[env-trinity] LA Times and Contra Costs Times on shipping all water south.

[Byron]

More on pigs can fly, or take care of political influential friends
"decision making."  And the decision was made ON THE DAY on which final
comments were due.  So much for public input.

 

 

More Delta Water May Head South

Reversal of findings that changes in the Shasta Dam system could harm salmon
has some in Congress charging political interference.

Los Angeles Times - 10/23/04

By Bettina Boxall, staff writer

The National Marine Fisheries Service issued an opinion Friday that opens
the door to increased water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The agency concluded that additional pumping from the delta, as well as
changes in dam operations, would not seriously harm endangered or threatened
salmon species. 

That reversed earlier draft findings by its biologists that could have
stymied plans to send more water south to the farms of the San Joaquin
Valley and the cities of Southern California.

In an August draft letter, never publicly released but leaked to the media,
the agency said that increased pumping and other proposed changes in the
federal water system were "likely to jeopardize the continued existence" of
the Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead.

The agency's regional administrator also had written to county officials in
Northern California saying the agency was concerned that a significant
amount of spawning grounds would be lost if water managers moved ahead with
plans to alter Shasta Dam operations.

The draft revisions, made after a consultation with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, was overseen by Jim Lecky, the Marine Fisheries' assistant
regional administrator for protected resources. 

He said Friday the earlier findings that salmon would be jeopardized had
been based on faulty analysis.

"I'm pretty familiar with the system and the fish in the system, and my guys
didn't a do a good job," said Lecky, a career biologist with the agency.

But the reversal of opinion, also leaked in advance to the media and made
official Friday, has sparked congressional allegations of political
interference. Earlier this month, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) and 18
other members of Congress asked the inspectors general of the Interior and
Commerce departments to investigate whether federal political appointees had
played a role in overriding the initial findings. In response, the offices
have launched a review.

Environmentalists have also decried the reversal, saying it was done to ease
the way for potentially massive water exports to powerful Central Valley
farm interests and Southern California water agencies. 

Taking more water from the delta, they warn, will undermine the fragile
gains that have been made with salmon runs.

"This administrative revision is an outrageous and despicable sacrifice of
sound science on the altar of expediency," contended Bill Jennings of the
environmental group DeltaKeeper. "It's disheartening to see a trustee agency
succumb to political pressure and reject the expert opinions of its own
scientists in issuing a biological opinion that it knows may push endangered
species over the brink of extinction."

Lecky rejected the suggestions of political tinkering. 

"That's just blatantly not true," he said, describing the agency's
consultation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as routine. "We have to
come to a common understanding of the project. It requires frank discussions
and exchanging documents." 

Lecky said his biologists had erred in assuming the Shasta Dam operation
changes would substantially reduce spawning habitat for the winter-run
chinook. Although water managers would no longer be required to maintain
certain temperatures in a portion of the river, that would not prevent the
fish from using it.

"It affects [the habitat] - that's much different from a total loss," Lecky
said. "When we corrected that analysis, the argument for jeopardy was no
longer [valid]."

Tina Swanson, senior scientist with the Bay Institute, countered that when
Sacramento River temperatures rose during a 1970s drought, the salmon
population crashed.

"It's extremely clear you have to maintain these conditions to keep the fish
alive," she said.

Although the number of winter-run Chinook has climbed from a low of 211 in
the early 1990s, the population has yet to top 10,000. 

It reached 9,757 last year, and state fish and game biologists estimate this
year's population at about 9,000.

Water plan gets agency approval

Contra Costa Times - 10/23/04

By Mike Taugher, staff writer

The federal agency responsible for protecting California's imperiled salmon
and steelhead gave its approval Friday to a sweeping plan that helps clear
the way for water agencies to increase pumping of Delta water to Southern
California.

The document says that continuing to operate the dams and pumps in
California's two largest water projects will not drive salmon or steelhead
to extinction.

More importantly, perhaps, the document removes a major obstacle to two
hotly contested initiatives: a new batch of 25-year federal water contracts
for some of the state's biggest farm districts and other water users,
including the Contra Costa Water District; and plans to boost the pumping
capacity of the Delta's state-owned pumps by more than 25 percent.

The report by the National Marine Fisheries Service already has come under
fierce criticism because earlier, leaked versions concluded water operations
would jeopardize some salmon runs. Later versions of the report showed the
agency reversed those conclusions and determined the projects pose less risk
to salmon and steelhead.

More than a dozen members of Congress, led by Rep. George Miller,
D-Martinez, charged federal agencies with politically manipulating the
biologists' conclusions. In response, the offices of inspector general in
two federal departments are investigating.

Jim Lecky, the assistant regional administrator in Long Beach who ordered
the changes and issued the final document on Friday, defended the final
report and said the earlier versions had serious shortcomings.

"This was just an issue of an inadequate analysis," Lecky said, adding he
ordered corrections. "When they did (the corrections), the rationale for a
jeopardy opinion was not sustainable."

Critics say the revisions are reminiscent of changes to water operations in
the Klamath River basin during the last several years, where they claim
politically motivated changes to help water users resulted in dramatic
salmon kills.

"What's very clear is the Bureau of Reclamation is trying to bring
Klamath-style water operations into the Central Valley," said Barry Nelson,
a water policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The document issued Friday amounts to a final approval for an otherwise
obscure document called the "Operations Criteria and Plan" for the federal
government's Central Valley Project, which includes Shasta Dam and other
north state reservoirs, Delta pumps and canals to San Joaquin Valley farms.
The project also serves the comparatively small Contra Costa Water District.

The document spells out how that project is run now and how it will run in
conduction with the State Water Project, which includes Oroville Dam and
other reservoirs, larger Delta pumps and a 444-mile canal that primarily
serves urban southern California.

The cooperation between the two projects became highly controversial because
details were negotiated privately last fall in a way that primarily benefits
large water users, critics say. Representatives of the Contra Costa Water
District, environmental groups and Delta farm districts were not included in
those talks, which resulted in a package of proposals known as the Napa
Agreement.

"It's water supply at the expense of everything else -- make decisions in
the back room and freeze out everybody else," said Nelson.

With the plan now approved, federal water managers can move forward with
issuing new 25-year water contracts for their customers. Miller, who has
authored legislation that reformed Central Valley Project operations in
1992, has accused the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation of proposing contract terms
that defy the intent of his legislation.

"It's unfortunate -- but not at all surprising -- that this important
document was released after business hours on a Friday," Miller said in a
statement. "I have not yet had a chance to read the opinion, but we'll be
taking a careful look at it. If the Department has not appropriately
addressed the concerns that political interests have been allowed to
override scientific evidence, further investigation may be required."

Miller and others are concerned because in an earlier draft of the report,
federal biologists concluded the water operations would threaten the
existence of spring-run chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead.

The final version concludes those runs would not be jeopardized. The
difference is important because when federal biologists declare jeopardy,
they gain the ability to require major changes in how much water is released
from dams, when pumps can be run and how hard and any other aspect of the
project they deem critical.

The lack of a jeopardy finding means the Bureau of Reclamation can proceed
with its plans without substantial modification.

In addition, federal water managers sought, and received, approval to do
away with a requirement that they hold 1.9 million acre-feet of water in
Shasta Dam over the winter to ensure there is enough cold water for spawning
winter-run salmon. Water officials said that requirement is no longer needed
because a device has been installed that allows them to more easily release
cold water.

The agency also received approval to shorten the length of the Sacramento
River that must be kept cold.

Lecky said by keeping a shorter stretch of river at low temperatures, water
managers can save cold water for use later in the year for spring-run
chinook. 

 

 

 

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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