Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 26, 2009
3. Watersheds –
State Parks plans Oroville marina meeting; buoys provision dropped
Chico Enterprise-Record
Boats must be removed from Folsom Lake Marina
Sacramento Bee
Fire burns heavy brush in Angeles National Forest
Sacramento Bee
North Coast researchers at right place, right time for groundbreaking fire study
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Northwest fears that invasive mussels are headed its way
Modesto Bee
Steelhead restoration plan swims in difficult waters
North County Times
Ground broken on Freshwater estuary effort
Eureka Times-Standard
Bear River land preserve effort swings into action
Auburn Journal
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State Parks plans Oroville marina meeting; buoys provision dropped
Chico Enterprise-Record-8/26/09
By Toni Scott
California State Parks officials will visit Oroville next week to reach out to boaters concerned about issues facing Bidwell Marina.
A press release sent out Tuesday by State Parks and Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Linda) confirmed that State Parks officials will be present at a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Sept. 2 at the State Theatre, 1489 Myers St.
The meeting will include discussion on the state's recent decision to allow the transfer of buoys to continue at the marina.
Previously, the request for proposals (RFP) indicated that once a new concessionaire took over marina operations from Frank Moothart of Fun Time Full Time Inc., mooring agreements would be non-transferable.
Roy Stearns, State Parks spokesman, said Tuesday that language concerning the banning on the transfer of mooring agreements had been "removed from the contract" though he did add that the issue would be "revisited later."
The press release stated State Parks will "seek input from boaters at the marina and the public to formulate regulations regarding the transferability of moorings."
In addition to the mooring agreement transfer, State Parks will also discuss the process of securing a new operator at the marina at the Wednesday meeting.
Stearns said State Parks received five proposals from potential marina operators, following the initial RFP process which failed to produce an acceptable bid.
Ruth Coleman, director of State Parks, now has the legal authority to directly negotiate a contract, a process that will be further explained at the meeting.
Stearns said the state agency wants to bring in a marina operator who plans to improve the Lake Oroville facilities, ultimately improving recreation at Bidwell Marina.
"Our ultimate goal is to provide a better enhanced marina for our boaters," Stearns said. "We're looking for the kind of contract that does that."#
Boats must be removed from Folsom Lake Marina
Sacramento Bee-8/25/09
By Bill Lindelof
About 125 boats remain in the water at Folsom Lake Marina today, the deadline for owners to remove their watercraft to drydock.
The motor and sailboats are coming out two weeks earlier than expected because of dropping water levels. The reservoir is currently at 413 feet and the Bureau of Reclamation wants them out when the lake hits 412 feet elevation.
"We have been dropping almost a half a foot a day," said Ken Christensen, marina manager.
He sent letters to 675 boat owners, telling them they needed to remove their vessels by today. Christensen said about 100 pulled out of the marina at Brown's Ravine on Monday and most of the other boat owners say they will be out today.
"They started early, about 6:30 a.m., pulling boats out today," said Christensen. "Our biggest concern was getting out the big sailboats that draw a lot of water. We give ourselves a day or two cushion to get everybody out. Somehow, some people don't get out of here on time."#
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2137790.html?mi_rss=Our%2520Region
Fire burns heavy brush in Angeles National Forest
Sacramento Bee-8/25/09
About 600 firefighters battled a wildfire in the Angeles National Forest Tuesday that forced the evacuation of picnickers, campers and a group of Boy Scouts from the rugged mountain area northeast of downtown Los Angeles.
The fire started at about 4:30 p.m., quickly consuming at least 250 acres of heavy brush above the San Gabriel Valley community of Azusa, Forest Service spokeswoman Lisa Lugo said. The blaze sent up a huge plume of smoke that could be seen for miles.
Helicopters and air tankers fought the fire until dusk, Lugo said.
With relative humidity levels of about 12 percent and hot daytime temperatures, the fire fed on dry vegetation on both sides of Highway 39 and sent 40-foot flames racing up San Gabriel Canyon.
Picnickers, campers and hikers were evacuated, including about 15 Boy Scouts who rode a sheriff's department helicopter out of the canyon, said Sheriff's Sgt. David Infante.
The fire was 10 percent contained Tuesday night. No structures were threatened, and the flames were moving away from populated areas, Lugo said.
The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning of high fire danger for mountain areas in Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The warning is scheduled to go into effect at 6 a.m. Wednesday and last until 9 p.m. Friday.
Temperatures could exceed 100 degrees in some areas, with relative humidity expected to fall below 10 percent, the weather service said.#
http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/2138833.html
North Coast researchers at right place, right time for groundbreaking fire study
Santa Cruz Sentinel-8/26/09
By Genevieve Bookwalter
Researchers at Swanton Pacific Ranch are fearing the worst this winter: that mudslides from steep, blackened slopes will clog streams that rare steelhead and coho salmon depend upon to spawn, killing the bugs they eat and coating the pebbles they nestle their eggs in.
But scientists are in a better position to study the consequences of wildfire on the Little Creek watershed -- which flows into the Scott Creek watershed -- than they could ever have planned for.
For seven years, researchers with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo's North Coast teaching ranch have monitored water quality in Little Creek in anticipation of studying the effects of logging on streams. Now, they plan to document the precise changes that wildfire can bring to creeks and the critters that depend on them.
It was coincidence, said ranch Director Brian Dietterick, that the Lockheed Fire burned through the watershed his students have been studying for the better part of a decade. Now he plans to make the most of it.
"No one can plan for that. They don't know when they're going to have a wildfire occur," Dietterick said.
The Lockheed Fire broke out the evening of Aug. 12 in the hills above the North Coast. Within hours, flames had roared across 1,100 of 3,280 acres belonging to the Cal Poly ranch off Swanton Road. Most of the ranch's scorched property was the 1,800 acres of redwood forest around Little Creek.
The fire was contained on Sunday, with more than 7,800 acres burned.
On Tuesday morning, Dietterick gazed up at a charred slope above Little Creek. The ashen hillside was devoid of the three-foot fronds and leaf liter that once clutched the soil tightly to the steep earth, leaving it vulnerable to mudslides with this winter's expected rains, he said.
But along the stream below, nine monitoring stations are waiting for the hillside to fall. For seven years, they have drawn water samples every hour during major storms, often keeping graduate students running for days as they shuffle plastic one-liter bottles back to the lab, Dietterick said.
Fellow researchers will check if sediment suffocates spawning steelhead and coho salmon by clogging their gills, burns them by acidifying the water or cuts off air to their eggs by coating the pebbles on the stream bed. Dietterick's crew will use their seven years of data to explain the changes in the water that likely triggered each result, scientists said.
Without the existing research, "there would be an assumption that the fire caused things that were bad. But without the data you can't prove anything," said Sean Hayes, research fisheries biologist with National Marine Fisheries Service. "It's entirely possible that there's never been a river as studied as Scott Creek before and leading up to a fire."
Hayes said he had hoped for a big return of salmon from the Pacific Ocean to spawn up Scott Creek this year. The looming mudslides could dampen that run, he said.
However, "from a research perspective this is really a golden opportunity," Hayes said. "Scott Creek may suffer in the long term, but it may help us so much in that we come up with answers for post-fire management solutions."
"Literally," Hayes said, "we'll probably be studying this for 10 to 20 years."#
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_13205114
Northwest fears that invasive mussels are headed its way
Modesto Bee-8/26/09
By Les Blumenthal
Highly invasive mussels are lurking on the Northwest's doorstep, threatening to gum up the dams that produce the region's cheap electricity, clog drinking water and irrigation systems, jeopardize aquatic ecosystems and upset efforts to revive such endangered species as salmon.
Despite efforts to stop them, the arrival of zebra and quagga mussels may be inevitable.
Some scientists say the mussels could arrive within five years. Others say the mussels' larvae already may be spreading undetected, though no one is sure whether they'll survive or thrive in the Northwest's rivers, streams and lakes.
"They are getting closer and closer," said Jim Ruff of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council. "They are a huge concern."
The mussels are among the fastest-spreading invasive species to arrive in the United States. The invasion began in the late 1980s in the Great Lakes, probably arriving in the ballast water of freighters that had been in the Caspian Sea.
Originally from Eastern Europe and the Ukraine, the mussels now have been found in 22 states - including California, Nevada and Utah - and two Canadian provinces. They're in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland, Hudson and a handful of other rivers. They've also infected the Colorado River system, on which 27 million people rely for drinking water, irrigation, hydropower and recreation.
In May, a 26-foot boat on a trailer that had been on Lake Mead outside Las Vegas, on the Nevada-Arizona border, was stopped near Spokane, Wash. The mussels covered its bottom.
"If someone offered to bet me they would be in the Northwest within five years, I'd take it," said Stephen Phillips, a senior program manager with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, which was established by Washington state, Oregon, California, Idaho and Alaska to support activities that conserve, manage and develop marine resources.
The mussels reproduce prodigiously. One study cited by the U.S. Geological Survey found that a single mussel can produce 1 million eggs a year.
The fertilized mussel larvae float through the water, feeding on tiny phytoplankton and beginning to grow. Juvenile mussels attach themselves to just about anything solid, including the hulls of boats and barges, which spread them even farther.
At one Michigan power plant, the mussels were found in densities of 700,000 for roughly every square yard and in layers a foot thick. According to the USGS, navigational buoys have sunk under their weight, and small mussels have been known to get into the engine cooling systems of boats.
"The history of these mussels is they keep moving into new territory," said Fred Nibling Jr., of the Bureau of Reclamation's Ecological Research and Investigations Group in Denver. Nibling recently briefed members of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which oversees the development of comprehensive plans to meet the region's energy needs and restore salmon runs.
"They will become part of our life, just like rust," Nibling said.
Power managers in the Northwest are especially concerned because the region has the most extensive hydroelectric system in the nation. Nearly half the wholesale power sold in the Northwest is produced at the 31 federal dams operated by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Columbia and Snake rivers and their tributaries.
The dams produce enough electricity to power 20 cities the size of Seattle. Among them is Grand Coulee Dam, which ranks fifth in the world in terms of energy production. Grand Coulee also has made the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project possible, which has turned roughly 600,000 acres of central Washington desert into some of the nation's most productive agricultural land.
Dam operators also are concerned that the mussels could clog fish ladders and other facilities that allow endangered salmon to bypass dams' spillways and turbines. The mussels' edges are sharp, and fish ladders could become a hazard for salmon.
"They could slice and dice the salmon," said Ruff of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.
That's not the only problem, however.
The mussels filter microscopic organisms out of the water. An individual mussel can filter a quart of water a day. Some scientists think that the clearer water in Eastern rivers and lakes is as much a result of the mussels filtering the water as it is of environmental cleanup efforts.
The microscopic organisms are at the bottom of a complicated food chain and the invasive mussels could disturb it, affecting animals farther up the chain.
"It's a huge threat to the entire ecosystem of the Northwest if they get in here," Ruff said.
If the mussels do arrive in the Northwest, fixing the problem won't be cheap or easy.
The Coast Guard has estimated that economic losses and control efforts in states that already are infected cost $5 billion a year. Initial estimates for fighting the mussels on the federal Columbia River dams are nearly $25 million, with additional annual maintenance costs.
Most of the efforts elsewhere have focused on painting with anti-fouling marine paint or using the small, slow release of diluted chlorine to kill the mussels. But because of endangered salmon, steelhead and other species, those approaches may be too toxic and would require federal permits in the Northwest.
Other possibilities that are being tested include using bacteria, sound vibrations, ultraviolet light, electrical current, high-intensity water jets or hot water to kill the mussels. They also can be removed manually.
For now, officials are watching and waiting.
All four Northwestern states are checking recreational boats that come into the region on trailers, with special attention to those from Nevada or Arizona. Idaho has the most aggressive program: It checks every boat that comes into the state. Other states have launched similar efforts. California reportedly is using mussel-sniffing dogs.#
http://www.modbee.com/politics/v-print/story/830333.html
Steelhead restoration plan swims in difficult waters
North County Times-8/25/09
By Dave Downey
Restoring the steelhead to San Diego and Riverside county streams will be virtually impossible, a local water manager said Tuesday.
"You have set up a task that you can never, ever achieve," Don Smith, director of water resources for the Vista Irrigation District, told a federal official at a public meeting in Carlsbad to discuss a preliminary plan to bring one of the nation's most endangered fishes back to the region.
But Mark Capelli, Southern California steelhead recovery coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, fired back with a note of optimism.
"They said the same thing about air quality in Southern California," he said.
Capelli noted that smog levels have plummeted throughout the region over the past few decades, in response to aggressive efforts to scrub emissions from automobile tailpipes and industry smokestacks. And he said he is absolutely sure that the federal government will be able to reintroduce the steelhead into local streams.
To be sure, it will be a daunting task, said Penny Ruvelas, who has been overseeing development of the draft 430-page steelhead recovery plan that was the focus of the workshop meeting.
The plan, which covers the area from Santa Maria to the U.S.-Mexico border, carries no mandate and has no funding, Ruvelas said.
And the fish is on a precarious perch.
Before World War II, the annual steelhead run along the Southern California coast once numbered between 32,000 and 46,000 fish, but now it is a trickle of 500 returning adults. Ruvelas said the steelhead has disappeared from one-third of its former streams, and its numbers are sharply lower in the remaining two-thirds of its former range.
Biologists say pollution, dams and development have all but squeezed out the fish in a region of 23 million people.
But for all the setbacks, the steelhead returns every once in a while when there is enough water to swim in. An example was after the rainy El Nino winter of 1997-98, when steelhead headed many miles upstream in the San Mateo Creek, which begins in a Cleveland National Forest wilderness area in Riverside County and runs through Camp Pendleton to the sea.
"They are very tough, very resilient," Ruvelas said. "That's what gives us hope that we can recover them."
Although saddled with the name "rainbow trout" by anglers, the steelhead is not a trout. Rather, it is one of seven species of Pacific salmon, biologists say.
Steelhead historically hatch in the headwaters of rivers, then migrate to the ocean where they grow as large as 3 feet long and 15 pounds. After fattening up on the rich marine cuisine, they return a few years later to spawn.
And unlike other salmon, which spawn and die, they can spawn multiple times.
However, bringing back the steelhead is inherently controversial.
Clearing the way for its return would require changing out culverts under highways, modifying dams and releasing water from reservoirs ---- such as Lake Henshaw on the San Luis Rey River ---- to provide an obstacle-free path for the fish to swim from ocean feeding grounds to spawning grounds in the headwaters of rivers.
And that worries agencies such as the city of Escondido and the Vista Irrigation District, which depend on Lake Henshaw for 25 percent of their water.
"We're concerned because it potentially could have a really large impact on our water supply," said Lori Vereker, Escondido's utilities director, during a break in the meeting.
The plan comes just as the region is reeling from a statewide drought that is squeezing water supplies, and as the city is trying to finalize the settlement of a long-running dispute with five Indian communities over water rights in the San Luis Rey, Vereker said.
As a result of both those developments, the city may have to buy significantly more water from distant sources such as Northern California and the Colorado River, she said.
"And the cost of imported water is going sky-high," Vereker said. "People are upset now about how much they are paying for their water, and it could get much worse."
Tom Rodriguez, director of the La Jolla Indian Reservation's water department, said he is "big time" concerned about the potential impact on his community's supply as well.
About 90 people attended the workshop.#
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcounty/article_ad23ada3-4465-539c-8f70-ea585f45cb43.html?print=1
Ground broken on Freshwater estuary effort
Eureka Times-Standard-8/26/09
By John Driscoll
A project to revive some of the old backwater fish habitat along Freshwater Slough -- a project a decade in the making -- is finally under way.
The first dirt was moved Tuesday in the effort to rebuild a small portion of the estuary of Freshwater Creek. The important Humboldt Bay salmon stream's lower reaches have long been diked to make farmland, and biologists believe it's missing the old salt marsh and back channels salmon use to avoid high winter flows and to feed and grow.
The Northcoast Regional Land Trust acquired 54 acres from Freshwater Farms in 2005. It has now begun the process of restoring tidal action to 29 acres, and improving habitat on 4,500 square feet of Wood Creek, which runs into the slough on the property.
”Even though it's a small project, it's hugely symbolic,” said Don Allen, co-director of the Redwood Community Action Agency's Natural Resources Services.
The highly visible property along Myrtle Avenue to the west of Freshwater Corners will, over the next two weeks, undergo a transformation. Four old slough channels will be excavated to allow brackish and tidal water to enter them. A berm along Wood Creek will be removed, and finally a tide gate will be removed to allow tides to run a short distance upstream.
Some of the soil from the channels will be used to build mounds meant to protrude out of the tidal marsh being recreated. Native salt marsh plants like silverweed, salt grass and tufted hair grass will be planted in February.
On Tuesday, a Hooven and Co. excavator peeled up lyngbye's sedge, carefully placing it on a tarp while Rick Storre of Freshwater Farms looked on. Freshwater Farms will place these in pots to be ready for replanting in the spring, and will provide an amazing 46,000 plants total.
”These guys deserve a pat on the back for making it happen,” Storre said of the land trust and RCAA.
It was a long, arduous process to design and permit the project, and the cost to do that is likely more than what it will take to actually build it. Despite the slow process, land trust project manager Ryan Wells was appreciative of the cooperation that has led to this stage.
”It's been a good, collaborative effort to get this going,” Wells said.
Once it's done, the hope is that salmon, especially coho salmon, will find refuge from high winter flows and grow on insects attracted to the salt marsh in summer. While it's just a small area, it is a portion of the old salt marsh that has long been missing around Humboldt Bay, Wells said.
The main part of the project is expected to take two weeks.#
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_13205995
Bear River land preserve effort swings into action
Auburn Journal-8/25/09
By Gus Thomson Journal Staff Writer
A 652-acre parcel of land the Nevada County Land Trust is moving toward buying sits on a two-mile stretch of the Bear River at the Placer County line.
An important puzzle piece in Bear River shoreline preservation between Nevada and Placer counties is moving into place.
The Nevada County Land Trust’s drive to buy 652 acres of property skirting the northern bank of the Bear River got a boost last weekend with a benefit concert at a Penn Valley winery headlined by Grammy Award-winning band Asleep At The Wheel.
Now it’s up to local donors to help the land trust move closer to the $100,000 goal it has set to buy the land for $3.1 million by next spring, Executive Director Marty Coleman-Hunt said Tuesday. The trust has been given verbal commitment from the state Wildlife Conservation Board that $3 million in additional funding would be made available through voter-approved bonds, she said.
“We’re hoping the state budget will start to level out and they’ll release the funding,” Coleman-Hunt said. “It looks like we’re riding the recession out on this one.”
The Stars at the Peak concert featuring the Texas swing band drew a sell-out crowd, helping to bring the Nevada County Land Trust about halfway toward its $100,000 fund-raising goal on the Bear River property it hopes to purchase and preserve, Coleman-Hunt said.
“We had to turn people back at the gate,” Coleman-Hunt said.
The 652 acres would sit adjacent to 1,500 acres of land on the Nevada County side of Bear River that is already in a conservation easement.
And across the Bear River, near the Highway 49 Placer-Nevada County line, another 912 acres has been preserved. In addition, the Placer Land Trust is working with the Trust for Public Land to preserve a further 2,500 acres contiguous to that.
“What’s really cool about the (652-acre) parcel is that it finishes up a puzzle of acreage that will be preserved forever,” Coleman-Hunt said.
The targeted parcel covers two miles of Bear river shoreline and has been used for generations as a cattle-grazing area. The Emigrant Trail once used by pioneers traveling to California runs through the land and crosses the Bear River through the parcel being sought for preservation.
Jeff Darlington, Placer Land Trust executive director, said the Auburn-based organization is supportive of the new purchase because it would extend a natural corridor for north-south migration of wild animals between watersheds.#
http://auburnjournal.com/detail/128063.html
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