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<P class=top-story-byline><SPAN><A href="">the town dandy</A></SPAN> / By <A
href="">Hank Sims</A></P>
<H2>Water Snakes</H2>
<H3></H3>
<P><SPAN class=date><A href="">(Aug. 19, 2010)</A> </SPAN> Sometime in the
next few weeks, the federal Department of the Interior is scheduled to issue an
opinion on the question of whether Humboldt County can finally claim the annual
50,000 acre-feet of Trinity River water that it was promised in 1955, when
Congress passed the legislation that built Lewiston Dam near Weaverville and
began the diversion of our wild river to the Central Valley. If and when that
opinion is released — it has been delayed before — its contents will serve as
the best local measure of the Obama administration’s steel.</P>
<P>It would take a gargantuan feat of twisted reasoning to argue that the water
is anything less than the county’s due. Back in the ’50s, Humboldt County was
outraged by the proposed addition of Trinity water to the Central Valley
Project. The Board of Supervisors at the time pressed for and received a 50,000
acre-foot water allocation as a way to buy local support. Congress signed off on
the deal. Humboldt County’s allocation was written into the Trinity River
Division Act and reaffirmed by contract four years later.</P>
<P>Yet we have never received a drop of that water, and this despite recent
protests by county government and, especially, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, whose
land is centered on the Trinity and whose people have depended on it since time
immemorial. This despite the shocking decline of North Coast salmon fisheries,
especially on the Klamath River, of which the Trinity is the largest
tributary.</P>
<P>Why have we never received our water? Largely because the federal Bureau of
Reclamation, which operates Lewiston Dam, has simply refused to give it to us.
They are supported in their refusal by the frighteningly powerful Central Valley
farming lobby. Together they insist that we are already getting our 50,000
acre-feet a year — it is included, they say, in the water that they graciously
allow into the Trinity River from spill gates at the end of their reservoir.</P>
<P>Historical research undertaken by the Hoopa Tribe plainly shows this to be
nonsense. Humboldt County’s allocation was always intended to be an allocation
above and beyond the bare-minimal habitat requirements that have been imposed on
the river for most of the post-dam era, and was to be used for whatever useful
purpose we desire. But it remains to be seen whether Team Obama will stand
behind the statutory record, the federal government’s unambiguous contract
obligations and a river ecosystem on its last legs. It could, instead, follow
the treaded path and give Central Valley agribusiness whatever it desires.</P>
<P>This has always been sleazy, but it would be especially egregious in this day
and age. The Westlands Water District, the largest user of Trinity River water
and a massive force in California politics, currently pays around $36 per
acre-foot for its Central Valley Project deliveries — a dollar for 9,000
gallons. There might conceivably be some sort of rationale for that massive
government subsidy if the water in question were used for its intended purpose —
agriculture. Instead, though, Westlands, like many Central Valley Project water
users, is developing a sideline in water brokerage. Right now it’s considering
shipping 100,000 acre-feet of its current humongous water surplus to the
Metropolitan Water District, which serves municipal users in the Los Angeles
area. Last year, another Central Valley Project customer sold 14,000 acre-feet
of irrigation water to San Bernardino County for $5,500 per acre-foot —
something like 100 times the price it paid — and netted a profit upwards of $70
million.</P>
<P>Of course, such brazen raids on the public treasury require solid political
support. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is a public booster of Westlands and other
Central Valley users — precisely the people who will squeal loudest if the
administration attempts to honor the United States’ long-neglected contract with
Humboldt County, thereby taking those valuable gallons off their nascent
commodities market. Fox News blowhard Sean Hannity has been known to broadcast
live from Westlands territory, screaming about the federal government killing
Central Valley agriculture (irony is dead) through enforcement of environmental
laws.</P>
<P>The Obama administration seems to cave to such pressure on alternate days,
saving up barely enough political capital to attempt something worthwhile
tomorrow. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Or maybe the administration will see this case
for the clear-cut matter of law and justice that it
is.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>