Have you ever seen one of those
little black boxes with a single
switch on the top, where you flip
the switch on, and an arm comes
out and switches it off? This is
somewhat similar to what our
topic today on The County Seat:
significant benefits of one
federal program in which billions
of dollars has been invested, is
zeroed out by another in which
millions are being invested. The
first program benefits several
users, the second only one group.
Many of you probably already have
an idea of where I am going with
this, and sadly there are dozens
of correct answers, but today's
has to do with water uses along
the Colorado River system. Ria
starts our "fishing expedition"
with the basics.
You probably think of them as your favorite boating destination like Lake Powell,
or Flaming Gorge, but for peopl who are
concerned about the availability of water and
its flow they see components of the Colorado
River Storage Projects Act of 1956 or CRSP ACT
as it is commonly known. It was created to
manage the water on the upper Colorado Basin
Rivers covering Utah, Colorado, New Mexico
and Wyoming.
This act built a number of dams along the
Colorado and its tributary rivers in the upper
basin for agriculture, and other beneficial uses
like: generating power, providing flood control,
and regulating the flow of the Colorado River,
so that upper and lower basin states can share
the resource equitably. The flaming Gorge dam
was built on the Green River in 1963 and is one
of the major dams the control the flow of the
Green River though the state of Utah.
The Dam has done a lot for the area, creating
hydroelectric power and flaming Gorge
reservoir for recreational use. But the Dam has
also come with its setbacks. Depending on how
the dam decides to release the water from
Flaming Gorge, determines whether the river,
the land, and the people who live downstream
suffer. During the first 30 years of operation,
Flaming Gorge managed the flow of the water
to the benefit of land, power users and water
interests downstream.
However, In the 1990s the US Fish and wildlife
Service mandated that river runoff should take
into account the endangered fish, and thus
created the Upper Colorado Endangered Fish
Recovery Program to manage the water flow
from the dam to help save endangered fish on
the river. Their thinking was to mimic the
turbulent seasonal runoff that used to beset the
river every spring. By 2007 the dam runoff
simulated the post and peak seasons along the
Yampa River.
And in 2012 the river changed its flow, yet
again, to accommodate the larva of the
Razorback sucker fish. This runoff scheme was
called the Larval Trigger Study Plan. The idea
was to open the flood gates on the dam, not
only flushing the river's sand bars as in the past,
but additionally by flooding parts of the
wetlands so the fish can lay eggs and spawn.
The goal was to increase the population of the
fish, but it has come at the cost of land owners
downstream.
According to the LTSP studies, they have seen
an increase in the razor back sucker fish, but the
question is: At what cost? When water is
released at high volume from the dam, the river
below cannot handle it and the river ends up
eroding parts of the river banks. This in turn has
eroded much of the farm land creating a big
loss for local farming and agriculture. Locals are
hoping to find a better way to solve the
problem and that is the equation that Chad and
guests will tackle in just a minute. When they
answer the question: Who is more important
here, the farmer or the fish? For the County
Seat, I'm Ria Booth.
Welcome back to the County seat it's for our
discussion were bringing you that discussion
today on the road. We are in Vernal, Utah at the
Uinta County Courthouse for our discussion
because we wanted to get a little bit closer to the
situation joining us for the conversation are to
landowners some people who have been very
intimately involved in this entire process of trying
to solve the river problems we have Sean
Massey whose an landowner along the river and
have some ideas on how to fix the problem. And
we have Brent Shaffer, who is his neighbor, I
suppose just outside of Jensen, whose been for
generations on the river gentlemen thank you for
joining us. I might add Brent you have worked
for the fish recovery program. So, you have a
little bit closer knowledge about how the fish
behave on the river.
Yes,
thank you for joining us.
I'm going to start the conversation by just
throwing out the question is this working is what
fish and wildlife and BOR are doing every year
working?
In my opinion it's putting a strain on a lot of
things like the fish and our soils and other
things. I don't think personally it's really.
And from my and I really can't answer that
because I don't have the experience to know if
their program is working.
They are talking about the success of the
razorback sucker fish. They are talking about the
pike and the numbers that we get from the
federal government as far as the program goes
and any kind of data they have, I was surprised
at how few of the fish are in the numbers of their
recovery for the millions of gallons of water
they're dumping over the spillway and putting
into the system. It is almost that it counts in
hundreds I saw one report where they said we
had an increase of hundreds of fish not
thousands and tens of thousands or millions, so
it seems like the recovery is happening at a
huge cost.
I totally believe what you're saying is true, my
wife and I went to a meeting and they gave
these statistics and based off their results. We
did not see where there was a success in their
program and in the number of desired fish
coming back.
If you're trying to bring back and have a native
species population overtake a non-native in a
natural way and make it sustainable in the river
and all you're doing is taking all the species and
creating a larval pool for them to grow up in and
you have 10 times as many non-natives are you
creating 10 times as many non-natives as your
raising it seems to me that is what is happening.
When they raise the river so high that the water
comes over the banks and all these fish come in
and then they have no way to get back to the
river. So, in a lot of these Oxbow's which is a
pool of water a lot of these non-natives are I
think and what I'm hearing are taking over the
natives in these programs that they're using.
Because they're more aggressive and they eat
fish and some of the natives don't eat fish.
Yes, and their numbers are exploding under the
program that they're using is what I'm hearing.
Well, what I would like to see is some data on
what kind of numbers up of non-natives they're
actually taking out.
What are the damages that are happening?
That's what I want to know what is happening to
your land?
So, I'm having issues with the salts coming to
the surface. I'm having issues with the invasion
of non-native vegetation. My cottonwoods are
basically just rotting from the inside out. I've got
300-year-old trees, or I had 300-year-old trees
that are just tipping over.
So, I want to talk about the salt situation
because this is something that a lot of people
aren't thinking about. What do you do if you get.
I mean how do you fix salt coming up to the
surface of your soil. I've seen it before, but I
don't know how he treated.
The only way you can treat it is to push it back
down with water, so the water has pushed it to
the surface, so you just have to drop that water
level, so you can push it back down.
And how do you push it down the don't go out
with a shovel and go like this or anything.
No
the NRCS has come up with a program with a
sprinkling system they have helped a lot of
farmers out by getting sprinklers and sprinklers
basically are like rain and a drop down in and it
pushes it back into the ground.
So, there would be critics of this saying were
trying to duplicate the natural flow and all that
they're doing by bringing that damn up to 6000
feet and on that couple of weeks. Just let the
water flow like crazy they say well that's just
duplicating the natural course of the river and
you'll have that every hundred years, how do
you counter that?
You're right, we could have it every hundred
years, but not every year because they can hold
enough water in the flaming Gorge dam to
where when the Yampa out of Colorado peaks
on run off in the springtime. They can release
water out of the flaming Gorge dam to create
these hundred-year floods every year is what
we're up against.
So, when I go back and look at the old literature
from the Bureau of reclamation when they were
putting these mega-dams along the river. The
idea one of the four stated missions of the river
was flood control and so isn't this fish program
going contrary to one of the purposes of putting
the dams in the river in the first place?
Neither one of you want to answer that. It's a
politically charged question, but it's a question
that people at home are going well if that is the
purpose then why are they doing this?
I can't answer that.
Well, you know you need to ask them.
I think we've demonstrated the problem and the
fact that there just doesn't seem to be a good
solution, but I do want to turn to solutions.
Okay. What I'm proposing is we have some
canals down on our farm on the Green River
below Jensen and we have to get water from the
Green River over to our pumps, so we can pump
the water in to our pivots into our irrigation
systems for raising crops. So, I'm proposing that
we bring water into these canals and raise fish in
these canals as were using the water that were
pumping out onto the farm ground.
You don't have to bring the 100-year flood on to
get that water into those canals.
Correct.
Is there enough capacity in your canals currently
that you could make a significant impact, or
would you have to increase the system?
I believe that we could make a huge difference.
The way were just about set up right now.
What Sean is proposing here is something we
could look at it could work. Every situation up on
the river is going to be a little different because
of the lay of the land the lay of the river you
know but I think that things like this could be
looked at and could help out. Really.
Could you actually go to some of the other farm
or ranchers along there and just actually build
out right hatcheries along the river that would
release right to the river. I know that they have a
hatchery below Hoover dam that raises fish and
dumps them right into the Colorado River right at
that point and it seems to me that would be a
workable program. Wouldn't it?
You would have to isolated from the river and
make sure that you didn't get the non-natives
coming into that.
Right and that is how this system works it's
down there. Like I said it's just at the bottom of
the Black Canyon and they have a fish hatchery
built right there and they raise the fish and then
the output right to into the river. So, they are
polling river water off, so it wouldn't be that much
different than your system.
Right
and then they directly release into the river and
they work their way on down through the rest of
black Canyon to Lake Mojave.
With your question. Would there be other
landowners willing to do that and I have talked to
some. And they said sure. Yes, they would with
the feedback that they've already given me.
Do you think you would have to do it forever?
The river has a mind of its own. It does what it
does. I think eventually we might be able to
make it to where it would, but you still would
have competition somewhere, so it would take a
long time.
It would take a long time.
Everybody that I talked to that's kind of
environmentally inclined they blame this problem
with the fish on the fact that in the 50s and 60s.
We put dams in the river systems and that this
whole upper Colorado River system got put in
with the dams and they say that the dams are
what cause this problem with the native species
you agree with that assessment.
I think that if you're looking at. Did it change the
chemistry of the river? I believe it. It. But did it
cause a problem. I don't believe that.
From what I'm hearing. As far as the program
that they have been working on. I think it has
more to do with their program then it has to do
with the dam.
Do you think we could actually solve the
problem? If the US Fish and Wildlife Service
would change their thinking or the Endangered
Species Act will be modified to say that you don't
have to bring those populations back via a
natural method on some of these major rivers
where we take this commitment to control water
because the cost seems huge. I mean,
everybody wants to take the dams out. But then
what happens to the water users, the electricity
all these other things that they built them for.
You mentioned through their natural method
we've moved out of the natural method because
of the way that they hold the water back and
then flood. So that is not natural because they've
created this through holding back water with the
dam so because of that system alone. I think we
can move to this other system because were not
working under a natural system.
It's not going to be natural. From this point
forward. Anyway.
And it hasn't been because of the dam and the
way that they've been holding the water back so
because of what we're proposing. I think we can
make a difference.
Excellent I pray that we can find a solution that
protects our vital interests of being able to raise
food protect the historic value of the river and
preside electricity and water and all of the
benefits that come from it, and we thank you for
watching. We'll be right back were going to take
a personal look and taking on the ground so that
you can see exactly what is happening out there
on the river firsthand will be back with the
County seat in just a minute
Welcome back to The County Seat.
What would your reaction be if
you watched the federal
government come in and randomly
shut your business down in its
prime money making season for a
month each year, or take some 50
acres of your prime farm land,
poison another two hundred acres
by covering the surface with salt
and not offer to compensate you?
Oh, it is not malicious taking,
but it is happening as we find
out "on the ground"
I'm T Wright Dickinson, our family; we've been
here in the Browns Park area since 1885.
My name is Dave Mcdonald I am here with T
Wright Dickinson on his farm down in Colorado
along the Green River. As this bank has
disappeared, and you see how the channel is
coming across, the channel used to be out there
that's the original channel over there against
the island. A lot of this erosion that you see
here has been exacerbated by the fact that they
put in a dam.
Our business is running a bed and breakfast for
anglers that work on the river fly fishing, and I
am a guide for those people and the runoff
from the mountains is what provides us a
steady flow of water to keep our fish healthy
and our business healthy.
So the pivot because of the erosion of the
banks, we had to build these catwalks these
piers, and the towers the wheels of the pivot
actually walk out on those catwalks so the end
tower can finish irrigating the field.
And that's a direct result of trying to recover
the fish by trying to create a man-made flood in
reach two down in Uinta basin vernal below
Jenson
On this particular farm we have lost probably
somewhere around 10 acres of land while that
doesn't seem like a lot we can't replace that
property because most of the land that
surrounds us is federally or state owned there
isn't any more private land.
And when you have as we did last year eight
week long full bypass flow you've trashed our
complete season it's really really rough on us.
Last year the estimate is as businesses in this
area year on year have lost twenty percent of
our revenue because of that flush. It's just gone
crazy on what they are getting on the way of
damage they don't have any reckoning there is
nothing in the legislation that they must take
into account the damage and impact they have
on the local stakeholders.
Right here, this is the power cable that's coming
to the pivots from over here at the power pole.
That was set, we were a good fifty feet in from
the bank when that was laid in 2006.
But you can see there were the pump station is
exposed. We've lost six feet of bank right there
from the pump to the catwalk where that
handlebars and catwalk starts in just two years'
time we have lost six feet of bank.
And there has to be some sort of way to
mitigate this kind of damage to private
properties and businesses it's just not fair, as T
says to allow this to go on, without people
taking note and trying to make it quit. people
taking note and trying to make it quit.
We will be back with some final
thoughts in just a minute on The
County Seat
Welcome back to the county seat.
Here is my two cents worth on our
topic today. America used to be
a country of problem solvers. We
looked for a better, faster, more
economical, innovative way to
creatively fix things that were
wrong. We were incentive based
and forward thinking. We weren't
afraid to use technology to make
life better. In my opinion, we no
longer are incentive based, we
have become punishment based. We
regulate and fine and restrict to
address problems. That is kind of
how I see this situation along
the river. Wishing that the dams
weren't there, wildlife policy
tries to force a natural routine
on a system that is no longer
natural with huge negative side
effects. I believe the fish
could easily be restored with "on
river" hatcheries at a much
smaller cost. They would recover
by being innovative in breeding
them, instead of punitive. It
seems pretty clear from what I
have learned preparing for this
show that the issue of the fish
has little to do with the dam,
and much to do with the non-
native fish who are more hungry
and hardy than the river natives.
This problem existed before the
dams. Targeted breeding is the
only way to change the ratios on
the river and move them from
extinction. But the Endangered
species act does not allow that
logical solution. These massive
water releases are taking land,
economic opportunity, and most
important water which by the fake
flood program at Flaming Gorge
and Glen Canyon is moving water
from the upper states along the
river to the lower states already
thirsty for it. No one is talking
about that. Just a thought to
consider.
Thanks for watching if you have a
different opinion Please share it
respectfully on our social media
pages, share this with others,
and if you would, take a minute
to like or follow our pages to
keep abreast of county relevant
news during the week and we will
see you next week on The County
Seat.
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