CSPA Advisory - 2.8.07
Delta and Klamath Actions Provide Some Encouragement
There's good news and bad news out on a key Delta decisions and the fate of the Klamath River. Regarding the Delta, the National Marine Fishery Service has rejected DWR's application for a permit to begin the building of barriers in the South Delta - part of the first phase of the "South Delta Improvement Project" the Department of Water Resources spin doctors would have us believe that building barriers and increasing exports will improve the ecology of the Delta along with its collapsing foodweb and fisheries, but NMFS put at least a temporary stop to this misrepresentation due to the agency’s inept modeling of potential environmental impacts. We applaud the Service's clear thinking and acknowledgment of their legal responsibilities! They play a key role in upholding the federal Endangered Species Act which provides some protection for Winter-run salmon and steelhead.
The good news for the Klamath is that NMFS bit the political bullet and aimed a stake at Pacific Corps heart for hard balling the negotiations to find a workable settlement on dams Pacific Corps want to relicense for up to fifty years. Since it cost more to provide the fish passage facilities to get fish up and down the river past the dams than it will cost to remove them, maybe Pacific Corps will honor their previous commitment to let the public buy the project out!
On the down side, the Governor has appointed a "Blue Ribbon Delta Vision Task Force" that is to is to develop a “Delta Vision” to provide a sustainable management program for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta and sustainable water exports out of the Delta. The Task Force will prepare an independent “public report” and submit it to the Delta Vision Committee and the Governor that sets forth their findings and recommendations on the sustainable management of the Delta by January 1, 2008. This is to be followed by a Strategic Plan to implement the Delta Vision by October 31, 2008.
Looking through the list of those appointed has left me wondering why the term "Blue Ribbon" is being used in this context? With the possible exceptions of Phil Isenberg and Sunny McPeak, the appointments don't appear to have significant qualifications in the field of restoring the estuarine ecology, water quality or fisheries -- the three critical areas that must be addressed if the Delta Vision Process is not to turn into a continuation of the CALFED Delta Nightmare Process. Perhaps the real disappointment here is the failure of the administration to appoint anyone from the fishing community with genuine knowledge of the fish and their habitat the require to be a sustainable resource.
The articles that follow should shed more light on these issues.
Plan to get more out of Delta denied; Agency that protects fish rejects permits for tide gates that state planned to build before seeking OK to increase capacity
Contra Costa Times – 1/31/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
Federal regulators have pulled the plug on permits needed to build new tide gates in the south Delta, undercutting plans to ramp up the capacity of pumps that deliver water to Central and Southern California.
The decision by the federal agency charged with protecting threatened and endangered salmon, steelhead and sturgeon suspends work on the permit but leaves the door open for the state to get permission for the tide gates later. The gates would replace temporary rock barriers that are installed each year and, by raising and lowering to let water in and out, the gates are meant to improve water quality for farms, improve circulation and accommodate fish passage.
In essence, the agency, NOAA Fisheries, said it would not approve California's water management puzzle one piece at a time. Instead, the agency says it is legally required to look at the big picture first.
And the big picture is in so much flux that environmentalists contend the regulatory decision likely kills plans to increase the pumping capacity. The state had planned to build the tide gates, then get approval for higher pumping rates in a controversial two-phased program.
"It is probably the death knell for the South Delta Improvements Program proposal," said Jonas Minton, water policy adviser to the Planning and Conservation League, an environmental group. "Their opportunity to slip this through has most likely passed."
The increased pumping plan was already foundering because of an ongoing ecological crisis in the Delta that many scientists say is partly attributable to the pumps."We're not having any discussions on increasing the pumping limit," said Kathy Kelly, chief of the Bay-Delta branch of the Department of Water Resources.
NOAA Fisheries' decision also puts state water officials in a bind because they are under a cease-and-desist order from a state regulatory agency, the State Water Resources Control Board, to begin improving water quality by 2009.
"Obviously, we consider salinity in the South Delta to be a real water quality problem and it needs to be solved," said State Water Resources Control Board spokesman William Rukeyser.
The water resources department says those standards can be met by installing tide gates. If the gates do not get built, another way to meet those goals would be to reduce water deliveries out of the Delta, a controversial idea.
The Delta supplies water to 23 million Californians and millions of acres of rich agricultural land. But its ecosystem is in a deep crisis with several fish species' populations at extremely low levels. Solutions have proved elusive so far and progress on any front has come, at best, in fits and starts.
In 2004, NOAA Fisheries approved a new overarching plan to move more water from north to south, but that approval came under blistering criticism. An inspector general's report found procedural irregularities that resulted in a relaxation of environmental conditions. And an independent scientific panel found the permit failed to use the best available science. Salmon anglers sued. Federal authorities responded by agreeing last July to re-evaluate that permit.Meanwhile, government lawyers determined that considering the construction of tide gates without considering how they would be used was a possible violation of law. They did not want to defend another legally vulnerable permit.
"The last thing our lawyers recommended was doing something that might not be legally defensible," said Russ Strach, NOAA Fisheries' assistant regional administrator for protected resources.
NOAA Fisheries also noted that it was given one set of hydrologic modeling information to evaluate the tide gates, but another set of information to evaluate the larger plan, called the Operations Criteria and Plan. Kelly said that to meet the water quality order, the department hopes to convince federal regulators to allow it to build the gates but only use them from June to November, when concerns for fish are lower. But Strach said his agency was unlikely to approve that plan because it fails to consider how the gates will be used before they are built.
Minton, from the Planning and Conservation League, said the environmental and water supply tensions in the Delta have grown so great that he thinks water agencies are beginning to change strategies and resurrect an idea rejected 25 years ago.
"The water exporters are now switching their attention to efforts to get a peripheral canal. They don't think south Delta diversions are sustainable," Minton said.
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KLAMATH RIVER FISH LADDERS:
Feds demand fish ladders for Klamath dams
Eureka Times-Standard – 1/31/07
By John Driscoll, staff writer
Federal fisheries and wildlife agencies stuck to their guns in a final demand to require Klamath River hydropower dam owner Pacificorp to install ladders for salmon and other fish if it wants a renewed license to operate.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service's stance on providing ways for fish to get above the dams to spawning grounds that have been cut off for decades changed little since its draft report last year. The agencies also issued a scalding indictment of Pacificorp's proposal to trap fish and truck them above and below the dams instead.
Advocates for removing the four dams in question believe the order may grease the skids toward a settlement with Pacificorp that would involve tearing the dams out. It would be the largest dam removal project in the country.
Installing the ladders and other infrastructure needed to allow salmon, steelhead and lamprey to move freely up and downstream may cost $300 million. Those costs could be passed onto Pacificorp's ratepayers, although the California Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Interior, conservation groups and American Indian tribes hold that taking out the dams and replacing the 151 megawatts by building modern power plants would be a much better deal.
”My interpretation is this should convince Pacificorp that they have lost this battle, and they need to think about their ratepayers and what's best for them,” said Steve Rothert with the group American Rivers, a party to ongoing settlement talks.
Salmon stocks in the Klamath have suffered in recent years and led to severe cutbacks in commercial fishing. Water quality problems have become worse, and diseases among fish are widespread. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is now considering issuing another 30- to 50-year license for the operation.
The report issued Tuesday says that building fish ladders will better protect several species of fish than Pacificorp's proposal, which was modified in December. That included some fishways to be built on some dams, while trapping adult fish to release them both above and between the dams to take advantage of habitat that's been cut off.
”In short, we found that Pacificorp's alternative was substantially less protective of public trust resources,” said Steve Edmondson with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Among the concerns is that Pacificorp's proposal only deals with fall run chinook salmon, not the other species. Edmondson said that the company's plan and didn't offer the certainty the agencies wanted. The problems the agencies outlined included the likelihood of harming fish by handling them, making existing disease problems worse, and failing to protect red band trout that live between the dams.
Pacificorp spokesman Dave Kvamme said that the company believes ladders won't work on dams like lowermost Iron Gate Dam, which he said the agencies ignored. But he wouldn't say that Pacificorp intends to challenge the demands in court, but would rather wait until the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission comes out with an environmental impact statement on the project.
Kvamme said the prescriptions imposed by the agencies has not dampened enthusiasm for a settlement among the stakeholders in the Klamath basin.
”Settlement is still a viable option as far as we're concerned,” Kvamme said.
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Fate of Klamath River dams in play; Federal officials call for upgrades to four of them to help salmon get upriver. But it may be cheaper to take the barriers down
Los Angeles Times – 1/31/07
By Eric Bailey, staff writer
SACRAMENTO — Federal officials called Tuesday for costly improvements to four Klamath River dams, a move that could hasten removal of a hydropower system that for generations has blocked imperiled salmon from their upriver spawning grounds.
Interior and Commerce Department officials said that in order to get its license renewed, Portland-based PacifiCorp would be required to install fish ladders and screens to ease the salmon's annual migration.
The cost of such improvements could reach $470 million, as much as $285 million more than the cost of removing the dams and replacing their electricity for the next 30 years, according to a government study.
That vast cost discrepancy could put pressure on the power company — a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway empire — to negotiate a truce with Indian tribes, fishermen and environmentalists pushing for demolition of the towering structures.
The Klamath, which emerges from the snowmelt of the Cascade Range in Oregon and dashes south into California before emptying into the sea north of Eureka, once was the nation's third-most productive salmon river, with up to 1.2 million salmon and steelhead trout joining an epic annual migration to spawn.
Today, the river's coho salmon are on the endangered species list, and its chinook salmon have suffered such steep declines that the 2006 commercial season was virtually shut down on the West Coast.
Activists say decommissioning the hydropower project, which produces enough electricity to light 70,000 homes, could help restore health to a river system hit by water quality problems, fish-killing diseases, diversions for farming and other woes.
"This would represent the largest and most ambitious dam removal project in the country, if not the world," said Steve Rothert of the environmental group American Rivers. "Some dams have been taller, but these on the Klamath cast a bigger footprint on the landscape; 350 miles of upstream habitat would be reopened."
A spokesman for PacifiCorp said the company plans to press ahead with its effort to win a new license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission but believes a settlement with anti-dam activists and federal agencies could prove the best remedy.
"We never said we wouldn't consider dam removal as an outcome in the settlement process," said Dave Kvamme, a company spokesman. "But there's no silver bullet. There's an assumption that if you take out the dams, the fish will come. That ignores so many other problems on the river."
Last March, federal officials issued a preliminary call for fish ladders, boosting hopes among anti-dam activists. In the months since then, PacifiCorp has waged a fight to persuade U.S. wildlife agencies to accept its alternative: a plan to trap the adult fish and haul them around the dams. Wildlife officials concluded that the alternative would provide less protection than ladders.
The four dams pose a big obstacle. The tallest rises 157 feet above the river bed, requiring a fish ladder six-tenths of a mile long. Such long fish ladders have historically been ineffective, PacifiCorp's Kvamme said, with salmon becoming exhausted and confused as they attempt to climb scores of steps. Company officials are uneasy, meanwhile, about government estimates comparing the costs of keeping the dams with those of demolishing them.
Kvamme said it was impossible to estimate accurately how much replacement energy would cost in coming decades if the hydro dams were razed. Dam removal, meanwhile, could be far more costly than anyone imagines, Kvamme said. Dealing with the 20 million cubic yards of sediment trapped behind the dams could cost $1.5 billion or more, he said.
Kvamme also said the Klamath's network of tributaries — among them the Shasta, Scott and Salmon rivers — all suffer ecological troubles that would not be addressed by dam removal.Though the company has fought to win license renewal for the dams, it has also participated in regular settlement negotiations for nearly two years with government agencies, Native American tribes, fishermen, farmers and other groups with stakes in the Klamath's health.
The closed-door negotiations have in recent weeks reportedly narrowed the range of potential solutions, prompting anticipation among participants that a slate of solutions could be reached in a compromise.
"I continue to believe that a locally driven, basin-wide approach holds the most promising hope for a comprehensive solution to the river's problems," said Steve Thompson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manager for California and Nevada.
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From: Governor's Press Office
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 8:33 AM
Subject: Governor Schwarzenegger Announces Appointments to the Delta
Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Aaron McLear
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Rachel Cameron 916-445-4571
Governor Schwarzenegger Announces Appointments
to the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Monica Florian, Richard Frank, Phillip Isenberg, Thomas McKernan, Sunne Wright McPeak, William Reilly and Raymond Seed to the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force.
"A safe and secure levee system and an adequate and clean supply of water are critical to our economy and every family in our state," said Governor Schwarzenegger. "The Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta levees serve two out of every three Californians and we must continue to support the environmental and economic functions of the Delta that are vital to the people of California."
Florian, 58, of Huntington Beach, most recently served as senior vice president for the Irvine Company from 1978 to 2004. Prior to that, Florian worked as assistant planning director for the City of Huntington
Beach from 1973 to 1978 and was an associate planner for the County of Riverside from 1970 to 1973. She is a former member of the Nature Reserve of Orange County, Upper Newport Bay Watershed Executive
Committee and the California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance. Florian is a Republican.
Frank, 57, of Sacramento, currently serves as the executive director of the California Center for Environmental Law and Policy at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to that, he was the chief deputy attorney general for legal affairs at the California Department of Justice, where he worked from 1997 to 2006.
Frank previously held the positions of chief assistant attorney general, senior assistant attorney general, supervising deputy attorney general and deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice. He is a member of the Environmental Law Section of the California State Bar and the Planning and Conservation League. Frank is registered decline-to-state.
Isenberg, 67, of Sacramento, has served as president of Isenberg/O'Haren Government Relations since 2005. From 2004 to 2006, he was a member of the board of directors for the 21st Century Insurance Group. Isenberg previously served in the California State Assembly, where he was a member of the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. He served as chair of the California Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force from 2004 to 2006 and is a member or the American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club and the Sacramento Valley Conservancy. Isenberg is a Democrat.
McKernan, 62, of Arcadia, currently serves as chief executive officer of the Automobile Club of Southern California and Auto Club Enterprises, where he has worked since 1966. McKernan is the chair of the California Business Roundtable and serves on the board of the California State Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the Forest Lawn Memorial Parks Association. McKernan is a Republican.
McPeak, 58, of Pleasanton, currently serves as president and chief executive officer of the California Emerging Technology Fund. From 2003 to 2006, she served as secretary of the Business, Transportation and
Housing Agency. McPeak formerly was president and chief executive officer of the Bay Area Council, where she established and led major regional initiatives. Prior to her time at the Council, she served
three years as president and chief executive officer of the Bay Area Economic Forum. McPeak is a Democrat.
Reilly, 66, of San Francisco, is a founding partner of Aqua International Partners, under the Texas Pacific Group, an investment company where he has also served as a senior advisor. From 1989 to 1993, Reilly served as the seventh administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to that, he was president of the World Wildlife Fund from 1985 to 1989 and held the same position at the Conservation Foundation from 1973 to 1989. Reilly is a Republican.
Seed, 49, of Walnut Creek, has served as a professor of civil and environmental engineering for the University of California, Berkeley, since 1987. Previously, he was an assistant professor of civil engineering for Stanford University from 1983 to 1986. Seed is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineers. Seed is registered decline-to-state.
These positions do not require Senate confirmation and there is no salary
