Fish Ladders for Steelhead at Cachuma Lake?...

The on-again, off-again fish passage study for Cachuma’s Bradbury Dam and steelhead trout is currently “on” again in the latest state water board ruling against the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Not only do Cachuma’s waters nourish Santa Barbara County and its cities, a portion also goes to protect the spawning and migration of steelhead trout, as well as replenish the Santa Ynez River groundwater basin downstream. The new order clarifies that Reclamation must study the ways to get steelhead upstream of the dam — whether by fish ladder, trucks and nets, locks, or elevator — and back downstream again.
The State Water Resources Control Board first ordered Reclamation, which operates the dam, to study a fish passage in 2019. The bureau balked, however, arguing it couldn’t conduct a “feasibility study” without specific authorization from Congress and because it was contrary to California law. In the water board’s order issued on June 18, it refined the nomenclature sufficiently to pass muster with the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Southern California steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) once teemed in the Santa Ynez River at a count of between 13,000 and 25,000 adults before Bradbury Dam was completed in 1958. An anadromous trout species, the steelhead had migrated up the Santa Ynez from the Pacific Ocean to lay their eggs and fertilize them. Once the dam was in place, the fish count dropped to as little as 100.
The lack of access to the upper waters beyond the dam was a significant factor in the devastation to the fish’s numbers, the state water board wrote in its most recent order. Hearings held in 2003-04 demonstrated that 71 percent of the fish’s habitat — or 248 miles of creeks and tributaries — was upstream of Bradbury. The water temperature and oxygen levels in the upper river and creeks were “consistently more favorable” for baby fish, while the lower waters were much less so.
The survival of the species was at risk, the water board stated: “Without access to the upstream areas for spawning and rearing, the steelhead population in the Santa Ynez River is considered to be extremely vulnerable to extinction because of drought or other climatic phenomena.” (This April, the California Fish & Game Commission voted unanimously to list the Southern steelhead as an endangered species, as the federal government had done in 1997.)
In comments to the water board, Michael Jackson, Reclamation’s area manager, wrote, “Reclamation will endeavor to provide the Board with the information requested.” Some paperwork remains to be completed, but Reclamation has 24 months to complete the study, which is to analyze “fish ladders, locks, elevators, trap-and-truck operations.” Cachuma’s outlets are also to be analyzed, as well as transport methods, and upstream and downstream release sites.

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