[env-trinity] USBR Press Release on Trinity Flows

[tstokely at trinityalps.net]

CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT 
Reclamation releases new Trinity River flow schedule 
News release, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region - 4/29/04 

A Ninth Circuit Court ruling on April 23 significantly increased the 
volume available to the Trinity River . The Court's ruling came as a 
result of a request from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. In December 2002, U.S. 
District Court Judge Oliver Wanger limited the available volume of water 
to 453,000 acre-feet pending completion of a final Supplemental 
Environmental Impact Statement/Report. The Ninth Circuit Court's ruling, 
in response to the emergency motion, increased that volume to 647,000 
acre-feet for this year. 

The newly revised 2004 flow schedule will be finalized by the Department 
of the Interior, based on a recommendation made by the Trinity 
Management Council to achieve a wide variety of physical and biological 
objectives. This schedule will not only benefit smolt (juvenile salmon 
and steelhead) growth and survival in late spring and early summer, but 
will also achieve substantial geomorphic benefits by flushing large 
accumulations of fine sediment that have been deposited over the past 
two years, move and redeposit gravel, and scour 1-2 year old riparian 
vegetation that has re-encroached along the channel's edge, all of which 
will improve habitat conditions throughout the system. 

Under the newly approved flow schedule, current releases from Lewiston 
Dam to the Trinity River will continue at 300 cubic feet per second 
(cfs) through Tuesday, May 4, ramp up to 2,500 cfs by Thursday, May 6, 
and then continue up to 6,000 cfs by Sunday, May 16. The schedule calls 
for these releases to continue at 6,000 cfs from May 16 through Tuesday, 
May 25, gradually ramping down to 2,000 cfs by June 18, and finally 
reaching the summer base level of 450 cfs by July 22. 

The new flow release schedule is available online at Reclamation's 
Central Valley Operations (CVO) web site at www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo 
<outbind://28/www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo> 

For additional information, please call Jeffrey McCracken in 
Reclamation's Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TDD 916-978-5608). 
You may also contact Doug Schleusner at the Trinity River Restoration 
Program at 530-623-1800 or Tom Morstein-Marx at CVO at 916-979-2196, 
(TDD 916-979-2183). # 





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