[env-trinity] NOAA Decision

[Byron]

Yeah, and pigs can fly.  

 

The established policy/procedure process was not followed.  See my letter of
last Friday, the final day for comments.  

 

Since the ruling has been made, it's obvious the agency did not bother to
review extensive comments from several organizations.  If anyone wants more
factual information to review, let me know.  There's a mountain of it.
You'd have to start by reading OCAP, which is about 700 pages, as I recall.


 

This issue is critical to Northern California rivers.

 

 

Delta water shift will not hurt endangered species, agency says

Associated Press - 10/23/04

By Don Thompson, staff writer

SACRAMENTO - A federal agency ruled Friday that shifting more Northern
California water to Southern California will not jeopardize five threatened
or endangered species of fish. 

The ruling clears the way for the federal Bureau of Reclamation and state
Department of Water Resources to sign long-term water contracts with rural
irrigation districts and urban water districts. 

They also can continue with plans to pump more water through the fragile
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to thirsty Southern California. 

Environmental groups have fought the expected decision by NOAA Fisheries,
formerly known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, alleging it was
politically motivated. 

They cite draft biological opinions that said the water transfer would
imperil the fish. 

Jim Lecky, NOAA Fisheries' assistant regional administrator for protective
resources, denied any outside influence or improper altering of the final
decision. 

Changing the ultimate recommendation was "just typical project management
oversight and supervision," Lecky said. "There was some analysis that was
faulty and needed to get a second look, and that's what we did." 

The three major species at the heart of the opinion are the Sacramento River
winter chinook run, the Central Valley spring chinook run, and the Central
Valley steelhead. 

Also considered was danger to Southern Oregon-Northern California Coast coho
salmon and Central Coast steelhead. 

The 350-page decision concludes none are likely to be jeopardized. 

It includes requirements to try to minimize fish kills by maintaining cold
water in the Sacramento River to aid winter run salmon and establishing fish
kill thresholds that would require the Bureau of Reclamation to stop pumping
water through the Delta, Lecky said. 

A task force would help set cold water requirements each May 1, based
largely on how much water had been stored from the winter rain and snowfall,
he said. 

Friday's decision "will become the underpinning ... of long-term contracts
that the bureau will consider later this year," Lecky said. 

The federal reclamation bureau and state water department want to integrate
their parallel reservoir and pumping systems, sign dozens of water contracts
lasting 25 to 40 years, and send 27 percent more water south through the
state's Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near Stockton. 

California's two Democratic U.S. senators and a half-dozen Democratic House
members, including House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, have called for
delays and more information before water regulators act. 

Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council criticized the agency
for signing the biological opinion before the inspector generals of the
Commerce and Interior departments complete their investigations of whether
the reclamation bureau improperly influenced NOAA Fisheries to alter initial
draft findings that the water transfer could endanger fish species. 

"What the bureau is attempting to do is bring Klamath-style management to
the Bay and Delta," Nelson said. The reference was to alleged political
influence on federal decisions affecting the Klamath River in Northern
California and south-central Oregon that allegedly contributed to one of the
nation's largest fish kills in 2002. 

Nelson, also criticized the state and federal water agencies for continuing
with the proposed water transfers unilaterally, instead of working through
the open and collaborative California Federal Bay-Delta Program, commonly
known as CalFed. He had not seen Friday's decision and could not comment on
its specifics. 

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 519 4810 ce

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

 

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