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| Photo of Hoopa Valley Tribe protest against Westlands Water District on August 21 by Dan Bacher. |
Feds give away fish water to same growers suing over Trinity releases
by Dan Bacher
Over
60 members of the Hoopa Valley Tribe rallied in front of the federal
courthouse in Fresno on August 21 as U.S. District Judge Lawrence J.
O'Neill held a hearing regarding the temporary restraining order
obtained by Westlands Water District and the San Luis and Delta-Mendota
Water Authority to block a plan to increase flows on the Trinity River.
They
and members of the Klamath Justice Coalition held signs proclaiming,
"Westlands Sucks the Trinity Dry," "Remember the Fish Kill 2002," "Save
the Trinity," Save the Fish - Release the Dam Water," and "Un Dam the
Klamath." Wearing bright green shirts stating, "Save the Trinity River,"
the Tribal members traced chalk outlines of salmon and people on the
pavement showing what would happen to fish and people if the flows
aren't released.
"When
the fish are gone, we will be gone too," explained Dania Rose
Colegrove, Klamath Justice Coalition organizer and member of the Hoopa
Valley Tribe.
The
Bureau of Reclamation had planned to release the flows starting August
13 to prevent a potential fish kill like the one of September 2002 from
taking place on the lower Klamath. However, the court order has to date
blocked the increased releases.
"The
Trinity River is our vessel of life and the salmon are our lifeblood,"
stated Danielle Vigil-Masten, Hoopa Valley Tribe Chairperson. "We need
water in our rivers, not more proposals like the Bay Delta Conservation
Plan (BDCP) and a Klamath settlement processes that prioritizes Oregon
irrigators. It is time to change the way California prioritizes water."
Tom
Birmingham, Westlands general manager, responded to the protest in a
prepared statement: "No one wants to see a repeat of the loss of chinook
salmon in the lower Klamath River that occurred in 2002. However,
achieving a reasonable balance among competing uses of water involves
more than simple slogans that can be fit easily on a protest banner."
The
Tribal members, after rallying out in front of the courthouse, then
drove to the State Capitol in Sacramento for a hearing conducted by
Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro regarding salmon. Vigil-Masten spoke at the
hearing regarding the crisis on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.
As
Tribal members protested Westlands' blocking of the badly-need flows,
alarming evidence emerged regarding a massive giveaway of water by
federal agencies to the same water contractors suing the Department of
Interior to stop releases to save imperiled salmon from a fish kill.
The
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) recently learned
that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
both under the Department of Interior, inexplicably gave away 451,000
acre-feet of water in 2011 to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley that
could have been stored in Shasta Reservoir to provide critical relief
for fisheries in 2012 (below normal year) and 2013 (dry year).
Over
half of the available spawning habitat on the Sacramento River for
endangered winter-run Chinook salmon has been eliminated this year
because of a lack of available cold water in Shasta Reservoir, according
to Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance. Lack of flow this year has also caused serious
violations of water quality standards in the Delta and impacted
endangered Delta smelt.
“It
is outrageous that the Department of Interior gave away many thousands
of acre-feet of fishery water to San Joaquin Valley farmers that could
have mitigated serious impacts to salmon and Delta smelt this year,”
said Jennings. “But it is abominable and scandalous that the recipients
of that gift have now turned around and sued Interior for proposing to
release a small amount of water on the Trinity to prevent a repeat of
the massive Klamath fish kill of 2002."
"The
same South of Delta farmers also received considerable additional
exported water this year because water quality standards in the Delta
were ignored and violated," Jennings pointed out. "They have no shame."
The
Department of the Interior is allocated 800,000 acre-feet of water
annually to protect fisheries under Section 3406(b)(2) of the Central
Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA), the landmark 1992 legislation
that made fish and wildlife a purpose of the project for the first time
in history. The law also mandated the doubling of all naturally spawning
Central Valley anadromous fish populations, including Chinook salmon,
steelhead, green and white sturgeon, striped bass and American shad.
During
wetter years, like 2006/07, the Department of Interior has “banked”
unused portions of that water in Shasta Reservoir for use in future
drier years, reported Jennings. However, in the wet year of 2011, only
348,800 acre-feet were used to protect fisheries.
"Instead
of banking the water for future needs, the Department of Interior
allowed the remaining 451,200 acre-feet to be used as 'replacement
pumping' to make up for restrictions imposed by the State Water
Resources Control Board (State Board) in its Bay-Delta Water Quality
Control Plan (D-1641)," said Jennings. " D-1641 eliminated the
Department of Interior’s right to use fish water to make up for water
necessary to meet the Water Quality Control Plan’s water quality
requirements."
In
April, May and June 2013, the Bureau and Department of Water Resources
(Department) violated water quality standards for salinity at Emmaton
and in June violated salinity standards at Jersey Point. These
compliance points are located in the western Delta. Southern Delta
salinity standards were also violated June, July through 15 August,
according to Jennings.
Fearing
that they would also violate Delta Outflow standards, as well as
temperature standards on the Sacramento River, the Bureau and Department
requested that State Board Executive Director Thomas Howard and Delta
Watermaster Craig Wilson allow them to operate under a “critical year”
classification instead of a “dry year” classification and move the
temperature compliance point on the Sacramento River upstream. The
National Marine Fisheries Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and
Department of Fish and Wildlife endorsed the request.
Despite
a dry spring, 2013 is legally defined as a “dry year.” The State Board
has no legal authority to arbitrary change the water year
classification. However, on 29 May 2013, the State Board informed USBR
and DWR that they “will not object or take any action if the Bureau and
Department operate to meet critically dry year objectives for Western
and interior Delta.”
Jennings
said the result of the State Board’s refusal to enforce water quality
standards was that the Bureau and Department increased reservoir
releases, ramped up exports and throttled back Delta outflow. The
temperature compliance point on the Sacramento River was moved from Red
Bluff upstream to Anderson, eliminating crucial spawning habitat for
winter-run Chinook salmon.
Reduced
Delta outflow caused the low salinity zone to move upstream and Delta
smelt were drawn into the Western Delta to perish. But the farmers of
Westlands and San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority, who are now suing
the Department of Interior over Trinity releases, got more water.
“This
year’s failure of resource and regulatory agencies to protect fisheries
and enforce the law is a poster child for the collapse of the Delta’s
ecological tapestry,” said Jennings. “The resource agencies have bent
over backwards to give San Joaquin Valley farmers additional water, even
at the expense of fisheries, and these same farmers quickly sued the
agencies when they attempted to release a little water to prevent a
massive fish kill."
Further
information, including Interior’s Water Year 2011 B2 Water Final
Accounting, correspondence between the agencies and State Board and a
report on this years demise of Delta smelt can be found at http://www.calsport.org.
As
the federal government's inexplicable giveaway of dedicated fish water
to corporate agribusiness was disclosed, the Brown and Obama
administrations continue to fast-track the Bay Delta Conservation Plan
(BDCP) to build the peripheral tunnels. The purpose of the tunnels is to
facilitate the export of more water to agribusiness interests
irrigating toxic, drainage impaired land on the west side of the San
Joaquin Valley and oil companies seeking to expand fracking.
The
construction of the tunnels would hasten the extinction of Central
Valley Chinook salmon and steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green
sturgeon and other fish species. However, the way the federal and state
governments are mismanaging the state's water resources now, it looks
like they are doing everything they can to drive salmon and Delta fish
populations extinct well before the twin tunnels could ever be built!
Note: Stay tuned for a complete update on the protest and hearing.
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