Draining of Folsom Lake forces Nimbus, American River Hatchery evacuations

Draining of Folsom Lake forces Nimbus, American River Hatchery evacuations

by Dan Bacher

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced on June 25 that it is moving fish out of the Nimbus and American River Fish Hatcheries for the second year in a row as Folsom Lake's cold water pool is rapidly drained by increased Bureau of Reclamation releases into the American below Nimbus Dam.

The agency blamed "a fourth year of extreme drought conditions" for "reducing the cold water supply available," while representatives of fishing and environmental groups point to mismanagement of Folsom Lake and other Central Valley reservoirs during the drought crisis as the key factor behind the evacuations.

As the hatcheries are being evacuated, the Bureau of Reclamation continues to drain Folsom Lake by releasing 2750 cfs from Nimbus Dam into the American River to export water south of the Delta through the Central Valley Project's Delta Mendota Canal and the State Water Project's California Aqueduct.

American River Hatchery operations focus on rearing rainbow and Lahontan cutthroat trout and kokanee salmon for recreational angling, predominantly in waters within the North Central Region. Nimbus Hatchery takes salmon and steelhead eggs from the American River and rears them to fish for six months to a year, until they are ready to be put back in the system, according to a CDFW news release.

The evacuations of steelhead from Nimbus Fish Hatchery will have impact this struggling fish species, listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, while the evacuation of rainbow and brown trout early from the adjacent American River Fish Hatchery will impact the fisheries at a multitude of lakes, reservoirs and streams in the North Central Region.

A record low number of adult steelhead, 143 fish, returned to the American River’s Nimbus Fish Hatchery this season - and you can expect to see another dismal return next year if the mismanagement of Folsom Lake and the American River continues on its current path to disaster.

"Bureau of Reclamation models suggest water temperatures at the hatcheries could be at lethal levels for cold water fish by August," the CDFW stated.

The Department said Nimbus Hatchery has already begun relocating some 330,000 steelhead to the Feather River Hatchery Annex to be held through the summer.

"When the water temperature at the Nimbus Hatchery returns to suitable levels in the fall, the steelhead will be brought back to Nimbus to finish growing and imprinting then will be released into the lower American River," said Jay Rowan, Acting Senior Hatchery Supervisor for CDFW’s North Central Region. "The Feather River Hatchery Annex is supplied by a series of groundwater wells that maintain cool water temperatures throughout the year."

Rowan said fall run Chinook salmon from Nimbus Hatchery have all been released into state waterways. If necessary, the chilled American River Hatchery building will be used this fall to incubate and hatch Chinook salmon from Nimbus Hatchery.

“Unfortunately, the situation is similar to last year,” said Rowan. “We have begun to implement contingency plans to avoid major fish losses in the two hatcheries."

The evacuation will provide an immediate benefit to trout anglers in the waters planted during the evacuation period, but will result in trout plants not being scheduled later in the season. The CDFW has already begun to stock American River Hatchery rainbow and brown trout into state waters earlier than normal.

"These fish range from small fingerlings to the larger catchable size," said Rowan. " The accelerated planting schedule will continue through mid-July when all the fish in the raceways are expected to be evacuated. This includes all the fingerling size rainbow trout that would normally be held in the hatchery to grow to catchable size for next year."

A "new, state-of-the-art" building at American River Hatchery, completed in early June using emergency drought funds, will enable CDFW to raise Lahontan cutthroat trout through the summer for planting into eastern sierra lakes and streams, noted Rowan.

"The new building will also enable CDFW to hold a small group of rainbow trout fingerlings that are scheduled to be stocked in west side sierra put-and-grow fisheries by airplane in July," said Rowan."The new hatchery building utilizes water filters, ultraviolet sterilization techniques and large water chillers to keep water quality and temperatures at ideal levels for trout rearing. However, the new technology is limited to the hatchery building and not the raceways, which will limit capacity to include only the Lahontan cutthroat trout once the fish start to grow to larger sizes."

"We want to do the best job we can to provide California anglers with good fishing experiences and communicate when there will be deviations from normal practices. With that in mind, we want to let anglers in the area know that a lot more fish than normal will be going out into area waters served by American River Hatchery," he stated.

Rowan said that the number of fish planted at various water bodies will increase as the planting timeframe decreases, so the fishing should be very good through the summer at foothill and mountain elevation put-and-take waters. Early fish plants now mean there won’t be as many fish available to plant in the lower elevation fall and winter fisheries, so the fishing may drop off later in the season if the fish don’t hold over well.

"Annually, CDFW works with the Bureau of Reclamation to ensure its operations provide suitable conditions for fish at hatcheries and in the river. This year, conditions are forecasted to be dire with little flexibility in operations. Similar to last year, low reservoir storage and minimal snow pack will result high water temperatures over summer and very low river flows by fall. Fall and winter rains, if received in sufficient amounts, will cool water temperatures enough to allow both hatcheries to come back online and resume operations," concluded Rowan.

Mismanagement of water exacerbated impact of drought on fish

Unfortunately, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, under the leadership of Director Chuck Bonham, is failing to tell the truth about the real reason why the hatcheries are being evacuated - the continued daily operation of the Delta export pumps during the drought.

Under pressure by the Metropolitan Water District and the Kern County Water Agency that serves Beverly Hills Billionaire Stewart Resnick and other wealthy growers, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) mismanaged the Bay Delta Estuary and California’s reservoirs during the drought so that these agencies could continue to export as much water as possible, despite the devastating impacts on the Bay-Delta Estuary, according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD)

Barrigan-Parrilla said the Department and Bureau failed to hold back enough water for continued drought conditions despite warnings to do so by fishery and environmental water groups throughout the state.

“As the weeks go by, it becomes clearer and clearer that the only way to stop the over pumping of the SF Bay-Delta estuary, and Governor Brown’s planned tunnels project, is for an adjudication of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed,” she said. “The problem is that we do not have the water to meet the insatiable demand of special interest growers in California, like those in the Kern County Water Agency, or the Metropolitan Water District, which used up the majority of its three-year stored water supply in 2014, and only began to get serious about conservation this year."

During 2013 and 2014, the state and federal water agencies systematically emptied Trinity Reservoir on the Trinity River, Lake Shasta on the Sacramento River, Lake Oroville on the Feather River and Folsom Lake on the American River, in spite of it being a record drought. The agencies delivered massive amounts of subsidized Delta water to corporate mega-growers, Southern California water agencies and Big Oil companies conducting steam injection and fracking operations in Kern County. (http://www.elkgrovenews.net/2014/02/state-and-feds-drained-northern.html)

In violation of numerous state and federal environmental laws, the state and federal agencies are draining the reservoirs once again this year. Folsom Reservoir could reach a record low of 10 percent of capacity by the end of the summer, endangering both local water supplies and fish.

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and RTD exposed the stunning scope of this mismanagement on Wednesday, June 24, when they made detailed comments at the State Water Resources Control Board workshop on drought management of the Delta and the State’s water system. Both organizations charge that the SWRCB is violating key laws in its management of the system during the drought.

CSPA's presentation to the Board revealed that the Board in its management of the Delta and water system during the drought is operating in violation of the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the constitutional prohibition against the waste and unreasonable use of water.

Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director, stated, “Sacramento River water temperatures are already exceeding lethal levels and it’s beginning to look like this year will be a repeat of last years debacle that obliterated an entire brood year of Chinook salmon. Delta and longfin smelt are teetering on the precipice of extinction. And the State Water Board is again preparing to weaken legal water quality standards that are critical to the very existence of these species. It is both unreasonable, illegal and a moral sin to send species that thrived for millennia into extinction simply to provide millions of acre-feet of water to irrigate pasture, alfalfa and other low value crops in the desert.”

Jennings emphasized that excessive water deliveries to the Sacramento Valley settlement contractors are exhausting the cold water in Lake Shasta, forcing the agencies to shift to using water from the American River to meet the Delta salinity standards.

"As a consequence, the agencies are now are evacuating the hatcheries on the American," said Jennings. "And as a result of this mismanagement, they're not only going to cook salmon and steelhead this year in the Upper Sacramento River, but in the American River as well. The drought crisis we are now in has been exacerbated by the mismanagement by the state and federal projects."

View CSPA's presentation here: http://restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CSPA-SWRCB-Workshop-June-2015.pdf

Agencies lead salmon and steelhead to the scaffold of extinction

Salmon, steelhead and a host of other fish species are being driven closer to extinction by low, warm water conditions on the Sacramento and Trinity River systems spurred by the draining of reservoirs during a historic drought.

As the Brown administration mandates that northern California urban water users slash their water use by 25 percent and as Delta farmers voluntarily agree to a 25 percent in their water consumption, thirsty billionaire growers like Stewart Resnick brag about how they have expanded their almond, pistachio and walnut acreage during the drought. In fact, USDA statistics reveal that almonds have EXPANDED by 150,000 acres during the current drought.(http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/05/15/californias-thirsty-almond-acreage-grows-by-150000-acres-during-record-drought)

Tim Stroshane, Restore the Delta policy analyst, pointed out to the Board that the Temporary Urgent Change Petition (TUCP) and the installation of False River Barrier, which the Board approved to lift Delta water quality standards for continued water exports, violated the Delta Reform Act of 2009.

Stroshane charged, “The State Water Board has ignored managing the system for the coequal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem and protecting the Delta as a unique place. It has violated this key law through its short term water management decisions made this year. Furthermore, by favoring water exports over Delta fisheries and communities, the Board has given the State and Federal governments an escape hatch from reducing reliance on Delta imports to meet California’s future water needs as mandated by the 2009 legislation.”

RTD also provided slides showing how the TUCP and the installation of False River Barrier is dividing the Delta into regions of poorer and better water quality. The determining factor is whether a given area in the Delta is in the path of water being taken for exports at the pumps.

Barrigan-Parrilla concluded, “The hardened demand for water caused by the expansion of permanent crops planted in the west side of the San Joaquin Valley during four years of drought has brought us to the breaking point for the Bay-Delta estuary. The present crisis in the Delta is compounded by mismanagement by the State who failed to bring water demand and availability into balance in anticipation of historical drought.”

The crisis that that has led to the evacuation of the hatcheries - and has put winter-run Chinook salmon, steelhead and Delta smelt on the scaffold of extinction - is one that could have been avoided if the state and federal governments hadn't so badly mismanaged our precious water resources during the drought.

View Stroshane's presentation here: http://restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Stroshane-RTD-Presentation-20150624.pdf