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<CENTER><FONT face=Verdana, color=#006633 size=4 Sans-serif Helvetica, Arial,
Verdana,><B>Harm to Trinity seen in renewed water
contracts</B></FONT><BR></CENTER><FONT face=Verdana, Sans-serif Helvetica,
Arial, Verdana,><FONT color=#000000 size=2>
<P align=justify>By SALLY MORRIS <BR><BR>The Trinity County Board of Supervisors
is hoping to make noise about potential negative impacts on Trinity Lake
recreation as well as long-term temperatures and flows for Trinity River
fisheries from proposed long-term renewals of water contracts in the Central
Valley. <BR><BR>The board has sent a series of letters to the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation regarding the agency's proposed 25- and 50-year renewals of water
contracts with hundreds of agricultural, municipal and industrial permit holders
south of the San Francisco Bay Delta. <BR><BR>The federal government is renewing
multiple water contracts for 25 years and in many cases guaranteeing an
automatic 25-year extension beyond that based on environmental analyses that
Trinity County, among others, has found serious fault with. <BR><BR>The board of
supervisors has asked the Bureau of Reclamation to undertake a much more
extensive environmental analysis for the proposed renewals through the
preparation of a full environmental impact statement rather than the more
limited environmental assessments that have so far been offered for public
review. The environmental assessments have been accompanied by findings that the
contract renewals will result in no significant impacts. <BR><BR>"I believe
these contracts will have substantial impacts on the Trinity River, Trinity Lake
recreation and our economy, sending more water south of the delta. There are
issues not being disclosed. They have never disclosed where the additional water
is to come from," said the senior planner for Trinity County's Natural Resources
Division, Tom Stokely. <BR><BR>The proposed contract renewals involve recipients
in the Delta - Mendota Canal Unit of the Central Valley Project, Westlands Water
District, Pajaro Valley, Santa Clara Valley and the San Luis Unit. Although the
total volume of water promised in the contracts is not increased from current
amounts, the renewed contracts promise up to 100-percent delivery by the end of
the contract periods. Most of the contractors now do not use all of what they
are allocated. The Westlands Water District's annual use averages about 55
percent of the total amount of water it is contracted for. <BR><BR>Where there
is currently up to 6 million acre feet of water delivered per year to CVP
contractors, the renewed contracts propose to deliver up to 1 million more
acre-feet in a year. An acre-foot is generally considered enough to serve a
family of four for a year. <BR><BR>The proposed increase in deliveries is based
on long-term proposals that include raising Shasta Dam and increasing water
storage capacity at other reservoirs, along with improving the state's pumping
facilities to increase capacity. "None of the actions have been taken and would
require many years to accomplish, so the question is, where is the water coming
from?" Stokely said, adding he believes it will come from draining Trinity and
Shasta Lakes at the expense of recreational users, and cold-water temperatures
needed for summer releases to the Sacramento, Trinity and Klamath river
fisheries. <BR><BR>He said he also believes there will be serious impacts to the
Trinity Public Utilities District because if power plants are bypassed due to
low reservoirs, the costs to purchase the power back will rise. <BR><BR>The
Trinity River flows decision, signed in 2000 during the Clinton administration,
calls for an average yearly increase in river flows of 255,000 acre feet to aid
in the restoration of the river's salmon and steelhead populations. Increased
dam releases to the river are supposed to be offset by a 4-percent reduction in
exports from Trinity to the CVP of 240,000 acre feet for a net decrease of
15,000 acre feet per year in Trinity Lake storage. The lake holds almost 2.5
million acre feet of water when full. The minimum level considered necessary to
provide enough cold water to release for fish survival in the summer is 600,000
acre-feet at Trinity Lake. However, Stokely said the minimum pool is not
enforceable and that even the flows decision acknowledged there will be drought
years when there won't be enough water to meet the increased river flows called
for in the plan as well as all contracted obligations. <BR><BR>"My worst fear is
they will exhaust the reservoirs going into the next drought cycle and there
will not be enough cold water to keep the Trinity River cold, let alone the
Sacramento and the Klamath," he said. <BR><BR>"The problem with the Bureau's
environmental documents is they don't disclose that. They provide no meaningful
analysis. There is no disclosure on Trinity River basin impacts and I think it
will be catastrophic," Stokely said. He added there are hundreds of contracts
involved, splitting deliveries into numerous units, but there is no cumulative
analysis of the impacts. The board of supervisors has submitted extensive
comments challenging the documents and calling on the Bureau to develop a range
of alternatives other than automatic renewals for consideration. Among them
would be a plan for retiring a few hundred thousand acres of waterlogged,
drainage-impacted lands high in selenium and other toxic contaminants to achieve
water savings for environmental uses. <BR><BR>The board's comments state, "It is
likely that a thorough analysis of a reasonable range of alternatives will
demonstrate that continued irrigation of lands subject to drainage problems is
not in the best interests of California and its limited water resources."
<BR><BR>The board has also called for analysis of the direct and cumulative
impacts to Trinity Lake from reduced carryover storage and associated impacts to
recreation as well as impacts on Trinity power costs, tribal trust obligations
to the Hoopa and Yurok Indians, and assurances that there are to be no adverse
temperature impacts to the Trinity River's fishery from diversion of its water
to the Sacramento River. <BR><BR>The board voted 3-0 to send comments on the
proposed long-term contract renewals, with Bill Chambers abstaining because he
is employed by the Bureau of Reclamation.</FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>