• CSPA and Tuolumne advocates answer San Francisco on water supply

    CSPA, the Tuolumne River Trust, Golden West Women Flyfishers and two unaffiliated Bay Area advocates (“TRT et al.”) continue to make the case that the City of San Francisco and its wholesale agency can both protect their water supply and release more water to the lower Tuolumne River. In a December 30, 2019 comment  letter…

  • Hydropower Reform Coalition Opposes Another Trump Administration Attack on the Clean Water Act

    The Hydropower Reform Coalition (HRC), including CSPA and allied hydropower advocates, has submitted extensive comments in opposition to the Trump Administration’s attack on Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.  Trump’s Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new Proposed Rule on August 22, 2019 that would roll back protections for water quality…

  • CSPA and Allied Groups Dissect Draft EIS for Don Pedro

    CSPA, nine other conservation and fishing groups, and four whitewater outfitters (“Conservation Groups”) jointly submitted 75 pages of comments on April 12, 2019 on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the relicensing of the Don Pedro Hydroelectric Project and the first-time licensing of the La Grange Hydroelectric Project.  Together, the projects have buried over…

  • Federal Dam Safety Regulators Describe Need for Big Changes at Oroville Dam

    The Division of Dam Safety and Inspections in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a letter to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) on October 25, 2018 that requires DWR to reclassify the emergency spillway at Oroville Dam as an “auxiliary spillway.”  The letter also describes the need for DWR to plan for a…

  • Irrigation Districts and Trump Administration Bludgeon Federal Fish Agency into Submission

    On October 1, 2018, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service wrote a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) retracting its January 29, 2018 flow recommendations for the lower Tuolumne River (see pp. 65-74).  In its October 1 do-over letter, US Fish & Wildlife completely agrees to the required flows in the lower…