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Onward,
Alexander, Jeffrey, Becky and Deva
November
7, 2006
Coho, Goodbye
Pumping
the Klamath Dry
By FELICE PACE
In the Klamath River Basin these days
environmental news is dominated by talk about dam removal and,
occasionally, new restrictions on fishing. But now another issue
is poised to compete for the headlines. The California Department
of Fish and Game (CDFG) announced late last month that it plans
to give a hundred or so farmers and alfalfa ranchers in Siskiyou
County just south of the Oregon border an exemption from the
California Endangered Species Act. Released without fanfare,
the announcement caused barely a ripple in the regional media.
But below the surface a virtual tsunami may be forming.
The Scott and Shasta Rivers
are major Klamath tributaries. While salmon runs in these rivers
have been depressed for many years, fisheries scientists and
restorationists agree that the broad valleys and forested streams
of the Scott and Shasta have the greatest potential among all
Klamath tributaries to produce salmon. Furthermore, the Scott
River in particular could be the key to recovery of Klamath River
Coho salmon. While all Klamath Basin salmon stocks are "at
risk of extinction" according to the American Fisheries
Society, only Coho are listed as "threatened with extinction"
under provision of the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).
Ever since Klamath River Coho
were listed as "threatened", Fish and Game officials
have been meeting behind closed doors with Scott and Shasta River
irrigation interests. The irrigators are concerned because their
dams, diversions and irrigation pumps have regularly killed thousands
of salmon and steelhead. They want to be protected from prosecution
for killing Coho while continuing irrigation practices which
virtually dry up Scott and Shasta rivers and streams in drought
years. An example is 2001, a year in which the San Francisco
Chronicle quoted the local CDFG warden: " 'Everything has
died,' said Fish and Game Captain Chuck Konvalin of the Scott
River. 'The system has been dried up'."
Klamath River Basin Tribes,
conservation and fishing groups have been nervous about the closed
door meetings. As downstream interests, they asked to be included
in the talks only to be rebuffed by CDFG and the irrigators.
Now the reasons for the secret meetings are beginning to come
to light. While the actual Endangered Species Act exemption--technical
known as an "Take Permit" - has not been released pending
review by irrigator and state lawyers, preliminary environmental
documents indicate that, while ranchers and growers will exclude
fish from irrigation ditches, they will be allowed to continue
dewatering the Scott and Shasta Rivers. If fish need water, the
environmental documents indicate, the irrigators will consider
renting water to CDFG on an annual basis. In return the CDFG
will continue to have access to river sections that pass through
private ranches and alfalfa fields--something that some ranchers
have denied to CDFG since the Coho were listed as threatened.
There is every indication that
the Take Permit CDFG has negotiated with the irrigators will
not adequately address the critical issue of river flows. Flows
in the Scott River have become so low that many salmon can not
reach prime spawning grounds in dry years. According to the California
Department of Water Resources 54% or irrigation in the Scott
River Valley is now done with water pumped from groundwater.
The pumping--which began in earnest in the 1970s and has grown
ever since - is unregulated. The proposed Endangered Species
Act exemption will do nothing to bring irrigation pumping under
control. Under these circumstances, experts expect the dewatering
of these rivers to continue.
Because it is one of the prime
tools Fish and Game officials have to protect fish, one would
think that Fish and Game Code 5937 would be a central feature
of the Take Permit proposed for Scott and Shasta irrigators.
Code 5937 states that irrigators and other dam owners must allow
enough water to pass their dams and diversions to maintain fish
habitat below "in good condition." But those who know
these valleys also know that this law has never been enforced
in the Shasta and Scott Valleys. The non-enforcement of Fish
& Game Code 5937 was made public by San Francisco Chronicle
veteran reports Glen Martin and Tom Stienstra during the drought
in 2001. They quoted local CDFG warden Renie Cleland: "
'This has gone all the way to Sacramento,' said Cleland. 'It's
extremely politically sensitive. I was told to take no enforcement
action on it. These fish are dying. We've got five or six thousand
steelhead trout dead on the Scott, and (dead juvenile steelhead)
everywhere on the Shasta'."
What warden Cleland didn't
say is that Coho salmon were among the fish that died when irrigators
dried up the river that year and that the practice of looking
the other way was not new but had been the rule for as long as
anyone could remember.
The failure of state and local
officials to enforce basic California laws designed to protect
fish in the Shasta and Scott River Basins is but one of the secrets
which one can discover below the surface of Klamath Basin water
politics. But this one is likely to attract more attention than
the California Department of Fish and Game would like. That's
because not only have these state officials negotiated in secret
with private parties, they also propose turning over their responsibility
to oversee enforcement of the California Endangered Species Act
to a local non-elected board made up of the very ranchers and
farmers who would be the beneficiaries of the California ESA
exemption. Under the terms of the proposed Take Permit, the Siskiyou
Resource Conservation District would be in charge not only of
"monitoring irrigator compliance" with provisions of
the Take Permit but also with reporting non-compliance to Fish
and Game officials.
In effect, the very people
who are the beneficiaries of the permit would be in charge of
monitoring their own compliance and of reporting violations.
Turing over California Endangered
Species Act compliance to a locally-appointed board made up of
farmers and ranchers would set an important precedent and one
with great potential to negatively impact California's rarest
and most at risk species. That is why the proposed Take Permit
is likely to attract opposition from conservation, wildlife and
fishing groups that until now have not been involved in the Klamath
River Basin.
Involvement of new players
is what it may take to stop the dangerous CESA precedent in its
tracks. It is rumored that state officials have approached other
Basin interests suggesting that the proposed Scott and Shasta
California Endangered Species Act exemption be part of a broader
Klamath River deal that includes dam removal. The usual defenders
of Klamath River salmon want CDFG's support for Klamath dam removal
and may be willing to look the other way on the Take Permit in
order to solidify support for dam removal.
Meanwhile Coho salmon remain
at risk. As I write this article, Coho are holed-up in the Scott
River canyon waiting for rain to restore flows in the dewatered
Scott River so that they can reach their spawning grounds. Coho
in the Scott and Shasta remain at high risk; in two years out
of three the spawning populations are well below the 200-300
spawners scientists tell us are the minimum numbers needed to
maintain a salmon run over time. And year by year--as unrestrained
and unregulated groundwater pumping continues to expand - flows
in these rivers are less and less for a given amount of rainfall.
No one knows how long these
conditions can continue before Coho go extinct in the Scott and
Shasta--the Klamath tributaries where they once were most abundant.
One thing, however, is certain: If the hundred or so ranchers
and alfalfa growers and their political supporters get the Take
Permit they seek, the demise of Scott and Shasta River Coho salmon
will be one giant step closer to becoming reality.
Felice Pace has resided in the Klamath River Basin
since 1975 and has been involved in salmon restoration and salmon
politics since 1986. He can be reached at: felice@jeffnet.org
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