[env-trinity] Eureka Times Herald April 17 - Trinity Flows

[Byron]

KLAMATH BASIN:

Feds 'clarify' Trinity water request

Eureka Times-Standard - 4/17/05

By John Driscoll, staff writer

 

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."

 

 

Byron Leydecker, 

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org (secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://caltrout.org

 

 

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