Looking at South Cow Power house Looking SE

Despite the recent Draft Environmental Impact Statement released on June 22, 2010 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that recommends the decommissioning of Project-606, the Kilarc-Cow Creek Hydroelectric Plants, Steve Tetrick, owner of Evergreen Shasta Power, (which is poised to take over operation of the two small hydro plants if FERC should change its mind) continues to meet with representatives of the resource agencies to discuss mitigation measures that would make continued operation of the plants palatable to them. He also continues to challenge the agencies’ lack of scientific evidence to validate their opinion that endangered steelhead and salmon would be better off if the hydroelectric facilities were destroyed.

In a letter dated June 24, to Richard L. Wantuck, Regional Hydropower Supervisor for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Tetrick’s attorney Frances E. Francis writes, “Tetrick Ranch is unaware of any existing scientific studies or information that supports NMFS’s conclusion as to the “conservation value” of decommissioning Project No. 606. Indeed, Tetrick Ranch is not aware that NMFS has ever shared with the public any claimed benefits from decommissioning to anadromous or non-anadromous fish in the Cow Creek Stream system. . . . Based on our own observations of the Cow Creek system and knowledge about the water rights issues that govern the flows in south Cow Creek, we do not understand how the decommissioning of Project No. 606 could by itself result in the restoration of “natural instream flows” throughout Cow Creek watershed.”

The letter goes on to point out that steelhead already reach areas upstream of the Cow Creek Development on South Cow Creek and are effectively blocked from reaching the Kilarc bypass reach in Old Cow Creek by Whitmore Falls, “though we understand that NMFS now considers Whitmore Falls ‘passable under unspecified high flow conditions.’”

The letter also notes that NMFS’s own Draft Recovery Plan for Sacramento River Chinook Salmon and Central Valley Steelhead states that no steelhead populations have ever been estimated in Cow Creek and no specific studies have been conducted to estimate the size of the spawning run. The Draft Recovery Plan also states that many Cow Creek watershed streams do not provide suitable habitat due to the large number of unscreened diversions and high water temperatures. Ms. Francis wonders ominously whether NMFS’s reference to “obliterating instream facilities” will require the destruction of the other 19 diversions mentioned in addition to the Kilarc-Cow Creek hydro plants, to avoid any adverse impacts to the fish.

To read the entire document, please go to www.ferc.gov. Click on Documents and Filings, then eLibrary and search for Project No. 606.