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<DIV><FONT size=+0><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>Ninth Circuit Court rules to
give the Trinity River more water for fish</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>Hoopa Valley Tribe -
4/23/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>SAN FRANCISCO - The federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today
ordered the federal Bureau of Reclamation to release emergency water for
northern California’s Trinity River despite opposition by agricultural and
hydropower litigants. "We are grateful to the court for respecting the Trinity
River’s need for water," said Clifford Lyle Marshall, Chairman of the Hoopa
Valley Tribe of Humboldt County. A final decision on the appeal is expected in
the next few months, "But this temporary emergency order shows the court
understands the long-term trust responsibility to preserve a healthy fishery, "
said Marshall.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The Hoopa Valley Tribe, whose reservation is bisected by the
river, asked the court for more water to help restore the river’s fishery. The
ruling is part of a four-year litigation with the tribe and its trustee, the
U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), on one side, and Westlands Water District and
the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) on the other. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The tribe has been litigating since 2000, when Westlands and
NCPA sued to prevent the implementation of a restoration plan developed by the
tribe and the DOI after 20 years of study and negotiations. The legal battle is
rooted in the decision of Congress in 1955 to divert Trinity River water to the
Central Valley Project. "The federal government promised to leave enough water
in the river for the river’s fishery, but in some years the Bureau of
Reclamation took 90 percent of the river’s water and the fish population began
to dramatically decline," said Mike Orcutt, Director of the Hoopa Valley Tribal
Fisheries Department. He said the 2002 fish kill of some 34,000 migrating fish
in the Klamath River shows the imperative for water in the Trinity, which flows
into the Klamath River.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>In the l980’s Congress ordered restoration studies culminating
in the signing of the 2000 Record of Decision (ROD) by then-Secretary of
Interior Bruce Babbitt. Westlands and NCPA immediately filed an injunction
blocking the ROD. In 2002, Fresno federal district court judge Oliver Wanger
ruled in favor of irrigation and hydropower interests that wanted to delay the
ROD. The tribe appealed that decision to the Ninth Circuit Court. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"This long and expensive litigation by Westlands and NCPA has
taken away human resources and money from the restoration of the river," said
Marshall. "But we have no other choice but to continue to fight in court. We
don’t have another river to live next to. The fish don’t have another river to
swim in." #</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4></FONT> </P></DIV></FONT></STRONG></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=articleHeadline><STRONG></STRONG></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=articleHeadline><STRONG><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2111230,00.html">http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2111230,00.html</A></STRONG></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=articleHeadline><STRONG></STRONG></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=articleHeadline><STRONG>The Trinity wrench in the
works</STRONG></SPAN> </DIV>
<P class=articleSpacer><SPAN class=articleByline>By California lawmakers want
water contracts delayed pending suit's end <STRONG>John Driscoll </STRONG>The
Times-Standard</SPAN>
<P class=articleSpacer>
<P>The next few months could prove pivotal to the future of the Trinity River,
as contracts with Central Valley irrigators are hammered out and the river's
role in those negotiations plays out.
<P>On Friday the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to allow more water to
flow down the Trinity for salmon this year. That ruling substantially boosts
water to the river, and will open up habitat for young fish and help reshape the
river's channel.
<P>The emergency ruling is part of a suit brought against the 2000 plan to
restore the river's fishery by Westlands Water District and other water and
power users. Westlands is one of the water users looking to gain 25-year
contracts, which are being negotiated in a series of meetings with the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation.
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<P>Despite being a litigant, Westlands has tried to portray the Hoopa Valley
Tribe as obstructionist for not accepting settlement offers from the irrigation
district and the U.S. Interior Department. In analyses of the offers, the tribe
found them unsupported by science.
<P>But the tribe's support is growing. California Sens. John Burton, D-San
Francisco, Michael Machado, D-Linden, and Wesley Chesbro last week sent letters
to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, saying the litigation threatens to stall water
contract negotiations.
<P>"I am urging a resolution of the Trinity River litigation as a preface to any
federal water deals," said Chesbro, an Arcata Democrat, in the letter.
<P>On Thursday, Feinstein asked the entire Hoopa Valley Tribal Council to fly to
Washington, D.C., for a Monday meeting. In attendance was Assistant Interior
Secretary Bennett Raley, who was criticized by the tribe last week for breaking
a pledge to support the request for higher flows this year.
<P>Feinstein reportedly committed to more talks on the issue.
<P>The tribe is hoping Feinstein might enter language into CalFed -- the state
and federal program to restore the Sacramento River Delta -- that would prevent
contracts from being approved until the Trinity River matter is resolved.
<P>Westlands gets its water from the delta, which is fed in part by the
diversion of most of the Trinity's water above Lewiston Dam.
<P>Trinity River restoration advocates believe the federal government may try to
rush water contracts through before the November presidential election, and most
water contracts are expected to be finished in mid-May. Environmental reviews
will follow.
<P>Westlands spokesman Tupper Hull said the court's decision to release water
this year is not how the Trinity's fishery should be managed. He said while it
appears there is enough water in storage to support the court's decision this
year, dry conditions next year could tax the system.
<P>The fastest way to resolve the Trinity issue is for everyone to sit down at
the same table and come up with a science-based settlement, Hull said.
<P>"That's how a long-term, permanent restoration plan is going to be
developed," Hull said.
<P>The restoration plan being litigated was drafted after 20 years of studies
and would return just under half of the water diverted from Trinity Lake to the
river.
<P>Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Policy Analyst Barry Nelson said
contractors are looking to strengthen their legal and political claims to water
from the Central Valley Project -- before suits on the Trinity and San Joaquin
rivers are resolved. That could leave the federal government legally bound to
deliver water that is required for restoration of the rivers.
<P>"Westlands is obviously trying to lock up as much of its future water supply
as possible ... before a final decision is made on the Trinity," Nelson said.
</P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2111241,00.html">http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127%257E2896%257E2111241,00.html</A></FONT></P>
<P><SPAN class=articleHeadline><STRONG>Big water coming: </STRONG>Heaviest flows
in years OK'd by court</SPAN> </P>
<P class=articleSpacer><SPAN class=articleByline>By <STRONG>John Driscoll
</STRONG>The Times-Standard</SPAN>
<P class=articleSpacer>
<P>More water will flow down the Trinity River this spring than has been
released in years.
<P>A relative deluge will pour down the river for nearly a week in May, and
strong flows will continue into July.
<P>The big volume of water was approved by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Friday, and will move gravel, scour encroaching river-side vegetation and
improve habitat for young salmon.
<P>The schedule to send the 647,000 acre feet -- 210 billion gallons -- down the
river is being hashed out by hydrologists and biologists in the Trinity River
Restoration Program. The program expected to be working with about a third of
that water when the court issued its new ruling on Friday.
<P>"This is the largest volume of water that has gone down the river in quite
some time," said Doug Schleusner, executive director of the program. "Overall, I
think it's going to be really good for the river."
<P>When former U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt signed the Trinity
restoration plan in 2000, Westlands Water District and other Central Valley
water and power users sued. While the plan has been stalled in litigation, U.S.
District Court Judge Oliver Wanger has in previous years allowed a portion of
the flows to go down the river.
<P>But with an average winter, the plan called for more water than Wanger
allowed. The Hoopa Valley Tribe petitioned the 9th Circuit -- where the larger
case rests -- to allow higher flows.
<P>Four bridges over the Trinity have to be rebuilt to allow flows higher than
6,000 cfs, which are called for in wet years.
<P>While the high flows are meant to improve conditions for fish, they also help
the burgeoning white water rafting business on the Trinity River. High flows
bring more exhilarating, safer trips.
<P>"In one word? Whoopee," said Michael Charlton of Redwoods and Rivers in Big
Bar. "Higher flows just equate to more fun for us."
<P>Charlton said once the word gets out about the higher flows, booking should
go up substantially.
<P>The schedule of releases should be available early next week. </P>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>TRINITY RIVER</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>District Ordered to Release
Water</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Los Angeles Times - 4/27/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Staff and wire service
reports</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered the release of emergency water
to replenish the Trinity River in Northern California.</P>
<P>The ruling is part of a four-year case by the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the U.S.
Department of the Interior, which argued that an act of Congress in 1950 to
redirect the river's water to irrigate the Central Valley had depleted the area
of fish. </P>
<P>An order from the Department of the Interior in 2000 to restore the river was
blocked by the Westlands Water District and the Northern California Power
Agency, throwing both sides into litigation.</P>
<P>The court's ruling last Friday is temporary.#</P></DIV></DIV>
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