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<P class=MsoNormal><B>NEWS RELEASE: Thursday, August 22, 2013<o:p></o:p></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><B>Contacts:<o:p></o:p></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Glen Spain, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's
Associations, (541) 521-8655, <A title=mailto:fish1ifr@aol.com
href="mailto:fish1ifr@aol.com">fish1ifr@aol.com</A><BR>Jan Hasselman,
Earthjustice, (206) 719-6512, <A title=mailto:jhasselman@earthjustice.org
href="mailto:jhasselman@earthjustice.org">jhasselman@earthjustice.org</A><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN class=MsoHyperlink><o:p><SPAN
style="TEXT-DECORATION: none"></SPAN></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center><B>Court: Water
Releases to Protect Salmon in California Move Forward<BR></B><I>Judge agrees
water from Trinity River needed to prevent another fish kill disaster on lower
Klamath<o:p></o:p></I></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">Fresno, CA – <SPAN
style="COLOR: black">A <A
title=http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2013/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward
href="http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2013/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward">federal
court today ruled</A><SPAN class=apple-converted-space> </SPAN>that water
releases planned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to protect the migration of
Chinook salmon into the Klamath/Trinity rivers in Northern California should
move forward.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; WORD-SPACING: 0px; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">After a two day hearing in Fresno,
CA, the court rejected demands by agricultural interests in California’s Central
Valley led by the Westlands Water District, to block the releases, which were
supposed to have started August 13. After hearing from half a dozen fisheries
experts who all agreed that the water release program was supported by the
science, the Court ruled for the water release program to move
forward.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">The
Court<SPAN class=apple-converted-space> </SPAN><A
title=http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward
href="http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward"><SPAN
style="COLOR: #027ac6">concluded</SPAN></A>, “...on balance, considering the
significantly lower volume of water now projected to be involved and the
potential and enormous risk to the fishery of doing nothing, the Court finds it
in the public interest to permit the augmentation to proceed.” (<A
title=http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward
href="http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward"
target=_blank><SPAN style="COLOR: #027ac6">Page
19</SPAN></A>.)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; WORD-SPACING: 0px; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">“Commercial fishermen and Indian
Tribes explained to the Court how another large-scale fish kill would devastate
the coastal economy,” said <B>Glen Spain of the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA)</B>. “This decision is wonderful news for a
California native salmon run and all the coastal communities who depend on the
salmon for their sustainable livelihoods.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">The<SPAN class=apple-converted-space>
</SPAN><A
title=http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward
href="http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward"
target=_blank><SPAN style="COLOR: #027ac6">Court also noted</SPAN></A>, “...the
flow augmentation releases are designed to prevent a potentially serious fish
die off from impacting salmon populations entering the Klamath River estuary.
There is no dispute and the record clearly reflects that the 2002 fish kill had
severe impacts on commercial fishing interests, tribal fishing rights, and the
ecology, and that another fish kill would likely have similar impacts.” (<A
title=http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward
href="http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward"
target=_blank><SPAN style="COLOR: #027ac6">Page
16</SPAN></A>.)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; WORD-SPACING: 0px; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=MsoNormal><B><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Attorney Jan Hasselman of
Earthjustice</SPAN></B><SPAN style="COLOR: black"> who intervened on behalf of
PCFFA said, “The decision to protect salmon also protects the Northern
California coastal communities. Salmon runs can provide jobs forever if managed
correctly. The science is clear that additional releases are needed to protect
this priceless resource.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; WORD-SPACING: 0px; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">This year is unusual in that
extremely low flow conditions in the lower Klamath are occurring at the same
time fisheries managers expect the second-largest run of chinook on record to
begin arriving within days. Federal, state and tribal salmon biologists have
been gravely concerned that this confluence of high runs and low flows will lead
to another mass fish kill like the one that occurred in
2002.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; WORD-SPACING: 0px; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Experts explained to the judge how
water conditions in the basin this year are almost identical to those in 2002,
except with a far larger adult run of chinook. The undisputed evidence before
the Court was that the risk of another fish kill was
grave.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; WORD-SPACING: 0px; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">The 2002 fish kill led to coast-wide
closures of commercial, recreational and tribal fishing, leading to serious harm
to the economy. Congress ultimately appropriated $60 million in disaster
assistance to help coastal communities, an amount that was widely regarded as a
fraction of what was needed.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 15.85pt; WORD-SPACING: 0px; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px"
class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><A
title=http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward
href="http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/pdf/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward"
target=_blank><SPAN style="COLOR: #027ac6">Read the court
decision</SPAN></A>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoPlainText><B>ONLINE VERSION OF THIS STATEMENT:</B> <A
title=http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2013/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward
href="http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2013/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward">http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2013/court-water-releases-to-protect-salmon-in-california-move-forward</A><o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p></o:p></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center>###<o:p></o:p></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center><o:p></o:p></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center><A
title=http://www.earthjustice.org/ href="http://www.earthjustice.org/"><I><SPAN
style="COLOR: windowtext">Earthjustice</SPAN></I></A><I> is a non-profit public
interest law organization dedicated to protecting the magnificent places,
natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all
people to a healthy environment.</I><o:p></o:p></P></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>