[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 2/21/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

February 21, 2008

 

3. Watersheds

 

YUBA RIVER SALMON:

Groups suing over decline of fish; They say agencies fail to help three species coexist with Yuba River dams - Sacramento Bee

 

SALTON SEA:

Salton Sea revamp secures $2 million in funds from state; Wildlife board backs two years of initial work - Desert Sun

 

 

YUBA RIVER SALMON:

Groups suing over decline of fish; They say agencies fail to help three species coexist with Yuba River dams

Sacramento Bee – 2/21/08

By Matt Weiser, staff writer

 

Two old dams on the lower Yuba River don't make electricity, provide a water supply or prevent floods.

 

They do, however, stand in the way of spawning salmon.

 

The Daguerre Point and Englebright dams upstream of Marysville were designed to capture sediment washed out of the Sierra Nevada by hydraulic gold mining in the early 1900s.

 

But modern efforts to help endangered fish coexist with the dams have not gone well, according to environmental groups who last week sued the federal government and the Yuba County Water Agency.

 

They claim inaction has contributed to the decline of three species, all listed as threatened under federal law: spring-run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon.

 

The South Yuba River Citizens League and Friends of the River claim the agencies violated the federal Endangered Species Act by ignoring their own plans to improve fish spawning. The plaintiffs also claim these plans were inadequate in the first place.

 

"The Yuba has long been identified as the best opportunity for recovering spring-run chinook," said Jason Rainey, executive director of the citizens league. "There's no hope for recovery without expanded habitat."

 

Only 242 spring-run salmon returned to the Yuba River to spawn in 2007, he said, compared to about 400 in 2006. The total Central Valley spring run was about 12,500 fish in 2006.

 

Like other Sacramento River tributaries, the Yuba last year suffered a decline in fall-run chinook that may lead to a drastic fishing cutback this year. The fall run is not protected under endangered species laws.

 

Neither dam provides adequate fish ladders. The Daguerre Point Dam, built in 1906, has a pair of antiquated ladders that often fill up with debris or provide poor water flow. Englebright, built in 1941, has no ladders.

 

Rainey wants studies to find the best way to move fish around Englebright. He wants Daguerre Point Dam removed.

 

It is a diversion point for the Yuba County Water Agency, but that could be accommodated another way, he said.

 

These two changes, he said, could open more than 100 miles of additional spawning habitat.

 

Defendants include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the dams, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which manages the fish species.

 

Both agencies declined to comment on the lawsuit.

 

The Yuba County Water Agency did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Federal agencies acknowledge the dams are a threat to fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service in 2002 imposed a plan to minimize harm to fish, setting deadlines for projects to improve spawning habitat and upgrade fish ladders at Daguerre Point Dam.

 

The plaintiffs claim the corps completed none of the projects.

 

Last year, the fisheries service adopted a new plan to guide corps operations. It required even fewer improvements and imposed no standards to ensure success, the plaintiffs allege.

 

Greg Pasternack, a professor of watershed hydrology at University of California, Davis, has studied portions of the Yuba River below Englebright Dam for the past five years.

 

Unlike many Central Valley rivers, he said, the Yuba has plentiful spawning gravel in some locations to accommodate more fish, and its flows are good because its upstream reaches are relatively undammed.

 

"The Yuba is a pretty ideal location for fish overall," Pasternack said. "The main thing is to manage Daguerre and Englebright appropriately. The habitat is there. We just need more fish." #

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/728014.html

 

 

SALTON SEA:

Salton Sea revamp secures $2 million in funds from state; Wildlife board backs two years of initial work

Desert Sun – 2/21/08

By Jake Henshaw, staff writer

 

The campaign to restore the Salton Sea got a $2 million boost Wednesday.

 

The state Wildlife Conservation Board approved the money from existing bond funds to help pay for initial work such as air monitoring, habitat protection and access rights.

 

The funds, which will be spent over two years, will support work outlined in the 75-year, $9 billion sea restoration plan produced last year by the state Resources Agency.

 

"It's a good thing," Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, said of the board's action.

 

The $2,000,176 will help fund joint work by the state departments of Water Resources and of Fish and Game as the Resources Agency continues to develop a detailed five-year plan to carry out its restoration plan as funding becomes available.

 

"We need a road map," said Dale Hoffman-Floerke, the chief of the division overseeing the sea work.

 

Dan Parks, coordinator of the Salton Sea Authority, welcomed the funding even though he noted none is going to the local agency and a restoration plan hasn't officially been approved by the Legislature.

 

Ducheny is the author of a bill, which stalled last year, that includes approval of the Resources Agency's plan.

 

"Right now, it's sort of in limbo land," Parks, who also is assistant general manger of the Coachella Valley Water District, said of the restoration plan.

 

Ducheny this year also is introducing a bill to create the Salton Sea Restoration Council, overseen by an executive committee with 14 voting members, including eight state level members and six local representatives of CVWD and Riverside County and two Indian tribes.

 

The state resources secretary would have final decision-making authority over the council and review disputes.

 

"There needs to be an arbiter," Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said, "but only as a last resort.''

 

He agreed with Ducheny that her bill is a draft that's likely to see more work, something that Parks said hopefully will lead to a bigger role for local officials.

 

"The (Salton Sea) Authority would like to see proper representation" on the governing agency, Parks said, "to have a meaningful say in it." #

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080221/NEWS0701/802210374/1006/news01

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