|
Hoopa Valley
Tribe Chairperson Clifford Lyle Marshall will testify Tuesday
before a congressional subcommittee on
Trinity River
restoration issues.
Marshall
will be joined by representatives
from the Yurok Tribe, California Trout and the Friends of the
Trinity River
. The subcommittee will also hear
from the Bureau of Reclamation, the Central Valley Project Water
Association and the Northern California Power Agency.
The hearing concerns a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson
(D-St. Helena), House Bill 2733, which would earmark funding for
Trinity River
restoration if passed.
The restoration funds are part of a record of decision given by
then Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in December 2000. Babbitt,
along with the Yurok Tribe, determined a course of action to
restore the watershed.
Babbitt’s decision led to a fund overseen by the Central Valley
Project, which diverts fees paid for water into a pool reserved
for environmental mitigation.
Marshall
said restoration efforts were
delayed by a lawsuit, but are now about three years into a 10-year
process.
The crux of the issue arises from competing legislation, HR 24,
which stems from a lawsuit concerning the
San Joaquin
River
.
For 18 years, environmental groups fought to restore flows on the
San Joaquin
below Friant Dam. In 2006, the
Natural Resources Defense Council won a settlement that called for
restoring flows on the river.
The San Joaquin River Restoration Project is a mammoth affair that
may cost upward of $440 million, according to HR 24.
Marshall
, among others, is afraid the
San Joaquin
project, which is funded
partially through the Central Valley Project, will diminish the
available funds. A news release from the Hoopa Valley Tribe states
the
San Joaquin
River
could draw as much as 25 percent of the fund, meaning there would be
less available for the
Trinity River
.
Craig Noble, a spokesperson for the NRDC, said by phone Friday the
San Joaquin
project will not take funds from
the Trinity.
But the water negotiator for the Trinity, Danny Jordan, said the
Hoopa Valley Tribe was denied a seat at the negotiating table for
the
San Joaquin
legislation.
“It is very sad that we were neither seen nor heard until others
had made a decision at the expense of our environment,”
Jordan
stated in a news release.
The tribal chairperson concurs. “The effort to restore the
San Joaquin
is a good project,”
Marshall
said, “but it can’t be done
at the expense of everyone else.”
Thompson weighed in by e-mail Friday. He said, “HR 2733 would
provide a dedicated funding source at the levels necessary to
ensure full and timely implementation of the Trinity River Record
of Decision.”
He also said, “Expediting the successful restoration of the
Trinity is critical to restoring and maintaining fish populations
in the
Klamath
Basin
and along the
North
Coast
, which our local industries, communities and cultures depend upon.”
The two bills are both in subcommittee, so it may be months before
any decision is made at the federal level.
Marshall
is not sure the river and its
fish can wait that long. He was hesitant to draw conclusions, but
he agreed last week that conditions on the Trinity resemble those
that preceded the 2002 fish kill.
“We’re going to hold our breath and hope the predictions are
true that there’s going to be a significant run this year,” he
said.
Marshall
concluded, “It’s our river,
but we can’t save it by ourselves.”
The hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee,
Subcommittee on Water and Power is set for
10 a.m. EST
in
Washington
,
D.C.
, and will be webcast at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov/.
|
