Author: Ron Tull

Date: March 23, 2010
Media Contacts: Kendra Barkoff, 202-208-6416
Julie Rodriguez, 202-208-6416

RED BLUFF, CALIF.- Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Mike Connor broke ground today at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam on Diamond Avenue as part of the largest Department of the Interior economic stimulus project in the nation. The ground breaking marks the beginning of construction of the Fish Passage Improvement Project at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, a $5.25 million cooperative agreement that is part of the $109 million going to Red Bluff under the President’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“Through the use of economic stimulus funds, we are protecting the region’s farming economy and jobs while helping to provide safe passage for fish,” Secretary Salazar said when announcing the award in July 2009. “This is a win-win project for both people and the environment and represents a vital component of the Obama Administration’s effort to help the people of the Central Valley and other areas in California.”

“This project represents almost 40 years of efforts by many entities to find a balanced solution that improves fish passage and sustains the reliability of agricultural water deliveries,” Commissioner Connor said today. Construction is authorized as part of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act.

The Red Bluff Diversion Dam’s gates are lowered to form Lake Red Bluff, which enables the gravity diversion of water from the Sacramento River into the Tehama-Colusa and Corning Canals to irrigate 150,000 acres of high-value cropland, more than half of which are planted in permanent orchards. However, when lowered to provide irrigation water, the gates block threatened and endangered salmon, steelhead and green sturgeon, as well as other fish species, from reaching their spawning grounds.
Reclamation’s partner, the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority (TCCA), received the $5.25 million in ARRA funds to construct an interim screened pumping plant to deliver irrigation water while the gates are raised, thus providing unimpeded fish passage. A construction contract for the bridge and siphon was awarded in December for $21.45 million and a supply contract for pumps and motors was awarded in January for $6.96 million. An additional $76.2 million in ARRA funds will be provided at a later date to construct a permanent pumping plant.

The Project will be completed in multi-phases by Reclamation, TCCA, and the State of California. The total Project cost is estimated at $230 million and is being paid for partially by the $109 million in ARRA money. Construction of the Project is expected to begin in summer 2010 and be completed in 2012.

JOBS: The Council on Economic Advisors estimates that 1,200 jobs will be created by the Project. Other indirect economic benefits of the Project include the preservation of up to 10,000 jobs in the region.

New and saved jobs and better ways to keep an eye on the Nation’s rivers and streams: That’s what has resulted from the USGS investing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds in YSI, Inc., a developer and manufacturer of environmental monitoring equipment based in Yellow Springs, Ohio and its subsidiary Design Analysis Associates in Logan, Utah.YSI designs and builds many of the devices used for the USGS nationwide streamgage network upgrade, switching thousands of gages from 100-baud, low data rate (LDR) GOES transmitters to 300-baud, high data rate (HDR) units which communicate information to Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites.

“We have created or retained 19 jobs due to the ARRA program,” said Gayle Rominger, Executive Vice President of YSI.

The USGS received $14.6 million to support the streamgage network, which provides critical information used to estimate flood dangers, protect fragile ecosystems, construct safe bridges and roadways, and monitor the effects of climate change on water availability.

The upgraded streamgages, mostly run on solar power, will make data available to State and Federal resource managers and agencies every hour, an improvement over the current delay of up to 3-4 hours. The data can be accessed on the internet by the public.

“ARRA has really benefited our business,” said Terrell Fletcher, General Manager of Design Analysis Associates in Logan, Utah, which is building hundreds of transmitters ordered with stimulus funds as part of the upgrade effort. “ARRA funding allows us to help USGS tell the public what’s available and whether it’s safe,” he said.

Many USGS offices have invested ARRA funds in acoustic Doppler profilers (ADPs) that can make measurements in complex flow conditions, and FlowTrackers, which allow USGS hydrologists to collect comprehensive data in extremely shallow and slow-moving water with increased accuracy.

Floating hydroacoustic equipment can be deployed from riverbanks or unmanned cableways rather than requiring technicians to work suspended over rivers on cableways or block traffic with cranes on bridges. The new equipment can also reduce the time required to take a measurement from more than an hour to a matter of minutes.

Before ARRA was funded, USGS had already switched approximately 4,500 of its 7,500 streamgage stations to HDR as part of a long-term upgrade program. The stimulus funding will help the agency upgrade the remaining 3,000 stations with HDR transmitters well before its original 2013 deadline.

SEATTLE, WA – The Department of the Interior has already begun work on more than $100 million of its planned $150 million in Recovery Act projects in the Evergreen State, providing much needed capital to dozens of local companies, creating new jobs, and leaving a lasting legacy in America’s great outdoors, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said today.”Today, we are seeing the real difference the Recovery Act is making across Washington State – from new jobs being created to the lasting benefits of the environmental restoration work that is under way at Olympic National Park,” said Salazar, who joined Washington Governor Chris Gregoire at the Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center in Seattle.

“The Recovery Act has helped turn our country back from the economic cliff we were facing just one year ago, and it is helping lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity in our country,” Salazar said.

“With the Recovery Act funding, we have supported and sustained thousands of living-wage jobs while greatly improving our communities,” Gregoire said. “Without this funding, more people would be out of work.

The unemployed would be in a worse position that they are now. The Recovery Act prevented our state from falling off the ledge, while providing critically important transportation, environmental and other community improvements.”

The Department of the Interior’s Recovery Act investments are part of more than $6.3 billion in overall Recovery Act funds that have been made available in Washington State, of which $3.4 billion has already been spent.

In 2009, Recovery Act investments were responsible for creating or saving 45,000 jobs in Washington State, according to a report by the White House Council of Economic Advisors.

Among the major investments underway, Interior has provided $54 million to help restore the Elwha River ecosystem and build a new tribal fish hatchery in Olympic National Park. As part of one of the largest construction projects in National Park Service history, the work will restore the river to its natural free-flowing state and allow all five species of Pacific salmon and other anadromous fish to again reach over 70 miles of near-pristine freshwater habitat. In turn, the salmon will return vital nutrients to the watershed, restoring the entire ecosystem.

The Department also has invested $21 million in the Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project, which will conserve water lost through leakage and evaporation and meet irrigation demands and water for future development on Yakama Nation lands. It will add 16,000 acre-feet to the Yakima River for instream flows needed for fish listed on the Endangered Species Act.

“The Recovery Act is helping us conserve America’s timeless treasures-our stunning natural landscapes, our monuments to liberty, the icons of our culture and heritage-while helping working families and communities prosper again,” said Salazar.

The national economy grew 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter – the largest gain in six years and something many economists say is largely due to the Recovery Act, Salazar said. “And while we won’t be satisfied until we begin to see net job growth, job losses today are a fraction of what they were a year ago before the Recovery Act began.”

Since the stimulus package was signed into law a year ago, it has provided more than $100 billion in tax relief for American businesses and families as well as critical support for state governments facing record budget shortfalls and small businesses dealing with limited access to capital.

This assistance has funded over 55,000 projects nationwide that are creating jobs up-front and laying a long-term foundation for economic growth.

The work includes over 12,500 transportation construction projects nationwide, ranging from highway to airport improvements and 48 advanced battery and electric drive projects in 20 states, worth $2.4 billion, to help power the next generation of advanced vehicles.

Under the Recovery Act, the Interior Department is investing $3 billion to conserve America’s timeless treasures. These include an historic $750 million for our National Park System to help preserve and protect national icons and historic landscapes.

In addition, the Bureau of Land Management is investing $305 million to restore landscapes, clean up abandoned mines, protect wildlife habitat, reduce the risk of wildfire, and expand its capacity to authorize renewable energy development on public lands.

The U.S. Interior Department’s responsibilities in Washington State include three national parks, a trio of national historic sites, a national recreation area, national wildlife refuges, Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Jan. 5, 2010
Contact: Joan Moody, (202) 208-6416

 
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Region has awarded a $21 million contract under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for the Red Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project. The work includes the construction of a bridge, siphon, and water conveyance channel to connect the headworks of the Tehama-Colusa and Corning Canals to a future fish screen and pumping plant. The complete facility is designed to improve fish passage through the existing Red Bluff Diversion Dam (Dam). The new diversion facility will be located on the Sacramento River about a mile upstream of the Dam and 2 miles southeast of Red Bluff, California.

With this ARRA award, Reclamation is initiating the first construction phase of the project. The award was issued to West Bay Builders, Inc., Novato, Calif. due to their competitive price offered to complete the contract work. The work consists of constructing an operation and maintenance bridge over Red Bank Creek to connect the existing operation and maintenance facility to the site of the new pumping plant and fish screen; constructing a siphon under Red Bank Creek; and constructing associated open channels to deliver water from the new pumping plant to the canal headworks stilling basin. Red Bank Creek is a tributary to the Sacramento River and joins the Sacramento River about a half of a mile upstream of the Dam.

The new pumping plant facility is designed with a capacity to deliver 2,500 cubic feet per second of water from the Sacramento River into the Tehama-Colusa and Corning Canals to irrigate 150,000 acres of high-valued crops in Tehama, Glenn, Colusa, and northern Yolo counties. The initial installed capacity of the pumping plant will be 2,000 cfs.

 ”The construction of a bridge and siphon to connect the existing canal headworks facilities and the new pumping plant is a significant step toward diverting water in a way that allows unimpeded passage for salmon and green sturgeon,” said Secretary Salazar. “The construction will provide employment and help alleviate a long-standing fish passage concern while still providing water necessary for crop production,” said the Secretary.

The ARRA funds are part of a stimulus package that is an important component of the President’s plan to jumpstart the economy, create and save jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so the Country can thrive in the 21st century. In development of the stimulus package, priority was given to funding relatively large projects which would create lasting value for the public. Funds from ARRA will allow Reclamation to make a significant contribution to the recovery and stabilization of the economy of the United States in a short time.

Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department of the Interior’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on www.recovery.gov and on www.interior.gov/recovery. Secretary Salazar has appointed a Senior Advisor for Economic Recovery, Chris Henderson, and an Interior Economic Recovery Task Force. Henderson and the Task Force will work closely with the Department’s Inspector General to ensure that the recovery program is meeting the high standards for accountability, responsibility and transparency that President Obama has set.

Reclamation is the largest wholesale water supplier and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States, with operations and facilities in the 17 Western States. Its facilities also provide substantial flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits. Visit Reclamation’s website at www.usbr.gov.