Did ranchers kill tens of thousands of fish by diverting water from the Shasta River last month? No. There seems to be confusion between two wholly separate events that took place in August. The first happened around Aug. 6, when the aftermath from the McKinney Fire killed tens of thousands of fish—primarily suckers—in the Klamath River.
Two weeks later, a wholly separate event took place on a different river. Ranchers belonging to the Shasta River Water Association turned on their diversion out of the Shasta River in order to provide water to 5,000 cattle and to fill ponds for emergency fire suppression. The association did this without permission from the State Water Resources Control Board. But here’s the kicker: Way back on Aug. 5, the association had asked the water board for permission to divert water in order to provide essential water for cattle. They had filed the request using an online form. They didn’t receive a response.
Meanwhile, cattle were bogging down in mudholes and dying. After almost two weeks of no response, the association decided to turn on the diversion and face the consequences. The diversion was on for eight days.
The water board is still deliberating over punitive measures against the association.
Contrary to some reports, the ranchers’ diversion couldn’t have harmed salmon in the Shasta. Water temperatures in that stretch of river were naturally lethal for salmon at the time, so none would have been present. And, while the diversion did cause a sharp drawdown in flow, the Shasta never dropped below its historic range for the past 60 years, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
The food producers of Scott and Shasta valleys are facing severe drought and unprecedented regulation by the state water board. The last thing they need is to be falsely accused of harming fish. — Theodora Johnson, Scott Valley Agriculture Water Alliance
(This letter to the editor was originally published in the Siskiyou Daily News in response to their Aug. 31 reprint of an Associated Press article. The Siskiyou Daily News reprinted the article with the headline “Ranchers warned to stop diverting water” and subheadline “Low flow in the Shasta River resulted in tens of thousands of fish dying.”)
