Federal judge: Russian River dam releases are violating Endangered Species Act

A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is disturbing salmon populations through its flood-control releases out of Coyote Valley Dam.

May 07, 2024

A federal judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has violated the Endangered Species Act by disturbing salmon populations through flood-control releases from Coyote Valley Dam into the Russian River.

Those releases, which relieve pressure upstream from the 66-year-old dam during rainy months, kick up sediment from the bottom of Lake Mendocino, a reservoir that serves as critical water storage for Sonoma County.

The sediment increases turbidity in the river that harms and harasses coho and chinook salmon and steelhead trout in violation of the Endangered Species Act’s mandate to protect the imperiled species, U.S. District Court of Northern California Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley ruled.

Corley ruled on a lawsuit brought by Sean White, who has spent much of his career involved in the Russian River in one way or another, serving as general manager of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District before moving in 2015 to direct sewage and water services for the city of Ukiah.

White brought the lawsuit as a private citizen. The Endangered Species Act, one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws, allows for citizens to sue governments, businesses or individuals they believe to be violating the act.

“Today’s ruling from the Northern District confirms there has been complete institutional failure in protecting endangered species from the effects of Coyote Valley Dam — essentially reducing our beautiful river to a dirty, muddy mess,“ White said in a news release Monday.

Corely found that the Corps’ own data concurred with White’s tests, which he largely conducted on his own, to indicate there was no factual dispute that the releases were increasing turbidity that harmed salmon and steelhead in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

“Judge Corley’s decision is a great example of how our legal institutions is supposed to work by simply declaring what the facts and the law are,” White’s attorney, Phil Williams told The Press Democrat.

North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, also cheered Corely’s ruling.

Huffman has been advocating for years for the Corps to study raising Coyote Valley Dam to increase Lake Mendocino’s water storage capacity and redesign its outflows to reduce turbidity.

“I was surprised, frankly, that its been allowed to happen for so long,“ Huffman said of the river-clouding releases. ”It’s just undeniable and its really significant.“

The court order comes roughly two months after Huffman touted a $500,000 federal appropriation for a study on raising the dam. Coupled with the judge’s ruling, the two developments are a powerful step toward a major dam project.

That infrastructure project “would fix the water quality problem,” Huffman said, “and we now have a court ruling telling them they have to fix (that problem).”

In brief answers to Press Democrat questions, Army Corps of Engineers San Francisco District counsel Merry Goodenough said the lawsuit would not have long-term impacts on the agency’s plan for the dam.

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By:  Andrew Graham
Source: Press Democrat