[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 11/7/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

November 7, 2008

 

3. Watersheds –

 

State ‘overdue’ on sea plan

Imperial Valley Press

 

Chinook Salmon’s Last Meal?

A cooler ocean is feeding hungry salmon, but their ultimate survival remains uncertain.

Scienceline, NYU

 

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State ‘overdue’ on sea plan

Imperial Valley Press – 11/7/08
By MEGAN BAKKER, Staff Writer

The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors needs to develop its stance toward Salton Sea restoration, or risk losing out on state support, IID general manager Brian Brady said.

Brady, speaking at Tuesday’s board meeting, recommended the board work with the Imperial County and Riverside boards of supervisors “to craft a consensus position” on the state’s responsibility toward restoration of the sea.

“While (restoration) may not be a requirement of the (Quantification Settlement Agreement), it will create an impassable roadblock in instituting on-farm conservation measures,” Brady said. He said without restoration, the district will have a hard time transitioning out of fallowing and into on-farm conservation measures, something required by the QSA. The IID only has until 2017 to complete the transition.

IID Director Jim Hanks said a discussion of the issue was “long overdue.”

The state has passed two bills outlining its responsibilities for the Salton Sea. The first, SB 277, said the state will create a restoration plan, fund it and implement the restoration, according to the text of the bill.

The IID, along with the San Diego County Water Authority and the Coachella Valley Water District, are responsible for the mitigation of specified environmental impacts that are directly caused by the QSA’s water transfers, according to the QSA.

Here, the state has also stepped in, passing a second bill, SB 654, stating that it will pay for any mitigation costs that exceed the $133 million paid for by the IID, San Diego and Coachella.

“The connection between Salton Sea restoration and the mitigation of impacts is tangential,” Brady said. “The sea was a troubled inland lake before the transfer and the need to restore it would exist with or without the QSA.”

The California Resources Agency has formulated a restoration plan, along with several alternatives. But Brady is concerned that without prodding from the IID board, the restoration plan will sit in legislative limbo.

He cited a $9 billion price tag for the current restoration plan, along with a “lack of any sense of urgency” regarding the Salton Sea as reasons legislators would ignore the issue. Brady called the price tag especially a “decided drawback” and a “political nonstarter for lawmakers,” considering the state’s budget crisis and the larger economic difficulties.

Brady called on the board to get both the Imperial County and Riverside County boards of supervisors on board in coming to a consensus on getting the state to move forward on Salton Sea restoration. This includes starting habitat programs in areas around the sea, as well as making sure restoration efforts will still allow the district to use the sea as storage for drain water.

Brady acknowledged the plan before the legislators was not perfect, and that several organizations, including the Salton Sea Authority, had raised objections to it in the past.

But, Brady said, calling for an entirely different plan “would only prolong the uncertainty and inertia” on the issue.

“I believe this board can no longer trust that all of the parties, including the state, are doing their part to meet the aggressive benchmarks for either implementing a restoration plan for mitigating the impacts of the QSA at the Salton Sea,” said Brady.#

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/11/07/local_news/news03.txt

Chinook Salmon’s Last Meal?

A cooler ocean is feeding hungry salmon, but their ultimate survival remains uncertain.

Scienceline, NYU – 11/7/08

By Lynne Peeples, posted November 7th, 2008.

 

Young Chinook salmon entering the Pacific Ocean this year are finding cooler waters and more plentiful meals than the sea provided their parents. Because of these improved conditions, fisheries scientists forecast a rebound in coming years for the West Coast’s most famous fish. But some researchers and fishermen believe the respite will be temporary, and warn that future generations of Chinook could face even more devastating declines than their ancestors did.

 

“Things are definitely looking up. I’m pretty optimistic,” says Bill Peterson, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, whose ocean monitoring detected the changing environment.

 

The good news is a welcome change from the latest Chinook headlines. Despite unprecedented fishing restrictions, only 54,000 Chinook are expected to return to the Sacramento River this fall, according to NOAA. Just five years ago, 775,000 came back to the river, and historic numbers—before California’s population boomed with the Gold Rush of 1849—are thought to have been between 1.5 and 2 million.

 

Three years ago, the Pacific Ocean was in particularly poor shape. Researchers documented large numbers of dead sea birds and skinny whales, along with fewer small fish, shrimp and squid for salmon to eat. “It was horrid,” says Peterson. “Salmon went to sea in 2005, [then] probably died within a couple weeks of getting there, and that’s why there weren’t any fish to come back last year and this year.”

 

But a recent shift in atmospheric conditions, known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, is pushing cold water from the Gulf of Alaska south to the Pacific Coast this year, and with it plenty of plankton—the foundation of the aquatic food chain on which salmon rely. This food source is crucial for oceangoing Chinook that typically spend three years at sea before returning to spawn in freshwater. Returns are therefore expected to fully reflect the ocean’s shift in another two or three years.

 

Longer-term projections of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, however, are becoming increasingly difficult. What used to be a relatively predictable cycle of 20- or 30-year warm and cold phases has shortened to 4-year shifts in the past decade. Whether or not these phases are being influenced by climate change remains uncertain. “Maybe in 20 years we’ll look back and say, yeah, this is global warming . . . all the cycles have been upset,” says Peterson. But for now, his attention is on the pending effects of ocean cooling.

 

The favorable ocean currents “will buy us some time,” says Glen Spain, Northwest regional director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “But we have to deal with the problems inland in the meantime.”

 

The list of freshwater issues is daunting. Hydroelectric dams and water diversions have dried up the Chinook’s traditional migratory paths and spawning grounds. The rivers and streams that remain run shallow and warmer—uncomfortable conditions for salmon. Soil erosion and pollution, as well as natural floods and droughts, further destroy viable habitat. On top of all that, the salmon also face overfishing and an altered ecosystem that includes non-native predators and farmed fish.#

http://scienceline.org/2008/11/07/environment-peeples-chinook-salmon-numbers/

 

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