Anglers representing a wide array of fishing groups voiced their strong opposition to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District’s anti-environmental stand on its relicensing of the Upper American River Project (UARP) during the SMUD Board meeting in Sacramento on September 4. SMUD’s refusal to provide fish-friendly flows conflicts with its highly touted position as a “green” energy provider.

“SMUD’s stance in the relicensing is an example of a radical conservative ideology that puts them on the far right even of the hydro power industry,” Chris Shutes of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance told the board.

The anglers were preceded in previous SMUD meetings by recreational boaters and business owners that use the streams in SMUD’s project. A diverse coalition of fishing, recreational and conservation organizations have joined with state and federal agencies, including the Department of Fish and Game and U.S. Forest Service, to pressure SMUD to share a fraction of water it uses for power to improve fish habitat and recreational opportunities.

SMUD staff has claimed that it “looks forward to continuing to work with the interested stakeholders in the UARP Relicensing to develop a new license that balances all of the resources involved, including aquatic, terrestrial, cultural, recreation, local air quality, and power production.”

However, fishing and river restoration groups disagree with SMUD’s contention. Bill Center of American River Recreation at Camp Lotus showed, with hydrological data, how the SMUD project has in fact destroyed the sections of the American River that it “manages” and how SMUD, which prides itself on being a green energy producer, “may become the poster child for an administration in Washington that is trying to roll back environmental progress.”

The percent of water taken out of the watersheds ranges from 81 percent in Silver Creek below Camino to 91 percent from 1974 to 2001. These are 91 percent in the Rubicon River below Rubicon Dam, 86 percent in the South Fork of Silver Creek below Ice House Dam, and 81 percent in Silver Creek below Camino and 86 percent in the South Fork America below Slab Creek Dam.

“When you consider all except flood days (the top 2 percent) of natural flow, the percent removed from the river ranges from 89 to 95 percent,” according to Center. The percent removed is 95 percent from the Rubicon, 89 percent from the South Fork of Silver Creek, 89 percent from Silver Creek and 94 percent from the South Fork of the American.

The poor management operation of the project is exemplified by SMUD’s operation of the South Fork below Slab Creek Dam. Minimum flows range from 10 to 36 cfs, but uncontrolled flows between operation time and down time on hydroelectric facilities result in increases from 36 cfs to 2000 cfs on a daily basis, a 6000 percent increase of flows. This makes it very difficult for the aquatic invertebrates and the fish that depend upon them to survive in this section of river.

“This unacceptable condition of wide fluctuations in daily flows could be fixed by installing a valve in the tunnel, but SMUD doesn’t want to do that,” said Center.

Representatives of United Anglers of California, the Federation of Fly Fishers, Granite Bay Flycasters, California Trout and other conservation organizations spoke eloquently about the urgent need for SMUD to release better manage water releases in its Upper American River Project for rainbow and brown trout and other fish species.

Bob Strickland, president of United Anglers of California, said, “The American River watershed above and below the UARP is a good trout fishery, but it’s a black hole in the streams of SMUD’s project. However, this situation can be fixed if SMUD adopts the agenda and NGO relicensing proposal.”

Chris Shutes of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance related how SMUD demonstrated bad faith in negotiations with the agencies and environmental groups, spending 8 months and hundreds of hours contesting a phrase regarding water levels that should have been resolved with on simple phone call.

Jeff Shellito, government affairs manager for California Trout, emphasized that a minimum flow was needed for the Rubicon River, a wild trout stream to protect the native trout and ecosystem.

“We are concerned that SMUD’s proposal would take 99 percent of the flow and provide for a flow of 6 percent, which is unacceptable. Our organization prefers the agency/NGO alternative that provides for flows of 6 to 35 cfs and would include pulse flows mimicking the natural hydrology,” he stated.

Other anglers and conservationists who spoke on behalf on the agency and NGO proposal included Nate Rangel, president of California Outdoors; Dave Ford, Northern California Chapter of the Federation of Fly Fishers; Barbara Williams, vice-president of the Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club and board member of the Federation of Fly Fishers; Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River; Teresa Simsiman, white water kayaker; and Bill Templin, coordinator of the American River Watershed Group (ARWG) and past president of the North Area Sportsman’s Association.

Under the Brown Act, the Board is not allowed to specifically vote or engage in discussion on an agenda item not put on the agenda before the meeting. Since the SMUD staff and Board refused to put the reclicensing on the agenda, the anglers and their allies were forced to bring it up during the public comment section.

Although the board wasn’t able to engage in discussion or procedural matters as a collective body regarding the relicensing, Ron Stork, senior policy analyst for Friends of the River, believes that the board may be starting to question the SMUD’s staff hard line on the relicensing. By hearing an alternative view from anglers and others, the board has the opportunity for getting a fuller understanding of the environmental and political consequences of pursing the current path, at odds with both the government agencies and NGO’s.

After the presentations by anglers, Jan Schori, SMUD’s General Manager, did comment, “We remain committed to reaching a negotiated settlement.”

The SMUD relicensing occurs within the contest of a bitter battle between SMUD and PG&E over SMUD's proposal to annex Davis and other Yolo County communities. "Are we going to dewater the Upper American just so SMUD can provide cheap power to annex Davis?" commented Bill Center.

In some California watersheds, anglers, white water boaters and regulatory agencies have clashed over the timing and extent of pulsed dam releases for whitewater boating, according to Shutes.

“In the UARP relicensing, these interests worked together to fashion boating flows that stay largely within the size and shape of the natural hydrograph and minimize impacts to fish, amphibians and aquatic insects. SMUD staff has not recognized the depth and extent of this accord, and proposes inappropriate (and typically skimpy) releases below Ice House Reservoir in September,” noted Shutes.

Just about every stakeholder is on the same page except for SMUD. On November 1, 2005, seven resource agencies, and several NGOs and individuals jointly issued a Comprehensive Resource Agency/NGO Alternative for the UARP relicensing and the connected relicensing of the Chili Bar Project just downstream.

In April, 2003, the SMUD Board, under pressure from the Hoopa Valley Tribe, fishing organizations and environmental groups, withdrew from the lawsuit SMUD had pursued in conjunction with Westlands Water District, the "Darth Vader" of California water politics, to block the 2000 Trinity River Record of Decision. SMUD’s withdrawal paved the way for Port of Oakland, the City of Alameda and Guerneville and the Port of Oakland to pull out of the lawsuit, isolating Westlands and culminating in a decision by a federal judge that mandated the restoration of the Trinity River.

SMUD's original 50-year license to operate the project expires in July 2007 and the utility is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue another 50-year license. SMUD submitted a license application to FERC in July 2005 after five years of preparation, including technical studies and more than 500 meetings with interested parties. However, the application SMUD filed failed to include provisions requested by both government and non-government organizations during negotiations.

At a time when the federal and state governments are decreasing angling opportunities, including the imposition of massive fishing closures on the California coast in recent years, SMUD has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to actually improve the fishing opportunities in its jurisdiction by releasing water flows that benefit fish and wildlife. SMUD, if it wants to continue its reputation as a “green utility, needs to do the right thing like it did in the Trinity River case and accept the agency and NGO proposal that restores some flows to the Upper American River watershed.