[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 9/23/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

September 23, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

Fishing, boat rides provide fun for disabled children

Chico Enterprise Record

 

Editorial: Preventing floods, preserving farms

Sacramento Bee

 

Calif. tribe fears losing land if dam is raised

Associated Press

 

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Fishing, boat rides provide fun for disabled children

Chico Enterprise Record – 9/21/08

By SARAH KINGSBURY - Staff Writer

OROVILLE -- About 35 disabled kids spent Saturday morning in the North Forebay with professional fishermen catching trout, hanging out with college students and taking boat rides during Cast For Kids.

 

The program was sponsored by the national Cast For Kids Foundation with help from several different state agencies.

 

Developmentally disabled children were recruited through a state agency and paired with both an experienced bass fisherman and a Chico State University student.

The students took the children through the day's activities, which included breakfast, fishing, boat rides, lunch and an awards ceremony. At the end of the afternoon, the kids were given a rod and reel and tackle box along with a framed picture of the child and the fisherman.

 

"Some kids have a thrill just going really fast and driving the boat," said Anna Kastner, who helps recruit the children each year and works at the Department of Fish and Game. "Some kids don't even have a chance to get on a boat so that was a big deal for the majority of those kids."

 

Kastner said she met one boy at the event who had never been on a boat before — and neither had his father.

 

"That was a great feeling, to see this dad who had never been able to do this get to do this. And the kids had a blast, they were all smiling," she said.

Four state agencies signed a memorandum to sponsor the event throughout California — the departments of Water Resources, Boating and Waterways, Parks and Recreation and Fish and Game.

 

"It's an agreement among the four agencies to dedicate time within the resources of the agencies, which is essentially manpower," said John Ford, chairman of the organizational committee and an employee of the Department of Water Resources.

 

The Department of Fish and Game stocked the North Forebay with about 1,400 trout Friday in time with the event to make sure the kids had a better opportunity to catch a fish.

 

Since it began three years ago, Cast For Kids has been held on Lake Oroville, but low water levels forced organizers to take the event to the North Forebay this year. #

http://www.chicoer.com/advertise/ci_10520881?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com

 

Editorial: Preventing floods, preserving farms

Sacramento Bee – 9/23/08

 

Can cities and farm regions in the Central Valley work together to preserve and protect both of their economies? They can, and the preservation of a 1,682-acre ranch in Yolo County shows how it can be done.

 

Helped by $5 million in state flood control bond funds and $3 million from the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, the Sacramento Valley Conservancy and the Yolo Land Trust have completed purchase of the Knaggs Ranch north of West Sacramento.

 

Knaggs Ranch sits directly across the Sacramento River from North Natomas. Keeping this land in agriculture is essential for the protection of most of Sacramento.

If this ranchland were ever developed, its levees would have to be significantly upgraded. That would increase water pressure and flood risk on the levees in Natomas and other communities downstream. It would also divert funds that would be better spent on safeguarding existing urban areas.

 

Instead, the $11.9 million purchase of Knaggs Ranch – and a conservation easement placed on the land – ensures that it will remain in farming forever. Farmers can continue to grow walnuts, grain and other crops there, while getting help from SAFCA and other agencies.

 

As part of the deal, SAFCA will assist in maintaining local levees and will work with state agencies on upgrading those levees to a standard suitable for agriculture. And the flood agency will help farmers with relief from flood insurance bills and compensate Yolo County for lost property taxes.

 

Even with these deal sweeteners, some in Yolo's agricultural community view the land deal with alarm. Critics fear Sacramento has a grand plan to intentionally flood the basin during big storms and take farmland out of production.

 

Not so. SAFCA and the Sacramento Valley Conservancy have been clear that this is a agricultural easement, not a flood easement. Part of the land cleared in the 1970s will be restored to forest, but the bulk of it will still be farmed.

 

Indeed, by helping shoulder some of the costs that farmers now face, SAFCA is demonstrating that urban areas can be a partner in preserving a way of life.#

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1257552.html

 

Calif. tribe fears losing land if dam is raised

Associated Press – 9/23/08

By SAMANTHA YOUNG, AP

 

SHASTA LAKE, Calif. (AP) — The federal government is considering enlarging a dam to boost the state's water supply, which would flood what little land remains above water where a Native American tribe has fished and farmed for centuries.

 

Nine-tenths of the ancestral land of the Winnemen Wintu was submerged in 1945, when the federal government built a 602-foot dam downstream of their ceremonial and prayer grounds.

 

Now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is considering enlarging Shasta Dam, flooding the remaining 22 miles of rocky, steep canyon shoreline, including two sacred rocks involved in coming-of-age rituals.

 

"These sacred places help keep the tribe healthy. They help keep it balanced and they help us to heal," said tribal chief Caleen Sisk-Franco. "There is no replacement. There's not an option to move it."

 

The desire by the few remaining tribal members to preserve the remnants of their homeland is running headlong into the desires of Central Valley farmers, the main beneficiaries of the federal proposal to enlarge Lake Shasta.

 

When it was filled to capacity, the lake flooded 46 square miles where tribal leaders say some 20,000 Winnemen Wintu once lived along the McCloud River. Their numbers fell to 395 at the turn of the century, with thousands massacred by western settlers and ravaged by disease during the Gold Rush. Today, the tribe counts 122 enrolled members, about a fifth of whom live in a makeshift village of trailers and a house on 42 acres of private land a few miles from the McCloud River, some 225 miles north of San Francisco.

 

Lake Shasta is the starting point for the federally run Central Valley Project, a system of 21 reservoirs, canals and aqueducts that funnel water to some 3.2 million acres of farmland and supplies water to about 2 million people.

 

Supporters say an enlarged lake is needed to meet the needs of California's growing population. The larger reservoir also would be able to store more cold water, which is needed to help the salmon that used to migrate to cooler waters upstream before the dam blocked their path, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The bureau is studying whether to raise the dam between 6 1/2 and 18 1/2 feet, which would enlarge the reservoir by more than a tenth of its current size. That's enough water to serve the city of Los Angeles for more than year.

 

"What's so potentially promising about raising Shasta Dam, all things considered, is an opportunity to provide more storage at a facility that's already in place," said Ron Ganzfried, a supervisor in the Bureau of Reclamation's regional planning division.

 

A higher dam also would provide more hydropower, flood protection along the upper Sacramento River and combat future water shortages expected to come with climate change, according to a recent bureau report.

 

Although the price tag is steep — with preliminary costs ranging from $531.3 million to $854.9 million — it's far less than the cost of building a new dam. For example, the state estimates it could cost $3.6 billion to build a reservoir in a valley north of Sacramento that would store roughly the same amount of water as would be added behind a taller Shasta dam.

 

That makes it an attractive solution for California's farmers and municipal water agencies whose water supplies have dwindled after two dry winters and a federal court order that greatly reduced water diversions to protect threatened delta fish.

 

But conservation groups are concerned that swelling of the lower portion of the McCloud River would ruin one of the state's prized trout streams. They also question whether the additional cold water that would be stored behind a higher Shasta Dam would be saved and released for migrating salmon, as government officials claim.

Instead, environmental groups favor building bypasses for salmon to get them around the dam and into the McCloud River. They also advocate paying farmers and other users to increase water conservation efforts.

 

"We need to come up with permanent solutions that will increase flexibility and provide what we need for the salmon rather than reinvesting in the very projects that caused the problem," said Mindy McIntyre, a water specialist at the nonprofit Planning and Conservation League.

 

Federal officials say environmental organizations and the Winnemen Wintu tribe will be consulted as plans move forward over the next few years, but how much sway the tribe — which is not a federally recognized tribe — will have to block the dam project is questionable. Congress must still authorize and fund the project.

 

Although the tribe is small in number, its ties to the area remain central to preserving its heritage. The rocky shoreline along the McCloud River is where tribal members come at least once a year to celebrate the womanhood of their teenage girls. Medicinal plants are ground on a special rock and traditional prayers are offered.

Across the river, toddlers are introduced to another rock where tribal elders tell their ancestral stories. Both cultural spots could be swamped by the rising waters if Shasta Dam is raised. #

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g0LnGTCL1_UxZ8fy8dHxPR4_uGkgD93C9RP81

 

 

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