6/5/2008

The Coleman National Fish Hatchery staff announced today they have completed the trucking of 1.4 million of its Chinook salmon smolts from the hatchery to San Pablo Bay. The trucking was completed in phases between May 19, and June 5, 2008. The Chinook smolts, 3 inches in length, have been raised at Coleman NFH in Anderson, Calif., as part of the hatchery?s role in mitigating for the Shasta and Keswick dams on the upper Sacramento River.
This was the first time in more than a decade that Coleman NFH employees trucked smolts from the hatchery 300+ miles to San Pablo Bay.

"Trucking was challenging at times, but the results will help us better understand how the release location influences the number of salmon available to the ocean fisheries and returning to the Sacramento River and Coleman National Fish Hatchery," said Coleman National Fish Hatchery Manager Scott Hamelberg. &"Although it will likely take several years to gather all the data, we expect the information will help us improve salmon management in the Central Valley."

After a difficult and disappointing first day when one load of fish died due to a failed circulation pump, all of the remaining fish made a successful trip to San Pablo Bay. The smolts trucked to San Pablo Bay were placed in net pens operated by the Fishery Foundation of California for acclimatization and then released in to the bay. A portion of the smolts have coded-wire tags to identify them as part of this experiment. As these smolts are harvested or return as adults, fisheries biologists will be able to determine the rate of return of these fish.

Coleman National Fish Hatchery was constructed in 1942 as part of the mitigation measures to help preserve significant runs of Chinook salmon threatened by the loss of natural spawning areas resulting from the construction of Shasta and Keswick dams on the upper Sacramento River. One of the primary goals of the hatchery is to assure that salmon return to the upper Sacramento River. Fall Chinook salmon smolts produced at the Coleman NFH are typically released on-site so that they complete the imprinting cycle during their outmigration to the ocean. This release strategy increases the likelihood that these fish will return to the upper Sacramento River as adults to contribute to the upper Sacramento in-river fishery, and return to the hatchery in sufficient numbers to perpetuate the runs and the programs. Another important goal of the hatchery is to contribute to the ocean sport and commercial fishery. Coleman NFH contributes up to 100,000 Chinook annually to the ocean fisheries as well as thousands of fish for the fisheries in the Sacramento River.

Situated on Battle Creek, a small, cold water tributary of the Sacramento River, the hatchery produces 12 million fall Chinook salmon, 1 million late-fall Chinook salmon, and 600,000 steelhead trout annually. Coleman NFH also has a coded wire tagging program in which young fish are taken from the raceways to the tagging trailer in an aerated tank. After sedation, fish are adipose fin clipped to provide an external mark that identifies coded-wire tagged fish. After the fin clip, fish are placed in a nose cone and a small wire tag is injected into the cartilaginous portion of the nose. This small tag will remain in place for the entire life of the fish. When these fish return as adults the tag can be removed and read with the aid of a microscope. The coded-wire tag code gives the biologist information about which hatchery the fish came from, the year the fish was hatched, tagged, released, and other pertinent information such as parental lineage.

The Fresno Bee- 6/27/08
By John Ellis

A federal judge on Friday rejected an emergency request by environmentalists to immediately open the gates of a key dam on the Sacramento River, a move they said was needed to allow endangered Chinook salmon to reach their spawning grounds.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger sent a wave of relief through nervous Sacramento Valley farmers and growers who depend on water diverted at the dam to feed their crops.

"We dodged a bullet," said Jeff Sutton, general manager of the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority.

Wanger, however, also said he was leaning toward ordering the gates of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam to open Sept. 2, about two weeks earlier than normal. He said he wants to hear more testimony on that matter and didn't issue any final ruling.

Though peak time for irrigating is July and August, if September is a hot month, opening the gates two weeks early could have an adverse effect on the same growers who feared the gates would be ordered open now, said Ken LaGrande, the canal authority's chairman.

But Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Kate Poole, who is participating in the hearing, said the gates remaining closed now hurt Chinook salmon heading upstream to their spawning grounds. In August and September, the gates need to be open to assist young salmon heading back downstream to the ocean.

Poole has said the species are in peril and need help to survive the state's drought conditions.

Friday's ruling was another in an ongoing trial involving a federal water plan that covers Central Valley steelhead and two species of Chinook salmon. In April, Wanger invalidated part of the plan because it did not adequately protect the three fish species, he said.

Now he is holding a hearing to decide what -- if any -- action needs to be taken.

One of the actions requested by environmentalists was to open up the Red Bluff Diversion Dam. But because the trial was taking so long -- it has now stretched over three weeks -- environmentalists last week made an emergency request to open the diversion dam.

The dam raises the water line on the Sacramento River, which allows it to run into the Tehama-Colusa Canal on gravity. If the gates were open, the water level would fall too low to spill into the canal.

A pump would then be used, but its capacity is far less than using gravity. There are plans to someday install a bank of pumps.

The dam, located south of Red Bluff, has 11 gates and was built on the Sacramento River in the early 1960s. The canal system it feeds diverts water into Tehama, Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties.

On Tuesday, the trial will resume with environmentalists seeking to increase cold-water releases from Lake Shasta to make the Sacramento River's temperature lower at a point further downstream. That would assist in salmon spawning. They also want to maintain 1.9 million acre-feet of water in Lake Shasta.

Those decisions would not only affect Sacramento Valley farmers, but also farmers much closer to home in the Westlands Water District.

Wanger also must issue a final ruling on the Red Bluff Diversion Dam.

The government and its water agency allies think Wanger should do nothing.

Currently, they say, the National Marine Fisheries Service is rewriting a biological report on the Central Valley Project's effects on the steelhead and two salmon species that Wanger invalidated. That should be done by next spring and should address the environmentalists' concerns, they say.#

FRESNO, Calif.—A federal judge has denied environmentalists' and fishermen's emergency request to open the gates of a dam south of Redding to safeguard endangered fish species they say are threatened by its operations.

Attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations argue that keeping the dam's gates closed prevents adult spring-run chinook salmon from swimming upstream to spawn.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger said he wouldn't order any immediate changes to operations of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, but would consider their concerns in future hearings about the effect of the state's water systems on the fish.

Farmers in the Sacramento Valley were relieved at the ruling, since opening the gates could have restricted their water supplies.#

The Capitol Ag Press- 6/20/08
By Elizabeth Larson

The Family Water Alliance said it will be able to continue its fish screen program in the Sacramento Valley for another five years thanks to new state and federal grant funding.

Ashley Indrieri, executive director of Family Water Alliance, said the group will use the funds for the seventh phase of its fish-screen program, which began in 1996. Since then, they've assisted with 24 fish screens - representing a cumulative screening of 563 cubic feet per second of California water - funded by different grants.

Water pumped through the screens helps irrigate 22,000 acres of prime agricultural land, while the screens help protect water rights and fishery resources, according to the organization.

"This is definitely our biggest endeavor," Indrieri said of the new funding, which should help complete between nine and 15 new screen installations on water diversions.

Funding is provided by the Central Valley Project Improvement Act's Anadromous Fish Screen Program administered by the Bureau of Reclamation and Proposition 84 bond monies administered by the California Department of Fish and Game, Indrieri said.

The screens are designed to meet Department of Fish and Game standards.

Farmers with agricultural water diversions along the Sacramento River from Chico Landing to the upper reach of the delta region can apply to receive a fish screen at little or not cost.

The fish-screen project's newest phase will begin with the alliance identifying landowners with river diversions willing to participate in a biological assessment.

"In the past, we've just installed fish screens," she said. "This program will have a study portion in it."

Two irrigation seasons before screen installation, a biologist will do an entrainment study for each of the prospective installation areas, Indrieri said.

Participating in the study will guarantee farmers a fish screen at no cost.

Dan Griffith, farm manager for Davis Ranches/Sycamore Family Trust near Colusa, said the operation has received four screens in two projects, beginning about five years ago.

He said Davis Ranches diverts about 30,000 acre feet of water annually from the Sacramento River, which is used to grow rice, walnuts, alfalfa, wheat, vine seeds and some tomatoes for processing.

Davis Ranches decided to install the screens because they could see the threat of lawsuits on the horizon, which would hit farming operations based on the assumption their diversions were also drawing in fish.

Installing screen is very expensive and wouldn't have been feasible without the grants and assistance through the Family Water Alliance, he said.

The screens are working fine, he said, and have prevented fingerling-sized fish from getting into the pumps.

Reclamation District 999, located between the Sacramento River and the ship channel in Yolo County, currently has the largest fish screen installed in the program, said district manager Bob Webber. The district provides water to 25,000 acres of farmland for winegrapes, alfalfa, corn, wheat, safflower, tomatoes and cucumbers.

The screen, which has been in operation since March 2007, works great, Webber said. It is located underwater to allow shipping traffic to pass.

"We're still able to deliver water and the fish can get by our screen and be OK," Webber said.

He said the screens also have helped keep other things out of the water pipes - from boats to logs.

Webber said the district volunteered to do the project and help develop the fish screen technology, realizing that due to its location on the river's main stemscreens would be mandatory at some point.

The project was paid for by the Bureau of Reclamation, the Wildlife Conservation Board and the district's landowners, with Family Water Alliance managing the project, including the permitting process and securing funding, Webber said.

The screen is designed to keep delta smelt and salmon out of the irrigation diversions.

"It's really worked out well," he said.#

Yubanet.com – 6/19/08
By Karuk Tribe

Sacramento, CA, June 18, 2008 - A Native Tribe along with commercial and recreational fishermen called on Governor Schwarzenegger today to restrict the controversial gold mining technique known as suction dredge mining. The groups' call to limit the recreational mining technique comes as California faces the worst fisheries collapse in history.

"In April, the state and federal government took unprecedented emergency actions to completely close California's coast to recreational and commercial salmon fishing, something that is causing severe economic harm to businesses and communities," said Brian Stranko, CEO of California Trout. "This is why it is inappropriate and unacceptable for state government to allow recreational suction dredge mining operations to continue to harm fish, particularly endangered species like coho salmon."

Suction dredges are powered by gas or diesel engines that are mounted on floating pontoons in the river. Attached to the engine is a powerful vacuum hose which the dredger uses to suction up the gravel and sand (sediment) from the bottom of the river. The stream bed passes through a sluice box where heavier gold particles can settle into a series of riffles. The rest of the gravel and potentially toxic sediment is simply dumped back into the river. Depending on size, location and density of these machines they can turn a clear running mountain stream or river segment into a murky watercourse unfit for swimming.

"Dredging disturbs spawning gravels and kills salmon eggs and immature lamprey that reside in the gravel for up to seven years before maturing. In a system like the Klamath where salmon can be stressed due to poor water quality, having a dredge running in the middle of the stream affects the fishes ability to reach their spawning grounds," according to Toz Soto, lead fisheries biologist for the Karuk Tribe.

Soto adds, "there is a lot of mercury settled on the bottom of these rivers from gold smelting operations from the 1800's. Dredging reintroduces mercury to the stream creating a toxic hazard for fish and people."

Exposure to mercury can lead to mental retardation and birth defects.

The groups are hoping that the Governor will agree to a provision added by the Legislature to the 2008 Budget Bill that would establish a temporary moratorium on suction dredge mining in areas that represent the most important habitat for salmon and trout while the Department of Fish and Game revises (DFG) its regulations in compliance with a 2006 court order.

"The 2.2 million Californians that buy fishing licenses every year expect the Governor to protect both our natural resources as well as our rural economies," said Stranko.

According to the American Sportfishing Association, licensed anglers in California contribute $4.9 billion annually to the state's economy This includes 43,000 jobs amounting to $1.3 billion in wages and salaries annually. Commercial salmon fishing contributes $255 million and 2,263 jobs to the California economy.

By comparison, DFG only issues 3,000 permits for suction dredging each year.

For the Karuk Tribe the threat is even greater. "Suction dredge mining is nothing more than recreational genocide. The first gold rush killed more than half our people in 10 years.This modern gold rush continues to kill our fish and our culture," says Leaf Hillman of the Karuk Tribe.

"While we cannot harvest enough salmon for our ceremonies or to meet our families' food needs, miners are allowed to rip and tear our river bottoms to shreds. We need the Governor to take a stand with Native People and the 2.2 million anglers in California - not 3,000 recreational gold miners," added Hillman.

In coming weeks the Governor will have to consider the groups' proposal to limit mining as part of the 2008 Budget Bill to provide interim safeguards while DFG conducts a two-year effort to overhaul statewide regulations covering instream mining.#

The routes to the ocean followed by California salmon for millennia have turned into such a dangerous gauntlet that today millions of fish no longer come down the Feather, the American or the Mokelumne rivers.

They migrate instead in trucks down U.S. Highways 70 and 50, Interstate 80 and State Route 12.

On Tuesday, the nonprofit Fishery Foundation of California completed 2?1/2 months of transplanting the output of state-run salmon hatcheries — 20 million fish — to the top of San Pablo Bay.

Trucking salmon to the Bay is not new, but this year is unusual because the entire production from state-run hatcheries was trucked downstream and allowed to acclimate in "net pens" before being released.

The reason: California's salmon population has collapsed and fishing regulators took the unprecedented step of closing all salmon fishing off the California coast this year.

Something had to be done.

Salmon carried by truck to net pens in the Bay have a two- to four-times better chance of surviving and returning to spawn as adults than do fish released directly from the hatcheries, according to the state Fish and Game Department.

Going by highway helps the fish bypass the pollution, predators, pump intakes and other dangers in the deteriorating Delta.

No one suggests the plan is ideal. But with evidence increasing that California's salmon populations are highly dependent on the hatcheries, and with even those populations in a severe downturn, many biologists and anglers say the hatchery-to-net pens operations is needed. It is funded by $98,000 from sportfishing stamps paid by anglers who fish in the San Francisco Bay and Delta.

"We're in such dire straits, this is an important piece of the puzzle," Fishery Foundation's project manager Kari Burr said on the boat ride to the Rodeo wharf. "I would hate to see everything go to hatchery fish. ... If we could give ourselves a little wriggle room, nature is resilient."

For salmon that are raised in a hatchery, trucked to an acclimation pen and let loose, it is unclear how well they will fare and where they will return to spawn. After all, they can't rely on a truck driver to get them back home.

So about 5 million of them — one in four — were tagged with wires so that a few years from now when the fish return, researchers should be able to determine whether the hatchery fish are returning to native streams or whether they are straying to other streams, said Fish and Game department spokesman Harry Morse.

"In two to three years, we should start to get some statistically valid information," Morse said.

In all, about 20 million hatchery salmon were taken since early April in ice-chilled river water to wharves in Vallejo and Rodeo.

Burr and her assistants, biologist Roxanne Kessler and deck hand Troy Winchell, arranged the nets on a floating platform while balancing on 12-inch boards that bobbed on the waves.

From the parking lot, which was perhaps 18 feet higher than water level, more than 200,000 of the fish were spilled down a more than 100-foot plastic pipe, where they shot into the waters near the Carquinez Bridge with a whoosh.

"Last time for the season," Burr shouted.

Innumerable smolts, 2 to 3 inches long, flitted and flopped around before settling lower in the water and gathering into schools. Once they acclimated, the fish were fed for the first time in days — a fast imposed to reduce fecal contamination during the truck ride.

The fish were entering a dangerous world. Striped bass know where to find the salmon babies. And striped bass fishers knew where to find the stripers.

A handful caught several fish near the pens during the operation.

Meanwhile, hundreds of birds, mostly gulls but also pelicans and terns, waited for the pens to be hauled out into the currents below the Carquinez Bridge.

When the fish were released, pelicans dove and gulls picked the injured fish off the surface.

"See you later, fish," Kessler said as the last of the nets was emptied and hauled out.

"See you in three years, I hope," added Burr.#

The Department of Fish and Game hauled 20.2 million fall-run chinook salmon smolts this year from hatcheries on the American, Feather and Mokelumne rivers. The fish were dumped into net pens on shore, then towed by barge into San Pablo Bay.

The state has trucked salmon for years, but never on this scale, said spokesman Harry Morse, and nor has anyone else.

"I called both Washington and Oregon and asked if anybody had transported a number this massive, and both said no," he said.

Fish and Game trucked nearly all its hatchery chinook this year to ensure more fish survive to spawn again. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service trucked 1.4 million chinook from its Coleman hatchery near Redding, out of 12.6 million produced there.

Trucking avoids exposure to predators and pollution in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But a debate exists on whether this disrupts the fishes' ability to return to their home rivers.

The Central Valley fall chinook this year is predicted to reach its lowest level in more than three decades, and fishing seasons have been closed as a result.#

Mary Snyder, district engineer for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District, is responding to the June 1 front-page article "Ecosystem decline tied to ammonia."

All residents of the Sacramento region know the value of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – not only to Northern California but the entire state. The Delta is a key water source and provides a multitude of recreational and fishing opportunities. It is also a complex ecosystem and habitat. Similarly, the decline of fish species in the Delta is a complex and difficult issue.

As we all search for answers to the decline, some – as reported in The Bee – are looking at ammonia from the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District's wastewater treatment plant discharge as the possible culprit. Yet there is no proven link to confirm this, and a more holistic and scientific examination of the Delta decline needs to continue.

The district is a highly responsible agency focused on environmental stewardship. Our commitment to the environment is demonstrated by our excellent regulatory compliance record and our collaborative efforts with regulators and stakeholders to ensure the long-term sustainability of the entire Sacramento River Watershed.

There is wide agreement that numerous factors affect the Delta ecosystem. The list is significant: invasive species, water diversions, food web disruption, habitat degradation, predation, disease, turbidity, salinity and pesticides may also have a role. For example, the invasion of the overbite clam alone – and its resulting disruption on the Delta smelt's food source – requires much more rigorous study.

To attach the Delta's problems to ammonia from the district's discharge is a tremendous oversimplification. Of more than 70 studies being conducted by the Interagency Ecological Program investigating this issue, only a few involve ammonia. To imply the "simple fix" is to construct and implement a treatment method to remove ammonia from wastewater – not knowing whether it will solve the ecosystem problems – would be bad public policy and a poor use of public funds.

The issues confronting the Delta are complicated and politically charged. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has created an independent "Blue Ribbon Task Force" to develop a Delta Vision and Strategic Plan to address the Delta crisis. However, any solutions developed for the Delta must incorporate sound science and consider all the various factors affecting the ecosystem.

We are encouraged that The Bee is interested in this important issue and suggest continuing investigation to provide readers with a more balanced perspective of all the factors that could be contributing to the decline of the Delta ecosystem.#

The governor has declared that California is in a drought. Generally, there are two solutions: Build more dams to store water (one of the governor's proposals) or reduce our use of water. But it takes a long time to build new dams, so that plan will do nothing to help us during this drought. We need to prioritize water use.

Of all the usable water behind dams, urban water users consume 20 percent and agricultural users 80 percent. The governor would like to see a 20 percent reduction in urban water use; this would yield only a 4 percent savings in the amount of water now being consumed.

Much more water can be saved by achieving a similar 20 percent reduction in agriculture water use. That saving would be 16 percent!

California needs its agriculture, but farmers need to become much more efficient water users. California can no longer afford the water demands of the status quo. Our climate is changing, and how we use water must change, too.

It is now popular to consider the carbon footprint generated by the energy demands of our way of life and the goods we consume. We need to do the same for water by accounting for how much water is used when we live wherever we choose, and when we grow whatever and wherever we choose.

The water we Californians consume also requires lots of energy to pump, filter, clean and deliver. Depending on where and how we secure that energy, water use has a significant carbon footprint. For example, it takes much more water and energy to keep a 100-square-foot lawn green in Anaheim than it does in Arcata.

Where you grow plants matters. Hotter and drier areas evaporate more water from the soil, the irrigation system and the plant. Cotton, one our state's major crops, needs a lot of water to grow, yet one of the largest cotton-growing areas in California is located in the hot, dry, southern portion of the Central Valley, an area called Westlands.

The water imported to raise cotton in Westlands comes from the Trinity River, which is a major tributary of the Klamath River. If water used to raise cotton was instead allowed to remain in the Trinity, the recovery chances of the threatened salmon fisheries of the Klamath would be much improved.

In this age of climate change, we have our priorities wrong. Perhaps the water in the Trinity should be used to recover and raise a bountiful crop of salmon on the North Coast, not cotton in the Westlands desert.

Raising cotton in a hot dry environment can waste as much as 41 percent of the irrigation water due to evaporation (www.waterfootprint.org). How many salmon could have been raised with that water?

Reassessing our water use priorities will be difficult, but the status quo cannot be maintained and with our climate changing right now, we have no choice. We have no time or water to waste, and California needs leaders with the vision to face the water crisis of the 21st century.

Aldaron Laird is on the board of directors for the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District. He lives in Arcata.#

By John Ellis

Nearly two months ago, a Fresno judge invalidated part of a federal water plan because it did not adequately protect Central Valley steelhead and two species of Chinook salmon.

Now, the question is what -- if any -- action should be taken to correct the problem.

Attorneys representing environmentalists and the agencies that oversee and depend on the massive Central Valley Project for their water on Friday began what promises to be an extensive debate on that key question.

In a week that saw Gov. Schwarzenegger proclaim a statewide drought and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials announce water-allocation reductions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the ultimate answer could mean even more cutbacks for water users that depend on the Central Valley Project.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger -- who in April invalidated a key part of the federal water plan because he said it violated the Endangered Species Act by not adequately protecting winter-run Chinook salmon, spring-run Chinook salmon and the Central Valley steelhead -- will first decide if any steps need to be taken to protect the fish.

That will likely be decided late next week. If Wanger finds something must be done to protect the three fish species, the trial will then turn to that matter.

Environmentalists are seeking four primary measures to address the issue: Increase cold-water releases from Lake Shasta to make the Sacramento River's temperature lower at a point farther downstream. That would assist in salmon spawning.

Maintain 1.9 million acre-feet of water in Shasta.

Keep a diversion dam on the Sacramento River near Red Bluff open longer.

Maintain higher water flows in Clear Creek, a salmon-spawning waterway that flows into the Sacramento River.

Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Kate Poole, who participated in Friday's hearing, said the three fish species are being pushed to the edge of extinction.

"It's not clear they will be able to survive these critically dry years," she said. "We need to make sure they get a fighting chance to weather this drought."

The government and its water agency allies think Wanger should do nothing.

Currently, they say, the National Marine Fisheries Service is rewriting a biological report on the Central Valley Project's effects on the steelhead and two salmon species that Wanger invalidated. That should be done by next spring and should address the environmentalists' concerns.

They're also baffled by the environmentalists request to release more water from Shasta, but also maintain 1.9 million acre-feet, said attorney Daniel O'Hanlon, who represents the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which represents water districts -- including Westlands -- covering more than 2 million acres of farmland.

"We can't make sense of that," he said.

Many of the issues -- as well as the participants -- were similar to those in Wanger's courtroom last year in a case involving the tiny delta smelt.

Wanger threw out a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opinion on management of the delta smelt. Ultimately, his order resulted in less water being sent south from the delta pumps.

But government and water-agency attorneys on Friday argued that while many of the legal issues may mirror that of the delta smelt, there are different issues with the steelhead and salmon species.

One key issue is life span. The delta smelt lives one year, so a population crash could imperil the species. But salmon live four to five years, so while a generation could be wiped out, the long-term viability of the species could still remain intact.

Another issue is the Pacific Ocean and whether it is contributing to troubles being experienced by the three species -- trouble in which the Central Valley Project plays no role.#

By Alex Breitler, Staff Writer

FRESNO - The same federal judge who ordered historic water cutbacks to protect Delta smelt last year began trial-like proceedings Friday for an equally beleaguered, yet more beloved, fish: salmon.

And while it could be weeks before he rules, Judge Oliver Wanger indicated he will consider the economic impact of withholding water from farms and cities already parched from California's first drought since the early 1990s.

Endangered species are considered the first priority in conflicts such as these, under federal law.

"It's the law," Wanger said. "We can't just ignore the law because it's convenient or expedient."

But, he added, economic hardships "need to be on the table."

Wanger ruled in April that the federal government's guidelines protecting two species of salmon and steelhead were faulty and must be rewritten.

The new guidelines won't be finished until March. Wanger wants to know how imperiled the fish are and what if anything should be done this year to protect them.

That could mean even more changes in how much water is available for millions of Californians.

The salmon situation is considerably more complicated than the smelts'. Salmon are migratory, living most of their lives in the ocean and returning to inland rivers to spawn as adults.

Less water will be available this year for endangered winter-run chinook salmon, threatened spring-run salmon and threatened steelhead; what water the fish do have may be too warm for their eggs to survive.

Neither side of the legal dispute believes any of the three species are in danger of extinction prior to next spring.

But environmentalists argue the fish have been "beaten, exhausted and all but broken" by the state's vast plumbing system, which sends water from the Sacramento River and the Delta mostly to the south.

"The (water) projects chip away at the fish populations - 1 percent here, 2 percent there," said Michael Wall, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"These projects are slowly bleeding these species."

The fish in question are not to be confused with fall-run chinook, whose rapid decline triggered widespread publicity and fishing closures up and down the West Coast earlier this year. Fall-run salmon are not considered endangered.

The salmon and steelhead species do face similar risks, however: a lack of food in the ocean, water exports and water quality in the Delta, and predatory fish, among others.

The dangers are far worse in a drought year. Lake Shasta, the state's largest reservoir, is expected to lose its cold-water storage by the end of September, a blow for fish trying to spawn downstream. The number of winter-run salmon returning to spawn below the lake has already declined from 17,000 in 2006 to 2,500 last year, according to testimony Friday.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has suggested strategies for the coming months, including conserving as much water as possible in Shasta for the sake of next year's salmon run while also adding 16,000 tons of gravel to rivers for salmon to spawn.

"My feeling is that those actions will be effective" in lessening the harm to fish, said Charles Hanson, a biologist testifying on behalf of water users.

They will not save all the fish, Hanson said. But he doesn't believe the species overall is at immediate risk of extinction, in part because salmon live more than one year, with some age classes in the ocean and safe from the inland dangers.

Environmentalists, however, will ask Wanger for stronger action, including additional cuts in the amount of water pumped out of the south Delta when juvenile fish are nearby.

They originally sued over the water operations in 2004, when the National Marine Fisheries Service ruled that the bureau's plans to increase water deliveries would not jeopardize salmon and steelhead.

Wanger ruled otherwise in April.

The salmon hearings are expected to resume Tuesday.#

SACRAMENTO — Assembly Speaker Karen Bass admits to being "strictly a city kid" who's basically clueless about California's most valuable resource: water.

"Coming from L.A., we use it all, but we have no concept where it comes from," the Democrat says, poking fun at herself and other Southlanders. "We get it out of a bottle or the tap . . . "

"I know that it's a contentious issue -- I mean, 'Chinatown,' the movie.

"That was the extent of my knowledge. And then I come up here and find out I live in a flood plain [near the Sacramento airport]. I was stunned."

Bass is laughing over lunch. She's acknowledging her water ignorance, but -- most important -- expressing an eagerness to learn.

Recently, before replacing termed-out Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) as Assembly speaker, Bass took trips to Bakersfield and Fresno to hear firsthand about California's dire water problems. "I'd never been on a farm before," she says, until Assemblywoman Nicole Parra (D-Hanford) marched her into a field to learn about irrigation.

Bass is one hopeful sign for impatient water warriors because of a leadership transition at the Capitol.

Another is Sen. Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento, who has been selected by fellow Democrats to be the next Senate leader, replacing termed-out Sen. Don Perata (D-Oakland).

Steinberg is a policy wonk who, as a Sacramentan, is very familiar with the leaky, creaky Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and its vulnerability to flood or, worse, earthquake.

The delta estuary is California's main water hub, the source of drinking water for 24 million people and irrigation for 3 million acres. It also has become a deathtrap for fish, ranging from the endangered tiny smelt to disappearing popular salmon. So federal courts have cut back on water exports to save the critters.

Steinberg, chairman of the Senate water committee, is eager to repair and update the state's aged water facilities. So is Bass, unlike her predecessor Nuñez, whose main interest in water was to use it as a bargaining chip to achieve universal healthcare.

Water talks between Perata and the Schwarzenegger administration were scuttled when the Senate killed Nuñez's health insurance bill in January. A bitter Nuñez would have killed any water bond proposal the Senate had sent the Assembly. But Perata denied him the sweet revenge by pulling the plug on water.

Bass has told Perata that she has no such hang-ups about water and healthcare.

Neither does she or Steinberg harbor the instinctive opposition to dams that many environmentalist-influenced Democrats have exhibited in recent years.

"What's absolutely true is I'm open," Bass told the Sacramento Press Club last week. "I don't come into this issue with rigid positions around dams."

But she is concerned about cost, benefits and who pays, Bass added.

That has been a major quarrel among water negotiators. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Republicans have argued that the cost should be 50-50: half public, half water contractor.

They contend that the public would use any new dam for flood control and recreation and the water for delta ecological restoration. Democrats counter that water contractors -- for farmers and city dwellers -- traditionally have financed the lion's share of dams.

There has been some recent progress on resolving this dispute.

Sen. Michael Machado, a Democratic farmer from San Joaquin County, has been the Senate point man on water. He now has concluded that the public should pay 100% of the building cost for a long-proposed, off-stream dam called Sites, near the Sacramento River in Colusa County. It's needed for delta restoration and flood control, he says. Any surplus could be sold to water contractors.

But Machado, who represents delta farmers, still is leery of carving a so-called peripheral canal around the delta to carry Sacramento River water into the south-bound California Aqueduct. That would rob the delta of fresh water, he notes.

That issue currently is being studied by a Schwarzenegger-created blue-ribbon commission, which is expected to recommend building a combo contraption to transport water in canals both outside and inside the delta. That could muck up the delta's most popular, scenic recreational boating area, called the Meadows.

But the Legislature won't decide that this year -- or maybe ever. The administration believes it has the power, granted by voters in 1960 when they authorized the State Water Project, to build a peripheral canal without asking the Legislature. Contractors would pay the entire cost.

Prediction: No peripheral canal -- or anything else it might be dubbed -- will ever be built without legislative approval. Nor should anything that significant.

The water issue has resurfaced in Sacramento because of the driest spring in history and a disappointing Sierra snowpack that has evaporated in warm weather and wind.

Schwarzenegger called a news conference last week to declare a "serious drought." Just because a governor says there's a drought, doesn't mean there really is one. And this doesn't seem to be one. But "drought" is an attention-grabbing word, and the governor was correctly trying to prod the politicians into action.

"There is no more time to waste," Schwarzenegger asserted. "We have to go and get started because we have been talking about this now for years."

He called for building dams, cleaning up groundwater, fixing delta levees, conserving . . . and placing a multibillion-dollar bond on the November ballot.

Who knows? It all could happen as part of a budget deal this summer.

But if not, here's one thing the governor could do: Agree to sign a bill appropriating $600 million in already-authorized bond money for various water projects, including delta repairs. Perata passed such a bill last year and Schwarzenegger vetoed it, holding the measure hostage for the comprehensive bond bill that died. Perata is pushing similar legislation this year.

The governor also could agree to sign an Assembly bill that would require Californians to cut water use 20% by 2020.

That would constitute at least minimum progress while lawmakers are focused on budget balancing.

Then next year, Bass says, water "will be a high priority."

We've heard that before. But listening to Bass say it -- with Steinberg waiting in the wings -- the promise doesn't seem so far-fetched.#

A federal judge today will begin considering whether to further restrict the flow of water to California farms and cities in a state already parched by drought.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger has already ruled that permits meant to prevent water managers from driving fish extinct are failing and illegal.

Last year, he ordered Delta pumping reductions of as much as 30 percent because Delta smelt are vanishing. The hearing in Fresno, which may extend into next week, could lead to further restrictions to protect salmon and steelhead, which are also in decline.

"This isn't going to solve the salmon crisis but it can help quite a bit," said Zeke Grader, who represents commercial salmon fishers who joined with environmentalists to bring the lawsuit.

Most observers do not expect a court order as dramatic as the one Wanger issued last year. In part, that is because salmon and steelhead do not appear to be as threatened as Delta smelt, which are facing the possibility of imminent extinction.

"There was common agreement with the Delta smelt that it was disappearing from the system," said Chris Scheuring, a water lawyer for the California Farm Bureau. "The salmon and steelhead are in a little more hopeful situation than the Delta smelt."

Instead, environmentalists and anglers are asking water managers to maintain colder temperatures in spawning beds, save more water behind dams and take other measures that would have a more subtle effect on water supplies.

Today's testimony will focus on the status of salmon and steelhead runs and whether court intervention is needed. If so, it will likely take several days of testimony before the judge reaches decisions on what protective measures to order.

At issue is a permit issued in 2004 by the National Marine Fisheries Service that controls cold water releases from dams, Delta water pumping and many other pieces of California's plumbing system.

Federal investigators earlier found the permit was approved under unusual circumstances. Although biologists concluded water deliveries could threaten fish with extinction, they were overruled by a manager, James Lecky, who gave the water plan the agency's blessing and was later promoted to become the Bush administration's top official overseeing marine endangered species.

In April, Wanger found the permit did not meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. Last year, he made a similar ruling on a permit issued by another federal wildlife agency that was supposed to protect Delta smelt.

Wanger was not alone. An Alameda County judge ruled last year that the state water resources department's Delta pumps were running illegally because state regulators never issued a permit or certified the federal permit, as required by the state endangered species law.

The multiple violations of endangered species laws in the two major water delivery systems — one of which is run by the state water resources department and the other by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — come at a time when Delta fish are in deep peril.

Delta smelt are believed near extinction and longfin smelt are being considered for endangered species status.

Winter-run salmon, which rebounded during the 1990s from extremely low population levels, dropped sharply last year to the point where fewer than 2,500 fish returned to the Sacramento River to spawn. That represents a decline of two-thirds from the previous generation, which spawned three years earlier.

Spring-run salmon and steelhead also are foundering, and even previously abundant fall-run salmon — the backbone of the state's commercial salmon fishery — have collapsed to the point where regulators took the unprecedented step of closing the entire California coast to salmon fishing this year.

In all cases, most researchers say there are other contributing factors to the fish declines, including pollution, invasive species and fluctuations in ocean conditions.#

By Alex Breitler, Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO - The government was legally justified when it did not consider cutting water exports as one way to solve the Delta's problems, the state Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

But one attorney said language in the ruling may actually help Delta farmers and environmentalists in their renewed fight against a peripheral canal.

In 2000, the state-federal partnership known as CALFED released a major environmental plan that listed three broad alternatives to improving the Delta.

None of those alternatives included reducing the amount of water that is exported from giant pumps near Tracy to portions of the Bay Area, the southern San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

Delta farmers sued. They lost in Sacramento County Superior Court, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision. That court said the state's population would eventually adjust to the new realities of less available water.

The state Supreme Court decided the matter once and for all Thursday, saying CALFED's entire purpose was to reduce conflicts over water, and that the agency was justified in deciding that slashing water exports from the Delta would only make things worse.

Much has changed since that original plan was issued. CALFED is widely considered a failure - a bill pending in the state Legislature would eliminate it altogether.

Meanwhile, officials have moved on to new planning processes in the Delta, including consideration of a peripheral canal.

But the court's decision Thursday is not moot. CALFED's plan is still the foundation for many studies that are under way in the Delta, said CALFED spokesman Keith Coolidge. And the ruling will be looked to by those who are crafting new strategies.

That's why Stockton attorney Dante Nomellini, although on the losing end, was encouraged.

The court acknowledged that federal and state law means water exports must be "subordinated" to environmental needs, he said.

CALFED was based on the theory that it's possible to restore the Delta's ecology while maintaining or even increasing water exports.

"If practical experience demonstrates that the theory is unsound, Bay-Delta water exports may need to be capped or reduced," the ruling says.

Good news, said Nomellini, who represents Delta farmers.

"I think it's a very important statement that will have an impact" on current Delta planning, he said.

The State Water Contractors, which represents 27 agencies that receive Delta water, praised Thursday's ruling, calling ecosystem and water supply "co-equal goals."

But an environmental group, the Planning and Conservation League, called it an "unfortunate" decision that relied on an outdated understanding of the relationship between water exports and the Delta's ecosystem, including fish species whose numbers have plummeted under CALFED's watch.#

Bob Egelko, Staff Writer

The state and federal governments can form a long-range plan for managing water shipments through the bay and delta region without examining the option of reducing exports to Central and Southern California, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

Environmentalists had argued that the plan favored dams over conservation, and farmers said they feared they might be bypassed in favor of city dwellers. But the court ruled unanimously that CalFed, the state-federal consortium drawing up the long-range plan, had balanced water supply needs against ecological and other concerns.

The decision upheld an environmental review of the plan, which the agency developed between 1995 and 2000 to try to address urban and agricultural water needs while protecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where river diversions, development and pollution have damaged water quality and wildlife habitat.

The CalFed proposal includes increased shipments through the delta, with the goal of assuring reliable supplies for water users to the south. A state appeals court ruled in 2005 that the environmental review was inadequate because it failed to include the option of reduced water shipments, which would avoid the need for additional dams, and did not identify where the extra water to be shipped south would come from.

Although the justices cleared the way for a planning process for dams, reservoirs and other projects contemplated in the 30-year program, the ruling may not have much impact. CalFed, a group of 18 federal and state agencies formed in 1994 to work on long-term solutions to delta water problems, has made little headway and is being bypassed by combatants in the water wars.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed a task force to take another look at the issues, and a group of major water users, state and federal regulators and other interested parties is working separately on habitat protection. The state Senate passed legislation last month to dissolve the state agency that manages CalFed.

A federal judge, meanwhile, has ordered a reduction in water exports from the delta to protect a fish called the delta smelt and has scheduled a hearing in Fresno today to consider additional protective measures for salmon and steelhead.

"The debate has moved on in terms of fixing the delta," said Chris Scheuring, a lawyer with the California Farm Bureau and a member of Schwarzenegger's task force.

He said CalFed "collapsed under its own weight."

An attorney for environmental groups said the ruling set a bad legal precedent but probably wouldn't have any immediate effect on the bay-delta region.

"The parts of CalFed haven't come together" and the program is "all but moribund," said Antonio Rossmann, lawyer for the Planning and Conservation League, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense. The group of state and federal agencies "hasn't provided environmental protection, and water agencies and farmers haven't seen the reliability (of supplies) they thought they were getting," he said.

But Keith Coolidge, spokesman for the state's CalFed bay-delta program, said the court had validated the program's environmental planning process and provided a road map for future efforts to improve both water delivery and ecological protection. Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the ruling "reinforces our delta restoration effort."

The state Supreme Court said CalFed was entitled to conclude that reducing shipments would not ensure a reliable water supply for Central and Southern California. #

After years of searching high and low for a culprit in the collapse of Delta fish populations, scientists are learning the problem may lie right under their noses.

The likely fish killer is ammonia, a common byproduct of human urine and feces.

Sacramento's regional sewage treatment plant is the largest single source of ammonia in the Delta. It discharges treated wastewater from nearly 1.4 million people into the Sacramento River near Freeport – without removing ammonia.

Two recent studies by Richard Dugdale, an oceanographer at San Francisco State University, show that ammonia disrupts the food chain in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The discovery, if it holds up to further scientific review, reveals how just one factor can tilt the Delta's complex ecological balance. It also illustrates how fixing the Delta will be a costly task for many California residents who mistakenly assume their lives are not connected to the estuary.

The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District estimates it needs as much as $1 billion to remove ammonia from the metro area's wastewater. Monthly sewer bills would have to triple throughout the region.

"We're not going out on the edge to say this is the whole answer," said Dugdale, co-author of the studies along with others at the university's Romberg Tiburon marine lab. "But we think it's part of the reason for the decline in (ecological) productivity."

Ammonia in the river does not make fish unsafe to eat, nor does it pose a threat to recreation. It does, however, seem to interrupt a natural food production line that would otherwise yield abundant blooms of tiny aquatic animals to feed salmon, smelt and bass, Dugdale said.

Those species have been in steady decline.

The ammonia threat was dramatically illustrated last May when dozens of chinook salmon showed up dead in the San Joaquin River near Stockton's sewage outfall. Anke Mueller-Solger, an environmental scientist at the state Department of Water Resources, said the fish may have been killed by high levels of ammonia in the wastewater.

Sacramento's effluent problem is slightly different. Rather than high concentrations of ammonia, the threat is the enormous volume of ammonia-laced wastewater. The regional sewer agency treats human waste from Sacramento, West Sacramento, Folsom, Carmichael, Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove and other unincorporated communities.

The plant near Freeport each day releases about 146 million gallons of treated wastewater into the Sacramento River. That's enough to fill about 225 Olympic-size swimming pools daily.

Despite this volume, Mueller-Solger said, the Sacramento River is traditionally considered the Delta's lifeblood, because it provides the vast majority of fresh water entering the estuary.

"But there is this big urban area called Sacramento and it's been growing like gangbusters," she said. "Obviously, sewage is produced proportionally to the number of people, so the water's perhaps not quite as nice and clean as we thought."

The ammonia load in Sacramento's wastewater has more than doubled since 1985 due to rapid urbanization, and is now more than 125,000 gallons per month. That's 10 times more than the Stockton sewage plant.

To handle more growth, the regional sewer agency is planning a major expansion that would allow total discharge volume to grow 30 percent. The plan includes no ammonia controls.

"This is a cost of growth that is too often externalized onto a degraded environment," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and longtime Delta water-quality watchdog.

Jennings called it "simply reprehensible" that the sewer agency hasn't already improved its systems to remove ammonia and other contaminants.

Sewage officials counter that they have a responsibility to ratepayers. They estimate upgrading the wastewater treatment plant to filter out ammonia would cost $740 million. To remove excessive nitrates produced as a byproduct of that treatment would raise the cost to $1 billion.

District engineers estimate these steps together would boost sewage rates in the region from $19.75 per month to $62.17.

"If it's causing a problem, I think we have to recommend going to that," said Mary Snyder, district engineer. "But on the other hand, we don't want to leap into anything precipitously simply because of the effect on ratepayers. The average person is going to object to paying that much."

Growth in Sacramento's ammonia output has coincided with a long-term decline in diatoms, an important phytoplankton at the base of the food chain.

Dugdale's research suggests the volume of human wastewater may be starving Delta fish by shutting down food production.

It works like this:

• Young fish eat small animals in the aquatic food chain, called zooplankton. The zooplankton, in turn, feed on diatoms and other phytoplankton.

• Phytoplankton require nutrients in the water and enough sunlight to bloom in sufficient numbers. Nitrates are the favored nutrient. Ammonia is another.

• For reasons that remain unclear, phytoplankton can't feed on nitrates when there is too much ammonia in the water, Dugdale said. They must eat the ammonia first, and by the time that's gone, the phytoplankton bloom dies out before it gets big enough to feed fish.

In addition, ammonia is preferred by a bad breed of phytoplankton, called mycrocystis. A toxic type of algae, it has begun to replace more nutritious phytoplankton that normally dominate the food chain. So ammonia may also encourage the rise of harmful foods.

The phenomenon is especially important in Suisun Bay, Dugdale said. The shallow bay near Pittsburg is a vital feeding area for young fish in spring.

New studies are under way to explore the problem further and confirm whether Sacramento's sewage is the true cause.

"If it's part of the problem, it's big because there's so much of it," Dugdale said. "The river just could never handle that amount and reduce it by the time it gets to Suisun. It just can't absorb that."

Sacramento's regional sewage plant uses a so-called "secondary" treatment process that has become outdated. Most other urban areas have upgraded to "tertiary" systems that add rigorous filtration steps.

Sacramento has been able to avoid this expense so far, Snyder said, because its wastewater is quickly diluted to legally acceptable levels by the strong flow of the Sacramento River.

"We are a very large discharger," Snyder acknowledged. "But when you look at the Sacramento River, we have a small impact on the river."

Sacramento may not be able to rely on this free dilution as urban growth continues.

In November a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled against the district on a number of points in a lawsuit against the environmental impact report prepared for the planned sewer expansion. The suit was filed by many of the water agencies that divert drinking water from the Delta to serve more than 20 million people throughout California.

Importantly, the court ruled that the Sacramento district "ignored a significant component of the environment" by failing to fully assess the additional nutrients pumped into the Delta in the region's wastewater.

Ammonia is one of those nutrients. The sewer district appealed the ruling.

"We had long discussions with them, before we got to the point of a lawsuit, on ways they might be able to offset their discharges," said Greg Gartrell, assistant general manager at the Contra Costa Water District, the lead plaintiff in the case. "They just weren't willing to entertain any of those issues yet."

Mueller-Solger at DWR noted that, compared with other problems in the Delta, the ammonia threat can be fixed if further research confirms it to be a danger.

There is no ready fix for the predicted sea level rise that could overwhelm Delta levees, nor any practical way to remove foreign species invading the estuary. But technology exists to remove ammonia from wastewater.

"It's expensive and it's sometimes hard to push through, so it needs the political will. But it's possible," she said. "To me as a scientist, it's not about finger pointing. We are all in this together."

Oakland Tribune – 5/31/08
By Kevin Leahy, correspondent

OAKLAND — Hundreds of people converged on Jack London Square on Saturday to hear live rock bands and rally for a good cause — saving California's dwindling wild salmon population.

The free SalmonAid festival, which will continue today, was organized to raise awareness about the fish's upstream battle against climate change, dams and damaged river habitats.

"The major thing is, water has to run downstream, and it has to be cold," for salmon to survive, said Jon Rosenfield, an ecologist who helped organize the festival. "We make it complicated because we find a number of ways to screw that up."

The Pacific Fishery Management Council placed the most stringent limits ever on recreational and commercial salmon fishing this year, and the U.S. Commerce Department declared the West Coast's salmon fishery a commercial failure earlier this month.

Ben Platt of Fort Bragg makes most of his income fishing for salmon near the California-Oregon border on his 42-foot boat, the Kaybee. But when authorities closed the salmon fishing season before it began this year, he was forced into crabbing full-time.

"I'll generally be gone from home most of five months out of every spring and summer," Platt said. "This year after crab season we just got nothing to do until next crab season."

For some, the event was an opportunity to see a free concert by local musician Les Claypool. Bands played zydeco and bluegrass music on two stages, while people strolled by informational booths, sampled food and posed for pictures with a woman in a full-body salmon suit.

But despite the festive atmosphere Saturday, the numbers tell a grim story.

In the Sacramento River, for example, the number of fall chinook salmon expected to return from the ocean to spawn this year is 59,000, down from about 88,000 in 2007, according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.

Robert Bush, a retiring science teacher at Washington High School in Piedmont, attended the event with his wife, Connie. Bush said he is interested in parks and recreation management and was hoping to learn more about how he could help.

"I think we have to balance the water needs with the salmon but it's clear we don't have a balance," Bush said. "The fish always lose."

Organizers say the problem is not overfishing. Water is increasingly being pumped from Northern California's Klamath and Sacramento rivers to irrigate farms, draining them of the clean, cool flowing water the fish need to spawn.

Scientists still have a lot of questions about why salmon are not returning in large numbers to spawn after the typically three years they spend in the ocean. Some attribute the decline to changes in ocean conditions and food supply spurred by global warming.

But fishermen and conservationists Saturday said they believe excessive damming creates reservoirs where water becomes too warm for the fish to reproduce.

"Obviously the ocean is going to play a part. But the thing is, we can't do much about ocean conditions," Rosenfield said. "What we can do is provide better access to spawning grounds for these fish — and it means providing more water and taking out dams that aren't worthwhile."

The shortage has been partly fixed by fish hatcheries, but they are not enough to keep the species going in the long-term, organizers said.

If salmon returns continue to flail, the economic ripple effect would reach beyond the commercial fishing and restaurant industries. Providers of ice, fuel and tackle based around rivers would be out of work too.

Dick Poole, president of Pro-Troll Products, a Concord-based fishing equipment company, said his business has already been hurt by the recent downturn.

"We're suffering right alongside a lot of these people," he said.#

The discovery, if it holds up to further scientific review, reveals how just one factor can tilt the Delta's complex ecological balance. It also illustrates how fixing the Delta will be a costly task for many California residents who mistakenly assume their lives are not connected to the estuary.

The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District estimates it needs as much as $1 billion to remove ammonia from the metro area's wastewater. Monthly sewer bills would have to triple throughout the region.

"We're not going out on the edge to say this is the whole answer," said Dugdale, co-author of the studies along with others at the university's Romberg Tiburon marine lab. "But we think it's part of the reason for the decline in (ecological) productivity."

Ammonia in the river does not make fish unsafe to eat, nor does it pose a threat to recreation. It does, however, seem to interrupt a natural food production line that would otherwise yield abundant blooms of tiny aquatic animals to feed salmon, smelt and bass, Dugdale said.

Those species have been in steady decline.

The ammonia threat was dramatically illustrated last May when dozens of chinook salmon showed up dead in the San Joaquin River near Stockton's sewage outfall. Anke Mueller-Solger, an environmental scientist at the state Department of Water Resources, said the fish may have been killed by high levels of ammonia in the wastewater.

Sacramento's effluent problem is slightly different. Rather than high concentrations of ammonia, the threat is the enormous volume of ammonia-laced wastewater. The regional sewer agency treats human waste from Sacramento, West Sacramento, Folsom, Carmichael, Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove and other unincorporated communities.

The plant near Freeport each day releases about 146 million gallons of treated wastewater into the Sacramento River. That's enough to fill about 225 Olympic-size swimming pools daily.

Despite this volume, Mueller-Solger said, the Sacramento River is traditionally considered the Delta's lifeblood, because it provides the vast majority of fresh water entering the estuary.

"But there is this big urban area called Sacramento and it's been growing like gangbusters," she said. "Obviously, sewage is produced proportionally to the number of people, so the water's perhaps not quite as nice and clean as we thought."

The ammonia load in Sacramento's wastewater has more than doubled since 1985 due to rapid urbanization, and is now more than 125,000 gallons per month. That's 10 times more than the Stockton sewage plant.

To handle more growth, the regional sewer agency is planning a major expansion that would allow total discharge volume to grow 30 percent. The plan includes no ammonia controls.

"This is a cost of growth that is too often externalized onto a degraded environment," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and longtime Delta water-quality watchdog.

Jennings called it "simply reprehensible" that the sewer agency hasn't already improved its systems to remove ammonia and other contaminants.

Sewage officials counter that they have a responsibility to ratepayers. They estimate upgrading the wastewater treatment plant to filter out ammonia would cost $740 million. To remove excessive nitrates produced as a byproduct of that treatment would raise the cost to $1 billion. #

Stockton Record – 5/28/08
By Peter Ottesen

King salmon smolts have been implanted with acoustical tags under a multi-agency research project to provide scientists answers to why as many as 90 percent of the young fish die each year while out-migrating through the south Delta and San Joaquin River.

"The project goal is to figure out what is killing the young salmon during their journey and solve those problems," state Department of Fish and Game spokesman Harry Morse said. "It's a mystery that must be solved."

He said 1,000 smolts have been implanted with transmitters at the Merced Hatchery as part of the Vernalis Adaptive Management Plan in the San Joaquin River Agreement. The transmitters are programmed by the U.S. Geological Service. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and two private consulting firms are providing technical assistance to the project.

"Tracking is done in the river and south Delta with acoustic receiver buoys," Morse said. "Buoys have been anchored in key locations throughout the river system and water diversion pathways to track the salmon."

Said Fish and Game biologist Tim Heyne: "The results of this study and other evaluations being conducted in the San Joaquin River basin will determine stream flows that are needed to overcome all the impediments to adequate salmon and steelhead production in this river system."

Each year a remnant run of fall-run salmon still migrate into the San Joaquin, Merced and Tuolumne rivers. Eggs spawned and reared at the Merced Hatchery will produce the fish for this study over the next four years. Releases of smolts carrying the transmitters began the last week in April. All of the salmon were released before May 15. Currently, the tiny fish are being tracked in "real time" from sounds emitted by the acoustic tags.

The Vernalis Adaptive Management Plan focuses on understanding the relationship between south Delta inflow, Delta exports and juvenile salmon survival. ONITAGBOLDONIInformation:ONIENDBOLDONI sjrg.org.

Challenges ahead

The bulk of fall-run king salmon - as much as 85 percent of all the chinook found off the California Coast - are Sacramento River stock fish. That resource literally collapsed in 2007 when 79,000 adults returned to spawn, a reduction of 90 percent of the run, down from a high of approximately 800,000 salmon in 2002. The Sacramento River system includes major tributaries - the American and Feather rivers and Battle Creek. Poor ocean conditions are blamed for the collapse of the run.

On May 9, the California Fish and Game Commission adopted a "zero bag" limit on all Central Valley rivers in 2008 to give fall-run salmon maximum protection and completely closed recreational salmon fishing in ocean waters.

Central Valley salmon regulations were purposely structured as "zero salmon bag" limit to allow fishing for other non-salmon species such as striped bass, trout, sturgeon and shad. While catch-and-release fishing for salmon is not prohibited in rivers, Fish and Game officials are asking the public to refrain from using fishing methods that target salmon.

The five-member panel did approve an in-river exception that calls for a one-salmon bag limit in the Sacramento River from the Diversion Dam at Red Bluff to Knights Landing from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31. Commissioners approved this rule to give sport anglers limited access to late-fall chinook.

The forecast of returning Klamath and Trinity River fall-chinook is more than needed to meet conservation and reproduction goals, DFG scientists said. As a result, recreational salmon fishing will be permitted and allow for a 37,000-fish quota for Indian tributes and a 22,500-fish quota for recreational anglers.

Guide Dave Mierkey of Stockton said half the recreational quota, about 11,250 salmon, will be allocated to the lower Klamath River from the mouth to Weichpec. The other 11,250 salmon will be designated for anglers who try their luck in the upper river, from Weichpec to Iron Gate Dam near Hornbrook. Mierkey will fish the mouth of the Klamath from Sept. 6-28 and, after a week's layoff, will shift to the upper end for most of October.

"Last year, we didn't reach the recreational quota," Mierkey said. "Since there is no ocean salmon fishing this year, the quota was increased by 1,000 fish. That's the good news."#

San Francisco chronicle – 5/26/08
By Peter Fimrite, staff writer

Butte County -- The salmon looked like shadows gliding silently beneath the surface of a pool between the foaming rapids of rugged Butte Creek.

Suddenly, with a splash, a big glittering fish leaped out of the water, then another and another. The spring-run chinook were jumping this past week in the remote, forested gorge outside Chico.

"This is the last best run of wild salmon in California," said Allen Harthorn, 56, the executive director of Friends of Butte Creek, who has been fighting for more than a decade to save the historic - and once sacred - spring run of chinook in this untamed tributary of the Sacramento River.

The fast-flowing creek now holds the largest population of wild spring-run chinook, or king salmon, in the Sacramento River system.

"It's the only place that gives me hope," Harthorn said from an observation deck he built on a cliff-side five years ago.

It was clear from Harthorn's deck as the morning sun peaked over the volcanic cliffs surrounding Butte Creek Canyon that, despite the almost complete collapse of the salmon fishery in California, there are still healthy salmon where there is healthy habitat.

The number of spawning fish returning from the ocean to Butte Creek increased 10 percent from 2006 to 2007, Harthorn said. By the look of things, he said, even more fish are returning this year.

But the most dramatic resurgence occurred over the past 10 years, when an average of almost 10,000 salmon a year swam back up the creek, according to Harthorn, who co-founded Friends of Butte Creek in 1999 after years battling farming interests and Pacific Gas and Electric over its DeSabla-Centerville plant.

It is a minor miracle that there are any salmon at all wriggling their way up Butte Creek, given that only 14 fish returned to spawn in 1987.

The dismal return outraged environmentalists and prompted a desperate effort to save the fish. About $30 million was spent by the state on a variety of projects over the years, including the removal of six small dams, the building of fish ladders and the insertion of numerous screens to keep salmon out of water diversion pipes.

Healthy runs

The effort finally paid off in 1998, when 20,000 spring-run salmon were counted in Butte Creek. The runs in 2006 and 2007 were slightly below the average, but still healthy compared with the rest of the Sacramento system.

"The restoration there I think has clearly had a measurable response," said Rob Titus, a senior Department of Fish and Game environmental scientist. "Butte Creek is a good example in the respect that the removal of diversion dams, migration barriers, hydroelectric dams can make a difference. It's a thing you'd really like to see on the really big systems."

The sight of leaping, wriggling salmon - once as reliable as the seasons in almost every river and tributary in California - is increasingly rare. The shocking collapse of the fall run of salmon in the Sacramento River prompted federal officials to shut down all ocean fishing this year in a desperate attempt to save California's last viable population of the iconic pink fish.

It is a problem up and down the Pacific Coast, where salmon populations are steadily declining. Every one of the Sacramento's seasonal runs has plummeted - and the winter and spring runs are listed by the federal Endangered Species Act.

The collapse is particularly troubling because fishermen all along the West Coast depend on Sacramento River fish, most of which come from hatcheries. Some believe the species itself is in danger of becoming extinct in California.

Success story

Curiously, the current crisis has had little to no effect on Butte Creek.

"The spring run in Butte Creek is doing exceptionally well," said Harry Morse, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game. "For the fish, it's a success story, no two ways about it."

The wild salmon in Butte Creek go back thousands of years to a time when the spring run was so large that Native Americans patterned their lives around it. Back then tribal leaders or a shaman would watch the fish and decide the best time to start fishing. A big ceremony would be held after the first catch.

Butte Creek was just one of many tributaries in the Central Valley river system, which included the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The spring run was the largest of four genetically distinct populations that returned to their native streams in the spring, fall, late fall and winter.

The spring fish were bigger, Harthorn said, because they would store up fat for epic upriver journeys, traveling against the current in March, April and May, and not stopping until they reached a natural barrier, sometimes 7,000 feet up in the high Sierra and Cascade ranges.

The spring-run fish would stay in water chilled by melting snow throughout the summer and spawn in late September and October.

There were once so many spring-run fish that pioneers and old timers remembered seeing thousands of them wriggling on top of one another in the waterways. There was such an abundance that some farmers remembered plucking them out and using them as fertilizer.

Dams and diversion

The construction of Shasta Dam on the Sacramento, Friant Dam on the San Joaquin, Folsom Dam on the American and Oroville Dam on the Feather River over the past century cut off huge sections of river, wiping out much of the spring run.

Numerous smaller dams were built on the various creeks that fed the rivers. Diversions of freshwater to cities and farms, pumping operations and exposure to pollutants all contributed to the reduction of the once-mighty salmon runs.

Fisheries experts and environmentalists throughout the Sacramento River system would like to duplicate the restoration work done on Butte Creek, but finding the money and navigating through the bureaucracy is always a problem, especially with so many competing interests, like PG&E and the various water contractors.

There has been limited success removing migration obstacles on smaller tributaries, but there is very little hope that any of the big dams will ever be removed and bypassing them would cost a fortune, according to state fisheries experts.

Spawning naturally

The problems elsewhere make the successes on Butte Creek all the more remarkable. Harthorn said there are still water temperature issues caused by the hydro-electric dam upstream at DeSabla, but overall conditions have dramatically improved. It helps, he said, that all of Butte's fish spawn naturally instead of in hatcheries.

"There really are almost no wild fall-run fish left in the Sacramento River system," Harthorn said, referring to a recent genetic study by the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, showing that 90 percent of the fall run fish caught in the ocean were born in hatcheries.

"The fish in Butte Creek are spawned naturally," he said. "They seem to have the wherewithal when it comes to surviving in the ocean. When conditions are adverse, wild fish do better."

Tracy McReynolds, a Fish and Game biologist for the Chico region, said it is impossible to draw any conclusions about hatchery or wild fish because both are dying.

"We don't know exactly why the Butte fish seem to be holding stable, but there are other populations of wild spring-run salmon whose numbers are low," McReynolds said. "We do have an idea that the ocean food source is affecting fish runs."

Whatever the reason for the decline elsewhere, Harthorn believes Butte Creek could be used as an incubator for the rest of the Sacramento system and a model for fisheries restoration. The cost, he said, would more than be offset by the money coming in from a healthy fishery.

"We need to do everything we can to restore these rivers and give these fish every opportunity to survive and help repopulate the rest of the system," he said. "Focusing our restoration efforts on naturally spawning spring-run fish is a good idea because they are adapted to the conditions." #

Because sharp declines in the number of salmon returning to spawn in the Columbia and Sacramento rivers have devastated the West Coast fishing industry, federal fishery managers have drastically cut commercial salmon fishing in the coastal waters, at the same time that soaring fuel costs have led to higher boat expenses for many fishermen.

Fricke, of Westport, says he's "pretty lucky" because he can dip into his savings to stay afloat this year. But newer fishermen still paying off hefty loans on their boats are unlikely to fare so well, Fricke predicts.

"A lot of folks, particularly the younger guys who are new into the fishery and haven't had a lifetime on the ocean to put some assets away," will be hurting, Fricke said. Many of them "will probably lose their boats if they don't get some help."

Cue the federal government.

Congress last week approved $170 million federal aid to fishermen and businesses hurt by the salmon failure. The money was part of the nearly $300 billion farm bill that became law Thursday over a veto by President Bush.

An additional $75 million in aid for fishery disasters around the country could be included in an emergency war spending bill pending in Congress.

In both bills, the salmon money is an "earmark" -- spending that is targeted to a specific program and is unrelated to the overall measure.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who pushed for the $170 million aid package, said the money should bolster "commercial and recreational fishing industries (that) are facing closures because of record-low salmon populations."

She noted that the fishing industry is "critical" to the "overall economic health" of Washington state and communities up and down the West Coast.

Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., another advocate for the emergency aid, said the money is essential relief for fishermen who are "still staggering" from a smaller salmon catch in 2006. "Getting funding quickly to these communities will help fishing families pay bills and keep food on the table," Smith said.

The federal government will distribute the money among California, Oregon and Washington based on a formula designed by their governors.

Randy Fisher, executive director of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, which will take a lead role in divvying up the funding, said the expected breakdown is 72 percent for California, 16 percent for Oregon and 12 percent for Washington.

Virtually any business that can prove they are losing money -- from icehouses and charter boat operations to restaurants and commercial fishermen -- are eligible.

The last time federal authorities doled out funding for salmon fishermen -- in 2007 because of a fishery failure in the Klamath River in 2006 -- the first checks were written three months after Congress signed off on the spending.

Fricke, who is the president of the Washington Trollers Association, a group that advocates for salmon fishermen, said more than 150 vessels were moored in Westport in recent years. But "now, we're down to about 30 vessels."

Fricke said the near-total shutdown of salmon fishing this year will have a ripple effect felt throughout the region. When fishermen go out of business -- so do the icehouses, processors and gear suppliers that support the industry.

The reasons for the failure are varied and include lower water levels and pollution in both the Columbia and Sacramento rivers, which together supply most of the salmon off the West Coast. In the Columbia, the fish have been hurt by runoff from farming operations and dams along the Snake River, a tributary.

Along the California coast, major changes in the movement and acidity of ocean water are blamed for some of the devastation. Scientists say there hasn't been enough upward movement of water that normally carries plankton and other nutrients from the ocean floor to marine life that feeds on it higher up. That has repercussions throughout the food chain, including on the chinook.#

State water officials are looking for new ideas to solve the Delta's many problems, and they plan to pay for them.

In the new "Delta Knowledge Funding Program" announced this week, the California Department of Water Resources is offering $2 million in grants to nonprofits, universities, private consultants and local government agencies. Individual grants of as much as $250,000 will be awarded to churn new research on water quality, levee stability, habitat restoration and other issues in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

"We're looking for other ways of addressing these things," said Sean Bagheban, a senior engineer at the department.

"It is to educate us more about things that can be done, more innovative approaches we can take to look at problems in the Delta."

Other proposals could examine carbon sequestration, in which global warming gases from the atmosphere are stored in plants, soil or below ground.

Another interest is projects to reverse subsidence, the process by which many Delta islands have fallen below sea level because of the erosion and decay of organic soils.

Redding Record Searchlight – 5/20/08
By Dylan Darling, staff writer

About 75,000 of 180,000 young fall-run Chinook salmon being hauled in tanker trucks from

Coleman National Fish Hatchery in Anderson to San Pablo Bay near Vallejo Monday died.

"We are kind of in the stages of trying to figure out what went wrong," Scott Hamelberg, the hatchery's manager, said early Monday afternoon. "It's part of the risk of trucking fish."

About 41 percent of the smolts being trucked Monday died.

Scientists plan to perform necropsies -- animal autopsies -- on some of the dead smolts to determine their cause of death, said Alexandra Pitts, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento.

"They are going to see what they can see in them, which can tell them a lot more of what happened," she said.

It was likely a problem with the oxygen level in the fish's water that caused their deaths, Hamelberg said. The 2,500-gallon truck carried about 100,000 fish.

A second, smaller tanker truck got its load of the 6-month old fish to the bay unscathed, he taken such a drastic step, one that is jeopardizing the $150 million West Coast salmon industry.

Unfavorable ocean conditions, habitat destruction, dam operations, agricultural pollution and climate change are among the potential causes.

Historically, 1 million to 3 million chinook salmon spawned annually in the streams that tumbled out of the western Sierra Nevada. This year, just 50,000 are expected to return to the Central Valley river systems.

Yates' research projects that an increase in air temperature of 3.6 degrees to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit could be lethal for the young winter-run and spring-run salmon in the Sacramento River. The increase in water temperatures would vary depending on the depth and flows of the river.

Studies have shown that high water temperatures have wide-ranging and potentially fatal consequences for salmon, who generally need water temperatures lower than 68 degrees when they return to fresh water. It reduces their swimming ability, increases their vulnerability to disease and leads to lower growth rates. Spawning females require even colder water of 57 degrees for their eggs to live and juvenile salmon migrate back to the ocean more successfully when the river is no more than 64 degrees.

Higher water temperatures can be offset if federal water managers preserved the cold water stored behind Shasta Dam, near the head of the Sacramento River, and released it when the salmon head upriver. Salmon that once headed far upstream to cooler, mountain streams are now forced to spawn in valley waters because the dam blocks their path.

Thanks to an $80 million temperature control device installed in 1997, the managers of Shasta Dam at the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation already are tweaking flows down the river to keep them cooler, said Larry Ball, operations chief for the Bureau's Northern California Area Office.

"We try to optimize the use of the cold water pool of Lake Shasta," he said.

The giant metal device bolted to the dam allows flows to be drawn from the lake's deep, cold water, he said.

Such management of cold water is not an option on rivers that aren't dammed.

"Very pristine places are probably more vulnerable to climate change because we don't have the knobs to turn to manage them," Yates said in an interview with the AP.

Releasing cold reservoir water for salmon at certain times of the year would require a shift in strategy regarding how the state's water is apportioned for farmers and some 23 million Californians.

Reassessing how California's water is managed is one of the recommendations to be released Thursday as part of a separate report by the National Wildlife Federation and the California-based Planning and Conservation League. The report, which relies in part on Yates' study, illustrates how California's fish, waterfowl and other species will struggle to survive over the next century as climate change alters their habitat.

"We need to take a step back and look at how we're going to manage water in a more comprehensive manner and save salmon," said Mindy McIntyre, a water specialist at the Planning and Conservation League.

State scientists say climate change could lead to more winter flooding, summer droughts, warmer rivers and streams, and rising seas that will push salt water farther upstream from San Francisco Bay.

Temperature spikes are particularly worrisome for cold water fish, such as salmon, steelhead and the state fish, the California golden trout, according to research compiled in the National Wildlife Federation report.

The state and federal governments operate 40 dams and reservoirs that were built primarily between the 1930s and the 1970s to tame California's flood-prone rivers and store spring snowmelt. The reservoirs supply drinking water to about two-thirds of state residents and irrigation water to farmers throughout the Central Valley.

Construction of Friant Dam north of Fresno, for example, wiped out salmon runs on the San Joaquin River.

"Fish are the ones that don't have a voice," said Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist at the National Wildlife Federation. "We're not saying those other uses aren't important, we just need to ensure fish are in the mix."

Farmers and cities that depend on Northern California's water already are grappling with less water than they have been used to in the past.

That's in part because of a federal judge's directive last year that state and federal water managers restrict pumping out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by as much as 30 percent. The cutback was ordered to protect the threatened delta smelt.

Those pumping restrictions, coupled with last year's drought and dry conditions in March and April, have left the state's reservoirs lower than normal. As a result, water deliveries have been reduced significantly.

The cutbacks have increased calls by Central Valley farmers, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Water District and water managers in the San Francisco Bay area to build more dams and consider sending fresh water around the delta by canal or underground pipe.#

Biologists are making daily counts of young salmon and steelhead migrating down the Russian River to the ocean, a barometer of how well the attempt to restore the fisheries is going.

“It’s important, it gives us indices of how salmon and steelhead production is doing,” said Sean White, a Sonoma County Water Agency biologist. “Some of the fish are wild fish, some are part of coho recovery program happening at the hatchery. It gives us an understanding of when smolt are in the river.”

It is the only program in California’s coastal rivers counting chinook, and in the past few years has also seen a return of coho, White said. Both are on the federal endangered species list.

The count occurs in the Russian River just below the Water Agency’s rubber dam downstream of the Wohler Bridge, where biologists have moored two rotary-screw fish traps.

The giant traps turn in the slow current of dark green water, the blades drawing the small fish into a holding tank.

Every morning, biologists scoop out the small fish, measuring from an inch to four inches, to count, measure and, for some, to clip a fin.

“During the season, we will touch 30,000 fish,” White said.

It is estimated the traps will catch about 10 percent of the fish going downstream, representing roughly 250,000 smolt, will make their way back to the ocean every year, White said.

The number of smolt are an indication of the survival rate of the smolt, as well as how many adults have actually returned to spawn in the fall.

“There are so many stages in the life, you can have a poor return, a fantastic survival and smolt production, or a large return and then a flood that wipes out the smolt production,” White said.

The Water Agency’s fish counting program has been run since 1999.

The smolt run will go to mid June.

“This year has been a solid year, we have had a fair number of chinook every day, we have been seeing coho from the recover program almost every day. The first five years we didn’t get any coho.”

Coho have been raised since 2001 at the Warm Springs hatchery in a program by UC Davis and state Department of Fish and Game.

The smolt are then planted in Russian River tributaries, where the returning adults go to spawn.

White said it is in only the past few years they have seen any coho smolt at all.

“One day we got five or six and for us it felt like an avalanche,” White said.

They have been seeing 50 to 100 chinook smolt a day, considered a large number, with occasionally a spurt of 1,000.

That follows a year in which biologists only counted 1,900 chinook adults going upstream to spawn. In a normal year, biologists will count 4,000 going upstream. #

Among the trout scheduled for release by hatchery trucks are 3,000 up-to-13-pound trophy trout that will be netted by hand and placed in the water at Honker Cove, said Randy Kelly, the department's pike project manager.

The fish releases are part of a two-day restocking that will culminate Saturday, when anglers and the local community will celebrate the return of Lake Davis as a world-class trout fishery.

Free fishing seminars will cover topics ranging from casting techniques to fishing safety and ethics. Children's activities include fishing contests, making fish prints and a special visit by Smokey Bear.

Fish with $10 reward tags will be released to help determine the catch rate, Kelly said.

It's all part of a state effort to restore the Lake Davis fishery and the local tourist economy after a $16.7 million chemical treatment in September that killed all fish and aquatic life in the reservoir near Portola.

Designed to rid the reservoir of invasive northern pike, the poisoning used liquid rotenone, an organic insecticide, to eradicate the pike that were proliferating in the shallow waters.

State officials feared the pike would migrate downstream into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta where the pike would threaten the state's native and commercial fisheries.

Trout fishing at Lake Davis has been declining since 1994, when pike were first found there.

Eradicating the voracious Midwestern native species was the goal of a 1997 chemical treatment, which ended up costing the state $20 million.

But pike were rediscovered in Lake Davis 18 months later, resulting in a second chemical treatment last year.

After the poisoning, state officials removed nearly 50,000 pounds of dead fish from the reservoir and its tributaries.

Less than 1 percent of the fish removed from the former trophy-trout lake was trout, Kelly said.

Pike represented around 6 percent of the total.

More than 80 percent were bullheads, he said.

Only time will tell if the chemical treatment successfully eliminated the pike from Lake Davis, Kelly said.

Trout, however, will be teeming after Fish and Game Department hatchery trucks release them Friday.

More than a million fish are scheduled for release into Lake Davis during the 2008 fishing season, Kelly said.

Saturday's celebration starts at 10:30 a.m.#

Lodi Sentinel – 5/15/08
By Ross Farrow, staff writer

Issuing a strong statement that San Joaquin County must protect itself against Delta water being exported to the south while acknowledging the water needs in Southern California, the Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution Tuesday opposing a second attempt of a Peripheral Canal.

"Right now, we're in a huge tug-of-war between north and south," Mel Lytle, the county's water resource coordinator, told the Board of Supervisors.

The proposal was put on the table by the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, a group appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to advise on how to deal with California's divergent water interests. It's the second generation of the so-called Peripheral Canal, which was defeated by voters statewide in 1982. The proposal was to divert Delta waters to Southern California.

Lytle said that diverting water to urban areas in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas, along with farms in Kern and other south San Joaquin Valley counties, would be detrimental locally.

A "Peripheral Canal," also known as a "dual conveyance system," could result in loss of water and quality in San Joaquin County, decrease agricultural production and create poorer fisheries and fish habitat, Lytle said. It would also harm the county's business and economy, he said.#

Legislators have added $170 million to the U.S. Farm Bill to aid families and businesses in California, Oregon and Washington affected by the biggest and most devastating Pacific salmon season closure in American history.

The House and Senate are expected to pass the final version of the Farm Bill later this week.

"This funding is desperately needed by the communities and families who rely on salmon fishing, many of whom face losing their businesses and homes due to two years of no fishing," said North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson, D-Calif., in a statement.

In April, a historic drop in juvenile Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River led to a complete closure of the commercial and recreational salmon seasons in California and Oregon. In Washington, the season was also closed because populations of the Columbia River Chinook and Coho salmon are at near-record lows.

In response, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez declared the salmon season a federal fisheries disaster, which authorizes Congress to provide aid to affected communities. Thompson and other members of the California, Oregon and Washington delegations asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi to help find disaster aid so communities could get aid as quickly as possible.

Communities on the Pacific Coast that would receive this aid are still recovering from the 2006 salmon season closure, which was due to historically low salmon stocks in the Klamath River Basin. In 2007, Thompson secured $60.4 million in aid for California and Oregon fishers and related businesses affected by that closure. However, this year's closure will have a much larger economic impact because the Sacramento River salmon are considered the 'driver' of Pacific Coast salmon stocks. For the first time, the recreational salmon fishing season will be closed.

Unfavorable ocean conditions, low water levels caused by unsustainable and unlawful siphoning off of water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, plus environmental degradation there have contributed to the precipitous decline in West Coast salmon populations. #

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

Nestle SA said Monday it is significantly scaling back plans in Northern California to build what would have been the country's largest water bottling plant.

The announcement by Nestle Waters North America comes after years of opposition by environmentalists and a group of residents in the rural town of McCloud.

With soaring fuel and transportation costs, building a 1 million square foot facility at the base of Mount Shasta no longer makes economic sense, said David Palais, Nestle's Northern California natural resource manager.

The company also has built a plant in Denver and expanded other facilities in the West. Palais told The Associated Press that those expansions make a large plant in California less necessary.

Nestle signed a contract in 2003 with the McCloud Community Services District to pump up to 521 million gallons of water a year. In exchange, the Swiss food and drink company agreed to pay $250,000 to $350,000 a year to the town of McCloud, about 200 miles north of Sacramento.

Palais said the company now will seek permission to pump a fraction of that water and build a much smaller plant of about 350,000 square feet.

Nestle will ask for just 200 million gallons of water a year from the three natural springs that supply McCloud. He declined to say whether the company would ask to reduce its payments to the town.

The company said it also has agreed to two years of monitoring on Squaw Creek, a nearby trout stream. Fishermen, environmentalists and scientists had feared the stream might become warmer and lower if Nestle went ahead with its original pumping plans.

Critics of the plant welcomed Nestle's announcement but called on McCloud's five-member services district to negotiate a better contract.

"While it certainly is a smaller plant than it would have been, it nonetheless uses a large amount of water. It's still a major operation," said Severn Williams, a spokesman for the Protect Our Waters Coalition.

The coalition represents California Trout, Trout Unlimited and the McCloud Watershed Council, a citizens group.

It plans to lobby for a higher price for the water and a clause that limits Nestle to pumping only water from the springs around McCloud while prohibiting the company from touching the aquifer.

Williams also said the coalition wants a contract with a shorter timeframe than McCloud's current 100-year commitment to sell its water exclusively to Nestle.#

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said West Coast lawmakers are working on an emergency aid package that could be worth as much as $170 million.

The ban has shut down the commercial salmon harvest this year along the California coast and most of the Oregon coast to boost dwindling numbers of Sacramento River chinook.

Fishermen from Morro Bay to Washington state depend on the salmon fishery for much of their income.

Gutierrez's action came after West Coast lawmakers sent a letter to the Commerce Department chief earlier this year when it became clear that few chinook salmon were returning from ocean waters to the Sacramento River to spawn.

It can take months for emergency aid to clear Congress and the White House and result in checks to fishermen and related businesses, like ice and fuel providers.

About $60 million in aid related to a poor Klamath River salmon season two years ago reached fishermen earlier this year.

Thompson, whose district includes the North Coast, said the Commerce Department's quick response should help speed checks this year.

"We usually have to wait for the end of the salmon season to determine what the loss is," he said.

The effort will now turn to trying to get a relief package included in an election-year spending bill, Thompson said.

Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, said the declaration is a big help to Morro Bay fishermen, hard hit by the shutdown.

The San Francisco Chronicle – 5/2/08
Peter Fimrite, Staff Writer

Salmon fishing was banned along the West Coast for the first time in 160 years Thursday, a decision that is expected to have a devastating economic impact on fishermen, dozens of businesses, tourism and boating.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez immediately declared a commercial fishery disaster, opening the door for Congress to appropriate money for anyone who will be economically harmed.

The closure of commercial and recreational fishing for chinook salmon in the ocean off California and most of Oregon was announced by the National Marine Fishery Service.

It followed the recommendation last month of the Pacific Fishery Management Council after the catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled fall run of the pink fish popularly known as king salmon.

It is the first total closure since commercial fishing started in the Bay Area in 1848.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency last month and sent a letter to President Bush asking for his help in obtaining federal disaster assistance. Schwarzenegger plans to appropriate about $5.3 million for coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.

The disaster declaration allows state officials to work with Congress on obtaining appropriations for businesses and fishermen and women, some of whom will lose as much as 80 percent of their annual income.

Although salmon spawning has been in decline all up and down the coast, the biggest problem is in the Sacramento River and its tributaries. So few salmon returned last fall that the fishery council was required under its management plan to halt fishing throughout the salmon habitat, which is all along the California and Oregon coasts.

The commercial salmon season off California and Oregon typically runs from May 1 to Oct. 31. The recreational season was to have begun April 5. #

The Modesto Bee- 5/2/08

Native salmon on the Tuolumne River are "at high risk of extinction" because not enough water flows down the river. That assessment introduces a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report released to The Bee on Thursday.

The report is likely to be a key component in a multiagency request for a rehearing of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order that allows the Turlock and Modesto irrigation districts to take no additional measures to ensure the survival of salmon through 2016. That order was issued last month, but state and federal agencies can request that it be altered through a rehearing; that request is expected to made by Monday.

Rarely does such unequivocal language appear in such a report. Using complex formulations and years of data, the study documents the possibility that there are no native-born salmon left on the river -- meaning the 115 to 211 (counts varied) salmon found this year were either raised in hatcheries or came up the Tuolumne by mistake.

Chinook salmon begin life in cold freshwater streams, then migrate to the Pacific. Two to four years later they return, spawn and die.

Some 40,000 salmon returned to the Tuolumne in 1985, and 39,727 of them were natives. It's been a rollercoaster ride ever since, with the total population falling to 77 in drought-stricken 1991 and 17,873 in 2000. During the leanest years, 1990-95, none of the returning salmon were natives.

Salmon stocks can be replaced with hatchery-raised fish, but they're not acclimated to the Tuolumne's conditions. As the study's author, Carl Mesick, points out, non-native fish don't reproduce as quickly. Native-born fish can repopulate a river much more rapidly, which is what happened on the Merced and Stanislaus rivers following the drought years.

Historically, salmon numbers spike two to four years after high springtime flows. But despite huge flows in 2004 and 2005, Tuolumne salmon numbers plummeted in 2006 and 2007.

That population crash mirrored a larger trend. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council has banned ocean fishing from Oregon to California due to catastrophic drops in the Columbia and Sacramento basins. Scientists blame, in part, changing ocean conditions that reduced the "upwelling" of foodstocks.

But recent ocean conditions can't entirely explain a crash that began on the Tuolumne in 2002. Instead, the Fish & Wildlife Service report points to inadequate releases from Don Pedro Reservoir.

In about half of all years, from 94,000 to 164,000 acre-feet flows out of Don Pedro. In the other half, releases exceed 300,000 acre-feet. Mesick's study says the minimum to sustain a viable native salmon population is 292,882 acre-feet -- or about 15 percent of the reservoir's annual storage.

Such calculations are subject to debate. But they provide an excellent starting point for FERC, the irrigation districts, and the agencies responsible for protecting wildlife. FERC should grant the rehearing and pay particular attention to this study and the warning it sounds.#

The Sacramento Valley is a well-used landscape. After 160 years of mining and urbanizing, plowing and diverting, you'd think the environment would have given up all its secrets.

But a trio of local scientists recently unlocked a mystery about why young salmon grow faster during floods in the Yolo Bypass, and in the process they identified a new species.

Ted Sommer, a senior environmental scientist at the state Department of Water Resources, discovered about eight years ago that juvenile chinook salmon grow faster and fatter when the bypass floods. This vast flood corridor between Sacramento and Davis seemed to be an important feeding area for salmon – when floods allow them to swim into it.

"They grew like gangbusters, often twice as fast as fish that stayed out in the river," he said.

But nobody knew what the salmon were feasting on or where the food came from.

To answer that question, Sommer put an intern on the trail. Gina Benigno, then a recent UC Berkeley biology graduate, spent the winter of 2004-2005 taking samples in the bypass: water from ponds, water flowing into the bypass from creeks and drains, and the soil itself.

The dirt went into big plastic bins in a lab at UC Davis. She flooded the dirt with water and covered the bins with screens. And then she waited.

Within a few days, insect larvae hatched in the water and the bins were buzzing with adult flies.

Sommer and Benigno couldn't identify them, so they sat down with Peter Cranston, an entomology professor at UC Davis.

It took Cranston only minutes of squinting through a microscope to provide an answer. And it was he who came away most surprised.

Cranston is one of the world's leading experts on chironomids, a family of gnatlike, non-biting aquatic flies also known as midges. He travels the world hunting for new chironomids, but never expected to find one in his own backyard.

He and Benigno co-authored a paper last year identifying the bugs from the Yolo Bypass as a new species.

"It reflects quite badly on me," Cranston confessed. "At the time this was brought to my attention, I'd been here six years and been out to the Yolo Bypass bird-watching and never observed it."

Plenty of Sacramento commuters have observed the midges, usually as carcasses on their bumpers and windshields. The adult is only about 5 millimeters long, but when it hatches, it comes in clouds over Interstate 80's Yolo Causeway.

Such species are notoriously difficult to identify, said Norman Penny, an entomologist at the California Academy of Sciences. The Yolo Bypass midge ranks as a rare find because North America and Europe have been pretty well scoured by experts looking for bugs.

Scientists have identified and named a little more than 1 million animal species worldwide, he said, and at least that many more remain to be discovered. But most come from remote corners of the globe or from unusual places, such as caves and tree canopies.

"Who knows how many thousands of people have seen this fly before, but none had the background and the knowledge to recognize it as being different and new," said Penny.

The discovery may hold part of the solution to a decline in fall-run chinook salmon that is expected to be unprecedented this year. Regulators have closed salmon fishing to protect what remains of the salmon run.

Researchers now planning the future of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are looking at ways to expand floodplain and tidal habitat to provide more feeding and resting areas for salmon and other fish. They're also considering adding flood bypasses to the San Joaquin River.

Approved in 1917, the Sacramento River bypass system is now seen as a visionary flood control project. When the river swells, the bulk of its flow spills into the bypass and is diverted safely around urban Sacramento. But its environmental benefits were unknown until recently.

"I think we know floodplains are really productive systems, and this was just a fun way of figuring out where a lot of that productivity came from," said Benigno, now a fulltime environmental scientist at Water Resources who is completing a master's degree in biology at Chico State. "It was really interesting that it just came out of the dried dirt."

Cranston named the new species Hydrobaenus saetheri, after Ole Saether, a retired entomologist colleague in Norway.

Cranston believes this midge lies dormant as a larva in the soil, perhaps inside a cocoon, during dry periods. When a flood comes, it emerges into the water and begins growing into an adult, when it is easy snacking for salmon.

Sommer and Benigno's research shows this midge makes up most of the flying fish food in the bypass during a flood. In a paper published earlier this year, they found the new critter accounts for 74 percent of the fly species in floodplain sediment, and 99 percent in the water.

Those that survive the feeding frenzy hatch into flying adults. These live only a few days but feed birds and bats in the bypass while they do. Those that fall dead on the water feed fish again, plus waterfowl and shorebirds.

The midge also feeds another native fish, the Sacramento splittail. Sommer documented that the splittail population explodes in years with at least three weeks of flooding in the bypass, and Hydrobaenus saetheri is why.

Such a clear relationship has not been established for salmon, but Sommer said it's likely.

"If there's not enough flow in the bypass to spill out onto the floodplain, the salmon don't do that well and their survival is poor," said Sommer.

Penny said the Yolo Bypass midge offers another lesson. New species are discovered with regularity around the globe, but what worries scientists is that many more go extinct before we grasp their importance.

That mist of dead flies on your windshield, as we now know, nurtures a salmon run that is barely holding on in the Sacramento River.

"It's a web of interacting species, and the more species you pull out of that web, the more sensitive the rest of it is to any fluctuations," he said. "What are the salmon going to feed on if this fly goes extinct? It should make a person nervous."#

Sacramento — Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) President Glen Peterson today took part in the first in a series of scoping meetings in the environmental review process for Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The plan is a collaborative effort by state, federal and local agencies and environmental organizations to map out a comprehensive conservation plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The BDCP process is aimed at protecting Delta species in way that provides for sufficient and reliable water supplies. Improving the sustainability of the Delta is a key policy priority for ACWA, and association members will be participating in scoping meetings around the state in the coming weeks.

Peterson said ACWA members view the BDCP process as a critical step toward fixing the troubled Delta and the larger goal of securing a more sustainable water system for California.

“We welcome the start of this environmental review process because there is not a minute to lose when it comes to the Delta,” Peterson said. “We need to get moving on a solution because every day we wait is another day of environmental decline and lost water supplies.

“Improving the sustainability of the Delta is in everyone’s best interest. California simply cannot hope to achieve a comprehensive water solution without a plan to stop the Delta’s downward slide.”

He noted that without a sustainable Delta, important tools such as recycling and local surface and groundwater storage cannot work effectively in many areas of the state. Significant public investments in local programs are at risk as a result.

The scoping meetings continue through May 14. The environmental review process is expected to be completed in 2010.

ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose 450 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California.

Fresno Bee – 4/28/08
By Mark Gross, staff writer

A federal judge in Fresno set a June 6 hearing to discuss the possibility of more water cutbacks for farms and cities this summer to protect three imperiled species of fish.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger also ordered federal agencies to file a report by mid-May on the status of winter-run chinook salmon, spring-run chinook salmon and the Central Valley steelhead.

The judge on Friday said he needs more information to determine whether the fish need immediate protection from water pumping. Wanger last week invalidated a key part of a major federal water plan, saying it does not adequately protect the fish under the Endangered Species Act.

One of the many questions surrounding the case: Are the fish suffering from a problem occurring in the ocean or in the delta? Environmentalists and federal officials are expected to address such issues at the June hearing.

Last year, Wanger ordered a cutback in farm and city water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to protect the delta smelt, another dwindling fish species.

Further cuts would affect more than 20 million residents in the Bay Area and Southern California as well as west San Joaquin Valley farmers, all of whom depend on water brought south through delta pumps.

In the ruling last week, Wanger said a 2004 study from the federal National Marine Fisheries Service incorrectly concluded that federal and state water projects would not harm the fish. His decision came at a time when salmon populations are clearly in decline.

State wildlife officials last week banned recreational salmon fishing off the coast this year, following a federal ban on both commercial and sport salmon fishing. #

The Oakland Tribune – 4/25/08
By Denis Cuff, STAFF WRITER

California may enact a fishing ban in a network of protected marine areas that cover

80 square miles of coastal waters stretching from Half Moon Bay to Mendocino, following a recommendation this week from a state task force.

The governor's Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force released its plan Wednesday, urging the creation of 24 protected areas where fishing and seafood harvesting would be restricted or banned in state waters within three miles of shore. The aim is to protect diminishing populations of rock fish, sea lions, abalone, birds, and other aquatic life.

The state Fish and Game Commission will hold public hearings on the plan in June, and consider three alternatives. A final decision is expected later this summer.

"Yosemite and special places on land have been protected for half a century. Now we are protecting special places in the sea not just for the fish, but for the entire ecosystem of the ocean," said Samantha Murray of the Ocean Conservancy, an environmental group.

She helped craft the recommendations, together with a diverse group of fishermen, environmentalists, educators, and other stakeholders over the past year.

"No one got everything they wanted," she said, "but everyone got something."

The compromise plan calls for a network of new state marine preserves, parks and conservation areas that form the core of an ambitious plan ordered by state lawmakers in a bid to reverse plunging fish populations. Fishing would be banned in marine preserves, and restricted to varying degrees in conservation areas.

Protection areas would be established at Point Reyes in Marin County, the Farallone Islands west of San Francisco, Pillar Point north of Half Moon Bay, Bodega Bay and several Sonoma County areas near Fort Ross and Salt Point.

Environmentalists and marine biologists say California needs to protect habitat for several types of rock fish, including yellow eye and bocaccio, that live and breed in the ocean. Salmon, which breed in rivers and then swim out to sea, are not targeted for protection under the proposal, but they likely could benefit from it, officials say.

Some recreational fishermen worry the restrictions could undermine their sport by forcing anglers to travel farther to more inaccessible fishing spots.

The American Sportfishing Alliance submitted an alternative plan that called for 21 marine protected areas, three fewer than the recommended proposal.

"We support sustainable fisheries. We think it can be accomplished, while still keeping people out there on the water fishing," said Patty Doerr, the sportfishing alliance's ocean resource policy director.

The task force proposal calls for nine marine conservation areas, two marine parks and 11 marine preserves. The combined areas would impose fishing restrictions on 160 square miles of ocean, or 20.4 percent of the 763 square miles of coastal waters in the stretch of ocean under study.

Last year, the state Fish and Game Commission established restrictions in 29 marine protection areas covering some 110 square miles along the central coast from Half Moon Bay south to Santa Barbara.#

Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 4/25/08
By DEREK J. MOORE

Fishing has been a way of life in Arch Richardson's family ever since his ancestors used gold to purchase property on Sonoma County's northern coast.

But that 130-year legacy will vanish, the retired store owner said, if state officials move forward with a proposal to declare the waters off Stewarts Point off-limits to ocean-going activities.

"No more taking the kids fishing. No more getting abalone for dinner. No nothing," said Richardson, whose family owns nearly 5 miles of coastal land.

Stewarts Point is among several areas along the Sonoma and Mendocino coast under consideration for permanent fishing bans or other restrictions as a way of protecting marine life.

About 80 square miles from Santa Cruz to Mendocino County could fall under the most severe restrictions, including many areas on the North Coast that are beloved by abalone divers, fishermen, kayakers and others.

The state Fish and Game Commission will study four proposals put forth this week by a blue ribbon task force that was convened as part of the Marine Life Protection Act.

Passed in 1999, the legislation envisions a network of protected marine areas from Mexico to Oregon. Based on recommendations from another task force, the commission last year established 29 reserves along 110 square miles of the Central Coast from Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara.

Hearings this summer

The commission is expected to hold public hearings on proposals for the north central coast this summer. But already there is a strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction with the task force recommendations.

"They say the perfect compromise means nobody is happy. They may have struck the perfect compromise," said Sean White, a biologist for the Sonoma County Water Agency and the owner of a kayak company.

White took part in months of negotiations that involved environmentalists, commercial fishermen, sport anglers, divers, citizens, civic leaders and other stakeholders along the coast.

Their charge was to whittle down their diverse interests into workable proposals, which would then be considered by the task force, which was led by former San Diego Mayor Susan Golding.

New plan recommended

The group managed to put forth three plans. But meeting in San Rafael this week, the task force came up with a fourth plan, which they now are recommending for approval.

Some viewed that as a last-minute betrayal of the process.

"They threw us under the bus and came up with their own plan. It's cherry-picking each proposal, but it doesn't work," said C.E. Brown, a retired clinical psychologist who lives at The Sea Ranch with her husband.

Melissa Miller-Henson, the project's coordinator, said participants were informed early on that the task force reserved the right to alter the proposals.

"To say it was cobbled together is far from the truth," she said.

She painted criticism of the preferred proposal as a positive sign that "maybe we hit the middle ground."

Covers 155 square miles

The proposal calls for restrictions along 155 square miles of ocean from Santa Cruz to Mendocino County, with roughly half designated as marine reserves, which would prohibit fishing and other ocean-going pursuits from the beach up to 1,000 feet offshore.

This is separate from a federal proposal to protect marine habitat from 3 miles offshore to as far out as 51 miles from Bodega Head.

Some of the region's most iconic areas are in the state plan, including Point Arena in Mendocino County, Bodega Head in Sonoma County, Point Reyes and the Farallon Islands.

Other areas on the North Coast include Saunders Reef and a swath of Salt Point State Park, including Fisk Mill Cove and Horseshoe Cove, both of which are popular with abalone divers, fishermen and kayakers.

"The north took a beating. It's not fair at all," said White.

Brown's dire warning was that the plan "will be the destruction of The Sea Ranch," a concern that underscores the complexity of trying to identify areas for protection.

The task force's preferred proposal calls for leaving The Sea Ranch basically untouched, aside from expanding the Del Mar reserve that already exists in the ocean off the 10-mile development.

But Brown said the recommendations to ban fishing, including abalone diving, in some areas of Salt Point and near Point Arena will increase the number of people using The Sea Ranch, where the public is guaranteed access to the ocean using seven access points.

She said homeowners already pay $5 million annually in dues to cover security and other costs related to that access.

"They're closing the state parks and leaving us open to be trashed," she said.

In all, 18 marine protected areas would be created under the task force plan between Santa Cruz and Mendocino County.

Special closures

The task force also recommended seven special closures to offer additional protection to seabirds and marine mammals from disturbance.

Environmentalists were disappointed that the task force did not recommend expanding Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at Moss Beach or creating a new reserve at Duxbury Reef just north of Bolinas.

But the Ocean Conservancy signaled its general approval of the task force's preferred plan, noting that it would still leave 90 percent of the coast open for fishing.

"The task force had a real challenge and no one got exactly what they wanted, but this balanced compromise will still offer a legacy for all Californians, and it is a critical step forward towards restoring marine ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean," Samantha Murray, Pacific Region Ecosystems Manager at Ocean Conservancy, said in a statement posted on the group's Web site.

Unhappy fishermen

North Coast commercial fishermen, who already are coping with a ban on salmon fishing, are generally unhappy with the proposal.

Motoring in to Bodega Harbor on Thursday aboard the Seaward, crab fisherman Chris Lawson lambasted the proposal to restrict fishing at Point Reyes.

"That's our fishery," he said. "You take that and we're done."

He and other fishermen said they've felt excluded during the negotiations.

"Since the very beginning they've disregarded most of the fisherman's input," he said. "It's not going to do anything as far as saving any species. It's a feel-good thing."

The north central coast is the second of five regions in California where wildlife and habitat reserves are planned under the marine life legislation.

The Fish and Game Commission will hold a June hearing on the proposals, followed by public hearings. A final decision is not expected until December.#

Federal officials will also truck about 10 percent of the salmon produced at their hatchery near Redding. They haven't trucked fish in more than a decade, and then only as a test. This year, those fish will ride nearly 200 miles to reach San Pablo Bay.

The hatcheries were created to replace spawning habitat eliminated by dams. But this year's changes are prompting important questions about how the hatcheries themselves affect salmon survival.

Fisheries experts have worried that trucking salmon around their home rivers breeds out the instinct that draws fish back to the right place to spawn – an instinct that defines the species.

"Are hatcheries supposed to be helping fish recover over time or just pumping out fish for fishermen to catch?" asked Rachel Barnett-Johnson, a fisheries biologist at the UC Santa Cruz Institute of Marine Sciences. "That's where the struggle lies in managing them now."

Barnett-Johnson published a study this month that found 90 percent of the salmon caught in California's ocean fishery are hatchery-raised, and only 10 percent are wild spawners. She analyzed growth patterns in fish ear bones, which look like tree rings.

Her results, based on a limited sample of fewer than 200 chinook, alarmed fisheries experts. Many assumed, again based on limited information, that wild salmon still make up 50 percent or more of the state's chinook population.

Cause unclear
The fall-run chinook population is expected to hit a record low this year for reasons that remain unclear. Commercial and recreational ocean fishing have been closed for the first time in history, and river fishing is likely to be closed next month.

"We felt it was worth using some fish in this trucking experiment to see whether those fish might return at a higher rate than the fish we release on-site," said Alex Pitts, spokeswoman at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which runs Coleman National Hatchery near Redding. "There was interest in us trucking the entire production, but we didn't think that was a good idea."

The bulk of its 12.6 million chinook will still be released in the Sacramento River this year. That's because they begin life much farther from the ocean, so the risk of "straying" to other rivers as they return to spawn is greater, Pitts said.

Research has shown that trucking hatchery salmon doubles or triples their odds of reaching the ocean by avoiding threats along the way, said Alice Low, an environmental scientist at the state Department of Fish and Game.

To further improve the odds this year, all trucked salmon will be dumped first into net pens suspended in San Pablo Bay, where they will be protected from predators while adjusting to the shock of the Bay's warmer, saltier waters. After two to three hours, the salmon are freed.

"We do want to maximize the benefit to ocean fisheries and other fisheries," said Low. "Personally, I'm convinced that trucking isn't that bad of a practice."

She cited research that found fewer than 10 percent of Feather River hatchery salmon strayed to other locations.

Wild vs. hatchery-bred
Wild salmon are known to survive better in the wild and produce more young. But inbreeding with hatchery fish could weaken these traits. It could also dull the wild salmon's ability to find its way home.

Hatchery fish may also compete for food and habitat with wild salmon and disrupt wild breeding. Their abundance could also hide the possibility that truly wild fall-run chinook have become endangered.

For all these reasons, a joint state-federal commission in 2001 said state hatcheries should "consider" ending the trucking of fall-run salmon.

"The evidence seems pretty strong now that it's basically a hatchery-supported run," said John Williams, an environmental hydrologist at UC Davis who published a comprehensive scientific review of Central Valley salmon and steelhead in 2006. "We're in a deeper hole than we can get out of just by producing a few more hatchery fish."

To gather more information, 25 percent of all salmon produced by the state and federal hatcheries this year – about 8 million fish – are being tagged with a coded wire implanted in their noses. Their adipose fin – between the dorsal fin and tail – is also clipped off as a visual identifier.

The marking occurs in specialized trailers bought by the state last year for $1.1 million each.

On Thursday, 3-inch salmon smolts by the thousands were pumped through pipes and hoses into one of the trailers parked at the state's Nimbus Fish Hatchery on the American River. Cameras and computers sort the salmon by size into rubberized clamps that gently hold each fish just so.

In the blink of an eye, a cutter snips off the adipose fin, and a needle emerges like a dart to stab a coded wire into the salmon's nose. Then the fish is sucked away to await its truck ride.

The missing adipose fin tells a fisherman his catch was born in a hatchery. Anglers are urged to cut off the salmon's head and send it to a lab, where the wire tag is dissected and analyzed.

Each wire tag, only 1.1 millimeters long, is laser-engraved with tiny numbers. When read under a microscope, the numbers tell where the fish was bred. The state aims to recover as many as 50,000 tags per year to learn how many hatchery fish survived and where they ended up.

Eventually, this may also help biologists decide whether hatcheries make sense at all.

"We really need to know if we're doing the right thing," said Low.#

San Francisco Chronicle – 4/24/08
By Peter Fimrite, staff writer

A state task force recommended Wednesday a permanent ban on fishing in selected spots of ocean from Mendocino County to Santa Cruz, a move designed to protect 80 square miles of California's most pristine habitat.

The proposal by the Marine Life Protection Act Blue Ribbon Task Force would protect dozens of species, including rockfish - yellow eye, canary, bocaccio - northern red abalone, seabirds and sea lions and other marine mammals underwater and all along that section of coast.

Salmon are not among the fish whose habitats are targeted for protection, but the beleaguered species would undoubtedly benefit if a ban on salmon fishing is ever lifted.

The network of state marine reserves would include Point Arena in Mendocino County, Horseshoe Point in Sonoma County, Bodega Head, Point Reyes and the Farallon Islands, where restrictions on fishing and other activities like scuba diving would extend out into the ocean anywhere from 300 to 1,000 feet.

The plan, hashed out during a two-day hearing at the Embassy Suites Hotel in San Rafael, is part of a California initiative that conservationists say is the most ambitious coastal marine protection program in the world.

Last year, on recommendations from another task force, the state Fish and Game Commission established 29 similar reserves, protecting from human activities 110 square miles along the central coast, from Half Moon Bay to Santa Barbara.

The task force has negotiated for months over the newest proposal with environmentalists, commercial fishermen, sport anglers, divers, citizens, civic leaders and other stakeholders from coastal towns up and down the coast.

'The hard part'

"We know that marine protected areas work. Creating them is the hard part," said Karen Garrison, co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Council oceans program. "The result isn't all that we wanted, but the task force has protected real iconic places. They're recommending a new set of underwater parks that we hope will provide a long-term legacy."

The task force recommendation, which will go before the Fish & Game Commission during a special meeting in June, would create 18 marine protected areas. In all, 11 percent of state coastal waters between Santa Cruz and Mendocino County would be fully protected, meaning destruction of wildlife and habitat, including fishing, would be prohibited.

The regulations, which cover only state-controlled waters, would establish varying levels of protection for numerous other areas.

Bodega Marine Reserve covers the north central coast, but it takes in only 0.2 nautical square miles, according to regulators.

The north central coast is the second of five regions in California where wildlife and habitat reserves are planned under the Marine Life Protection Act, which was passed by the state Legislature in 1999.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger initiated stakeholder discussions four years ago and is in charge of appointing a five-person task force to come up with recommendations for each region.

In addition to the central and north central coasts, the network of reserves will eventually include the north, south and San Francisco Bay coastal regions, according to Fish and Game officials. The goal, when all is said and done, is to have an interconnected series of protected marine sanctuaries extending from Mexico to Oregon.

"In drafting the legislation, our objective was to protect these areas and marine life resources and preserve and protect the fishing population from overuse," said former San Francisco Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, author of the legislation. "The stakeholders and the task force have done a remarkable job in coming together in achieving what the Legislature intended in passing the law."

Not everyone pleased

Not everyone was happy with the plan that state wildlife officials are calling "a legacy of thriving Yosemites of the sea."

"They set aside 11 percent as fully protected reserves, which means almost 90 percent is open to some kind of fishing," said Samantha Murray, program manager for the Ocean Conservancy. "At the end of the day, not all habitat is created equal, and I think they missed out on protecting some really special places."

Murray said Duxbury Reef, off of Bolinas, was one area left out of the task force's recommendation.

On the other hand, Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, complained that the process focuses only on fishing and not other environmental problems.

"What is so grating is that people are pretending that this is about conservation when all it really does is shut down fishing," Grader said. "These guys are deathly afraid to take on any sort of water pollution that is going to affect these fisheries. In the end, fishermen will be stuck with these closures forever whether they work or not."

The proposed ban comes in the shadow of a collapse of the salmon fishery and a pending decision to halt ocean fishing of chinook. It is hoped that the latest proposal will help resuscitate flagging populations of rockfish, a complex of bottom-dwelling fishes that was once a mainstay of the state's commercial and sport fisheries.

Environmentalists say the proposal could also protect crucial habitat that helps sustain everything from sea slugs to gray whales.

The task force recommendation is a compromise of three different proposals developed over the past year by an advisory group of conservationists, fishermen, scientists, boaters and divers.

The three other alternatives will be reviewed by the Fish & Game Commission along with the preferred alternative. The June hearing will be followed by public hearings. A final decision is not expected until December.

What's next

-- The proposal and three alternatives will go before the state Fish & Game Commission for review.

-- The commission will hold a public hearing in June followed by a public comment period.

-- A final decision is expected in December.#

San Francisco Chronicle – 4/22/08

This year, the upbeat spirit of Earth Day seems to hang by a thread. Oil dominates the world economy, at record prices. President Bush proclaims a halt in greenhouse gas growth by 2025 but offers no steps or leadership to get there.

If the world - and especially this country - is trying to mend its ways, where is the evidence? This glum outlook fits the facts, but it's only a partial read of the future.

Take salmon. The fish is familiar table fare, but it's also a bellwether species for biologists. The fish bridges two different worlds - fresh and salt water - during its complicated three or four year lifespan.

In the ocean, warming temperatures and changes in currents can withhold food, starving the schools of silvery fish, which can do little to quickly adapt.

Six years ago, the number of adult salmon returning to the Sacramento River to spawn from the Pacific was more than 800,000. This past winter's returning run was only 68,000 with a change in food-bearing ocean flows to blame.

Can humans do much about these currents? If global warming - and its attributed effects on ocean surface temperatures - are reasons, then it will be hard to reverse the downward trend promptly. It may take decades to stabilize ocean currents while salmon populations tail off or vanish, even in a mainstay river like the Sacramento.

But there are still human-applied fixes that must be tried. In coastal rivers, logging or landscape-changing operations, farm diversions, and city water taps all leave a mark on salmon numbers. Though ocean conditions are a prime culprit for the fall-off in fish counts, delta water pumps, which supply municipal supplies and farms, are also under scrutiny. This heavy dipping diverts water - and river-reared fish - at crucial times during the migratory cycle.

Reworking the state's water supplies for the sake of salmon will be a huge undertaking. But the fish's fate should redirect attention on the long-running debate over safeguarding water supplies in the delta.

Last week a federal judge, for the second time, slammed federal water regulators for inadequate diversion plans. In the latest case, the judge indicated that neither the delta nor the salmon that live there were given enough thought in the business-as-usual siphoning of fresh water.

Before the vast ocean is blamed for a salmon die-off, there may be changes to make closer to home. That's an Earth Day message. #

In the ongoing saga that pits man against fish, the news is generally bleak. State and federal regulators have banned salmon fishing on much of the West Coast. Many species of rockfish are depleted, although showing signs of slow recovery.

It is against this backdrop that a state advisory committee will meet today on proposals to expand California's network of marine reserves and conservation areas.

One year ago, the California Fish and Game Commission approved 29 of these zones along the Central Coast – ranging from "reserves" where no fishing is allowed to conservation areas where a few species can be harvested.

This week, the commission's Blue Ribbon Task Force will make recommendations on a new set of marine protected areas along the northern Central Coast, stretching 150 miles from Pescadero to Point Arena.

The size and location of these areas continues to generate controversy. Environmentalists favor a plan, known as Proposal 4, that would place 14 percent of the northern Central Coast's near-shore waters in no-fishing reserves. Supporters of this option say it would protect key habitats that serve as nurseries for fish, or have the potential to be restored if fishing activity were limited.

This proposal, however, is coming under sharp attack from recreational anglers, including charter boat captains who are part of the American Sportfishing Association. They claim that Proposal 4, if implemented, would cause a 30 percent reduction in sales and use-tax revenues from recreational fishing on the northern Central Coast, largely because of its impact on the charter boat industry. They favor an option that would place only 8.9 percent of the coastal waters in marine reserves.

There's no doubt that Proposal 4 would close a wider expanse of water to charter and party boats. Unlike the alternative favored by the sport fishing industry, Proposal 4 would create a new 15-square-mile conservation area off the Marin Headlands, near the Golden Gate Bridge, and a 12-square-mile reserve at San Gregorio, near Half Moon Bay.

Both of these areas are popular with charter boats. Perhaps too popular. Rockfish, in particular, have declined in size and numbers near the Marin Headlands, so there's a strong argument for giving this area – known as Duxbury – a rest. Yet the proposed conservation area would still allow crab, halibut and salmon fishing (once current salmon restrictions are removed). So it is not as onerous as some fishing advocates claim.

Overall, Proposal 4 best embraces the mission of the Marine Protection Act, California's 1999 law that put the state on the forefront of near-shore conservation. We especially like the proposal for a reserve at Sea Lion Cove, at Point Arena. That reef has been hit hard by excessive abalone harvesting in recent years, after its once-private shorefront became publicly accessible.

In making its recommendation, the Blue Ribbon Task Force should take a hard look at the economic consequences of Proposal 4, but also note that, for marine reserves to work, they need to include large expanses of the best remaining habitat. The trick for the task force will be finding the right balance so Californians can enjoy the full bounty of the shoreline for generations to come.

A panel appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging him to prepare for a sea level rise of 55 inches in the Delta by the end of this century. That's a lot more water than any estimates currently in use by the state.

The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, in fact, found during its research that many state agencies still have no target number at all to plan for sea level rise. That includes Caltrans, which is planning to widen Highway 12, a cross-Delta route between Lodi and Fairfield that already lies 20 feet below sea level in places.

A sea level increase of 55 inches, or about 1.4 meters, would probably overwhelm most levees in the Delta.

It would also likely flood thousands of acres of low-lying urban land surrounding the Delta, including some neighborhoods, urban water intakes, sewage treatment outfalls, highways and other utilities.

"The problem is, this is a high-risk area," said Phil Isenberg, Delta Vision chairman and a former Sacramento mayor and state assemblyman.

"We ought to have a common planning assumption for state agencies. Because the more rise you predict, well, the more complicated life becomes in the future."

The Delta is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise because its towns, farms and infrastructure sit on islands. Many islands have sunk well below sea level due to the loss of peat soils over the past century. They now depend on fragile levees to stay dry.

Scientists advising the Delta Vision panel reported in September that officials should prepare for a sea level rise of 39 inches by 2100. That number was double most estimates in use then.

The task force took that advice and went further in its March 28 letter to the governor.

Citing uncertainty in the projections – and the likelihood that seas will rise more, not less – the panel urged the governor to direct all state agencies to prepare for 16 inches of sea level rise by 2050 and 55 inches by 2100.

"I think that's the high range, but certainly plausible," said Jeffrey Mount, a UC Davis geology professor and chairman of a science panel that advises Delta Vision. "From a planning perspective, that's building in a factor of safety, and that's probably a good thing."

Delta Vision also sent a letter April 9 to Caltrans Director Will Kempton, asking him to explain whether the plan for Highway 12 accounts for sea level rise.

The chief uncertainty in predicting sea level is the melting of ice caps on polar continents. This is already occurring, particularly on Greenland, and is expected to accelerate.

But none of the current models used by climate scientists can account for this melting. This means most estimates of sea level rise are probably low.

A major flood in the Delta – whether caused by global warming, storms or an earthquake – would affect the entire state. Water intakes in the south Delta that serve 25 million people in the Bay Area and Southern California would become contaminated with salt water, putting them out of commission, perhaps permanently.

Delta Vision is charged with proposing solutions to such threats. Its initial report outlining the problems was presented in December, with final recommendations coming in October.

Solutions, from building a new water canal to strengthening levees, will cost many billions of dollars. Without accurate sea-level predictions, that money could be wasted.

In its report to the governor, the task force surveyed 23 state and federal agencies to learn their sea-level predictions. Only two, both closely associated with the task force itself, have considered a potential rise of 55 inches. Those are the CalFed Bay-Delta Program and the Delta Risk Management Strategy, a research effort by the Department of Water Resources.

Other estimates for 2100 fall between 28 and 35 inches. But 11 agencies have no estimate to guide their work, Delta Vision found, including Caltrans, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation, the state Public Utilities Commission and Water Resources Control Board.

The task force urged Schwarzenegger to issue an executive order requiring all state agencies to adopt the 55-inch estimate as a planning target, and not just for the Delta but all regions of the state. It also asked him to set a schedule to review this estimate for accuracy on a regular basis.

Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the Governor's Office is still reviewing the recommendation.#

Fresno Bee – 4/17/08
By John Ellis, staff writer

Environmentalists on Wednesday won another victory in their battle with the federal government over fish and the state's massive water-delivery system.

A 151-page decision issued by U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in Fresno invalidated a key part of a major federal water plan. Wanger ruled that the plan violates the Endangered Species Act by not adequately protecting winter-run chinook salmon, spring-run chinook salmon and the Central Valley steelhead.

The practical effects of the decision will not be known until further hearings are held before Wanger. Those hearings, the first of which is scheduled for April 25, will address what to do next about protecting the fish and their habitat.

But -- as with the tiny delta smelt, a fish for which Wanger issued a similar ruling last year -- the result will likely be further reductions in water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for both state and federal water projects.

Such cuts would be felt all across the state, from urban users in the Bay Area and Southern California to west-side agricultural interests, all of whom depend on water brought south through massive pumps.

Sarah Woolf, a spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District -- the second-largest consumer of delta water -- said the ruling was expected.

"It's exactly what [environmentalists] did with the delta smelt," she said. "This is definitely the pattern that they're going to continue. They're just trying to put a stop to all these water deliveries and use of the [delta] pumps."

Mike Sherwood, an attorney for Earthjustice, one of nine plaintiffs who sued the federal government to provide more protection for the salmon and steelhead, called Wanger's ruling "historic." He said the ruling makes it clear that there are limits to the amount of water that can be exported to the state's south.

"This could finally turn the corner on stopping the continuing decline of these species toward extinction, and hopefully get them on the road to recovery," he said.

Last year, Wanger threw out a key U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study on delta water management because it did not adequately address effects on the delta smelt.

Wednesday's ruling, on a 2006 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno, covers a similar study written in 2004 by the National Marine Fisheries Service that addresses the Central Valley Project's effects on the steelhead and two salmon species.

Wanger's decision found, in part:

* The study's conclusion that continued operation of the state and federal water projects would not jeopardize the species' existence and would not hurt their habitat was not based on supporting evidence and was contradicted by the opinion itself.

* "Best available science" was not used to prepare the study.

* The bureau and the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to address the effects of global warming on the three species in preparing the report. Wanger made a similar finding in the delta smelt case.

The decision comes at a time when there is mounting evidence that salmon populations are in decline. On Tuesday, state wildlife regulators banned recreational salmon fishing off the state's coast this year, and last week federal regulators closed the California coast and most of Oregon to commercial and sport salmon fishing.

Environmentalists had challenged the federal water plan, which would have allowed increased water exports from the delta, saying it would reverse many protections for the endangered salmon, particularly during the winter run.

For instance, at an October hearing before Wanger on the salmon and steelhead lawsuit, Sherwood, the Earthjustice attorney, argued that a 1993 federal study required that 1.9 million acre-feet be held in Lake Shasta for cold water releases to help the fish. He said that requirement was changed to a "target" and was unenforceable when the opinion was updated in 2004.

The State Water Contractors -- an organization representing more than two dozen agencies that buy water from the state -- on Wednesday called for a collaborative effort with the environmental community that balances the needs of the environment and the economy.

Altering water project operations won't help the current crisis, the contractors said, because experts say that changing ocean conditions are the most likely reason for the decrease in salmon runs.

But Sherman pointed to politics as a reason for the salmon and steelhead decline. An earlier draft of the biological opinion found that increased pumping in the delta would jeopardize species and hurts their habitat, but it was rewritten by politically appointed managers.

"The [salmon] adults returning to spawn this year are all down," he said. "This decision doesn't come a moment too soon." #

A federal judge's ruling Wed-nesday could mean less water for farms and cities – this time to protect salmon and steelhead.

Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno found that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service ignored their own evidence that fish would be harmed as they looked to increase water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Wanger's ruling came in a lawsuit challenging a 2004 plan by state and federal agencies to change reservoir operations.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and National Marine Fisheries Service violated the Endangered Species Act in approving rules to guide these new operations, called a biological opinion, Wanger ruled.

The biological opinion was controversial from the beginning. A draft prepared by Fisheries Service biologists in Sacramento concluded fish would be harmed by the new water operations. But The Bee reported in October 2004 that this finding was summarily reversed by political appointees.

The agencies behaved in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner, the judge found, by failing to include measures to recover the species, which include Central Valley steelhead and winter- and spring-run chinook salmon. They also failed to consider the effect of climate change on water operations.

The evidence included findings by the agencies themselves that the new operations could kill 20 percent of each species.

"In practical terms this forecasts elimination of spring-run salmon from the Sacramento River, a total loss of habitat, despite the ... conclusion there will be no adverse impact or jeopardy to the species," Wanger wrote.

Reclamation operates Shasta Lake and federal pumps that export Delta water to the Bay Area and Southern California. The National Marine Fisheries Service approved the biological opinion. Both agencies were reviewing the decision and had no substantive comment.

"I would characterize this as a huge victory for the salmon, and it is historic," said Mike Sherwood of Oakland-based Earthjustice, lead attorney for the plaintiffs, which include six environmental groups, two fishing groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. "It could be a turning point in our struggle to stop the slide towards extinction of these species."

The California Department of Water Resources, which operates the state's Delta water pumping system, was a co-defendant in the lawsuit filed in 2005.

"It's another indicator the system we have now is not working well for the environment or for water reliability," said Jerry Johns, DWR deputy director.

Judge Wanger on Wednesday ordered the biological opinion rewritten, a process the agencies have already begun and expect to finish in December. Wanger may impose interim remedies to protect fish until the new opinion is complete. He set an April 25 court date for that purpose.

Wanger is the same judge who, in December, imposed new rules on state and federal Delta pumps to protect the threatened Delta smelt. Those rules are expected to reduce water deliveries by as much as 30 percent this year to 25 million Californians.

The latest case mainly affects water releases from reservoirs, especially Shasta, north of Redding, the largest in the state. The releases determine whether spawning and rearing habitat in the Sacramento River is adequate for salmon and steelhead.

River temperatures must be no more than 56 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure spawning and survival of young fish. Interim remedies could require more water to be released in summer, which may mean less water to meet farm and urban demand in dry fall months.

"There will be an impact, but probably not much of one immediately," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. "Starting now, we've got a lot less system (capacity) for water supply, and we've got to operate it more for fisheries."

Quinn said California may need to augment its water supply to make more water available for fish and their habitat. This could come in a variety of forms, including major steps to make cities and farms more water-efficient and self-reliant.

It was unclear on Wednesday whether the decision will affect Folsom Lake and the American River, where Reclamation has delayed a new flow standard meant to protect fish.

The lawsuit did not involve fall-run chinook salmon. But remedies ordered by the judge may benefit this species along with the others, Sherwood said.

A sharp decline in fall-run chinook last year prompted wildlife officials Tuesday to impose the first-ever total closure of salmon fishing on the ocean, which will last through April 2009. This is predicted to cost the state's economy $255 million and 2,263 jobs.#

Judge slams U.S. report OKing pumping more delta water
He says study fails to weigh warming's effects on salmon

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that water regulators failed to consider the effects of global warming and other environmental issues related to the decline of California salmon populations when they approved increased pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger said a 2004 study prepared by federal regulators to support the increased water exports was scientifically inadequate.

"There is no analysis of adverse effect on critical habitat," Wanger wrote about winter-run chinook salmon.

The judge also ruled that there was a "total failure to address, adequately explain and analyze the effects of global climate change on the species."

The study had concluded that more water could be taken from California's Central Valley to quench residential and agricultural thirsts throughout the state. The new pumping plan was already on hold because of a similar ruling the judge made about the Bush administration's failure to address the plan's effects on a threatened fish species called the delta smelt.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agencies that prepared the study at issue, plan to submit a new study by the end of the year, said fisheries service spokesman Jim Milbury.

"I'm sure they will look at the judge's opinion in developing it," he said.

Wanger scheduled a hearing April 25 to begin determining how the delta should be managed until the new study is published.

A group of environmentalists, fishermen and American Indians sued the two federal agencies in 2005.

"This is a historic decision," said Mike Sherwood, an Earthjustice lawyer who represents the environmentalists. "It may well be the turning point to reverse the decline toward extinction of these fish."

Scientists have pointed to increased water exports from the delta as one possible cause for an unprecedented decline in the number of chinook salmon returning to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall.

Earlier this month, federal fishery regulators voted to ban salmon fishing along the California coast and most of Oregon to protect California's shrinking salmon stocks.#

A judge says the report failed to account for effects on endangered salmon and steelhead trout

Los Angeles Times – 4/17/08
By Eric Bailey,staff writer

SACRAMENTO -- A federal judge Wednesday invalidated a plan that justified boosted water exports from Northern California, ruling that it failed to account for the effects on endangered salmon and steelhead.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger of Fresno found that a 2004 study by the National Marine Fisheries Service didn't adequately address global warming, the loss of habitat and other factors that could hurt the fish.

But the effect of his 151-page opinion on water exports for farms and Southern California cities won't be decided until further court hearings starting late this month.

"This decision should prove very big for the fish," said Michael Sherwood, an attorney with Earthjustice, a nonprofit law firm representing commercial and recreational fishermen, environmental groups and the Winnemem Wintu tribe of Mount Shasta.

Wanger's ruling is the second setback in the last year for federal biologists and California's water managers. In August, the judge ordered a shift in operations that could cut water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by 30%.

The decision comes days after federal regulators canceled the 2008 salmon fishing season because of a sharp decline in the Sacramento River's fall-run chinook salmon, the backbone of the commercial industry.

Wanger's decision addresses an ongoing crisis for two other chinook salmon species, the winter and spring runs, and Central Valley steelhead trout. Once collectively numbering in the millions, the three endangered fish have seen their populations plummet -- in the case of the winter-run chinooks to fewer than 200 returning adults in 1994. The fish have been hit hard by water pollution, predators and dams that have blocked spawning grounds and boosted river temperatures.

Though the judge's decision might further curb delta exports, a more likely result is operational changes 250 miles to the north at Shasta Dam, experts on both sides said.

Cradling the state's biggest reservoir, the dam traditionally releases most of its water down the Sacramento River and onward to the delta in late summer and fall. But environmentalists have pushed for more cold-water releases to help the struggling runs of salmon and steelhead.

Sherwood of Earthjustice said the ruling could mark "a turning point" in operations by the state and federal water projects, which redid the California landscape in the 20th century to move water from the wet north to farms and communities in the south.

Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Shasta Dam as part of the federal water project, said it was too soon to decipher the decision's fallout.

"There will be no impacts until the judge tells us we have to do something differently," he said. "At this point we haven't gotten there."

Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the nonprofit State Water Contractors, said the ruling underscored the importance of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, an effort underway in Sacramento to spotlight ways to heal the delta while fixing the water delivery system.

"We can't continue to have the water system of our state remain at the mercy of every individual endangered species," she said. "We need a comprehensive plan."

Lester Snow, state Department of Water Resources chief, agreed that the ruling was "further evidence that the delta is teetering on the brink of collapse," noting that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had proposed a slate of solutions.

Among the fixes being eyed is construction of the long-debated Peripheral Canal, which would divert water around the delta and onward to Southern California. The proposal has been condemned by environmentalists and others who say it would rob the delta of the water it needs for fish to survive.

This spring's dry weather has already cut state water reserves. The Metropolitan Water District, the state's largest, is calling on residents to step up conservation efforts such as not watering their lawns one day a week.#

Californians won't be eating fresh salmon from the state's coastal waters this year.

Fish and Game officials on Tuesday reluctantly voted to shelter a diminished population of Sacramento River chinook by barring all ocean salmon fishing in state waters, out three miles from shore.

The unprecedented closure will last through April 2009.

The move follows last week's ban on salmon fishing in the 200-mile swath of federal water off California and Oregon.

And on May 9, the state commission is likely to extend the closure to recreational salmon fishing in the Sacramento, American, and other Central Valley rivers. That's never happened before.

All this means consumers will see steep prices for fresh-caught salmon – perhaps more than $30 per pound – if they can find it.

They'll also face tough choices:

Seafood Watch, a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, urges consumers not to buy farmed salmon, mainly raised on the Atlantic Coast and in British Columbia. Farmed salmon may contain traces of antibiotics and pesticides. Farmed salmon also are reared in floating pens which can pollute ocean waters and spread disease to wild fish.

It's also nearly impossible to distinguish farmed salmon from wild.

"Be careful about your sources of salmon to know whether you're getting a truthful answer or not," said David Goldenberg, executive officer of the California Salmon Council.

Wild-caught salmon available in California this year should be from Alaska. There's also a limited amount of fishing allowed off the coast of Washington state. Anything else is probably farmed.

One exception, for now, is Corti Brothers market on Folsom Boulevard in Sacramento. The gourmet market anticipated a shortage and, two weeks ago, negotiated for 1,000 pounds of frozen wild-caught California salmon from suppliers, said Mike Carroll, the store's meat manager.

On Tuesday the store was selling frozen salmon steaks for $11.99 a pound; $2 a pound more for fillets.

Pete Van Hoecke selected two tail fillets. He'll keep buying, he said, even if prices go up. He also backs the fishing ban.

"You have to manage the fishery or we're going to lose everything," said Van Hoecke, a retired bank regulator.

"Maybe prices are going up to $30 to $40 per pound, maybe not right away," Carroll said. "But the prices are going to go up."

At Scott's Seafood restaurant, on the Sacramento River, Executive Chef Bill John said wild salmon from one supplier has already more than tripled, to $26 per pound. He expects wild salmon will be a rare menu item.

Scott's also serves farm-raised salmon from Scotland, which John called a "superior" product because fish there are raised on organic feed and without artificial ingredients. He worries about fish from other sources.

"Hopefully my partner chefs out there are buying reputable product," he said. "We'll do as much wild-caught stuff as possible, because that's what the guest is looking for. But this year, with the closure, the price is probably going really, really high."

Biologists say closures are needed to protect the region's fall-run chinook, the backbone of the Pacific Coast's salmon fishery. These fish account for as much as 80 percent of salmon caught in California and Oregon.

"That's one of the most painful votes I think we've ever taken," said Richard Rogers, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, of Tuesday's historic vote.

This year the species' population is predicted to hit a historic low – just 58,200 are expected to spawn in the Sacramento, American, Feather and other rivers. That's down from 775,000 in 2002.

Some fishermen said the closures are a necessary evil.

"If we don't do something now, it could be drastic. We could lose the species," said Don Herrold of Rancho Cordova, who has caught salmon in the American River for 50 years.

Fishery experts believe poor ocean conditions in 2005, possibly caused by global warming, eliminated much of the food supply for young salmon entering the ocean that year. Those fish became the 2008 spawners.

Other factors have not been ruled out, including poor habitat and food supply in rivers and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The state Department of Fish and Game estimates the salmon closure will cost the California economy $255 million and 2,263 jobs. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and many of the state's federal representatives have urged President Bush to declare a disaster to speed up economic aid.

"I think this is the worst year in our lifetime for this to happen," said state Fish and Game Commissioner Jim Kellogg, noting the broader economic woes in effect.

Many in the industry admit they will need government help to survive. Among them are Randy and Charan Thornton, who own the 47-foot Telstar, a charter fishing boat based in Fort Bragg. Salmon make up 50 percent to 70 percent of their business.

"There's a good chance of it putting me out of business," said Randy Thornton, a fisherman for more than 20 years. "It's going to hurt a lot of people, no question about it."

Thornton already has decided not to hire employees he normally adds for salmon season. He also may be forced to give up his office space in Fort Bragg.

Ironically, Thornton paid off his boat in August and was looking forward to greater financial independence.

"I've kept good spirits through it all, but I tell you what: It's constantly testing my perseverance," he said.#

Woodland Daily Democrat – 4/16/08

The State Assembly cast a 72-1 bipartisan vote Monday to support Assembly Bill 2882, legislation by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk to encourage public water agencies throughout the state to adopt conservation rate structures that reward consumers who conserve water.

"Allocation-based rate structures are effective conservation tools, shown to achieve dramatic water savings without significant taxpayer investment," said Wolk, D-Davis.

The bill does not require all water agencies to adopt conservation rates, but for those who do it establishes standards that protect consumers by ensuring a lower base rate for those who conserve water and requiring that higher rates for use in excess of the base rate do not exceed the reasonable cost of providing the water service.

"At a time when California faces significant and ongoing water supply challenges, this legislation allows us to go further in improving and expanding water conservation across the state," said Wolk.#

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_8944844

Associated Press – 4/13/08
By Samantha Young, staff writer

McCLOUD – The lumber mill closed five years ago, and so many families moved out that the town can no longer even field a high school football team.

But McCloud is hoping to turn things around by exploiting the other natural resource in abundance along the icy flanks of Mount Shasta — water.

The town of 1,300 people in far Northern California struck a deal with Nestle in 2003 under which the Swiss company would build the nation’s largest water bottling plant to tap three of the many springs on the mountainside and bottle up to 521 million gallons of water a year.

The project is still awaiting an environmental review from the county and could be several years away from approval, having run into opposition from scientists, fishermen, conservationists and some members of the community.

But others in town are growing frustrated by the delays and want to see something, anything, to replace the lumber mill that was driven out of business by the logging restrictions that have hurt the timber industry across the Pacific Northwest.

“When they had the mill, this town was jumping,” said homeowner Paula Kleinhans. “As soon as the mill closed down, people moved, they lost their jobs, and now there are no children here. It really needs industry here.”

Similar disputes are playing out elsewhere around the country as water becomes an increasingly precious commodity — and a major source of legal and political controversy — because of drought, booming population and the popularity of bottled water.

From California to New Hampshire and Florida, corporate giants such as Nestle, Coca-Cola and Crystal Geyser are looking for new sources of water and running into resistance.

Supporters of bottling plants see them as a vital source of jobs and revenue. Others fear that pumping large amounts of water from the ground will drain wells, creeks and streams.

“It’s no longer this limitless resource,” said Elaine Renich, a commissioner in Lake County, Fla., where California-based Niagara Bottling LLC wants to pump water from the region’s shrinking aquifer. “It’s beyond me how you can expect people to conserve water and you turn around and say a water bottling plant is OK.”

In New Hampshire, residents are trying to block New Hampshire-based USA Springs from pumping more than 300,000 gallons a day from 100 acres it bought.

“They are people who want to bully their way in and take our water,” said Barrington, N.H., resident Denise Hart.

Opposition in Wisconsin forced Nestle to abandon plans by its Perrier subsidiary to build a $100 million bottling plant near Wisconsin Dells. In Michigan, about 200 miles northwest of Detroit, residents are engaged in a similar legal dispute against Nestle.

Last September, Napa rejected Crystal Geyser’s application to tap into the city’s aquifer to bottle mineral water.

Bottled water is a $10.8 billion-a-year industry in the U.S., with demand growing 8 percent a year. California is home to an estimated 40 percent of the nation’s 300 water bottling operations.

McCloud sits in the shadow of 14,162-foot Mount Shasta in a forested region crisscrossed with trout streams.

The dozens of springs breaking through the crust of Mount Shasta’s lower reaches are so pure that residents drink directly from them, filling bottles to take back home. Coca-Cola and Crystal Geyser already run bottling operations nearby.

Under the agreement negotiated by McCloud’s sole governing body, an elected board that oversees water, roads and sewers, Nestle is promising 240 jobs and payments of as much as $390,000 a year, depending on how much water is removed.

The company and the board say the town will still have more than enough water for itself. And preliminary reviews have shown that the pumping plant would have minimal environmental effect.

“We’re all working to the same goal: sustainability and protection of the environment,” said Nestle’s Northern California natural resource manager, David Palais. “We’re not going to come in and invest money and deplete the resource.”

Opponents say not enough study has been done. Among other things, they say, it is not clear what the pumping would do to the streams. Some could become slower or warmer, perhaps harming the trout, scientists say.

“These are small streams. Individually, they don’t count for much, but it’s always the cumulative effect you worry about,” said Peter Moyle, a biologist with the University of California at Davis.

In town, some residents and community leaders believe the project could bring some energy back to McCloud, which had 2,000 people before the lumber mill closed.

Nowadays, the McCloud Soda Shoppe & I, the bookstore and the general store close by 5:30 p.m., and the only place to get a meal on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights is the bar at the Veterans of Foreign Wars hall.

Randy Prinz, 52, said he might support the bottling operation if the town renegotiated to get more money. His grandparents settled in McCloud at the height of the timber industry, and he watched it go from boom to bust.

“Now all you have is your memories and your house,” he said. “And no job.” #

Monterey Herald – 4/11/08
By Larry Parsons, staff writer

Dwindling numbers of salmon won a reprieve Thursday as West Coast fishery managers shut down salmon fishing for 2008 off the coasts of California and Oregon.

The decision, though widely expected in local fishing industry circles, will drive up the cost of salmon for consumers, scrap sport fishing for the fish and force commercial anglers to land other catches.

"Every fisherman over the years has learned to adapt," said Linda McIntyre, general manager of the Moss Landing Harbor District. "They are very adaptable."

Meeting in Seattle, the Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to allow limited recreational coho fishing on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast.

Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be one of the worst in history. Although commercial salmon fishing off the Washington coast is scheduled to begin May 1, fisheries managers do not predict a good season off either the north or south Pacific coasts.

The council's decision still must be confirmed by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The fishery council considered three options: a total ban on salmon fishing off California and Oregon, extremely limited fishing in select areas, and catch-and-release fishing for scientific research.

The move was prompted by what officials say has been a drastic collapse of the Sacramento chinook salmon run, which provides the bulk of salmon caught by commercial and sport trollers off the West Coast.

The reason for the precipitous plunge in the salmon run isn't known, though there are plenty of possible causes, including dam operations, water quality, farm pollution, marine predators and ocean conditions.

The natural range of the chinook, also known as king salmon, in North America goes from the Ventura River in Southern California to Kotzebue Sound in Alaska. The fish has virtually disappeared in some areas where it once was abundant.

In 2006, the salmon season from Cape Falcon, Ore., about 30 miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River, to the Mexican border, also was severely restricted.

Record low of chinook

The Sacramento River chinook run is usually one of the most productive on the coast, but counts last fall found a record low number of chinook returning to California's Central Valley.

The salmon fishing ban didn't catch Monterey Bay fishermen by surprise.

The early Central Coast season was canceled before it was due to start last week, and local commercial anglers know well about the dwindling numbers of salmon.

"They are supportive of this closure. They don't like it one bit, but not one fisherman I've talked to suggests the season should be open," McIntyre said. "They know the science and the data support this action."

Commercial fisherman have learned to roll with increasingly strict fishery rules and will go after other catches, including crab, albacore and rock cod, she said.

Charter boat operators that provide ocean sport fishing to recreational anglers will feel the impact of the salmon ban more than commercial anglers, McIntyre said. But they, too, can go after other fish.

"They will try to adapt ... but I'm not going to sugar coat it, the industry probably harmed the most is sport salmon fishing," she said.

Unless there's a remarkable turnaround in chinook salmon stocks, the 2009 salmon season may also be blacked out, McIntyre said.

"I would suspect (there) is going to be similar circumstances next year," she said.

Sport fishing hit hard

The demise of this year's sport salmon season — which traditionally opens with scores of anglers taking to Monterey Bay waters in early April — has taken a huge toll on sales at Gone Fishin', a Sand City fishing supply store.

"It will have a tremendous effect in the whole area," said owner Jim Franco. "There will be no month of April.

"It's just something happening, but I'm not going to jump up and down and whine about it," he said. "It's not just me, it's the whole area."

Salmon lovers may have to turn to other seafood or face skyrocketing prices for their favorite seafood.

"We'll probably start looking for alternate places to get salmon, like Canada, Alaska or Washington," said Phil DiGirolamo, owner of Phil's Fish Market and Eatery in Moss Landing. "But there's probably a big price for that."

Fresh salmon could go for more than $20 a pound, he said.

"We're spoiled around here, all those years getting reasonably priced salmon out of the bay."

DiGirolamo said he understands the reason for the salmon ban, but it's a wrenching decision for the Moss Landing fishing community.

"Usually at this time of the year the whole island gets excited with the sport season and all the rest of it," he said. "It's a real shame." #

Central Valley Business Times – 4/10/08

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) is recommending to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce that the commercial and recreational salmon fisheries in California be closed for the 2008 season.

A state of emergency declaration was issued immediately by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who says many commercial fishing operations will be driven out of business by the ban.

He says he will also sign a bill by Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, which appropriates approximately $5.3 million of the $45 million in Proposition 84 funds to begin coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.

“Today’s decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council underscores our responsibility to quickly free up state and federal resources to help the fishing industry cope with the devastating economic impacts closing the season will have,” Mr. Schwarzenegger says.

The federal Management Council says this fall’s spawning run of Chinook salmon from the Pacific Ocean to breeding grounds in the fresh water of the Sacramento River in the Central Valley is expected to be just 58,200 fish.

As recently as 2002, an estimated 775,000 adult salmon made the same trip.

Why there has been a sudden collapse of the Sacramento fall Chinook stock is not readily apparent, the council says.

“The National Marine Fisheries Service has suggested ocean temperature changes, and a resulting lack of upwelling, as a possible cause of the sudden decline. Many biologists believe a combination of human?caused and natural factors are to blame including freshwater in?stream water withdrawals, habitat alterations, dam operations, construction, pollution, and changes in hatchery operations,” the council says.

The Wiggins legislation will pay for coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects to address long-term environmental challenges resulting from poor ocean conditions and other factors.

The council’s recommendations will now go to the California Fish and Game Commission for a final decision via a process beginning April 15.

The California Department of Fish and Game estimates the potential damage from the closure of the salmon season to be $255 million and 2,263 California jobs. #

Los Angeles Times – 4/11/08
By Eric Bailey, staff writer

EUREKA, CALIF. -- -- Instead of preparing to hit the Pacific's wind-tossed waters next month, veteran fisherman Dave Bitts sat at the counter of a dockside restaurant on Humboldt Bay recently, mulling fate and a cloudy future.

For the first time since the birth of the West Coast fishing industry 150 years ago, Bitts and other fishermen face a season without salmon.

Federal regulators, worried about sagging runs up and down the coast, agreed Thursday to cancel this year's commercial and recreational catch of chinook -- the prized king salmon of the fish market -- off California and Oregon.

The ban adopted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council after a weeklong meeting in Seattle marks the new low point for a trade enshrined in the West since the Gold Rush.

An aborted season will wallop coastal communities in which salmon has long been a financial and cultural mainstay. Repercussions are expected to ripple out, with the ban hurting not just fuel docks and tackle stores but also supermarkets and truck dealerships.

In California, commercial salmon fishing is a $150-million business.

Hardest hit will be full-time fishermen like Bitts, a gray-bearded Stanford graduate who three decades ago chucked plans to follow his family into teaching. He preferred the sea.

Like most North Coast fishermen, a hearty but shrinking brotherhood scattered in harbor towns like Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay and Santa Cruz, Bitts depends on the salmon catch for more than half his income.

After the last two dismal salmon seasons, he and other commercial fishermen knew 2008 would be bad.

The Sacramento River has in recent years been the West Coast's spawning powerhouse. While other rivers suffered, it became the backbone of the industry, with a productive run that reliably dispatched enough fish into the Pacific to keep the commercial fleet afloat and sport fishermen happy.

But lately the number of chinook returning to the river has been dropping. Scientists now predict that fewer than half the fish needed to ensure a sustainable population will return this fall.

Given these bleak realities, Bitts and many other fishermen are greeting the ban as a grim necessity for a livelihood that depends on the fickle nexus of Mother Nature and mankind.

"Going fishing this year would be like a farmer eating his seed corn," Bitts said. "For a sliver of a season and a tiny catch, it's not worth it."

Federal regulators approved a truncated salmon season for Washington and allowed a 9,000-fish catch of hatchery-raised coho salmon off central Oregon.

A normal season in the West is long and prosperous, running from May to October, with more than 800,000 fish caught off California and Oregon.

This year the season ended before it started.

"Fishermen are born with an extra helping of hope," Bitts said. "But I never had much hope for this season."

Now he and other fishermen are pushing hard for financial help and for the government to find a way to fix what ails the salmon.

Last week, Bitts and half a dozen peers flew to Washington to lobby for disaster relief. They warned that the economic hit they will take this year will eclipse that of 2006, when a sharply curtailed season required more than $60 million in federal aid to keep the commercial fleet from sinking in red ink.

The fishermen also are aggressively promoting potential solutions -- such as better practices at hatcheries that raise juvenile salmon and environmental fixes for the ecologically challenged Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Federal scientists have laid much of the blame for the salmon slump on shifting ocean conditions and a flagging offshore food chain, possibly brought on by global warming.

But fishermen contend that there are other culprits. "We've come to the conclusion there are a whole bunch of smoking guns," said Duncan MacLean, a Half Moon Bay angler representing fishermen at this week's meeting.

Factors as unexpected as bridge construction -- in particular the underwater noise caused by pile-driving tower supports -- may have impeded tiny juveniles venturing to sea, MacLean said.

The fishermen also see trouble in long-enshrined hatchery practices.

A federal hatchery in the state's far north releases baby salmon right into the upper reaches of the Sacramento River for a perilous 250-mile journey out to sea. Studies have found that in some years just 2% survived the trip, said MacLean, who believes the fish should travel by truck.

State hatcheries do haul juveniles by truck, dumping them beyond the delta near the entry to San Francisco Bay. The fish have traditionally been placed first in floating "net pens" to ease their adjustment to a predatory world. By 2005, however, the pens had fallen into such disrepair that state crews stopped bothering to use them. When the juvenile salmon were dumped into the bay, "it was like having a neon dinner sign up," Bitts said. Little fish quickly fell prey to sea gulls and striped bass, he said. Chastened, the state resumed use of the pens last year.

But the 800-pound gorilla remains the troubled delta.

The state's biggest estuary saw a marked decline in several fish species as water exports ballooned, peaking in 2005 at more than 6 million acre-feet. The pumps are so strong they can suck up fish, including migrating juvenile salmon.

Salmon may be benefiting this year from a federally ordered pumping cutback intended to protect the tiny delta smelt. Bitts and other fishermen want permanent cutbacks in the water exported to Southern California cities and San Joaquin Valley farmers.

They are pushing for the state to meet future water needs with conservation, recycling, increased groundwater storage and bolder efforts at desalinization. They would like to see Central Valley farmers shift away from water-intensive crops, and they want regulators to crack down on pesticides that taint delta water.

Salmon are survivors, Bitts said. They can rebound. But they need help.

"It's painful to watch what's happening," he said. "To the fish and the fisherman." #

(04-10) 20:24 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- No commercial or recreational salmon fishing will be allowed off the coast of California and most of Oregon this year.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Thursday to cancel the chinook fishing season in an effort to reverse the catastrophic disappearance of California's fabled run of the pink fish popularly known as king salmon.

"I think it's probably the right thing to do," said Barbara Emley, 64, who has run a commercial fishing boat with her husband out of Fisherman's Wharf since 1985.

"It's tough, though. We're going to lose our (fishing) community. People are going to have to figure out what to do with five months of no income."

Just hours after the vote, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency and sent a letter to President Bush asking for his help in obtaining federal disaster assistance. In addition, the governor's office announced that Schwarzenegger will sign legislation to appropriate about $5.3 million for coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration projects.

"California's salmon runs are a treasured state resource and provide significant contributions to our economy and our environment," Schwarzenegger said. "Today's decision by the Pacific Fishery Management Council underscores our responsibility to quickly free up state and federal resources to help the fishing industry cope with the devastating economic impacts closing the season will have.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in SeaTac, Wash., considered a variety of options for saving the salmon because too few fall-run chinook came back to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries in autumn.

Fishing ban the only option

In the end, it decided the only option was to halt fishing throughout the salmon habitat all along the California and Oregon coasts, the first time that's happened since the federal agency was created 22 years ago to manage the Pacific Coast fishery. Its management plan required it because of the low numbers of salmon and only an emergency ruling by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez could change the requirement, and that, according to fisheries experts, is unlikely.

The council's recommendation will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 1.

"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard," said council Chairman Don Hansen.

"There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries."

The commercial salmon season off California and Oregon typically span from May 1 to Oct. 31. The recreational season was to have begun on April 5, but was delayed until the council made its decision.

The council canceled the seasons after the fall run in the Sacramento River and its tributaries saw the number of spawning fish drop from more than 800,000 just six years ago to slightly more than 68,000 last year.

Experts are predicting that a little more than 50,000 fish will be in the river this autumn.

The Sacramento fall spawning season was the last great salmon run along the giant Central Valley river system, including the San Joaquin River, and nobody knows for sure what has caused the precipitous decline of the chinook salmon. The National Marine Fisheries Service has pointed to a sudden lack of nutrient-rich deep ocean upwellings caused by ocean temperature changes as a possible cause. But most biologists say it is a combination of factors, including agricultural pollution, water diversions from the delta and damaged habitat.

"The reason for the sudden decline of Sacramento River fish is a mystery at this time," said council Executive Director Don McIsaac. "The only thing that can be done in the short term is to cut back the commercial and recreational fishing seasons to protect the remaining fish. The longer-term solution will involve a wide variety of people, agencies, and organizations. But for now, unfortunately, those involved in the salmon fisheries are paying the price."

Millions in losses

If the ban holds, it would mean the loss of $20.7 million that commercial and recreational salmon fishing brings into the California economy each year. The 400 or so commercial fishermen in the state stand to lose 70 to 80 percent of their annual incomes.

Losses in Oregon would top $9 million. At least 1,000 fishermen troll the waters for king salmon between Santa Barbara to Washington state.

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, said he was disappointed that the decision had to be made, but he doesn't fault the council.

"We're trying to get a disaster declaration to get (fishermen) through this and get them some money until things can be turned around," he said.

The next step, he said, is to get the commercial fishermen actively involved in the decision-making process for addressing water issues in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

"We've really got our work cut out for us," he said. "We knew there were problems, but this year they really came home to roost."

Tina Swanson, senior scientist at the Bay Institute and a fish biologist, said problems in either the ocean or the river system can disrupt the salmon population, but problems in both areas can be catastrophic. And that is essentially what has happened, she said.

"We can't do anything about conditions in the ocean," she said, "but we can control what goes on in the river. We need to do a better job of management to protect the salmon habitat.

"This isn't something that happened in just one year. It's been going on for some time."

Meanwhile, the people who fish for a living and those who do it recreationally will not be the only ones to feel the effects of the ban. Consumers will be hurt, as well.

Salmon in fancy restaurants will likely go for around $40 a portion, about twice the normal price.

Michael Weller, executive chef with the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, said salmon is so popular among consumers that they will continue to buy the fish at markets, even if the price rises substantially.

At restaurants, however, Weller predicted that chefs will not replace wild salmon with the less-tasty farm-raised variety. Instead, he said, consumers will most likely see greater choices of striped bass or halibut.

The price fishermen get for their catch has gone up from about $1.75 a pound three years ago to about $5.50 a pound, but to most anglers, the situation isn't about money anymore. It's about survival of a species.

Salmon off-limits

The problem: Record low numbers of salmon returning from the ocean to the Sacramento River.

What happened? The Pacific Fishery Management Council voted for a ban on commercial and sport chinook fishing off the coast of California and most of Oregon.

What's next? The council's recommendation is expected to be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service by May 1. #<

Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 4/11/08
By Robert Digitale, staff writer

For the first time, it appears that sport and commercial fishermen won't be allowed to catch salmon this season in ocean waters off California.

The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Seattle, recommended Thursday a season-long ban on chinook salmon fishing for California and Oregon.

The council said fishermen should be allowed to catch 9,000 hatchery-bred coho salmon off the central Oregon coast. But California salmon trollers and anglers didn't receive even that small of a fishery.

"It's a pretty rough time to be a commercial fisherman," said Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association.

The regulations must be affirmed by the Commerce Department, an action expected by May 1. The regulations would be the most restrictive ever, federal officials said.

"This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard," council chairman Don Hansen said in a prepared statement. "There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries."

A fishing ban was widely expected due to the collapse of the adult salmon fishery from the Sacramento River, normally the state's most productive river system.

As a result, fishermen who in past years lobbied long and loud for more days of fishing generally stayed home from this year's council meeting.

"I think that everybody was just resigned to it," said Barbara Emley, a commercial fisher for two decades and also Collins' wife. She spoke by telephone Thursday from the meeting in Seattle.

A fishing ban would mean that consumers will have a hard time locating wild salmon for sale this spring and summer. Some reports suggest the price for wild chinook salmon from Washington, Canada and Alaska could exceed $30 a pound, several times the price normally paid here.

But the lack of Pacific salmon won't make a dent in the overall market due to the availability of fresh and frozen farm-raised salmon.

In 2003, fish farms worldwide produced an estimated 3 billion pounds of salmon. In contrast, that same year, the best this decade, Oregon and California commercial fishermen landed 820,000 pounds of chinook salmon.

Fishermen aren't blamed for the collapse of the salmon fishery, but the cause remains in dispute.

Federal scientists maintain that poor ocean conditions appear largely responsible for the salmon decline, both for the Sacramento River and along much of the West Coast. But fishing and environmental leaders have blamed the lack of salmon on Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water diversions and other problems within the river systems.

Regardless, government scientists predict that only 58,000 adult chinook salmon will come back to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries this fall.

That number falls far short of the federal government's objective of at least 122,000 returning salmon, and far below the 800,000 fish that returned to Central Valley rivers in 2002.

In the past five years the salmon fisheries added on average an estimated $65 million annually to West Coast communities, according to the fisheries council. That amount is considerably below the economic contribution of earlier years, when the salmon stocks were more abundant and when far more commercial fishermen took part in the harvest.

Last year only 600 commercial vessels landed salmon in California, compared to nearly 5,000 in 1978.

The commercial salmon season typically runs from May 1 to Sept. 30. And recreational anglers normally can fish in some of the state's coastal waters until mid-November.

This year the only salmon fishing off the California coast occurred back in February and March with sports anglers landing fish off Fort Bragg.

Once state and federal regulators realized how low the returning Sacramento salmon counts might be later this fall, they enacted an emergency closure for the Mendocino County fishing grounds beginning April 1. And officials didn't allow recreational salmon fishing to begin anywhere else along the coast.

Now fishing communities will seek disaster aid as they received after the 2006 season, which until now was the worst salmon harvest on record.

Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma, and 46 other West Coast members of Congress already have asked Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to prepare a declaration of a federal fisheries failure, the first step for providing aid to the region.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the governors of Oregon and Washington have made a similar request.

And commercial fishermen, some still catching crab off Northern California, will look for other ways make money this summer.

Some will try other fisheries.

"That's probably what I'm going to do, go tuna fishing up in Oregon," said Chris Lawson, president of the Fisherman's Marketing Association of Bodega Bay.

The council considered but eventually rejected a plan to allow commercial fishermen to catch salmon for a research project that would have studied where chinook salmon from certain rivers can be found in ocean waters during the spring and summer. That study would have used genetics and Global Positioning System technologies.

The salmon would have been released after a small sample was clipped from their fins. But officials said some still would die and that was unacceptable in a year of such few fish.

The California Fish and Game Commission still must decide the salmon season for the state's rivers and streams. Observers predict sport fishing will still be allowed on the Klamath and possibly some other rivers. #

Associated Press – 4/11/08
By Donna Gordon Blakinship, staff writer

Federal fisheries managers have voted to ban chinook salmon fishing off the California coast and most of Oregon this year to reverse the dramatic decline of one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs.

The regulations approved Thursday by the Pacific Fishery Management Council are the most severe restrictions in the history of Pacific Coast salmon fishing.

The panel voted to allow limited sport fishing for coho salmon on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast, but no commercial or sport fishing for chinook salmon will be allowed south of Cape Falcon in northern Oregon.

The council's decision still must be approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service before May 1, the start of the commercial season.

Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be one of the worst ever after surveys found a near-record low number of chinook, also known as king salmon, returning to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries last fall.

Sport and commercial salmon fishing also will be sharply curtailed off the Washington coast to protect depressed chinook and coho stocks there.

"For the entire West Coast, this is the worst in history," Don McIsaac, executive director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council, said before several close votes led to the fisheries plan for 2008.

After the council's vote Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in California, directing state agencies to restore salmon runs and provide some financial assistance to fishermen and businesses affected by the fishery closure.

Schwarzenegger said he also plans to sign legislation approved by state lawmakers to spend $5.3 million to restore salmon habitat in California.

In Oregon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski dedicated $500,000 in strategic reserve funds and declared a state of emergency, which frees up money for job retraining, unemployment benefits and reemployment opportunities for affected communities.

"This will be devastating to the communities and families on the coast that rely on salmon fishing for their livelihood," he said. "Our job now is to help these communities make ends meet during this difficult time and to fight for federal assistance to help them for the longer term."

Last month, the governors of Washington, Oregon and California signed letters asking the federal government for a disaster declaration, which would open the door to federal aid for the fishing industry.

Congress will be asked to make a fast decision on money to alleviate the suffering of fishermen and any other impacts of the cutback, said Brian Gorman, a NOAA Fisheries spokesman.

Scientists are studying the causes of the Sacramento River chinook collapse. Possible factors range from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution. But a proposal to allow limited fishing for scientific purposes was struck down by the panel.

In 2006, the salmon season extending from Cape Falcon south to the Mexican border was severely restricted to protect dwindling stocks in the Klamath River, which runs from southern Oregon to northern California.

Congress granted disaster relief totaling $62 million for fishermen in the two states.

Scientists are studying a long list of possible causes of the Sacramento River collapse. Many researchers point to unusual weather patterns that have disrupted the marine food chain along the Pacific Coast in recent years and left salmon without the tiny shrimp and fish they need to survive.

Fishermen and environmentalists say too much water is being diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which juvenile salmon must swim through on their way to the ocean.

Two years ago, busloads of fisherman attended the Pacific Fishery council's meetings to protest the proposed cutbacks. This year, little opposition was voiced because most fishermen understand the severity of the salmon decline.

"I believe that the council is doing what it has to do," Emley said.

Consumers can expect to have a hard time finding chinook salmon at stores and restaurants this year, but they still will be able to buy farm-raised salmon, as well as wild sockeye from Alaska. #

Associated Press – 4/7/08
By Terence Chan, staff writer

SAN FRANCISCO—The stunning collapse of one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs has prompted even cash-strapped fishermen to call for an unprecedented shutdown of salmon fishing off the coasts of California and Oregon.

"There's likely no fish, so what are you going to be fishing for?" asked Duncan MacLean, a fisherman from Half Moon Bay. "I have no problem sitting out to rebuild this resource if that's what's necessary."

The Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in Seattle this week and will likely vote to impose the most severe restrictions ever on West Coast salmon fishing to protect California's dwindling chinook stocks.

The Sacramento River chinook run is usually one of the most productive on the Pacific Coast, providing the bulk of the salmon caught by sport and commercial trollers off California and Oregon.

But only about 90,000 adult chinook returned to the Central Valley last fall—the second lowest number on record and well below the number needed to maintain a healthy fishery. That number is projected to fall to a record low of 58,000 this year. By contrast, 775,000 adults were counted in the Sacramento River and its tributaries as recently as 2002.

"This stock got off-the-charts bad very suddenly," said Donald McIsaac, the council's executive director. "It's a very, very severe situation."

The council, which regulates Pacific Coast fisheries, will choose between three management options: a total ban on salmon fishing off the coast of California and Oregon; extremely limited fishing in select areas; or catch-and-release fishing for scientific research.

The council also is expected to set strict limits on salmon fishing off the coast of Washington to protect that state's declining chinook and coho stocks.

The council's final decision is expected Thursday. The National Marine Fisheries Service will then decide whether to implement the regulations by May 1.

The Central Valley collapse is a blow to fishermen, tackle shops, charter boat operators and other businesses that depend on commercial and recreational salmon fishing.

For consumers, it will be hard to find any chinook, also known as king salmon, which are prized by anglers, seafood connoisseurs and upscale restaurants. There should still be abundant supplies of farm-raised salmon and wild sockeye from Alaska, but prices could be higher.

"It's going to be devastating to the marketplace to have no California king salmon at all," said David Goldenberg, CEO of the California Salmon Council. "For people who want high-quality salmon, they're not going to have that choice."

Biologists and others are trying to figure out what caused the salmon collapse so they can make sure California's chinook populations rebound.

There are many potential factors, because wild salmon are born in streams and rivers, migrate to the ocean when they're juveniles and spend two to four years there before returning to spawn in the areas where they were born. In between they have to navigate the often treacherous waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.

The council has asked state and federal scientists to research 46 possible causes, including water diversions, habitat destruction, dam operations, agricultural pollution, marine predators and ocean conditions.

Many scientists point to unusual weather patterns that disrupted the marine food chain along the Pacific Coast in 2005, when thousands of seabirds washed up dead or starving because they couldn't find enough to eat.

Researchers believe those poor ocean conditions also devastated the juvenile salmon that would have returned to the Central Valley last year. Young chinook couldn't find the tiny shrimp and fish they depend on to survive.

"The fish went to the ocean in 2005 and found nothing to eat when they got there. They either starved to death or got so weak from not eating enough that they got eaten by predators," said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Peterson said ocean conditions have improved since then, which could help revive West Coast salmon populations.

Many fishermen and environmentalists believe the main problem lies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

They say too much water is being diverted to farms and water districts in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

They want the state and federal government to limit pumping from the delta, which disorients migrating salmon and kills young fish that get sucked into the powerful pumps. They're also calling for a reduction in agricultural runoff and the restoration of salmon habitat in the rivers.

"We did have some poor ocean conditions, but that doesn't explain why the Central Valley stocks took such a severe hit," said Zeke Grader, who heads the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.

But state water officials believe the ocean is the chief culprit. The water pumps continue to meet stringent operating standards, and while more water has been diverted in recent years, there's also been more water available to export, said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources.

"Ocean conditions are the most likely cause here," Johns said. "The requirements that we have to abide by to protect these fish haven't changed in the last several years." #

Red Bluff Daily News – 4/3/08
By Rebecca Wolf, Assistant Editor

A program designed to fairly distribute water among landowners will be moving from the hands of the state into the hands of landowners, if they want it.

The newly formed Shasta-Tehama County Watermaster District is still looking to have directors appointed, but Tehama County residents may pass on the idea, according to Shasta County Farm Bureau President Henry Giacomini.

In a presentation of the new watermaster district Giacomini gave the Tehama County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, he asked the board to appoint a director for the Digger Creek area, but said some water rights holders have expressed interest in not being part of the district.

"They may decide that they don't need a watermaster," he said.

The program was established in 1924 to stem violence between neighboring landowners over water rights. It was designed to ensure water is distributed according to established water rights as determined by the courts.

Digger Creek is the only watershed area in Tehama County that would fall under the watermaster district, because it was the only one with watermaster services under the California Department of Water Resources.

Water rights holders on Hat, Burney, North Fork Cottonwood and North Cow creeks in Shasta County are also part of the watermaster district. There are roughly 34 landowners in the Digger Creek area the district would apply to.

Sen. Sam Aanestad, who authored the Senate bill to create the district, has touted the watermaster district as a cost-effective, local alternative for enforcing and protecting water rights. The district will assume the services that were previously provided by the Department of Water Resources.

District directors will be made up of representatives from each creek area and charged with establishing the district budget and providing information and processes for diverters in the district.

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors will appoint the other directors and two members at large. After the district is established, directors will be replaced by districtwide elections.

Giacomini said if Digger Creek rights holders decide not to participate, the district board will be reduced in size. #

YubaNet.com – 4/2/08
By Senator Patricia Wiggins’ office

Sacramento - The State Senate gave final approval today to Senate Bill 562, legislation by North Coast Senator Patricia Wiggins (D - Santa Rosa) to designate nearly $5.3 million in urgent funding for coastal salmon and steelhead fisheries restoration projects.

The Assembly approved SB 562 on March 24, so today's 27-10 Senate vote means the bill will soon be on the desk of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his consideration. SB 562 is an urgency measure, meaning the bill will take effect immediately upon signing by the Governor.

If signed into law, the Wiggins bill would allocate $5.293 in Proposition 84 funds to the state Department of Fish and Game, which would use the funding for its coastal salmon and steelhead fishery restoration efforts.

Voters approved Prop. 84 - the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act - in 2006.

In addition, Wiggins said that enactment of SB 562 will allow the state to leverage up to $20 million federal dollars for salmon this spring.

"Every week adds a new development to our burgeoning salmon crisis," Wiggins noted after today's Senate floor vote.

In presenting SB 562 before her colleagues, she said that "we have all seen the recent headlines regarding salmon in California: 'Fishermen fear lost salmon season'; 'Officials warn of salmon population collapse'; 'Regulators Could Close West Coast Salmon Fishing This Year.'

"This is bill is about this legislature taking action to protect California's $100 million dollar salmon industry," Wiggins added. She later stressed that the industry extends beyond fishermen to include tackle shops, processors, ice suppliers, restaurants and tourism.

SB 562 is supported by a diverse group, including the California Farm Bureau Federation, Association of California Water Agencies, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishmen, the Karuk Tribe, CalTrout, the Sonoma County Water Agency and the Sierra Club. #

West Coast commercial fishermen are on Capitol Hill this week urging Congressional leaders to investigate the worst salmon fishery collapse in history.

The seven fishermen from California, Oregon and Washington said in a teleconference Wednesday that government policies on the three major coastal rivers are creating systemic “rolling blackouts” in which fisheries are closed or heavily restricted from year to year. This year, an extreme shortage of salmon expected to return to the Sacramento River is leading the Pacific Fishery Management Council to recommend a paltry fishery -- or none at all.

Increased water diversions and habitat problems in the Sacramento are damaging the runs, the fishermen said, and are making salmon populations unable to handle other challenges like poor ocean conditions. The Klamath and Columbia rivers also suffer similar ills, they said.

”If those river conditions were corrected we would not have the problem we have now,” said Washington fisherman Ron Richards.

They also drew into question the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's opinion that a lack of food in the ocean was key to the collapse, saying that in the past decade fish have been larger and healthier, indicative of good ocean conditions.

Eureka fisherman Dave Bitts said the group hopes Congress will look into the National Marine Fisheries Service's 2004 report that found increased pumping from the Sacramento River delta for irrigation and cities would not jeopardize salmon. He wanted to know if political meddling may have been behind that opinion.

”We would like Congress to do whatever it can to restore the scientific integrity of the work done by the National Marine Fisheries Service on the Sacramento fisheries,” Bitts said.

The U.S. Department of Commerce Inspector General in July 2005 found that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California State Water Project's plans passed muster with the National Marine Fisheries Service -- but that the fisheries agency gave approval without following established processes for ensuring the quality of its work. The Inspector General did not find evidence that the fisheries service changed its opinion of the plan midstream.

Other indicators of the health of the Sacramento River delta include the threatened delta smelt, which have suffered enormous population declines recently. The situation for that fish is so dire that scientists have begun to breed more smelt to backup the natural population in case it goes extinct.

Another interesting twist is that a program by the Fisheries Foundation of California and the state Department of Fish and Game to truck young salmon from upstream of the delta to San Francisco Bay where they can acclimate in pens was effectively shut down in 2005 and 2006. The salmon were instead dumped into the river unprotected, where they were preyed on by birds and striped bass, Bitts said.

The fish released in 2005 would have returned this year, and those from 2006 would have returned next year -- which is also expected to see a poor run. Some have voiced concern that while the previously successful net pen program may have led to a major boom in ocean salmon populations, that it may also have masked the delta's problems by repeatedly turning out abundant runs.

The fishermen visiting Capitol Hill said it's likely there is no one smoking gun behind the fishery collapse, but that the problems need to be examined if people want to preserve an icon of the Northwest.

Rep. Mike Thompson was among those the group met with this week. The St. Helena Democrat said he'd see if the House Resources Committee was interested in addressing the issue, or might hold field hearings in the area. Mainly, he said, it's important that people who aren't tied to the industry be made aware of what is happening to the valuable salmon resource.

”It's pretty evident -- you don't have to look very deep -- to see that there are major problems,” Thompson said. #

Since the Nestle Waters bottling plant contract was signed in 2003, many McCloud citizens feel the community has become divided into two separate groups: those who support the project and those who oppose it.

At the center of this divide are different economic reports that support each side's claims and concerns.

The divide was apparent during the March 24 regular meeting of the McCloud Community Services District, as nearly 50 citizens (representing both pro and con) packed Scout Hall to hear a presentation on the report released in October by ECONorthwest Consulting of Eugene, Ore.

Following the presentation by the McCloud Watershed Council, Nestle project manager Dave Palais argued against some of the report's claims.

Members of the McCloud Community Services District board of directors also spoke on the issue (see page A2).

The ECONorthwest report differs in many of its conclusions from independent reports done for Nestle by economists at the University of California Davis and California State University Chico.

Issues raised at the meeting range from Nestle's proposed water use and the price of the water, to the environmental and economic effects the plant would have.

ECONorthwest's report was presented by Debra Anderson and Brian Stewart of the McCloud Watershed Council.

“We thought there had been no credible, comprehensive report that has been done on the Nestle project,” began Anderson, explaining why the Watershed Council sought the report from ECONorthwest. “We really wanted to understand the environmental and economic impacts the project would have on our community.”

Anderson said the MWC was presenting the information for review and to examine Nestle's responses, and also to discuss the Services District's legal option for correcting any contract problems.

“After doing the report, [ECONorthwest] really felt the price for our water was too low and that McCloud was really not getting fair value,” she said.

The ECONorthwest report lists prices paid for water in other US locations by both Nestle and other companies.

The two polar sides of the graph are surprisingly different. It lists a “Coca-Cola or Pepsi” water bottling plant in Twinsburg, Ohio that pays $107,531 per acre-feet of water on the high end. On the low end is Nestle's proposed McCloud plant at $26.40 per acre-feet of water.

“The average price of water we found is $1,500 to $2,000,” stated Anderson. “We know our water in McCloud is great, so the value should be way up there.”

In his response, Palais noted that Nestle would be paying a negotiated set price for the water used, and that the price is more than the current rate for McCloud citizens.

Anderson stressed the Watershed Council's concern about Nestle's proposed water use. The ECONorthwest report lists information gathered from the Nestle contract that states the plant would use a maximum of 1,600 acre-feet per year.

However, Anderson's concerns focused on other information gathered from the contract. Under “additional water for bottling,” the maximum quantity is listed as “not specified.”

Other information gathered from the contract includes an “unlimited” maximum quantity of water to be used as “water for drinking water products or products utilizing drinking water” that will come from a groundwater source.

ECONorthwest's report also lists data gathered from California Water Right Permit Nos. 002155 and 010083.

It states that for an “unknown” use, the plant would be able to use a maximum quantity of 8,941 acre-feet per year.

“To me this is saying [Nestle] will be taking an unlimited amount of water; we don't really know what they will be taking,” said Anderson.

She also commented on a press release Nestle recently sent out stating the company would put a cap on proposed water use of 1,600 acre-feet per year and eliminate the proposed use of groundwater.

“I think that I would have a better time believing that if it was amended to the contract; right now we don't have that,” she said. “We also need to be assured they are not going to use groundwater. There is nothing we have that's legally binding that states that Nestle could not come back later and use it.”

“Unless these things are changed, [the ECONorthwest report] is saying there is a very large amount of water [Nestle] can take.”

Palais' response was that Nestle has agreed to cap the amount of water it would use.

“We put a firm 1,600 acre-foot per year cap on all of the water the plant will use,” he said. “We also eliminated the potential use of groundwater.”

Another issue raised during the presentation was the number of jobs the project will bring to the area.

Stewart said he believes McCloud is changing from a “blue-collar work force to a retired community” and that the people of McCloud are not interested in the types of jobs the plant would bring.

He said that, in his opinion, the Nestle plant wouldn't do much to change the county's unemployment rate because “many people could be leaving existing jobs to seek new ones at the plant.”

Another concern was that the plant's “professional” level jobs, management or executive level jobs, would be filled with “in-house” employees coming from out of town.

Stewart also stressed the importance of studying the types of people that are moving to McCloud and why.

“If we aren't looking at the changes in our demographics we are not being honest with ourselves or the future residents of McCloud,” he said. “We need to look at the long-term implication and not just the short-term gains.”

Palais' countered that “the reports of the independent studies done for Nestle just do not support the claims made by ECONorthwest.”

“The ECONorthwest report claims we will employ just one half of a percent of the labor force in Siskiyou County, which is not the case,” he stated.

Palais referenced the 2007 Siskiyou County economic and demographic profiles and said they indicate that the total labor force in 2006 was 18,400 people. “One half percent of that is about 90,” he said. “That is not consistent with the typical 240 jobs that our plants employ.”

He also said that one independent study done for Nestle predicted the plant would bring an additional 240 indirect jobs to the county.

“One of the things that makes McCloud an attractive place to do business is that there is an existing labor force with the skills we need, such as machine maintenance mechanics, pipe welders, electricians, fork lift operators and office administrators.” said Palais.

Stewart pointed to what he called “other hidden costs” that would come with the bottling plant, including traffic, law enforcement and the impact on the fire department and ambulance services.

“These are things that need to be addressed,” said Stewart. “I have spoken with other cities back east that have bottling plants and they wished they had spent more time studying these types of impacts.”

Stewart said he is looking forward to more discussion and public participation regarding the issue.

“This is a 50 or 100 year contract, so I think we have an obligation and a duty to look at the implications,” he said. “The community is divided over this contract and what we'd like to see is enough discussion that the community feels satisfied.”

“Hopefully we can get to the point where we are getting treated much better than this contract reflects.” #

Eureka Times Standard – 4/2/08
By John Driscoll, staff writer

EUREKA -- Grim-faced fishermen and business owners faced fisheries managers at a packed meeting on Tuesday night, voicing anger, distrust and hopelessness over the gloomy salmon season promised this summer.

Many pleaded with the Pacific Fishery Management Council at the Red Lion Inn to adopt the most liberal of three options it is considering, and even asked for more time on the ocean in the late summer. Some pushed the council to shut down fishing altogether this year, while pressing for solutions to prevent further affects of dams, water diversions, sea lions, hatcheries and other problems.

Former Trinidad tackle dealer Thomas Richardson said that all three options -- ranging from no fishing to 10 days of fishing -- are unacceptable. He argued that the council has mismanaged the fishery, and fishermen are paying for it.

”I think this whole situation has been a waste of time,” he said.

”You guys have had 30 years to get this straight.”

The council has blamed poor ocean conditions for the dramatic lack of salmon expected to return to the Sacramento River this fall. That's based on a meager run of 2-year-old salmon that came up the river last year, an indicator of what can be expected the following year.

Biologists have also pointed to intensive water diversions and habitat problems in the Sacramento, which has been the bread-and-butter stock of the fishing industry.

Several speakers warned about serious economic impacts from a closed or severely limited fishery just two years after heavy restrictions buckled the commercial and sport fishing industry.

”The majority of our clients are here to fish for salmon only,” said Brad McHenry from the View Crest Lodge and RV Park in Trinidad.

The federal government could pass an emergency rule to allow fishing this year, although it has signaled its reluctance to do that.

Eureka commercial fisherman Russell Miller said that the council's options for commercial fishing -- allowing 3,000 fish in each of three

Northern California zones -- weren't realistic at all.

”Don't throw us these crumbs,” Miller said. “There are a whole lot of people who are going broke in the commercial industry.”

Some speakers said they weren't convinced that the council was making an accurate prediction of the abundance of salmon expected to run up the Sacramento.

Eureka attorney Stephen Rosenberg said he has been following the council for decades, and claimed it is always wrong when it comes to anticipated highs and lows -- with serious consequences.

He also brought up a simmering complaint that a program that brings young Sacramento River salmon to San Francisco Bay to be raised in pens was either shut down, or that the pens were damaged, in 2005.

Rosenberg also argued that sport fishing should be allowed this year.

”We can't really make a dent in this population,” he said.

The only option that allows fishing would spread 10 days over the three major summer holidays. Several people said that could prompt fishermen to head out to sea even if the weather is rough. It would also cause major traffic jams at boat launches, some said.

Retired fisheries biologist Roger Barnhart advocated that a punch card be used to allow fishermen to take 10 or 20 salmon total, but at anytime during the season.

The council will decide on the shape of the season next week in Seattle, and that will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval or modification. #

The California Senate on Tuesday approved spending $5.3 million to restore salmon habitat, responding to a population decline that may end salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year.

Lawmakers sent the bill to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on a 27-10 vote. Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Lisa Page said the governor has not taken a position on the bill.

The money would come from a $5.4 billion water bond approved by voters in 2006. The bill's author, Sen. Patricia Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, said it would be used to match about $20 million the federal government has made available for salmon projects.

The money would help remove barriers to salmon migration, restore spawning areas and monitor salmon populations.

Four Republicans joined Democrats in approving the bill. It passed without debate, but Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Murrieta (Riverside County), later said he opposed the measure because the state should have a comprehensive plan for spending the 2006 bond money.

The measure, Proposition 84, provides money for clean water, parks, flood control and conservation.

"I don't think we ought to be parceling out bits and pieces of the Prop. 84 money based on one member's pet projects," Hollingsworth said in an interview.

The federal Pacific Fishery Management Council is to decide this month whether to end the salmon season for the year. #