The local water district that controls the Twitchell Dam reservoir will be required to factor in the health of the steelhead trout population when it determines its schedule for releasing water down the Santa Maria river, according to a recent court ruling.
Environmental groups have argued for years that Twitchell Dam operators are ignoring state and federal endangered species laws by refusing to release reservoir water down the river in the winter and spring, when the endangered steelhead trout are known to journey upstream to form hatcheries.
Meanwhile, the dam operators—the Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which built the facility in the 1950s—have argued that doing so would violate the reservoir’s original intent to conserve rainy season water for groundwater recharge in the summer and fall.
After a federal court previously ruled in favor of the reservoir operators, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision in a ruling handed down on Sept. 23.
“What the Ninth Circuit’s ruling says is that’s not true. The water agencies do have discretion to adjust the timing of their water releases,” said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of the Los Padres ForestWatch, one of the plaintiffs in the suit. “And that they have an obligation to do so to protect endangered steelhead.”
When reached by New Times on Sept. 28, Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District staff said that the district’s board of directors would be discussing the ruling at a meeting on the night of Sept. 28.
According to Kuyper, while the decision is a victory for the endangered steelhead, there’s still much to be decided about the water releases—including how much water the district will be expected to release in the winter and spring to support the population.
“The ball is back in the district court to decide exactly how to deal with this,” he said. “The current release [schedule] is the exact opposite of what the steelhead need. This ruling is an important first step toward restoring a healthy steelhead fishery to the Santa Maria river.” Δ
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 9, 2022.
It’s a runoff river! Whatever springs may feed it, do not produce enough water to allow any flow in the river through the summer and fall. The dam was built, just like Nacimiento, to keep water available to recharge agriculture needs. Right now, and for most of the year, there is no water in the lake. On occasion, enough rainfall will fill the lake, but then is released as designed until empty.
If any trout actually swam up the river to spawn, they would have a hard time getting past Guadalupe at any time of the year!
As usual, environmentalists do not understand nature.