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Ventura County Star<br>
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<h1>Restoring steelhead to cost up to $2.1 billion over next
century</h1>
<h2>Funding would cover 100-year plan</h2>
<p id="bylines"> By Zeke Barlow </p>
<p id="dates"> Originally published 04:51 p.m., January 12, 2012 <br>
Updated 08:28 p.m., January 12, 2012 </p>
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<p>Restoring endangered steelhead trout to the Southern California
rivers and streams where they once swam in abundance will cost
as much as $2.1 billion over the next 100 years, according to a
new federal report.</p>
<p>Along with a financial commitment, a "shift in society
attitudes, understanding, priorities and practices" concerning
water use will be needed to save the fish that swim between the
ocean and rivers, according to the more than 600-page Southern
California Steelhead Recovery Plan recently released by the
National Marine Fisheries.</p>
<p>Beyond the steelhead, people stand to gain from the restoration
by increased tourism, job creation and an improved river
ecosystem, the plan states.</p>
<p>"It is an ecosystem-based approach where we are looking at
healthy watersheds that people use for all kinds of reasons,"
said Mark Capelli, the National Marine Fisheries Service's
steelhead recovery coordinator.</p>
<p>Bringing the steelhead back, however, is a long, challenging
and expensive process that is not guaranteed to work. The
recovery plan estimates it will cost $1.7 billion to $2.1
billion over the next 80 to 100 years.</p>
<p>About 500 returning adult steelhead exist today, compared with
an estimated 45,000 that swam in rivers before World War II.
Grainy black-and-white photos show smiling fishermen displaying
stringers full of the fish.</p>
<p>As Southern California grew, development, flood-control
measures, agriculture, ranching, mining, dams and other activity
severely depleted steelhead habitat, forcing it onto the
endangered species list in 1997.</p>
<p>"It will likely take decades to restore these fish to the
coastal rivers and streams where they once thrived," said Penny
Ruvelas, a fisheries supervisor in Southern California for the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "But this plan
is a very significant step in achieving that goal."</p>
<p>In Ventura County, at least $459 million will be needed to
return steelhead to the nine rivers and creeks where they once
flourished. Much of that is to "restore natural channel
features" in waterways. The price tag is likely higher, as some
waterways that start in Ventura County and drain to Los Angeles
are not included in that figure.More than $156 million will be
needed for estuary restoration and management along the
Santa Clara River.</p>
<p>The plan is a guide for steelhead recovery, not a firm
blueprint of who should do what. It says only, for example, that
better fish passage is needed around the Freeman Diversion and
Santa Felicia Dam, both run by the United Water Conservation
District on the Santa Clara River. It doesn't spell out how
it should happen.</p>
<p>Although United Water long fought against modifying the Freeman
Diversion, General Manager Mike Solomon said the district now is
committed to doing what must be done under the Endangered
Species Act, even if it is costly. The district has no choice,
he said.</p>
<p>"The Endangered Species Act is the law of the land, and it is
our responsibility to be in compliance with it," he said. "We
will do everything we can do to be in compliance."</p>
<p>The district already has spent $3.5 million on studies looking
at how to improve fish passage around Santa Felicia Dam, which
holds Lake Piru. It recently spent $450,000 more for a study on
fish-passage construction. In the coming years, it may spend as
much as $30 million for a rock ramp for steelhead at the
Freeman Diversion.</p>
<p>Water rates have risen 500 percent in the past nine years, in
large part because of new environmental regulations, he said.</p>
<p>"We are raising prices, and the costs are going up, and we
haven't even started building yet," he said. "The federal
government does not look at how much it costs to do it. They
just say you have to do it. At what point does the cost
get too much?"</p>
<p>The Casitas Municipal Water District spent $9 million to build
a fish ladder on the Ventura River to comply with the Endangered
Species Act.</p>
<p>Capelli said while $2.1 billion might seem like a lot, it will
not come from any one source and will be spread out over 100
years. Also, many of the needed restoration projects are already
being done through other groups and activities.</p>
<p>Even more challenging than funding the projects may be the
needed shift in attitudes toward water and natural resources, he
said. But that's already started, too, he said, citing examples
such as the city of Ventura, which committed to reuse much of
its wastewater instead of releasing it into a nearby estuary.</p>
<p>"It is a shift that is being seen in a lot of different areas,
not just steelhead recovery," he said.</p>
<p>Ron Bottorff, chairman of Friends of the Santa Clara River,
which has been pushing for restoration of the river for years,
said people have a moral imperative to fix what they broke.</p>
<p>"The larger picture is that we are responsible for all these
species going under," he said.</p>
<p>Humans spend billions on other, frivolous things, he said. By
comparison, $2 billion over 100 years to restore waterways in an
area as vast as Southern California is not "unreasonable,"
he said.</p>
<p><em>On the Net: <a
href="http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/recovery/So_Cal.htm">http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/recovery/So_Cal.htm</a></em></p>
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