FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Clifford Lyle Marshall
(530) 625-4211
Mike Orcutt
(530) 625-4267 ext. 13
Tod Bedrosian
(916) 421-5121
Hoopa, Calif. – The Hoopa Valley Tribe has asked the
Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to not renew the long-term contracts with the
largest consumers of irrigation water in the Central Valley until those
contracts are revised to protect the Trinity River. The tribe also has called on
the contractors to stop trying to take water and money from the restoration of
the Trinity River.
The Westlands Water District and San Luis & Delta Water Authority in the
Central Valley have shown a “persistent antagonism,” towards plans for
restoration of the river, which bisects the reservation, according to Hoopa
Valley Tribal Chairman Clifford Lyle Marshall.
In an April 24 letter to the U.S. Department of Interior Marshall asserted the
proposed water contract language contradicts laws and court decisions
guaranteeing enough water be left in the Trinity River to support the river’s
fishery.
“For decades the BOR has allowed these water districts to pillage and ruin the
natural fishery of the Trinity River. Now, after Congressional action and
litigation ordering the restoration of the river these contractors are trying to
drill a water line in the back door of the bureaucracy to circumvent the law,”
said Marshall.
“The fish populations in the Trinity and Klamath rivers are at such a crisis
low level this year’s commercial fishing season had been almost been
eliminated. This year’s small salmon run is because of the devastating after
effects of the 2002 fish kill,” said Marshall. “Now we have enough water in
an obviously extremely wet year and these water contractors want to take water
away from the fish that survived. “
In an April 19 letter Westlands attorneys ask the BOR to classify this year’s
water forecast as a “wet year,” not an “extremely wet year,” thus
creating a formula reducing the Trinity River water some 80,000 to 100,000 acre
feet this year. The same letter ends with a threat of litigation. “We would
prefer that this matter be addressed without renewed litigation,” writes
Westlands attorney Dan O’Hanlon. “However, we reserve the right to seek
injunctive relief against the proposed unlawful released if there is no prompt
corrective action.” Westlands is also disputing their obligation to pay for
environmental restoration under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA).
Marshall said Westlands litigious strategy, “unreasonably consumes time and
resources of both the Tribe and the United States, and threatens the fishery
resources that the United States holds in trust for our Tribe.” He said the
water contractors should accept the will of Congress and the courts and stop
trying to intimidate the BOR with threats of litigation.
The degradation of the Trinity River fishery began in 1955 when Congress
authorized diversions of the river’s water to the Central Valley. The act said
enough water would be left in the river to support the fishery, but spawning
runs have diminished since the diversions began. The BOR began diversion in
l964, taking up to 90 percent of the river’s water in some years. In the l992
Congress passed the CVPIA, which included cooperative restoration studies by the
tribe and the Department of Interior. The studies culminated in a Record of
Decision (ROD) signed by Department of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in 2000
agreeing to a river restoration plan. Westlands and Central Valley hydropower
users sued to stop the river restoration work.
Conditions worsened until 2002 when some 68,000 fish died in the linked Trinity
and Klamath rivers. In 2004 the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the
Department of Interior and the tribe to allow the implementation of the ROD.
“The Hoopa Valley Tribe will not stop fighting those who are trying to destroy
this river and the fish. We have no choice. We do not have another river that
flows though our ancestral land and blood. The fish do not have another river to
spawn in,” said Marshall. “If the BOR approves these water contracts they
will be ignoring the will of Congress and the rulings of courts calling for the
restoration of the Trinity River.”
