James P McMahonBlogging About My Interests

Feb 8th A Fish Needs Water….

Finally someone has taken on the Washington County Water District for its role in the failed Virgin River Program. The Program has turned into an example of government at its worst: taxpayer money wasted and nothing accomplished. Under the guise of the Program the endangered woundfin minnow, native to the Virgin River, was driven to extinction.

Fish need water. In fact, the original Biological Opinion suggested that this fish needs 100 cubic feet per second or more in the Virgin River in their uppermost habitat at LaVerkin Creek. But the Water District diverts cold water to Quail Lake from a location just above Pah Tempe Hot Springs, thus depriving this native fish of the water it needs.

The Center for Biological Diversity sent a 60 day notice of intent to sue the WCWCD for what’s known as ‘take’, which means the District took water the fish need and thus harmed them, in fact causing them to go extinct in the wild.

It’s rare that anyone goes up against the Water District. With handpicked board members, this pseudo public agency has no accountability to the public it supposedly serves. It is funded in large part by property taxes (look at your bill) and yet taxpayers have no direct oversight. And the District has a reputation for intimidating anyone who views things differently than they do.

Federal law mandates that the woundfin be protected. The Virgin River Program was established to do just that. But the Program has been negligent in focusing on the actions necessary to save the fish, as evidenced by its extinction. Luckily a small population exists in hatcheries which are being used to repopulate the river. But water flows in the river must increase for the woundfin to survive.

One example of wasteful spending is the $650K spent to build a fake river on the hill next to the District’s offices. This model river (drive by and look) is intended to show the public what a river should look like. This money could have made a significant contribution toward work on the river itself. For instance, providing water, restoring habitat, and a safe refuge at Confluence Park in LaVerkin; the most important place in the river for woundfin. A display at that location could serve both the public and the fish.

This writer wonders why (could it be bullying?) the various public agencies and non-profit partners in the Virgin River Program allowed the woundfin to go extinct. These agency personnel have a responsibility that they too have neglected. By not holding the District accountable they can count this extinction among their personal failures.

The ramifications of this lawsuit can be huge for Washington County; since Quail Lake is a source of water for St. George. This legal action could have been avoided entirely if District staff were honest and transparent.

The end game for the woundfin is to balance the needs of the fish with sustainable water use in Washington County. As stewards of the public’s trust, this is the challenge that the Water District is obliged to manage…with guidance and support from the Virgin River Program. The District has excelled at diverting water from the river but failed entirely at protecting the woundfin.

Author’s note: This is the original version. An edited version appeard in The St. George Spectrum newspaper on December 19, 2013

Posted in Virgin River, Virgin River Program, Washington County Water Conservancy District, woundfin minnow by admin with no comments yet.

Dec 14th The Virgin River Program Has Failed To Protect Endangered Fish

Under the auspices of the Virgin River Program the woundfin minnow went extinct in the wild in 2007 while the agencies involved were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

The problem with the VRP is that it has never focused on the solution. Fish need water and the Water District has been systematically drying down the river and dismantling the natural processes that would allow the fish to thrive.

Saving the woundfin is easy although it does impose a problem for the Water District in terms of limiting the amount of water it takes from the river. The original biological opinion said that 100 cfs or natural flows was required as minimum flows at the point of the river just below Pah Tempe Hot Springs.  A compromise was reached at 86 cfs and somehow the Water District interpreted the location of this amount of water to be at the Washington Fields Diversion. This erroneous manipulation of the facts has not been disputed by the participating agencies who are therefore complicit in the failure of the VRP to protect the woundfin. Neither has The Nature Conservancy, the environmental representative on the Program, insisted on preserving the flows necessary to protect the fish.

Another blow was dealt to the woundfin with the closing of the power plant now sitting defunct at Confluence Park. This historic hydro plant returned cold water from the upper Virgin to the river, thus mimicking the presence of natural instream flows.

The VRP is an example of government at its worst, spending huge sums of money and accomplishing nothing at all. An example is under construction right now on the hill next to the Water District’s offices. The VRP is spending more than $650,000 (or more) to build a fake river as a sort of amusement park where the public can see what a river should look like. These funds would be far better spent on numerous projects to actually benefit the fish. One such project could be the restoration of LaVerkin Creek at Confluence Park where public ownership of the land provides a great opportunity to provide refugia habitat, enhanced instream flows, and public education.

But this would actually be a useful thing to do and the Water District has repeatedly avoided such actions. District staff employs intimidation to manage the discussions to prevent any action that would actually increase natural flows within the river. This has allowed the District to continue its practice of building reservoirs and depleting flows while focusing the discussion within the VRP on actions that appear to be useful for the fish while actually accomplishing nothing.

The Program has focused on the mainstem river below Washington Fields Diversion with an emphasis on eliminating non-native fish species, building barriers to prevent their return from Lake Mead, and a couple of fish screens to prevent losses to irrigation diversions. While these efforts are laudable they are not enough to save the woundfin – as has obviously been demonstrated by its demise.

The key to saving the woundfin would involve:

– restoring natural instream water flows in the Virgin River at the point of Confluence Park, the uppermost reach of woundfin habitat

– restoring natural function to LaVerkin and Ash Creeks by eliminating extensive channelization and restoring instream flows.

– establish a population of woundfin in LaVerkin Creek and the Virgin River at Confluence Park.

– provide public education displays showing the actual restoration and what it accomplishing and display information on the native fish.

The $650,000, or more, wasted on the Water District’s fake river on the hill would have gone a long way to accomplish these actions above. In fact, the District and the Program provides an example of what fiscal conservatives have long held in disdain as wasteful government spending. And yet these deceptions serve the local hierarchy in that they divert attention from the real needs of the native fish while continuing the long held, in fact historic, practice of drying the river for local development. The result: a handful of people get rich, real estate development flourishes, and the fish go extinct. So wasting the federal funds is useful to the local purpose of encouraging development and growth throughout the County.

I can understand wanting reasonable economic growth within the County. But I cannot understand funding wasteful stupid projects like the fake river display when recovery of the woundfin can be accomplished with specific actions on the ground. I call into question the honesty and integrity of every single participant in the Virgin River Program. Where are your values? How can you sit there and actually discuss the silly notion that the hot water from Pah Tempe is a stressor on the fish when you all know that fish require water to exist. It’s about the diversion of cold water from the river above Pah Tempe. And now that the District owns Pah Tempe they will no doubt ruin that cultural and asesthetic resource as well.

To those of you who are not directly employed by the Water District I invite you to look inward and ask yourself why you have not done what is required. Perhaps this lawsuit can stimulate honest dialogue among the participants in the Virgin River Program.

At this point, the VRP has failed. None of the participants are apparently willing to say so and so I invited the Center for Biological Diversity to sue the District for the deliberate ‘take’ of the woundfin minnow; i.e.: for driving in to extinction in direct violation of federal law. It is long past time to acknowledge this fact and to act with conviction to restore the natural processes of the river in its uppermost reaches. Until that is done the VRP is just pissing away public money.

When I first read about the Program’s ‘fake river on the hill’ I dropped a personal note to the District’s manger and offered to take him out into the watershed to show him real on the ground projects that could be taken to save the woundfin. Instead of taking me up on this offer he posted my note to the District’s blog with a response that, among other things, I don’t attend his meetings and therefore my comments were not timely. I don’t attend his meetings because they are a waste of time. The District does not welcome outside input, certainly they don’t listen to mine, and in my view their actions are a deliberate attempt to sabotage the purpose of the Virgin River Program.  I’ve offered other suggestions in the past only to have those stifled without discussion. These suggestions were made with good will and intention so what is the point of offering more time to the District’s facade?

Finally I concluded that the only hope for protecting the endangered fish of the Virgin River lie in suing the District for the purpose of either making the Program effective or removing the fate of the fish from their hands. On December 9, 2013 the Center for Biological Diversity sent its 60 day notice of intent to sue the Washington County Water District. I take comfort in knowing that I have done what I can do.

xxx

Posted in Virgin River, Virgin River Program, Washington County Water Conservancy District, woundfin minnow by admin with no comments yet.