The Fight for Fish & Flows: TRT Organizes Around New Instream Flow Plan
The Tuolumne River downstream of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and O’Shaughnessy Dam
This fall, TRT and a coalition of partner organizations are turning our advocacy focus to the water-challenged Hetch Hetchy Reach, a 12-mile stretch of the Tuolumne just downstream of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Our new campaign, launched alongside Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, Natural Heritage Institute, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Friends of the River, and Fly Fishers International, focuses on the 1987 Kirkwood Agreement—named after the Kirkwood Powerhouse downstream of Hetch Hetchy. The Kirkwood Agreement required the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) to conduct a fish study to identify how they might improve river flows along this stretch of the Tuolumne River—an agreement that is unfulfilled to this day, thirty-seven years later.
Excessive diversions along this stretch of the river heat the Tuolumne’s water, making it too hot for salmon and rainbow trout during the low-flow months of summer. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission recently released its draft Instream Flow Management Plan. We are poised to ensure this Plan acts in accordance with the Kirkwood Agreement and that our public agencies support the environmental needs of the river and the fish that rely on its healthy flows.
Peter Drekmeier, TRT’s Policy Director inherited the Kirkwood Agreement inquiry from his TRT policy predecessor, Heather Dempsey. She uncovered a decades-old paper trail and learned that the Kirkwood Agreement, meant to offer ecological checks and balances, has instead been tangled in bureaucratic processes or slowed by the political whims of federal administrations for decades.
The Upper Tuolumne watershed from the Headwaters to Don Pedro Reservoir
The Canyon Power Tunnel, runs downstream from the dam at Hetch Hetchy to the Kirkwood Powerhouse, and parallels a 12-mile stretch of the Tuolumne called the Hetch Hetchy Reach. Until the Canyon Power Tunnel was completed in 1967, all water destined for the Bay Area flowed down this stretch. But, for over 50 years, more than two-thirds of the Tuolumne’s natural flow has been diverted through the Canyon Power Tunnel in order to generate hydropower. As a result, only 32% of the Tuolumne’s natural flows make it down the Hetch Hetchy Reach.
As for the fish, their needs are simple and their return is possible with holistic decision-making. Chinook salmon, rainbow trout, and their food sources, such as caddisflies and stoneflies, need adequate flows to maintain water temperatures. Monitoring flows and setting minimum requirements ensures their very survival.
Fish Futures
Adult Chinook salmon swimming in a river with ample flows
Yet, as simple as it is, the task ahead may appear daunting: Currently, this stretch of river is hemmed in by Hetch Hetchy’s O’Shaugnessy Dam to the east and Don Pedro and La Grange Dams to the west in the Central Valley. The dams block mountain to ocean connectivity for fish that migrate between fresh and saltwater, such as spring-run Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.
Nonetheless, the fish along this small stretch offer a story of creative adaptations and new possibilities.
The fish are still here and adaptations are already in progress. Cindy Charles, a longtime TRT supporter turned Board Member has seen these adaptations with her own eyes. Cindy fishes the Tuolumne’s waters regularly and like the migrating fish themselves she moves between the Pacific and the Sierra Nevada seasonally. The Tuolumne watershed is home and Cindy understands how important adequate flows are to these fish.
“I have seen fall-run Chinook below Early Intake in the Lumsden Reach of the Tuolumne several times over the years. They are coming up from Don Pedro Reservoir which acts as their ocean since they can no longer reach the Pacific. The bigger rainbow trout also come up from Don Pedro in the fall, acting like steelhead by migrating upstream,” shares Cindy.
These sightings offer hope, like the prismatic glint of scales glinting on warming waters. The fish make due and adapt—they are here, ready and waiting. With increased flows, additional population growth would occur.
When asked why a relatively short, twelve-mile stretch of the river matters, Peter shared that if we can secure fish passage for migrating steelhead trout and spring-run Chinook salmon, twelve miles could provide a lot of holding and spawning habitat. The National Marine Fisheries Service is currently looking into fish passage by moving fish from downstream to above La Grange and Don Pedro Dams. This would enable the reintroduction of spring-run Chinook salmon. Peter clarified the idea and the lay of the land: “One thing suggested back in our comments on the 2014 iteration of this project was the idea of constructing a fish ladder over the Early Intake diversion dam near the Kirkwood Powerhouse. A fish ladder would allow fish to move throughout the upper Tuolumne until they reached Preston Falls and perhaps beyond. That would connect the Hetch Hetchy Reach down to Don Pedro Reservoir. We thought, hey someday we might have steelhead back in this stretch, so let’s open up another 4 or 5 miles for spawning steelhead and spring-run Chinook.” It might seem like a small section, but if passage were restored, every mile of spawning habitat would make a difference.
Recovery is possible, and the reasons to work towards that recovery expand beyond the fish themselves. In many ways, the health of these keystone species is an indicator of our own human health. The same low flows that harm salmon and steelhead along the upper Tuolumne also contribute to toxic algae blooms lower down in the watershed, as well as the collapsing San Francisco Bay ecosystem that has become increasingly harmful for people who need clean water for swimming, fishing, and living beside.
The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir holding water
Upstream to Downstream
This year, TRT and our coalition partners have submitted letters to the SFPUC and the National Park Service, which is the land manager for the river within Yosemite’s boundaries and will act as the responsible agency during the environmental review of the Instream Flow Management Plan. Peter shares that earlier this month TRT and coalition partners sent the SFPUC a document rich with data and information about fish, flows, and water temperature, which makes self-evident that the long avoided mitigation plan must be improved and implemented. TRT’s coalition will lobby the National Park Service and continue to apply pressure on the SFPUC to become a better steward of the upper Tuolumne River.
Bit by bit, this is how we restore the river. Stay tuned for updates and calls to action in the coming months around this critical piece of the Tuolumne’s habitat. As ever, our collective voice will serve as a powerful tool.
Our work is supported and bolstered by our generous community of donors. If you have a heart for salmon, connected rivers, and healthy ecosystems throughout the Tuolumne Watershed and the Greater Yosemite Region, become a member today!
Many thanks to our coalition partners on this project which include: Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center, Natural Heritage Institute, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Friends of the River, and Fly Fishers International
