March 13, 2019
Liz Writes Life
POW
Last week, I said I would share info from the 37-page
rebuttal by Siskiyou Co. to the CA. State Water Resources Control Board’s draft
Environmental Impact Report regarding Klamath dams removal. Ray Haupt talked
about this at the Protect Our Water meeting held in Fort Jones on Feb. 28, 2019.
First, the county found the draft EIR failed to analyze the
effects of sediment on the river beyond the five-mile mark below the Irongate
Dam. Also, the draft EIR did not investigate the heavy metals and hazardous
materials believed to be in the sediments below the shallow samplings back in
2012.
The county believes any conclusion from the EIR is premature
because it pre-dates any decision by FERC or additional NEPA analysis’ that
FERC may require.
Later, Ray explained to me that the state also failed to do
any up-to-date Endangered Species Act consultation with federal agencies for the
draft EIR. Oops! Apparently, the Water Board used the old antiquated data from
the 2012 federal Endangered Impact Statement. Under legal terms that data is
too old to use.
The county also found the Water Board used something it
called “recommended” mitigation as a measure to protect the environment, but,
in law, remedies to environmental impact must be “required” mitigation. To
guarantee that mitigation will actually happen, it must be legally required and
funded. This is important information to a lay-person like me. Mitigations must
be funded by the government! So, “recommended” mitigations won’t work. Did the
Water Board try to come up with a way around mitigations?
Also, under federal and state laws, NEPA and CEQA, these required
mitigations are expected to reduce impacts to fish and to the environment.
Then, last week, the county received a copy of PacifiCorp’s 314-page
response to FERC regarding the Water Board’s draft EIR. Wow, I think 314 pages
of comments must be significant.
“They responded with documents that voice their concerns,”
Ray said, adding, “PacifiCorp is very engaged in the future of its facilities or
consequences that may occur.”
Remember, it is FERC that will decide if the non-profit
Klamath River Renewal Corp. will be allowed to obtain PacifiCorp’s
hydro-electric licenses. It is also FERC’s decision if KRRC can destroy the
dams.
To me, it looks like the Water Board’s draft EIR may not have
covered all the legal bases and put the cart-before-the-horse. Remember, KRRC
is certainly not the decision-maker, just a real loud strident voice. The
destructive removal of the Klamath dams is not a done deal!
Garden
It is a good thing that I have to report to you every-so-often
otherwise I would procrastinate and procrastinate and, well, you get the idea.
I finally planted the organic butterhead “Cherokee” variety of lettuce seeds in
a small 16 x 20-inch spot and covered it with a clear plastic tub. Because the
soil was so moist, I used the little hand rake to scrape and dig down an inch
or two. The tiny cress weeds were not growing in this spot, so the process took
less than 15 minutes – even with searching for a usable plastic tub in the
garage. It is so silly to put-off such a simple little project. I also
sprinkled a few seeds outside one end for about 10 inches as I find they grow
almost as quickly at those under the plastic tub. I put a square of chicken
wire over this area to keep the cats out.
Then, I noticed that a small bunch of violets are blooming. Daffodils
are budding-up. Tulips, daylilies, Shasta daisies and feverfew are poking up a
few inches. And the chives are growing through the dead ones that did not get
cleaned-out. Yep, it is almost spring – just one more week. And the time
changed last weekend. Ugh, losing that hour sure puts me behind for a month or
so.
Water
Rain and snow storms have continued to hit California. My
niece, who lives down by L.A. (on the coast) reported a skiff of snow two weeks
ago. And, according to the L.A. Times, this is the coldest February in that county
in 140 years of record-keeping.
Blizzards have pounded the Sierra Nevada mountain range and
the Mammoth Mt. resort measured 47.8 feet of snow at the summit. Wow, that is a
lot of snow. A large part of Southern California – which is anything below Mt.
Shasta in my opinion (ha, ha) -- depends on the Sierra snowpack for
agricultural irrigation and metropolitan water. The State Dept. of Water
Resources recently reported the Sierra snowpack is 153 percent of average. That
is good news.
Run-off from the Russian River flooded its banks swamping
homes and businesses in Sonoma County. I have noticed headlines blasting
California for not having the capability to store more water from the
high-running creeks and rivers. Yep, pretty stupid. The Sites Reservoir, in
Colusa County, is still languishing at the drawing board. At least, from my
understanding the bulldozers have not started work.
Our Congressman Doug LaMalfa constantly pushes the Sites project
and even has Democrat support, but the wheels of government agencies roll way
too slow. Last July, the state awarded $816 million from Prop. 1 funding to
build the reservoir. Over $52 million has been spent on studies. The off-river
reservoir is not considered to directly affect fish migration and could be a
source of additional cold water for fall-run Chinook and coho salmon. So, what
is the problem? Why the hold-up? This situation is disgusting, because storing
more water will help the environment much more than hurt it.
I did not receive my usual update from the Klamath National
Forest regarding our local March 1, 2019 snow surveys in the mountains
surrounding Scott Valley, so I did a Google search and found an article on the
KNF site. It sounded like the storms last week stopped the employees from
reaching several of the sampling sites. Those were Dynamite Meadow, Middle
Boulder #1 and Middle Boulder #3, which are above my place. So, they did not
have a full coverage to report.
Measurements and equivalent water content
values were obtained from Scott Mt., which showed a 93 percent of average and
Swampy John above Etna on Salmon Mt. at 77 percent. An automated station site
at Middle Boulder #3 showed 92 percent. Pretty good news. This winter, I have
noticed the snow seems to stay above the 5,000 ft. level at this south end of
the valley.
Oh, my brother, Steve Dillman, called me Sunday night March 3rd.
The power had come on at 5 p.m. up there in Douglas Co., Oregon. They were
without power for eight days and some snow was still on the ground. Pretty
surprising! They had moved from the RV back into their house. Yum, more space!
Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in
newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near
Callahan. Call her at 530-467-3515.
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