Yuba agency redirects funds, rejects extra salmon habitat request

Chaewon Chung, The Sacramento Bee on Feb 19, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

Following a large water pipe rupture at the Colgate Power Plant which led to hundreds and possibly thousands of salmon killed in lower Yuba River, Yuba Water Agency on Tuesday announced the $300,000 grant to a local conservation group for its fish restoration project, while turning down a second bid for a separate fish habitat effort.

The awarded Upper Long Bar Restoration Project was proposed by the South Yuba River Citizens League to create juvenile salmon rearing habitat on the lower Yuba River and approved in January for about $1.8 million in grant funding by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Tuesday’s grant is part of that larger restoration package, under which the Yuba Water Agency will contribute up to $300,000 in matching funds.

“The project was designed to help rebuild and respond — working towards increasing salmon populations in the Yuba River,” said Aaron Zettler‑Mann, executive director of the South Yuba River Citizens League.

According to Zettler-Mann, the project will include carving out alcoves and backwaters, lowering the floodplain so it gets wet more often and for longer periods, and adding wood and vegetation to provide cover and food. The goal is giving juvenile salmon more protected places to feed and grow before they migrate to the ocean, which he said makes them more likely to survive their time in the ocean and return to the Yuba to spawn.

“We are giving the ecosystem the space and the tools in the lower Yuba so that it can restart the natural processes that were disrupted by the long history of hydraulic mining, dams and flow regulation,” he added.

Pipe break changes financial considerations

Meanwhile, the agency turned down a request for an additional $100,000 for a separate fish habitat project from the same group, citing the need to reassess its finances following the rupture.

“If all things were the same as they were on Thursday, the 12th, we would be here asking you to approve both,” Willie Whittlesey, general manager of Yuba Water Agency, said in a news release.

“Both projects are valuable to the Yuba River, but our financial position has changed. We need time to take inventory of our financial impacts before approving anything that doesn’t have immediate implications.”

Zettler‑Mann said last week’s rupture felt like “two steps forward, one step back” for ongoing restoration work on the lower Yuba River, while describing the second proposed bid being turned down a “bummer, but totally understandable given the circumstances.”

The rupture has raised new questions about the future of the lower Yuba River and its ecological health. The financial reshuffling is one concern, the eventual toll on habitat and salmon is another. The Yuba Water Agency expects a couple of dry days starting now to continue — and hopefully complete — cleanup of the oil and debris captured at Englebright Dam, Whittlesey told The Sacramento Bee. But warmer upcoming storms are likely to bring more rain, which could complicate those efforts, he added.

Frank Rinella, a Yuba River angler, described the rupture as “a catastrophic failure that had terrible consequences” on the lower Yuba.

“It couldn’t have been at a worse time, because most of the eggs have hatched on the river, and they are yearlings or fry in the river right now, which are very vulnerable.”

____