[env-trinity] Times Standard: Klamath dam owner allots water to feds for drought mitigation

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_26610097/klamath-dam-owner-allots-water-feds-drought-mitigation?source=most_viewed 

Klamath dam owner allots water to feds for drought mitigation
16,000 acre-feet of water from two reservoirs in Klamath Basin
By Will Houston
whouston at times-standard.com @Will_S_Houston on Twitter
POSTED:   09/25/2014 11:46:04 PM PDT0 COMMENTS| UPDATED:   ABOUT 8 HOURS AGO

Click photo to enlarge
The Iron Gate dam spanning the Klamath River is... (Jeff Barnard — The Associated Press)
Dam owner and northwestern power giant PacifiCorp announced Thursday that it will allot 16,000 acre-feet of water from two of its Klamath Project reservoirs to the federal government over the next month to ease effects of drought on irrigators in the Klamath Basin and possibly those of fish in the main stem Klamath River.
The allotment was made as part of the company's August agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation to adjust operation of its Klamath project to make 20,000 acre-feet of reservoir water available. The extra water will help the bureau meet its mandate to ensure that the Upper Klamath Lake remains above its minimum water elevations required to benefit endangered and threatened fish as well as to extend irrigation water supplies.
"The government does control flows on the Klamath," PacifiCorp public affairs specialist Bob Gravely said. "What we've agreed to is to adjust our operations so that we're using less water than we normally would now for power generation, and in effect, they would return the water to the reservoirs later this fall when there is not such a need for it. ... We've agreed that this is an unusual year in there are lots of communities up and down the basin that are not doing so well because of the water shortage. We're just happy to make this small adjustment to contribute."
The company already released 4,000 acre-feet to the Klamath River in mid-September for the Yurok Tribe's Boat Dance ceremony.
Bureau river operations manager Jason Cameron said the 16,000 acre-feet is now available, but may not be used.

"How much of that will be utilized and where that water will go specifically has yet to be determined," he said. "There are ongoing discussions where that water would be used."
Should the bureau end up retaining water in Upper Klamath Lake, Gravely said Siskiyou County residents will notice a decrease in water elevation in the Iron Gate dam reservoir and the Copco 1 dam reservoir. The reduction in water will result in less power generated by the dams, but Gravely said the Klamath project only makes up about 2 percent of total power generated by the company.
After the ich parasite, also known as gill rot disease, was detected in the main stem Klamath River by Karuk Tribe fisheries biologists earlier this month, Karuk Tribe Klamath coordinator Craig Tucker said they are gathering more data to present to the bureau next week.
"Everything is really happening in real time," he said. "Right now, the Karuk and Yurok fisheries guys are out catching fish and trying to figure out if the ich infections are getting worse, getting better, and where that is happening. ...The bureau has to figure out how to balance the need to protect fish and what the demands are with the tribes with contractual obligations up there in the upper basin. From the bureau's perspective, they want something that will be legally defensible. What we don't think would be legally defensible is if there is another fish kill."
Tucker said the tribe has not determined an amount it wants to request as data is still being gathered. Unlike the lower Klamath, which can receive flows from the Trinity Lake reservoir, he said the middle Klamath River does not have a large water supply it can draw from — and a cool water supply at that. Since ich infection can spread more easily in warmer water, Tucker added the shallow reservoir water from Iron Gate dam may be too hot to help.
"It's this balance of flows and also worrying about water temperature," he said.
PacifiCorp requested in on Sept. 23 that the bureau return 12,000 acre-feet by the end of November, but Cameron said that may have to wait.
"We have made it clear on the hydrology and the precipitation between now and then, all of the water may not be able to be returned until spring of next year," Cameron said. "If we're lucky, we'll get a little bit of wet weather. A great rain storm would solve all these problems. I think we have to be prepared to take management action if necessary to ensure the fish have enough cold water."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20140926/4bc49c3a/attachment.html>