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Fish fight may doom dam: Judge Wanger’s decision on salmon lawsuit to decide fate of Lake Red Bluff

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 11, 2008 at 7:43 am

From Redding’s Record-Searchlight:

Caught in a fight over fish, the diversion dam that creates Lake Red Bluff and enables the irrigation of about 150,000 acres of Northern California cropland is itself an endangered species.

Local recreation enthusiasts, businesspeople and agricultural interests have watched with dread this summer as an environmental lawsuit against the Central Valley Project’s water diversion system has proceeded in a Fresno courtroom.

Central in the suit is the fate of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, which is put in place from mid-May through mid-September to supply water for a 125-mile irrigation canal that runs to Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties. The city of Red Bluff estimates the resulting high river levels in the heart of town generate $4 million a year in economic activity.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger has ruled the dam and other diversions imperil the state’s beleaguered salmon population. Wanger stopped short of ordering the gates removed immediately, but the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority will have to remove the gates Sept. 2 – about two weeks early – if it’s determined that at least 5 percent of winter-run salmon have already reached the dam.

“They dodged a bullet this time,” Red Bluff City Manager Martin Nichols said of the dam and the lake, home of the popular Nitro Nationals Drag Boat Festival each Memorial Day weekend. “But we’re a long way from being out of the woods on this.”

Get the rest of the story from Redding’s Record-Searchlight by clicking here.

Picture of Red Bluff Diversion Dam by the Bureau of Reclamation.

August 11, 2008 · Filed Under Judge Wanger salmon ruling

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