10/21/10
Humboldt County is blessed by some of the most beautiful rivers in the country. However, users from outside and inside Humboldt County have been taking too much of our water for their own benefit, resulting in great damage to our rivers and placing them in great peril. Our rivers must be protected. The Eel River is in grave danger. Over 90 percent of the headwaters of the Eel River are diverted to Sonoma County through the Russian River, and yet studies now show the Russian River has too much water. Native salmon and steelhead are currently unable to get past Fortuna and Ferndale. The release of additional water is being held up for more bureaucratic studies. Meanwhile, the fish are at risk of dying. The Klamath River has suffered from reduced water flow from multiple dams upstream, and even the recent Klamath River agreements are in jeopardy. There is no assurance that the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA) will be implemented, as it depends on the state of California issuing a $250 million bond to fund its share of the removal costs. Even removing the dams does not guarantee that there will be adequate water to support the fish, and there remains a great deal of salmon habitat restoration that needs to be done. Humboldt County has a legal right through Congressional legislation for 50,000 acre feet of water for the Trinity River which has been diverted to the Central Valley and Southern California and sold for huge profits. Despite the efforts of local tribes (especially the Hoopa tribe), this right has been ignored by the Bureau of Reclamation, and Humboldt County has done little to enforce its rights. It is time for the county together with the tribes to take more aggressive action to force a successful resolution to this matter. While it is convenient to blame others for our river problems, we are partially to blame for the sad state of our rivers. The perfect example of this is the Mattole River, where years of poor logging practices and a great deal of water diversion have led to the near extinction of the salmon there. This from a river that had an estimated 20,000 salmon in the 1950s; now there may only be a few dozen left. In Redwood Creek, the salmon population has already been hurt by changes made to the estuary when the levee for Orick was constructed. Most of the upstream land past the National Park is private timberlands which are regulated on their impact on creeks and streams. One of the county's general plan update proposals would remove the working forests and allow unfettered home building without any regard to the impact downstream on the rivers. Our water is our future. We need to fight to protect it, and we need a plan in place to restore our rivers, our fisheries and protect our water before our rivers are destroyed beyond recovery. Our fishermen have already felt the brunt of the enormous decline in our salmon population. Soon, we may face extinction of a fish that was once so plentiful that legend claimed you could walk across the river on the backs of the salmon. I am calling upon Humboldt County to create a comprehensive river policy that will provide a framework for the county to fight for the return of our water, on the Klamath, on the Trinity and on the Eel, as well as to protect and restore health to the Mattole, the Mad and Redwood Creek. Outside special interests will always look to use our water for their purposes. That's why a Sonoma County water lobbyist is contributing to conservative candidates in our local elections. We must stand up for our water and keep the special interests out. We have some of the finest watershed restoration professionals in the country here. I believe that if we can pull together the community, we can begin to pull together a plan to restore our rivers. It will take strong leadership from our Board of Supervisors and a community solution to resolve these complex issues. Otherwise, we risk being known as the land that used to have Six Rivers. Patrick Cleary is the president of Lost Coast Communications and is running for 5th District supervisor. He lives in McKinleyville.
