(May 25, 2004) Officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expressed optimism on May 25 for continuation of fish screen installations on the Sacramento River.

One of the officials indicated that there is no desire on the part of government for strict enforcement of environmental laws against fish “take” (loss), as long as progress continues in screening agricultural water diversions.

Their remarks came at a public demonstration of the newly installed, $616,000, retractable, self-cleaning fish screen systems on the Davis Ranches diversion, located on the Sacramento River off Highway 45 and just south of Highway 20. Over 50 people attended the event on the levee beside the Sacramento River. Attendees were treated to viewing first hand the retraction of the screens, live underwater video recorded by divers from the National Marine Fisheries Services and California Department of Fish and Game working in tandem, and a simulated monitoring dive by Advanced Diving Services.

NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, California Department of Fish and Game and the landowner funded the project as part of the Sacramento River Small Diversion Fish Screen Program coordinated by the Family Water Alliance (FWA) of Maxwell.

With the installation of this project, FWA will have successfully 21 screens. The FWA-led consortium includes California Department of Fish and Game, NOAA Fisheries Restoration Center, CALFED, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the State Department of Water Resources, and others.

Rick Wantuck, NOAA Fisheries Hydraulic Engineer Team Leader, said there are well over 3,000 unscreened diversions in California, 2,200 of them in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“If you go by the number of diversions, 94 percent of them are unscreened,” he said, “but three-fourths of the Bureau of Reclamation’s contract water is covered by three large screens –the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, the Bureau’s Red Bluff Diversion and Reclamation District 108. Wantuck said it has been estimated that the total impact of the smaller diversions on protected anadromous fisheries is about equal to the three large diversions now screened. Those three installations screen more than 7,000 cubic feet of water per second.

The Sacramento River Small Diversion Fish Screen Program is designed to protect endangered winter-run Chinook salmon and such threatened species as spring-run Chinook and steelhead. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) 4(d) Rule makes it illegal to “take” (harm or kill) these species.

“We want to try to avoid collisions between agriculture and the ESA,” Wantuck said. “When the 4(d) Rule was written in the 90’s, it reflected smaller numbers of salmon in the river.
“We would like to see the screening programs continue,” he added. “Our general approach is not to threaten irrigators who have legal rights to the water. What we’re interested in is keeping the program moving forward to screen the diversions that have the highest probability of take. Where there might be conflict is if the program is shut down and there is not consistent progress.”

Dan Bowman-Odenweller, a retired F&G fishery biologist and now active in the NOAA screening program, believes there are ways to continue funding the program in spite of shrinking agency budgets, which threaten the program. He believes farmers could help assure continued funding by asking their Congressmen to seek funds that are earmarked for the fish screens. He also sees the possibility of having Congress amend the 4(d) Rule so that it would not apply to diversions below a certain pumping volume. Farmers who have diversions in that category would be exempt from “take” provisions.

“I have been advocating that for five years,” Bowman-Odenweller said. “Various levels of pumping volume (cubic feet per second) have been discussed, but there is no decision on the best cut-off point.”

The screening system demonstrated consists of three retractable cylindrical screens designed and installed Intake Screens, Inc., of Sacramento.
Russ Berry, president of the company and inventor of the system, said he had to meet criteria set by the government and the farmers. He pointed to pencil lead-size openings in the screen to prevent passage of fish into irrigation channels, one of the government requirements.

“The farmers told me they wanted a system that did not have major costs or restrictions on the volume of water pumped,” he said. “They also did not want big energy costs.”
The fish screens are equipped with telemetry systems that notify Berry’s office when there is a power outage, change in pressure, or the need for maintenance.

Advanced Diving Services, Inc., of Chico, monitors all of the 21 screens installed by the FWA consortium. Doug Maxfield, President, said the screens are inspected by divers monthly during the first year. This is all part of a monitoring program to assure the screens are functioning correctly during the critical agricultural irrigation season. He said that about 96 percent of the screens are retractable so they can be removed from the river for maintenance, and high river flows to avoid debris damage.

Steve Edmondson, NOAA Northern California Habitat Supervisor, presented the agency’s Environmental Stewardship Award to three participants on this fish screen project: Dan Griffith, representing Davis Ranches, Russ Berry of Intake Screens, Inc.; and Sue Sutton, Family Water Alliance, Program Manager for the Sacramento River Small Diversion Fish Screen Program.