River Flow Restoration to Cost State Electricity

In a move that will please salmon-fishing Indian tribes but cost California precious electricity, U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is expected today to order a dramatic increase in flows to Northern California’s lower Trinity River.

The decision, which Babbitt is expected to issue near the river’s banks on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, will allow the Trinity to retain nearly half of its natural flow.

Farmers and power users say the change is loaded with economic consequences.

Officials at the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, which has a contract to purchase power from the Central Valley Project, say that when the Trinity water normally flows through hydroelectric plants in the Sacramento River Basin it generates enough energy to supply 31,000 Sacramento-area homes. Federal officials, however, dispute that figure.

With an energy crisis engulfing California, the Sacramento utility officials estimate that the cost of replacing the lost electricity in an average year has jumped from $12.5 million in August to more than $50 million this month.

Soaring prices are being blamed on flaws in the state’s electricity deregulation process, which has shifted billions of dollars from utilities and consumers to electricity brokers and power-generating companies.

“The price of power has gone up dramatically. . . . It’s very volatile at this point,” said Brian Jobson, a principal contract specialist for the Sacramento utility district.

Energy concerns aside, the Trinity plan is the culmination of more than 20 years of study on how to restore the once-roaring waterway.

The river was dammed in 1962, and at times as much as 90% of its flow was sent to the Sacramento River to serve cities and farms, primarily in the Central Valley, by irrigating crops and generating power.

“When the engineers ruled, the assumption was [that] you could take all this water out of the river and not have any effect” on the fish population, said Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes. “But we have now seen what the impacts have been.”

Environmentalists say decades of diverting water from the Trinity has wreaked havoc on the river’s once-plentiful runs of Chinook and Coho salmon and steelhead trout. The Trinity’s Coho are now listed as a threatened species.

“The North Coast has been hit from a lot of sides,” said Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Its ecosystem has been tremendously degraded.”

The Trinity originates in the jagged Trinity Alps and flows across Trinity County, bisecting the Hoopa Valley reservation before emptying into the Klamath River. The Trinity’s flows would be bolstered by diverting less water at Lewiston Dam to the Sacramento River.

Hayes said the Interior Department has a trust obligation to the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes, which are entitled under federal law to half of the Trinity and Klamath rivers’ harvestable fish.

Retaining more water in the river is expected to provide significantly more fish for the tribes and possibly pave the way for members to operate viable commercial fisheries.

“We have 60% unemployment,” said Duane Sherman, Hoopa Valley chairman. “The tribe depends on salmon, not only as a natural resource, but also as a staple to eat.”

Keeping more water in the river would also enhance the Trinity’s wild beauty, which could bolster the North Coast’s struggling tourism industry. The change could provide economic relief for Trinity County’s 13,500 residents, who in recent years have endured a decline in the fishing and timber industries.

“I think we’ll see a real revival of the river-dependent businesses along the Trinity, like the campgrounds and the stores,” said Tom Stokely, Trinity County’s senior planner.

Key stakeholders on both sides of the controversial issue anticipate that Babbitt will move to bolster the Trinity’s flow to an average of 595,000 acre-feet per year, up from at least 340,000.

Federal officials contend that, although restoring water to the Trinity will affect power users, the loss will be significantly less than figures circulated by Sacramento utility officials. Hayes said he believes that utility officials are basing their estimates on losses that will be caused by the Trinity change in addition to other environmental rules favoring fish.

Not so, said Jobson of the Sacramento utility district. He said the district has suggested a Trinity restoration plan using a combination of flow increases, removal of sediment and silt traps and controlling of vegetation that would require less water to be returned to the river.

The district’s plan, Jobson said, would reduce the anticipated power loss by 60%. He said that the alternative plan has not been given a fair shake, but that he remains optimistic.

“We’re hopeful the secretary includes at least some of the features in our alternative and reduces the burden on California power users,” Jobson said.

Legal challenges are expected from water users.

“We’re pretty angry at this point that our input over the years . . . was shined on by the [Interior Department],” said Jason Peltier, manager of the Central Valley Project Water Assn. “We think they have significantly underestimated the consequences on both the water and power impacts.”

On Thursday, the Westlands Water District sought a court injunction to block Babbitt’s anticipated decision, but a federal judge in Fresno denied the request Friday.

Farmers who rely on Central Valley Project water to irrigate crops, particularly those along the West side of the San Joaquin Valley, have seen a steady reduction in the amount of water they receive each year, as more of it is dedicated to fish. This year, for example, they can expect to receive only 65% of the supply they anticipated and they fear that the Trinity decision will make matters worse.

Hayes, however, said restoring the Trinity was taken into consideration in the landmark Calfed water agreement. Under that accord, the Interior Department will seek in an average year to deliver 65% of the original contract amounts to users south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

“We are going to continue to meet commitments to the Calfed process even with the Trinity decision,” Hayes said.