Action Alert: Speak up for Scott and Shasta Rivers!
The Scott and Shasta Rivers are critical salmon watersheds, including habitat for threatened coho salmon. But both rivers have suffered from serious water-quality problems for decades. The Scott River is listed as impaired by excessive temperatures, sediment, and biostimulatory conditions, while the Shasta River is impaired by excessive temperatures and low dissolved oxygen. Hot water, sediment, and low oxygen can make it difficult for salmon to survive, particularly during the summer.
Background
Nearly 20 years ago, the Water Board adopted Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for the Scott and Shasta Rivers, which is essentially a water quality clean up plan. Agricultural operations have since been regulated in part through conditional waivers that require certain practices to reduce water-quality impacts, but do not require every covered farm or ranch to actively enroll.
The Water Board is now developing new Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs) that would replace the waivers with a more comprehensive program requiring certain operations to enroll, monitor, report, and address water-quality problems. The new rules are not ready for another couple of years, so the Water Board is considering another 5-year extension of the existing waivers.
We are asking the Board to shorten the waiver extension to 2 years, and keep protections in place during the transition, while setting firm deadlines for the new program and providing transparent monitoring so the public can see whether water quality is actually improving.
What you can do:
Please help advocate for the Scott and Shasta Rivers by doing two things:
Send a letter asking the Water Board to ensure that the final WDRs include the measurable standards, monitoring, deadlines, and accountability necessary to demonstrate real improvements in water quality.
Fill out this Speaker Card to make comments at the 10/1/26 Public Meeting for Item 5 (waiver extension); and Item 6 - (New Scott and Shasta Waste Discharge Requirements).
Attend the meeting at 1pm on Oct 1. Personalize the talking points below to present Oct. 1 oral workshop comments on Item 5 and Item 6, using the following talking points:
Item 5: Waiver Extension
No more unnecessary delays. Shorten the five-year extension and set a firm schedule for adopting the new permit and subsequent enrollment.
Keep protections in place. Make sure there is no gap between the old rules and the new permit.
Provide monitoring results. Require public water-quality progress reports every six months. Are river temperatures improving? Is there enough oxygen for fish?
Hold polluters accountable. Inspect high-risk properties, require fixes when problems are found, and report whether those fixes work.
Protect salmon now. Fish cannot wait another five years for cleaner, colder water.
Item 6: New Wastewater Discharge Requirements Workshop
Set clear goals and deadlines. Twenty years is long enough. Require measurable water-quality improvements and shorter timelines for fixing known problems like tailwater and grazing impacts.
Show whether the TMDLs are working. Provide a simple TMDL attainment table showing current conditions, targets, trends, and what remains to be achieved.
Monitor and report water quality. Regularly monitor temperature, dissolved oxygen, sediment, nutrients, streamflow, and groundwater, and make the results public and easy to understand.
Stop polluted tailwater. Make elimination of irrigation tailwater the standard. Where water must return to a natural waterway, it should not add pollutants or increase river temperatures.
Protect riparian areas from livestock. Require adequate riparian buffers and livestock exclusion where needed to prevent manure, sediment, bank damage, loss of shade, and impacts to salmon habitat.
Address Dwinnell Reservoir. Require strong protections addressing temperature, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen in the Shasta River below the reservoir, based on the needs of salmon.
Use the best available salmon science. Temperature protections should address sensitive life stages of Chinook and coho, including spawning, egg incubation, rearing, and migration.
Address nutrients and harmful algae. Monitor both phosphorus and nitrogen and require controls necessary to reduce excessive aquatic growth and harmful algal conditions.
Protect critical salmon habitat. Prioritize cold-water springs, spawning areas, riparian shade, and summer refuges for juvenile salmon.
Require compliance, not just plans. Management plans and agricultural coalitions should not substitute for meeting water-quality requirements. The Water Board must independently verify compliance and require corrective action.
Protect Tribal and recreational uses. Clearly address Tribal Beneficial Uses and safe recreation, and provide meaningful Tribal and community participation
