Coming
in October
From Common Courage Press
Today's
Stories
September 3, 2003
Uri Avnery
First
of All This Wall Must Fall
September 2, 2003
Robert Fisk
Bush's
Occupational Fantasies Lead Iraq Toward Civil War
Kurt Nimmo
Rouind Up the Usual Suspects: the Iman Ali Mosque Bombing
Robert Jensen / Rahul Mahajan
Iraqi Liberation, Bush Style
Elaine Cassel
Innocent But Guilty: When Prosecutors are Dead Wrong
Jason Leopold
Ghosts
in the Machines: the Business of Counting Votes
Dave Lindorff
Dems in 2004: Perfect Storm or Same Old Doldrums?
Paul de Rooij
Predictable
Propaganda: Four Monts of US Occupation
Website of the Day
Laughing Squid
Recent
Stories
August 30 / Sept. 1,
2003
Alexander Cockburn
Handmaiden
in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall
of the UN
Saul Landau
Schwarzenegger
and Cuban Migration
Standard Schaefer
Who
Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Gary Leupp
Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial
William S. Lind
Send the Neocons to Baghdad
Augustin Velloso
Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey
Jorge Mariscal
The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante
John Ross
A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power
Mickey Z.
War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler
Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts
Stan Cox
Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun
Tom and Judy Turnipseed
Take Back Your Time Day
Adam Engel
The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY
Adam Engel
An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
Susan Davis
Northfork,
an Accidental Review
Nicholas Rowe
Dance
and the Occupation
Mark Zepezauer
Operation
Candor
Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie and Hamod
Website of the Weekend
Downhill
Battle
August 29, 2003
Lenni Brenner
God
and the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party
Brian Cloughley
When in Doubt, Lie Your Head Off
Alice Slater
Bush Nuclear Policy is a Recipe for National Insecurity
David Krieger
What Victory?
Marjorie Cohn
The Thin Blue Line: How the US Occupation of Iraq Imperils International
Law
Richard Glen Boire
Saying Yes to Drugs!
Bister, Estrin and Jacobs
Howard Dean, the Progressive Anti-War Candidate? Some Vermonters
Give Their Views
Website of the Day
DirtyBush
August 28, 2003
Gilad Atzmon
The
Most Common Mistakes of Israelis
David Vest
Moore's
Monument: Cement Shoes for the Constitution
David Lindorff
Shooting Ali in the Back: Why the Pacification is Doomed
Chris Floyd
Cheap Thrills: Bush Lies to Push His War
Wayne Madsen
Restoring the Good, Old Term "Bum"
Elaine Cassel
Not Clueless in Chicago
Stan Goff
Nukes in the Dark
Tariq Ali
Occupied
Iraq Will Never Know Peace
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Behold, My Package
Website of the Day
Palestinian
Artists
August 27, 2003
Bruce Jackson
Little
Deaths: Hiding the Body Count in Iraq
John Feffer
Nuances and North Korea: Six Countries in Search of a Solution
Dave Riley
an Interview with Tariq Ali on the Iraq War
Lacey Phillabaum
Bush's Holy War in the Forests
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Website of the Day
The Dean Deception
August 26, 2003
Robert Fisk
Smearing the Dead
David Lindorff
The
Great Oil Gouge: Burning Up that Tax Rebate
Sarmad S. Ali
Baghdad is Deadlier Than Ever: the View of an Iraqi Coroner
Christopher Brauchli
Bush Administration Equates Medical Pot Smokers with Segregationists
Juliana Fredman
Collective Punishment on the West Bank: Dialysis, Checkpoints
and a Palestinian Madonna
Larry Siems
Ghosts of Regime Changes Past in Guatemala
Elaine Cassel
Onward, Ashcroft Soldiers!
Saul Landau
Bush:
a Modern Ahab or a Toy Action Figure?
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 25, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Israeli Outlaws in America
David Bacon
In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime
Thomas P. Healy
The Govs Come to Indy: Corps Welcome; Citizens Locked Out
Norman Madarasz
In an Elephant's Whirl: the US/Canada Relationship After the
Iraq Invasion
Salvador Peralta
The Politics of Focus Groups
Jack McCarthy
Who Killed Jancita Eagle Deer?
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
Hot Stories
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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September
3, 2003
Another Big Fish Kill
8,000
Threatened Salmon Die in Butte Creek
By DAN BACHER
For the second year in a row, thousands of threatened
spring-run chinook salmon have perished in an outbreak of disease
spurred by warm water conditions on Butte Creek, a tributary
of the Sacramento River that arises in the Sierra Nevada west
of Chico.
Allen Harthorn of Friends of Butte Creek
and other fishery restoration activists are accusing the Department
of Fish and Game and Pacific Gas and Electric Company of failing
to do anything to save the fish, even though 5,000 to 7,000 fish
died under similar conditions last year. The spring chinook salmon
is a listed species under the state and federal Endangered Species
Acts.
The recent fish kill took place between
mid-July and the end of August when an estimated 15,000 salmon
encountered lethally warm water conditions on Butte Creek. The
latest fish kill was preceded by a smaller one around May 11,
when PG&E's Centerville Flume failed and dumped massive amounts
of sediment into the creek, resulting in the premature deaths
of hundreds of salmon.
"The federal and state governments
and local water districts spent around $25,000,000 over 10 years
to remove dams and other barriers so that the fish could get
upriver to spawn," said Harthorn. "That's approximately
$300 per salmon. If you figure that last year we lost 7,000 fish
and this year we lost another 8,000 salmon, that's $4-1/2 million
wasted in two fish kills."
He added, "If I was a farmer in
the Butte Basin, I'd be very upset that all this money was spent
so the fish can get upriver to die prematurely."
The fish started dying in July when water
diverted by PG&E from Round Valley Reservoir hit 68 degrees,
increasing to approximately 70 degrees by the time that it came
out of DeSabla Powerhouse and around 75 degrees by the time it
reached the big pool in front of Harthorn's property in Butte
Creek Canyon.
The fish kill accelerated beginning August
11 as warm water temperatures spurred the outbreak of columnaris
(bacterial gill disease) and ich protozoa in the salmon. By the
end of August, thousands of salmon littered the bottom of Butte
Creek.
"Many pools now are virtual graveyards
with flesh and bones scattered every where," said Harthorn.
"What was a spectacular run has been decimated. All of the
parties with authority - the DFG, PG&E and National Marine
Fisheries Service - have sat on their hands and sacrificed these
fish."
The problem is that in the section of
the creek where the most fish died, from Centerville Dam to DeSabla
Powerhouse, the water is diverted for power generation. PG&E
uses approximately 30 cfs of upper Butte Creek water and 50 cfs
of Feather River water for electricity, bypassing the majority
of fish.
As a solution to the fish kills, Harthorn
suggest putting all of the natural flows - 75 cfs or more - in
this stretch during July, August and September and utilizing
the water from the West Branch of the Feather River for power
generation.
Paul Ward, DFG fishery biologist, confirmed
that "a good component" of the Butte Creek run died
before spawning. The preliminary estimate of the 2003 pre-spawning
snorkel survey of fish still alive in the river from Quartz Bowl
to the Parrot-Phelan Diversion Dam is 4398 salmon.
"To date, we estimate that over
5,000 salmon (5472) have died before spawning, but our final
count won't be available until mid October when we do our spawning
carcass survey," he stated.
Couldn't something have been done to
stop the premature deaths of these fish, since they are listed
as a threatened species?
"It does not appear so," said
Ward. "Maybe we can work with PG&E to better manage
the water from the West Branch so cooler water can be sent down
the river."
He characterized the problem with Butte
Creek as too many fish being crowded into too little habitat.
"Even after the fish kill, there are probably more fish
than there is available spawning gravel," he stated. "The
reach above Centerville has only 15 percent of the available
habitat, although it has good holding water. Over 85 percent
of the habitat is below Centerville."
Lisa Randle, spokesperson for Pacific
Gas & Electric, said the utility was operating their hydroelectric
facilities with the cooperation of DFG and other fishery agencies
when the fish kill took place.
"We continue to operate as directed
by our FERC license and maintain communication with and work
with the California Resources Agency regarding fish flow releases,"
she stated. "We are open to considering any changes that
are beneficial to the well being of the salmon."
However, Harthorn said the DFG and PG&E
are "just making excuses for doing nothing."
"There would be no problem with
fish spawning on top of one another if the low flow section of
Butte Creek had 75 cfs or more," he explained. "By
increasing flows, they would increase the habitat. Right now
the fish are very crowded because there is not much water for
them. If that's all of the water that the DFG can get from PG&E,
we have to figure out something we can do to stop these kills
from occurring."
Harthorn also estimated the DFG's preliminary
estimate of 5472 dead fish to be very conservative, considering
that only half of the carcasses are ever counted. "We're
saying that 8,000 fish, maybe more, died before spawning,"
he added.
Harthorn is also proposing that once
10,000 fish are estimated to have entered the creek, that Butte
Creek be reopened to fishing for recreational anglers for one
month.
Craig Bell, representing the Salmonid
Restoration Federation and Northern California Association of
River Guides, addressed the issue of the fish kill during the
public comment section of the California Fish and Game Commission
meeting in Santa Rosa on August 28.
"This is the second time that I've
had to bring a fish kill on Butte Creek to the Commission's attention,"
said Bell. "PG&E is taking a state and federally listed
species without an incidental take permit. It's time for the
DFG to take a more aggressive stance in protecting spring-run
chinooks."
Harthorn is urging everybody concerned
about stopping future fish kills to send their comments to Robert
C. Hight, Director, Department of Fish and Game, 1416 Ninth Street,
Sacramento, CA. 95814, and Michael Aceituno, National Marine
Fisheries Service, 680 Capitol Mall Suite 8-300, Sacramento,
CA. 95814-4708.
You can also sign the petition to Mary
D. Nichols, California Resources Secretary, requesting the restoration
of full flows to Butte Creek at www.buttecreek.org
Dan Bacher
can be reached at: danielbacher@hotmail.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 30 / Sept. 1, 2003
Alexander Cockburn
Handmaiden
in Babylon: Annan, Vieiera de Mello and the Decline and Fall
of the UN
Saul Landau
Schwarzenegger
and Cuban Migration
Standard Schaefer
Who
Benefited from the Tech Bubble: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Gary Leupp
Mel Gibson's Christ on Trial
William S. Lind
Send the Neocons to Baghdad
Augustin Velloso
Aznar: Spain's Super Lackey
Jorge Mariscal
The Smearing of Cruz Bustamante
John Ross
A NAFTA for Energy? The US Looks to Suck Up Mexico's Power
Mickey Z.
War is a Racket: The Wisdom of Gen. Smedley Butler
Elaine Cassel
Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Show Isn't Winning Many Converts
Stan Cox
Pirates of the Caribbean: the WTO Comes to Cancun
Tom and Judy Turnipseed
Take Back Your Time Day
Adam Engel
The Red Badge of Knowledge: a Review of TDY
Adam Engel
An Eye on Intelligence: an Interview with Douglas Valentine
Susan Davis
Northfork,
an Accidental Review
Nicholas Rowe
Dance
and the Occupation
Mark Zepezauer
Operation
Candor
Poets' Basement
Albert, Guthrie and Hamod
Website of the Weekend
Downhill
Battle
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