With fall around the corner, Hoopa Valley Tribe officials are crossing their fingers for the government to release more water from the Trinity River to avoid a potential fish kill on the Klamath River.
A record number of adult salmon -- estimated at more than 380,000 by the Pacific Fishery Management Council -- are anticipated to return to the Klamath this fall. Both Humboldt County officials and tribal members are concerned there won't be enough water in the river to support the fish.
Regina Chichizola, communications coordinator for the Hoopa Valley Tribe and former executive director of the Klamath Riverkeeper group, said tribal members want the Bureau of Reclamation to respect the tribe's water rights and stop diverting most of the Trinity's water down south.
"Right now, all the water is going to the Central Valley," Chichizola said. "We're expecting an answer from the Bureau of Reclamation in the next two weeks."
The Trinity River is the Klamath's largest tributary, and water is often diverted from the river to farmers and residents of Southern California. In 2002, the diversion led to a massive fish kill on the Klamath.
Fifth District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg said the fish kill had an immense negative impact on the county's tribes and fishing industry.
"Economically, that's nothing anyone wants to go through again," Sundberg said. "They had to do a couple of years where they closed down the salmon season."
The number of salmon estimated to return to the river this fall is 2.4 times the number of fish that attempted to spawn in September 2002. More than 33,000 adult salmon perished in the lower Klamath that year from a disease outbreak linked to low water levels and high fish density, according to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Don Reck, the environmental division manager for the Bureau of Reclamation's Northern California Area Office, said the river gauge in 2002 reached about 2,000 cubic feet per second. He said a number of agency and tribal representatives have met to discuss water level recommendations for this year.
"The recommendations from the group are from mid-August to late September to have floor flows, as measured down near Klamath, at about 3,200 cubic feet per second," Reck said.
He said the Bureau of Reclamation will likely go through the National Environmental Policy Act process -- which evaluates the environmental effects of an action or project and its alternatives -- before making any final decisions on how much water to release from the Trinity.
"We'll probably be doing and environmental assessment to try to determine if there are any impacts to the human environment," Reck said.
Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Leonard Masten said the tribe won back 50 percent of the Trinity's flow by way of court rulings and a legislation-backed record of decision in 2000. The decision was still being litigated in 2002 when the fish kill occurred, but Masten said the decision is now in place and that it's law.
"We're having a tough time getting the Bureau of Reclamation to adhere to it," Masten said. "We're constantly having to fight to get them to pull their end."
Masten said the Bureau of Reclamation has been good about allocating funding to efforts focused on Klamath River restoration projects, but it's still a fight whenever it comes to water flow issues.
"It's been frustrating, and you'd think there'd be more assistance," Masten said.
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors wrote letters in March to the U.S. Department of the Interior and Gov. Jerry Brown advising them of the potential for another fish kill and the need for additional water.
Chichizola said more input from the community is still needed.
"I think if people go to the supervisors meetings and let them know how much they support the fishing industry, that it'll help," Chichizola said.