Trinity River
Hoopa Tribe Opposes San Joaquin Bill
(64.8 kb) Posted 10.25.07
Thompson Turns Out Trinity River Bill
Ninth Circuit Court Rejects Petition to Rehear Trinity River Case
Healdsburg Drops Out of Lawsuit
Trinity River Flow to Grow
Appeals Court Approves Increased Flows
The Trinity Wrench in the Works
9th Circuit Court Favors Trinity River
www.fishsniffer.com Article on Protest
Tribes Rally for More Water
Hoopa Rejects DOI Proposal
Feds Trinity Plan
U.S. Offers California Tribe Water Plan to End Dispute
Comments on
Westlands Proposal
(2.08 MB)
Posted 01.14.04
LA Times Reports on the Trinity Struggle
Hoopa Tribe Opposes Wanger Decision
Irrigation Interests Fight Trinity River Restoration
Source: http://www.schlosserlawfiles.com/
Date: January 25th, 2005Since time immemorial, the Trinity River of Northwest California has been the life blood of Hoopa Indian culture and subsistence. In 1963, the river was dammed by the U.S. Interior Department and “surplus” water began to be pumped over to the Sacramento River from Lewiston, California, near Weaverville, in Trinity County. The 1955 law that authorized the dam prohibited excess water diversions because of the injuries that could cause to fish and people downstream along the Trinity River. Even in 1955, Congress knew that fish do poorly without water.
After 37 years of neglect of the Secretary’s duty to take “appropriate measures to ensure the preservation and propagation of fish and wildlife,” 69 Stat. 719, Congress grew impatient with the slow pace of fish protection efforts and in 1992 enacted Section 3406 (b)(23) of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. This new law ordered completion of the ongoing Fishery Flow Evaluation Study and implementation of its conclusions; it also set a minimum amount of 340,000 acre-feet to be allowed to flow down the Trinity River. This amount is equivalent to the third-lowest unregulated flow in the river.
On December 19, 2000, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt traveled to Hoopa California, where he and the Tribal Chairman signed a Record of Decision setting forth the plan for Trinity River restoration. The heart of that plan is increasing the water left in (released to) the Trinity River. The ROD also provided for a detailed Implementation Plan. The amount of water releases depends on the “water year type” (wet, dry, normal, etc.). The ROD also allows more than half of the Trinity’s flow at Lewiston to continue to be exported through tunnels into the Sacramento Valley.
Even before the Record of Decision (“ROD”) was signed, Westlands Water District, a huge San Joaquin Valley irrigation entity, sued to block Trinity River restoration. While the Westlands case has delayed restoration, and appeals are still pending, the courts have also allowed increasing water releases to the river and have directed the Interior Department to carry out other restoration work.
In each year since the ROD was signed in 2000, water releases to the Trinity River have been set by the federal courts. In 2001, District Court Judge Oliver Wanger ruled that the Interior Department must prepare a new Environmental Impact Statement on the restoration work effect, but he permitted the critically dry water amount, 369,000 acre-feet, to be released, which was appropriate under the ROD for that very dry year. In early 2002, the Hoopa Valley Tribe filed a motion to modify the preliminary injunction and the Court authorized release of 468,600 acre-feet of water to the Trinity River.
On December 10, 2002, Judge Wanger issued a Memorandum Decision and Order ruling that the Interior Department violated two environmental laws when it issued the 2000 ROD and directing that a revised Environmental Impact Statement be prepared. The Tribe appealed. In 2003, the Court authorized the Department to retain 453,000 acre-feet of water for the Trinity River, plus use an additional 50,000 acre-feet if necessary for late summer conditions. In 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Hoopa Valley Tribe’s request to use 647,000 af (the normal year volume) for water releases to the Trinity River.
On June 14, 2004, Interior requested additional time to complete the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement for Trinity River restoration. On June 21, 2004, the Court granted that request and extended until December 23, 2004, the time for completion of the SEIS. The District Court’s docket sheets show the details of the continuing litigation.
The SEIS is available for review at:
http://www.usbr.gov/mp/mp150/envdocs/trinity_seis/index.html
On July 13, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed all but one of Judge Wanger’s rulings. The court held that no SEIS is needed. The purpose and need statement and the range of alternatives examined in the 2000 FEIS were adequate. The use of power plant bypasses for temperature control was fully examined. The ROD’s effect on California’s energy reliability was insignificant and did not require supplementation. The court upheld the ruling that Fish and Wildlife’s Biological Opinion RPM which limited movement of the X2 point in the Bay Delta and NMFS’ RPM which required immediate implementation of ROD flows were invalid because they required major changes in the proposed restoration action. Those RPM are unenforceable but the Biological Opinions are otherwise valid.
Westlands and NCPA petitioned for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc but, on November 5, 2004, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected both petitions. The court noted that no judge requested a vote on the petitions for en banc review. No party petitioned for Supreme Court review so the Ninth Circuit ruling is the law of the land.
While the Ninth Circuit ruled that “nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the ROD, including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River,” the ROD’s success depends on restoration work in the Trinity watershed as well as flows. Within the first three years after the ROD, the Trinity Management Council was to complete bank restoration work at 24 sites below Lewiston Dam. They actually completed zero. The TMC appointed a subcommittee to examine its lack of progress and got a scathing report. Instead of rectifying the faults, Reclamation proposed to cut the fiscal year 2005 funds for restoration. These two problems are of great concern to the Hoopa Valley Tribe and are the subject of intensive negotiations and discussions.
Meanwhile, the Klamath River portion of the Trinity River fish migration path has become increasingly hazardous. In 2002, between 34,000 and 68,000 adult Chinook salmon died in the lower Klamath River below the confluence with the Trinity. Analysis showed that most of those fish would have returned to the Trinity River but for the bacteria-laden water they met downstream. As a result, the Hoopa Valley Tribe intervened as a plaintiff in a case originally brought by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Association against the federal agencies controlling Klamath River water releases. On July 14, 2003, Judge Armstrong ruled that the agencies had violated the Endangered Species Act. On October 18, 2005, the Ninth Circuit affirmed, noting that the agencies disregarded the life cycle of the species, and saying, “all the water in the world in 2010 and 2011 will not protect the coho, for there will be none [then] to protect.” On remand, Judge Armstrong granted an injunction directing the Bureau of Reclamation to limit irrigation diversions if they would cause the river to fall below 100% of the long-term flows of the Biological Opinion.
In 2003, Judge Armstrong also ruled that a trial would be necessary to determine if the agencies violated trust obligations owed to the Hoopa Valley and Yurok Tribes by killing the returning fish. The Hoopa Valley Tribe and the federal defendants entered into a settlement in October 2004 under which a technical consultation group will be created and crucial fisheries studies will be funded. The Yurok Tribe did not settle its claim but it was dismissed before trial on jurisdictional grounds.
The continuing efforts of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and its local and environmentally conscious allies will lead slowly, but ineluctably, to the restoration of one of California’s most beautiful and precious rivers, the Trinity.
Reclamation Increases Trinity River Flows By 100,000 Acre-FeetSource: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Office
December 19th, 2000
SACRAMENTO, CA - U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger ruled Friday, April 19, on the amount of water to be released this year from the Federal Central Valley Project (CVP) to the Trinity River. The ruling requires 468,600 acre-feet to be released in water year 2002. This amounts to an increase of 100,000 acre-feet over last year. The order requires that Reclamation manage the increased releases to avoid adverse effects upon CVP water and power users. Currently, releases from Lewiston Dam to the Trinity River are 300 cubic feet per second (cfs) but will be increased on April 28, ramping up to 6,000 cfs by May 2. The 6,000 cfs release will be maintained for 3 days, then gradually decreased over a 2-month period. The daily release schedule is available on the Central Valley Operation Office’s (CVO) website at: www.mp.usbr.gov/cvo/.
The Trinity River Mainstem Fishery Restoration Record of Decision, (ROD), which was signed on December 19, 2000, would have increased flows down the Trinity River by 25 to 48 percent of the average annual inflow to Trinity Reservoir; however, in March 2001, a preliminary injunction limited the Lewiston Dam release to the Trinity River to 368,600 acre-feet while a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report is prepared to further analyze impacts resulting from implementation of the ROD. The recent ruling is in response to a request to the court to modify the Preliminary Injunction filed by the Hoopa Valley Tribe and the Yurok Tribe seeking increased releases to the Trinity River this year for fishery restoration purposes.
For additional information or to obtain a copy of the new flow schedule for the Trinity River, please call Jeffrey McCracken in the Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TDD916-978-5608), or Tom Patton at CVO at 916-979-2185 (916-979-2183).
Click for Current Trinity River Flow From Lewsiton Dam
The Trinity River has much to offer in the way of fishing. The waters are teeming with Salmon, Half-Pounders and Steelhead. Work the slow currents and holes to catch Salmon. Stay in the riffles and tail-outs for Steelhead. Fly fishing is best for half-pounders along the length of the bar. There are several locations in which you will find public access to the river bars, some of which include the sand bar below the shopping center, below the Rodeo Grounds on Pine Creek Road, the Tish Tang campground, and Mill Creek just north of downtown. Since the local grocery store offers no fishing supplies, bait and other supplies can be purchased at Pearson’s in Weitchpec (15 minutes north of Hoopa) or in Willow Creek (15 minutes south of Hoopa).
Click Here for more Information on the Trinity River
Click Here for Stage and Discharge of North Coast Rivers
Chinook Smolts
PO Box 1348 ~ Hoopa, California 95546 ~ (530) 625.4211
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