Dead adult salmon showing up in the Klamath

One would not know it from media reports, but those who live, work or recreate along the Klamath and Scott Rivers are reporting that “floaters” - which are dead juvenile salmon and steelhead - are becoming a regular sight along these two rivers. KlamBlog suspects the same is true on the Shasta and other streams with large agricultural diversions. While most irrigation ditches are still running full, these streams are already dry or are running low and hot.

Due mostly to a vast increase in groundwater pumping since 1977 

the Scott River now goes dry even in some non-drought years

Of even more concern is that, in the last day or two, Yurok fishermen have reported to the Yurok Tribe and to neighbors that they've observed a couple of dead adult salmon and numerous dead juvenile salmon in the Lower Klamath River near Blue Creek. Rising in wilderness, Blue Creek forms a major cold water refugia for salmonids and other fish where that cold stream enters the Klamath. If dead adult salmon are turning up there, it may indicate that cold water refugia on which Klamath Salmon rely to stay alive in a lethal river have become less effective. 

Along the Scott River, dead juvenile salmon and steelhead have been regularly seen by swimmers and others since mid-July. KlamBlog editor Felice Pace has personally observed dead juvenile steelhead recently in the Scott River at Jones Beach.

Where's the information?

The Califoirnia Department of Fish and Wildlife, the North Coast Water Board, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Yurok and Karuk Tribes and others collaborate on monitoring fish disease levels and mortality on the Klamath River. CDFW's “season summary” report on 2013 out-migrant salmon monitoring was issued on July 23rd. However, this report is not available on the CDFW website or on any other website as far as KlamBlog can determine. The latest fish health update from the US Fish and Wildlife Service was issued on July 22nd. This too is apparently not available on line.

KlamBlog has obtained a copy of the most recent fish health report. It includes the finding that by late June up to 100% of fish in the reach between the Salmon and Trinity River and 50% of the fish examined in the Klamath Estuary were found to be diseased. The scientists doing this work say this level of disease is not abnormal for the Klamath at this time of year; they're keeping the disease alert level at “yellow” rather than “red” because, they say, widespread fish mortality has not yet been detected.

Weekly prevalence of Ceratomyxa shasta infection in juvenile Fall Chinook salmon 

captured in the Salmon to Trinity River reach on the Klamath River, June-July 2013

 

The current situation then is that scientists are producing information on the state of fish disease and mortality in the Klamath and its tributaries but those responsible for getting that information out to the public are not doing their jobs. Why is information collected with taxpayer money which the public wants and needs not getting out? Where are the fish health and mortality updates and weekly press releases to inform the public? 

KlamBlog believes it is the responsibility of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife to keep the public informed about disease and fish mortality on the Klamath River. During times of drought, the agency should issue weekly media updates on Klamath and tributary fish and water conditions. CDFW insists that it is the top fish manager in California waters; therefore, they are the ones who should be getting out the information.

The KBRA effect

KlamBlog suspects that the lack of public information on the People's Klamath River and the People's Klamath Salmon is a product of the culture of secrecy which has developed in the Klamath River Basin as a consequence of the KBRA Dam Deal and the KBRA Water Deal. Having bought into low Klamath River flows, those tribe's and fishing organizations which signed the KBRA will face embarrassment and criticism if the public learns that fish are dying for lack of water while federal irrigators continue to get full – or nearly full – deliveries. Many of those who would once have been screaming bloody murder over this are now meekly staying in their seats in the backroom – or, even worse, shilling for the Bureau of Reclamation - as more and more salmon die in the Klamath River.

It is sad that the past defenders of Klamath Salmon have been compromised and co-opted into silence at a time when Klamath Salmon need their help so critically.

Meanwhile on the Trinity

A major controversy is developing over plans by the US Bureau of Reclamation to release additional water from behind Trinity Dam down the Trinity and Lower Klamath in hopes of preventing another massive adult salmon die-off like what occurred in the Lower River in 2002. However, Reclamation plans no complementary increase in Klamath River flows. This has some salmon advocates concerned that Klamath River salmon will be lured upriver by the increased flows only to encounter lethal conditions in the Klamath River above the confluence with the Trinity River. Severely depressed Shasta and Scott River Salmon stocks could be placed at even greater risk if that is what takes place.

Meanwhile, rich and power agricultural interests in the San Joaquin Valley have filed a letter declaring their intent to sue to prevent Reclamation from releasing more water down the Trinity River. They want that water diverted to the Sacramento River instead so that it will come to them as irrigation water. Ironically, while blocking the increased flow would hurt Trinity River origin salmon, it may be better for Klamath, Salmon, Scott and Shasta River Salmon. That is because – if flows remain low – the large run of salmon will remain longer in the nearby ocean and Klamath estuary until flows naturally increase with the coming of fall. Naturally higher flows and lower temperature in the fall would mean less chance of adult salmon mortality. 

Huge pumps suck Trinity and Sacramento River water from the  

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and send it south to San Joaquin growers

Of course a better solution would be for Reclamation to allow more water to flow down BOTH the Trinity and Klamath Rivers. As the holder of high priority water rights, the federal government could - and should - make that decision. Any irrigation deficit within the Klamath Project can be made up by pumping more groundwater. Federal and state taxpayers have already provided these irrigators with plenty of wells and pumps.   

Allowing the Salmon to delay their spawning run, however, would inconvenience tribal commercial fishing interests and in-river sports fishermen and guides who count on catching these fish in Klamath and Trinity Rivers beginning now.

The Wyden Hearing Message: How will Klamath River Basin leaders respond?

Thanks to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, Klamath water issues finally received a hearing in Congress. Sadly, however, the hearing produced little that is new....at least not from the witnesses. Leaders from state, tribal and county government, federal and private irrigation and environmental groups repeated the same tired old arguments once again. Plenty of “press” resulted but little that could be termed real “news”.

What was new came not from the testimony (which you can read on line) but rather from Senator Wyden. For one thing, the Senator announced that irrigation interests served by the US Bureau of Reclamation would receive cheap, federal power courtesy of the Bonneville Power Administration. This will provide federal irrigation interests with a competitive advantage over private irrigators in the Upper Basin, Shasta and Scott Valleys. It is another example of why we call these federally-served irrigation interests the Basin's Irrigation Elite. 

Massively Inefficient: three of dozens of energy guzzling pumps used by Klamath 

Project Irrigators to move water and wastewater to and from subsided fields

Senator Wyden appears to reject the KBRA as a viable solution. In his remarks opening the senate hearing (also available online) he noted that the KBRA “is making a big difference for the on-project irrigators. But the fact is hundreds of farm households and citizens have been left behind.”

Wyden backed that up at another point: 

          “...all parties should have a chance to have input before the committee advances any legislation and I state that whether or not they have been for the previous agreements or have differing views.”

The Senator noted that “the KBRA and essentially what has been agreed to at this point is simply unaffordable in the current federal budget environment.”

When Senator Wyden announced that the Irrigation Elite and Reclamation had obtained access to inexpensive federal power, he offered support for similar lower power rates for private irrigators. By this he meant irrigators above Upper Klamath Lake; no one has suggested that irrigators in the Shasta and Scott Valleys also receive Bonneville power. And the Senator committed to “sitting down” with “basin interests to find a long term solution that reflects both the anticipated water supply in the years to come” and the “economic issues” faced by “family farmers.”  

Senator Wyden concluded his opening remarks with a commitment:

           “I want everybody to understand that we are going to stay at this, we are going to stay at it until we find a solution this time.”

Abuse of the Klamath River and Klamath Communities under the KHSA and KBRA is finally challenged

For weeks now, news from and about the Klamath River Basin has been dominated by speculation that “calls” for water would be made in the Upper Klamath River Basin. A water “call” is a term of art in western water law indicating when a water right holder with senior rights calls for those with junior rights to curtail water use so that the senior right holder gets water.

Speculation ended on June 10^th when the US Bureau of Reclamation and the Klamath Tribes of Oregon¹ asked the State of Oregon to shut down irrigation above Upper Klamath Lake so that the Reclamation and the Tribes' senior water rights could be met. 

Along with the Williamson and Sprague Rivers, the Wood River flows 

into Upper Klamath Lake. Hay and Cattle Agriculture dominate here.   

The current “calls” are the first ever in the Oregon portion of the Klamath River Basin and are possible now because the State of Oregon has completed its part of the long-running Klamath Water Rights Adjudication. The state proposed Final Order of Determination is now in the hands of state-court Judge Cameron Wogan where challenges to the proposed Final Order will be resolved.

Irrigators above Upper Klamath Lake are private entities and engage primarily in hay and cattle operations. Some of the pastures are used by cattle trucked in from California. According to the State of Oregon, irrigators above Upper Klamath Lake hold water rights which are junior to those of the Klamath Tribes for in-stream flows as well as to rights held by the Bureau of Reclamation for federal irrigation by private entities below Upper Klamath Lake.

Some of the irrigators who will be required to stop diverting water have asked Judge Wogan for a “stay” to prevent the state from enforcing the Adjudication's Final Order pending challenges in his court; a decision on the stay request has not issued. When the water “call” was made, these same irrigators asked Judge Wogan for a temporary restraining order to prevent irrigation shut offs. That request has been denied.

As surface water diversions above Upper Klamath Lake are shut down, more water will flow into Upper Klamath Lake. That means more water will be available to the Bureau of Reclamation. Reclamation will decide how to divide that water among three uses:

• irrigation within the federal Klamath Irrigation Project, 
  
  
• a water supply to maintain wetlands on Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges, and 
  
  
• flows in the Klamath River for ESA-listed Coho Salmon and to sustain Chinook Salmon, Lamprey and other aquatic resources to which the Yurok, Hoopa, Resighini and Quartz Valley tribes have a right by virtue of their federally-designated reservations.²

When not under court order, Reclamation has almost always prioritized delivering irrigation water to private growers within its Klamath Irrigation Project. This year will be no different. Buoyed by a new Biological Opinion on how its operations affect ESA listed species, the Bureau is already dewatering Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. 

Spring flows in the Klamath River have been reduced by Reclamation to about 1,000 cfs which could be an historic low for spring river flows. In fact, during the current water year (beginning October 1st), Reclamation has been starving the Klamath River for water as it has every year since the KBRA Water Deal was signed. 

Below is a graph showing flows below Iron Gate Dam since October 1st along with the long term (52 year) average or median flows. This water year actual flows – which are controlled by Reclamation - have been far below the historic average except when the federal agency had to dump water down the river because high storm run-off had already filled all available Upper Basin storage.

Flows below Iron Gate Dam since October 1, 2012 

Historic (52 years) median(average) flows are the gold dots

The other water “calls”

Taking on salmon hatcheries - EPIC files a lawsuit, threatens more

The overwhelming majority of fisheries scientists across the US and around the world concluded over a decade ago that fish hatcheries pose significant threats to native fish species. Getting federal and state hatcheries to change operations in order to minimize those impacts, however, has proven difficult to impossible.

That may be changing in Northern California. Armed with a new comprehensive review of fish hatcheries in California,  the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) recently initiated actions intended to change how three Northcoast hatcheries - the Trinity, Mad and Smith River Fish Hatcheries - operate. The hatcheries are either run directly by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife or CDFW funds their operation.

A lawsuit challenging operation of the Mad River Hatchery was filed by EPIC on May 17th. Letters of intent to sue over operation of the Trinity and Smith River Hatcheries were also sent to CDFW and other responsible officials. And EPIC may not stop there. The organization recently told KlamBlog that it is closely examining other salmon and steelhead hatcheries, including Iron Gate Hatchery on the Klamath River.

Processing salmon eggs at Iron Gate Hatchery

Selecting adult salmon for egg taking harms genetic diversity 

In each of the three hatcheries EPIC has challenged, the claim is that those responsible failed to consult with the National Marine Fisheries Service concerning how the hatchery impacts wild salmon and steelhead populations listed as threatened or endangered pursuant to the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The ESA requires that a notice letter stating the intent to sue be sent to defendants at least 60 days prior to filing a lawsuit.

In its notice letters, EPIC invites hatchery operators to meet and consult with the environmental group; voluntarily complying with ESA provisions is, therefore, an option. EPIC is represented in this matter by Peter Frost of the Western Environmental Law Clinic (WELC). 

Iron Gate

Built to mitigate for the loss of salmon habitat and production as a result of construction of PacifiCorp's Iron Gate Dam, Iron Gate Fish Hatchery is operated by California Department of Fish and Wildlife and is among those evaluated in the statewide hatchery review.  The review found that, when it comes to applying best science practices, Iron Gate is flunking.

Reviewing scientists found, for example, that Iron Gate's Coho rearing program is in compliance with 16 recommended best practices but fails to comply with 24 other best science practices. Compliance with 5 recommended practices could not be determined from available information.