PORTOLA – No one has reported a northern pike in Lake Davis for 18 months, but this community continues to roil over the effects of the invasive species and a $16.7 million project to poison the species.

Controversy over the economic damage caused by the pike eradication project has rekindled community resentment toward the California Department of Fish and Game, which dumped 16,000 gallons of fish-killing chemicals into Lake Davis in September 2007.

Frustration was aired this week, after consultants hired by the department outlined the financial impacts of the project to the Portola City Council and the Lake Davis Steering Committee, a group of community leaders and local officials.

James T. Murphy, Portola city manager and chairman of the steering committee, said the reports not only underestimate the economic hit to the local economy, they violate the trust the community placed in the state Fish and Game officials.

"This is another dark day for Californians and a truly tragic result to a project that began as a partnership," he said in a letter to California legislators and officials.

The disputes between this community and the state agency date to 1994, when northern pike were discovered in the reservoir used as a municipal drinking water supply.

Department officials feared the pike would migrate to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and destroy the native fishery. They have chemically treated the reservoir twice to rid it of pike.

In a 16-page report, forensic accountant James W. McCurley documented a decline in local business sales during the year after the 2007 poisoning. He estimated losses ranging from $191,000 to $955,320.

Some of those losses may not be attributable to the pike project, said McCurley, a certified public accountant with RGL Forensics based in Gold River.

This was the period the recession took hold in California, McCurley said.

"It remains unclear whether the decline experienced in Portola was measurably exacerbated by the treatment and subsequent temporary closure of Lake Davis," he said.

A parallel study by Reese Perkins, an appraiser with Johnson-Perkins & Associates of Reno, analyzed the effects on the local real estate market. He found that the Portola area market performed slightly better than greater Plumas County and the statewide residential marketplace.

The reports triggered exasperation from local officials and business owners. McCurley's report included only 15 businesses and was too narrow, said Fran Roudebush, a former Plumas County supervisor and member of the steering committee.

"You picked and chose. You didn't include businesses outside Portola, and you didn't contact the ones we suggested," said a visibly irritated Roudebush.

Murphy lambasted Fish and Game for ignoring the collaborative process established after the poisoning. The 1997 effort leaked chemicals downstream, caused local health problems, yet failed to eradicate the pike.

When the pike reappeared in 1999, department officials committed to working closely with furious residents. The Legislature approved a $9 million settlement fund to compensate for damages.

Now, Murphy said, "the community again is building a huge distrust" of department officials as a result of "their calculated control" of the economic report.

Sandra Morey, the Fish and Game Department's regional manager, did not respond to the recent criticisms.

The department has had good intentions throughout the chemical treatments and the studies that have followed, said Robert Stane, a district representative for state Sen. Dave Cox, who represents Plumas County.

Cox and fellow legislators will review the economic reports to decide if the hardships merit financial compensation to local business owners.

But some are not waiting for that decision.

The state Victims Compensation and Government Claims Board denied $52.5 million in damage claims filed by a group of 164 businesses and individuals, who on March 16 sued Fish and Game and several officials in Plumas Superior Court.

Meanwhile, the Portola community and state officials alike are nervously waiting for Lake Davis to thaw to determine the effectiveness of the 2007 project.

If pike remained in the reservoir, they would have spawned last spring, said Stafford Lehr, a department fisheries supervisor. Those pike would show up this year, he said.