[env-trinity] Court to consider further steps to curtail water deliveries, help salmon

[Tom Stokely]

Court to consider further steps to curtail water deliveries, help salmon
Contra Costa Times – 6/5/08
By Mike Taugher

A federal judge today will begin considering whether to further restrict the flow of water to California farms and cities in a state already parched by drought.

 

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger has already ruled that permits meant to prevent water managers from driving fish extinct are failing and illegal.

 

Last year, he ordered Delta pumping reductions of as much as 30 percent because Delta smelt are vanishing. The hearing in Fresno, which may extend into next week, could lead to further restrictions to protect salmon and steelhead, which are also in decline.

 

"This isn't going to solve the salmon crisis but it can help quite a bit," said Zeke Grader, who represents commercial salmon fishers who joined with environmentalists to bring the lawsuit.

 

Most observers do not expect a court order as dramatic as the one Wanger issued last year. In part, that is because salmon and steelhead do not appear to be as threatened as Delta smelt, which are facing the possibility of imminent extinction. 

 

"There was common agreement with the Delta smelt that it was disappearing from the system," said Chris Scheuring, a water lawyer for the California Farm Bureau. "The salmon and steelhead are in a little more hopeful situation than the Delta smelt."

 

Instead, environmentalists and anglers are asking water managers to maintain colder temperatures in spawning beds, save more water behind dams and take other measures that would have a more subtle effect on water supplies. 

 

Today's testimony will focus on the status of salmon and steelhead runs and whether court intervention is needed. If so, it will likely take several days of testimony before the judge reaches decisions on what protective measures to order.

 

At issue is a permit issued in 2004 by the National Marine Fisheries Service that controls cold water releases from dams, Delta water pumping and many other pieces of California's plumbing system. 

 

Federal investigators earlier found the permit was approved under unusual circumstances. Although biologists concluded water deliveries could threaten fish with extinction, they were overruled by a manager, James Lecky, who gave the water plan the agency's blessing and was later promoted to become the Bush administration's top official overseeing marine endangered species.

 

In April, Wanger found the permit did not meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. Last year, he made a similar ruling on a permit issued by another federal wildlife agency that was supposed to protect Delta smelt.

 

Wanger was not alone. An Alameda County judge ruled last year that the state water resources department's Delta pumps were running illegally because state regulators never issued a permit or certified the federal permit, as required by the state endangered species law.

 

The multiple violations of endangered species laws in the two major water delivery systems — one of which is run by the state water resources department and the other by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — come at a time when Delta fish are in deep peril.

 

Delta smelt are believed near extinction and longfin smelt are being considered for endangered species status.

 

Winter-run salmon, which rebounded during the 1990s from extremely low population levels, dropped sharply last year to the point where fewer than 2,500 fish returned to the Sacramento River to spawn. That represents a decline of two-thirds from the previous generation, which spawned three years earlier.

 

Spring-run salmon and steelhead also are foundering, and even previously abundant fall-run salmon — the backbone of the state's commercial salmon fishery — have collapsed to the point where regulators took the unprecedented step of closing the entire California coast to salmon fishing this year.

 

In all cases, most researchers say there are other contributing factors to the fish declines, including pollution, invasive species and fluctuations in ocean conditions.#

http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/localnews/ci_9493504

 

 
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