It looks like the plan to raise the 521-foot-high Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet has encountered a hurdle that even the strongest salmon couldn’t clear.
As reported in the San Jose Mercury News,
Biologists at the main federal agency that oversees the Endangered Species Act have concluded they cannot endorse a $1.1 billion plan to raise the height of the dam at California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, because of its impact on endangered salmon.
Biologists at the main federal agency that oversees the Endangered Species Act have concluded they cannot endorse a $1.1 billion plan to raise the height of the dam at California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, because of its impact on endangered salmon.
CalTrout published a op-ed on the issue back in September of 2013 and are delighted with the findings by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services. In that op-ed, Curtis Knight, Executive Director of CalTrout, stated,
Shasta Dam is clearly an engineering marvel. It’s our mission to see that it doesn’t become a larger environmental disaster. Its impacts on California’s fisheries have already been sizable. But we believe proper management and a little vision — like the very promising restoration of wetlands and floodplain rearing habitat — mean future generations of Californians won’t view Shasta Dam as the engineering marvel that killed California’s once-abundant salmon and steelhead fisheries.
Shasta Dam is clearly an engineering marvel. It’s our mission to see that it doesn’t become a larger environmental disaster.
Its impacts on California’s fisheries have already been sizable. But we believe proper management and a little vision — like the very promising restoration of wetlands and floodplain rearing habitat — mean future generations of Californians won’t view Shasta Dam as the engineering marvel that killed California’s once-abundant salmon and steelhead fisheries.
To read the full story in the Mercury News, click here. For the op-ed piece, click here.
