Humboldt County Board of Supervisors asks for Additional Environmental Review of Proposed Diversions of Trinity River Water to Sacramento River
Press release from Save California Salmon: (Please remember that this is not neutral reporting but a press release from one side of a situation).
Spring Chinook [Photo from the Salmon River Restoration Council and Watershed Research And Training Center]
Today the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to reconsiders its support for the proposed Sites Reservoir project in the Central Valley due to concerns it would have serious impacts on the Trinity River fishery and the counties water rights.
The board voted to send a letter to the Sites Authority asking for an additional environmental review of the project, and a letter requesting protections for the Trinity River’s water and reservoir carry over storage in all future water rights proceedings.
“Congratulations to all five Humboldt County Supervisors for doing the right thing to protect Humboldt County’s water rights, environment and economy by sending the two letters.” said Tom Stokely from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and Save California Salmon. Stokely helped write the letters with the supervisors.
The decision was based on a new hydrology report that shows temperature impacts to the Trinity River from the Sites Reservoir Project diversions to the Sacramento River. The Trinity River is the only out of basin diversion to the Central Valley state and federal water projects.
Over a dozen people from the Klamath and Trinity RIver commented in support of the resolutions, and expressed concern that other proposals such as the controversial permanent water contract for Westlands Water District and the new federal water project operations proposed by the Trump administration would also negatively impact the Klamath and Trinity River salmon. Those testifying included Hoopa High school and Trinidad elementary students.
“I should be in school learning geometry, figuring out what I want to do with my life, said Kylee Sorrell a sophomore at Hoopa High School, “but I am here fighting for my culture, for the water and most importantly for the salmon.”
The Yurok Tribe, who recently forced agencies to reconsider Klamath River flows and helped to win a major water rights taking lawsuit related to the 2001 Klamath River fish kill also expressed support for the board’s decisions.
“The Trinity River is a foundation of our fish runs, and our duty is to protect them,” said Mike Belchik Senior Water Policy Analyst for the Yurok Tribe. “ We stand firm in our belief that the Trinity River must be protected from harm as a result of the proposed operation of Sites Reservoir, and we fully support and join in Humboldt County’s actions to protect the Trinity River.”
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Sending the Trinity River over the mountain in big pipes even sounds like a bad idea but it’s worse than that.
I don’t know if the stare checked it out but Trinity River salmon were running up the rice checks. They could tell by the tiny nose tags. Trinity River fish don’t belong in Marysville rice farms I wonder if the fish can smell the Trinity River flowing down the Sacramento River
Not worth sacrificing Salmon for rice that is sold to China….
America First!
If China wants something from North California, shipping weed is a better idea, give China crime, welfare, lack of productivity, murder, and breakdown of social structure….
Dropping weed on China may actually be better than using SARS and The Neutron Bomb.
Oh for heavens sake. Can we propose sound solutions and not emotional rhetoric.
>”I don’t know if the stare checked it out but Trinity River salmon were running up the rice checks. ”
Eh? Can you provide a citation (a link to a reputable article) for that ? I can’t find one.
Usually the fish found up in the rice paddies are juvenile salmon which are pulled up in the irrigation diversions for the rice paddies. Adult salmon usually don’t end up in rice paddies.
Long story about the Sacramento River Salmon… new diversions without fish screens were prohibited in the Sacramento long ago. So no new diversions were built with fish screens… but the existing diversions were expanded !
F&G used to truck the young hatchery salmon downstream and release them below the last diversions.
A certain governor stopped that as ‘wasting money’. Sacramento river salmon run pretty much collapsed soon after that.
Fortunately the Sacramento river run has recovered in the past years.
If it rains, there with be good salmon runs.
If it doesn’t rain. Nothing will help them.
A cursory glance at some googled results doesn’t detail where or how the Trinity river water could be diverted. I didn’t realize there was currently a way to move that water into the central valley, and don’t see any mention of plans to do so. Anyone have a better understanding of this element?
The original diversion happened decades ago. Flows were brought down to 10% of historical flows and later restored to about 30% of historical flows. This article is about the proposed Sites reservoir.
Trinity river water is currently diverted at Lewiston Reservoir and shipped through Whiskeytown to the Sacramento river.
I would assume they maybe just pump more of it?
so its illegal for the landowners, but its fine for sack-toe…. ok got it.
Maybe the Jeffersonians weren’t so “old timey” after all
The original diversion happened decades ago. Flows were brought down to 10% of historical flows and later restored to about 30% of historical flows. This article is about the proposed Sites reservoir.
go Mike
More information is a good thing and I have no problem with the supervisors seeking additional information. But, so far, I have found no information that indicates there will be additional water taken from the Trinity to fill the Sites Reservoir. If anybody has a link to that information I’d appreciate it. According to Sites page the reservoir will be filled by winter runoff… and, in general, more water storage in California is a good thing.
On this site, the commentor b., is concerned they’ll implement a plan to take water from the Eel to fill the Sites reservoir. But that is a different issue than what the SCS is bringing up here.
Would the winter runoff that’s collected be water that would normally be returning to one of these rivers?
That’s a pretty big reservoir bu looking at the map. And I’m sure they’re going to want to fill it with Trinity river water again next year, and the year after that, and so on. My vote would be for the already struggling salmon population.