[env-trinity] DWR has 60 days to get CESA permits for Delta pumps, or else...

[Tom Stokely]

Ruling on delta protects fish, jeopardizes California water deliveries - Associated Press
 

Deadline set on permits for delta pumping; Judge threatens a halt unless the state gets permission to kill endangered fish. Officials cite the economic effect of a shutdown - Los Angeles Times

 

JUDGE ORDERS STATE: STOP KILLING DELTA FISH; Agency told to obey law in 60 days or shut down pumps that send water to Southern California - San Francisco Chronicle

 

Water agency put on notice - Contra Costa Times

 

Pump ruling may cut water to south state - Sacramento Bee

 

State has 60 days to get permits or stop pumps - Stockton Record

 

Water decision a blow to Kern farming - Bakersfield Californian

 

Future of Delta smelt may carry consequences - Stockton Record

 

 

Ruling on delta protects fish, jeopardizes California water deliveries

Associated Press - 3/23/07

By Samantha Young, staff writer

 

SACRAMENTO -- In a decision that could cripple state water deliveries, a judge has ordered the state to halt pumping water out of the delta within 60 days unless it complies with environmental laws that protect endangered fish.

The ruling pleased sport fishing groups that have long criticized the state's operation of the enormous pumps, which suck in and kill salmon and other fish.

 

"It's certainly an earthshaking decision," Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said Friday. His group had sued the state.

 

       
     
Thursday's ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch found that the state Department of Water Resources lacks the proper permits to run a key station that pumps water from the delta into the California Aqueduct.

Specifically, Roesch said the water agency should apply for permits that would allow it to kill spring and winter runs of salmon and Delta smelt, which are protected under the California Endangered Species Act.

At issue is the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant west of Stockton, which funnels 10,688 cubic feet per second of delta water through 11 pumps into the 444-mile long aqueduct. The heart of the State Water Project, the pumping station sucks in and kills significant quantities of fish.

Water for more than 23 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland passes through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The decision also has implications for federal water deliveries in the Central Valley. About 5 percent of water that is part of the federal Central Valley Project flows through the Banks pumping station.

"There is a coordinated operation between the two projects. We'll have to analyze the indirect effects," said Thomas Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, which supplies water to about 600,000 acres of farmland in western Fresno and Kings counties.

The Department of Water Resources had argued in court that its pumping operations were authorized by a series of agreements struck over the past 20 years and by a 1997 state law.

In his 34-page ruling, Roesch said those agreements "do not qualify as the carte-blanche authorization of incidental take" at the plant for all species of endangered fish.

Department of Water Resources spokesman Ted Thomas said the state is expected to appeal the ruling. If that happens, pumping would continue while the ruling is being challenged, according to the order.

Meanwhile, the spotlight will shift to the California Department of Fish and Game. Under the judge's ruling, the department would have to approve environmental permits for the state to operate the pumps.

Those permits would require the state to minimize fish kills and could lead to a change in how much water is sent through the pumps and when much of the pumping would occur.

Environmentalists have argued that the Department of Water Resources pumps too heavily during the winter months. They say that has led to declining populations of the Delta smelt because female fish that are sucked into the pumps die before their eggs are fertilized.

The smelt, which average 3 inches long, are considered a key indicator of the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

"This tale is only beginning," said Jennings, of the sportfishing alliance. #

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/24/news/state/17_32_083_23_07.txt

 

 

Deadline set on permits for delta pumping; Judge threatens a halt unless the state gets permission to kill endangered fish. Officials cite the economic effect of a shutdown

Los Angeles Times - 3/24/07

By Bettina Boxall, staff writer

 

A Superior Court judge has given the state two months to get environmental permits in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta or he will shut down the massive Northern California pumps that kill endangered fish in the process of supplying the Southland with much of its water.

State officials vowed to fight the ruling, predicting dire consequences for the California economy if the pumping stopped.

"It would be unacceptable to curtail all deliveries to the State Water Project," said Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow, adding that the project supports a $300-billion share of the state's economy.

"That's a lot of farm jobs, industrial jobs and homes."

The delta supplies 60% of the water distributed by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the region's major water wholesaler.

Although the state will almost certainly find a way to keep the pumps operating at some level, Thursday's ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch could force reductions in the flow of water to the south.

It is also likely to move the state another step closer to dramatically overhauling the way it manages water shipments between Northern and Southern California. 

"There are obviously things that are going to have to be done," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which filed the environmental lawsuit in which the judge ruled. "It's no longer business as usual."

The judge agreed with the argument by Jennings' group that the Department of Water Resources has never gotten the necessary authorization from the California Department of Fish and Game to kill threatened and endangered fish at the delta's Harvey O. Banks pumping operation. The operation forms the heart of the State Water Project that supplies urban Southern California.

The decision comes at a time of escalating concern over the fate of the delta east of San Francisco and its rapidly declining fish populations. 

The tiny, native delta smelt has sunk to record lows during the last three years, and introduced species and native salmon are also struggling.

Research suggests that the pumping operation is a leading cause of the decline in fish, if by no means the only cause.

Despite an elaborate, expensive screening process, fish die at the pumps. To keep salty San Francisco Bay water away from the pumps, the project has altered the delta's natural salinity levels. The pumps are so powerful that they can reverse the flow of water in the channels that crisscross the delta.

Changes in the pumping regimen intended to protect spawning fish appear simply to have shifted mortality - killing smelt before they can spawn, or killing the young.

Though the judge's warning does not signal an immediate crisis for water managers, they are taking it seriously.

"We see this as a strong signal by the judge," said Jeffrey Kightlinger, the water district's general manager.

The court order, he said, is another sign that "transporting water through the delta is simply not sustainable in the long run."

Kightlinger said the water district could tap a large reserve if the pumping is stopped and would not have to resort to immediate rationing.

But, he said, "We'd hate to use that up."

Kightlinger added, "We will be working with the state very hard to try and make sure they do not shut the pumps." 

The judge's ruling is the latest development in more than a decade of environmental fights and government programs to fix the troubled delta, a sprawling area that is California's water crossroads.

"This is a very important event. It really is," Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, calling the opinion a landmark.

State officials learned of the decision Friday and in a hastily called news conference said they would ask the judge to give them more time to meet his demands.

They also disputed the judge's finding that they had never obtained the proper authorizations to kill fish under the state Endangered Species Act. #

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-water24mar24,1,5930407.story?coll=la-headlines-california

 

 

JUDGE ORDERS STATE: STOP KILLING DELTA FISH; Agency told to obey law in 60 days or shut down pumps that send water to Southern California

San Francisco Chronicle - 3/24/07

By Glen Martin, staff writer

 

The pumps that send water to 24 million Californians illegally kill endangered and threatened fish species and must be shut down, an Alameda County judge has decided. 

 

The judge's draft decision, released Friday, is far-reaching in scope, but nobody expects immediate rationing in the areas that receive the water -- the East Bay, the South Bay and Southern California. Judge Frank Roesch gave the state 60 days to figure out a way to comply with the law. 

 

Ultimately, the state Department of Water Resources could be forced to radically change the way it allocates water via a complicated set of canals and reservoirs known as the State Water Project. Changes could mean more water for the beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and less for municipalities and Central Valley farms. 

 

The decision further undercuts the faltering consensus approach that has guided state water politics during the past decade, and it harks back to the 1970s and 1980s, when acrimony and litigation prevailed. 

 

Consequences of changing State Water Project operations are huge: The system is a major source of water for cities like Los Angeles and irrigates 775,000 acres of cropland. State officials say it is also directly responsible for a $300 billion portion of the California economy. 

 

At a minimum, complying with the judge's decision will force the state water agency to obtain a permit from the California Department of Fish and Game allowing the "incidental" killing of delta smelt and chinook salmon at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near Tracy as well as to develop a plan to aid in the recovery of the protected fish. 

 

Roesch's ruling was in response to a 2006 lawsuit over the killing of the fish. The suit was filed by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance against the California Resources Agency, which oversees the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Project. 

 

Officials have two weeks to provide more information, after which Roesch can either modify or maintain his order. 

 

"This was a bell ringer," said Bill Jennings, the executive director of the Alliance, a confederation of anglers based in Stockton. 

 

"We have a real likelihood now that the delta will receive more water," he said. 

 

Jennings said that the Water Resources Department ignored the California Endangered Species Act and state Fish and Game codes in operating its pumps, which have ground up large numbers of fish. 

 

The state's pumping station can transport 10,300 cubic feet of water a second, equivalent to a large river. The nearby pumps that sustain the federal Central Valley Project are much smaller, with a capacity of about 4,600 cfs. The Central Valley Project is not affected by Roesch's decision. 

 

The Water Resources Department maintained it was given a pass on state laws by virtue of five agreements concluded in the 1990s, including two negotiated by CalFed, the joint state and federal agency created to solve California's water disputes. 

 

Roesch ruled that the agreements did not constitute a permit to kill the salmon and smelt, as the state contended. 

 

The best that can be said of the five agreements, Roesch wrote, "is that (they) accept fish will be killed in the Henry O. Banks Pumping Plant operations and that the parties agree that mitigation measures will be undertaken." 

 

State officials expressed dismay at the decision. 

 

"We obviously strongly disagree with the court's proposed decision and will present additional information to challenge (it)," state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said. 

 

Ryan Broddrick, the director of the California Department of Fish and Game, said conservation strategies of the kind Roesch requires are complicated and time-consuming. 

 

"We want to find solutions for the delta that have long-term sustainability," Broddrick said. "The (60-day) time frame offered is not sufficient." 

 

Lester Snow, the director of the Water Resources Department and the former director of CalFed, agreed with Broddrick and noted that the state recently authorized a $1 billion delta habitat conservation plan. Such a comprehensive and well-funded effort, Snow said, is preferable to fighting the matter out in court. 

 

"(Roesch's) response is devoid of any recognition of this conservation plan," he said. 

 

Snow also said that the consequences of curtailing Southern California water deliveries would be unacceptable. 

 

"The California gross product is $1.6 trillion," he said. "Of that, the State Water Project directly supports $300 billion. That's a lot of farm and industrial jobs." 

 

Water contractors also are concerned. 

 

"We get 80 percent of our water from the state project, so we find this very worrisome," said Jill Duerig, the general manager of the Zone 7 Water Agency, which serves the East Bay cities of Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore. 

 

"It highlights the uncertainty and risks we face in securing our drinking water supplies," she said. 

 

But Jennings said Roesch's decision "blew away the smoke screen" that obscured many delta problems and underscored the general failure of CalFed. 

 

"Under CalFed, water exports from the delta have increased, and we've seen the general collapse of the region's ecosystem," he said. "It became clear to anglers that if we were going to have any fish left in the delta, we were going to have to step away from the backroom deals and hold the agencies accountable to the law." 

 

The State Water Project 

A look at major components of the system: 

By the numbers 

 

24 million 

Number of Californians who get drinking water from the project 

 

775,000 

Acres of crops irrigated 

 

29 

Number of agencies served by the water system 

 

1957 

Year construction began on the first part of the State Water Project 

 

4 million 

Amount of water, in acre-feet, that the system can deliver in wet years 

 

5.8 million 

Amount of water, in acre-feet, that can be stored in the State Water Project 

 

444 

Length, in miles, of the California Aqueduct 

 

Southern California 

Water is transported around Southern California and stored in many lakes, including Lake Castaic and Pyramid Lake. 

Banks pumps 

Near Tracy, the state-operated pumps send water down the California Aqueduct. 

The pumping operations are blamed for killing endangered and threatened fish. Near here, a separate canal delivers some of the water to the South Bay. 

Lake Oroville 

One of the largest dams that make up the State Water Project. It holds about 3.5 million acre-feet of Feather River water. 

Sacramento River 

Supports weak migrations of winter- and spring-run chinook salmon, which are protected under state and federal law. Water from Lake Oroville eventually runs down this river. 

San Luis Joint-Use Complex 

Both federal and state water operators use this facility, which stores water for users located further south. 

Tehachapi pipes 

The Edmonston Pumping Plant lifts water up about 2,000 feet, over the Tehachapi Mountains, through 10 miles of tunnels. 

The Chronicle 

 

Declining delta smelt 

A small native fish long used as an indicator of the delta's biological health, the delta smelt has sustained steady declines over the past several years. Fresh water diversions from the delta to Southern California appear to be the leading cause, with smelt populations declining in general proportion to the amount of water shipped south. 

 

Smelt need brackish water to survive, and the brackish zone in the delta is decreased when fresh water is exported. The government pumps have also been implicated in directly destroying smelt by sucking them into their intakes. 

 

Breeding season: From late winter to early summer. Fast growing, with majority of growth within the first 7 to 9 months of life. 

Food: Small organisms called zooplankton Life span: 1-2 years 

Status: Threatened 

Size: 2-3 inches, but can reach 5 inches 

Habitat: Brackish waters in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta 

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/24/MNGCROR6P21.DTL

 

 

Water agency put on notice

Contra Costa Times - 3/24/07

By Mike Taugher, staff writer

 

The state's largest water delivery system, serving millions of people from the Tri-Valley to Southern California, must shut down in 60 days unless its officials comply with the state's endangered species law, a judge ruled.

 

The decision, which sent shock waves through water agencies up and down California on Friday, says state water officials failed to obtain a state permit to kill threatened or endangered salmon and Delta smelt.

 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that the Department of Water Resources was violating the California Endangered Species Act but said he would delay turning off the pumps for 60 days to allow state agencies to comply. The ruling also said the 60-day clock will not start ticking until it becomes final after a 15-day comment period.

 

State officials said they would ask the judge to reconsider, arguing that they are trying to develop a long-term conservation strategy, and shutting off the pumps would deal a devastating economic blow.

 

"I don't think it's possible to comply with what the judge says in 60 days," said water Resources director Lester Snow.

 

Most major water agencies have sufficient backup supplies to get them through a short pumping shutdown. However, if the permit required by the court's decision further restricts pumping, it could reduce the amount of water those agencies get in the long term.

 

At issue are massive pumps that supply water to more than 23 million people in Alameda County, Silicon Valley and Southern California. The pumps are powerful enough to alter the flow of rivers, disrupt fish movements and kill millions of fish each year.

Among those fish are species such as Delta smelt, winter-run salmon and spring-run salmon that are protected under state and federal endangered species laws. The pumping plant has a permit from the federal government to harm endangered fish, but not from the state.

 

Environmentalists say a state permit might force water supply cuts because the state law is more stringent than the federal law.

The ruling does not affect smaller federal pumps that serve San Joaquin Valley farms.

 

Stan Williams, chief executive officer of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, said groundwater and access to San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy aqueducts would provide short-term backup water supplies but a prolonged shutdown could cause problems.

He added that he views the threat of a shutdown as plausible.

 

"I think it's real," Williams said.

 

The general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the state water pumps' biggest customer, said he was disappointed in the ruling but added that emergency water reserves can meet the summer needs of its 18 million customers.

 

"What we need from Fish and Game is their best analysis of what they can do in 60 days and then see if that will satisfy the court," said Met general manager Jeff Kightlinger. "We're working rapidly on our contingency planning."

 

Environmentalists, meanwhile, were elated.

 

"It's a mind-buster. I'm stunned," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which filed the lawsuit last year.

 

The ruling comes at a time of deepening disarray in California water policy. The state's major water source -- the Delta -- is laboring five years into an ecosystem collapse that many scientists say is at least partly due to the water pumps.

 

The failure of state water officials to obtain a permit for the pumps was uncovered in 2005 by a state senate committee.

 

That committee's investigation was in response to a report in the Times showing that in early 2005, just as the severity of the Delta's ecosystem crisis was becoming apparent, state and federal water officials twice overruled the advice of biologists appointed to enforce the federal endangered species law.

 

State water officials argued that even though they lacked a formal permit, a series of agreements and other documents dating back to the 1980s formed a "patchwork" of compliance with the law.

 

The judge strongly disagreed, saying the documents "do not qualify as carte-blanche authorization" to kill or harm endangered fish.

 

Michael Lozeau, the lawyer who represented environmentalists in the lawsuit, said the state endangered species law is stricter than the federal version.

 

Under state law, the water resources department would have to offset the death of every protected fish, possibly by dramatically reducing pumping or improving habitat elsewhere in the Delta, Lozeau said.

 

"They have to replace every single fish," Lozeau said.

 

Jennings said that opens the door to force the state water department to make up for years of illegal operations.

 

"When you catch the embezzler, what do you do? You make them pay it back," Jennings said. #

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/16966833.htm

 

 

Pump ruling may cut water to south state

Sacramento Bee - 3/24/07

By Deb Kollars, staff writer

 

An Alameda Superior Court judge has ruled that giant pumps sending vast amounts of drinking water to Central and Southern California must be turned off within 60 days unless the state complies with permit procedures designed to protect endangered fish, which are getting chewed up by the pumps.

 

Turning off the pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta would cause drastic economic and environmental consequences, ranging from possible groundwater depletion to business interruptions, said Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources.

 

"It's certainly an earth-shaking decision," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the nonprofit California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which sued the state over the killing of fish in the pumps.

 

About 25 million Californians depend on the State Water Project, as the north-south water-moving system is called, for at least a portion of their water needs.

 

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, for example, is the state project's biggest customer, serving 18 million people; during normal water years, the district gets 16 percent of its overall water supply via the gigantic state delivery system.

 

Snow said Friday that he plans to bring new information to the judge in the case, Frank Roesch, and ask him to reconsider the ruling during the 15-day period before the decision becomes final.

 

"We strongly disagree with the decision," California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said during a Friday afternoon telephone press briefing.

 

The Department of Water Resources was sued in October by the "Water Enforcers," the legal arm of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. The fishing group said the agency never obtained the proper authorizations, known as "take permits," to kill certain fish while pumping water from the north state to the Bay Area, Central Coast, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

 

The suit named three fish species: the endangered winter-run chinook salmon, the threatened spring-run chinook and the Delta smelt.

 

The pumping site in the case, Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant, is west of Stockton near Byron. The plant, considered the heart of the State Water Project, runs 10,688 cubic feet per second of Delta water through multiple pumps and into the California Aqueduct system. In the process, many fish are sucked in and killed.

 

On Thursday, Roesch agreed with the fishing group, ruling that DWR had failed to follow the permitting process required under the California Endangered Species Act. The permits are issued by the state Department of Fish and Game.

 

The judge rejected an argument by DWR officials that they did not need the formal take permits because the department had authority to kill fish during water exports under several other pumping agreements made prior to 1997.

 

The agreements, the judge wrote in his ruling, "do not qualify as the carte-blanche authorization of incidental take" of endangered fish at the pumping plant.

 

Water resources officials reviewed the judge's opinion Friday and announced they will ask the judge to reconsider. Department spokesman Ted Thomas said the state is expected to appeal the ruling.

 

Jennings said there is an easier fix for the state than trying to re-argue the case before the same judge or appealing: Apply for the proper permits, which would lay out the measures needed, such as reducing pumping volumes or installing different fish screens, to reduce the fish kills.

 

"The political reality is that nobody is going to deprive the folks of Southern California their water," Jennings said. "It would behoove the state to start working on a permit and following the law."

 

Snow said it would not be possible to get such a permit within 60 days.

 

Jennings pointed out that the state would have 75 days if it got going immediately, before the 15-day grace period on the judge's ruling runs out, and that would be plenty of time.

 

"We have gone through a decade where the state has basically done nothing," Jennings said. "They twiddled their thumbs and gazed at the ceiling."

 

Snow said that rather than going through the narrow permitting process, the state instead has chosen to develop a broad new conservation plan for the Delta that would address numerous habitat and environmental issues in a more comprehensive manner.

 

This week's ruling, he said, highlights the dire situation in the Delta, where environmentalists and state and local officials are grappling with everything from crumbling levees to rapid losses in the Delta smelt population.

 

Neither side could say Friday how many salmon are being killed in the pumps. #

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/143329.html

 

 

State has 60 days to get permits or stop pumps

Stockton Record - 3/24/07

By Alex Breitler, staff writer

 

TRACY - State officials have 60 days to avert a legally imposed shutdown of their massive export pumps, which kill threatened fish but also support a $300 billion economy.

 

A judge's ruling released Friday says the Department of Water Resources has been incidentally killing fish at the pumps without proper environmental permits, in violation of state law.

 

The state must shut down the pumps near Tracy if it cannot get the needed permits in time.

 

"Potentially, this is a huge victory," said Stockton environmentalist Bill Jennings, whose California Sportfishing Protection Alliance sued the state last year. "This is just the opening chapter of a new book."

 

State officials Friday afternoon said there's no way to get the needed permits in 60 days.

 

"We're perplexed with the court's ruling in this case," said Lester Snow, head of the Department of Water Resources. "We find the prospect of curtailment of pumping to be unacceptable."

 

Snow said the state has 15 days to comment on the ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch and ask for more time to comply.

 

A shutdown of the pumps is unlikely, Jennings said. However, getting a permit under state law to kill fish such as Delta smelt and salmon would require officials to find new ways to make up for that loss. That could include reducing exports or changing the timing of water deliveries to aid fish.

 

State Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, said it was no mystery to San Joaquin County residents that the pumps are operated without the proper permits. State officials have claimed that a series of agreements up to two decades old were tantamount to having such a permit.

 

"What this goes to show is that the ecosystem of the Delta is important and the state needs to follow its own laws," Machado said Friday.

 

No one disputes that the pumps are important. Eighteen million people in Southern California receive water imported from two major sources: the Colorado River and Northern California.

 

Drought on the Colorado has increased reliance on the Northern California flows, said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

 

"This is a very serious issue," he said Friday. "We're hopeful we can work with the state to get it resolved over the next 60 days and not go through dramatic interruptions."

 

The district has "tremendous" amounts of water in storage, but that's reserved for emergencies and could last only a year or two, Kightlinger said.

 

State water is also delivered to the Bay Area, cities and farms in the southern San Joaquin Valley and parts of the coast near San Luis Obispo.

 

Altogether, the pumps support $300 billion of the state's $1.6 trillion economy, said the state's Snow.

 

The pumps also draw in threatened Delta smelt, which conservationists say are on the brink of extinction. They also harm juvenile salmon.

 

"They have to come up with near-term and long-term measures" to protect fish, Jennings said. "And we're going to be looking over their shoulder." #

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070324/A_NEWS/703240321

 

 

Water decision a blow to Kern farming

Bakersfield Californian - 3/23/07

By Vic Pollard, staff writer

 

Like other customers of the State Water Project, Kern County Water Agency officials were stunned by the judge's action. "This is big," said David Baumstark, the agency's executive operations manager. 

 

He said late Friday afternoon the agency had little time to review the proposed decision and had no plan of action yet.

 

However, a sudden shutdown in May of the California Aqueduct, which brings state project water to Kern County, would be a major financial blow to the Kern County farming industry at the height of the irrigation season.

 

It wouldn't be the end of the world, Baumstark said, because Kern County has huge amounts of water stored underground in the Kern Water Bank area west of Bakersfield and other places.

 

But groundwater is more expensive to use for irrigation than water from the aqueduct because of the costs of pumping it out of the ground.

 

Baumstark said the State Water Project accounts for about 21 percent of all the water used in Kern County. The other major sources are the Kern River; the Central Valley Project, which brings water from the San Joaquin River near Fresno; and groundwater. #

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/106987.html

 

 

Future of Delta smelt may carry consequences

Stockton Record - 3/25/07

By Alex Breitler, staff writer

 

TRACY - The pumps are the size of school buses.

 

Delta smelt match up with your goldfish.

 

The pumps are worth $300 billion for the economy.

 

The smelt aren't worth the bait in a fisherman's tackle box.

 

The pumps water crops for your garden salad.

 

The smelt simply smell like cucumber.

 

Last week, a judge ruled that immense pumps near Tracy must be shut down unless officials get a permit allowing them to kill smelt and other fish in the process of sending water to distant reaches of California.

 

The case puts the smelt back in the headlines. It is in danger of extinction, conservationists say, and no fewer than 45 studies are chronicling the problem.

 

And yet, when you ask your neighbor about the Delta smelt, he might wrinkle his nose and say something like, "Yeah, it DOES smell out there."

 

Why should ordinary people care, or even know, about this rather ordinary fish?

 

Sign of trouble
 
The first thing most experts say is that the smelt is an "indicator" species. It tells us how the Delta is doing.

 

If the smelt is suffering, so may be a number of other species which have more purpose to humans - striped bass, for example, a popular sport fish.

 

Among other things, the smelt suffers from a declining supply of its major food source, plankton. Exotic clams introduced into the estuary two decades ago have robbed the water of much of these nutrients.

 

Then there are toxins: anything from herbicides that drain off of farmers' fields to drugs that people pour down their drains at home. These kill the food that smelt and other fish need.

 

Keep in mind, this is the same water that wets the taps of 23 million Californians. Stockton, too, plans to quench its thirst with Delta water in coming years.

 

Endangered
 
The smelt is legally protected from these dangers by a law that has aided more glamorous specimens such as the bald eagle.

 

"We made a decision with the Endangered Species Act, saying we didn't want any species to go extinct, at least on our watch," said Peter Moyle, professor of fish biology at the University of California, Davis. "It becomes a question of where do you draw the line in terms of what you're going to let go and what you're not."

 

There are about 35,000 smelt left, according to some estimates, compared to 800,000 in the 1960s and '70s.

 

If the smelt disappears, a fish called the split-tail could be next, Moyle said. Unlike smelt, the split-tail is a dietary staple for Asian-Americans, including many in Stockton.

 

On the other hand, if the smelt is recovered, maybe it could produce a commercial fishery someday not unlike its Japanese cousin, the wakasagi.

 

"You never know what's going to be important to future generations," Moyle said.

 

Money, money, money
 
A recent California Department of Water Resources report updating the smelt's status catalogues dozens of strategies to bring back the fish.

 

Most projects rely on public dollars; the total cost is unknown.

 

As an example, experts want to construct mile-long floodways on Sherman Island to increase production of the plankton that smelt need. The cost could range from $5.5 million to $8.2 million.

 

There also is talk of requiring the state to check all watercraft that enter California through major highways, a practice that was discontinued in 2003 because of budget cuts. This could detect the presence of invasive mussels which, if released, could further exacerbate problems in the Delta.

 

The cost: Up to $4 million per year, and perhaps a headache for those whose boats are inspected.

 

The pumps
 
Theoretically, anyone who gets water from the pumps could benefit if the smelt recovers. It's not just Los Angeles - parts of the Bay Area, much of San Joaquin County and the coast may not have to worry so much about the pumps shutting down.

 

Conversely, if smelt continue to struggle, farmers might face new restrictions on pesticide use, possibly making land less productive and losing income, state reports warn. Cities might pay more to reduce the number of contaminants they discharge.

 

Debate continues over the pumps themselves and how many fish they chop up.

 

Unknowns
 
In the late 1990s, scientists discovered that the common western fence lizard may help prevent the spread of Lyme disease. 

 

Infected ticks that feed on the lizard's blood are then less likely to infect humans.

 

This, conservationists say, is an example why the smelt and other less-interesting critters should be spared extinction.

 

They may yet serve a purpose.

 

"There's a lot we don't know," said Jeff Miller of the San Francisco-based Center for Biological Diversity, which has lobbied the government for greater smelt protections. "To lose a species before you even understand it is tragic."

 

Why should you care about smelt?
1. The fish is an "indicator" species. Their situation offers insight into how the San Joaquin Delta as a whole is faring.

2. As an endangered species, the smelt's future is important to others creatures in the same boat. If the smelt don't make it, what's next?

3. Proposals to save the fish can carry with them million-dollar price tags that would likely require public funding. 

4. Recovery of the smelt could provide benefits to anyone who gets water from the pumps in Tracy. Conversely, its continued struggle could carry negative effects for S.J. County farmers.

5. Besides known benefits, creatures can be beneficial in many yet-undiscovered ways. If the animal disappears, any benefits it 
might have held will be lost forever. #

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070325/A_NEWS/703250331

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