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<h1 style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><font size=4 face=Tahoma><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>Feds weigh Trinity water shift<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:
bold'>The Times-Standard – 5/6/08<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=4 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:
bold'>BY John Driscoll<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><font
size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Federal water
managers are considering a midstream move to cut water releases to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place></st1:place> during a year when points south
are bracing for drought. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>The unusual
shift would have the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation downgrade flows on the Trinity
to what's released in a dry year instead of a normal year. The difference is
630 billion gallons, some of which has already flowed downstream. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Northern
California river advocates see the move as a sign that the Sacramento River
water system -- to which nearly 50 percent of Trinity water is exported -- has
been badly mismanaged, and they worry that the Trinity River's salmon and
steelhead fisheries could suffer for it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Reclamation
spokesman Jeff McCracken said that the possible decision just accounts for the
exceptionally dry conditions the state experienced in March and April. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>”There
are people rationing around this state,” McCracken said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Any decision
will be based on information the bureau gets this week from the California
Department of Water Resources, McCracken said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>The
groundwork for a reduction in flows to the Trinity was set by a Friday
directive from the bureau's Mid-Pacific Regional Director Donald Glaser,
appointed to the post just last week. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>In a Saturday
e-mail to the multi-agency, tribal and stakeholder council that helps manage
the river, Bureau Area Manager Brian Persons laid out the direction to develop
a transition from a normal to a dry year if needed. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>The bureau
has used April 1 as the cutoff date to get snowpack information for the
Trinity. It then sets the releases meant to help restore the river's fisheries,
with high flows in April, May and June. Those increased flows have already
started, and now the bureau is considering cutting back as soon as this week. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Trinity
County Principal Planner Tom Stokely said reclamation may blame the shortfall
on nature, but the reality is that increased pumping from the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:City></st1:place></st1:place></st1:City>
delta in recent years is unsustainable. It's led to a crisis for the endangered
delta smelt and the collapse of salmon stocks that led to a federal decision to
shut down salmon season this year, Stokely said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>”We're
next if we keep this up,” he said. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>U.S. Judge
Oliver Wanger recently ruled in a scalding decision that the National Marine
Fisheries Service's blessing of the bureau's 2004 delta plan was
“inexplicably inconsistent” with the agency's charge to protect
threatened salmon. He also ruled that the agency completely failed to consider
the effects climate change might have on fish. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>The criteria
for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place></st1:place>
water releases was set in a 2000 decision signed by former U.S. Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt, and was entered into the federal register. The
decision was litigated by San Joaquin water interests, and the suit was decided
in favor of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and other <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place></st1:place> parties. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>That record
of decision does not allow for changing the flows after April 1. But Persons
wrote in the e-mail that the operating plan for the Central Valley Project does
consider such a shift. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Environmental
Defense Fund analyst <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Spreck Rosekrans</st1:PersonName>
said that the bureau wants to reserve the additional water for uses other than
Trinity fisheries, which would be a significant breach of trust. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><font size=4 color=black
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>”We've
got a deal and we're in the middle of the game,” Rosekrans said,
“and they're trying to change the rules.”</span></font><font
size=4 face=Arial><span style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoAutoSig><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray;font-style:italic'>Friends of <st1:place
w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place>, Chair</span></font></i><o:p></o:p></p>
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size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray;font-style:italic'>PO Box</span></font></i></st1:Street><i><font
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<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
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