Liz Writes Life 4-24-19

April 24, 2019

Liz Writes Life

Protect Our Water

Scott Valley Protect Our Water will meet this Thursday, April 25, 2019 at the Fort Jones Community Center at 7 p.m. Bring a dessert to share. Brandon Criss, who is chairman of the Siskiyou Co. Supervisors’ Board, will speak on a variety of issues.  

Klamath dams

“Removing the Klamath dams is not a done deal!” said Richard Marshall, chairman of the Siskiyou Co. Water Users Assoc. He announced the group’s annual dinner and fund raiser will be Saturday, May 4, 2019 at the Miner’s Inn Convention Center starting at 4:30 p.m. Silent and dessert auctions will be held and include three firearms: A Remington 700 6.5 Creedmore with scope, a Ruger precision bolt-action rifle 17 caliber magnum and a S&W MP Shield 40 cal pistol. Call Kathy Bergeron at 530-842-4400 to get your tickets. They are $30 each.

More on dams

There are a myriad of issues regarding Klamath dam removal that have not been addressed by Klamath River Renewal Corp., whose sole purpose is to destroy four hydro-electric Klamath dams.

Loy Beardsmore is a homeowner near the Copco reservoir. She has become a spokesperson for the Copco residents, who are worried they may lose their groundwater wells if the Klamath dams are removed and the reservoir dries up. She sent a letter with significant questions to the contractors that are currently working on monitoring the groundwater wells situation. She recently received a response suggesting she shouldn’t worry as there will be mitigations, but has not received any specific answers. This is not her first letter of concern that has been sent, so frustration is mounting.

I was impressed with Loy’s questions and shocked that the contractors for KRRC have yet to answer them. The drawdown of water in Copco Reservoir is planned for next year or early 2021. Seems like the homeowners and ranchers within the affected area should have concrete answers regarding the reliability of their water. Below is Loy’s latest letter to the contractor.

Dear Mr. Swann,

We are Copco residents. I am also the Copco Community Liaison.  I understand that CDM Smith/you are working with the KRRC and I have some questions about well monitoring/possible mitigation you and the KRRC are hopeful to perform at Copco Lake.  I have a few questions that I believe only you can answer concerning our wells, since I asked the KRRC (Dave Meurer) some of these questions months ago with no answers or no definitive response to questions as they don't have the expertise to answer them. 

1.      I understand that you have been awaiting the arrival of equipment needed to begin well monitoring. Do you have any dates as to when that will occur since it has been since last September that this was to have started?

I also have a few other questions to ask if dam removal is approved by FERC and moves forward.  Copco residents have been assured by the KRRC and the SWRCB that if our well were to be compromised, monitored or not, since we are within the 2.5 miles of the reservoir that any problems would be fully mitigated, IF it can be shown to be due to reservoir drawdown.

 2.  If you have not monitored our well, but is compromised, what will we need to show to prove it was because of drawdown of the reservoir?  Will you take us at our word that we didn't have problems before dam removal and then we might after drawdown?

3.  We have been told we would be provided temporary water.  If multiple wells (20+) around Copco are compromised at the same time, up to how many wells can you provide with temporary water at once?

4.  We are wondering how long it would take to have temporary water brought in if we experience a loss of our wells?  Would it be within a day or two, week, longer?

5.  How long would it take to connect the temporary water to our existing pressurized tanks?

6.  We were told this would be potable water. Is this true?

7.  Where would you get this water?

8.  How large will these tanks be and how often will these tanks be filled?

9.  Will these tanks also be capable of providing irrigation water to our plants and gardens if problems cannot be mitigated before summer?

10.  Will these tanks be capable of providing enough water for livestock?

11.  Within the 2.5-mile radius around Copco, this includes agricultural land as well as ranches.  Some of these properties have multiple wells, so will you provide temporary water to them?  How many of these wells will you mitigate?

12.  How would you connect this temporary water to our existing water system?

13.  Our pressure tank is in our garage (other residents have placement in other challenging areas), so how would you run pipes into the garage without having to leave our garage door open in some way?

14.  Since drawdown is to occur during the winter months when temperatures are below freezing, we have asked how temporary water tanks and pipes would be protected from freezing.  We were told they would be insulated and heated, but can you please explain how this would be performed?

15.  It's also our understanding that to heat these tanks and pipes, it would require a separate electrical junction box be installed.  Will CDM Smith perform this task?  Will CDM Smith obtain and pay the permit fees for this?

16.  Who will pay for the heating for the tanks and the pipes?  Who would be the receiver of such bills?

 17.  Since this will all occur during winter, will you be able to drill a new well, if necessary, or will it have to wait until spring when the land thaws?

18. What if a new well cannot be drilled near the existing well?  How will you determine a new site? What if a new site is not possible due to required distances from septic tanks, etc.?

19.  Are you going to apply for all the permits for temporary water tanks, possible new well drilling, and will you pay for these?  How long will that process take to get these permits?

20. Our well and others are NOT listed in the 2012 Detailed Plan, the Definite Plan, nor on the SWRCB's Draft EIR.  Many vacant lots exist around Copco, but these lots do have wells.  Will you mitigate all of these wells?  Do you know the location of these lots and wells, as well the potential number of these wells since they are not documented in the above-mentioned documents?

I look forward to the answers to these questions. 

Best regards, Loy Beardsmore 

Hum, if KRRC and its contractors can’t answer these questions about this specific issue, how in the world could they undertake the gigantic problem of removing huge dams without it becoming an environmental disaster?

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life 4-17-19

April 17, 2019

Liz Writes Life

Snow survey

Employees from the USFS Klamath National Forest trudged through deep snows on April 1, 2019 to obtain measurements from eight snowcourses, which are specific historic measuring spots in the mountains around Scott Valley. And the results are great! When averaging all of the snowcourse measurements the results shows 148 percent of the historic average of snow and the water equivalent was 134 percent.

The highest snow measurement was on Scott Mt. at elevation of 5,900 feet with 104.5 inches. An historic average starting from 1986 was 49.9 inches making it 210 percent. Wow! The south end of the valley received a lot of snow with the Middle Boulders, just west of Mt. Bolivar, showing 162 percent 170 and 173 percent of the historic average with Dynamite Meadow showing 77 inches compared to an average of 44.5 inches.

Like Scott Mt., Wolford Cabin, established in 1949 with an elevation of 6,150 feet also measured 104.5 inches of snow, making it 126 percent of a 70-year average.

Swampy John and Etna Mt., which have been measured since 1951, averaged 100 percent and 116 percent. And Box Camp, to the north at 6,440 feet had 109.5 inches giving it 129 percent of historic average.

Now, we just hope it doesn’t get too warm too fast!

Garden

After the rain (over a week ago) the garden soil looked perfect for tilling, so on Tuesday I put on my gloves and started pushing the hand-plow. Weeds were about four-inches high and tilled-up pretty easily along the path I want to plant and layout a length of soaker hose. There are some patches in the garden where the weeds are too high and I will need the grubbing hoe. It felt good to get about two-thirds of the garden tilled; but then I was pretty tired for several days! Ha, ha. Yep, I am out-of-shape.

Early in the week, I purchased some sugar snap peas and put them to soak, planning on planting the next day. Didn’t have the gumption, so put them in the refrig and didn’t get them planted until several days later. After the warmth on Saturday, there were some pretty sad and dry plants. 

So, I attached several hoses and irrigated the rhubarb, garlic, lettuces, yellow tulips, daffodils, young holly hocks, bee balm, feverfew, Shasta daisies, lung wort, violets and just-peeking-up peonies. Whew! I only have one frost-free faucet that is available to use right now, cuz it can still freeze for another six-weeks or more.

Fire and forests

There was good news at the March 28, 2019 Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting. Ray Haupt, Dist. 5 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor, is involved with several task forces at the private, state and federal levels trying to improve forest health and management to greatly reduce the tragic forest fires the West is experiencing.

In early March, Ray was asked to share information at a Western Sheriff’s Assoc. meeting in Reno. Ray spoke to about 70 sheriffs, who said they are sick of all the smoke and had enough of terrible fire fighting tactics. As an association, the sheriffs are demanding much better and active forest management from the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The county sheriffs are also fed-up with footing the bill for policing and safety during long fire-fighting engagements as it adds a heavy burden to their county budgets. The only aspect for reimbursement is overtime, which does come from the federal agencies.

A few days after the sheriffs’ meeting, Ray drove to Sacramento and met, once again, with Jim Hubbard the Undersecretary of the U.S. Dept. of Ag. When Ray was in WA D.C., last November, he met with Hubbard, who is the immediate superior of the Chief of the Forest Service. Hubbard is on-board with increasing active management and thinning of the forests and there are funds in the 2018 Farm Bill and the 2018 Omnibus Bull to support this huge change in managing national forests. This is good news.

There is also new federal legislation that allows for a much better relationship between the USFS Forests and individual counties. This project is under the Good Neighbor Authority and provides the county with responsibility to coordinate (and push) for more work on-the-ground by the USFS. This is a great step for local government to guide the actual work projects. It should also improve the local economy.

At the state level, there is the Governor’s 45-day report that was released in early February regarding the selection of 33 hazardous fuels projects throughout the state. Only one project was selected in Siskiyou Co. It is in the Shastina-Weed area. Governor Gavin Newsom followed, in March, with an Executive Order, which exempted these critical projects from California Environmental Quality Act review. 

This is really surprising as it by-passes environmental regulations -- something Democrats have demanded for decades and slows the Timber Harvest Plan projects.

Ray also discussed SB-901 that mandated new clearance and new equipment standards for power companies. He said these companies are hustling to do the work and are writing hazard mitigation plans.

Also, Cal-trans is actively treating fuels (trees and brush) in their right-of-way areas next to roadways. Cal-trans must remove anything that could fall into the road.

I don’t know how wide their right-of-way is, but after the fires in the Sacramento River canyon in September it should be a very wide buffer -- in my opinion.

So, Ray was asked where will all the logs and brush go? Because of 30 years of the Green enviro agenda, commercial logging industry was nearly destroyed in the West. This is a major concern for Ray and a major reason he is talking with Undersecretary Hubbard about the current insufficient milling capabilities and almost zero infracture for biomass.

Apparently, the technology has been developed to use biomass to generate power and create much less air pollution (especially compared to the smoke produced by wildfires), but has yet to be implemented. These plants must be built. Lumber mills need to make a return and quickly. Is anyone willing to get-in on the beginning of a much-needed industry?

Ray also said there is hope for the homeowner, who needs to remove trees and fire-safe their property. State regulations have been relaxed. For more information, call your local Cal-Fire office.

Next week, Ray will be attending the American Forest Resource Council meeting in Washington State. This is a collection of private timber companies, USFS, BLM and counties advocating for health of all forests. In fact, Siskiyou Co. is a member. Ray is Siskiyou’s representative as well as a Registered Professional Forester. One of the speakers will be the Chief of the USFS, who will likely continue to get an earful regarding active thinning and managing of forests and actively working to stop forest fires.

The next Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting will be Thursday, April 25, 2019 at 7 p.m. at the Fort Jones Community Center.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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Liz Writes Life 4-3-19

April 10, 2019

Liz Writes Life

Garden

Sure was happy to wake-up to a good April rain on Monday morning. I really didn’t want to have to drag-out a bunch of hoses to water the perennials. The violets are so happy and the lung wort has lots of little blue flowers, but not many pink ones. The Oriental poppies really grew last week and some are over a foot tall. Tansy is starting to grow and I have not gotten the dead stems pulled out. I am really feeling pushed to get the yard cleaned-up, but wondering when my energy-level will meet the need!

The peas should have been planted last month, but the lettuces are about an inch tall and that is without the plastic tub on top. Early-morning freezes haven’t bothered them. Oh, and the yellow forsythia bushes are starting to bloom along with a new batch of daffodils. Spring is here and so is the work!

Klamath dams

There is some interesting news on the Klamath dams dilemma. Ray Haupt, Dist. 5 Siskiyou Co. Supervisor, told me that the non-profit Klamath River Renewal Corp. has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an “extension” for its response to written concerns of its Definite Plan for removal of four Klamath hydro-electric dams.  

Remember, KRRC has asked FERC for a hydro-electric transfer of the four dams from the present owner PacifiCorp -- with the goal of destroying the four dams, once KRRC has ownership. Because FERC is a federal entity, federal environmental regulations and analysis must be conducted that will show how removal of the dams will affect the environment including water quality.

As a legal intervener, Siskiyou County is challenging KRRC’s Definite Plan citing inadequate assessed impacts and a number of specific claims in a 135-page document submitted to FERC and State Water Board. Also, PacifiCorp has addressed its concerns of the Definite Plan’s inadequacies with a 350-page document submitted to State Water Board and FERC. As a result, FERC is demanding more detail from KRRC regarding its Definite Plan with responses to the allegations.

Now, as the April 2019 deadline approaches for KRRC to provide its answers, KRRC filed for an extension with a deadline of July 31, 2019. This is the second time that KRRC has asked for an extension. Its original deadline was Dec. 31, 2018.

What is rather strange, according to Ray, is the “justification explanation” by KRRC for the extension. It is 1,000 pages long.

Wow, that is a really long excuse! I wonder why KRRC doesn’t just answer the concerns and alleged inadequacies?

“KRRC is getting farther and farther from meeting the demands of the federal process and due dates,” said Ray, adding that he sees this is actually a good thing, because “time is our friend.” As the process gets longer, more and more light shines on the real problems and assessments made in KRRC’s Definite Plan, he explained.

FERC is required to do the federal environmental analysis review, but it still does not have a finished document from KRRC to start the process. Yep, KRRC’s Definite Plan is still incomplete.

Loy Beardsmore, who is a property owner in Copco and is also a legal intervener contacted me. The fact that KRRC is asking, yet again, for another extension “shows KRRC’s ineptness,” she said.

Loy has read the Definite Plan and much of the long-excuse letter. Once again, her concerns have not been addressed on many different levels. Last fall, she asked questions about well monitoring and received very few definitive answers. Three weeks ago she submitted them directly to CDM Smith, the contractor doing the monitoring, and still no answers.

One incident of ineptness, said Loy, is that her own well is not listed in 2012 Detailed or KRRC's Definite Plan. This was shocking, especially when she found four more residential wells that KRRC did not include, despite the fact they are publicly available from the DWR! Yet, she has been told by KRRC any loss of water to the wells from the drawdown of Copco Reservoir will be mitigated.

Hum, how will KRRC follow through with mitigation, when it can claim the wells are not there?

Loy also added, “If KRRC can't use the resources available to them on such a small scale, such as identifying a well in public records, how can FERC believe that the KRRC has the technical ability to remove the dams!” 

That is a great point.

LaMalfa and Trump

Our Congressman, Doug LaMalfa, is in the thick of things. Last weekend, he was able to travel (along with other California congressmen) with President Donald Trump to the southern border in Calexico. He reported that there really is a national security and humanitarian crisis at the border and it is at the breaking point.

“Border patrol agents are overwhelmed with people from many countries entering the U.S. illegally,” said LaMalfa. He added, “The lack of urgency by some of my colleagues to fix this crisis is perplexing and alarming. Funding for a new and improved physical barrier is absolutely critical. I stand with the President in demanding that we enforce our nation’s laws and give border patrol agents the necessary tools to help them secure our border and end this crisis.”

Last week, our congressman also joined the effort to force a vote on the bill to protect newborn babies.

LaMalfa said, “Any newborn baby, regardless of whether that baby survived an abortion or not, deserves a fighting chance at life. We rigorously protect against the destruction of animal wildlife, but simultaneously allow for the murder of live newborn infants?” Boy, do I agree with our congressman.

Also, LaMalfa released a statement explaining why he voted against the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. Apparently, the House Democrat leadership intentionally allowed the law to expire in an attempt to pack it with partisan policies, such as gun control and allowing biological males into women’s shelters, rather than do a simple reauthorization of the law.

“The process has also been atrocious … . In many ways, this bill would actually harm the very women and girls we’re trying to protect in the first place,” said LaMalfa, who hopes the Senate will strip the bill of the harmful partisan provisions.

I so appreciate Doug for his diligence and action as our congressman.

Fund raiser

The Siskiyou Co. Water Users Assoc. is holding its annual dinner and fund raiser on Sat., May 4, 2019 at the Miner’s Inn/ Chairman Richard Marshall it starts at 4:30 p.m. and there will be silent and desert auctions. Call Kathy Bergeron at 530-842-4400 for ticket information. The destruction of the Klamath dams is not a done deal, said Chairman Marshall.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

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