Citing the need to increase the survival rates of endangered salmon and sturgeon along the heavily dammed Yuba River, state, local and federal officials have announced

a $60 million

Plan to build a channel that allows fish to easily swim around a dam

obstructed

their passage for more than a century.

Along with Governor Gavin Newsom

on

On Tuesday, officials announced that the

fish passage

would bypass the DaGuerre Point Dam in Marysville and allow spring-dwelling chinook salmon, green sturgeon, stalkhead and lamprey access to 10 to 12 miles of spawning habitat upstream.

The Fish Pass at DaGuerre Point will be an unprecedented effort to restore habitat and contribute to the recovery of endangered species by providing an unobstructed passage to habitat that was incredibly difficult for them to access, said Willie Whittlesey, general manager of the Yuba Water Agency.

The announcement comes as California struggles to adapt to worsening periods of drought punctuated by intense intervals of precipitation, a kind of whiplash fueled by climate change, and amid a growing national movement calling for the demolition of dams due to their impact on the environment.

Some environmentalists and fisheries advocates have already rejected the Yuba River plan, claiming it was the result of bickering between government agencies and that it doesn’t do enough to protect endangered species. Some say removing the dam would be a better solution.

These types of processes behind closed doors alongside a coalition of active participants are truly concerning, said Meghan Quinn, associate director of river restoration and dam removal at American Rivers. “It makes you wonder what the future of restoration work looks like.”

The fish bypass follows the original path of the Yuba River, before the

federal government

built a submerged concrete dam in the early 1900s to contain mining tailings and sediment, officials said. In the 1950s, the state installed two new fish ladders, a series of ascending pools that allow some jumping salmon and steelheads to “climb” upstream, but they are outdated and in disrepair, and they completely block sturgeon and lamprey, officials said.

According to the governor, the state will pay for half of the project, with the rest being funded by the Yuba Water Agency. The states portion will come from $100 million in salmon restoration financing it invested last year

the governor’s office said

.

Both the spring-running Central Valley chinook and the population of green sturgeon found in these waterways are endangered species. Salmon, in particular, is a keystone species whose health is linked to the health of California’s rivers, said Wade Crowfoot, the secretary of state for natural resources.

But salmon across the state have been impacted by 150 years of infrastructure, including 1,500 dams and reservoirs that have grown California’s economy and population while disconnecting the species from 90% of its historic habitat, he said.

California has these historic floodplains that salmon have benefited from over time, he said. In big, wet winters like this, historically, salmon would go out on those floodplains, feed, hide from predators, and then get nice and healthy and fat to continue their journey to the ocean. Crowfoot said. “We have less floodplains than we’ve had in the past.

In addition to the side road, the project calls for

the relocation of a diversion that will provide irrigation water, which will be constructed using the most recent state and federal fish passage screening criteria.

Officials also announced a pilot program to transport chinook salmon in the spring above the New Bullards Bar Dam on the north fork of the Yuba River, where they can access cold water from slush and mountain springs in the face of hotter, three conditions. those caused by climate change.

The upper Yuba may be the best chance to get a viable, self-sustaining chinook salmon population in the spring, said Cathy Marcinkevage, assistant regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries.

Central Valley office

. And that is critical not only for the recovery of the species, but probably for its survival at this point.

While officials characterized the plan as the result of genuine intergovernmental cooperation, environmentalists and fisheries advocates complained that they were excluded from the decision-making process, even though they were initially invited to participate.

The Yuba Reintroduction Working Group, which includes the

California Department of Fish and Wildlife

National Marine Fisheries Service and Yuba Water Agency, as well as other agencies and non-profit organizations such as the South Yuba River Citizens League

American rivers

and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance had been meeting for years to discuss fish passage in the river.

But the CDFW, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Yuba Water Agency struck a separate deal outside of the working group, said Chris Shutes, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. The recovery plan announced Tuesday is part of a settlement agreement related to a new license from the Federal Energy Commission for the Yuba River Development Project, which consists of several dams, reservoirs and diversion tunnels serving multiple purposes, including hydropower.

according to

a term sheet

outlines the agreement released by the state

.

Negotiations for the relicense had been going on since 2011, Shutes said. The CDFW, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a consortium of NGOs, including the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, had supported a stream proposal for the lower Yuba River that was significantly more aggressive than the water agency’s proposal, Shutes said. Inadequate flow is the biggest problem for the salmon population, which has not been doing well since current flow was implemented in 2008 under the Yuba Accord, he said. Increased flow would also have come at the expense of the water agency, which makes tens of millions of dollars a year selling hydropower and surplus water, he said. “In exchange for commitments from the Yuba Water Agency on fish passage, the Department of Fish and Wildlife is essentially withdrawing its flow proposal proposed by its staff in the new permit and agreeing to the flow proposal proposed by Yuba Water Agency, Shutes said. That to me is the most objectionable part of the arrangement.”They’re blowing a lot of sunshine on a deal that, in my opinion, gives way too much in terms of flow in the lower reaches of the Yuba River,” he added.While the CDFW and National Marine Fisheries Service has approved the water agency’s power proposal as part of the framework, the State Water Board has ultimate authority to impose conditions on the water quality certification needed to obtain a FERC license, Jordan said Traverso, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Other nonprofits on the task force said the announcement of the fish passage surprised them.

We hope there is room to rebuild the relationship, said

Aaron

Zettler man

interim executive director and watershed scientific director of the South Yuba River Citizens League

. We still see and hope very much for cooperation in this turning point. But the process here, the closed nature of the agreement, is quite alarming and concerning.

The term sheet only provides a framework, and the agencies involved will provide public comment opportunities and meet with tribal governments and NGOs to work on a final plan, Traverso said. “We fully acknowledge that this is the start of months of work, including extensive outreach, to bring this project to fruition,” she said.

Zettler-Man hailed the idea of

a fish passage that can pass the dam under its own power

as “exciting”, but expressed concern about the plan to reintroduce traps and pulls, saying research shows it is ineffective. He also wondered how the agencies came to an agreement on the

fishway studies by the

US

The Army Corps of Engineers in 2003 and the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2014 both felt that removing dams was the best option, he said.

Those recommendations were consistent with a number of efforts to reduce or eliminate impediments to fish habitat in California’s waterways. In November, federal regulators approved plans to demolish four aging dams along the Klamath River. Efforts are also being made to demolish the defunct Matilija Dam near Ojai and the Rindge Dam along Malibu Creek.

However, officials said DaGuerre Point Dam still serves its original purpose of holding back debris and is also used for agricultural diversions.

“Not all dams need to be removed, says Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Most of our infrastructure is essential and still serves a useful purpose.”

However, Bonham acknowledged that the project follows a long-running dispute over who should be responsible for dealing with problems caused by the dam, as well as numerous feasibility studies.

Nevertheless, now

what is

time for a creative solution, he said.

We’re at a point in time, with a budget because of the governor’s leadership and the backing of the legislature, where we can really just bypass all that fighting and build something that’s pragmatic, low cost, low operational and maintenance exposure, and getting it done over the next few years, he said. So we can keep these fights alive, which California is notorious for on the water, or we can sit down and actually do something.