http://www.chicoer.com/display/inn_news/news2.txt
>
> Enterprise Record, 12-20-99
>
> Chico, California
> News
>
> Activist decries lack of flow in West Branch
> By Larry Mitchell - Staff Writer
> It took Bob Baiocchi nearly 15 years to get PG&E to start releasing water
> down what had been, in summer and early fall, the nearly dry bed of the West
> Branch of the Feather River at Stirling City.
> It would have been ideal if some of the water that then flowed seven or eight
> miles from Stirling City to Magalia had been allowed to flow all the way down
> the river bed to Lake Oroville, he said. But that's not what happened.
> And so, this year, Baiocchi has jousted again with PG&E over the West Branch,
> the stream that was his first battleground.
> If you drive north on the Skyway from Paradise, and then turn right on
> Coutolenc Road, just past Old Magalia, you will come to a road that twists
> down the side of the canyon to the West Branch. Near the point it meets the
> river is PG&E's Miocene Dam. The structure creates a pool at Whiskey Flat,
> where people sometimes cool off in the summer.
> Baiocchi said he recalls going down there years ago and seeing written in
> chalk on the face of the dam, "Give us our river back."
> Why would there be a message like that?
> Because PG&E diverts water at the Miocene Dam from the stream bed into a
> canal known as the "Miocene Ditch."
> In the dry season, Baiocchi said, virtually the entire flow of the river is
> directed into the Miocene canal, which carries it for miles to Kunkle
> Reservoir off Pentz Road. From there the canal takes it to PG&E's Lime Saddle
> Powerhouse, and then further south to the company's Coal Canyon Powerhouse,
> near the intersection of highways 149 and 70.
> After the water emerges from that small powerhouse, it flows down the Lower
> Miocene Ditch to a California Water Service Company treatment plant. From
> there, the water is piped to homes and businesses in Oroville. It is the main
> source of Oroville's drinking water, according to Gary Alt, Cal Water
> district manager in Oroville.
> During the rainy season, plenty of water pours down the West Branch. It
> spills over the Miocene Dam and flows down the seven or eight miles of
> riverbed to the Lime Saddle arm of Lake Oroville.
> Baiocchi is mad because he says the river virtually dries up in the summer
> and early fall, when PG&E diverts the flow at the Miocene Dam. That leaves
> stagnant pools and baking boulders between the Miocene Dam and the Lime
> Saddle end of Lake Oroville, he said. It's no place for fish and other
> aquatic life.
> Jon Tremayne, a PG&E spokesman, said in fact, PG&E makes a downstream release
> of 2 cubic feet of water per second from the Miocene Dam when it isn't
> spilling.
> But Baiocchi said he can't believe the company makes an intentional release
> for fish. The 2 cubic feet per second may even be seepage, he said. At any
> rate, it's hardly enough to sustain fish.
> Baiocchi, who used to live in Paradise and now calls Graeagle his home, said
> he's known about the Miocene situation for years, and it aggravates him.
> If enough water was released into the river, it could support trout and
> provide good riparian habitat generally, he said. Not only is the lower part
> of the West Branch uninhabitable for fish for months each year, but the
> Miocene Ditch has no screen, so fish are pulled into it at the diversion
> point, and they die when the canal is drained of water periodically so
> maintenance work can be done, he said.
> "It is not an environmentally compatible project," he said. "PG&E apparently
> doesn't really care."
> But Lisa Randle, a spokesperson for the power company, said PG&E does care.
> "We do feel we have a very strong environmental stewardship record," she
> said. Neither she nor Tremayne would respond in detail to Baiocchi's comments
> about the Miocene diversion. Tremayne said the Enterprise-Record seemed to be
> writing a feature story about Baiocchi's work, and he didn't want to detract
> from that by countering what Baiocchi told the paper.
> The E-R asked Randle if she could put the newspaper in touch with PG&E
> engineers who might comment on Baiocchi's charges about the Miocene. She said
> she checked with other company officials and learned their desire was to
> limit comments to the remarks made by her and Tremayne, both of whom work in
> public relations.
> If PG&E was smart, it would voluntarily release water for fish from the
> Miocene Dam, Baiocchi said. That would be the right thing to do, and good
> public relations, as well.
> Tremayne said it's not so simple. The water is needed to generate power, and
> also PG&E has an obligation to deliver water for Oroville and other users.
> But Baiocchi said he thinks things could be arranged so all "stakeholders"
> get water, including the fish that could inhabit the lower West Branch.
> If PG&E would release about 20 cubic feet per second down the West Branch
> from the Miocene Dam, it would probably be adequate for fish and other
> aquatic life. The rest of the water could still be diverted down the Miocene
> Ditch. It should be possible to deliver some of that water to landowners
> living along Pentz Road and also to the Spring Valley School, which now has a
> limited supply of water.
> As for Oroville's water supply, Baiocchi thinks an arrangement could be made
> to draw water from Lake Oroville.
> In January he filed a protest with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
> which regulates many power projects. He objected to PG&E's diverting all the
> water and the lack of a fish screen at the Miocene Dam.
> Recently, the federal agency notified him it had rejected his petition. For
> one thing, the agency said, PG&E's Miocene project is so old (the power
> plants date to 1906 and 1907), it isn't regulated by the federal government.
> But Baiocchi isn't giving up.
> "It is not over," he said. "I've got a couple of moves I can make. We'll see
> how it goes."