Comments to the California Fish & Game Commission, submitted by the Klamath Riverkeeper

"Unless the California Fish & Game Commission takes appropriate and strong action to protect wild, naturally spawning Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook salmon it is highly likely that conflict between sport fishermen and salmon advocates on the Klamath will increase. The historic cooperation we have had on the Klamath will be threatened. In addition, failure of the Commission to address the needs of Spring Chinook salmon is highly likely to result in a petition to list Klamath-Trinity Springers as an endangered species pursuant to the California ESA. Salmon advocates have held off on taking such an action for many years. However, the dire condition of Klamath and Trinity River Spring Chinook has raised the stakes. Only your prompt and effective action can forestall a listing petition."

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
- Klamath RiverKeeper, May 2006

"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."

Help Stop the Dewatering of Scott River
- Klamath RiverKeeper, May 2006

"The State Water Board's rejection of the Scott River Clean-Up Plan provides an unprecedented opportunity to address the dewatering of the Scott River. Between 1970 and 2000 over 200 new irrigation wells were put into service in the Scott Valley...
Under these circumstances Chinook salmon which migrate earlier than Coho are likely to be extirpated from most of the Scott River Basin within a decade. If dewatering is reversed, however, the Scott River could once again produce large runs of Chinook and Coho salmon."

Comments to the State Water Resources Control Board
- Sierra Club Mendocino Group, April 2006

"The proposed implementation actions submitted by the Regional Water Quality Control Board for temperature impairment are either inadequate or missing, removed as a result of public pressure. This Basin Plan amendment does not meet the requirements of the law. The State board must return this amendment to the regional board to be revised to include protection of public trust instream flows."

"Currently the Scott River TMDL Action Plan/Implementation, in many respects, relies on voluntary actions and/or relies on actions that are not clearly defined, or where language is to be developed after the approval of the TMDL by the Regional Board (or SWRCB). This is inconsistent with Cal Water Code that states that actions are to be clearly defined, with timelines for implementation of such actions."

See also: Scott River TMDL (October 2005), below.

Comments by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

"Throughout this document, and in voluminous filings contained in the Administrative Record for this FERC action, NMFS describes its thorough consideration of the factors related to the feasibility of our fishway prescriptions vis-a-vis the Project's effects on fisheries. Because of the seriousness of this situation, NMFS believes that within this relicensing process the best alternative to contribute to restoration of all fish species of concern in the Klamath watershed is the decommissioning and subsequent removal of the four lower Project dams (Iron Gate, Copco 1 & 2, and J. C. Boyle), combined with improvements in fish passage at remaining facilities. The dam removal alternative is a superior alternative from a fish passage, water quality, and habitat restoration standpoint. Without man-made barriers to blockade essential fish movements, all fish may move freely and naturally, according to their life history adaptations for fulfilling their biological requirements. This is the basis or our section 10(a) recommendations. Implementing this dam decommissioning and dam removal alternative would go a long way toward resolving decades of degradation where Klamath River salmon stocks are concerned. MNFS and several key participating stakeholder groups are in full agreement with this important principle. Therefore, this perspective should not be overlooked in the final analysis." [Emphasis in the original.]
  - From the Executive Summary of the Comments, Recommended Terms and Conditions, and Preliminary Prescriptions for the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, FERC Project No. 2082 (March 24, 2006)

For more information, see:

• Hydropower Reform Coalition
  
  
• Citizen Toolkit for Effective Participation in the Hydropower Relicensing Process
  
  
• plus appendices that contain landmark court cases, sample filings, settlement agreements, and process documents

The beneficial uses of the Klamath River have been damaged by excessive nutrients, excessively high water temperature and excessively low dissolved oxygen. Below these are referred to as "pollution" which is precisely what these "impairments" are under the Clean Water Act and Porter-Cologne Act.

• See full text of Talking Points.

See also: North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board:

• Klamath TMDL information
• Scoping meeting announcement

Comments by the Klamath Riverkeeper Program   (updated April 2006)

"It is unacceptable that a lower de facto standard for water pollution clean-up is being promoted by the staff of the NCWQCB for the Klamath River Basin as compared to other Northcoast River Basins. This must end! Those who depend on the waters of the Klamath River Basin and those who want beneficial uses restored will not accept another 30 years of regulatory neglect. Please give us a Shasta TMDL and Implementation Plan that will bring clean-up in a reasonable time!"
  - Felice Pace, for the Klamath Riverkeeper Program

Comments by Charles C. Coutant, Ph.D., Aquatic Ecologist   (October 2005)

"In summary... I was somewhat disappointed with the bottom line for temperature for it included mostly action to increase shade while just assuming that warm inputs can be eliminated by edict, which seems impractical. Relying on shade will be a very long-term remediation, one that the salmonid populations may not live to see.

For DO [Dissolved Oxygen], I agree with focus on nutrient-rich sediments (both input and accumulation) and their stimulatory effects on macrophytes, but suggest that there may be other useful control measures such as managed flushing flows and finding alternatives to the flash dams for irrigation water supply. I surely concur with the need for monitoring and periodic revisiting of the issues by the Board."
  - Charles C. Coutant, Ph.D., Aquatic Ecologist

A comprehensive treatise on the applicable state and federal legislation that regulates timber harvesting on private lands in California. Intended as a complete resource for the full range of actors involved, the book covers statutory and regulatory requirements, case law, and agency policies, and includes short articles, charts, graphs, tables, and appendices to help the reader understand complex regulatory processes and how they interrelate. See: Table of Contents and Preface

The authors, attorneys Sharon Duggan and Tara Mueller, have worked with the Environmental Protection Information Center on numerous forestry cases.

In September and October of 2002 as many as 70,000 adult fall-run Chinook salmon died from unnaturally induced causes. Please help us assure that this will never happen again, print and post this poster widely during the month of October 2005 to help bring down the dams and fix water quality in the West's third largest river. Fish need clean water and habitat to live!

Visit the Northcoast Environmental Center: www.yournec.org

Your help is needed to prevent another campaign by timber and agriculture interests in the Scott River Valley to avoid complying with the federal Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Act - California's clean water law. The current effort is designed to intimidate staff of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (NCRWQCB) and thereby gut the Scott River water quality clean up plan (TMDL) which has just been released for public comment. The deadline for comments is November 3, 2005.

See also: Klamath River TMDLs on the Water Board website.

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SCWA Proposed Mgt Plan for Chinook, Eel/Russian Rivers & PVP 150K (Oct 2005)

Sonoma County Water Agency proposes to operate the Potter Valley Project (PVP) "for the benefit of fish" in the Eel and Russian Rivers. This is part of SCWA's effort to convince the prime water contractors to authorize future purchase of the PVP in the new Restructured Agreement. (see below)

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Stewardship Nonindustrial Timber Management Plan
(draft)   164K .doc   (Sept 2005)

On November 16, 2005 (11:00am, Main Hearing Room), the California Board of Forestry will hear argument and discussion regarding the proposed adoption of a rule for the Stewardship NTMP.

NTMPs are timber management plans that last forever - new THPs are not needed or evaluated for successive timber harvest. They were adopted originally on the basis that landowners would not clear cut. NTMPs allow for almost clear-cut equivalent activity and are not adjusted to address cumulative impacts and/or changing conditions in forestry.

The Stewardship NTMPs - language developed with the help of administrative agency (NMFS, DFG, Regional Board) and other interested parties. The SNTMP lasts forever - and is a little short on cumulative impact analysis. However, it is much stronger on protection - and thus should be vociferously supported.

Under the SNTMP:

• You must grow more than you cut
• Water quality / stream protections are good
• There must be a road management plan
• There is monitoring and adaptive management provision
• It lasts forever, thus it better be good

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Palco v. Water Board: Court order to delay hearing on
Freshwater Creek & Elk River 270K (Sept 2005)

In a last-minute hearing, Palco (owned by Maxxam) was able to gain a Temporary Restraining Order that short-circuited a public hearing by the Regional Water Quality Control Board to consider testimony about water quality permits designed to reduce erosion leading to flooding and degradation of salmonid habitat in Freshwater Creek & Elk River.

For more information on the environmental problems caused by Palco's logging in the Freshwater Creek & Elk River watersheds, see the Environmental Protection Information Center website.

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Letters regarding the Potter Valley Project:   (August 2005)

Friends of the Eel River 100K

Sierra Club Marin Group 100K

Marin Municipal Water District 160K

The letters express concern for the health of the Eel River, and advocate the elimination of the Potter Valley Project -- which diverts water from the Eel River into the Russian River -- from the Sonoma County Water Agency's plans.

For more information on the Potter Valley Project and the Eel River, see the Friends of the Eel River website.

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Water Rights Implications of Water Quality Protection in California - Landowner's Guide 190K - also available in MS Word format.

2005, Clifford Paulin, environmental law student intern at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center.

Protection of watershed health through water pollution control is a moral responsibility as well as being mandated by state and federal law. However, efforts made in order to control water pollution could interfere with valid water rights. This document examines the intersection of these areas of law and the status of...California law.

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Sustainable Water Systems:
A Primer for Water Utility Decision Makers 900K