<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/02/1333865/-Judge-rejects-agribusiness-lawsuit-over-Trinity-River-flows">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/02/1333865/-Judge-rejects-agribusiness-lawsuit-over-Trinity-River-flows</a><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/10/01/18762297.php">https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/10/01/18762297.php</a> <div style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); float: left; padding-left: 6px; width: 979px; "></div><div style="float: left; padding-left: 6px; width: 979px; "><div class="webcast" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); position: static; z-index: auto; "><blockquote class="summary" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px; ">Photo of Lewiston Dam on the Trinity River by Dan Bacher.</blockquote><center style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px; "><div class="media" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px; "><a href="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/10/01/lewiston_dam.jpg" style="color: rgb(11, 45, 90); border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><img width="800" height="533" alt="800_lewiston_dam.jpg original image ( 5184x3456)" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " src="cid:DB13DEC7-2DF9-4282-AF9A-5D17B86D2951"><br><strong>800_lewiston_dam.jpg</strong><br><small style="font-family: 'MS Sans Serif', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.1px; "></small></a><small style="font-family: 'MS Sans Serif', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.1px; "><a href="https://www.indybay.org/uploads/2014/10/01/lewiston_dam.jpg" style="color: rgb(11, 45, 90); border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; ">original image ( 5184x3456)</a></small></div></center><br><div class="article"><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="6" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); ">Judge rejects agribusiness lawsuit over Trinity River flows </font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="5" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); ">Tribes disagree about decision's implications </font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">by Dan Bacher </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">A federal judge in Fresno Wednesday dismissed almost all claims in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of corporate agribusiness interests seeking to block the protection of salmon in the Trinity and Klamath rivers, but the Yurok Tribe, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA) and Earthjustice disagree with the Hoopa Valley Tribe over the implications of the decision. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">The Yurok Tribe, PCFFA and Earthjustice issued a joint news release stating that Judge Lawrence O’Neill "largely upheld" the Bureau of Reclamation’s ability to provide additional flows in the Trinity, the largest tributary of the Klamath, to prevent harm to salmon, but at the same time indicated that "different legal authorities need to be invoked." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">"Straight up, if the Bureau of Reclamation did not make the decision to augment flows on the Klamath, we would be right now cleaning up thousands of salmon carcasses on the river,” said Thomas P. O'Rourke, Sr., Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “We applaud Judge O'Neill's decision. We need to do everything possible to ensure in-basin fish needs are met and to prevent another heartbreaking tragedy on the Klamath River." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">On the other hand, the Hoopa Valley Tribe said that the judge's decision actually "cut off water needed for salmon in the Klamath River." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">"If the decision stands, it will gut a 60-year old federal law that protected Trinity River water use for tribal fisheries,” said Mike Orcutt, Hoopa Fisheries Director. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">The San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District, representing agribusiness interests that irrigate drainage-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, brought the case last year against the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency that controls water releases from the Trinity Reservoir to the Trinity and Lower Klamath rivers. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif"><div class="article"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#111111"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">These rivers support huge runs of Chinook salmon that the commercial fishing industry and the Yurok and Hoopa Valley Tribes depend on for sustenance. These salmon runs also support an economically vital recreational fishing industry in the ocean and on the Klamath and Trinity rivers. </span></font></div><div class="article"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#111111"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "><br></span></font></div><div class="article"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#111111"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; ">The water districts brought the case after the Bureau proposed in 2013 to increase flow levels in the Trinity to avoid another massive fish kill in the Lower Klamath like the one that took place in September 2002, when over 68,000 salmon perished.</span></font></div><div class="article"><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#111111"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "> </span></font></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-size: 13.3px; ">The PCFFA, represented by Earthjustice, and the Hoopa and Yurok Tribes intervened in defense of the Bureau to protect salmon and the local fishing industry.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-size: 13.3px; "> </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">After an evidentiary hearing in August 2013, Judge O’Neill rejected the irrigators’ request to block the flow program. Judge O’Neill rejected a similar request with respect to the 2014 program. "Today’s ruling represents the final resolution of the legal issues in this case," according to Earthjustice. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">"Ultimately this case is also about preserving the California salmon fishing industry,” said Glen Spain, NW Regional Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, which represents commercial fishing families coastwide. “It makes no sense to sacrifice thousands of fisheries jobs over 700 miles of coastline to provide just a little bit more water to a voracious California Central Valley agribusiness system that has already sucked up far more than its share in a major drought." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">Spain said this ruling will impact the salmon populations, coastal fishing communities and tribes who rely on salmon. During drought, the Bureau’s water releases from the Trinity River to the Lower Klamath are critical to the survival of salmon as thousands of them return to the river to spawn in late summer. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">“Any second-grader can tell you that fish need water,” said Jan Hasselman, an Earthjustice attorney based in Seattle. “The court largely affirmed the government’s ability to manage water in the basin to protect fish and the people who rely on them. We will continue to work to ensure that good science is the touchstone of water management in the Trinity basin.” </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">Hasselman said the court "rejected a wide number of claims brought by the irrigators in the case, but did find for the irrigators that the 1955 statute that the government relied on as authority for supplemental flows did not actually provide such authority. The Bureau will need to invoke different legal authority if additional releases are required in the future." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">In contrast, Danielle Vigil-Masten, Chairwoman of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, slammed Judge O'Neill's decision for not protecting the Trinity River and vowed to appeal the decision. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">“With the stroke of a pen the court severed the Klamath River’s largest tributary and sutured it onto the Sacramento River. The lifeblood of our people will now flow south to industrial agriculture," said Vigil-Masten. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">She said the court has "twisted the text and context of federal legislation to produce this tragic outcome." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">“But this decision cannot stand and it will not stand,” said Council Member Ryan Jackson. “We will appeal. Ten years ago the Hoopa Valley Tribe persuaded the court of appeals in San Francisco to reverse another decision of this same federal court for these same plaintiffs that would have destroyed the Hoopa fishery." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">“We fought and won then,” said Jackson, “ and we will win again.“ </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">According to the Tribe, the judge blamed this outcome in part on the United States for its “refusal to invoke the trust responsibility” as a reason to provide water for our fishery, which the United States holds in trust." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">“We expect our trustee to be a much stronger advocate for our rights and resources on appeal than it was in this court,” said Hoopa Vice Chair Wendy George. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">The Tribe also said "It is terribly ironic that just days ago, the United States paid a more than $500 million to the Navajo Nation for mismanagement of tribal trust resources. It is devastating to think that while some federal lawyers were putting the final touches on that settlement, others were filing papers in our case to perpetrate the same kind of mismanagement all over again." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">“All should now be on notice,” said Chairwoman Vigil-Masten. “The Hoopa Valley Tribe will oppose any legislation that benefits the predatory and avaricious Central Valley Project contractors that brought this suit against us, including the pending California drought bill and the San Luis Drainage settlement that is expected to be introduced in the next Congress.” </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">The Tribe noted, "The people on the Klamath River in Oregon also are on notice: This decision creates a dilemma for the federal government. If the government does not appeal the court’s decision and win, the Secretary of the Interior may have no more Central Valley Project water available to protect and preserve fish in California’s lower Klamath River. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">The only other sources of water now subject to federal regulation besides the CVP’s Trinity River Division are the Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Irrigation Project and the federally licensed PacifiCorp Dams in Oregon and Californian. The Klamath water rights settlement now pending in the U.S. Senate will have to be revised to take water from those facilities to protect lower Klamath tribal trust resources." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">A phone call and email to Gayle Holman, Westlands Water District public affairs representative, about the district's position on the ruling hadn't been returned as of press time. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">However, Holman told the Eureka Times Standard that in "her understanding of the ruling, the claims made by Westlands had not been dismissed." </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">"We are pleased that the court agreed with us that Reclamation had no authority to make these releases," she said. (</span></font><a href="http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_26647663/judge-water-klamath-salmon-legal-this-time" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px; color: rgb(11, 45, 90); border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; ">http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_26647663/judge-water-klamath-salmon-legal-this-time</a><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">) </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">You can read the decision on the Earthjustice website: </span></font><a href="http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/court-decision-judge-dismisses-bulk-of-agribusiness-lawsuit-over-trinity-river-flows" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px; color: rgb(11, 45, 90); border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; ">http://earthjustice.org/documents/legal-document/court-decision-judge-dismisses-bulk-of-agribusiness-lawsuit-over-trinity-river-flows</a><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; "> </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#111111" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; "></span></font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">BACKGROUND: </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">In 2013, there were extremely low flow conditions in the Lower Klamath occurring at the same time fisheries managers expected the second-largest run of Chinook salmon on record. Federal, state and tribal salmon biologists were concerned that the confluence of high runs and low flows would lead to another disaster like the ‘Fish Kill of 2002. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">In September 2002, Bush Administration’s water management policies in the basin that favored irrigators led to a fish kill of over 68,000 salmon in the Lower Klamath, the largest fish kill of adult salmon in U.S. history. The die-off resulted in coast-wide closures of commercial, recreational and tribal fishing, dealing a huge blow to the local economy, resulting in over $200 million in losses. </span></font><br><br><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13.3px; ">To avoid the projected die-off, the Bureau of Reclamation developed a plan to release extra water from dams along the Trinity River, a tributary of the Klamath, to improve the Klamath’s water conditions. In response, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District filed a lawsuit in an attempt to declare unlawful the Bureau’s authority to release water from the Trinity River.</span></font></div><div class="link" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3px; "><a href="https://www.indybay.org/admin/article/article_edit.php?id=18762297" style="color: rgb(11, 45, 90); border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></a></div></div></div><div style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><br></span></div><br><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(17, 17, 17); "><br></span></div></div></body></html>