With injunction denied, salmon trial continues

Issue Date: July 9, 2008

By Kate Campbell
Assistant Editor

Sacramento Valley farmers are breathing a sigh of relief now that an immediate threat to their water supply has been resolved. Late last month a federal district judge in Fresno denied an emergency request by environmentalists to lift the gates of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, which would have sent an estimated 300,000 acre-feet of water down river.

The request was made to help endangered fish migrate upstream to spawn in the Sacramento River and its tributaries. Testimony revealed, however, that most of the chinook upward spring migration has already concluded and only an incidental number of salmon would benefit from the emergency action.

"We're relieved that farmers who receive water delivered through the Tehama Colusa Canal can continue to receive water during the height of the irrigation season, at least for now," said Chris Scheuring, California Farm Bureau Federation Natural Resources and Environmental Division managing counsel.

"But, the ongoing litigation, as well as the situation in the San Joaquin Valley, are evidence that species laws are colliding with the water needs of both urban and agricultural California," Scheuring said. "The only long-term solution is to ease the underlying water scarcity by bringing new supplies online to match the state's growing needs."

The request for emergency relief came in the middle of an ongoing trial related to the decline of endangered winter and spring chinook salmon and steelhead runs.

During the emergency proceeding, about 18 irrigation districts faced the prospect of an immediate cutoff of water. That action, if it had been approved by the court, would have come at the height of irrigation season in the Sacramento Valley. Water transported through the canal is delivered to farmers in Tehama, Colusa, Glenn and northern Yolo counties.

"We're breathing a sigh of relief, at least temporarily," said Orland farmer Mike Vereschagin. "This situation has everyone quite worried. The court's denial will help us finish up this season's crops and move toward harvest."

Vereschagin, who is president of the Glenn County Farm Bureau, said farmers who use water supplied through the canal grow crops on about 150,000 acres valued at about $250 million a year. He said the agricultural community remains concerned about what the court might rule for the operation of the dam's gates and diversions in August.

"It looks now like we'll squeak by," he said. "But July is a critical month here for orchard crops."

Unfortunately, Vereschagin said, reliance on well water is becoming more difficult since the water table is dropping and there's a very long wait to have wells lowered or drilled in the four-county area.

"We've had reports of agricultural wells going dry and now we're beginning to hear reports of a few domestic wells going dry too," he said. "Well drillers are telling me that for the big rigs--those that can go down 1,000-plus feet--they've got at least three months worth of drilling ahead of them."

At the conclusion of the late June proceedings, Federal District Judge Oliver Wanger said that while he was denying the emergency motion to immediately lift the gates at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, he is leaning toward ordering the gates open as early as Sept. 2.

That would be about two weeks earlier than normal and would be an effort to ease the down migration of juvenile salmon making their way to the ocean for two years before returning to the Sacramento River. Wanger said he wants to hear more testimony on that matter before issuing a final ruling.

Though irrigation peaks in July and August, if September is a hot month, Vereschagin said opening the gates two weeks early could again threaten growers with a loss of water at a critical time.

Red Bluff Diversion Dam on the Sacramento River was completed in 1964. It's a concrete structure--52 feet high and about 6,000 feet long with 11 gates--located about two miles southeast of Red Bluff.

When the dam's gates are closed, the water level rises behind the dam and water flows by gravity into the 111-mile-long Tehama Colusa Canal to the water districts for distribution. The canal also supplies water for 20,000 acres of Sacramento Valley wildlife refuges.

The National Marine Fisheries Service redesignated the Sacramento River winter-run chinook endangered in December 1993. In April of this year, Wanger invalidated part of the biological opinion aimed at protecting the winter and spring salmon runs from the operational effects of the Central Valley Project, as well as protecting steelhead runs, because it did not adequately protect these three fish species.

Because of the uncertainties about the water supply, Vereschagin said he has been relying on groundwater early in the growing season and counting on surface water deliveries for later.

"We'll continue now as planned," he said. "I've been saving my district water and planned to start using it in July and August, when groundwater will be at the lowest level. If the judge had ruled against us, I would have lost a lot of water.

"Some farmers have purchased supplemental water, at triple the price, to have it transferred in when needed from behind the dam. There was concern about whether we'd even be able to use that purchased water," Vereschagin said.

For nearly a decade, the Tehama Colusa Canal Authority has been trying to get a pump station built that would supply the water conveyance system without drawing on water collected behind the dam.

A $160 million construction project to install adequately sized pumps has completed environmental reviews and is moving toward the permitting stage. There currently is an experimental pump at the head of the canal with a pumping capacity of about 465 cubic feet per second, but peak water demand requires about 1,000 to 1,200 cfs.

"We're moving in the direction of a permanent solution that will provide long-term water supply reliability for farmers while simultaneously providing benefits to the fishery resource," said Jeff Sutton, Tehama Colusa Canal Authority general manager. "The Red Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project consists of construction of a state-of-the-art, positive barrier fish screen and a pumping plant at the canal's Red Bluff headworks.

"These new facilities will address the issues of species protection and water supply reliability," Sutton said. "The project will follow in the footsteps of success stories we've seen all along the Sacramento River for fish screens and managed diversions. That benefits farmers and gets us out from under the regulatory umbrella of the Endangered Species Act.

"For now, the judge's denial of the request to raise the Red Bluff Diversion Dam gates will allow us to continue water deliveries," he said. "Now we go back to the status-of-the-species phase of the trial. That still could result in operating constraints until the National Marine Fisheries Service issues a new biological opinion in March 2009."

If the court finds during the current proceedings that Central Valley Project operations are causing jeopardy to the endangered fish species, it could impose interim remedies to increase protections.

Proposed interim actions include:

• Modifying Lake Shasta water releases to establish and maintain a water temperature of 56 degrees Fahrenheit at Balls Ferry.
• Modifying Shasta Reservoir releases to conserve water and maximize the amount of stored water--especially cold water--carried over to the 2009 water year, which would further reduce water supplies for this year. Water years operate from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
• Open Red Bluff Diversion Dam gates to allow passage of adult salmon and reduce mortality of juveniles. There currently are fish ladders at this location, which experts say may slow migration but does not prevent it.
• Maintain Clear Creek flows at a minimum of 200 cfs in June and a minimum of 150 cfs in July and August.

"The outcome of this case is important to farmers and ranchers throughout the state," Scheuring said. "Until the trial concludes, Farm Bureau will continue to vigorously defend the rights of our members and also work to ensure the court's final ruling takes these rights into consideration."

(Kate Campbell is a reporter for Ag Alert. She may be contacted at kcampbell@cfbf.com.)

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