ESA exemption proposed for Klamath irrigators

Felice Pace, 05.11.2006 14:21

California Fish & Game (CDFG) proposes giving agricultural operations in the Shasta and Scott Sub-basin of the Klamath River a virtual exemption from the California Endangered Species Act (C-ESA). The irrigators dewater the Scott and Shasta and, in drought years, Coho salmon, listed as “threatened” under the C-ESA, are among the fish killed. The proposed permit will not lead to Coho Recovery; it will allow dewatering to continue and put irrigators in charge of monitoring their own C-ESA compliance and reporting violations.

Dewatered Scott River, September 2003

Dewatered Etna Creek - a Scott River tributary

California officials propose California Endangered Species Act Exemption for Klamath River Basin Irrigators
by Felice Pace


In the Klamath River Basin these days environmental news is dominated by talk about dam removal and, occasionally, new restrictions on fishing. But now another issue is poised to compete for the headlines. The California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) announced late last month that it plans to give a hundred or so farmers and alfalfa ranchers in Siskiyou County just south of the Oregon border an exemption from the California Endangered Species Act. Released without fanfare, the announcement caused barely a ripple in the regional media. But below the surface a virtual tsunami may be forming.

The Scott and Shasta Rivers are major Klamath tributaries. While salmon runs in these rivers have been depressed for many years, fisheries scientists and restorationists agree that the broad valleys and forested streams of the Scott and Shasta have the greatest potential among all Klamath tributaries to produce salmon. Furthermore, the Scott River in particular could be the key to recovery of Klamath River Coho salmon. While all Klamath Basin salmon stocks are “at risk of extinction” according to the American Fisheries Society, only Coho are listed as “threatened with extinction” under provision of the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).

Ever since Klamath River Coho were listed as “threatened”, Fish and Game officials have been meeting behind closed doors with Scott and Shasta River irrigation interests. The irrigators are concerned because their dams, diversions and irrigation pumps have regularly killed thousands of salmon and steelhead. They want to be protected from prosecution for killing Coho while continuing irrigation practices which virtually dry up Scott and Shasta rivers and streams in drought years. An example is 2001, a year in which the San Francisco Chronicle quoted the local CDFG warden: “ ‘Everything has died,’ said Fish and Game Captain Chuck Konvalin of the Scott River. ‘The system has been dried up’.”

Klamath River Basin Tribes, conservation and fishing groups have been nervous about the closed door meetings. As downstream interests, they asked to be included in the talks only to be rebuffed by CDFG and the irrigators. Now the reasons for the secret meetings are beginning to come to light. While the actual Endangered Species Act exemption – technical known as an “Take Permit” - has not been released pending review by irrigator and state lawyers, preliminary environmental documents indicate that, while ranchers and growers will exclude fish from irrigation ditches, they will be allowed to continue dewatering the Scott and Shasta Rivers. If fish need water, the environmental documents indicate, the irrigators will consider renting water to CDFG on an annual basis. In return the CDFG will continue to have access to river sections that pass through private ranches and alfalfa fields – something that some ranchers have denied to CDFG since the Coho were listed as threatened.

There is every indication that the Take Permit CDFG has negotiated with the irrigators will not adequately address the critical issue of river flows. Flows in the Scott River have become so low that many salmon can not reach prime spawning grounds in dry years. According to the California Department of Water Resources 54% or irrigation in the Scott River Valley is now done with water pumped from groundwater. The pumping – which began in earnest in the 1970s and has grown ever since - is unregulated. The proposed Endangered Species Act exemption will do nothing to bring irrigation pumping under control. Under these circumstances, experts expect the dewatering of these rivers to continue.
Because it is one of the prime tools Fish and Game officials have to protect fish, one would think that Fish and Game Code 5937 would be a central feature of the Take Permit proposed for Scott and Shasta irrigators. Code 5937 states that irrigators and other dam owners must allow enough water to pass their dams and diversions to maintain fish habitat below “in good condition.” But those who know these valleys also know that this law has never been enforced in the Shasta and Scott Valleys. The non-enforcement of Fish & Game Code 5937 was made public by San Francisco Chronicle veteran reports Glen Martin and Tom Stienstra during the drought in 2001. They quoted local CDFG warden Renie Cleland: “ ‘This has gone all the way to Sacramento,’ said Cleland. ‘It's extremely politically sensitive. I was told to take no enforcement action on it. These fish are dying. We've got five or six thousand steelhead trout dead on the Scott, and (dead juvenile steelhead) everywhere on the Shasta’.”
What warden Cleland didn’t say is that Coho salmon were among the fish that died when irrigators dried up the river that year and that the practice of looking the other way was not new but had been the rule for as long as anyone could remember.
The failure of state and local officials to enforce basic California laws designed to protect fish in the Shasta and Scott River Basins is but one of the secrets which one can discover below the surface of Klamath Basin water politics. But this one is likely to attract more attention than the California Department of Fish and Game would like. That’s because not only have these state officials negotiated in secret with private parties, they also propose turning over their responsibility to oversee enforcement of the California Endangered Species Act to a local non-elected board made up of the very ranchers and farmers who would be the beneficiaries of the California ESA exemption. Under the terms of the proposed Take Permit, the Siskiyou Resource Conservation District would be in charge not only of “monitoring irrigator compliance” with provisions of the Take Permit but also with reporting non-compliance to Fish and Game officials. In effect, the very people who are the beneficiaries of the permit would be in charge of monitoring their own compliance and of reporting violations.
Turing over California Endangered Species Act compliance to a locally-appointed board made up of farmers and ranchers would set an important precedent and one with great potential to negatively impact California’s rarest and most at risk species. That is why the proposed Take Permit is likely to attract opposition from conservation, wildlife and fishing groups that until now have not been involved in the Klamath River Basin.
Involvement of new players is what it may take to stop the dangerous CESA precedent in its tracks. It is rumored that state officials have approached other Basin interests suggesting that the proposed Scott and Shasta California Endangered Species Act exemption be part of a broader Klamath River deal that includes dam removal. The usual defenders of Klamath River salmon want CDFG’s support for Klamath dam removal and may be willing to look the other way on the Take Permit in order to solidify support for dam removal.
Meanwhile Coho salmon remain at risk. As I write this article, Coho are holed-up in the Scott River canyon waiting for rain to restore flows in the dewatered Scott River so that they can reach their spawning grounds. Coho in the Scott and Shasta remain at high risk; in two years out of three the spawning populations are well below the 200-300 spawners scientists tell us are the minimum numbers needed to maintain a salmon run over time. And year by year – as unrestrained and unregulated groundwater pumping continues to expand - flows in these rivers are less and less for a given amount of rainfall.
No one knows how long these conditions can continue before Coho go extinct in the Scott and Shasta – the Klamath tributaries where they once were most abundant. One thing, however, is certain: If the hundred or so ranchers and alfalfa growers and their political supporters get the Take Permit they seek, the demise of Scott and Shasta River Coho salmon will be one giant step closer to becoming reality.


(The author has resided in the Klamath River Basin since 1975 and has been involved in salmon restoration and salmon politics since 1986.)

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Un-Dam the Klamath, Save Klamath Salmon!! 14.11.2006 - 16:16 Save Klamath Salmon @ FERC public comment sessions at Yreka Community Theatre 812 N. Oregon St. sponsored by Arcata NEC & Klamath Riverkeeper, Klamath Restoration Council and Yurok, Hupa, Karuk, Klamath/Modoc nations.. ACTION ALERTS: KLAMATH DAMS HEARINGS THIS WEEK! COME OUT TO THE PUBLIC HEARINGS ON THE KLAMATH DAMS: TESTIFY FOR DAM REMOVAL AND SALMON: Nov 14th, 15th and 16th, and 29th DATE : Tuesday, November 14, 2006 TIME : 9:00 a.m.-12:00 noon (PST) PLACE : Shilo Inn ADDRESS: 2500 Almond Street : Klamath Falls, Oregon DATE : Wednesday, November 15, 2006 TIME : 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon (PST) PLACE : Yreka Community Theatre ADDRESS:812 North Oregon Street : Yreka, California DATE : Wednesday, November 15, 2006 TIME : 7:00 -10:00 p.m. (PST) PLACE : Yreka Community Theatre ADDRESS: 812 North Oregon Street Yreka, California DATE : Thursday, November 16, 2006 TIME : 7:00 -10:00 p.m. (PST) PLACE : Red Lion Hotel ADDRESS: 1929 Fourth Street Eureka, California Costal hearing just scheduled for North Bend on the Oregon coast on Nov 29th. Contact John Mudre at e-mail address john.mudre [at] ferc.gov, or by telephone at (202) 502-8902 for info on this hearing. COMMENT IN ASHLAND THURSDAY FOR MT. ASHLAND/ KLAMATH SALMON The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Yreka Field Office and the Klamath National Forest will be hosting an open house to provide information about the Mt. Ashland Late Successional Reserve (LSR) Habitat Restoration and Fuels Reduction Project. The open house will be conducted on November 16th, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., at the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office at 1829 North Oregon Street in Yreka, California. Eureka's Red Lion Hotel 1929 4th Street (101 south) Eureka, CA 95501 Tel: 707-445-0844 Contact Name; Northcoast Environmental Center Email Address; nec [at] yournec.org Phone Number (707) 822-6918 Address 575 H St. Arcata, CA 95521 Trap & Hauls Doesn't Cut it. Lower four Klamath dams need to go. Power is replacable, but extinction lasts forever. We need a healthy Klamath River, not 50 more years of damage. Testify in open comment period at FERC's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) public hearing at Eureka's Red Lion Hotel at 7 pm. Get info about Klamath dams and the DEIS across the hall starting at 5 pm., then fill the record for FERC to deal with in its Final EIS. Thursday, Nov. 24. Last day to postmark your written comments on FERC's DEIS. More details; NEC;  http://www.yournec.org/ also;  http://necandeconews.to/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&page_id=447 The Northcoast Environmental Center 575 H Street Arcata, CA 95521 Phone: (707) 822-6918 Fax: (707) 822-0827 nec [at] yournec.org Klamath Restoration Council;  http://www.klamathrestoration.org/ Tell FERC to Decommission Klamath Dams!!> ESA exemption proposed for Klamath irrigators 23.11.2006 - 11:34 Hey Felice, thanks much for keeping on top of this critical issue down in the Klamath. Keep up the great work! Spencer Lennard> e-mail:: iamaluddite@gmail.com