[env-trinity] NOAA Releases Gutted Report to Justify Water Exports

[Daniel Bacher]

Tom - here's the article. Thanks for refreshing our memories on the Calfed 
Fiasco.

dan bacher


NOAA Fisheries Releases Gutted Report To Justify Increased Delta Diversions

by Dan Bacher

NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency responsible for protecting anadromous and
marine fisheries, on October 22 released a controversial report that gave
the “scientific” green light for more Delta water to be exported from
Northern California to Southern California.

The biological opinion claims that the proposed water transfers would not
jeopardize the survival of five fish species, including the endangered
Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon, the threatened spring-run
chinook and the threatened Central Valley steelhead.

A coalition of environmental, fishing and tribal groups blasted the
biological opinion as “politically motivated” ? and one more example how
science is discarded for political expedience under the Bush administration.
The document would allow the Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of
Water Resources to export more Delta water to Southern California urban and
agricultural water districts despite the impacts on protected fish.

“This is not sound science, this is political science, and an invitation for
litigation from concerned citizens,” said Trent Orr an attorney with
Earthjustice. “If it turns out the science was manipulated to favor water
exporters and at the expense of California's endangered fish, NMFS should
expect a legal tornado from sport fishers, the outdoor community, and
conservation groups who refuse to turn back the clock on species recovery.”

An early draft of the report revealed that the Operations Criteria and
Operations Plan (OCAP), proposed jointly by the state and federal
governments, would have disastrous impacts upon the protected fish.
According to an October 2 Sacramento Bee article entitled “Rewrite softens
report on risks to fish,” biologists in the Sacramento office of NOAA
Fisheries contended that an order came down from higher ups in the Bush
administration to revise the report from a “jeopardy” to a “no jeopardy”
opinion.

Jim Lecky, NOAA Fisheries assistant regional administrator for protective
resources denied the charges that the final report was altered for political
reasons.

“I wasn’t convinced that the staff’s data was accurate, so I had it
revised,” said Lecky. “There was a lot of controversy over the moving of the
proposed temperature compliance standard of 56 degrees upstream 20 miles
from the Bend Bridge to Balls Ferry.”

Lecky said the change was necessary because the Bureau has been unable to
meet temperature standards over 50 percent of the time since 1993, when the
original biological opinion was written.

“If you use all of the water to maintain this standard early in the run, you
will run out of cold water in August and September,” noted Lecky. “In the
final report, we describe a system akin to what we are doing now.”

He also disagrees with the contentions of biologists that the change would
eliminate spawning habitat. “There would still be plenty of spawning
habitat,” he stated. “When the water temperature is 56 degrees at Balls
Ferry, the temperatures are 57 to 58 degrees at Bend Bridge. The mortality
starts at 57-1/2 degrees and works up to 62 degrees, where the eggs
mortality is pretty complete.”

He cited a Bureau of Reclamation model that said an increase in egg
mortality of only one percent would result if this change was implemented.
“This doesn’t reflect our capacity to manage the flows on a daily basis
through a temperature management group,” he claimed.

Lecky also denied charges by biologists that the increase in Delta exporting
capacity to 8500 cfs would result in the killing of millions of fish in the
state and federal joint pumping facility.

“The plan expands the window to operate the pumps when the winter run
chinooks are migrating,” he stated.  To limit fish mortality, the movement
of fish across the Delta will be monitored by early consultation between
NOAA Fisheries, the Bureau and Department of Water Resources after the South
Delta Improvement Project is implemented. The Delta Cross Channels and new
barriers will be operated so as to minimize salmon from being killed in the
pumps.

However, Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River,
criticized the report for changing from mandates to “squishy targets” in
managing water standards below Shasta Dam and operating the Delta pumps.
“Instead of saying that Shasta Lake is losing cold water storage, they say
they are creating adaptive management targets,” he explained.

The final report, by allowing the cold water storage to be decreased through
increased water diversions, effectively results in the loss of 20 miles of
prime spawning habitat, according to Evans. The Bureau’s contention that
only one percent mortality would occur as a result of the change in water
temperature standards on the river is absurd.

“The Bureau’s supplemental EIS to the Trinity River Record of Decision said
that there could be up to 100 percent mortality of winter run during a
drought year if the temperature standards are moved upstream,” said Evans.
“With a reduction in the cold-water pool caused by massive pumping of Delta
water as the capacity is increased to 8500 cfs, the Bureau will increasingly
have a problem meeting these squishy targets.”

Also, the biological opinion allows for the continued operation of the Red
Bluff Diversion Dam, in spite of the $8 million that have been spent by
Calfed in a project to permanently raise the dam and provide alternative
pumping facilities.

Rep. George Miller  (D-Martinez) and 18 other members of Congress have asked
the inspectors general of the Interior and Commerce departments to
investigate whether federal political appointees had played a role in
overriding the initial report. Miller said the charge of political
manipulation of the study is "especially troubling” given the recent history
of political intervention in NOAA Fisheries' review process, which resulted
in the “well-documented and catastrophic failure to protect the fish of the
Klamath River."

“The Bureau is a rogue agency that acts as if it can do whatever it wants,”
concluded Evans. “The NOAA biological opinion facilitates the plan to divert
more water and sign long-term water contracts.”

In a related development, President Bush on October 25 signed the $395
million CalFed bill. Although hailed by Senator Diane Feinstein as meeting
California’s water needs in a “balanced manner,” environmental groups have
criticized the bill for funding studies to expand water storage and not
doing enough to restore fish habitat.