Groups suing over decline of fish

Two old dams on the lower Yuba River don't make electricity, provide a water supply or prevent floods.

They do, however, stand in the way of spawning salmon.

The Daguerre Point and Englebright dams upstream of Marysville were designed to capture sediment washed out of the Sierra Nevada by hydraulic gold mining in the early 1900s.

But modern efforts to help endangered fish coexist with the dams have not gone well, according to environmental groups who last week sued the federal government and the Yuba County Water Agency.

They claim inaction has contributed to the decline of three species, all listed as threatened under federal law: spring-run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon.

The South Yuba River Citizens League and Friends of the River claim the agencies violated the federal Endangered Species Act by ignoring their own plans to improve fish spawning. The plaintiffs also claim these plans were inadequate in the first place.

"The Yuba has long been identified as the best opportunity for recovering spring-run chinook," said Jason Rainey, executive director of the citizens league. "There's no hope for recovery without expanded habitat."

Only 242 spring-run salmon returned to the Yuba River to spawn in 2007, he said, compared to about 400 in 2006. The total Central Valley spring run was about 12,500 fish in 2006.

Like other Sacramento River tributaries, the Yuba last year suffered a decline in fall-run chinook that may lead to a drastic fishing cutback this year. The fall run is not protected under endangered species laws.

Neither dam provides adequate fish ladders. The Daguerre Point Dam, built in 1906, has a pair of antiquated ladders that often fill up with debris or provide poor water flow. Englebright, built in 1941, has no ladders.

Rainey wants studies to find the best way to move fish around Englebright. He wants Daguerre Point Dam removed. It is a diversion point for the Yuba County Water Agency, but that could be accommodated another way, he said.

These two changes, he said, could open more than 100 miles of additional spawning habitat.

Defendants include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the dams, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which manages the fish species.

Both agencies declined to comment on the lawsuit.

The Yuba County Water Agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Federal agencies acknowledge the dams are a threat to fish. The National Marine Fisheries Service in 2002 imposed a plan to minimize harm to fish, setting deadlines for projects to improve spawning habitat and upgrade fish ladders at Daguerre Point Dam.

The plaintiffs claim the corps completed none of the projects.

Last year, the fisheries service adopted a new plan to guide corps operations. It required even fewer improvements and imposed no standards to ensure success, the plaintiffs allege.

Greg Pasternack, a professor of watershed hydrology at University of California, Davis, has studied portions of the Yuba River below Englebright Dam for the past five years.

Unlike many Central Valley rivers, he said, the Yuba has plentiful spawning gravel in some locations to accommodate more fish, and its flows are good because its upstream reaches are relatively undammed.

"The Yuba is a pretty ideal location for fish overall," Pasternack said. "The main thing is to manage Daguerre and Englebright appropriately. The habitat is there. We just need more fish."

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