Yuba River study brings ridicule
Marysville Appeal Democrat - 11/5/03
By Harold Kruger, staff writer

One Yuba County Water Agency director called it "a boondoggle." Another said it was "a joke." Yet a third warned "this thing could go bananas on us."

That was their reaction Tuesday to the Upper Yuba River Studies Program, which by the end of 2004 will offer its recommendations to bring wild Chinook salmon and steelhead to the river's upper reaches.

David Christophel, a biologist with CH2MHill, told the directors that options to improve fish passage range from building fish ladders on Englebright Reservoir "all the way to decommissioning the dam."

That's not what they wanted to hear.

"I think this is a joke," said Director Dan Logue. "We can't dredge our rivers because they won't let us, and they're talking about tearing down a dam that's done its job."

Located about 24 miles upstream from Marysville, Englebright provides recreation, flood control and a water source for two nearby power plants.

The dam, 260 feet high and 1,142 feet long, was built in 1941 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prevent toxic sediment from hydraulic mining from washing downstream.

"I have a real concern about the bureaucracy running amuck in this scenario," Logue said. "I've always been concerned about this."

Director Bill Simmons warned that in the push to improve the fish habitat above Englebright, "this thing could go bananas on us if we're not careful."

Director Hal Stocker described the upper Yuba program as a "big boondoggle. Looking at the whole thing, I think it's a boondoggle."

Some people, he said, "want to return the situation to what it was before the Gold Rush occurred. So much has happened since 1840 or 1850 that changed the whole landscape."

Christophel said flood control is a major concern. The program's goal is to have "no net decrease in the level of flood protection" downstream, depending on what is proposed.

"The intent there is even if there is an increase in flood risk, there may be a possibility of mitigating that risk so the net effect is the same," he said.

Initial studies have found that the middle and south forks of the Yuba are "generally adequate" to support fish with enough spawning habitat, Christophel said, although Our House Dam on the middle fork is a barrier. Water temperatures also are a critical factor.

In late 2000, the Upper Yuba River Studies Program secured $6.7 million from the California Bay-Delta Authority to study the environmental, physical, and socio-economic impacts of introducing wild Chinook salmon and steelhead trout to the upper Yuba River watershed.

It has since received an additional $2.3 million, for a total of $9 million.

"If we put as much money and emphasis on educating kids as we do on fish, we'd have the brightest kids in the world," Logue said. "I think there's an agenda here in the process. The people who have the most to lose are the people in the valley because of flooding. That to me is the most important issue. We have some of the best fisheries in California. It's like let's beat up on Yuba County."

The Upper Yuba Studies project was divided into three phases. In the current second phase, a technical panel has studied six areas: sediment, upstream and downstream habitat, water quality, water supply, flood risk and economics.

Information generated from studying those six issue areas will be evaluated, and recommendations for action will be reported during the third phase in 2004.