| More News
Lower Tuolumne River-Special Order for Interim Measures to Protect Fish from Extinction
by Cindy Charles September 30, 2009 -- In July, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an important Order which is requiring the Turlock and Modesto Irrigation Districts as well as the City of San Francisco to provide some interim measures to prevent the possible extinction of fall-run Chinook salmon and threatened Central Valley steelhead before the Don Pedro dam is relicensed in 2016.
Conservation groups and fishery agencies have been arguing for years that the flows in the lower Tuolumne need to be increased for the survival of both of these species. An Administrative Legal Judge was assigned to this unusual proceeding (it’s only been done once before) and legal testimony has been filed on both sides.
To see all the documents, including rebuttals to the testimony, you can go to the e-Library at the Federal Energy Regulatory website (www.ferc.gov) You can search for documents related to the Don Pedro project by inserting the Docket # P-2299 and you’ll see all the work that have been done to prepare for the trial to be held in Sacramento on Oct. 6, 7, 8 and 9th of 2009.
You are welcome to attend and the location is: U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of California, 501 I Street, Suite 4-200, Sacramento. The hearing begins at 10:00am.
I will be there since I’m representing CalTrout in this legal proceeding which has the strong prospects of being a precedent-setting event. (NCCFFF does not have standing in this particular proceeding, but I have been representing NCCFFF in other aspects of the Lower Tuolumne issues). The Natural Heritage Institute is the legal counsel for the conservation groups which have standing and they include: The Tuolumne River Trust, CalTrout, Friends of the Rivers and the California Rivers Restoration Fund.
|