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<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Diversion to Klamath possible <br>
Interior officials suggest plan will prevent fish kill <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>By Alex Breitler, Record Searchlight <br>
April 14, 2005 <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>WEAVERVILLE -- A plan to restore the Trinity River will be
undermined if the river's water is used <br>
instead to boost flows downstream on the lower Klamath River, conservationists
said this week. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>The Clinton-era plan calls for added water releases into the
Trinity in late spring and early summer, <br>
flushing juvenile chinook salmon out to the ocean and mimicking the flows that
existed before the <br>
Trinity Dam was built. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>But Department of Interior officials said this week they'd
like to save those spring flows and use them <br>
instead in the fall to swell the Klamath below its merger with the Trinity. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>That would aid adult chinook salmon as they swim upstream,
and might help avert another fish kill <br>
like the one that claimed 33,000 fish in the lower Klamath in 2002, the
government says. The risk <br>
of a repeat is high this year because of drought conditions 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></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>But <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place> advocates
say the strategy ignores years of science supporting higher spring flows. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>If the restoration plan is "prostituted" for
political purposes, then the government's efforts on the <br>
Trinity serve no purpose, wrote <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Byron Leydecker</st1:PersonName>
of the conservation group Friends of the <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity <br>
River</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>"Its existence is nothing more than a sham," he
wrote this week in a letter to the Bureau of <br>
Reclamation. "Ongoing science efforts and 15 years of scientific study
would have no meaning." <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Kirk Rodgers</span></font></b></st1:PersonName><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>, regional director for the Bureau of Reclamation in
Sacramento, and U.S. Fish and <br>
Wildlife Service regional manager <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Steve Thompson</st1:PersonName>
sent a letter earlier this week to the Trinity River <br>
Restoration Program suggesting some Trinity water be saved for the Klamath this
fall. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Many fish killed in 2002 were <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place> fish attempting to return to the stream in which they <br>
were born, Rodgers and Thompson wrote. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>"We would like to consider options for reducing the
potential for a serious die-off ... by releasing an <br>
appropriate volume of water ... at the most effective time," they wrote. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>While precipitation in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Trinity</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
is normal, the snowpack in the Klamath area has dwindled <br>
to as low as 30 percent of the norm, "significantly" increasing the
chance of another fish kill, they <br>
wrote. Such a disaster could cause delays in meeting restoration goals on the
Trinity. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Leydecker wrote back, saying the Trinity shouldn't serve as a
Band-Aid to solve major problems in <br>
the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Klamath</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Basin</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. The region has been under
scrutiny since 2001, when many farmers went <br>
without water deliveries to preserve fish in Upper Klamath Lake and the <st1:place
w:st="on">Klamath River</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Rather, the solution lies in retiring some irrigation land in
the upper basin, thereby reducing <br>
demand, Leydecker said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>The Trinity flows into the Klamath just 40 miles from the
ocean and cannot be expected to fix the <br>
entire basin's plight, said conservationist Steve Pedery of the <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State> Natural Resources
Council. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>"You could pipe the Amazon down the Trinity and it's not
going to make a bit of difference for most of <br>
the (Klamath) river," he said Wednesday. "All you're doing is moving
the problem further upstream." <br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said Wednesday that no
decision on flows had been made. The <br>
multiagency Trinity Management Council was expected to meet today to send a
flow <br>
recommendation to the bureau, and the Department of Interior will make the
ultimate decision. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>"We're just looking for the best use of this
water," McCracken said. "This is not an attempt to do <br>
anything that would overly modify" the restoration plan. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>For decades, up to 90 percent of the Trinity's flow had been
diverted to farms in the <st1:place w:st="on">Central Valley</st1:place>. <br>
The restoration plan calls for closer to a 50-50 split. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:bold'>The plan was tied up in court after irrigators sued, but the
9th <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
Circuit Court of Appeals sided <br>
with conservationists and American Indians last July, ending a four-year legal
battle. <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><b><i><font size=3 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray;font-weight:
bold'>Byron Leydecker</span></font></i></b></em></st1:PersonName><em><b><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray;font-weight:bold'>, </span></font></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray;font-weight:bold'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place
w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place></span></font></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray;font-weight:bold'>Consultant, California
Trout, Inc.</span></font></i></b></em><b><span style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><b><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray;font-weight:bold'>PO Box</span></font></i></b></em></st1:Street><em><b><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray;font-weight:bold'>
2327</span></font></i></b></em></st1:address><b><span style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><b><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray;font-weight:bold'>Mill Valley</span></font></i></b></em></st1:City><em><b><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray;font-weight:bold'>, <st1:State
w:st="on">CA</st1:State> <st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></b></em></st1:place><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray;font-weight:bold'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray;font-weight:bold'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><u><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue;font-weight:bold'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></u></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue;font-weight:bold'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a><u>
</u></span></font><font color=black><span style='color:black'>(secondary)</span></font></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><a href="http://www.fotr.org">http://www.fotr.org</a></span></font></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><b><i><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue;font-weight:bold'><a
href="http://caltrout.org">http://caltrout.org</a></span></font></i></b></em><b><span
style='font-weight:bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'> </span><o:p></o:p></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
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