CSPA
25 Years of Hydro
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) has been actively involved with the operations of hydropower projects in California for about 25 years. Hydropower projects operate under federal licenses issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The CSPA involvement in the FERC process has been to file (1) formal complaints against the operations of existing hydro projects, (2) motions to intervene and formal comments on the relicensing of hydro projects and (3) amendments to hydro project licenses. In conjunction with the FERC process, the CSPA has also been actively involved with water rights and water quality affected by FERC licensed projects, and other existing and proposed projects in California.
FERC licensed hydro projects in California have had tremendous adverse impacts to the public trust natural resources of many waterways. For that reason, the CSPA has been the leading advocate for the past 25 years before FERC to protect and restore the State of California's natural resources, and in particular has played a major role in obtaining the protection and restoration of the state's fisheries affected by the operation of FERC licensed hydropower projects.
The CSPA's objectives in dealing with the FERC process is to protect and restore river ecosystems - wild trout, steelhead, chinook salmon, other fish species, water quality, invertebrate species (the insects), riparian habitat, and wildlife; and to ensure that the rivers and streams affected by the project dams and diversions have sufficient flows to protect the people's public trust resources and assets, and to improve public recreation and fishing.
One of the major achievements by the CSPA in dealing with the FERC process over the past 25 years was the filing of formal complaints with FERC against dam owners for failing to release the amount of water required for the wild trout. The CSPA documented over 64,000 days of non-compliance at FERC licensed projects in California. As a result of the CSPA complaints over the theft of wild trout water, the Federal Power Act was amended and penalties were increased from $500 per day up to $10,000 per day, with monitoring required. Today, because of that action by the CSPA, FERC licensed projects are meeting their daily flow requirements to protect the fish in California, as well as throughout the United States. In cases of future non-compliance of mandatory flow requirements for fish, the CSPA will continue to remind FERC and the dam owners about their obligation to meet their fish flow requirements in California waterways.
Just a few of the many California's rivers and streams in which the CSPA has been significantly active with in dealing with the FERC process and dam owners regarding the protection and restoration of the state's fisheries and other public trust values and resources are as follows:
Lower Mokelumne River (Salmon - Steelhead - Flows - Water Quality)
East Bay Municipal Utility District, Licensee
Upper Mokelumne River (Wild trout - Flows)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee
Butte Creek and its tributaries (Wild Trout - Flows)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee
West Branch Feather River and its tributaries (Wild Trout - Flows)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee
North Fork Feather River and its tributaries (Wild Trout - Flows)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee
South Fork Feather River and its tributaries (Wild Trout - Flows)
OWID, Licensee
Feather River (Spring and Fall-run Chinook Salmon - Steelhead)
California Department of Water Resources, Licensee
Oroville Reservoir (Cold water fish - Public Recreation)
California Department of Water Resources, Licensee
Butt Valley Reservoir (wild trout)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee
Upper San Joaquin River and its tributaries (Wild Trout - Flows)
Southern California Edison, Licensee
Merced River (Salmon - Flows - Water Quality)
Merced Irrigation District, Licensee
Pit River (Wild Trout - Flows)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee
Tuolumne River (Salmon - Flows)
Modesto Irrigation District - Turlock Irrigation District, Licensees
Upper Stanislaus River and its tributaries (Wild Trout - Flows)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee
For the past 25 years, the CSPA has been the voice for California's fisheries affected by FERC licensed projects. CSPA is a low budget statewide organization that gets the job done. No fancy public relation handouts with wild claims, just a lot of hard work that gets results, but often goes unnoticed by the public.
To find out more about what the CSPA is doing in protecting and restoring California waterways damaged by FERC licensed projects, contact Bob Baiocchi at 530-836-1115, Fax: 530-836-2062, or e-mail at cspa@psln.com;
contact Jim Crenshaw, President, CSPA, at 530-661-0997, Fax: 530-661-0541, or e-mail at crenshaw@mother.com
The CSPA website is URL http://www.dnai.com/~ccate/CSPAPagerev0.html