This year, Earthjustice and California’s Butte Creek received a major assist from an unexpected source.

Drastic declines in numbers of returning salmon spur potential lawsuit

Pacific Gas & Energy is licensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to generate electricity using Butte Creek waters. The utility’s water diversions from the creek have greatly reduced the available deep, cold pools of water needed by the protected salmon to hold through the summer until they spawn in the early fall. Low flows…