$4.5 million for Trinity River

Federal stimulus money to be invested in water projects across the country includes a $4.5 million boost for the Trinity River Restoration Program to use on projects designed to improve fish habitat.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced last week that the Department of Interior will invest $1 billion, under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, in America's water infrastructure to create or save jobs and get the economy moving again.

Of the $1 billion that Interior's Bureau of Reclamation is investing in water projects, $260 million will go to projects in California to expand water supplies, repair aging water infrastructure, restore damaged ecosystems and mitigate the effects of the drought the state is currently experiencing. An additional $135 million is available in grants for water reuse and recycling projects.

"In the midst of one of the deepest economic crises in our history, Californians have been saddled with a drought that is putting tens of thousands of people out of work and devastating entire communities," Salazar said last week in a Sacramento press conference with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state congressional leaders.

He noted that President Barrack Obama's economic recovery plan "will not only create jobs on basic water infrastructure projects, but will help address both the short- and long-term water supply challenges the Golden State is facing. From boosting water supplies and improving conservation to improving safety at our dams, these shovel-ready projects will make a real and immediate difference in the lives of farmers, businesses, Native American Tribes and communities across California."

The stimulus money will be used to fund more than 30 Bureau of Reclamation water infrastructure projects in California, including $4.5 million for restoration projects on the Trinity River. Another $4 million is slated for sedimentation studies on the Klamath River to be used for future management decisionmaking.

Other projects funded in the north state include construction of a screened pumping plant at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam on the Sacramento River to protect fish populations while delivering water to agricultural users downstream; construction to address dam safety concerns at Folsom Dam near Sacramento; a $26 million fishery restoration project on Battle Creek; and a $20 million project on the Contra Costa Canal to protect water supplies for downstream users and build fish screens to restore endangered fish populations in the Sacramento Delta and San Francisco Bay.

Executive Director of the Trinity River Restoration Program Mike Hamman said the $4.5 million in stimulus money for the Trinity River will be used to fund four construction projects on the upper section of river below Lewiston Dam.

The projects are located in the vicinities of the Lowden Ranch area, Reading Creek, Wheel Gulch and Trinity House Gulch. The work to be accomplished over the next two years involves creating side channels, expanding gravel bars and re-vegetation of certain areas designed to improve fish-rearing habitat.

The restoration program typically has an annual budget of approximately $10.5 million of which about 40 percent is allocated to construction projects numbering two or three in a given year "so the stimulus money really accelerates what we'll be able to do," Hamman said. Without the stimulus money, Hamman said it would be two or three years at least before the identified projects could be undertaken.

Needed projects were identified through the original studies for the Department of Interior's Trinity River Record of Decision in 2000. The Trinity Management Council of partner agencies and stakeholders provides overall policy direction and management assistance for the program that also involves input from a citizens' advisory group called the Trinity Adaptive Management Working Group.