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<P class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
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face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">RIVER
BASIN</st1:PlaceType></SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG></st1:place><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><STRONG><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Salmon returns weak at
Klamath</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><STRONG><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Researchers find more disease
among river's young Chinook</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><STRONG><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Associated Press -
11/22/04</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><STRONG><B><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">BY Jeff Barnard, staff
writer</SPAN></FONT></B></STRONG><FONT size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">HORNBROOK, <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Calif.</st1:place></st1:State> -- Walking the banks of Bogus Creek,
state fisheries biologist Mark Hampton stopped and pointed to a black-and-white
shape in the shallow water -- a battered female chinook salmon lying on its side
and thrusting its tail into the gravel to dig a nest for its
eggs.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">This
fall, the returns of chinook salmon to Bogus Creek and the Shasta, Scott and
Salmon rivers -- Northern California tributaries to the <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> -- have been disappointing. Estimates based
on fish and carcass counts are showing less than 25 percent of last year's
returns and less than 10 percent of the strong returns of
2000.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">The
reasons are difficult to nail down, but the more researchers look, the more
disease they are finding in young chinook migrating down the <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>. The fish that survive to reach the ocean
are finding less food than they did a few years
ago.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Meanwhile, an El Niño building in the South Pacific
could reduce the mountain snowpack that feeds the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath
River</st1:place> and make food even more scarce for salmon in the
ocean.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">The
disease and ocean conditions come on top of the continuing struggle to balance
scarce water between threatened coho salmon and farms on a federal irrigation
project along the Oregon-California border. A drought in 2001 prompted the
federal government to shut off water to most farms on the Klamath Reclamation
Project.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">The
health of the Klamath's chinook salmon also has widespread effects because when
runs are down, harvests in the ocean off Southern Oregon and Northern California
are cut back to allow more to return to the river to
spawn.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Declines
blamed on habitat loss, poor water quality and overfishing prompted Congress to
initiate a rebuilding effort in 1986, which led to increased research that has
uncovered an alarming rate of disease.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Understanding the role that diseases play in salmon
returns is becoming increasingly important in the rebuilding effort, said Nick
Hetrick, fisheries program leader for Fish and Wildlife in <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Arcata</st1:City>, <st1:State
w:st="on">Calif.</st1:State></st1:place><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">That's
where Scott Foott comes in. He is a fish pathologist at the agency's
<st1:PlaceName w:st="on">California-Nevada</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Fish</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Health</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Center</st1:PlaceType> who has been studying fish
diseases in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Samples
taken from traps and seining indicate that as many as 80 percent of young
Klamath chinook are infested with the parasite parvicapsula minibicornis by the
time they reach the ocean. It doesn't appear to be fatal, but it weakens fish by
making their kidneys less efficient at filtering their blood, Foott
said.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Another
parasite, Ceratomyxa shasta, infests the intestines. Between 30 percent and 40
percent of young chinook swimming down the Klamath get infested with it, and
nearly all of them die.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Biologists don't know how many salmon are spawned in
the wild in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>, so they cannot estimate how many
are being killed by disease. Overall, though, the chances of salmon surviving
from egg to spawning adult generally are tiny.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">The
numbers of chinook smolts released from Iron Gate Hatchery on the <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place> that survived to return to the hatchery
averaged less than 1 percent from 1979 to 1999, said Hampton, a biologist with
the California Department of Fish and Game.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">"This
disease problem hits much harder in some years than other years," he said.
"We're just now finding out what it's doing."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">The fish
do not appear to become infested with C shasta in their home tributaries, Foott
said. It all appears to happen after they enter the Klamath. The rate of
infestation appears to be related to the prevalence of a tiny worm, found in
fine sand at the bottom of river pools and in algae that grows on rocks, that
serves as an intermediate host for the parasite.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">"The
general thought is, if you have high concentrations of (the worm) in the upper
river ... you are creating this condition of a higher rate of infection than you
normally have," Foott said. "It could be a cyclic phenomenon. It could be due to
a lack of flushing flows in winter. These are just open questions right
now.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">"A river
is a very dynamic creature. When you turn it into a drainage canal, it doesn't
operate like it used to."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Diseases
could become another issue in the debate about water allocations in the basin.
Right now, the timing and amount of flows down the <st1:place w:st="on">Klamath
River</st1:place> are dictated by the needs of coho salmon under the Endangered
Species Act.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">That
could change if the Yurok Tribe wins a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation
demanding more water for chinook and other fish to fulfill tribal trust
responsibilities. Also, PacifiCorp is seeking a new license to operate dams in
the basin.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Beyond
anyone's control are changing conditions in the ocean based on climate drivers
such as El Niño in the South Pacific and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation in the
North Pacific.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13.5pt">Because
an El Niño is building, the Northwest might see a warmer winter and less
precipitation, producing less snowpack in the mountains to feed salmon streams.
The ocean is likely to be warmer close to shore off <st1:City
w:st="on">Oregon</st1:City> <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State> and
<st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State>,
making for less upwelling.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><A
href="http://www.eurekareporter.com/Stories/fp-11240413.htm">http://www.eurekareporter.com/Stories/fp-11240413.htm</A></SPAN></FONT></P><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV align=justify>
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<TBODY>
<TR>
<TD class=latestNewsHL><FONT face=Arial
size=2></FONT></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>It appears Chinook salmon are spawning
at record low numbers this fall. <BR><BR>“In the main tributaries — the Scott,
Shasta and Salmon rivers — the numbers of spawning Chinook appear to be lower
than ever,” said Nat Pennington, Salmon River Restoration Council Fisheries
Program coordinator. “As of now our numbers are lower than the lowest numbers
ever.”<BR><BR>The Salmon River Restoration Council is a nonprofit that “works
with tribes and agencies to monitor fish numbers in the Klamath and its
tributaries,” Pennington said.<BR><BR>The California Department of Fish and Game
has recorded fall Chinook spawning numbers since 1978 from numbers attained by
the Klamath Basin Cooperative Chinook Spawning surveys, Pennington said.
<BR><BR>Local tribes, the U.S. Forest Service, DFG, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, local schools and community groups have been involved with counting
Chinook for the survey, he said. <BR><BR>The Chinook salmon count began on Oct.
18 and most of the tributaries’counts for the Klamath are completed now, with a
few tributaries still being counted until Dec. 2. The total numbers of the final
count will not be known until January or February, he said.<BR><BR>Pennington
said the Salmon River enters the Klamath at Somes Bar on the Humboldt County
line and “hosts populations of all the remaining anadromous fish runs still
present in the Klamath.” <BR><BR>Anadromous means species of fish which spawn in
fresh or estuarine waters of the United States and which migrate to ocean
waters.<BR><BR>The salmon run appeared to be average earlier this year, he
said.<BR><BR>“The Yurok tribe commercial harvest in the Klamath estuary caught
their quota of 12,698, as did recreational fishers, which were allotted 2,350,”
Pennington said. “Upriver the Karuk Tribe … was only able to catch 100 fall
Chinook for their over 3,000-member tribal roll. The Karuk are only allowed to
fish with traditional dip nets at Ishi Pishi Falls near Somes Bar. Their harvest
this year was hampered by the small run size and low flows in the Klamath.”
<BR><BR>Salmon die after they spawn. However, cooperative fish counts had only
found 57 carcasses three quarters of the way through the counting season
compared to the 70 carcasses found at this same time period in 1999, the lowest
spawning year on the Salmon River up to this point, Pennington said.<BR><BR>The
Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the California Fish and Game Commission
regulate fishing and protect fish populations along the Pacific Coast, he
said.<BR><BR>The Magnuson Act requires that at least 35,000 spawning Chinook
salmon be accounted for in the Klamath River basin every year. If for three
years in a row at least 35,000 Chinook salmon have not spawned, then the PFMC
and the CFGC will stop commercial and recreational fishing of Chinook salmon, he
said.<BR><BR>“I don’t think we’re going to meet that this year,” said Sara
Borok, associate fisheries biologist for DFG.<BR><BR>She said this means there
will not be as many harvestable fish.<BR><BR>“The size of the Klamath fall
Chinook run affects the future salmon fishing regulations and commercial quotas
from San Francisco to Southern Oregon,” Pennington said.<BR><BR>A low year can
really set back the amount of fish that commercial and recreational fishers can
catch, he said.<BR><BR>The Klamath River Basin Fishery Resources Restoration Act
is a 20-year program created in 1986 to restore salmon and steelhead runs on the
Klamath River basin. <BR><BR>The Klamath Act created the Klamath River Basin
Conservation Area Restoration Program and with it a federal advisory committee —
the Klamath River Restoration Task Force.<BR><BR>“We’re now in the 18th year of
that act and it does not look like the goal of the act has been successfully
accomplished,” Pennington said.<BR><BR>He said the task force has done a good
job, but it has not been able to address major current issues because of
political sensitivities surrounding the Klamath basin.<BR><BR>“It is looking
like it will be below 700 salmon returning to spawn on the Salmon River, which
is the worst year on record for returns in this river,” Pennington
said.<BR><BR>Last year was a good year with 3,300 Chinook salmon spawning in the
Salmon River. As of Nov. 18 a total of 76 had been counted, Borok
said.<BR><BR>Throughout the basin all counts for spawning salmon are at about 25
percent of last year, Borok said. <BR><BR>The lowest salmon spawning run for the
entire Klamath basin was in 1992. Those salmon spawned one of the largest runs
in 1995 which means there was a good survival rate. <BR><BR>“We’re seeing real
good jack runs or two-year-old (salmon) returns this year, which means next
year’s three-year-olds and the following years four year olds should be strong
runs,” she said.<BR><BR>Last year was the lowest jack run in 26 years. This year
there are four times as many two-year-old jacks so far, Borok said.<BR><BR>“The
future doesn’t look too bad. It’s kind of scary for now,” she said.<BR><BR>The
spawning numbers will be used for setting quotas for harvest for next year.
Borok said people will not be able to keep as many fish for next
year.<BR><BR>“Unless we fix the whole system (the Klamath basin) we’re probably
going to lose the whole fish run,” Pennington said. “The entire basin seems to
be broken.”<BR><BR>For more information contact Nat Pennington or the Fisheries
Program at <A href="mailto:fisheries@srrc.org"><FONT
color=#000066>fisheries@srrc.org</FONT></A>.</DIV></SPAN></FONT>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><STRONG>Smith, Wyden secure funding for Basin
projects</STRONG> </P>
<P>Published November 22, 2004 <BR><B><A
href="http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/11/22/news/top_stories/atop3.txt">http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2004/11/22/news/top_stories/atop3.txt</A></B>
<P>H&N Staff Report
<P>A massive federal spending bill approved in Congress over the weekend
includes millions of dollars <BR>for the Klamath Reclamation Project as well as
city and county projects and a new program being <BR>developed at OIT.
<P>Funding for projects in Oregon was announced Sunday by Oregon Sens. Gordon
Smith, a <BR>Republican, and Ron Wyden, a Democrat.
<P>The money is included in the omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2005,
which starts July 1. It now <BR>awaits President Bush's signature.
<P>The bill provides for a $27 million budget for the Klamath Reclamation
Project.
<P>Dave Sabo, Project manager, said Reclamation officials requested that amount
for the upcoming <BR>fiscal year. He expects, however, that some will be cut as
the year proceeds.
<P>"I don't know what my final budget is," he said.
<P>Last year's budget appropriation was $25 million, but the Project ended up
getting about $22 <BR>million, Sabo said.
<P>In this year's request, $8 million would go to the Bureau's water bank
program, and $10 million to <BR>support federally required fish monitoring and
studies and water supply enhancement program.
<P>Much of the rest would go for operation and maintenance of the Project,
paying the Project's staff <BR>and other annual costs.
<P>Another $1 million is set aside for water quality and flow measurement
equipment on the project, <BR>according to the release. Oregon will share the
money with the state of California.
<P>Oregon Institute of Technology will receive $120,000 for a program it is
developing.
<P>"We are excited about this new funding," said OIT President Martha Anne Dow.
"This money will be <BR>used to advance OIT's major initiative this year, which
is our vision for a new Center For Health <BR>Professions."
<P>"It will help us advance our business plan for the center, including
expanding our network of <BR>support in Oregon for the construction of a new
facility on the Klamath Falls campus," she said in a <BR>statement issued this
morning.
<P>OIT's business model focuses on three strategic initiatives - increased
enrollment capacity, upgraded <BR>facilities, and expanded outreach, she added.
<P>"We appreciate tremendously the support of our Congressional delegation in
making these funds <BR>available. I especially want to recognize the support of
Rep. Greg Walden and Senators Gordon <BR>Smith and Ron Wyden have provided to
this OIT initiative," Dow said.
<P>The city of Klamath Falls will receive $250,000 to do preliminary work on its
wastewater <BR>treatment facility, and $200,000 to be used for infrastructure
improvements on the facility.
<P>City Manager Jeff Ball said the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
will be making <BR>stricter standards for businesses and governments that add
any waste products to their local rivers <BR>and lakes, and the money the city
receives will go to meeting the higher standards.
<P>Ball said the higher standards have been in the works for a while.
<P>"This has been going on for 15 years and the study money will help us
determine what we need to do <BR>in terms of improvements to meet the new
standards," Ball said.
<P>The city is not yet sure how infrastructure money will be used, but Ball said
it is considering either <BR>making improvements to the current treatment plant
or finding a land-based method to treat <BR>wastewater.
<P>Local delegates that brought federal money to Klamath Falls should be
acknowledged, Ball said.
<P>"The grant money is something Mayor (Todd) Kellstrom and I went back to
Washington, D.C., and <BR>worked on earlier this year. We really appreciate our
delegates that worked on this. It really helps <BR>the whole community," Ball
said.
<P>The Klamath County Public Health Department also received $75,000. There was
no information <BR>immediately available on how the money would be used.
<P>Also in the bill are: <BR>
<P>$1 million for the Rogue River Basin Project. <BR>
<P>$631,000 for the management and operation of the Deschutes Project.
<BR>
<P>$500,000 for the Deschutes Ecosystem Restoration project. <BR>
<P>$1.2 million for terminal construction at the Rogue Valley
International-Medford Airport.
<P>0 0 0
<P>Dylan Darling, Angela Torretta and Doug Higgs contributed to this report.
<BR>------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
</P><o:p><BR><A
href="http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11527399p-12429402c.html">http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11527399p-12429402c.html</A><BR><BR>Concrete
solution for water?<BR><BR>Raising Shasta Dam's height looms large among ideas
to boost state's<BR>dwindling storage.<BR><BR>By David Whitney -- Bee Washington
Bureau<BR>Published 2:15 am PST Monday, November 22, 2004<BR>Get weekday updates
of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up<BR>here.<BR>REDDING -
>From Highway 151, Shasta Dam emerges through the fog and rain like<BR>an awesome
apparition, a giant wall of concrete whose power generators<BR>humming eerily
far below add to its supernatural dimension.<BR><BR>As California looks for new
ways to increase water supplies in the face of<BR>mounting shortages, this
monstrous 602-foot facade holding back the<BR>Sacramento River seems destined to
grow even taller.<BR><BR>It's a perfect spot for expansion, although it's not
the only site under<BR>intense scrutiny in this scramble for new water
storage.<BR><BR>Shasta Dam was designed to be 800 feet tall, so adding concrete
to its top<BR>presents no significant engineering obstacles.<BR><BR> "This
is like adding a room on a house, rather than building a new house,"<BR>said
Michael J. Ryan, the Bureau of Reclamation's Northern California
area<BR>manager, whose small office overlooks the dam, the lake and, on a clear
day,<BR>Mount Shasta looming large in the distance.<BR><BR>But most importantly,
the clean, cold water it would add to the state's<BR>supply is exactly what
water managers are looking for. A taller dam means<BR>additional downstream
protection against floods, more downstream supply for<BR>farms and cities and,
because Shasta Lake would be deeper, more cold water<BR>to send downriver when
the salmon are looking for a place to spawn.<BR><BR>A recently enacted federal
water bill governing the state-federal San<BR>Francisco Bay-Delta restoration
and water program commonly known as Cal-Fed<BR>revs up studies to add as much as
18.5 feet of concrete to the top of the<BR>dam. That would boost the size of the
lake behind by some 15 percent, or<BR>636,000 acre-feet - enough water for 1.2
million households.<BR><BR>At an estimated cost of nearly $500 million, the
project would be relatively<BR>cheap. Under the Bureau of Reclamation's current
timetable, construction<BR>could be under way in five years and completed in
10.<BR><BR>All that looks promising for Northern and Central California, where
water<BR>shortages in a normal year are expected to be 1.4 million acre-feet by
2020<BR>- and three times that in a drought year.<BR><BR>But for some whose
lives and businesses are on the upstream side of Shasta<BR>Dam, adding 18.5 feet
of concrete to Shasta Dam is a disaster in the making.<BR><BR>"It's dubious at
best," said Steve Barry, owner of Holiday Harbor Resort and<BR>Marina and
president of the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association.<BR><BR>"And the
proposal doesn't even take into consideration the impact on<BR>recreation," he
said, estimating annual revenues from shore-side businesses<BR>on the plus side
of $80 million. "This is going to put some guys out of<BR>business."<BR><BR>When
the lake is at full crest, an 18.5-foot raise would mean that<BR>houseboats
popular with tourists will be stranded on one side or the other<BR>of the Pit
River Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific<BR>Railroad over
the lake.<BR><BR>Layton Hills, heir to the Hills Bros. Coffee fortune, oversees
from his Mill<BR>Valley office the Bolli Bokka Fishing Club, which brothers
Austin and Reuben<BR>Hills started on the McCloud River in 1904. The club's
historic houses are<BR>among those that would go underwater, he
said.<BR><BR>"It's too bad," Hills said. "One is a log cabin dating from the
1860s, and<BR>another is the so-called rock house made out of river cobble from
about<BR>1915. The regular clubhouse dates from around 1924."<BR><BR>Nearby, on
the club's 4,000-acre property, is an old Wintu Indian village<BR>site and
burial ground that would be inundated.<BR><BR>Environmentalists also are
organizing to fight any raise to the dam.<BR><BR>"I have a lot of problems with
raising the dam," said Steve Evans,<BR>conservation director at Friends of the
River in Sacramento. "For one thing,<BR>it violates state law that protects the
McCloud River from any more dams or<BR>reservoirs."<BR><BR>But more than that,
said Evans and others, state and federal water planners<BR>seem stuck in the old
mold of looking for new dams and reservoirs to find<BR>water that can be
benignly obtained from better operations of facilities<BR>they've already
got.<BR><BR>"I don't think there is anyone in the environmental community who
believes<BR>there is any general benefit from this kind of stuff," he
said.<BR><BR>Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chief author of the Cal-Fed bill,
is<BR>irritated by this sudden surge in opposition to the Shasta
raise.<BR><BR>"I believe it is a God-given right as Californians to be able to
water<BR>gardens and lawns," the California Democrat said. "The state is growing
by<BR>700,000 to 1 million people a year. It is going to need new water
storage."<BR><BR>Not until she was contacted by Hills' lobbyist had anyone
complained about<BR>raising Shasta, she said, adding that raising the dam was
considered the<BR>"most benign" of the water storage projects in the
bill.<BR><BR>"This is one family with a private facility there," she said. "And
that's<BR>all I am going to say about this."<BR><BR>Raising Shasta Dam has been
under on-again, off-again consideration for at<BR>least two decades. Some of the
most detailed studies date back to the 1980s,<BR>when Don Hodel, who served as
energy secretary and then Interior secretary<BR>under President Reagan, proposed
the project as an alternative source of<BR>water for San Francisco if Hetch
Hetchy Dam in Yosemite National Park were<BR>knocked down.<BR><BR>>From an
engineering standpoint, it's a piece of cake. The dam, built between<BR>1938 and
1945, was originally planned to be 200 feet taller. At 800 feet, it<BR>would
have been the highest and biggest in the world.<BR><BR>Sheri Harral, public
affairs officer at the dam, said World War II and<BR>materials shortages
associated with the war effort led to a decision to stop<BR>construction at 602
feet.<BR><BR>"The thinking was to come back and add on to it if ever there was a
need<BR>to," Harral said. "They started looking at raising it in
1978."<BR><BR>If Shasta Dam had been built up to its engineering limit in 1945,
it is<BR>arguable that Northern and Central California would not be facing a
critical<BR>water shortage now.<BR><BR>According to a 1999 Bureau of Reclamation
study, a dam 200 feet taller would<BR>be able to triple storage to 13.89 million
acre-feet of water.<BR><BR>Still, tripling the size of Shasta Lake, on paper at
least, would store nine<BR>times the projected 2020 water deficit for the
Sacramento, San Joaquin and<BR>Tulare Lake basins during normal water
years.<BR><BR>But the Bureau of Reclamation concluded in its 1999 report on
Shasta Dam<BR>that raising it by 200 feet would be prohibitively expensive -
$5.8 billion.<BR><BR>Given what's under discussion now in the Cal-Fed process,
however, the cost<BR>of a maximum raise of Shasta is not that far out of line
with other projects<BR>authorized for study by the recent California water
bill.<BR><BR>One of the projects with growing political support is damming a
small valley<BR>west of Maxwell and pumping it full of excess Sacramento River
spring<BR>runoff. That project could cost as much as $2.4 billion to store 1.8
million<BR>acre-feet.<BR><BR>Other projects under intense investigation include
quintupling the size of<BR>the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County to
add as much as 400,000<BR>acre-feet of capacity for perhaps $1.3 billion, and
1.2 million acre-feet of<BR>storage on the Upper San Joaquin River for roughly
$800 million. Two smaller<BR>projects also are being looked at.<BR><BR>Steve
Hall, executive director of the Association of California Water<BR>Agencies,
said a combination of projects is most likely, because where the<BR>additional
storage is in relation to where the water is needed can be as<BR>important as
total storage or cost.<BR><BR>Still, it's hard to see how raising Shasta Dam
doesn't figure into the final<BR>mix. The sure signs of inevitability are what
have Shasta Lake business<BR>owners concerned.<BR><BR>"Southern California is
losing access to Colorado River water," said Bob<BR>Rollins, general manager of
Digger Bay and Bridge Bay resorts. "I don't know<BR>where Los Angeles is going
to get that water, but I assume it is going to<BR>start coming out of
here."<BR><BR>About the writer: <BR><BR> The Bee's David
Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or<BR><A
href="mailto:dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com">dwhitney@mcclatchydc.com</A>.<BR><BR></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>