Office of the Secretary

Embargoed: 10:00AM November 8, 1999

Contact: Jamie Workman (202) 208-6416

BABBITT RELEASES PLAN TO OVERHAUL HYDRO PROJECT, RESTORE SALMON
$50.7 million Cal-Fed Partnership Unlocks Spawning Grounds: Five Dams To Come Out

BATTLE CREEK, CA -- November 8, flanked by top state, utility, private, and conservation leaders, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt today unveiled a massive restoration plan to replenish California's rare runs of chinook salmon and steelhead in a major Sacramento River tributary.

Under the Cal-Fed process, and through voluntary partnerships engaged years before relicensing was required, the pristine, spring-fed Battle Creek becomes the first and perhaps most critical stream in California in which several species of salmon will again return to their primordial spawning grounds. A record total of five dams will be removed, additional structures altered and instream flows guaranteed. The final block of funding has been secured from private donors, identified today.

"As deeply as gold or the grizzly bear, wild salmon infuse California's past," said Babbitt. "But through our collective will, today we help ensure that salmon swim on into our future. For they are not merely commodities, or emblems for a flag. Wild salmon are vital members of creation who enrich our landscapes, inspiring us through their upstream journey from sea to Sierra."

This is Babbitt's latest visit to a Cal-Fed project since last summer, when he brought a sledgehammer down on McPherrin dam on Butte Creek. Months later, 20,000 salmon were spawning on and above the sites where four dams were removed. "Last time I came to show that irrigation farming and salmon could live side by side," said Babbitt. "This time I'm making the case that, with carefully wrought partnerships like these, hydropower and salmon can coexist as well."

The event also marks Babbitt's first public event with Gov. Davis' administration.

The landmark Cal-Fed project calls for:

• Decommission and remove five diversion dams - Wildcat, Coleman, South, Lower Ripley Creek and Soap Creek - and transferring their water rights to instream uses.
• Screen and enlarge ladders at Inskip, Eagle Canyon, and N. Battle Creek Feeder dams
• Increase minimum instream flows from 3-5 cubic feet per second to 35-88 cfs seasonally
• Construct tailrace connectors that eliminate mixing of N. and S Fork waters

For more complete information, including a comprehensive Q & A briefing, contact the DOI web page at: http://www.doi.gov/testdp/doipress/

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