Fish Screen Completion Doesn't end the Process
Chico Enterprise Record- 5/8/02
By Heather Hacking, staff writer

Multi-million-dollar fish screens along the Sacramento River have been installed over the years, helping to stave off the diversion of fish into irrigation canals.

But long after the projects are completed, irrigation districts still battle to keep the fish screens operable. They also worry that a trend to let the river meander could leave their expensive projects high and dry.

John Garner, Ellwood Weller and David Alves noted the ongoing maintenance of the new fish screen project at Princeton-Codora-Glenn Irrigation District and Provident Irrigation District. They spoke to a group of about a dozen on a Northern California Water Association legislative tour Friday.

The two water districts irrigate about 25,000 acres of farmland east of Interstate 5 and west of the Sacramento River. A majority of the land is used to grow rice.

The $11 million fish screen project was funded mostly by CalFed and the Anadromous Fish Screen Program which is administered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

The districts put up $500,000 and is responsible for ongoing maintenance.

The plan took three previous river diversions which were not screened and combined them into one screened irrigation canal near Glenn.

The Corps of Engineers, when helping map out the location, assured the irrigators that this location was a hard point on the river. But the river is slowly but surely eroding a bend in the river just across the waterway to the east, the speakers said.

The property across the river is owned by U.S. Fish and Wildlife and there are plans for restoration.

The irrigation district leaders are hoping they will be able to find a solution to the shifts in the river, but so far they are still able to access their water so water agencies aren't moving quickly to solve the problem.

They're hoping they'll some day get the go-ahead to spend about $1.3 million to put rocks on the bank to stop the erosion.

They're also battling an ongoing problem of silt backing up into their diversion canal. Alves said the group spends about $20,000 a year to dredge their water intake area. When the water comes in slowly, the silt drops quickly to the bottom.

The speakers held up a jar containing the silt, which is extremely heavy and barely moved when the jar was tipped upside down.

During the tour Todd Manley, of NCWA, said the group is watching Assemblyman Dick Dickerson's Assembly Bill 2469, which would create an account where Proposition 40 money and other funds could be set aside to help fund fish screens. Right now there is funding available but it requires a 50 percent state or local match. Dickerson's bill would allow funding of that match. The bill might also help water districts with fish-screen related maintenance.

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