Federal officials at the Department of the Interior recently announced that, unlike previous years, they will not release Trinity River water from Lewiston Dam to avoid a Klamath River fish kill. Water will instead go to the Central Valley to allow farmers to irrigate the dry eastern valley. Juvenile and adult salmon are already dying in the Klamath and there still one month of summer until the fall run enters the river. If water is not released from the Klamath's largest tributary, the Trinity, there is no doubt we will have a repeat of the 2002 Klamath River fish kill.

 Last year, despite lawsuits from Central Valley irrigators, tribes and scientists were able to secure additional releases of Trinity River  to avoid a possible large-scale fish kill. Disaster was avoided. Now when the water is needed more then ever the Department of Interior and Bureau of Reclamationsay they will only release water once the fish are sick and dying. This unscientific process will take at least four days and will likely lead to a large scale die off. 

There is no doubt it is politics, and not science and reason, which is stopping the release of Trinity water.