• Posted on 04/08 at 08:10 AM
Jeff Barnard of the Associated Press reported on Tuesday that within weeks work will begin on the long process of removing Savage Rapids Dam on the Rogue River near Grants Pass Oregon. The Dam which was built in 1921 is 39 feet high and 500 feet wide. The aging dam which provided irrigation water to the Grants Pass Irrigation district is a maintenance demanding structure.
Because the dam’s facilities for passing migrating salmon do not meet current legal standards, Grants Pass Irrigation District (GPID) has agreed to allow the dam to be removed and be replaced by pumps. GPID has entered into a U.S. federal court consent decree to this effect. Construction of the replacement irrigation pumps began in 2006, and final dam removal is expected by the end of this year. This project represents one of the largest dam removals ever undertaken in the United States and is expected to have significant and enduring positive impacts on the valuable sport and commercial salmon fisheries of Oregon.
Posted by Justin on 04/08 at 08:10 AM in
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• Posted on 04/07 at 07:38 AM
Taken from the 2009 American Rivers list of country’s Most Endangered Rivers:
The largest watershed in California is on the verge of collapse, threatening the water supply for 25 million people, placing the capital of the nation’s most populous state at high risk of flooding, and damaging a once productive and healthy ecosystem that supported the nation’s most diverse salmon runs. Climate change, population growth, water supply demands, and endangered species listings have brought this outmoded water and flood management system to the brink. The California Department of Water Resources, and their federal partners, the Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers, are undertaking an overhaul of water management in the basin. Rather than repeating the mistakes of the past, such as building more and larger levees and dams, they need to invest in sustainable options that protect water supply, farms, and cities, while restoring the health of these great rivers and their estuary.
THE RIVERS
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River system stretches from the eastern slopes of the Coastal Ranges to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, collecting water from 45 percent of the state’s surface area. The Sacramento originates near Mount Shasta and flows south for roughly 440 miles, while the San Joaquin rises on the southern Sierra’s high western slope and flows north 330 miles. The Sacramento and San Joaquin funnel flows through the 1,000 square mile Delta, a web of channels and islands that forms the hub of California’s water system, and into the San Francisco Bay. The city of Sacramento, the capital of California, is located along the Sacramento River’s banks. The Sacramento and San Joaquin provide water for 25 million people and more than 5 million acres of farmland in California. The rivers and their tributaries are harnessed by more than 100 large dams and produce the majority of California’s hydropower.
Roughly three million wild salmon once returned to the Sacramento-San Joaquin system each year, but today only around 500,000 hatchery salmon and 50,000 wild salmon return in a good year. The Delta provides habitat for more than 50 species of fish, including 75 percent of the state’s commercial salmon catch, and is the center of important components of California’s civil infrastructure, including electricity and gas lines, transportation, shipping and water supply.
View American Rivers complete report click here
Posted by Justin on 04/07 at 07:38 AM in
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• Posted on 04/06 at 06:58 AM
For those of you who didn’t make it out this weekend, the 4-Star Theatre has added an 8:30 showing starting tonight and running through this Thursday April 9th. Rivers of a Lost Coast is now playing at 2:40, 6:40 and 8:30pm at the 4-Star Theatre on 23rd and Clement
In unfortunate news, The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported that towards the end of last week, a sudden drop in water levels in several Russian River tributaries stranded Coho Salmon fry that ultimately died. The drop in water levels around Healdsburg was a result of farmers simultaneously drawing water from the Russian and several of its tributaries to protect against a potential frost kill. Coho salmon are an endangered species, protected under the State and Federals ESA. A similar situation happened last year that killed a significant amount of silver salmon fry. Last year’s event prompted a meeting with the State water Resources Control Board, which is set for this upcoming Tuesday. Last week’s die-off has only heightened the importance and arguments of the opposing sides.
Santa Rosa Press Democrat Article click here
Posted by Justin on 04/06 at 06:58 AM in
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• Posted on 04/01 at 08:05 AM
Kevin Freking of the Associated Press reports several Central Valley lawmakers pleaded in front of their colleagues yesterday to try and get an emergency exception made to the Federal Endangered Species Act. Regulations in the ESA are creating reductions in Delta water deliveries made to towns and farm districts across the state. Dennis Cardoza D-Atwater and Devin Nunez R-Visalia said the planned water shortage was creating an economic crisis in their districts, resulting in a 20% unemployment rate and a startling departure of workers that they equated to a reverse Dust Bowl migration.
Freking went on to report “experts say the water shortage in California’s Central Valley, the most productive agricultural region in the country, results from myriad factors: the order reducing delta pumping, several years of below-average precipitation and California’s inability to upgrade its water system to meet the demands of a population nearing 38 million people. The state has said it will deliver only 20 percent of the water typically allocated for cities and farms this year. The federal Bureau of Reclamation, which operates a separate system to deliver water to farmers, has said it will not deliver any water this spring to farms south of the delta. Farmers north of the delta can expect to get just 5 percent of their contracted amount.”
The ESA has been used to enact special regulations to protect dwindling salmon numbers, but it’s primary focus in California’s Delta is to protect the devastated Delta Smelt. In our third year of below average rain and snow fall, the debate is quickly heating up. Environmentalist are claiming it is finally time to update California’s water supply delivery system, while farmers and water interests are warning these tough economic times are no time to fool around.
Kevin Freking Article
Posted by Justin on 04/01 at 08:05 AM in
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