Water Board Ends 15 Years Of Study Delays By Merced Irrigation District

In a unanimous decision on April 19, 2011, the State Water Resources Control Board has rejected a request by Merced Irrigation District (Merced ID) to delay study of the impacts of its Merced River Hydroelectric Project on Merced River. The State Board ordered Merced ID to study the effects of its dams on water quality, and salmon and steelhead survival and abundance.  The State Board must determine whether the dams meet all water quality standards before the hydro project can receive a new operating license from FERC. The Board ordered the studies because the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which will issue the license, failed to order studies sufficient to meet the needs of the State Board.

Seven Merced River Conservation Groups (Merced River Conservation Committee, Friends of the River, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Trout Unlimited, Golden West Women Flyfishers, Northern California Council Federation of Flyfishers, and American Rivers) submitted written comments opposing Merced’s request to delay the studies, as did the Department of Fish and Game and the National Marine Fisheries Service.  At the April 19 Water Board hearing, a panel of Conservation Groups’ representatives, from California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and Friends of the River, provided oral comments, along with DFG and Modesto Irrigation District. PacifiCorp and the City of Merced submitted written comments.

The original Investigation Order was rare, motivated by an unusually determined effort by Merced ID to avoid studying environmental impacts and provide essential information on project effects in its ongoing Relicensing Proceeding before FERC. Merced ID must submit an application for a new license for its Merced River Hydroelectric Project on February 28, 2014.  FERC’s acquiescence to Merced ID’s strategy to avoid studies, continuously opposed on specific and on policy levels by all federal-state Resource Agencies and Conservation Groups, provided strong motivation for the State Board to break the procedural gridlock and order studies immediately.

The State Board agreed with Conservation Groups and Resources Agencies that Merced ID must immediately conduct studies and provide information to participants in Merced River Relicensing process.   The ordered studies include: a) three studies of water quality, b) temperature monitoring for salmon egg development, c) a steelhead trout distribution and abundance study, d) a juvenile salmon survival and fitness study/predator habitat evaluation, e) an instream flow study, f) an adult salmonid health assessment, and g) mercury contamination in fish tissue.  The Water Board’s order to conduct these studies ends 15 years of delay by Merced ID.  All data, information, and reports from previously-completed MOU studies were ordered to be provided to the State Board.  The order also expands the geographic scope of several studies to include the lower Merced and San Joaquin Rivers.

Merced ID opposed the State Board’s order to conduct the studies on legal, technical, and cost grounds. The allied Conservation Groups have vigorously supported the State Board’s authority under the federal Clean Water Act and under state law.  The State Board rejected the Merced ID’s technical and cost arguments.   It did not address Merced ID’s legal arguments in this hearing, but will do so within a year.