Fishing Activist Charges Water District Retaliation Against Scientist (CA)

[hatrack]

STOCKTON - A biologist who reported the December deaths of hundreds of stranded salmon below a small dam operated by Stockton East Water District was ordered soon after by district officials to turn in the keys that gave him access to the river. Now, a sport fishing advocate says the district was retaliating against the scientist for providing information to authorities.

The scientist, Trevor Kennedy of the Fishery Foundation, declined to discuss the matter in detail, saying he did not want to foster poor relations with the water district. Foundation scientists are still under a federal contract to study salmon and steelhead and to help ensure the survival of those species on the Calaveras River.

But Kennedy acknowledged that Stockton East Water District ordered him to turn in his keys shortly after he reported the salmon stranding and other problems with the district's management of the river. "I noted a couple of pretty major water quality violations and reported them to (the California Department of Fish and Game), which is what I am supposed to do," Kennedy said.

District officials said that they asked a number of people to turn in keys to district facilities in order to comply with federal homeland security laws intended to protect drinking water supplies from terrorist attack. But district General Manager Kevin Kauffman said that some biologists - those under contract to Stockton East Water District rather than the federal government - still have unfettered access to district facilities.

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