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Klamath Riverkeeper
A Program of the Klamath Forest
Alliance
Felice Pace, Volunteer Activist
28 Maple Road, Klamath, CA 95548 707-482-0354
felice@jeffnet.org
May 9, 2006
Tam Doduc,
chairperson
And Members
State Water Resources Control
Board
Via e-mail: commentletters@waterboards.ca.gov
SUBJECT: Response to request
for provisions to fix the Scott River Pollution Clean-up Plan,
Northcoast Basin Plan Amendment and to address flow impairment
in the Scott River Basin
Dear
Ms. Doduc and Members of the Board:
You have requested specific
suggestions on how to improve the implementation plan and specific
recommendations on flow options that the State Water Board might take in
the watershed.These are the responsive comments of the Klamath
Riverkeeper.
First, we want to briefly summarize what is at
stake. On behalf of Klamath Riverkeeper I have submitted to the State
Board information on flows in the Scott River as measured at the USGS
gage below Scott Valley. Corrected for differences in precipitation,
flows have decreased significantly since adoption of the Scott River
Adjudication in 1980 and the subsequent declaration by the SWRCB that
the Scott River is fully appropriated. The situation is such that
even in average water years - Fall Chinook salmon are not able to make it
to spawning grounds in and above Scott Valley due to low flow barriers
(see annual CDFG spawning surveys). In dry years Chinook are not able to
reach the Valley and above and Coho salmon are delayed in their
migration. The decrease in flows relative to precipitation is greater
the dryer the year. The decrease corresponds to continued exploitation
of groundwater. Between adoption of the Adjudication Decree and 2000,
for example, 42 new irrigation wells were put into service in the
bottoms of the Scott Valley (DWR database). Minimum flows necessary
for fish migration identified as a water right in the Adjudication
Decree - are now not being met during the critical late summer and fall
in many years.
The bottom line is this, unless the
progressive dewatering of the Scott River is stopped, Chinook and Coho
salmon are likely to be extirpated from the majority of the Scott River
Basin within a decade.
The State Water Board has both the
opportunity and the legal obligation to correct the errors and omissions
of the Basin Plan Amendment approved by the North Coast Regional Board.
The State Board also has an opportunity and obligation to address
out-of-season diversion and irrigation and the impact of these
widespread, chronic and well documented practices on the in-stream right
established for fish. Here is how we at Klamath Riverkeeper believe
those errors and omissions can be corrected and how the public trust
salmon resource and other public trust resources can be protected from
illegal activities:
1.
The State Water Boards Division of Water Rights should review available
information in order to determine the impact of groundwater pumping on
Scott River flows and should recommend action the State Board can take
to address all impacts identified. Particular attention should be
directed to the Adjudication's delineation of groundwater which is
interconnected to surface flows.In some places this line was placed
immediately adjacent to the Scott River. The 1955 USGS and subsequent
studies indicate that surface and groundwater are broadly interconnected
in the Valley portion of the Basin. The evidence is strong that the
Superior Court erred greatly in its narrow delineation of the line of
interconnected groundwater. If more study is needed to determine
groundwater pumping impacts, those studies should be conducted by the
Division of Water Rights with full and equal participation by all
interested parties and utilizing the best available information. If
it is determined that groundwater interconnected with surface flow was
improperly identified and inadequately addressed in the Scott River
Adjudication, the State Board should inform the Siskiyou County Superior
Court that the Adjudication is flawed and must be fixed.
2. The State Water Board should
request that Siskiyou County impose a moratorium on new irrigation wells
in the bottoms of the Scott River Valley until such time as the Board
can determine the impact groundwater pumping is having on river flows
and river water temperature. If Siskiyou County will not place a
moratorium, the State Board should recommend to the governor and
legislature legislation to impose such a moratorium.
3. The Division of Water Rights
should investigate documented and wide-spread out-of-season irrigation
diversion in excess of water rights and abuse of stockwater rights in
the Scott River Basin, including the impact of these activities on
minimum flows specified for salmon and other fisheries in the Scott
River Adjudication. Klamath Riverkeeper has in depth knowledge of these
practices gained over 30 years of observation and photo documentation.
We are available to share this information with the State Board and your
staff. If it is determined that out-of-season irrigation and improper
use of stockwater rights are impacting water quality and beneficial
uses, the State Board should take the appropriate steps to see that
these practices end.
4.
The State Board division of water rights should identify steps which
other state agencies, including but not limited to the Department of
Fish and Game, can take within existing laws, regulations and
authorities, to address water quality impairments and negative impacts
to beneficial uses associated with water management in the Scott River
Basin. The State Board should specifically address the failure of
CDFG to enforce requirements for by-pass flows on dams and diversions
(see SF Chronicle Sienstra articles for specifics) and how that failure
is impacting flows and water quality.
5. The State Board should ask the Regional Board to further
investigate the connection between logging and road building on steep,
unstable slopes and the excessive levels of sediment found in the Scott
River and many other Northcoast forested watersheds. The order should
include instructions to modify the Scott River Clean-Up Plan, if
necessary, to reduce or eliminate large landslides and the catastrophic
scouring and stream sedimentation resulting from logging and locating
roads on steep, unstable and potentially unstable slopes. While granitic
areas of the Basin have been adequately addressed (these are the
portions addressed by Ms. Sommerstrom), the large deep (up to 130 feet
of soil), perched (on very steep slopes) earthflows have not been
adequately addressed. These landforms, not the granitics, are by far the
main source of catastrophic, stream altering landslides that occur
during major and even minor storm events. In this regard the State Board
should use the empirical studies done by the USFS Klamath Forest and PSW
Research Station on the impacts of the New Year 1997 storm event.
6. The State Board should
ask the Regional Board to further investigate the connection between
road maintenance practices in the Scott River Basin and the excessive
sedimentation of the Scott River and to identify those road maintenance
standards and practices which are needed to prevent delivery of sediment
from native surface and gravel roads to streams. Klamath Riverkeeper
has photo documented the chronic delivery of sediment to streams that
result from the absence of any maintenance on most of the native and
gravel surface roads as well as the delivery associated with wet weather
heavy hauling on these roads.
One of your members is
currently involved in negotiations to address the impacts of the Klamath
River Dams on water quality and beneficial uses. Those talks have
progressed to consideration of a global settlement for the Klamath
River. This year the broad and devastating impacts of the Klamath
River's water quality and related problems - reaching to San Francisco
and Monterey in the South to all of Oregon and the border of Washington
State in the North - have been dramatically demonstrated. These
impacts can only end if - as the fishermen put it - the Klamath is
fixed. But fixing the dams is not a silver bullet. The Klamath can
not be fixed unless and until the water quality and related flow
problems in the Scott and Shasta Rivers are addressed. Water quality and
flows in these watersheds are primarily the responsibility of the State
of California. The TMDL Clean-Up Plan Basin Plan Amendments are the
proper and current opportunity for the State of California to begin
addressing these issues and to redress the state's failure to act as
water quality and beneficial uses in these watersheds and the Klamath
River generally have declined dramatically. Proper action by the
State Board now will pay dividends to future generations.
While taking the proper action now as is your responsibility will result
in increased conflict in the short run, in the longer run proper action
now to address the deficiencies of the Scott Clean-up Basin Plan
Amendment will ultimately result in less conflict and will promote
environmental and social justice and reconciliation in the Klamath River
Basin. It is simply wrong that the rights and well being of thousands of
people in communities along the Klamath River and up and down the coast
continue to be sacrificed so that fewer than 100 farmers and ranchers in
the Scott River Valley can continue to operate outside the law and with
significant and cumulatively increasing impacts on Public Trust
Resources and the beneficial uses of water.
Klamath
Riverkeeper urges the Board not to miss this opportunity. Please fix the
Scott River Basin Plan Amendment as the down payment on your
contribution to Fixing the Klamath.
Thank you for your
consideration and for all your good work for the People and the Public
Trust.
Sincerely,
(Via e-mail)
Felice Pace
For
Klamath Riverkeeper
Cc: Regional Board, Interested
Parties
Felice
Pace, 28 Maple Road, Klamath, CA 95548
707-482-0354 felice@jeffnet.org
"Won't you help to sing...these songs of
Freedom?" -Bob Marley.
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