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CSPA and Others Reaffirm: Merced Irrigation District Must Study Salmon and Steelhead in FERC Relicensing
August 31, 2009. CSPA, as part of a coalition of fishing and conservation organizations, filed comments today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reaffirming the need for the Merced Irrigation District to study project impacts to Merced River salmon and steelhead as part of the relicensing of the Merced River Hydroelectric Project (FERC No. 2179). Requests for a suite of studies regarding project effects in the Lower Merced River were filed in mid-July, but rejected by Merced ID in mid-August.
Notably, state and federal Resource Agencies (California Department of Fish and Game, State Water Resources Control Board, Bureau of Land Management, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service) requested the same studies as those asked for by fishing and conservation organizations.
The comments filed by “Conservation Groups” vigorously rejects Merced ID’s argument that anadromous fish in the Merced River should be addressed at another time, in a process to be named later:
“Merced ID’s Revised Study Plan is notable for its extreme nature and naked disdain for the jurisdiction of FERC and the conditioning agencies. For example, although the only streamflows that exist in the Merced River are what Merced ID releases through the Project, the District disclaims any responsibility for downstream flows and fish habitat. Although the current license sets instream flow requirements in the lower Merced River, Merced ID claims there is no nexus to its Project for such a requirement. Although SD2 [FERC Scoping Document 2] states that the entire Merced River, downstream to the Delta, is the geographic focus for listed species of fish, Merced ID claims that there are no such fish.”
In addition to CSPA, the coalition filing comments included the Merced River Conservation Committee, Trout Unlimited, Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers, Golden West Women Flyfishers, American Rivers, and Friends of the River.