<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div class="" style=""><span style="background-color: transparent;">http://www.redding.com/news/local-news/federal-biologists-oppose-raising-shasta-dam </span><br></div><header class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-left: 2.125rem; margin-right: 2.125rem; margin-top: 0px;"><h1 class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; padding-top: 1.125rem; font-size: 30px; border: 0px; font-family: 'Noto Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 31.5px;">Federal biologists oppose raising Shasta Dam</h1><div class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.125rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 16px;"><address class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: inherit; color: rgb(99, 100, 102);"><a
href="mailto:darthur@redding.com" sl-processed="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 51, 102); text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-family: inherit;" class="">Damon Arthur</a></address><div class="" datetime="2015-01-28T10:16:24-0800" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(99, 100, 102); font-size: 12px;">10:16 AM, Jan 28, 2015</div><div class="" datetime="2015-01-29T07:27:14-0800" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(99, 100, 102); font-size: 12px;">2 hours ago</div></div></header><div class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; overflow: hidden; clear: both;"><div class="" data-autoplay="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 2.125rem 10px; padding: 5px 0px 0px;"><div class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.75rem; padding: 0px; position: relative; overflow: hidden;"><div class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;
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float: right; width: 492px;"><div class="" data-maxpages="1" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><div class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; min-height: 12.5rem;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">A federal wildlife agency is contradicting claims that raising the height of Shasta Dam would benefit endangered salmon, challenging one of the primary justifications officials give for the $1.1 billion project.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in an internal report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request that it could not support raising the height of the dam 18½ feet because there would be only minor benefits to fish and it would harm other
wildlife and rare plants.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">Tom Stokely, a water policy analyst for the California Water Impact Network, said the fish and wildlife report exposes as a “phony justification” the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s reasons for raising the height of the dam.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“It’s not going to protect those fish,” said Stokely, whose group filed the FOIA request for the document.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“It cuts the legs out of the economic justification for the project,” he said, noting the bureau estimates
about $655 million of the project cost would be borne by taxpayers because of its benefits to salmon. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">Raising the dam will primarily benefit San Joaquin Valley farmers rather than Chinook salmon, said Bill Jennings of the California Sport Fishing Alliance.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“This isn’t just an environmental issue. It’s about the squandering of taxpayer dollars. It’s about pork-barrel politics, about public money flowing from the public coffers to the handful of corporate farmers in the San Joaquin Valley who control water in California,” Jennings said in a statement.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"
class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">The 349-page report says numerous plants and animals, many of them unique to the area around Lake Shasta, will suffer if the dam is raised. It also says there will be little benefit to fish downstream of the dam in the Sacramento River.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“The service has also determined that the proposed project does not provide any substantial benefit to anadromous fish downstream of the RBPP (Red Bluff Pumping Plant) and only provides minimal benefit to anadromous fish (winter- and spring-run Chinook salmon) upstream of the RBPP,” the report says.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">The
report goes on to say “the service is unable to support the adoption of any of the proposed action alternatives” for raising the dam.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">Habitat restoration along the Sacramento River downstream of the dam would provide greater benefits to salmon than raising the height of the dam, the report says.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">A higher lake level, as well as construction from relocating roads and campgrounds,would harm some rare plants and animals found only around Lake Shasta, such as the Shasta snow-wreath, the Shasta salamander, Shasta sideband snail, Wintu sideband snail, Shasta chaparral snail and the Shasta hesperian snail, the reports says.</div><div
style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">But Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the agency, said the report sent to the bureau’s Mid-Pacific Regional director in November is a draft and could undergo changes before it becomes final.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“It’s a draft. It’s not the final report. It still could change,” Martarano said. He would not say whether the report signals the wildlife service’s opposition to raising the dam.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“The report speaks for itself. We had concerns and those are being addressed,” he said.</div><div
style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">Louis Moore, a spokesman for the bureau, downplayed the report’s importance, saying the agency’s statements do not receive more weight than any other comment submitted on the draft environmental impact statement about the dam project.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">But Ross Marshall, who owns the Lakeshore Inn & Resort in Lakehead, said Wednesday he welcomes any news that casts doubt on the future of the dam-raising proposal.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“That’s good news because they’ve already taken our property values and
thrown them in the toilet,” Marshall said.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">Marshall said he had hoped to sell his business, but plans to raise the lake level up to 20 feet has made that difficult because at high water the reservoir would inundate portions of the resort.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">Numerous bridges and roads would need to be relocated because of the lake’s higher level, according to bureau reports on the proposal. Many other businesses and homes would have to be compensated or relocated because of the new high water mark.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"
class="">Matt Doyle, general manager of Lake Shasta Caverns, said he was also concerned about the effect of ongoing studies to raise the dam are having on homeowners and businesses. There have been numerous studies and proposals to raise the dam, he said. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">“Each time, it’s a hardship on the people that live up here and work up here,” Doyle said.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">The bureau’s Moore said there is no estimated date when the agency would release a final environmental impact statement on the most recent proposal. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;
margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="">After that report is complete, the secretary of the Department of the Interior has to sign off on the project, and then Congress would then need to vote on whether to fund it, he said.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""> </div><div class="" style=""><br class="" style=""></div></div></div><footer class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 0.75rem; position: relative; clear: both; top: 0.75rem; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></footer></div></div></div></div></body></html>