Tuolumne fish passage draws pointed debate

An ambitious idea — moving salmon into a Tuolumne River stretch above Don Pedro Reservoir where they might have lived long ago — could come at too high a cost to Stanislaus County residents, critics said Thursday.

Environmentalists countered that the project is worth exploring on a river that is heavily used by farms and cities and needs improved habitat for fish.

The discussion took place at the second of three meetings this year on the possibility that the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts might have to pay for a means to get salmon and perhaps steelhead trout around Don Pedro and the much-smaller La Grange Reservoir just downstream. The project could be a condition of a federal hydroelectric license for La Grange.

A consultant said last month that the cost could be $70 million to $150 million, but speakers Thursday said it might go even higher. The expense likely would fall to water and power customers of MID and TID.

Marco Moreno, representing the Latino Community Roundtable of Stanislaus County, said many of the electricity customers make no more than $20,000 a year.

“Don’t forget that this is the Appalachia of the West,” he said. “… You’re going to put it on the backs of the people, whatever you want to do.”

About 50 people attended the meeting at the MID office; the third will be held sometime in November. They are part of a process, expected to last two years, that will refine the design, cost and benefits of the project.

The districts have been working since 2011 on the relicensing of Don Pedro, which was completed in 1971. La Grange dates to 1883, decades before licenses were required, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled in 2012 that it needs one.

The districts already expected to spend more than $50 million on the licenses, much of it for studies of fish conditions in the lower river. The fish passage, which could be required by the National Marine Fisheries Service, would add substantially to this cost.

“It’s an immense and intense effort to scope it out and see how it’s going to work,” MID General Manager Roger Van Hoy said.

The system would use ladders, canals, trucks or other means to get the fish around the nearly 30 river miles occupied by the reservoirs when full. One part of it would convey chinook salmon returning to spawn after a few years in the Pacific Ocean. Another part would guide young salmon to the lower Tuolumne.

The passage also could serve ocean-going trout, known as steelhead, if research indicates that they occurred naturally in the upper river.

“This will be a very expensive project, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars,” said Paul Bratovich, a fishery biologist and vice president with HDR Inc., a consultant on the licensing. “What role do those numbers play in the decision-making process?”

Don Pedro’s fish passage could be one of the largest in the nation. Some involve ladders that lift fish near a dam face. Others use trucks or canals to move them from one place to another. Juvenile salmon headed to sea might be guided into nets that keep them out of Don Pedro, where nonnative striped bass could prey on them.

The studies will assess whether the upper river has the cold water, spawning gravel, tree cover and other elements of good salmon habitat. The project could extend more than 25 miles up the main river, along with several tributaries. The upper boundary is the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power System, which supplies part of the Bay Area.

Peter Drekmeier, policy director at the Tuolumne River Trust, said evidence of upper-river fish lies in 19th century litigation over Wheaton Dam, a predecessor to La Grange that blocked fish.

He also said he saw potential among the various interests for working together on today’s fish-passage issue, much like the water conservation that has resulted in a large drop in the Bay Area’s use of the Tuolumne.

MID board member Larry Byrd said he would like to enhance salmon habitat in the lower river but doubts that the fish ever got farther than La Grange on their journey back from the sea.

“Those fish are pretty much done when they get there,” said Byrd, who used to work in water operations for the district. “Not pretty much done. They’re done.”

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 6:24 PM with the headline "Tuolumne fish passage draws pointed debate."