[env-trinity] Article submission: Water exports are driving Delta smelt and salmon to extinction

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.calitics.com/diary/15707/fishermen-and-delta-leaders-say-water-exports-are-destroying-delta-smelt
Water exports are driving Delta smelt and salmon to extinction

by Dan Bacher

The endangered Delta smelt, once the most abundant fish in the entire  
Bay Delta Estuary, may already be extinct, according to UC Davis fish  
biologist and author Peter Moyle, as quoted on Capital Public Radio.

"Prepare for the extinction of the Delta Smelt in the wild," Moyle  
told a group of scientists with the Delta Stewardship Council.

The latest trawl survey by the California Department of Fish and  
Wildlife (CDFW) found just six smelt to date. That survey follows the  
fall midwater trawl survey, when biologists recorded the lowest number  
of smelt ever documented, 8, at a total of 100 sites sampled from  
September through December 2014.

"That trawl survey came up with just six smelt, four females and two  
males," Moyle told Capital Public Radio. "Normally because they can  
target smelt, they would have gotten several hundred.”

  “Moyle says the population of Delta smelt has been declining for the  
last 30 years but the drought may have pushed the species to the point  
of no return. If the smelt is officially declared extinct, which could  
take several years, the declaration could change how water is managed  
in California,” according to the report.

“All these biological opinions on Delta smelt that have restricted  
some of the pumping will have to be changed,” said  Moyle.

The Delta smelt is an indicator species that demonstrates the health  
of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The 2.0 to 2.8 inch long  
fish is endemic to the estuary and spends all of its life in the Delta.

Restore the Delta and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance  
(CSPA), opponents of the Governor’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)  
to build the peripheral tunnels, responded to the alarming news that  
the Delta smelt may be extinct by blasting a move by the State Water  
Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to further weaken Delta outflow and  
water quality standards.

They said the smelt may be reaching the “point of no return” if swift  
action is not taken – and indicated that the Board’s action makes even  
more likely the decimation of this once flourishing Delta species and  
endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon this year.

The State Water Board's action lowered Delta outflow for the purpose  
of managing the ecosystems and salinity control, a move that the BDCP  
critiics said is “bad for fish, good for invasive species and helps  
storage” by reducing how much water the projects send  from upstream  
reservoirs to keep salt out of the Delta.

“The State Water Board, even in the face of near-extinction of Delta  
smelt and salmon, is proposing to drastically relax minimal water  
quality and flow standards enacted to protect the Bay-Delta and  
tributary streams, for the third year in a row,” said Bill Jennings,  
Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.  
“Delta and longfin smelt and  Winter-run Chinook salmon have collapsed  
to less than one percent of historic numbers, and are facing  
extinction.”

“Yet the Water Board and the Governor expect our rivers and fisheries  
to bear the burden and suffer the consequences of mismanagement, even  
as additional acres of almonds are planted in the Valley. The Delta is  
a national treasure belonging to all of the people in the state and  
nation. It must not be sacrificed to the insatiable greed of special  
interests,” he stated.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta,  
said her group and its partners have worked for 8 years for the  
protection of Delta smelt. She pinpointed "excessive water pumping" by  
the state and federal water exporters, especially on behalf of those  
growing almonds in the Westlands Water District and Kern County, for  
leading to the collapse of the largest estuary on the West Coast of  
the Americas.

California's almond orchards use about 3.5 million acre feet of water,  
nearly 9 percent of the state's agricultural water supply. That is  
enough water to supply the domestic needs of the Los Angeles Basin and  
metropolitan San Diego combined, approximately 75 percent of the  
state's population, according to Carolee Krieger, Executive Director  
of the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN).(http://m.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Why-almonds-cover-California-5655309.php 
)

“And here in the fifth year of drought, the State Water Resources  
Control Board has left open a loophole that one could drive a Mack  
truck through, by allowing water exporters to tell the board how much   
water they need, and allowing for emergency water for these same  
growers," Barrigan-Parrilla emphasized. "State and Federal fish  
agencies are failing to enforce laws to protect fisheries."

“The estuary is unraveling; California is running out of water; and  
all the Brown Administration can talk about is dry tunnels that will  
save neither the fish, nor the people of California,” she explained.

Barrigan-Parrilla asked, “How much longer will the Brown  
Administration fiddle, and ignore that California must adjudicate  
water rights. Huge industrial farms on the west side of the San  
Joaquin Valley cannot be  sustained while the estuary collapses.

She also noted that droughts are recurrent and predictable weather  
patterns in California – and droughts are "not emergencies," except  
when the water agencies fail to manage for their recurrence.

Barrigan-Parrilla and Jennings said the current water quality  
objectives give a "green light" to the California Department of Water  
Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to gamble that each water  
year will be normal to wet: they prioritize upstream storage for  
exports to south of Delta storage, resulting in a “beggar-thy- 
neighbor” competition  pitting against each other exports, salinity  
control, fish protection, and ecosystem-protective outflows.

“This situation is preventable and state and federal agencies failed  
to prevent it,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “Mismanagement of our water  
resources by the State of California and federal government are  
sending both the endangered salmon and Delta smelt to extinction.  
Their political favoring of  billionaire growers over the rest of us  
is finishing off the fish.”

Barrigan-Parrilla said Governor Jerry Brown favors corporate  
agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley over  
the economic and environmental needs of the people who live in the San  
Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. The salmon fisheries that this estuary  
sustains support a $1.5 billion economy, while Delta farming supports  
a $5.2 billion economy.

"We are poised to lose Delta smelt, Winter-run salmon, and steelhead  
as these fisheries are collapsing. Where is Gov. Brown’s concern for  
the people who live and work in the estuary?” she concluded.

Robert Gammon, editor of the East Bay Express, summed up the problem  
that we face now with a large percent of the state's water dedicated  
to export crops grown by corporate agribusiness interests.

"Right now, California is producing far more almonds than state  
residents can consume. So much so that at least 70 percent of the  
state's almond crop is now exported — much of it to China. In other  
words, we're essentially exporting our water to China," said Gammon. (http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/california-targets-wrong-water-wasters/Content?oid=4222724 
)

If Delta smelt, Winter run Chinook salmon and steelhead go extinct,  
the question must be asked: will people be next? An estuary and  
environment that is no longer suitable for these fish to live in is  
also no longer suitable for people to live and thrive in. Remember -  
extinction is forever. 
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