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CalTrout’s lawsuit threatens local water supplies, says one commentary, while another says its time for Southern California steelhead to go home

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 12, 2008 at 6:21 am

Should the United Water Conservation District be required to build a new, improved fish ladder, at a cost of $28 to $60 million to its ratepayers? Two opinion pieces in today’s Ventura County Star debate each side of the issue.

From California Trout, Southern California program manager Nica K. Knite:

The diversion was built to provide water for agricultural and residential uses in the Oxnard basin. United was required to include a fish ladder in order to qualify for federal funding to build the facility, but the long, low design of the dam makes fish passage difficult and the current ladder does not work for steelhead.

United has resisted modifying or replacing the fish ladder on the Vern Freeman Diversion for years, claiming that steelhead are not native to the river and arguing that the ladder enables sufficient passage, despite extensive evidence to the contrary. It appears that United does not want to invest the funds necessary to give steelhead a fighting chance.

Despite United’s claims, steelhead are native to the Santa Clara River. The Freeman Diversion harms these fish by making it impossible for returning adults to migrate upstream into vital habitat areas to spawn. The NMFS Biological Opinion shows that the Freeman fish ladder does not work for steelhead. It also identifies solutions that are both logistically and financially feasible.

Ultimately, the downstream and upstream approaches to the diversion could be modified to dramatically reduce its negative effects on steelhead survival rates. While long-term solutions are likely to cost several million dollars, those costs must be weighed against the importance of supporting a species that is defying extinction by the slimmest of margins, and by the need for serious change to save our rivers, ecosystems and planet.

Read the rest of Nica K. Knite’s commentary by clicking here.

From Robert P. Roy, Esq., president and general counsel of the Ventura County Agricultural Association and chairman of the Ventura County Agricultural Water Quality Coalition:

United Water has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on a fish ladder that was built to federal specifications to help fish navigate their way around the dam. Thousands of fish (other than steelhead) have used this ladder since the establishment of the diversion project in 1991. The fact that steelhead are not among them indicates that the current steelhead population is small, not that the fish ladder does not work!

CalTrout has called for United Water to implement a series of changes to keep more water in the river for steelhead. However, the reduction in water supply caused by these proposed changes would be devastating to our region’s economy, as farms will go dry and cities will not receive necessary water to send to businesses and homes.

Pleasant Valley Water District, which supplies some of our local farmers with water, estimates that it could lose up to 12.2 percent of its water supply due to the intended legal action of CalTrout.

More importantly, proposed changes to be brought about by the CalTrout lawsuit would also have a disastrous effect on groundwater under the Oxnard Plain, which would become contaminated by further seawater intrusion. Steven Bachman, Ph.D., a world-renowned scientist on the Santa Clara River and local hydrology, has concluded in a recent study that the diversion of water for these steelhead would cause a substantial increase in seawater intrusion into the Oxnard Plain aquifer.

Read the full text of Robert P. Roy, Esq.’s commentary by clicking here.

October 12, 2008 · Filed Under Endangered Species & Wildlife

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