[env-trinity] From PCFFA's SUBLEGALS

[Byron Leydecker]

I would add that this is but a small part of the fallout - not only from
Napa, but also from OCAP, SDIP and possible UOP negotiations as well.  It
gets down to a question of destruction of the San Francisco Bay Delta, among
other things, to benefit San Joaquin Valley irrigators applying water to
poisoned land and some Southern California municipalities.  In other words,
Peripheral Canal, Version II (up to one million more acre feet of Northern
California water PUMPED out of the Bay, just not a CANAL)

A WEEKLY QUOTA OF FISHERY SHORTS CAUGHT AND LANDED BY THE INSTITUTE FOR
FISHERIES RESOURCES AND THE PACIFIC COAST FEDERATION OF FISHERMEN'S
ASSOCIATIONS

SUBLEGALS
~WE HOOK THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO NET~
Vol. 09, No. 05
30 January 2004
____________________________________________________________________________
______________________
    9:05/08. FALL-OUT FROM NAPA AGREEMENT - WINTER-RUN CHINOOK THREATENED:
Part of the fall-out from the Napa Agreement (see Sublegals, 9:03/05;
8:06/02) to increase diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
sending additional water to Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors and
municipal users in Southern California, is the loss of cold water flows in
the Sacramento River  -- critical to the survival of winter-run chinook
salmon. The Sacramento winter-run chinook were the first Pacific salmon to
be listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and were on the brink of
extinction in 1991, until strong actions were taken under the ESA (i.e.,
cold water releases from Shasta Dam, control of heavy metal pollution from
Iron Mountain Mine, implementing effective screening programs at major
agricultural diversions, raising the gates at Red Bluff Diversion Dam,
curtailing Delta pumping and a captive broodstock program was established).
Of all the listed Pacific salmon runs, winter-run have shown the most
improvement to date (from 191 spawners in 1991 to an estimated 7,000-12,000
in 2003), although the fish are still a long way from being recovered.  That
progress could now be reversed and the fish again put in peril if the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) gets its way under the backroom Napa deal (now
also wryly described as N.A.P.A. or  "Not All Parties Asked").

     In a presentation made to the California Department of Fish & Game
(DCFG) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), BOR proposed to
significantly reduce critical habitat for winter-run chinook in the
Sacramento River through the New CVP Operations Criteria & Plan (CVP OCAP).

     The plan stems from the Napa Agreement to increase Delta exports and
CVP yield by drawing down the reservoirs further to capture more flood
control "spills."  Under this plan, the temperature compliance point from
Bend Bridge and Jellys Ferry to Balls Ferry would be moved upstream,
resulting in a 40 percent reduction in critical cold water spawning habitat.
The current standard is dependent on water year type and Shasta carryover
storage, but BOR is proposing the compliance point be moved upstream during
wet years to essentially the current critically dry year standard, or
worse - it's a long way from Bend Bridge to Balls Ferry.  The bad part is
that drawing down the reservoirs decreases cold water reserves necessary to
keep all runs of Sacramento River chinook, not just winter-run, in good
shape during spawning and incubation. BOR's answer to ever-increasing
violations of Sacramento River temperature standards, embodied in the 1993
Winter Run Biological Opinion, as well as Water Right Order 90-05, is to
simply move the goal post upstream. The issues raised by BOR's plan,
include:
       1.  Frequency of inability to comply with current standard;
       2.  Loss in winter-run rearing habitat;
       3.  Loss in winter-run spawning habitat;
       4.  Loss in spring-run spawning and incubation;
       5.  Habitat availability to reach winter-run recovery goal (i.e.,
20,000 adults);
       6.  Existing spawning density; and
       7.  Redd super-imposition.

     BOR essentially has told CDFG and NMFS that this is the way its going
to be unless the fishery agencies can explain to the Bureau in the
Biological Opinion (BiOp) why it won't work. There is to be a meeting on 3
March of the Sacramento River Temperature Task Group to discuss the matter.
The latest version of the Long-Term OCAP is available on BOR's website at:
http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo.


Byron Leydecker
Chairman, Friends of Trinity River
Consultant, California Trout, Inc,
PO Box 2327
Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327
415 383 4810 ph
415 519 4810 cell
415 383 9562 fx
bwl3 at comcast.net
bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary)
http://www.fotr.org
http://www.caltrout.org

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