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<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Feds
pull plug on Trinity water shift<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on"><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Eureka</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place></st1:City><B><FONT
face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">
Times Standard – 5/10/08<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> By
<st1:PersonName w:st="on">John Driscoll</st1:PersonName>, staff
writer<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation has backed away from a proposal to take more water from
the <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place> this year, citing a 2000
Interior Secretary decision on fisheries restoration.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Reclamation
was considering a shift from a normal year to a dry year, which would have
stifled releases from Lewiston Dam to the river. Water managers were looking to
possibly adjust the seasonal forecast used to craft the flows to reflect
conditions in May, instead of the April 1 date called for in the 2000 record of
decision. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">”It's what
the record of decision calls for,” said bureau spokesman <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">Jeff McCracken</st1:PersonName>. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Much of
the state is headed for drought, and snowpack in the <st1:place w:st="on">Sierra
Nevada</st1:place> is poor. Conditions have been dry in the northern part of the
state as well, after substantial precipitation earlier in the year. Trinity
River advocates protested the possible decision by reclamation, saying the river
should not suffer because of what they called mismanagement of the <st1:place
w:st="on">Sacramento River</st1:place> delta water system in recent years.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Half of
the Trinity River's water is diverted to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:City></st1:place>, then pumped from the delta to farms
and cities to the south. Flows meant to aid fisheries restoration are released
beginning in April. A shift in the water year type would have crimped releases
to the river. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The Hoopa
Valley Tribe wrote in a May 6 letter to reclamation that such a move would be
patently illegal. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">”There is
no legal justification for such a 'transition' and the Hoopa Valley Tribe urges
you to refrain from taking such a damaging action,” wrote tribal counsel Tom
Schlosser. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Schlosser
also pointed out that the addition of spawning gravel into the upper river is
occurring now, and requires high flows to move the material effectively.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Reclamation
officials met with members of the council that sets policy for the river this
week, and on Thursday informed the group that the issue was now settled.
#<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><A
href="http://www.times-standard.com/ci_9216302?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com">http://www.times-standard.com/ci_9216302?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com</A></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN></FONT> </P><FONT
face="Times New Roman" color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p>
<H1>Trinity River water flow running at normal level despite drier weather</H1>
<P class=byline><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.redding.com/news/2008/may/11/trinity-river-water-flow-running-at-normal-level/">http://www.redding.com/news/2008/may/11/trinity-river-water-flow-running-at-normal-level/</A></FONT></P>
<P class=byline>By <A href="http://www.redding.com/staff/dylan-darling/"><FONT
color=#017890>Dylan Darling</FONT></A> (<A class=contactlink
href="http://www.redding.com/staff/dylan-darling/contact/"><FONT
color=#017890>Contact</FONT></A>)<BR>Sunday, May 11, 2008 </P>
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<DIV id=tools_inner>Even though it's been relatively dry for the last 2½ months,
water flows down the Trinity River are running as strong as they would in a
normal year.</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<P>That means 647,000 acre-feet of water will be allowed to flow in the river
this year, rather than the reduced flow of 453,00 acre-feet that would have
followed a "dry" year declaration, said Jeff McCracken, spokesman for the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation in Sacramento.</P>
<P>An acre-foot is enough water to flood an acre of land with a foot of
water.</P>
<P>"It's going to take more water out of Trinity" Lake, McCracken said.</P>
<P>The flow schedule was established in early April and the bureau considered
reducing it last week.</P>
<P>But a review of a 2000 federal court ruling guiding management of the river
showed that such a change would be illegal, said Brian Person, manager of the
bureau's Northern California Area Office.</P>
<P>"So we are staying with the normal year hydrograph," he said.</P>
<P>A hydrograph is a chart that plots reservoir releases down a river over
time.</P>
<P>Although Person said the higher flows this summer on the Trinity will help
the fish in the river, reducing the water level in Trinity Lake could pose a
problem down the road, said Tom Stokely, Trinity County planner and river
advocate.</P>
<P>"If we have another dry year after this we are going to have some serious
temperature problems on the Trinity and Sacramento rivers," he said.</P>
<P>About half of the releases from the Trinity Lake go to the Trinity River,
while the other half is diverted into the Sacramento River system, McCracken
said.</P>
<P>Critics of the bureau's failed plan to lower flows on the Trinity said that
reducing the flows likely would mean increased diversions to the Sacramento and
irrigators whose acres are south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.</P>
<P>"That would have been a bonanza for the south-of-the-delta folks," said Tom
Scholosser, an attorney for the Hoopa Valley Tribe who has been involved with
debates over Trinity water for years.</P>
<P>Tom Birmingham, manager of Westlands Water District, declined to comment on
the Trinity flows. The district encompasses more than 600,000 acres of farmland
in western Fresno and Kings counties.</P>
<P>When the Trinity River was dammed in the 1960s, much of its water was
diverted into the Sacramento River. But the Trinity River experienced a major
decline in its fishery, said Spreck Rosekrans, senior analyst with the
Environmental Defense Fund's San Francisco office.</P>
<P>In 2000, a federal judge ordered the bureau to put more water down the river
each year in an effort to restore the fish habitat. The flows each year are
based on declarations of "normal" or "dry" years, which are declared after a
review of inflow forecasts made in early April.</P>
<P>Rosekrans said that leaves room for the weather to change after the year is
declared, but it shouldn't be changed because things will even out. In 2005, the
scenario was opposite of this year, with a dry year turning wet after April.</P>
<P>"They didn't change (the year type) then and they shouldn't change it now,"
he said.</P>
<P>Reporter Dylan Darling can be reached at 225-8266 or at
ddarling@redding.com.</P></DIV></o:p></SPAN></FONT>
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