You can always rely on Williams to cut to the chase, which he does with the precision of a surgeon in this High Country News article outlining the futile, misleading attempts to blame salmon problems on predators:

Suppose the Bush administration prevails against squawfish, sea lions and terns. Is it then going to pacify the rest of nature? Will it attack cormorants, which eat more smolts than sea lions and terns combined? And what about orcas and those smolt-swilling walleyes and coastal cutthroat trout?

One gets the impression that if seismic activity threatened an obsolete dam, our federal government would try to rearrange earth’s tectonic plates. On the Snake River, we can save dams or salmon — not both. The administration knows this. Its war on predators is based on deception. There can be no end and no victory.

It’s short, and because the article so nicely sums up the futility of the existing plan (the Underground’s offering even money that Judge Redden goes nuclear on the government’s latest plan), it’s a two-minute education on an issue that is not going to disappear.

See you on High Country News, Tom Chandler.

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In addition, they’ve agreed to reduce the amount of water taken by more than half — pumping 200 million gallons per year instead of the originally planned 521 million acres.

This, Undergrounders, mean’s we’re halfway there.

Renegotiate!

What remains is the renegotiation of multinational predator Nestle’s rapacious contract with the McCloud Services District — the five-member elected board who negotiated the existing contract in secret and approved it after a single public meeting.

While little is official at this point, the new project looks like this:

• 350,000 sq. ft. plant (instead of a million sq. ft. monster)
• 200,000,000 gallons of water annually (521,000,000 gallons)
• Agreement to monitor flows in Squaw Creek for two years prior to building the plant

Presumably, the number of truck trips will be reduced from the mind-boggling, road-grinding 600 trips per day.

The Mount Shasta Herald suggested that changes to the specifications of the contract could mean renegotiation of all the terms of the contract, so it’s possible McCloud will be able to do away with the “negotiated-by-monkeys” contract that pays 1/100th the value of the water, and offers no increase in rates for 100 years.

This is good news, Undergrounders. And while Nestle says rising fuel costs and the construction of a Denver plant drove this decision <coughbullshitcough>, a careful look at last year’s financials suggests their water market is no long growing, and that public backlash is badly damaging correctly identifying the company’s image.

UPDATE: The Protect Our Waters Coalition (CalTrout, McCloud Watershed Council and Trout Unlimited) have weighed in:

“While it certainly is a smaller plant than it would have been, it nonetheless uses a large amount of water. It’s still a major operation,” said Severn Williams, a spokesman for the Protect Our Waters Coalition.

It plans to lobby for a higher price for the water and a clause that limits Nestle to pumping only water from the springs around McCloud while prohibiting the company from touching the aquifer.

Williams also said the coalition wants a contract with a shorter timeframe than McCloud’s current 100-year commitment to sell its water exclusively

More water news as it happens, Undergrounders. It’s not a bad way to come back home.

Technorati Tags: nestle,nestle waters,bottled water,mccloud,mcloud river,squaw creek,bottled water backlash,multinational predators

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Apparently, that’s easier than fixing the problems that got them in hot water to begin with, but if you want to read an intelligent writer’s take on Nestle’s problems with the town of Fryeburg, Maine, then consider Elizabeth Royte’s soon-to-be-available book: Bottlemania

You can read an excerpt here. Frankly, it looks like fascinating stuff, and Royte is heavy hitter, with credits from Harper’s, National Geographic, Outside, The New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, and OnEarth.

See you in Maine, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: bottlemania,elizabeth royte,nestle waters,bottled water,fryeburg,multinational predator

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After all, these are the same Feds who wanted tried to escape a workable salmon recovery plan by suggesting the dams are part of the natural landscape, or that the law only required they have a plan — not necessarily one that would recover salmon.

With that kind of mindset driving the creation of some seriously flawed salmon recovery plans, yesterday’s announcement doesn’t exactly come as a surprise — nor the reaction to it. (more…)

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The Reader’s Digest version? While Winter storms promised much, a dry spring means the Sierra snowpack has fallen far short of early expectations.

Faster than you can say "rationing," every major paper in the state jumped on the story.

From the Contra Costa Times:

California’s snowpack is low for the second year in a row, leaving water managers across the state grappling with the triple threat of a dry year, depleted reservoirs and new environmental restrictions on pumping from the Delta.

The whole scenario would be amusing if so much wasn’t at stake; a water-hungry state has largely maxed out its supplies — doing an unbelievable amount of environmental damage in the process — and yet somehow, water managers wanted to believe one good year would solve the problem.

Here at the Underground, we’ve got a bridge we’d like to sell to those same managers.

See you at the tap, Tom Chandler.

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That’s why it’s heartening to hear the Protect Our Waters Coalition (CalTrout, Trout Unlimited, and the McCloud Watershed Council) have hired a few legal gunslingers of their own:

The McCloud Watershed Council and California Trout, who, along with Trout Unlimited, comprise the Protect Our Waters Coalition, announced today that they have engaged the national law and consulting firm of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. The firm will represent the Coalition in their fight to safeguard the rights and quality of life for residents of McCloud, California and beyond who would be affected by operation of a planned Nestle Waters North America water bottling plant in the Mt. Shasta area. Progress on the proposed plant, which would be the nation’s largest, is mired in unanswered questions and conflicting economic and environmental assessments.

Are they any good? Hell if I know, but at least the good guys aren’t walking into this one unarmed.

I do know lawyers (in addition to making good bait) are expensive, so it’s probably a good time to join CalTrout (if you haven’t already).

See you in the conference room, Tom Chandler.

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Frankly, here at the Underground we’re pretty damned tired of the damned cold and the damned snow and the damned clouds and the damned low water temperatures on the Upper Sacramento (and we don’t think much of most dams either).

When you’re in a mood like that (add sleep deprivation to the mix) and it’s a short descent into howling at the moon, which is what’s going to happen at the start of the next paragraph.

Argentina Makes Plan to Dam Last Free Flowing River, Eliminating Atlantic Steelhead

Sure we didn’t even know there’s an Atlantic-ocean-based run of steelhead (the Santa Cruz river hosts the world’s only run), but the Free Argentine Waters blog alerts us to a planned dam project that would eliminate the steelhead (probably because anything living wild and free is an affront to government).

Santa Cruz River holds two rare privileges, it is the last great river in Argentine Patagonia flowing freely and it is the only river in the world to receive wild runs of Steelhead from the Atlantic Ocean. Two distinctions soon to be challenged with the construction of Condor Cliff and La Barrancosa dams…

Well boys, taking into account that corruption and half assed decisions are a given in our every day life in Argentina, it´s a sure bet we will roast in the oven with this one.

Sounds about par for the course.

Pebble Mine Still Looms, But You Can Help

Though we haven’t heard a lot about it lately, the Pebble Mine project still looms over Bristol Bay — host to the biggest remaining (and healthy) salmon populations in the USA.

We understand they’re close to firing up an auction in an attempt to raise funds to fight this mine (the mining company is already lubricating the locals with money like it was candy, which, in a way it is), and we’ll announce that when it happens.

Until then, why not visit the Sportsmen’s Alliance for Alaska’s Web site and sign the petitions. I haven’t fished in Alaska yet, but it’d be nice if some of it was left when I do decide to go.

Oregon Thinking About Coastal Cutthroat Harvest Despite Recent Court Decision

With a court recently ruling that US Fish & Game must consider listing the Coastal Cutthroat under the Endangered Species Act, Shane at the Quiet Pool wonders why Oregon wants to allow a coastal cutthroat harvest.

He provides a few links for you to contact, so maybe — just maybe — those dolts running things will get the message.

See you out in the snow, Tom Chandler.

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Fans of corporate spin will no doubt find the following passage amusing in the face of the paragraph we’ve placed below it:

PacifiCorp Energy President Rob Lasich says the settlement shows that sincere negotiations can produce positive results for fish as well as PacifiCorp’s customers.

The Portland-based utility agreed to negotiations after the conservation group Oregon Wild filed notice it would sue under the Endangered Species Act…

OK, we get it; PacifiCorp won’t engage in "sincere negotiations" until it’s forced to by the threat of a lawsuit. Still, it’s a good result for Oregon Wild and Klamath fisheries (a little good news, eh?).

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Federal judge Oliver Wanger today tossed out a controversial water plan that would have allowed more pumping of water from the imperiled California Delta at the expense of five species of protected chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

Recreational fishing, commercial fishing and conservation groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe celebrated the ruling as a victory for the millions of Californians who depend on the delta for drinking water, fishing jobs and agriculture. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast - and increased state and federal exports to subsidized agribusiness and southern California in recent years are a key factor in the collapse of Sacramento River salmon.

In his opinion Judge Oliver W. Wanger relied on the National Marine Fisheries Services’ (NMFS) own finding that diverting water from the bay-delta was killing huge numbers of salmon. He said, “This morbid projection is inconsistent, if not irreconcilable” with the agency’s opinion that the project operations did not jeopardize the survival of the fish. He also faulted the agency for failing to analyze the effects of global warming on the fish, calling that failure “arbitrary and capricious.”

"How extirpation of approaching one-third of the species affected by Project operations does not constitute jeopardy is not explained," said Wanger. "NMFS’s no jeopardy conclusion for the Project operations’ effects on the spring-run Chinook is expressly contradicted by underlying data and opinions of the BiOp."

More Bad News for Fishermen

The ocean fishing season for salmon has already been killed off by extremely low returns, and it looks like a zero-take policy will apply to river fisheries too:

The Commission will decide on whether or not to close salmon season on Central Valley rivers at its meeting in Monterey on May 9. However, it is extremely likely that the Commission will close salmon fishing on the Sacramento, American, Feather, San Joaquin and other rivers in conformance with the PFMC’s "zero take" allowance for the dwindling salmon population.

An Underground Rant

Here’s the scenario; salmon populations in the Sacramento River are collapsing (several species, including the stalwart Chinook run), steelhead are hurting, Delta Smelt and Longfin Smelt are on the brink of extinction, and they want to export more water from the Delta?

Here’s a thought: maybe it’s time California learned to live within its water budget.

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This time, the New York Times Op-Ed lays it out: the next president will have to focus on rebuilding our commercially valuable salmon stocks, or find out what coastal economic collapse really looks like: (more…)

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The news wires are crawling with stories, suppositions, animosity and outright rage, though the collapse of the final commercially viable run in California (the Sacramento Chinook runs) remains somewhat shrouded in mystery.

The Underground’s Crack Team of Salmon Analysts have extensively studied the situation and decided two things will almost certainly occur:

1. Lots of finger pointing as to the cause of the collapse (Scientists and fishermen point their fingers at habitat loss, water quality, Delta water diversions and ocean conditions)
2. There will be lots of farm-raised salmon on the dinner menu

See you at the grill, Tom Chandler.

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Bottom Line: They should fire/tar and feather the fools who signed the original contract and start again, or, better yet — cut out the middleman, bottle "McCloud water," and sell a lot less of it for a lot more.

Sadly, selling McCloud Water is a cool idea, though the problem lies with a distribution channel dominated by a small handful of mega-corporations; they prevent new players form entering the marketing by tying up/buying up/monopolizing the retail shelf space (can anyone say anti-trust?).

Our economist hits it smack on the head with:

Nestle is really running a mining operation, and the natives — as usual — are not getting a very big piece of the pie. Instead of thinking "wow, Nestle is going to build a 1,000,000 sq foot plant and run 600 trucks/day through our town of 1,350 people — we’d better give them a good price," they should get a BIG share of the pie — more like $5,000/AF, since that’s still only about 1.5 cents/gallon.

More as it happens, Undergrounders.

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If you’re the moronic easily influenced folks in charge of fisheries at the Prarie River in Wisconsin, your course is clear; you lift the regulations on a critical five-mile section of river (more than 30 miles are fishable) that provides much of the river’s rearing habitat.

Whaaa?

Yeah. Us too.

Read all about it here.

A small group of individuals had influenced the DNR to put this social question on the ballot, and other similar vocal individuals and groups want to influence rule makings to eliminate all category 5 trout waters in the state. This is a movement we all need to be aware of and take notice. The next group may organize to assault the size and slot limits that have been created on other species (that you fish) and that have resulted in quality fishing in Wisconsin.

Unfortunately, you have to be present (in Wisconsin) to vote on this issue, but if you know someone who lives in the area, be sure to pass this one along.

Technorati Tags: prarie river,wisconsin,fly fishing,trout fishing,trout,fishing,regulations

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To help prevent the spread of invasive mussels that can impact the fishery and damage water conveyance systems, all boats entering Crowley Lake this year will be thoroughly inspected, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) recently announced. Boats showing signs of contamination with invasive mussels, or found to contain any water or debris that could harbor mussels, will not be allowed to launch into Crowley Lake.

Boats will be inspected and boaters asked to fill out a survey form (which will take upwards of an hour). Re-inspections performed if a boat is trailered outside the "safe" area.

So the Underground wonders; where does that leave float tubes at the frequently floated Crowley? After all, Crowley’s the site of a serious float tube tournament.

Will fly fishers be required to offer up their float tubes for inspections?

The LADWP site doesn’t say, though it seems likely (to met) that float tubes could also transport the zebra/quagga mussel. See you at the inspection station, Tom Chandler.

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After all, Nestle’s getting the water for about 1/4000 the cost paid by a similar plant in Ohio, and you can almost hear the uneasy murmurings from the crowd in this passage from the Mount Shasta Herald story:

It lists a “Coca-Cola or Pepsi” water bottling plant in Twinsburg, Ohio that pays $107,531 per acre-feet of water on the high end. On the low end is Nestle’s proposed McCloud plant at $26.40 per acre-feet of water.

“The average price of water we found is $1,500 to $2,000,” stated Anderson. “We know our water in McCloud is great, so the value should be way up there.”

In his response, Palais noted that Nestle would be paying a negotiated set price for the water used, and that the price is more than the current rate for McCloud citizens.

Tim Rajeef couldn’t cast across the gap between $107,000 and $26, and Nestle Corporate Hit Man Representative Dave Palais’ unimpressive response (paraphrased: "bite me") wouldn’t settle my stomach much.

Want to Know the Whole Nestle Story?

You’re only getting snapshots of the Nestle story here on the Underground; if you want to read an excellent aerial view of the whole messy situation (McCloud’s become ground zero in the bottled water wars), read this beauty from those flaming water liberals at BusinessWeek.

It skips over a lot of Nestle’s less-savory antics (like their intimidation lawsuits target individuals), but at least you’ll know the setting — and start to understand why so many folks are tired of Nestle’s community-splitting, watershed-draining tactics.

What Water’s Really For

Nothing makes me want to get out on the river (even a river that’s fishing like hell) like a Nestle story; trout may be stupid and often uncooperative, but they live in cool places, and I don’t count greed and vanity among their sins.

See you on the river, Tom Chandler.

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