Tell the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to Not Divert Trinity (and Klamath) River Water into the Sacramento River.

California is facing a historic drought that is caused by climate change. Due to the  drought and the fact the state and federal government diverted too much water to agriculture almost all of the winter run salmon will, or have died in the Sacramento River. Most of the juvenile salmon also died in the Klamath River and many of it's tributaries are close to going dry due to diversions. The state also let the majority of young salmon die in California's rivers during the last drought, and now Tribes and fishermen are dealing with large scale fishing shut downs of reductions. 

The situation is dire as California's salmon are nearing extinction, reservoirs dangerously low  are adult salmon are starting to dye. 

Soon the Klamath River adult salmon will run, but not in high numbers and when they come back they could face low and warm water conditions. During drought years the Trinity River, the Klamath's largest tributary is used to stop Klamath River fish kills. This year, however the BOR is proposing to divert 36,000 acre feet from the Trinity River and drawing down Whiskeytown Lake, the reservoir where Trinity River water is stored before going into the Sacramento River and to Central Valley industrial farms rather then releasing extra cold water to advert Klamath fish kills. 

The purported need for the project is “evaluate additional temperature control measures that could improve Reclamation’s ability to control temperatures and minimize temperature dependent mortality for winter-run Chinook salmon.  The four alternatives include taking additional water from Whiskeytown (35 TAF and 51 TAF), reducing Shasta Dam and Keswick releases to violate Delta water quality standards and impacting M&I customers, and taking an additional 36 TAF from Trinity Lake. However, none of these alternatives protects salmon or water quality in the Trinity or Sacramento rivers and creates a “Sophie’s Choice” for river advocates. 

However, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has opined that Reclamation will kill 100% of winter-run Chinook juveniles in 2021, so what is the point? 

The real point of this exercise is to come up with additional water to meet Reclamation’s excessive agricultural deliveries to the Sacramento River Settlement and San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors.