Department of Water Resources California Water News: Watersheds 1/7/10

Analysis under way for 2010 salmon season

Eureka Times-Standard-1/7/10

By John Driscoll

 

State biologists will be crunching numbers and counting fish over the next several weeks in a process that will determine the quality of the West Coast salmon season this year.

 

Early reports that poor adult salmon runs in the Sacramento River system foretell a bleak season have begun to circulate, but biologists are cautioning that it's far too early to tell.

 

It will be early February before biologists have a clear perspective on the potential for commercial and sport salmon seasons in 2010 -- particularly important after two years that devastated the California salmon fishing industry.

 

In 2008 and 2009, commercial salmon fishing was shut down on much of the West Coast because of dire predictions for salmon runs in the Sacramento River watershed, the key fishery for the region. In 2009, big estimates for returns to the Klamath River allowed a token 10-day ocean sport fishery in the Eureka and Crescent City areas.

 

Eureka commercial fisherman Dave Bitts said that he's fed up by media and other reports claiming 2010 may be a bust, too. He said it's too soon to know what kind of a season fishermen have to look forward to in the coming year.

 

”We're not going to know until February,” Bitts said. “That's just the way it is.”

 

While some hatcheries in the Sacramento River system are reporting poor returns of 3-year-old adult fall chinook salmon, others have reached their quota for spawners, said California Department of Fish and Game spokesman Harry Morse.

 

Adult fish aren't the best indicator of the abundance of salmon in the ocean in the coming season. A better measure is 2-year-old salmon called jacks, a certain number of which return to the river early. A clear picture of how many jacks swam up the Sacramento River has not been put together yet, so it's not possible to estimate how many adult fish may be at sea this coming year.

 

”What we're doing right now is tabulating all the information including the jack count,” Morse said.

 

Federal and state fisheries biologists also must consider runs of chinook and coho salmon in other rivers on the coast in determining how many can be taken, when, and in what areas.

 

The Klamath River salmon run -- which can stifle fishing opportunity in the ocean if it is poor -- appears about average so far, said California Department of Fish and Game biologist Wade Sinnen. But a careful analysis needs to be done to determine how many adult fish and jacks swam up the Klamath and Trinity rivers, he said.

 

”Really, it's too early,” Sinnen said.#

 

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_14139996

 

 

First contract awarded for fish project at Red Bluff Diversion Dam

Redding Record Searchlight-1/7/10

By Janet O'Neill

 

Construction on the first phase of the $230 million Fish Passage Improvement Project at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam should begin "shortly," a U.S Bureau of Reclamation official said Wednesday.

 

Brian Person, superintendent of the bureau's Northern California area office in Shasta Lake, said representatives from his agency will meet at the site with the recently named contractor for the first phase within the next few days.

 

On Tuesday, the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority - the bureau's partner in the project - announced that the first of three contracts had been awarded. The $21.5 million contract was awarded to West Bay Builders Inc. of Novato, canal authority General Manager Jeff Sutton said in a news release.

 

Initial work includes building a bridge, a siphon and water-conveyance channel to connect the headworks of the canals to a fish screen and a pumping plant. A second contract award, for making the pumps and motors, is expected early this month.

 

Solicitation for bids on the third contract - for the fish screen and pumping plant - is expected in late January.

 

Person gave the Red Bluff City Council a project update Tuesday night.

 

"Their goal is to have the whole plant operating by May 2012," City Manager Martin Nichols said.

 

The city challenged the project in court because it means the end of Lake Red Bluff - formed each year by lowering the gates of the diversion dam - which it claims is a recreational asset worth $4 million annually. The suit was settled in April.

 

The pumping plant and fish screen are being paid for with $109.8 million in federal stimulus funds, $114.7 million in other federal money, plus $5.5 million in state bond funds.

 

By diverting water from the Sacramento River into the canal system, the project is designed to continue water deliveries to 150,000 acres of cropland while improving passage to spawning habitat for endangered salmon and green sturgeon.#

 

http://www.redding.com/news/2010/jan/07/first-contract-awarded-for-fish-project-at-red/

 

 

Red Bluff Fish passage on track

Red Bluff Daily News-1/7/10

By Tang Lor

 

The pumping plant that will replace the Red Bluff Diversion Dam gates is on track to be completed by its target date of May 2012.

 

In a presentation to the City Council Tuesday, representatives from the Bureau of Reclamation laid out what has been completed and what still needs to be done on the Fish Passage Improvement Project.

 

All project designs have been completed and construction will occur in three phases, Bureau of Reclamation representative Lauren Carly said.

 

The first phase is building a bridge and siphon on the right side of the project site. On Tuesday the bureau announced the contract for this phase was awarded to a Novato-based construction company.

 

The second contract award for supplying pumps and motors is expected to be announced in a few days.

 

This second phase will include fabrication of the pumps and motors.

 

Bids for the third contract will be solicited at the end of the month with the award contract anticipated in May.

 

Construction of the fish screen and pumping plant will be the last phase of the project.

 

The pumping plant will replace the dam gates that will be permanently raised in two years as ordered by a federal judge.

 

Completion of the project will ensure that farmers who need water get it while migrating fish can pass unimpeded.

 

The pumps are being designed to supply up to 2,500 cubic feet per second of water from the river to canals operated by the

 

Tehama- Colusa Canal Authority and Corning Canal.

 

The project will cost an estimated $230 million. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act covers $109.8 million. Other funding includes federal water-related grants in the amount of $114.7 and a state bond of 5.5 million.

 

Most of the money will be spent on labor contracts and supplies, Carly said.

 

The project is under the direction of the canal authority and the bureau.

 

The city is not involved in the project, but revenue can be created from out-of-town workers staying here and the project could create job opportunities for locals.

 

A number of smaller contracts for various projects that need to be completed at the site will be available soon. Carly encourages local businesses to apply for these contracts.#

 

http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/rds_home/ci_14140832?IADID=Search-www.redbluffdailynews.com-www.redbluffdailynews.com

 

 

First phase of Tehama-Colusa fish passage project funded

Willows Journal-1/6/10

By Julie R. Johnson

 

Funds have been awarded to begin construction of the $220 million Fish Passage Improvement Project at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam.

 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $21,455,605 contract to West Bay Builders Inc., of Navato, to construct a bridge, siphon and water conveyance channel to connect the headworks of the Tehama-Colusa and Corning canals to the fish screen and pumping plant.

 

“This is a significant milestone,” said Ken LaGrande, chairman of the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority board of directors. “This is certainly a giant step forward for the project.”

 

The Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority and the Bureau of Reclamation are the lead agencies for the fish passage project.

 

A second contract for fabrication of the pumps and motors is expected to be awarded this month. A request for construction bids for the fish screen and pumping plant have been issued.

 

Completion of the fish passage project is expected by spring 2012, under an accelerated schedule, in an effort to meet court-mandated completion requirements, and to meet the needs for agriculture water supply in the 18-member Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority, which serves Tehama, Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties.

 

Within those district members, the canal authority manages irrigation for 150,000 acres with a direct annual economic benefit of $250 million and an overall regional economic benefit of $1 billion, said Jeffrey P. Sutton, general manager of Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority.

 

The Fish Passage Improvement Project was established to protect the canal authority’s ability to deliver irrigation water to farmers and at the same time protect fish passage. Included in the project is construction of a positive barrier fish screen and a pumping plant, according to the canal authority.

 

When the fish passage project is completed the Red Bluff Diversion Dam gates will no longer be operational.

Implementation of the project didn’t come without a fight from Red Bluff, which lost a lawsuit against the project in 2008.

 

According to Red Bluff authorities, the project will effectively replace the Red Bluff Diversion Dam and cause economic hardships on the city in the amount of $4 million annually by eliminating Red Bluff Lake, which hosts a number of water-related sports events.

 

Funds for the project comes under the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act – also referred to as the stimulus package – designed to spur economic activity.

 

http://www.willows-journal.com/news/fish-4098-project-colusa.html

 

 

As Rainier's glaciers recede, debris chokes rivers

San Luis Obispo Tribune-1/7/10

By Sandi Doughton (Seattle Times)

 

The fallout from Mount Rainier's shrinking glaciers is beginning to roll downhill, and nowhere is the impact more striking than on the volcano's west side.

 

"This is it in spades," said Park Service geologist Paul Kennard, scrambling up a 10-foot-tall mass of dirt and boulders bulldozed back just enough to clear the road.

 

As receding glaciers expose crumbly slopes, vast amounts of gravel and sediment are being sluiced into the rivers that flow from the Northwest's tallest peak. Much of the material sweeps down in rain-driven slurries called debris flows.

 

"The rivers are filling up with stuff," Kennard said from his vantage point atop the pile. He pointed out ancient stands of fir and cedar now up to their knees in water.

 

Inside park boundaries, rivers choked with gravel are threatening to spill across roads, bump up against the bottom of bridges and flood the historic complex at Longmire.

 

Downstream, communities in King and Pierce counties are casting a wary eye at the volcano in their backyard. There are already signs that riverbeds near Auburn and Puyallup are rising. As glaciers continue to pull back, the result could be increased flood danger across the Puget Sound lowlands for decades.

 

"There is significant evidence that things are changing dramatically at Mount Rainier," said Tim Abbe, of the environmental consulting firm ENTRIX. "We need to start planning for it now," added Abbe, who helps analyze Mount Rainier's river systems.

 

Similar dynamics are playing out at all the region's major glaciated peaks, from Mount Jefferson to Mount Baker, said research hydrologist Gordon Grant, of the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis, Ore.

 

Climate experts blame global warming, triggered by emissions from industries and cars, for much of the ongoing retreat of glaciers worldwide.

 

North Cascades National Park has lost half of its ice area in the past century. Mount Rainier's glaciers have shrunk by more than a quarter. "Every year it's been either bad or really bad," Kennard said. "This year it was really, really bad."

 

Glaciers buttress immense moraines and stabilize steep slopes. As they pull back, the vulnerable terrain is exposed to weather and tugged by gravity. All recent debris flows on Mount Rainier have occurred in recently deglaciated areas, Grant said.

 

"The whole mountain is covered with unstable debris, it's steep - and then you put a lot of water on it," he said.

 

Most debris flows are triggered by heavy rain. Climate scientists disagree on whether the entire Northwest is being hit by significantly stronger storms than in the past, but there's no doubt that's the case at Mount Rainier, Kennard said.

 

Precipitation records show more intense rainfall. According to stream-flow data, what was once a 100-year flood on the Nisqually River now occurs every 14 years. In 2006, a November storm dumped 18 inches of rain on the park in 36 hours, sweeping away a campground and closing the park for more than six months.

 

"Even without climate change, you've got to say: 'Whoa, something is going on here,' " Abbe said.

 

Debris flows can carry boulders the size of buses and sweep staggering amounts of gravel and sediment into rivers. The bed of the Nisqually River below its namesake glacier has risen by 38 feet since 1910, largely as a result of debris flows from the margins of the rapidly retreating ice, Kennard said.

 

The park visitor center at Longmire, with its stone buildings and National Park Inn, now sits more than 30 feet below the Nisqually River. The park constructed concrete-reinforced berms to keep the water at bay.

 

Every river bed in the park is rising, or aggrading, because of the influx of gravel, Kennard said. The rate of buildup has increased nearly tenfold over the past decade.

 

The result is a constant and costly battle to keep popular recreation areas throughout the park open. It's a battle that's being lost in many places, like the Westside and Carbon River roads, which are partially closed.

 

Like conveyor belts, the rivers move the gravel downstream toward more heavily populated areas. A surprise flood that hit the city of Pacific in January 2009 can at least partly be blamed on volume reduction in the White River caused by accumulation of sediment, U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Chris Magirl said.

 

Magirl, who has examined aggradation rates and historical records for downstream river stretches, sees similar buildup in several locations. But channels appear to be deepening in other places, including portions of the Puyallup and Cowlitz rivers. That type of variation is expected in such a complex system, Magirl said. But the long-term outlook for the rivers is not good.

 

"The potential for glacial retreat to add new sediment is historically unprecedented," he said. "Clearly, water and rock are going to flow downhill."

 

Glacial retreat may be aggravating the flow of sediment, but the basic process is as old as the volcano itself. Past eruptions have unleashed mud flows that smothered surrounding valleys and reached all the way to Puget Sound.

 

From the 1930s through the 1980s, Pierce County dredged gravel from the Puyallup River system almost every year to reduce the risk of floods, said Lorin Reinelt, program manager for the county's flood-management plan.

 

Most dredging ended by the early 1990s, as concern for fish habitat took precedence. Officials also realized that digging out gravel provides only a brief fix, at best, Reinelt said. "In many cases it just fills back up during the next event."

 

Communities now are trying to figure out what rising levels of gravel and sediment from Mount Rainier will mean for future flood risks - and what they can do about it.

 

Short of relocating Longmire, dredging is the only obvious way to keep the river from swallowing the park complex, Kennard said. Downstream, Reinelt said, a more effective approach might be to move levees back to give the rivers more room to spill their banks, meander and deposit gravel without impacting homes or businesses.

 

"This is a pretty significant issue," he said. "It seems like we're on a trajectory that's not likely to reverse any time soon."#

 

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/528/story/980255.html

 

 

Boat inspections on tap for more Sierra waters

Tahoe Daily Tribune-1/6/10

By Annie Flanzraich

 

A pilot program for vessel inspections to keep new invasive species out of the waters of the Sierra Nevada — and not just Lake Tahoe — is in development for the 2010 boating season.

 

The Tahoe Resource Conversation District recently received $231,000 from the Truckee Meadows Water Authority's Truckee River Fund to develop a plan to inspect regional water bodies including Donner and Independence lakes, and Boca, Stampede and Prosser Creek reservoirs.

 

The district, which manages Tahoe's inspections, will work with local resource conservation districts to implement similar inspections at the California lakes, said Nicole Cartwright, a TRCD conservation planner, adding that inspections could begin in May 2010.

 

“We'll be mimicking the Tahoe protocols and expanding our knowledge of what we've done in the past,” Cartwright said.

 

Boat inspections became mandatory at Lake Tahoe in May 2008 after zebra mussels were found in San Justo Reservoir, about 250 miles away in California, in January 2008. Zebra mussels and their cousin quagga mussels can destroy the economy and ecology of water bodies by clogging infrastructure and disrupting the water column.

 

From November 2008 to November 2009, inspectors looked at about 12,800 vessels at Lake Tahoe.

 

Lisa Wallace, executive director of the Truckee River Watershed Council, welcomed the inspections in the Truckee's tributaries.

 

“We're worried because of the export of mussels and clams from Lake Mead, which weren't found in the inspection at Lake Mead, but were when the boats got to Tahoe,” Wallace said. “This will make it a lot easier for all land managers to have one entity coordinating inspections.”

 

The $231,000 will be used to research and design the future inspection program.

 

“(TMWA) feels that the introduction and the possible proliferation of quagga mussels, zebra mussels and other aquatic species could present a significant problem for our operations,” said Ron Penrose, TMWA project manager environmental engineer.

 

Funding sources to implement the inspections will need to be found, Cartwright said. Tahoe's inspection program costs anywhere between $650,000 and $800,000 annually depending on the number of locations, staff and equipment needs, she said.

 

In Tahoe, TRCD's inspections are backed up Tahoe Regional Planning Agency rule that makes boat inspections mandatory — boaters who do not comply could face civil ramifications and a $5,000 fine. However, Donner and Independence lakes, as well as Boca, Stampede and Prosser Creek reservoirs do not have the same kind of regulatory agency, which could help and hinder the inspection effort, Cartwright said.

 

“I think in the public eye it could be a good thing,” Cartwright said. “There isn't this backlash of having someone telling you what to do and it's more of a voluntary program. But from the logistics and resource management point of view, it's going to be difficult to make the rules and make plans without regulatory backing.”

 

Eventually, TRCD and other agencies would like to work toward a unified inspection program for all regional waters, Cartwright said.

 

“I think statewide and regionally that's everyone's ultimate goal,” she said. “We would love to have all the western states to have a set protocol and procedure. It's just a matter of how we get there.”

 

Ted Owens, supervisor for Nevada County's 5th district, which contains Donner, Prosser, Boca and part of Independence Lake, said he's in favor of inspections, and had been exploring options to protect area lakes over the last few months.

 

“I do strongly support this effort but have concerns about implementation, and intend to be involved in those discussions,” Owens said.

 

Inspections at other surrounding lakes could help Tahoe safe from invasive species, said TRPA Spokesman Dennis Oliver. A federal study says a mussel infestation could cost Tahoe's economy $22 million annual in lost tourism and property tax revenue.

 

“Our goal is for Lake Tahoe to become the first lake in the U.S. to successfully stave off an invasion of quagga and zebra mussels,” Oliver said.

 

For TMWA, the $231,000 investment is a preventative step against the heavy cost of treating a water system that has been infected by invasive mussels. Quagga mussels were first introduced to the Great Lakes in the 1980s and have since cost local industries, businesses and communities more than $5 billion, according to U.S. Congressional research estimates.

 

“We are looking to prevent it to begin with,” Penrose said. “We want to prevent the mussels from getting established.”#

 

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article/20100106/NEWS/100109883/1068&ParentProfile=1056

 

 

Sea lions showing up in Oregon

S.F. Chronicle-1/7/10

By Tom Stienstra

 

The question on everyone's mind lately has been: Where have San Francisco's famous sea lions gone? The answer might lie about 500 miles north of the Golden Gate, where an estimated 2,000 sea lions have recently arrived off the central Oregon coast.

 

"We've seen these huge pods out on the ocean - 200, 300 yards across - altogether a couple thousand sea lions," said Steve Saubert, co-owner of Sea Lion Caves, a private preserve near the town of Florence. "They were just here all of a sudden."

 

About 500 of those sea lions have moved into the caves themselves, about 300 of them in the past week, said Jim McMillan, an assistant manager at the park. There would be even more, Saubert said, but the 2-acre floor space of the cave limits the landing area.

 

Saubert, 66, who has been tracking marine wildlife and seabirds on the Oregon coast for most of his life, said that California sea lions, Steller sea lions, pelicans and other marine birds have been attracted to the area by an influx of cold water - 51 degrees the other day - and food, including herring, anchovies, smelt and squid. He believes this summer's El Niño event along the California coast pushed the food north and the wildlife followed.

 

That would coincide with the severe lack of herring in San Francisco Bay and along the Northern California coast, a population that usually peaks in January and February. Experts believe that has everything to do with the disappearance of sea lions from the bay and most notably from San Francisco's Pier 39.

 

On Oct. 23, the Marine Mammal Center counted a high of 1,701 sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco. On Nov. 21, volunteers counted 927. After Thanksgiving, there were only 20, and last week, a half dozen.

 

Kim Suryan, a biologist with the Marine Mammal Institute in Newport, part of Oregon State University, said she's been tracking the arrival of California sea lions and Steller sea lions at Sea Lion Caves and a haul-out area at nearby Heceta Point since 2005.

 

"This year, there's definitely more animals, probably a couple more thousand, than we've seen in the past couple years," Suryan said. "It's the talk of the town around here. A lot of people have noticed all the sea lions."

 

Back in California, several other areas have had similar en masse departures.

 

At Monterey's Fisherman's Wharf, the number of sea lions declined from 500 to 100 in the past two weeks, according to charter fisherman Chris Arcoleo at the wharf. At the mouth of the Russian River, where 250 to 300 sea lions often congregate, Michaela Daniels, who works at the nearby Jenner Inn, said she didn't see a single sea lion on a hike there this week. "There's nothing for them to eat," she said.

 

One location with no apparent change is the Farallon Islands offshore of San Francisco.

 

"Everything is pretty much normal," said Mary Jane Schramm of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. She said scientists who work at the Farallones are seeing plenty of sea lions, murres, gulls and other wildlife. They believe the sea lions there are feeding on shrimp, squid and sardines.

 

"Sea lions are opportunistic feeders," Schramm said. "We're in an El Niño phase wherein all bets are off and the rules are suspended. El Niños sometimes induce wildlife with narrow temperature tolerance to shift northward."

 

Hippo Lau, a San Francisco fisherman, said the combination of warm water and lack of herring has sent the sea lions north.

 

"The herring is why the sea lions have been in San Francisco in the first place," Lau said. "For 20 years every winter, the commercial herring netters would just take the eggs from the females, then dump the bodies and discard the males with them. The sea lions would just lounge around and gorge whenever it happened." That has stopped this winter, he said.

 

Without being told large numbers of sea lions had been located in Oregon, Lau theorized the sea lions would be "up farther north, looking for herring. Part of it is the warmer water."

 

Sea Lion Caves is 11 miles north of Florence on the central Oregon coast. It is a cavern where tide waters enter its floor. Marine mammals and shorebirds use it as a resting area and for protection from storms and rough seas. Outside the cave is Lost Beach, near Heceta Point (named after explorer Bruno Heceta), which is not accessible by vehicle and provides an overflow resting area for sea lions when the cave is full.

 

Saubert said sea lions started arriving in large numbers in late October and the procession of arrivals never stopped. He sighted 40 brown pelicans a week ago, he said, and that "is real unusual for January here." They too follow the food, he said.

 

The abundant sea lion population in this area has created a micro-ecosystem where wildlife flourishes, Saubert said.

 

"What I think is happening is the sea lions follow the food supply," Saubert said. "Now we have all these sea lions here. They eat fish and their waste goes to the bottom. That fertilizes the marine food chain. You get plankton and brine shrimp, and that brings in the small fish and the whales. The small fish bring in the seabirds and the bigger fish. So the sea lions have plenty to eat and the cycle starts over again." Upwelling, a trigger for the marine food chain set off by winds out of the northwest, is often significant here.

 

The missing sea lions of San Francisco, Monterey and the Sonoma coast did not end up in Humboldt or Del Norte counties on California's north coast, said Bob Farrell, a marine lieutenant for the Department of Fish and Game based in Eureka, adding credence to the theory that they continued moving north.

 

Wherever they land, they will most likely be welcomed. Sea lions are charismatic animals that often seem to behave like big dogs. Their expressions and behavior have turned them into a huge tourist attraction at San Francisco's Pier 39 and their disappearance alarmed many. The hope is that they will return when water temperatures return to normal, bringing the herring and other cold-water fish back, as well.

 

The organization Tagging of Pacific Pelagics, better known as TOPP Census ( www.topp.org), tags and tracks the ocean migration of several species, including sharks, albatross and sea turtles, but has not tagged a sea lion for study this winter season.

 

"The sea lions are not tagged and tracked," said Jim Oswald at the Marine Mammal Center. "All we can guess, their goal at the core, is to find food."#

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/07/MN281BE41C.DTL

 

 

 

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