of freshwater have contributed to a severe decline in the estuary's fisheries that goes beyond the near-extinction of Delta smelt.

 

A collapse of the Delta's fragile and long- neglected levees could devastate the environment and water supply for many Californians, flooding homes and nearby communities.

 

Much of the rhetorical war Californians see playing out in television advertising and in the Legislature has focused on whether to go forward with taxpayer-funded bonds for three proposed dams: Temperance Flat Reservoir on the San Joaquin River, Sites Reservoir – off-stream but near the Sacramento River – and an expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County.

 

The dams proposal does not stand up on its own merit, so the sponsors added it to a bond package that includes worthwhile and important projects.

 

Many of the more than 1,000 dams built throughout California during the past century have enabled our population and economy to grow, even though many have caused severe environmental harm. However, since the completion of New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus River in 1980, large dams have collected the majority of flows from all large streams in the Central Valley. Building additional storage there would yield only limited incremental water supply at exorbitant costs.

 

Significant investments in new water storage, totaling more than 6 million acre-feet, have occurred in the last 15 years. Two large off-stream reservoirs, Diamond Valley and Los Vaqueros, recently have been built, providing an additional 900,000 acre-feet in storage capacity. The customers who benefit from the two reservoirs paid the full tab for construction.

 

Water agencies more often find groundwater development to be preferable to new surface storage. Infrastructure can be installed at less cost so previously depleted aquifers can be replenished in wet years to store supplies for use in dry years. While most of the more than 5 million acre-feet of new groundwater storage has been developed in the Central Valley, contractual arrangements and an extensive conveyance system allow for providing additional supply to communities in both Northern and Southern California.

 

Progressive and fiscally conservative water supply agencies continue to pursue alternatives that include water conservation, recycling and purchasing supplies on the open market. These approaches not only have worked well, they have saved ratepayers billions of dollars. These alternatives represent everything that California strives to be: innovative, efficient and willing to protect the natural resources that underpin its successful economy.

 

California leaders should walk away from the attempts to use the Delta's crisis as justification for building the three proposed dams. They should focus now on the most urgent priorities: protecting the Delta's ecosystem and weak levees from potential collapse. Those actions are what will benefit our environment, our economy and future generations of Californians. #

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/456312.html

####