[env-trinity] Feds 'clarify' Trinity water request

[Josh Allen]

Feds 'clarify' Trinity water request 

http://www.times-standard.com/cda/article/print/0,1674,127%257E2896%257E
2821446,00.html 

By John Driscoll The Times-Standard 

Sunday, April 17, 2005 - 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
sought to clarify their position on using 
Trinity River restoration water for staving off another Klamath fish
kill in a letter to the restoration program 
director this week. 

Even as agencies and stakeholders met to map out how restoration would
proceed this year, the Wednesday 
letter was sent insisting no decision had been made to use the Trinity
water for anything other than restoration. 
The federal agencies were only asking whether the Trinity Management
Council believes a minor reduction in 
Trinity releases in the spring is viable, and whether it's
scientifically sound to store it for release to the Klamath 
in the fall instead. 

In an April 11 letter, Reclamation Regional Director Kirk Rodgers and
Fish and Wildlife California-Nevada Office 
Manager Steve Thompson wrote Trinity Restoration Program Director Doug
Schleusner: 

"Given our previously stated responsibilities and limited management
flexibility, we would like to consider 
options for reducing the potential for a serious die-off of adult salmon
in the lower Klamath River by releasing an 
appropriate volume of water into the Trinity River at the most effective
time in late summer or early fall. The 
volume of water will be considered part of the water year allocation
specified in the Dec. 19, 2000 Record of 
Decision." 

They then asked Schleusner to come to the management council meeting
with flow schedule recommendations 
and pros and cons of the approach. 

But in Wednesday's letter, Rodgers and Thompson wrote that they have
"made no decision regarding the 
scientific sufficiency of additional flows, nor have we made a
determination as to a particular source of water to 
support such flows or the legal sufficiency of utilizing a particular
source." 

 

 

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