[env-trinity] Disease killing young Klamath River salmon

Sat May 23 15:57:57 PDT 2015

Bill,

I would only add three things: (1) that it is 9% (more or less) for each
and every year that the $400 million is still on the books, not just one
time.

(2) all of the "greens" and tribes knew of the fact that the expenditure
would be rate-based, including any expenditure that would have simply
removed the dams--i.e., that spending money on Klamath is a profit center
for the utility, not a financial loss, whatever the outcome.

(3) if FERC (or the regulators in general) had ordered removal of the dams
(or fish ladders), the state PUC's would have just rate-based the cost and
(1) and (2) would have applied.  Cost-effectiveness matters far less than
what the regulators require.

gp

On Sat, May 23, 2015 at 4:34 PM, Kier Associates <kierassociates at att.net>
wrote:

> Greg
>
>
>
> One comment:
>
>
>
> The fish/river conservation community did in fact sort of dance in the
> street when the administrative law judge ruled for the fish agencies that
> PacifiCorp would have to build fish ladders/somehow provide fish passage on
> the river – but that’s because members of the fish conservation community
> by and large don’t understand how the states regulate utilities like
> PacifiCorp.
>
>
>
> Those fish-ladders/whatever would have clearly been a cost of doing
> business, recoverable by PacifiCorp through its rate base. That is,
> rate-payers would have paid for those fish-passage facilities. PacifiCorp
> would have not only passed those costs on to its ratepayers with the
> express permission of the two state PUCs but would have collected its usual
> profit (something like 9 percent at the time of the administrative law
> judge’s ruling) on that $400 million.
>
>
>
> ‘Not making a case for the KBRA here but simply trying to expose my
> fish-conservation brothers and sisters to the mysterious ways of
> state-regulated utilities economics
>
>
>
> (I do agree that winning the Section 401 Clean Water Act permit from the
> states needed to complete the hydro project relicensing process, would have
> been a near impossibility given just how solid the cooperation was among
> the Tribes, the states and the fish agencies in documenting and
> communicating the adverse water quality impact of PacifiCorp’s project. But
> I think it’s also worth noting that we have some PG&E hydro projects in CA,
> for which relicensing has not been completed, that are running on yr-to-yr
> permission from FERC – and have been doing so *for decades*)
>
>
>
> ‘Best,
>
>
>
> Bill Kier
>
> *From:* env-trinity [mailto:env-trinity-bounces+kierassociates=
> att.net at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] *On Behalf Of *Greg King
> *Sent:* Thursday, May 21, 2015 4:36 PM
> *To:* Thomas P. Schlosser
> *Cc:* env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us
> *Subject:* Re: [env-trinity] Disease killing young Klamath River salmon
>
>
>
> Too bad all the alleged "greens" and tribal reps bought the
> PacifiCorp/Bush Administration lie that negotiating with them for the KBRA
> — rather than insisting that PC build the court-ordered fish ladders, whose
> nearly $400 million cost could have cajoled PC to tear down the dams, which
> weren't worth that much; and rather than continue to pursue the required
> 401 Certification for the dams, which would have been very difficult for PC
> to obtain given the virtual impossibility of the water behind the dams
> satisfying this provision of the Clean Water Act; and rather than enforcing
> the ESA biological opinion requirement of a minimum flow of 1,000 cfs at
> Iron Gate — would be the Klamath's panacea rather than its undoing, as
> we're seeing today with PC's and the irrigators' ongoing water grab.
> Combine this folly with the underhandedness of many if not most of the
> people who negotiated in favor of the corporate-government deal and it's no
> wonder that today almost no one wants to step up to defend the beleaguered
> Klamath. What a mess.
>
>
>
> Thank you Tom, and the Hoopa Tribe, for continuing to move forward with
> integrity.
>
>
>
> Greg King
>
>
>
> On May 21, 2015, at 9:57 AM, Thomas P. Schlosser <t.schlosser at msaj.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> I grabbed the wrong KPOP by mistake; the 2015 Annual Operations Plan, page
> 2, calls for diverting* 254,500 af to irrigation*, a policy choice to
> favor irrigation over fisheries requirements.
>
> On 5/21/2015 8:09 AM, Thomas P. Schlosser wrote:
>
> It's worth remebering that when Reclamation says (below) that there's too
> little water to help now ("We decided that is not the most optimal use of a
> very short water supply at this point,” Person said.") they are still using
> a 2014 Annual Operations Plan for the Klamath Project which, at page 2
> calculates the project supply of water to be diverted from the Klamath at *239,000
> acre-feet*. This is what they consider to be "most optimal."
> Tom
>
> On 5/21/2015 6:32 AM, Tom Stokely wrote:
>
>
> http://www.redding.com/news/local-news/disease-killing-young-klamath-river-salmon_18847031
>
>
> Disease killing young Klamath River salmon
> Damon Arthur
>
> 5:50 PM, May 20, 2015
>
> 5:51 PM, May 20, 2015
>
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>
> SHOW CAPTION
>
> KLAMATH RIVER, California - A disease flourishing in warm drought
> conditions in the Klamath River is killing young salmon and steelhead
> trying to migrate out to sea.
>
> And while in some sections of the river disease has been found in nearly
> all of the fish tested, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials also said
> Wednesday the drought has left little water available to send downstream to
> improve conditions.
>
> The Klamath Fish Health Assessment Team says conditions in the river are
> at orange, which means a fish kill is likely and federal and state agencies
> need to be alerted.
>
> “Orange is probably underplaying the crisis,” said Craig Tucker, natural
> resources policy advocate for the Karuk Tribe, one of several groups with
> the assessment team that has biologists monitoring the river.
>
> Scott Foott, project leader for the California-Nevada Fish Health Center
> in Anderson, said about 90 percent of the fish from Klamath brought to his
> center for testing have the disease, called ceratonova Shasta.
>
> Foott didn’t know how many fish were dying of the disease in the river,
> but said mortality rate among fish with the disease is very high. Fish
> biologists said conditions in the river are bad this year because of the
> lack of rain and runoff from snowmelt.
>
> Randy Turner, the fish health assessment team coordinator, said with low
> flows and warm water, worms that carry the disease have flourished on the
> streambed.
>
> The problem isn’t as bad in years when the river is cooler and runs higher
> and faster in the winter and spring because the current kicks up the gravel
> and cobble on the streambed, disrupting the worms’ life cycle, he said.
>
> The worst section of the Klamath River is from the Shasta River west of
> Interstate 5 to more than 80 miles downstream to the Salmon River, Turner
> said.
>
> Brian Person, acting area manager of the bureau’s Yreka office, said
> Wednesday that after consulting with other agencies, they could not send
> more water downstream to improve conditions for the fish.
>
> “We decided that is not the most optimal use of a very short water supply
> at this point,” Person said.
>
> The bureau, as well as other federal and state wildlife agencies, would
> continue to monitor the fish in the river and could at some point decide to
> send more water downstream if conditions change, Person said.
>
> If the readiness level on the river goes from orange to red — which means
> a fish kill is occurring — there is probably little officials can do
> because so little water is available upstream in the river, Tucker said.
>
> Even if more water was sent downstream there probably isn’t enough
> available to benefit the young salmon, Tucker said. And if they use extra
> water in the spring to help the young salmon swimming out to sea, there
> might not be enough water in the fall to help the salmon returning from the
> ocean to spawn.
>
> During the past few years bureau officials have had to release more water
> from the Trinity River to prevent a different disease from killing spawning
> salmon in the Klamath. That disease, called “ich,” has affected areas below
> where the Trinity flows into the Klamath River.
>
> The young fish dying from the ceratonova Shasta in the Klamath River are
> upstream of its confluence with the Trinity River, Turner said.
>
> It is likely a large percentage of this year’s salmon hatch will not make
> it out to sea, which means there will be fewer adult salmon returning back
> upstream to spawn in three years, Tucker said.
>
> “I think we’re definitely going to take a hit when the adults return,” he
> said.
>
> Copyright 2015 Journal Media Group. All rights reserved. This material may
> not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> --
>
> Greg King
>
> President/Executive Director
>
> Siskiyou Land Conservancy
>
> P.O. Box 4209
>
> Arcata, CA 95518
>
> 707-498-4900
>
> gregking at asis.com
>
> www.SiskiyouLand.org
>
>
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>
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