Posts tagged: mccloud

Update on the McCloud River: It Ain’t Pretty

September 24, 2008, by 14 comments

The news on the McCloud River isn’t all sparkling and shiny my fishy Underground friends. In fact, it looks a little grim.

A couple days ago I posted about PG&E’s equipment issues – and their boosting of the flows on the Lower McCloud to 650cfs.

[UPDATE: Curtis Knight of CalTrout just sent out an email suggesting flows are closer to 500cfs than the 650cfs mentioned in PG&E's email]

[Yet Another Update (Can’t These Guys Get it Straight?): PG&E is now saying the flows (at the dam) will slowly be increasing over the next 1.5 weeks to an anticipated maximum of 750 cfs to match the 750 cfs coming into the reservoir. Given that time frame, it doesn’t sound like a quick fix is in the works)

“It’s not unfishable at those flows” I said (with just a hint of sanctimony).

It is, however, largely unfishable when visibility is only a foot or so, which is what local guide Craig Nielsen told me is the unhappy reality.

Damn.

The source of the silt isn’t immediately apparent, and it may not be the product of the famous Mud Creek silt plume. The rumors suggest it has more to do with PG&E’s operation of the reservoir.

I’m trying to uncover more information, but for now, Nielsen’s probably right when he suggests an alternate venue.

“It’s a real shame,” he said. “The McCloud always fishes so well this time of the year.”

(Of course, a cunning blogmaster might publish misinformation to run the riff-raff other friendly, talented fly fishers off the river – and don’t think I haven’t given it some thought – but sadly, I’m not lying this time).

See you anywhere but the McCloud, Tom Chandler.

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ALERT! Lower McCloud Flows Increasingly Abruptly Starting Sunday, 21st

September 20, 2008, by 9 comments

The Lower McCloud’s flows are about to be bumped from 250 cfs to 650 cfs (starting Sunday, 9/21).

I just recieved this via email from Steve Nevares (PG&E McCloud-Pit Relicensing Project Manager). Planning to fish the Lower McCloud? Read ‘em and weep.

Yesterday, an equipment situation was identified at James B. Black Powerhouse that has required PG&E to shut down and stop all water flow through the powerhouse. Currently it is estimated the powerhouse will be shut down 2 weeks.

Due to this, starting tomorrow Sunday 9/21, at approximately 10am, PG&E will progressively increase the flow in to the Lower McCloud River from McCloud Dam.  The water flow will increase approximately 100cfs per hour.  The current base flow as measure at the Ah-Di-Na gauge is approximately 200cfs.  The flow will increase by approximately 450cfs to 650cfs at Ah-Di-Na to match the current inflow to McCloud Reservoir.

PG&E understands the effect the increased flow will have on fishing access on the Lower McCloud River and will work to resolve the situation ASAP.  More information should be available by Monday and I will communicate more information as soon as it is available.

The planned flow of 650cfs isn’t the fishiest of flows, but it’s not unfishable either. And as the flows are bumped up, it’s very possible that throwing some big, big streamers might be productive help you hang a big brown trout.

More news as I get it.

See you at the news desk, Tom Chandler.

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We Report, You Drink Beer: The Day’s IMPORTANT Breaking News As Told by the Underground

August 6, 2008, by 9 comments

I’ve got last night’s fishing report just waiting to be written, it’s raining softly outside, and we’ve two pieces of breaking news (maybe three) that simply can’t wait.

Mt. Shasta Brewing Wins!

We’ve chronicled the first amendment struggles of Mt. Shasta Brewing (and the tastiness of their Shastafarian Porter) against the ATF (or whatever they’re calling themselves today).

Basically, the feds objected to the brewery’s “Try Legal Weed” bottlecap, and most of the civilized (and by “civilized” we mean “beer-drinking”) world erupted in disgust.

Be disgusted no longer, Undergrounders – this just in from Mt. Shasta Brewing owner Vaune Dillmann:

Yesterday afternoon we got a registered/certified letter – return signature required from our “buds” at the U.S. Treasury/TTB – stating that they will now accept our bottle caps and slogan/logo as is!

TTB agreed we are in fact proper in our Bottle Cap appeal; that we are not inferring a drug reference, nor are we confusing the public as to what is in our beer bottles!

Far be it from us to claim responsibility for something we had nothing everything to do with, but we can only draw one completely and wholly erroneous legal conclusion from this whole thing: Drinking Beer is Protected Under the First Amendment.

Dillmann’s now calling this caper the “Bottlecap heard ’round the world” episode, and we’ve been drinking too much beer to disagree.

Nestle Officially & Formally Capitulates

While they’d been making the right noises, Nestle finally agreed to begin a whole new contract negotiation with the McCloud Services District over their proposed McCloud water bottling plant, including such niceties as the gathering of real scientific data about water impacts.

In other words, after years of wrangling, intimidating legal efforts, community organizing and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots (see what I did there?) of bad/awful/embarrassing PR, Nestle’s finally doing the right thing.

Here’s a thought for Nestle: Consider doing the right thing from the start next time (silly us; that’s not their business model…)

It also means the McCloud Services District has a chance to Get It Right This Time. Let’s hope they do.

Good News Trifecta: Solar Power Discovery Promises to Revolutionize Stuff

This breaking energy news in from the Underground’s Egghead Patrol:

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With today’s announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. “This is the nirvana of what we’ve been talking about for years,” said MIT’s Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science. “Solar power has always been a limited, far-off solution. Now we can seriously think about solar power as unlimited and soon.”

Woo-hoo! We’re all for saving the world, but the Underground’s Crack Team of Big Thinkers sees the deeper implications: abundant, sustainable, and largely free energy means the Undergrounders will throw off the burden of their Energy Oppressors, leaving more time to fly fish.

Sure, other news outlets will focus on the fact this discovery has the potential to save the world as we know it, but the Trout Underground sees beyond the hype.

No need to thank us with great big wads of cash. It’s just what we do.

See you at the news desk, Tom Chandler.

Does Nestle’s Momma Even Love Them Anymore?

July 29, 2008, by 4 comments

I wasn’t planning on throwing a pair of enviro stories at the Undergrounders this morning, but this one’s too sweet to ignore.

The California Attorney General’s office has weighed in on Nestle’s proposed McCloud bottling plant (.pdf document alert), and like seemingly everyone else on the planet, they don’t much like what they see (excerpted from scan of letter):

These days, bad PR is falling on Nestle like rain in a Midwest thunderstorm. Their Web site says “Good Food. Good Life.”

Judging by the sheer volume of anti-Nestle rhetoric flying in the mass media and on the Internet, it might be time they started looking for a new tagline.

Nestle Waters Staggering Over Lost McCloud Deal, So The Underground Piles On (A Lot)

July 15, 2008, by 26 comments

I admit it; I’ve taken it easy on multinational corporate predator Nestle Waters of North America as of late.

After all, I’ve been happily fly fishing in Montana, and they’ve taken a pounding all over the USA at the hands of suddenly energized rural towns which are no longer happy to see them suck the local aquifers dry, and do so in exchange for a handful of sub-living-wage jobs.

Bottle Pet Sweat?
With Nestle being turned away by small towns everywhere, we’d like to suggest an alternative liquid for them to bottle

There’s even rumors floating around the Underground’s neck of the woods that Nestle’s willing to do almost anything to make the bad press stop, which… (wait for it) is the Underground’s cue to pile on.

Our first cannonball into the bottled water pool?

First up Is Kennebec, Maine, where Nestle’s plant proposal was soundly trounced by vigorous citizen opposition, who forced the trustees to cancel a vote on the project:

When local citizens became energized in opposition to a proposed public/private partnership between our water district and Nestle/Poland Spring, they invited the water district officials to what was a spirited and well-attended meeting on June 22 in Kennebunk. The uproar caused postponement of the anticipated vote at the June 25 trustees meeting.

That, my furry group of Undergrounders, is one Maine-sized can of whupass.

Next comes the story of a small town in rural Washington which didn’t even let Nestle unpack their bags – they kicked the minions of the cloven hooved deceiver multinational to the curb right away: Read more →

Nestle Renegotiates McCloud Bottling Contract: The Underground Looks at The Bigger Picture

June 5, 2008, by 2 comments

After what seems like years of settling the Underground’s crosshairs on Nestle’s hairy corporate butt McCloud water bottling plant proposal, it seems as if the opponents of Nestle’s million-square-foot plant and sweetheart pricing deal ($150/day for water) have what they want.

Nestle announced they were going to reduce the size of their plant (it’s still too damned big, but…), take less water than originally proposed, and renegotiate that ludicrous contract with the McCloud Services District:

After years of battling the proposed Nestle water bottling plant in McCloud, CA, the Protect Our Waters Coalition (POW) announced today that it is optimistic about Nestle Waters North America’s (Nestle’s Waters) recent announcement that the company intends to begin negotiations this year with the McCloud Community Services District (MCSD) on a new contract to replace its 2003 contract with the MCSD, and will undertake additional scientific research on their proposed scaled-back water-bottling project in McCloud, California.

At this point, McCloud’s fate is in its own hands, and one hopes the McCloud Services District learned enough from its last disastrous encounter with Nestle’s legal department to get it right this time.

That includes hiring a real negotiator and a real attorney to construct the contract (the last was so lopsided it should have been written sideways, and Nestle paid for McCloud’s attorney review).

And this time, public comment and input must be part of the process (it wasn’t last time).

Larger questions remain, and they’re worth raising here.

This isn’t over — and I’ll keep the Undergrounders up to speed on the potential water/noise/traffic impacts on one of NorCal’s favorite fly fishing destinations — but the bigger picture still needs painting.

For starters, it’s clear counties and states need to implement groundwater regulation.

The current laws were put into place when hand pumps were the norm, and groundwater seemed endless.

It’s not, and we’re seeing a lot of damaging "groundwater strip mining" operations popping up around Siskiyou County — and the rest of the country.

Tapping one spring isn’t a disaster, but tapping a couple dozen could become disastrous when it comes to our coldwater fisheries.

And mark my words — this is exactly what Nestle has in mind (they’re already doing it in Maine).

As water becomes the next oil, and California’s Water Wars heat up, this will become a real problem instead of an abstract concept, and quickly too.

See you painting the bigger picture, Tom Chandler.

Even BusinessWeek Thinks Nestle Totally Sent This One Off The Rails

May 28, 2008, by No comments yet

Even those raving, anti-business liberals at BusinessWeek have seen the writing on the wall surrounding Nestle’s predatory approach to rural water supplies:

This is cautionary tale for any company. Time was when multinationals could arrive in economically depressed communities and pretty much have their way. But in the age of hyper connectedness, residents in McCloud were able to turn their issue into an international sensation.

Now Nestle has capitulated. The management lesson: no company can afford to go forward with projects like these without engaging ALL stakeholders, not just supporters. Yes, this is still David versus Goliath. But David has a megaphone.

They got the last bit wrong. It’s not David vs Goliath. It’s a whole bunch of Davids vs Goliath (including the Undergrounders).

Here’s hoping for a renegotiation of the Nestle contract resulting in a worthwhile project for the town of McCloud — and a little instant karmic payback for Nestle’s legal intimidation, copious lies, and for consciously splitting the town of McCloud in two.

Nestle in Retreat: Agrees to Scale Back McCloud Water Bottling Plant

May 14, 2008, by 2 comments

Nestle — stung by widespread criticism of its water bottling practices and a declining market (no, that’s not what they say), announced it will reduce the size of its McCloud water bottling plant (originally slated to be the biggest water bottling facility in the world) by approximately two-thirds.

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.

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Water Economist Skewers McCloud/Nestle Deal

April 10, 2008, by 4 comments

The Aguanomics blog is a water-issues blog written by an honest-to-goodness economist, and frankly, the Underground’s sizable Nestle-research staff had a good laugh at his comments regarding the folks in McCloud who originally signed this absolute hummer of a contract:

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.

Tide Turning on McCloud Nestle Plant? Not Yet, But…

April 4, 2008, by 1 comment

The McCloud Watershed Council held a community meeting over the proposed Nestle plant, and while the town’s still clearly divided over the project, even the proponents have got to be kicking themselves over the lopsided contract.

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.