Humboldt County and the Hoopa Valley Tribe didn't get the up or down decision they'd hoped for on a promise from Congress for billions of gallons of Trinity River water when they met with U.S. Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor on Thursday.
But their request for the water -- 50,000 acre feet -- has been elevated to the highest levels and will get a formal response within a few months, according to those who attended the meetings. Humboldt County's 1955 contract for the water as part of the effort to dam the Trinity River has not been honored, or, as has been maintained by the federal government for years, it's already being released as part of a fisheries restoration program.
Humboldt County 5th District Supervisor Jill Duffy said that the county's request had been lodged with other administrations and never fully addressed. Duffy said that Connor pledged that the request would not be swept under the rug this time.
Duffy said she came out of the meeting cautiously optimistic. Still, Duffy said that the determination Connor makes will likely be less about whether Humboldt County should get the water, and more about whether it should be in addition to the fisheries restoration flows, or already included in those flows.
”It's not whether or not we're going to get it,” Duffy said, “it's how it's going to be recognized.”
The Hoopa Tribe has recently been assisting the county in the effort to clear up the matter. Should another 50,000 acre feet of water be available on the river each year, it could possibly be used to raise and cool water on the Klamath River, where salmon can be susceptible to hot, low flows and resulting disease. In 2002, some 68,000 salmon died in a low, warm river.
Whether that would be an allowable use for the water is not entirely certain either, as Reclamation tends to view so-called beneficial uses as consumptive, like for houses, industry or agriculture.
Hoopa Tribe fisheries director Mike Orcutt said that the tribal council's separate meeting with Connor didn't yield an answer either, but that he was receptive to the tribe's legal analysis of the 1955 act. The decision, Orcutt expects, will be based entirely on the interpretation of the law.
”It's our water in my opinion,” Orcutt said.
Orcutt said the tribe also discussed contract renewals with Central Valley Project operators, some of whom are recipients of Trinity River water. The tribe argued that those who benefit from the river's water should have to contribute to funds to restore the river's fisheries, which have been suppressed by the damming and diversion of the river.
John Driscoll covers natural resources/industry. He can be reached at 441-0504 or jdriscoll@times-standard.com