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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Please note that members of the Trinity River
Restoration Program staff, the Trinity Management Council and Trinity Adaptive
Management Working Group are shortly going to be putting together a plan for use
of the extra water from the Trinity for late summer/early fall.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Tom Stokely</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2297369,00.html">http://www.times-standard.com/Stories/0,1413,127~2896~2297369,00.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> </DIV>
<DIV><SPAN class=articleHeadline><STRONG><FONT size=3>No plan yet for parched
Klamath</FONT></STRONG></SPAN> </DIV>
<P class=articleSpacer></P>
<DIV><SPAN class=articleByline>By <STRONG>John Driscoll </STRONG>The
Times-Standard</SPAN> </DIV>
<P class=articleSpacer></P>
<P>Federal officials have yet to develop a plan to deal with a repeat of the
2002 fish kill on the Klamath River, even as flows in the lower river drop below
that year's levels at this time.
<P>The flows are scheduled to level off, however, as water bought by the federal
government begins to be sent down the river beginning in mid-August. That will
keep river levels somewhat higher than they were in 2002.
<P>The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is also looking to acquire more water to use
in the event of such an emergency, but does not intend at this point to boost
flows as a preventative measure.
<P>The agency has said in recent public meetings that it has acquired 25,000
acre feet of water from Central Valley water contractors at a price of $28 an
acre foot. That water would come to the Klamath by way of the Trinity River, its
colder, cleaner tributary.
<P>Reclamation is operating its Klamath Irrigation Project on the central
California-Oregon border under a plan approved by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration Fisheries department and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
<P>The bureau has dropped flows from lowermost Iron Gate Dam to 640 cubic feet
per second. In accord with a restoration plan for the Trinity River, flows from
Lewiston Dam are now at 450 cfs, after a large pulse of water sent down that
river this spring.
<P>Flows at Klamath Glen, near the mouth of the river, are at 2,600 cfs.
<P>During September of 2002, flows averaged 1,990 cfs at Klamath Glen. That
year, 34,000 migrating salmon -- mostly wild Trinity fish -- died in the river.
<P>The Yurok Tribe and others along the lower river cried foul, and said they'd
warned of the disaster. The tribe is now pursuing litigation that alleges the
bureau breached its tribal trust obligation to safeguard the fishery.
<P>A Fish and Wildlife report last year determined that low flows contributed to
the fish kill, as did a large return of salmon, high water temperatures and
other factors.
<P>This year, said Arcata Office Supervisor Irma Largomarcino of NOAA Fisheries,
flows will be 230 cfs higher during September than they were in 2002.
<P>But how water from the Trinity River will be distributed, and what agency or
group will decide that, is uncertain, she said.
<P>Some 13,000 acre feet of water is left over on the Trinity side, from a deal
struck with Central Valley rice growers last year. But Reclamation spokesman
Jeff McCracken said the agency wants to be fully prepared, and is trying to
round up more water.
<P>"I do know that we've been actively looking around," McCracken said.
<P>Tom Stokely, a senior planner for Trinity County, questioned why the bureau
needs to pay for water, when it could honor Humboldt County's claim to 50,000
acre feet -- part of the 1955 Act authorizing the Trinity diversion project.
<P>"Why are we paying money to protect public trust resources?" Stokely said.
<P>The bureau is also required to maintain lake levels in Upper Klamath Lake to
protect endangered sucker fish in the upper watershed. And flows into the lake
are a mere 270 cfs, McCracken said.
<P>One difference is that this year, biologists are not expecting a large run of
fish compared to the one that got clogged up and killed off in the lower river
in 2002.
<P>The Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes are working with the federal government to
identify triggers for releasing water should signs of a fish kill begin to
emerge.
<P>"The gray part to me is the technical justification," said Hoopa Fisheries
Director Mike Orcutt.
<P>Klamath Water Users Association Executive Director Dan Keppen said the bureau
should have a set amount of water to use for fisheries purposes, but it
shouldn't be automatically sent downstream -- that air temperature, water
temperature and other factors should be considered.
<P>Otherwise, boosted cold flows from the Trinity could prompt fish to move
upstream -- into inhospitable conditions if they choose to continue up the
Klamath instead of the Trinity, Keppen said. </P></FONT></BODY></HTML>