Sacramento River salmon spawning threatened by massive water exports
July 6, 2013 | by Dan Bacher | Sacramento River Chinook salmon this year are threatened by the relaxation of water temperature stan...
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2013/07/sacramento-river-salmon-spawning.html
July 6, 2013 | by Dan Bacher |
Sacramento
River Chinook salmon this year are threatened by the relaxation of
water temperature standards on the upper river combined with the
violations of water quality standards in the Delta, the result of the
over-allocation of water during a drought.
The
section of the Sacramento River where the water is cold enough for
salmon to successfully spawn will be less than half of what is needed
this year, violating water temperature standards set to protect salmon.
Fishing
groups say that the pool of cold water needed in Lake Shasta to cool
the water is being drained to supply corporate agribusiness and other
users south of the Delta, threatening the fall and spring run Chinook
runs, as well as endangered winter run Chinook salmon.
State
and federal water officials are apparently now in a rush to deliver
water to corporate agribusiness, oil companies and Southern California
water agencies, in spite of it being a drought year, as revealed by the
latest river release and water export data provided by the Department of
Water Resources.
Current
(July 4) releases to the Sacramento River below Keswick Dam are 14,250
cfs, combined releases to the Feather River below the Thermalito
Afterbay Outlet are 5,500 cfs and releases to the American River below
Nimbus Dam are 3,500 cfs.
Water
exports from the Delta are currently 9,883 cfs, including 6,920 cfs
from the State Water Project’s Harvey Banks Pumping Plant and 2,923 cfs
from the federal Central Valley Project’s Tracy Pumping Plant in the
South Delta. Delta outflows are currently 5,276 cfs.
You can check out the latest dam releases and export pumping data at:
Warmer water temperatures could harm salmon
Ron
Milligan, the Operation Manager for the Bureau of Reclamation, stated
in a June 3 letter to the State Water Resources Control Board that this
year’s water plan “does not meet a daily average water temperature of 56
degrees Fahrenheit in the Sacramento River at Red Bluff Diversion Dam
for all the periods in 2013 when higher temperatures could be
detrimental to the fishery.”
The
Bureau said spring run and fall run Chinook salmon spawning typically
occurs further downstream in fall than the point in Redding where the
56-degree water cutoff is. “Some adverse effects can be expected if
temperatures exceed 56 degrees between Airport Rd and Balls Ferry,”
warned Milligan.
Under
federal law, water and fishery managers are required to maintain the
56-degree temperature downstream of Balls Ferry during the winter run
spawning and incubation months of August, September and October.
It
is anticipated only about 20 miles of the Sacramento above Redding will
be cold enough, 56 degrees or less, for the fish to successfully spawn,
according to Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) Executive Director
John McManus. The stretch over twenty miles downstream of Redding,
normally cold enough for spawning is likely to exceed 56 degrees.
“Salmon eggs laid in northern stretches of the Sacramento River could die from overheated water this year,” said McManus.
Fishing
and environmental groups emphasize that the Bureau has just signed off
on water sales from the northern Sacramento Valley to San Joaquin Valley
agribusiness interests with official findings of “No Significant
Impact.” These growers have contracts with the Bureau and Department of
Water Resources, both junior water rights holders.
Their
water supplies are assured only in very wet years when surplus water is
available. 2013 has been designated as a dry year.
Groups contest water transfers
A
petition to the state water board by the California Water Impact
Network, AquaAlliance and California Sportfishing Protection Alliance on
June 3 challenged the transfers.
“In
sum, our organizations protest these petitions for temporary water
transfers as injurious to existing water rights holders throughout the
Sacramento Valley region, detrimental to the ecosystems of the Bay-Delta
Estuary since they involve Delta export pumping and threatening,
through groundwater substitution pumping, loss of surface flow to large
head differences leading to excessive groundwater recharge from surface
streams,” the petition stated.
However,
the National Marine Fisheries Service joined the Bureau of Reclamation
and the US Fish & Wildlife Service in a joint request to the State
Water Resources Control Board to reclassify delta salinity measurement
stations from “dry” to “critically dry.” Although this was done to
preserve water for salmon spawning in the upper river, it also withholds
water needed to keep the Bay-Delta Estuary – and salmon, Delta smelt
and other fish populations – healthy.
Delta
Watermaster Craig Wilson said he “would not object or take any action”
if the Bureau and Department operate to meet “critically dry year”
objectives for Western and Interior Delta agricultural beneficial uses
instead of operating to meeting “dry year” objectives though August 15,
2013.
“This
will not only violate the temperature standards on the Sacramento
River, but it is expected to violate virtually every standard to
designed for fishery and other beneficial uses throughout the Delta,”
responded Bill Jennings, Executive Director/Chairman of the California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “These standards are routinely
violated – that one of the major reasons why fisheries are collapsing.”
Water is oversubcribed five times
“The
problem is that the water is oversubscribed - we just don’t have the
water,” emphasized Jennings. “The average unimpaired annual flow of the
Sacramento River is 21.6 million feet of water, while the total
consumptive water rights claims total 120.5 million acre feet of water.
Oversubscription of water is the great, ugly secret, the crazy aunt
locked in the basement, that nobody wants to talk about.”
A
large return of spawning chinook salmon is expected this fall on the
Sacramento River, based on pre-season forecasts by federal and state
biologists and the recreational and commercial catch reported so far
this season in the ocean off California and Oregon.
“If
anything, we need more cold water, not less, if we expect to get the
benefits of this large return,” said Zeke Grader, Vice-President of GGSA
and Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations. “The transfer of this water, needed by salmon, south this
summer will have significant and devastating impact.”
Grader
said Sacramento River’s fall-run Chinook salmon account for nearly 90
percent of California’s salmon catch in a typical year and provide
upwards of 50 percent of Oregon’s ocean salmon harvest.
The
once massive runs of Sacramento winter and spring run Chinook salmon,
now protected under the Endangered Species Act, have declined
dramatically over the past several decades due to the operation of the
Delta pumps, upstream dam operations and loss of habitat.
Winter run could be decimated
The
Sacramento winter run numbered 117,000 in 1969, but has dwindled to
several thousand fish in recent years. Spawner escapement of endangered
winter Chinook salmon in 2012 was estimated to be only 2,529 adults and
145 jacks.
Faced
with a similar situation to this year in 2009, the National Marine
Fisheries Service warned that 50 to 75 percent of that year’s winter run
could be lost due to lethally hot water in the upper river, according
to McManus.
“Very
few progeny of the 2009 winter run survived,” said McManus. “Low winter
run numbers in 2012 put the fish in further jeopardy and led to steep
cuts in the ocean fishing season this year, even though fishing is not
the cause of the winter run shortage.
McManus
said winter run salmon faced another obstacle earlier in 2013 when over
300 were rescued from agricultural canals they mistakenly swam into
near Williams. Officials estimate another 300 were never captured for
relocation and will likely die in the canals without successfully
spawning.
“Winter
run salmon could be decimated this year,” said McManus. “We’re already
concerned about what kind of return we’ll see in 2015 due to the drought
conditions juvenile salmon faced trying to out migrate down the
Sacramento River and through the delta earlier this year. We could see
some real problems in the fishery a few years from now.”
Federal
officials agree with fishing groups about the threat to salmon posed by
warmer water temperatures, but nonetheless supported the relaxation of
standards anyway to extend the cold water pool as long as possible.
Maria
Rea, National Marine Fisheries Service Regional Supervisor, told the
Sacramento Bee, “We could have some serious temperature-related impacts
on winter run this year." (http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/27/5527560/drought-conditions-threaten-sacramento.html)
The
dilemna facing salmon this year was created years of over-appropriation
of water and bad water management – and can only be stopped when
California comes to grips with the “paper water” that drives water
policy.
“Solving
California water problems has to come from the demand side, not from
the supply side,” said Jennings. “If we had new reservoirs, they would
be empty. We can pour all of the concrete we want, but we can’t pour
rain.”
There
is no doubt that Sacramento River winter, spring and fall run Chinook
salmon are threatened by the relaxation of water standards on the upper
river and the violation of water quality standards in the Bay-Delta
Estuary in order to export massive quantities of water south of the
Delta.
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