FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 31, 2003

Contact: Chuck Bonham or Curtis Knight, California Trout

CONSERVATION GROUPS SUCCESSFULLY RESOLVE 3 YEAR PROCESS TO PROTECT AND ENHANCE FISH BELOW DAMS ON CALIFORNIA'S PIT RIVER

ALBANY, CA -- Conservation organizations have joined with California's largest utility and state and federal agencies in reaching an agreement that will ultimately lead to better conditions for wild trout and other aquatic species in the Pit River in northeastern California.

Trout Unlimited (TU) and California Trout (CalTrout) have joined with Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. National Park Service, California Department of Fish and Game, California Department of Parks, South Fork Irrigation District, Modoc County and other stakeholders in creating a consensus-based package of natural resources conditions for PG&E's new hydro license for its Pit 3, 4, and 5 hydroelectric project on the Pit River in northeastern California. The conditions were sent today to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), along with a formal request that FERC adopt these natural resources conditions as part of PG&E's new license for the Pit River hydroelectric facilities.

The agreement was the result of three years of meetings, technical studies, and heated negotiations, which ultimately culminated in the consensus package of natural resources conditions for PG&E's new hydro license.

"By working collaboratively to understand PG&E's needs as well as the needs of fish, wildlife and recreation in these waters, the stakeholders produced a durable and comprehensive consensus package that we hope FERC will adopt since the needs of both the Company and ecological resources are met," said Chuck Bonham, of Trout Unlimited. "If they do adopt it, the positive impacts on both the river and its wild fish will be tremendous."

The Pit 3, 4, and 5 Project is a 317-megawatt hydroelectric project spread across the Pit River just outside Burney, California. The Project largely controls the flow of water in the river, and the Pit River is home to one of California's most storied and treasured wild trout fisheries. Recreational anglers across California and the west consider the Pit River hallowed fly fishing waters.

"It is amazing what parties can accomplish when they focus on mutual gains," said Curtis Knight of CalTrout. "At a time when many are decrying the inefficiencies of FERC's relicensing process and seem bent on attacking public involvement from here to the halls of Congress, it is becoming increasingly clear to those on the ground that working together will resolve relicensings faster and better meet the mandate to comprehensively manage our waters."

The natural resource conditions that were agreed upon include: (1) an overall increase of minimum base streamflows and an instream flow regime that mimics natural river processes, which will ultimately protect and enhance fish and amphibian species habitat and populations; (2) a new operating approach for dams on the river to minimize rapid fluctuations in river conditions below the dams and protect fish from such impact; (3) enhancement of recreational opportunities; (4) a long-term monitoring program with a fund of up to $500,000 a year for specific years; and, (5) a commitment for maintenance responsibilities at the Hat Creek Fish Barrier Dam, below the wild trout waters on Hat Creek, and a dedicated maintenance and restoration fund for those waters.

"We did not always see eye to eye during the last three intense years, and particularly in the final weeks of negotiations," said PG&E Project Manager, Jim Holeman. "But, listening and learning about all stakeholders' interests created valuable relationships, which PG&E intends to build upon. Listening to each others' needs clearly produced a win-win solution, which meets stakeholders' fish, wildlife, and recreation goals while allowing PG&E to continue project operations in a beneficial manner."

Over the next decade, California faces more hydroelectric project relicensings than any other state. For the next 15 years, hydroelectric project licenses covering approximately 150 dams will expire in the state. "When an owner of a hydroelectric project extends the opportunity to sit down and truly listen to natural resources needs of federal and state agencies, we gladly accept," said Annie Manji of California's Department of Fish and Game.

"In this case, PG&E made the right choice. At the same time, by making the effort to listen and learn, we also developed an appreciation and better understanding of PG&E. The broad stakeholder support for this package confirms that this is the correct approach for dam relicensing," said TU's Bonham. Both Trout Unlimited and CalTrout participate in FERC relicensings throughout California.

Trout Unlimited is the nation's leading coldwater fisheries conservation organization, with over 130,000 members nationwide, 10,000 of whom are Californians. California Trout is a statewide conservation organization dedicated to protecting and restoring wild trout, native steelhead, with approximately 5,700 members.

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See also: Reading Room>TU in the News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 23, 2003

Contact: Chuck Bonham

TROUT UNLIMITED WILL RETURN TO COURT TO FORCE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO PROTECT CALIFORNIA’S STATE FISH

Intent-to-sue notice is sent because of USFWS failure to act on golden trout petition

ALBANY, CA -- The national conservation organization Trout Unlimited has served notice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) that they will return to court once again to force the agency to protect California’s state fish, the golden trout.

The 60-day notice of intent to sue, which was provided to Secretary Norton and the USFWS, comes one year after the USFWS, in response to a judge’s order, announced that Trout Unlimited’s petition to list the California golden trout as endangered contained substantial information that a federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing may be warranted. Since that announcement on September 20, 2002, the USFWS has not acted on the petition, even though they were required to do so within a year.

“Historically, Trout Unlimited is very reluctant to go to court – we would much rather spend our time and energy working with appropriate state and federal agencies to save fish, like the golden trout, from extinction,” said Chuck Bonham of Trout Unlimited’s California office. “Unfortunately, the federal government’s inaction has forced us to return to court once again.”

The filing of the 60-day notice is the latest action forced upon Trout Unlimited in a protracted legal battle that began three years ago when Trout Unlimited first filed a petition to list the California golden trout as endangered. In the fall of 2000, Trout Unlimited petitioned the USFWS to list the fish under the Endangered Species Act. By law, the USFWS is required to make a finding – within 90 days after receiving such a petition – as to whether the petition presented substantial scientific information indicating that a listing might be warranted.

However, the USFWS failed to make the 90-day finding, claiming budgetary constraints at the time. In February of 2001, Trout Unlimited notified the USFWS that if it did not act on the petition, the organization planned to pursue legal action. In spite of the threat of legal action, the USFWS still refused to act, forcing Trout Unlimited – represented by Earthjustice's Oakland office – to go to court.

On June 21, 2002, a federal district court judge ruled in Trout Unlimited’s favor, requiring that Gale Norton, the United States Secretary of the Interior, make a preliminary determination within 90 days as to whether the organization’s petition to list the California golden trout as endangered presented substantial information that a listing may be warranted.

“ We have been told that one of the reasons behind the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s failure to once again act to save this magnificent fish is because of a lack of funding. They simply will not consider our petition until we sue them. Ironically, every time we take them to court it costs the federal government money – money that could be better spent saving California’s state fish from extinction, the same fate the state’s animal – the grizzly bear – met,” said Bonham.

The California golden trout is native to only two high-altitude watersheds in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains. The trout has fallen victim to the careless stocking of non-native fish and more than a century of overgrazing by cattle and sheep. The species’ range, which once encompassed an estimated 450 miles of stream habitat in the upper South Fork Kern River and adjacent Golden Trout Creek, today is a small fraction of that historic range.

The U.S. Forest Service estimates that the golden trout is now secure in only 4 percent of its native range. After Trout Unlimited filed its initial petition in 2000, the Forest Service announced that it would rest a grazing allotment in the Golden Trout Wilderness Area for ten years – an allotment most recently held by the Anheuser-Busch Company. However, since the petition was first filed, new information has become available that shows that the California golden trout is even more imperiled than originally thought. Recent genetic testing by the University of California at Davis shows that there are significant numbers of hybrid fish scattered throughout the Golden Trout Creek watershed, and hybrids are in the South Fork of the Kern River as well, meaning that currently the native trout is not really secure anywhere.

Bonham said his organization has been working with the State of California to develop strategies to reduce the impact of stocking on the trout. “The State of California really appears to want to save the golden trout, as do we and countless others. It is rolling up its sleeves to grapple with tough restoration questions. The only thing that is standing in the way of that happening is a commitment from the federal government,” he said.

Trout Unlimited is the nation’s largest trout and salmon conservation organization with over 8,000 members in California and some 130,000 nationwide.

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See also: Reading Room>TU in the News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 13, 2002

Contacts: Steve Wald, CHRC  (510) 644-2900 ext. 105
                Chuck Bonham, Trout Unlimited  (510) 528-4164

RIVER CONSERVATION GROUPS OPPOSE PG&E REORGANIZATION IN BANKRUPTCY COURT

BERKELEY, CA—The California Hydropower Reform Coalition (CHRC) filed its trial brief today with the US Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco opposing the confirmation of Pacific Gas & Electric Company’s plan of reorganization.  PG&E has asked the Bankruptcy court to override state environmental law so it can transfer the company’s vast hydroelectric system to a new corporate entity not subject to California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) oversight. 

PG&E’s hydropower system, the largest under single private ownership in the country, includes 250 dams that control the flow of rivers from Mt. Shasta to Bakersfield.  Expert witnesses for CHRC and the state have testified that PG&E’s plan could lead to changes in the way these dams operate after compliance with minimum regulatory requirements.  These changes may affect fish and wildlife habitat, recreation opportunities, water supply, and flood control on rivers and reservoirs across the state.  Yet PG&E’s plan would prevent the CPUC from undertaking any proceeding to identify, prevent, or mitigate potential impacts.

“Chapter 11 reorganization is supposed to be about returning PG&E to solvency and paying back its creditors,” said Chuck Bonham, attorney for the California Hydropower Reform Coalition.   “But the public interest also counts in bankruptcy.  PG&E’s plan proposes sweeping changes to the ownership and management of public resources.  The public’s right to review and approve those changes must be affirmed.”

Confirmation hearings on PG&E’s plan begin Monday, December 16.

The California Hydropower Reform Coalition was formed by conservation, sportfishing, and river recreation organizations in 1997 to restore and enhance California rivers adversely affected by hydropower. 

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CHRC Steering Committee:
American Rivers, American Whitewater, California Outdoors, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Trout, Foothill Conservancy, Friends of the River, Natural Heritage Institute, Trout Unlimited

CHRC is a coalition of national, statewide and local organizations working to restore and enhance rivers in California through the federal hydropower relicensing process using collaboration, technical and scientific expertise, and the promotion of publicia involvement.

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See also: Reading Room>TU in the News