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The East Walker River, a river whose legendary brown and rainbow trout fishery has rebounded dramatically from a huge fish kill in 1988, faces a new threat caused by an oil spill by a truck accident in December. The river made national headlines during the drought of 1988-89, when the East Walker Irrigation District drained the river, destroying the trophy fishery after tons of silt poured into the river, smothering the fish. CalTrout was instrumental in making the guilty parties restore the river, as well as convincing the state to purchase public access to the river for recreational purposes. This time again CalTrout is pressuring the State Department of Fish and Game to clean up the river from the still present oil spill in an expedited manner. The restoration efforts made in recent years have paid off with big rewards. "The trout fishery of the East Walker is now as good as it ever was," said Jim McCormick of Ken's Sporting Goods in Bridgeport. "The fishing was excellent last trout season for fly and spin fishermen. There is an abundance of brown trout in the 6 to 9 pound range, as well as big rainbows and even some cutthroats." |
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However, the recovery's prospects were temporarily dimmed on December 30, when a tanker truck carrying approximately 6,300 gallons of fuel oil skidded off Highway 182 about 1.5 miles downstream from Bridgeport Reservoir, killing the driver and dumping about 3,600 gallons of oil into the river. The irony of an oil spill taking place on a river that so many have worked so hard to rebuild is apparent. Reflects Fish Sniffer Online Writer, Mark Wiza, "It's as if there's some kind of toxic spill demon that delights in unleashing deadly cargo when it is at the closest possible point to a waterway," he stated. "Like the freight train that derailed and spilled a tank car full of herbicide/pesticide into the Upper Sacramento River in 1991... this truck could have overturned anywhere, but did so at a spot so close to the river that nearly its entire payload made it into the Walker." (Complete Article) Three separate teams of biologists from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nevada Division of Wildlife and California and Fish and Game were deployed to assess the degree of damage and to determine clean up strategies. Approximately 70 clean up personnel responded quickly and within a short period of time recovered less than 30 percent of the oil. The DFG's Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response has the main responsibility for the clean up. "However, after a month of effort, Department decided to suspend clean up operations because of the cold weather and safety risks," according to Jim Edmondson, Conservation Director of California Trout. "It was felt that the cold conditions were preventing the sludge from moving down river and that cleanup efforts could safely be delayed until March." The owners of the truck, Advanced Fuel Filtration Systems, have taken responsibility for the incident and have been cooperating with the state, federal and local officials to fund the clean up. As of early February, the oil seemed to be concentrated in globs and did not appear to be moving. Damage to fish and wildlife so far appears to have been light. But after a few days of warm weather, circumstances changed rapidly. "Oil trapping booms across the river failed and oil began moving downstream, threatening the rainbow trout spawn and the macroinverterbrate food base of the wild trout fishery. Instead of 50 clean up staff, only two people were on site to do the work," said Edmondson. In response, the DFG explained that they are doing everything that they can to clean up the spill. So far, the clean up crew has removed 1500 gallons, approximately 40 percent of the spill, according to Kim McCleneghan, environmental specialist for DFG's Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response. "We had up to 70 people on the river for most of January," McCleneghan said. "However, after two workers fell through the ice, we suspended operations and went into a winter maintenance mode with a three man crew. Also, the oil became frozen into or under the ice, preventing us from cleaning it up." "Now that it's slowly warming up, we plan to increase the crew to 13 people this week. Our intent was never to walk away from the spill - we were waiting for the right conditions," he added. However, Edmondson emphasized the need for urgent action. "With an earlier than expected change in weather, the possibility of the sludge moving down river and causing more harm is real," he said. A complicating factor is that Nevada irrigators can begin calling for water releases out of the reservoir as early as March 1. "If the river flows are significantly increased prior to completion of the cleanup, it will set up perfect conditions for more habitat damage. The need now is to get the clean up crews back on the river to deal with the clean up immediately," said Edmondson. In a letter to DFG Director Robert Hight, Edmondson urged Hight to place this cleanup as the top March 1-15 2001 Priority for the Department and to resume the clean up immediately. What can you do? Write a letter to Hight, rhight@dfg.ca.gov including the following points: (1) a thank you for their efforts so far and (2) a request that they resume the clean up effort as soon as possible and with maximum level of effort so as to minimize the damage to fish, wildlife and downstream users. (Please send a copy of your letter to the Cal Trout office, branco@caltrout.org so that they can measure their effectiveness.)
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