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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
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<TD vAlign=top width=140><A
href="javascript:popup('http://mas.scripps.com/REDD/2004/07/14/TRINITY14a_e.jpg',350,450)"><IMG
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src="http://mas.scripps.com/REDD/2004/07/14/TRINITY14a_d.jpg"
border=0></A><SPAN class=phototext><BR>Lucas Mobley / Record
Searchlight<BR><IMG height=8
src="http://www.redding.com/redd/images/spacers/spacer.gif" width=1
border=0><BR>RAGING RIVER: Ray Raphael spins into a rapid on the Trinity
River west of Junction City on Tuesday. A 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
decision on Tuesday upped the flows of river to boost dwindling salmon
runs. More water heading down the river means less is diverted for
hydroelectric power and crop
irrigation.</SPAN><BR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
<DIV><BR><SPAN class=headline1>Trinity River flow to grow</SPAN> </DIV>
<P><SPAN class=subhead>Hoopa rejoice after judges rule to cut diversions, boost
salmon</SPAN>
<P><SPAN class=smalltext><B>By Alex Breitler / Record
Searchlight</B></SPAN><BR><SPAN class=smalltext><B>July 14, 2004</B></SPAN>
<P><SPAN class=bodytext>SAN FRANCISCO — More than three years after
then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt canoed down the Trinity River and agreed
to send more water for its narrow channels, a federal appeals court on Tuesday
cleared the way for the plan to be put into practice.
<P>The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with American Indians, overturning
most of a lower court’s ruling in favor of irrigators and utility districts.
<P>
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<TD><IMG height=10
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border=0></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>"We’re ecstatic," said Clifford Lyle
Marshall, chairman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe.
<P>
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<P align=center><FONT face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"
size=-1><B>Changing the flow</B>
<P>The Department of Interior's restoration plan would keep about 48
percent of the water in the Trinity River, diverting 52 percent for
irrigation and power generation. In the past, up to 88 percent has been
diverted.
<P>Flows would range from 368,600 acre-feet in a dry year to 815,200
acre-feet in an extremely wet year. One acre-foot of water supplies a
family for one year.
<P>The plan would reduce the state's energy supply by one-tenth of 1
percent and diminish Westlands Water District's irrigation supply by about
5 percent.</P></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The tribe battled for increased
flows to boost depleted salmon runs on the culturally cherished river, which
cuts through the Hoopa reservation north of Willow Creek.
<P>"The science was upheld," Marshall said. "It was a costly and hard-fought
battle, but we’re pleased."
<P>Historically, more than two-thirds of the river’s water has been diverted
through a tunnel to Whiskeytown Lake, spinning turbines and generating
electricity. From there, it flows down the Sacramento River and is pumped to
farms in the San Joaquin Valley.
<P>At one time, up to 88 percent of the Trinity water was sent south. The
Babbitt agreement would reduce that number to 52 percent.
<P>"It’s really a total victory," said Tom Stokely, a Trinity County planner and
advocate of river restoration. "Now we can actually focus on implementing the
program instead of preparing endless environmental documents and fighting it out
in court."
<P>Tupper Hull, spokesman for the plaintiff Westlands Water District, said
irrigators were reviewing the 45-page ruling and had not yet decided whether
they would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
<P>Hull said the district, which covers 600,000 acres of farmland, was still
hoping for a settlement. One such deal offered to the Hoopa tribe was rejected.
<P>"This is an issue that’s gone on too long and been too divisive," Hull said.
<P>Westlands sued in 2000, claiming the federal government ignored other river
restoration options aside from upping flows. A U.S. District Court judge in
Fresno agreed, ordering more environmental review and capping river levels in
the meantime.
<P>But the trio of 9th Circuit judges called the number of studies on the
Trinity River "staggering" evidence of years of thorough scrutiny.
<P>Because of diversions, the river faced what amounted to extreme drought
conditions for three decades. Federal biologists estimated in 1980 that fish
populations had declined 60 percent to 80 percent over historical numbers.
<P>Trinity diversions "radically altered the Trinity River environment,
destroying or degrading river habitats that supported once-abundant fish
populations," wrote Judge Alfred T. Goodwin.
<P>Higher water flows would scour away encroaching plants and create a
meandering, shallow channel with protected pools for spawning salmon.
<P>Fears of power loss for Redding Electric Utility and other providers are
insignificant, the judge wrote, noting that higher flows on the Trinity would
reduce the state’s energy supply by one-tenth of 1 percent.
<P>Westlands officials have said decreased diversions would cost hundreds of
farm jobs and deplete the district’s water supply by about 5 percent.
<P>It’s unclear exactly when the higher river flows will take effect. Four
bridges are being reconstructed to stand up against all that water, and some
homes and other structures need to be moved, Stokely said. Many other non-flow
methods outlined in the restoration plan are already under way.
<P>The decision pleased Trinity County Supervisor Ralph Modine, who said the
federal government must have spent a lot of money writing reports to back up
what already amounted to two decades of scientific study.
<P>"It’s wonderful news," he said.
<P>Reporter Alex Breitler can be reached at 225-8344 or at <A
href="mailto:abreitler@redding.com">abreitler@redding.com</A>.</P>
<P> </P>
<P>SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
<P><A
href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer/ap.asp?category=1110&slug=Trinity%20River">http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer/ap.asp?category=1110&slug=Trinity%20River</A>
<P>Tuesday, July 13, 2004 · Last updated 7:44 p.m. PT
<P>Appeals court OKs Trinity River increase
<P>By DAVID KRAVETS <BR>ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
<P>SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court Tuesday approved a congressional
plan to increase flows <BR>into the Trinity River to restore fish habitat,
reducing water to California farmers and hydroelectric <BR>plants.
<P>Most of the water in the Trinity, which originates in northern California's
Trinity Alps and flows west <BR>into the Klamath River, has been diverted for
decades to serve a fast-growing population in a state <BR>where much of the
water is located far from where people live and farm.
<P>In 1984, Congress mandated the 112-mile-long river's restoration to combat
dwindling supplies of <BR>salmon, steelhead and other aquatic life. In 2000,
after years of study, the Interior Department <BR>approved a plan to increase
Trinity water.
<P>The plan was backed by Indian tribes who use the waters for sustenance
fishing, while farming and <BR>hydroelectric power interests opposed it.
<P>The Trinity is a major artery in a system of dams, tunnels, canals and
reservoirs that supply 30 million <BR>people in the agricultural rich Central
Valley. It churns turbines for nine power generating stations.
<P>The plan approved Tuesday diverts as much as 9 percent of the system's
capacity.
<P>The utilities argued that the Interior Department's plan would decrease water
that eventually reaches <BR>the parched Central Valley, and the government did
not study what effect that would have on the <BR>millions of water users
downstream. A spokesman for 600 California agricultural customers said
<BR>farmers would likely get less water under the plan.
<P>"That's water that is all part of a flow regime that is an important part of
this large, complex <BR>interconnected water system," said Tupper Hull of the
Westlands Water District, an agricultural water <BR>supplier based in Fresno
that challenged the plan.
<P>A spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Jeff McCracken, said the
government did not study <BR>what effect the plan would have on farming because
the law did not require it. He acknowledged, <BR>though, a "significant" amount
of water would be taken out of the system.
<P>"If there were an endless supply, this wouldn't have gone to court,"
McCracken said.
<P>Westlands is considering asking the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals to <BR>reconsider its ruling, Hull said.
<P>The Yurok Tribe celebrated the decision. The state's poorest tribe, which
fishes the river for a <BR>subsistence living, was hit hard in 2002 when
thousands of salmon died because of low flows.
<P>The tribe's attorney, Scott Williams, said in the 1800s, the 5,000-member
tribe gave up thousands of <BR>acres of land in exchange for a promise that its
fishing would be protected.
<P>"It's been decimated by decades of dams, logging and diversions. This
decision goes way toward <BR>repairing that broken promise," he said. <BR>
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