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Raise the Dam; Raze the Salmon

by Beeline
The "Shasta Lake Water Resources Investigation" EIS is 2,668 pages long. The BOR uses 2005 figures for the existing environment. I guess they are a little behind in their paper work. Get it on DVD, otherwise it will take a fork lift to move it around.
This is the document that discusses the "impact" of raising Shasta Dam from 6 to 18 feet etc..

Since it would take a team of hermits to fully review this document, for now, I will focus on Chinook salmon smolt production in the Sacramento River. The BOR defines production as "the number of immature smolts surviving to pass the Red Bluff Pumping Plant". The Fish and Wildlife Service estimated passage of juvenile Chinook salmon going south past the Red Bluff Diversion dam is as follows.

2006 - 22,621,987

2007 - 19,018,546

2008 - 13,432,494

2009 - 15,819,108

2010 - 10,020,790

2011 - 8,794,694

2012 - 6,232,387

As you can see the numbers of young salmon have dropped off in steady decline.

Thus far I discovered that the Bureau of Reclaimation uses salmon production figures from 2005 to represent what they call the existing environment. In view of the disturbing decline in the production of chinook salmon young since 2006 which the BOR does not address we should ask- what the Hell's going on in the river above the Red Bluff Diversion pumping plant? And why is the BOR ignoring it? Let us get simple. If large numbers of juvenile salmon are dying before they even get past the Red Bluff Diversion how can we expect to maintain an adult population. A train load of money has been spent on supposedly "improving" fish habitat. Was it wasted? Or did it really go toward power generation and agricultural uses.




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