A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 19, 2007
3. Watersheds
Klamath dam report raises hope of removals; Tearing out barriers cheaper than fish ladders, study says - Sacramento Bee
FERC ignores salmon mandates, recommends keeping Klamath dams; FERC ignores salmon mandates, recommends keeping Klamath dams - Associated Press
Don't let river bill stall; Legislation is crucial to keeping water issues out of federal court - Fresno Bee
OIL SPILL ISSUES:
Oil spill to taint Bay for years - Inside Bay Area
Ants, of all things, could hold key to future Lake Tahoe clarity efforts, University researcher says - YubaNet.com
Klamath dam report raises hope of removals; Tearing out barriers cheaper than fish ladders, study says
Sacramento
By Matt Weiser, staff writer
A study released by federal regulators Friday confirms that removing four dams on the
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released the final environmental impact study as part of its process to relicense the dams near the
The Klamath River was once home to the third-largest salmon run on the
The dams, built between 1917 and 1962, are relatively small power producers, serving about 70,000 customers. The dams do not yield water supplies or provide significant flood control.
Only one has any sort of fish ladder – the uppermost dam, which offers no help to salmon returning from the ocean.
Federal law requires dams to adopt adequate fish passage when relicensed. But that would be an expensive proposition for the Klamath dams; because the Klamath's canyons are narrow and confined, constructing fish ladders along the river is a complex undertaking.
When removing all four dams was evaluated against building the fish ladders and other measures required by NOAA Fisheries and other federal agencies, removing the dams came out $7 million a year cheaper – a net power production loss of $13.2 million a year compared with $20.2 million.
PacifiCorp would have to get approval to pass the greater cost of fish ladders along to ratepayers. Craig Tucker, Klamath campaign coordinator for the Karuk Tribe, said that may be a tough sell with utilities regulators.
"We're arguing, based on the fact that it's cheaper to remove the dams, they should not be able to recover the cost of dam relicensing from ratepayers," said Tucker.
Rather than build fish ladders, PacifiCorp has asked FERC to approve a "trap and haul" program, in which migrating salmon would be collected and trucked around the dams.
This proposal is estimated to have an economic benefit for ratepayers. It is also the approach favored by FERC staff, with some modifications.
"Our main concern is that the outcome must be good for our customers, good for the environment and good for the region," said PacifiCorp spokeswoman Jan Mitchell.
However, federal law requires commissioners to impose fish passage as prescribed by federal wildlife agencies. Those agencies are on record in 2006 demanding fish ladders.
The FERC report acknowledges that dam removal is the only option that provides a full slate of environmental benefits, including colder, cleaner water and better spawning habitat.
The California Energy Commission raised the stakes on Oct. 29 with a letter to public utilities commissions in
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/499010.html
FERC ignores salmon mandates, recommends keeping Klamath dams; FERC ignores salmon mandates, recommends keeping Klamath dams
Associated Press – 11/16/07
The final environmental impact statement from the staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chose trapping and hauling fish around the dams rather than building expensive fish ladders and reducing power production to help salmon.
The statement described that as the best economic choice while allowing for evaluation of restoring fish to the upper
FERC spokeswoman Celeste Miller acknowledged that fish ladders and other improvements required by NOAA Fisheries and other federal agencies are "generally" included in the final license, leading salmon advocates to dismiss the latest evaluation as "legally infeasible."
Meanwhile, Indian tribes hoping to restore salmon runs that once were crucial to their cultures,
Participants said they were near an agreement that will be taken to PacifiCorp. The utility has said it would be willing to remove the dams if it doesn't hurt its customers. It also is willing to spend $300 million on fish ladders and other required improvements to keep the dams that produce power without greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.
Based in
It is seeking a new license to operate the four dams straddling the Oregon-California border on the
When removing all four dams was evaluated against building the fish ladders and other measures required by NOAA Fisheries and other federal agencies, removing the dams came out $7 million a year cheaper -- a net power production loss of $13.2 million a year compared to $20.2 million.
Keeping the dams and trapping and hauling fish, along with conditions recommended by FERC, would produce $2 million a year in net power benefits. PacifiCorp's proposal for operating the dams, which carries the least improvements for fish, would produce net annual power benefits of $17 million.
Salmon advocates noted that removing all four dams produces the best improvements in water quality and salmon restoration, reducing obstacles that block 300 miles of spawning streams, draining reservoirs that breed toxic algae that pollute the
"The bottom line is they're saying removal is the best and cheapest alternative," said Glen Spain of Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, a
Craig Tucker, Klamath campaign director for the Karuk Tribe, added: "FERC staff is pandering to PacifiCorp's bottom line, where it is cheaper for everybody and avoids an environmental catastrophe and the destruction of tribal cultures to simply remove the dams."
"It's a schizophrenic document," said Jim McCarthy of Oregon Wild, a
PacifiCorp spokeswoman Jan Mitchell said the company had not yet seen the document. #
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-na-dams17nov16,1,1452419.story
Don't let river bill stall; Legislation is crucial to keeping water issues out of federal court
A bill crucial to the restoration of the
Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee unanimously opposed the bill on Thursday, largely because it contained a tax on certain oil and gas leases in the
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, has been steadfast in his opposition to the bill, because he thinks it will take too much water from farmers and cities in his district.
The legislation -- and a similar bill in the Senate -- must be passed to implement a settlement reached last year after 18 years of litigation over the loss of water in the river when Friant Dam was built 60 years ago. Under the settlement, those who use Friant water diverted from the river -- farmers and Valley cities -- would lose about 19% of their supplies to restore the flow of the river. Currently, the river dries up just a few miles below the dam for much of the year.
Environmentalists also hope to restore a historic salmon run that vanished when the water was diverted to fields and homes in the Valley. Restoration would also aid groundwater recharge efforts.
Farmers largely supported the settlement because the alternative might have been much worse. The federal judge hearing the lawsuit, Lawrence Karlton, could have ruled that even more water be taken to restore river flows. Environmentalists looked at the other side of that coin: They might not have gotten all the water they wanted for restoration.
Those risks are still there. If Congress fails to pass the legislation or if farmers back out of the deal, as some have urged, Karlton would have the issue right back in his lap. There is no telling how he would rule then -- though it's clear that some water will be returned to the river. The question is how much -- and are farmers willing to risk an even bigger hit than they take under the settlement's terms?
Republicans on the committee were pleased with some aspects of the bill, which is a positive sign. But when one Republican member,
But assuming the budget issue can be solved -- and we believe it can -- this measure should advance. Restoring the river is the right thing to do. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/203164.html
OIL SPILL ISSUES:
Oil spill to taint Bay for years
Inside Bay Area – 11/18/07
By Douglas Fischer, staff writer
The eelgrass restoration had taken 18 months and about $200,000. The plant, perhaps the foremost nursery for critters at the base of San Francisco Bay's food web, waved like a green carpet less than three feet beneath the water's surface near Tiburon.
And there, shimmering on the high tide just above the 100-acre patch, floated the deathly, iridescent sheen of bunker fuel from the ill-fated Cosco Busan.
Almost two weeks after the container ship hit a Bay Bridge support and spilled 58,000 gallons of toxic fuel, the legacy of the spill will be written not so much by the oiled and dead murres and scaups that washed ashore in its immediate aftermath, but in the acres of tarred wetlands, marshes and mudflatsharboring so much of the Bay's diversity.
By now oil from the Nov. 7 spill has largely dispersed. Cleanup efforts have switched from recovering oil to scouring beaches. And wildlife experts fret that the spill's true impact is just emerging: tar-like fuel oil blanketing fragile marshland and hiding in rocky bluffs and rip-rapped shores, where it will contaminate the region for years to come.
The slick over the
"There's the potential of having that whole restoration success over the past (18 months) be reset," said Gary Langham, Audubon's state director for bird conservation. "That's the thing that has me most concerned."
As of Saturday night, 16,974 gallons of oil have been recovered from this spill. Another 4,060 likely evaporated, according to the state Office of Spill Prevention and Response. Most of the remaining 37,000 gallons will likely never be recovered.
Instead, experts say, it faces a variety of fates. Some oil will break down and dissolve on sandy beaches and shores pounded by waves. Some will slowly disappear under sediments in relatively low-energy marshes and mudflats. And some will hide for years in the crevasses and cracks of rocky bluffs and shores armored with rip-rap and boulders.
"A lot of this oil just sank," Langham said. "You can't take a picture of it. It's not going to make headlines. We've probably peaked in the numbers of new birds coming in. But what do we do in another week when this is not a hot topic anymore yet there's still 20,000 gallons (of oil) out there?"
The cleanup effort remains robust and continues full bore, said Spill Response spokesman Rob Hughes. The state is still taking volunteers. As one beach reopens, crews will simply move on to another until the mess is gone. "We've got the pedal down on this one," said Hughes. "We're trying to work it as fast as humanly possible."
But wildlife and oil-spill experts fear some of the region's most fragile areas may never recover from the spill. The very nature of marshes — their ability to act as filters and trap sediments — and difficulties inherent to cleaning rocky shorelines mean the Bay will likely relive the Busan spill for years.
"We have added a great deal of armored shoreline to the Bay. We've replaced a lot of sandy shores," said Peter Baye, a coastal plant ecologist and former U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist. "Shorelines along Tiburon, Belvedere,
And as winter storms batter those shorelines, he added, they release the oil, recontaminating adjacent wetlands.
The Cosco Busan, a 900-foot long container ship, hit a Bay Bridge support as it was leaving the Port of Oakland in a heavy fog almost two weeks ago, opening up a 100-foot gash and spilling 58,000 of the nearly 1 million gallons of fuel it was carrying en route to South Korea.
The spill was less than half a percent of the 11.4 million gallons sullying
But confusion and delay in responding to the spill allowed the Cosco Busan's fuel to coat first the central Bay on an incoming flood tide, then flow out the
Ecologists fear the longer-term impact may be within the habitat those birds — and much of the Bay's wildlife — requires for sustenance. Eelgrass, for example, is a vital part of the Bay's ecology, growing only in shallow waters and offering both protection and food for fish, mollusks, waterfowl and creatures at the base of the region's food web. It is extremely susceptible to environmental insults such as oil spills and notoriously hard to cultivate.
Three years ago federal researchers wrapped up a $1 million study on the Bay's eelgrass beds, concluding the region's plants benefited from improved water quality but inexplicably still struggled. The oil slick washed over Audobon's eelgrass patch at high tide on Nov. 10, though little oil washed ashore, said center director Brooke Langston. "Visibly at this point, we appear to have been spared the worst of it."
But the invisible is what worries scientists.
"In the Prince William Sound, 18 years after the spill, there are beaches where you can kick over a cobblestone and essentially have unweathered crude oil still there," said Stan Senner, director of Audubon
Across the continent, on the southwestern edge of
"What you're seeing now (in the
Take away an eelgrass bed, for instance, and an entire food web can collapse in that area, he noted. Kill off one species, and other species proliferate. In the Bay, more often than not, invasive species gain the upper hand. Fitness or winter survival rates for some species could drop slightly as feeding grounds or breeding habitat is reduced.
A considerable concern, added Baye, the biologist, are hard-hit areas like
"A subtle, long-term effect isn't dramatic — you don't see birds piling up on beaches," said Senner. "But if survival, to pick a hypothetical example, drops from 60 percent to 55 percent, that five percent over time can add up to a huge effect."
And an impact in the Bay, he added, can send ripples up and down the hemisphere.
"The species is in decline in
More information about the spill, including the latest information on beach closures, can be found at the government's spill response site, http://www.coscobusanincident.com. A House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee will hold a field hearing on the Cosco Busan spill's causes and response at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 19 in the Golden Gate Club, 135 Fisher Loop in San Francisco's Presidio. #
Ants, of all things, could hold key to future
YubaNet.com – 11/16/07
By John Trent,
Ants are often considered nuisances, pests that are to be quickly eradicated and forgotten.
Yet, according to a team of scientists that includes Monte Sanford, a Ph.D. student, and Dennis Murphy, a professor in the Biology Department at the
"The study reminds us that we tend to overlook the little things that run the world," Murphy said.
The ants' contribution is simple, but important.
Sanford and Murphy, along with researchers from the U.S. Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station and the University of California at Davis, studied responses of ant communities to urban development in the Lake Tahoe basin.
The abundance of aerator ants was found to drop precipitously in forests with the greatest amounts of surrounding urban land development, thus greatly reducing the likelihood that water is infiltrated into the ground, increasing the likelihood of sediment runoff, and impacting the lake's legendary clarity.
Murphy said that aerator ants can survive some nearby development, "but apparently not intensive development."
"In fact, we observed reduced numbers of aerator ants in both wildland sites and high development sites, but the ants really dropped out of the picture in areas with high levels of urban development," Sanford said.
"The responses of these aerator ants show some flexibility to respond to the pressures exerted by urban development, but that flexibility, in the form of shifts in abundance and dominance of certain species, only lasts so long" Sanford added. "At higher levels of land development, aerator ant colonies and the ecosystem services that they provide really collapse."
"It is a fine balance," Murphy said. "Our findings show that some environmental disturbances caused by human activities may in fact help these ants. We actually found increases in ant species richness and abundance in forest patches with intermediate levels of disturbance. If ants can benefit from some level of disturbance, then perhaps the notion of purchasing lots and leaving them as unmanaged ‘buffer' spaces between urban and wildland areas can be looked at a bit more closely."
According to
"Removing some downed wood opens up the forest floor and provides areas for aerator ants and other species,"
But the research team also found that exotic, weedy plant invasions tend to increase in areas with dead wood removed. Those exotics can have a strong negative impact on these ants, indicating that exotic plants may be offsetting the positive side of fuels reductions on the ants.
"This is evidence that the whole ecosystem in the Tahoe basin is changing from urban development, fuels reductions, and exotic plants," Stanford said, "and that's reason for substantial concern."
"Balancing management actions that contribute to enhancing
"A forest dense with fuels is at great risk of fire, but a forest stripped of all of those fuels losses the ants that contribute to that highly desirable blue lake," he said. Finding that "just right" forest condition in between is an immediate challenge to the basin's management agencies, Murphy added.
Critical to the success of the study, Murphy said, was the fact that the research team took a sophisticated approach to its work, studying many dozens of forested locations in the Tahoe basin, which varied from highly urbanized to essentially wild, and a wide diversity of conditions in between.
Many of those sites were once private lots that were purchased from willing sellers as part of federal and state programs to reduce the land development that has contributed to reduction in
"Here is a case where a seemingly minor element in a complex ecosystem must be sustained to help us meet the broader environmental goals of maintaining healthy forests and a blue lake," Murphy said. "Our research suggests that ant communities and their ecosystem services should be an important target in land-use planning and conservation efforts at
http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_70536.shtml
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