SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court Tuesday approved a congressional plan to increase flows into the Trinity River to restore fish habitat, reducing water to California farmers and hydroelectric plants.
Most of the water in the Trinity, which originates in Northern California's Trinity Alps and flows west into the Klamath River, has been diverted for decades to service a fast-growing population in a state where much of the water is located far from where people live and farm. In 1984, Congress mandated the 112-mile-long river's restoration to combat dwindling supplies of salmon, steelhead and other aquatic life. In 2000, after years of studies, the Interior Department approved a plan to increase Trinity water. The plan was backed by Indian tribes who use the waters for sustenance fishing, while farming and hydroelectric power interests opposed it.
The Trinity is a major artery in the Central Valley Project's system of dams, tunnels, canals and reservoirs that supply 200 water districts for 30 million people in the Central Valley. It churns turbines for nine power generating stations.
The plan approved Tuesday diverts as much as 9 percent of the water project's capacity, depending on amounts of rain and snow.
The utilities argued the Interior Department's plan would decrease water flows that eventually reach the parched Central Valley, and the government did not study what effect that would have on the millions of water users downstream. A spokesman for 600 California agricultural customers said farmers would likely get less water under the plan.
"That's water that is all part of a flow regime that is an important part of this large, complex interconnected water system," said Tupper Hull of the Westlands Water District, an agricultural water supplier based in Fresno that challenged the plan.
Jeff McCracken, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said the government did not study what, if any, effect the plan would have on farming because the law did not require it.
"It's a fairly significant yield of water out of the system," he said. "If there were an endless supply, this wouldn't have gone to court."
Westlands is considering asking the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its ruling, Hull said.
Hydroelectric utilities contended the government should further study the effect on energy production in light of California's energy crisis.
A three-judge 9th Circuit panel, however, was not persuaded, and reversed a lower court ruling that halted portions of the plan. The unanimous court said it was time to complete the "flow plan for the Trinity River."
"Twenty years have passed since Congress passed the first major act calling for restoration of the Trinity River and rehabilitation of its fish populations and almost another decade has elapsed since Congress set a minimum flow level for the river to force rehabilitative action," Judge Alfred Goodwin wrote. He said less than 1 percent of California's energy production could be undermined.
The Yurok Tribe, which straddles the Klamath in Humboldt and Del Norte counties downstream of the Trinity before it drains into the Pacific Ocean, celebrated the decision. The state's poorest tribe, which fishes the river for a subsistence living, was hit hard in 2002 when thousands of salmon died because of low flows.
"The fish that use the Klamath also spawn in the Trinity. So a healthy Trinity River is important to a healthy Klamath River," said the tribe's attorney, Scott Williams. He said that in the 1800s, the 5,000-member tribe gave up thousands of acres of land in exchange for a promise that its fishing would be protected.
"It's been decimated by decades of dams, logging and diversions. This decision goes way toward repairing that broken promise," Williams said.
The plan calls for diverting from 368,900 acre-feet of water a year to 815,200 acre-feet, depending on rainfall. Flows would be released from the Trinity Dam at different rates throughout the year to mimic natural flows.
An acre-foot of water is enough to cover an acre of land to a depth of one foot, and contains 325,900 gallons, enough to supply one or two families for a year.
The case is Westlands Water District v. Interior Department, 03-15194
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EUREKA -- In what's being called a major victory for North Coast tribes and fish advocates, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday stood by a 2000 plan to restore water to the Trinity River that's being diverted to the Sacramento Valley.
The 9th Circuit overturned a lower court decision earlier this year that had ordered more environmental studies be done before the 2000 restoration plan is implemented. The appeals court ruled the existing studies in the plan were adequate.
"Nothing remains to prevent the full implementation of the (2000 Record of Decision), including its complete flow plan for the Trinity River," the court ruled.
Tuesday's ruling is the latest in a battle over the Trinity River that has raged ever since water began being diverted to the Sacramento Valley in the 1960s. The ruling upholds a plan to restore the Trinity River ordered in 2000 by then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt. North Coast tribes, local government leaders and fish advocates, who all see the restoration plan as key to repair the region's fisheries, have worked together to fight a lawsuit the Westlands Water District, San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority in the Central Valley have waged to stop the implementation of the restoration plan.
"I got the phone call when I was in a meeting and I couldn't keep the smile off my face," said Hoopa Valley Tribe Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall. "It is a great day."
Others who helped in the legal battle include Humboldt and Trinity county officials, fishermen's groups like CalTrout and the Yurok Tribe.
"This is a gigantic leap forward," said Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith, a former commercial fisherman. "We were up against some of the most powerful forces in the Central Valley and it looks like perseverance has finally paid off."
Smith and other leaders anticipate the Trinity's restoration will go a long way in rebuilding the fisheries in the Trinity and Klamath rivers.
North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson also hailed the decision.
"This is a great victory for the Hoopa Tribe and Northern California's coastal communities, whose economy and jobs have been decimated by declining fisheries," Thompson said, in a press release from Washington, D.C.
Since the completion of the Lewiston and Trinity Dams on the Trinity River in 1963, up to 90 percent of the Trinity River water has been diverted to the Central Valley. The result has been the near destruction of the river's fishery. Salmon and steelhead populations are found in less than 10 percent of their historical range and most are either listed, proposed for listing or under status review for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
The word from the Central Valley Tuesday was that officials there are evaluating the appeals court's decision.
"We're looking at it very carefully and evaluating all our options," said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Westlands Water District. Hull characterized the court's decision as "mixed," meaning the court did uphold the lower court's decisions that at least two biological studies relied on in the 2000 plan were inadequate.
Hull added that the district continues to be hopeful that a settlement can be reached. While he could not be specific on exactly how a loss in Trinity River water would impact Central Valley users, Hull did say the issue is complex and he hopes parties on all sides understand that Central Valley users will be affected.
"Central Valley projects and facilities are enormously complex and interrelated systems," Hull said. "We recognize there is a need to address fisheries on the Trinity River. The problem is ... that we have to address those issues from a much broader, statewide perspective."
Under the 2000 plan upheld by the federal appeals court Tuesday, the volume of water flowing to the Trinity will vary each year, depending on whether its a dry, normal or wet year.