Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (762308)	1/8/2014 6:45:15 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573023

Doesn't really matter, if you're in another drainage basin there are numbers of endangered species there too: We are working to protect the wetland areas of the Eel River watershed. These areas provide habitat for many of our 31 rare and endangered wildlife species. eelriverwatershed.org The people and agencies who manage the Russian River have been using water diverted from the Eel River to mask problems in the Russian River for decades. The Russian River is over-appropriated, meaning that during the dry season the amount of water used from the Russian River exceeds the natural inflow of its tributaries and watershed. As a result, both rivers suffer real damages. Agricultural, municipal and recreational users of the Russian River watershed have come to rely on the plumbing that transfers Eel River water into the Russian River’s East Branch at PG&E’s Potter Valley Project (PVP). FOER’s work is to end the abuse of the Eel River as the bandage for the Russian, and to get both rivers on the path to sustainability, recovery, abundance and restoration. California’s State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), the agency that allocates surface water rights, in 1986 set minimum dry season flows for the Russian River through an order called Decision 1610 (D.1610). [See figure one: Russian River Water System, on page 7 for the existing and future proposed flow requirements.] The flows were intended to prevent dewatering of the Russian River, improve habitat, flows, water quality and temperatures for salmon and steelhead. In large part, the flows were calculated to use Eel River water stored in, and then released from, Lake Mendocino – the Army Corps of Engineers’ flood control reservoir on the Russian River just northeast of Ukiah. After salmon in both the Russian and Eel watersheds were listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, it became clear that the flows set by D.1610 were a factor in the species’ decline. The problems with D.1610 flows were disclosed in two Biological Opinions (“BiOp”) issued under the Endangered Species Act: one for the upper Eel River and one for the Russian River. Both were produced by the federal National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Both BiOps mandate changes in seasonal minimum flows previously required under D.1610. The Eel River BiOp increased flows in the Eel downstream of the PVP diversion to improve fishery and water conditions, and significantly reduced flows diverted to the Russian River. The Russian River BiOp found that existing minimum flow requirements were too high, and so “negatively affect the ability of salmon and steelhead populations to survive and recover in the Russian River watershed.” The BiOp states that, “high water velocities associated with the project’s artificially elevated summer flows and stream channelization greatly limit the quantity and quality of juvenile salmon and steelhead rearing habitat in Dry Creek [the location of Warm Springs Dam and Lake Sonoma] and the upper Russian River,” and disrupt the formation of the lagoon at the mouth of the Russian River estuary. (NMFS, RR Biological Opinion, Sept. 24, 2008, p 243) The Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) is charged with implementing D.1610. To reduce impacts on Russian River fisheries, SCWA is now required to apply to the SWRCB to revise D.1610. SCWA has started the multi-year preparation of several Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) describing the proposed changes to Russian River flows, alternatives, their environmental impacts and proposed mitigations. The most complex of the documents will be part of SCWA’s application to SWRCB for revisions to D.1610. SCWA’s “Fish Habitat Flows and Water Rights Project” and Draft EIR, now expected in early 2014. This will go through public hearings and result in a Final EIR. The SWRCB will then hold more than a dozen public hearings over the next several years before issuing a new final order for minimum flows in the Russian River. In the meantime, FOER is working hard to provide new concepts and scientific modeling of storage and flows in the Russian River, so that we are fully up to speed when the DEIR is released. One of FOER’s priorities is that the Russian River must be made whole without taking water from the Eel. We are working on hydrologic models without Eel River transfers. We are looking at improvements to fish habitat in the Russian River and tributaries, as well as significantly reducing water demands during the dry seasons. During low flow periods for the Russian River, Eel River water (released from storage in Lake Mendocino) should not be used to increase flows and dilute waters of the lower Russian River polluted by leaky septic systems; sources of pollution must be corrected instead. We are following changes in grape growing practices to reduce or eliminate the impacts of large frost control pumping and spraying, which have dewatered streams and been documented to strand and kill many juvenile steelhead. We are pressing regulators to identify and eliminate the hundreds of illegal and unpermitted water diversions in the Russian River watershed, which cumulatively lead to demands for additional Eel water to be transferred and later released from Lake Mendocino. Ultimately, the Russian River cannot be managed solely to optimize water supply and storage for agricultural and municipal users, while depending on the Eel River to bail out the fishery, water quality and public trust disasters resulting from mismanagement of the river. Revisions to D.1610 are a significant and important opportunity to reshape the next 150 years of river management to one of health, sustainability, restoration and abundance. eelriver.org