When average citizens kill federally endangered steelhead trout without first obtaining “taking” permits, they can be fined up to $10,000 per fish. But when the federal Bureau of Reclamation accidentally killed an alleged 393 juvenile trout two years ago along a short stretch of creek right below Lake Cachuma, the Bureau got off by agreeing to do what it had already been mandated to do 15 years before: keep enough water in the creek to prevent the fish from croaking.
To that end, the Bureau agreed to install two functioning electrically powered pumps to keep the creek — Hilton Creek — flowing with two cubic feet of dam water a second and two diesel powered emergency back-up pumps in case the two main pumps failed. In addition, the Bureau agreed to install the electronics necessary to automatically activate the back-up pumps whenever the main pumps fail, which they reportedly did at least nine times in 2013. With the failure of those the pumps, the mile-long stretch of creek was transformed into thick viscous mud, lethally stranding 393 steelhead. In addition, another 634 had to be rescued — often in the black of night — by Cachuma Operations and Maintenance Board employees, forced from their beds to pluck flapping fish from the mucky creek.
The deal was announced this past week in response to a lawsuit filed by Cal Trout, a steelhead advocacy group represented by the Environmental Defense Center (EDC), and joined a handful of water agencies who depend on Lake Cachuma — aka Bradbury Dam — for their supplies. Those agencies were worried less about the steelhead themselves than they were that the Bureau would bargain away their water rights as part of any settlement. That did not happen.