News

Carmel River Will Be Diverted Around San Clemente Dam

12/29/10

The California Coastal Conservancy reached agreement in December to bypass an obsolete dam on California’s Carmel River rather than dredging and buttressing the 90-year-old structure. The $84-million reroute and dam removal project will divert the river around the 106-ft high concrete arch San Clemente Dam built in 1921. The basin has since been swamped with 2.5 million cu yds of sediment, thereby reducing storage capacity from 1,425 acre-ft to 125 acre-ft. In 1992, the California Dept. of Water Resources Division of the Safety of Dams issued a safety order because of possible failure from a maximum flood event or an earthquake.

A 2008 Dept. of Water Resources study showed that the alternative of buttressing the dam would have cost $49 million, but not resulted in improved access for steelhead trout spawning or restoration of the lower river. California American Water, which draws supplies for its customers from the dam’s diversion point, agreed to pay the cost of buttressing with the California Coastal Conservancy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration picking up the rest of the price tag.

The diversion will require careful orchestration. Engineers took possible downstream flooding issues into consideration, and decided not to allow the accumulated sediment to wash downstream. The dam’s remote location also made transporting an estimated 200,000 truckloads of sediment impractical. Instead, contractors will reroute a half-mile of the Carmel River into San Clemente Creek by blasting and ripping through a narrow ridge and using the abandoned section of the river as sediment storage after creating a diversion dike from the excavated rock to maintain the new route.

The project will move into the approval stage through the Public Utilities Commission in 2011 and could begin construction as early as 2013. The project’s third phase includes dam removal and habitat stabilization.

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EPA approves Klamath River salmon plan

1/5/10

Federal regulators Tuesday ordered major reductions in the amount of pollution that pours into the Klamath River, an action that American Indians and environmentalists touted as a milestone in the fight to restore once-thriving salmon runs to Northern California.

The U.S. EPA approved a water-quality-improvement plan that would force farmers, foresters and utilities to help clean up the main stem of the Klamath, which for years has suffered from high levels of silt, chemicals and toxic algae.

"The salmon are an indicator species for the biologically important Klamath watershed, but they are really on a precarious path downward in terms of their existence," said Jared Blumenfeld, regional administrator for the EPA. "We want to make sure that not only are we providing fresh clean ecosystems for the fish, but also for the people."

The plan, which received final approval on Dec. 28, calls for a 57 percent reduction in phosphorus and a 32 percent cut in nitrogen, both of which are associated with polluted runoff from agriculture, diversions and the pooling of water in reservoirs. Among other things, the standards also require a 16 percent cut in what is known as carbonaceous biochemical oxygen, which is essentially a measure of wastewater in the river.

Agricultural groups, which face limits on irrigation, and PacifiCorp, which operates four hydroelectric dams on the river, were not happy with the plan, which they insisted used faulty data.

"It's inappropriate and unachievable," said Art Sasse, the spokesman for PacifiCorp, which is considering a lawsuit. "We are going to assess our options to protect our customers."

Large salmon run

The mighty Klamath, which is now a federally protected "wild and scenic" river, flows 255 miles from Oregon though California to the Pacific Ocean, draining 12,600 square miles of mountains, forests and marshlands that some have called the Everglades of the West.

It was historically the third-largest source of salmon in the lower 48 states, behind the Columbia and Sacramento rivers. Chinook once swam all the way from the ocean to Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon, providing crucial sustenance to Indians, including the Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley tribes in California and the Modoc and Klamath tribes in Oregon.

Water quality began to decline when four midsize dams were built along the Klamath's main stem starting in 1909, blocking miles of salmon-spawning habitat. The dams - Iron Gate, Copco 1, Copco 2 and J.C. Boyle - warmed the river water, allowing destructive parasites and blooms of toxic blue-green algae to contaminate the water. Water diversions for cities and agriculture exacerbated the problem, according to fishery biologists.

Since 2004, levels of cyanobacteria and microcystin toxins at several locations on the lower Klamath have exceeded World Health Organization standards. The entire Klamath River is now listed by the federal government as "impaired."

Critical lawsuit

The EPA was forced to regulate water quality in the Klamath after a lawsuit was filed in 1997 by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and 12 other environmental organizations demanding that pollution limits be set.

The situation got national attention after a massive die-off of 33,000 salmon in 2002. Still, farmers and other water users were furious about efforts to limit their water rights. A tentative agreement to remove the four dams beginning in 2020 was eventually reached after salmon counts continued to drop.

The main stem of the Klamath in California is the last of 18 bodies of water in the North Coast on which the EPA set pollution limits. Similar restrictions are expected to be approved within a month along the highly polluted Oregon portion of the river.

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Chinook smash record at Eel River's Van Arsdale

12/24/10

The number of salmon seen in parts of the Eel River this year have dwarfed that in any other year since the 1940s.

All across the watershed, people have reported big numbers of salmon moving in to spawn. There's no official tally of fish anywhere but at the Van Arsdale Fisheries Station, but fish lovers and biologists are saying the run -- which is now tapering down -- was impressive.

At Van Arsdale, the previous record for chinook salmon was 1,754 in 1986-1987.

This year: 2,313, and a few more may trickle in.

”A lot of people are impressed with the numbers of chinook we've seen,” said Fish and Game Associate Fisheries Biologist Scott Harris. “What I'm really impressed with is this is a 100 percent wild population.”

There's no way to accurately correlate the numbers seen at Van Arsdale with the rest of the watershed. But Harris said that there were reports of big numbers of salmon running up the Van Duzen River -- perhaps more than in 20 years -- and in other areas. Fish watchers on the South Fork of the Eel River also reported an impressive run.

The number of jacks at Van Arsdale is also far above last year's total of 139. Jacks are 2-year-old fish that return early to spawn, and are often a good indicator of the health of the following year's run. To date, there have been 746 chinook jacks at Van Arsdale.

Steelhead are faring only slightly better than last year's run at this time, but that run is just getting under way. At Van Arsdale, 17 steelhead have been counted, compared to 10 last year at this time. Steelhead numbers at Van Arsdale have fluctuated widely, reaching a high of 7,679 in 1960-1961, falling to just a handful in the early 1990s, and holding at about 250 per year since then. Last year's steelhead count was 324.

Coho salmon are rarely seen at Van Arsdale anymore, though estimates of their numbers in the early 1900s were in the tens of thousands. Estimated historic runs of chinook salmon and steelhead in the entire watershed were between 100,000 and 800,000, according to a 2010 report by the University of California at Davis Center for Watershed Sciences that was commissioned by California Trout.

Heavy logging, water diversions, commercial fishing, invasive species and dams that block spawning habitat have all been implicated in the declines. Chinook, coho and steelhead are federally protected, which has led to regulations on logging, fishing and gravel extraction.

Harris said that a wet spring will probably help young salmon avoid predatory pike minnows on their way out to sea, and mean better survival.

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Court upholds Southern California storm water runoff standards

12/15/10

A state appeals court ruled Tuesday that Los Angeles and Ventura counties can enforce water-quality standards designed to protect the region's beaches from polluted runoff, regardless of the cost to local governments and contractors.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal overturned a 2008 ruling in favor of Arcadia, 20 other Los Angeles County cities and a building industry association, who sought to overturn the storm-water pollution regulations by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board because the agency did not consider their economic impact on construction projects.

Several environmental groups -- Natural Resources Defense Council, Santa Monica Baykeeper and Heal the Bay -- intervened to challenge that ruling. This week they celebrated its reversal as a victory for the health of Southern California beaches, where fouled storm water is a major source of pollution.

"This decision will protect millions of people who use local beaches and water resources throughout Southern California and assures that science remains the focus when these standards are developed,” said David Beckman, water quality program director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The consortium of cities, including Arcadia, Carson, Claremont, Downey, Glendora and Whittier, joined the Building Industry Legal Defense Foundation in 2005 to file suit against the State Water Board and the L.A. regional board, saying the treatment control structures to meet its storm-water quality regulations for metals, bacteria, trash and other contaminants were prohibitively expensive to install.

In the 29-page opinion issued Tuesday, the appeals court found the state was required to adopt measures to control water pollution under the federal Clean Water Act.

Richard Montevideo, attorney for the plaintiffs, said he was disappointed by the ruling, which he said was "cursory and did not do justice to the case."

"Our position was and remains that they have to consider whether these standards can reasonably be achieved -- what the economic impacts are," he said. "A lot of these requirements are just not feasible. In some cases it doesn’t matter how much money you spend."

Montevideo said he would confer with the cities in the suit to determine whether they would ask for the case to be heard by the California Supreme Court.

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Wild coho salmon run in Marin County renews hope

12/17/10

One of the last runs of wild coho salmon in California has surged into the Lagunitas Creek watershed in western Marin County , bringing renewed hope to fisheries experts, watershed managers and those who have devoted their lives to salmon procreation.

The endangered fish had all but disappeared over the past two years, creating fear among biologists that the species was in the midst of a death spiral. Then, during rains this past week, the fish arrived and began laying eggs in the creek and tributaries, which wind through the lush San Geronimo Valley.

Biologists with the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, or SPAWN, the Marin Municipal Water District and the National Park Service counted 55 coho and 30 egg nests, or redds, in Lagunitas and San Geronimo creeks and in Devil's Gulch over the past week.

"That's the most that we've seen in a single week in three years," said Eric Ettlinger, the aquatic ecologist for the water district. "After two terrible years for coho, it's a relief to have more fish returning to Lagunitas Creek, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we've seen the worst of the population decline."

Largest wild run

The Lagunitas watershed, which winds 33 miles through the picturesque redwood- and oak-studded valley on the northwest side of Mount Tamalpais, supports the largest wild run of coho salmon along the Central Coast and is considered a model for fisheries restoration around the state.

It is unique in that the primary spawning grounds are in the middle of developed communities. Some 40 percent of the coho in the watershed are hatched in tributaries surrounded by homes, golf courses, roads and horse corrals in the 9-square-mile San Geronimo Valley

Coho in Central California were listed as endangered in 2005 under the Endangered Species Act. The Lagunitas is considered by fisheries biologists to be the last true refuge for wild coho on the Central Coast. There are bigger runs elsewhere - especially after the dramatic decline over the past two years - but many of the coho in other places were raised in hatcheries.

Run still below average

Marin's wild coho took their time this year - they usually swim up the creek during the first rains - and even though their undulating figures can be seen over the gravel beds, the numbers are well below average for this time of year.

Last winter, 67 live fish and 51 redds were spotted during spawning season. The year before that, 43 fish and 26 redds were counted. Those two years are the worst on record.

In 2004-05, 1,342 coho were seen in the watershed. Those fish left 496 egg nests. The average since 1995 is 524 fish and 217 redds in Lagunitas Creek and its tributaries.

While the fish now in the creek are encouraging to water and fisheries managers, not everyone is so optimistic.

"We are down to the end of the line," Todd Steiner, the executive director of SPAWN, said. "Despite better than average rainfall and early rainfall, which is normally good for coho, we didn't see fish until about two weeks ago. The National Marine Fishery Service is saying we're in an extinction vortex. We're at the now-or-never point."

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