Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
March 28, 2007
1. Top Items -
State did not protect fish
Fish and Game head says he didn't require a take permit for Delta water operation. -
Water flow hinges on wildlife permits
Fish-kill license at issue as Department of Fish and Game director goes before Senate committee -
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
Lawmakers say state should have gotten permits to run water pumps -
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State did not protect fish
Fish and Game head says he didn't require a take permit for Delta water operation.
Sacramento
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
The director of
During a legislative hearing, Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick said it was within his power to require the Department of Water Resources to obtain a so-called "take permit" under the state Endangered Species Act.
"The reality is, you didn't take the step to try to enforce the law," state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, told Broddrick. "You testified (DWR) cannot 'take' without a permit to do so, and you failed to require that."
"Correct," Broddrick said.
The exchange came days after Alameda Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ordered DWR to shut its Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near
DWR first admitted it never obtained the permit during a Senate hearing in 2005. It claimed authority to kill fish under a "patchwork" of other rules.
The pumps deliver Delta water to about 25 million Californians from
Broddrick said a take permit can't be issued that fast, but the judge might be satisfied if the state's operations are proven consistent with federal law. He said his agency is working with DWR toward that goal.
Regardless, DWR intends to appeal the court ruling. And Nancy Saracino, DWR chief deputy director, said it will not seek a take permit.
She said DWR is working with Fish and Game and other agencies to devise a habitat conservation plan for the region. Such a plan could take years.
"The reason we didn't apply (for a permit) is that we're working to come up with a process that we think will be effective," she said. "We are operating daily under a process we believe gives us incidental take authority under
Instead of requiring the take permit, Broddrick said his department has worked with DWR to adopt operational changes that are less harmful to fish.
"We have changed daily operations to try and provide benefit to smelt," Broddrick said. "That process is amended as new science and information comes in."
But during questioning Tuesday, Broddrick admitted he has not determined if these measures are adequate to protect smelt.
"I do have an obligation to prove the remedy is sufficient," he said.
The committee told both agencies to return April 10 to explain their response to the court ruling.
The lawsuit was filed by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. Its attorney, Michael Lozeau, believes DWR doesn't want to obtain the take permit because it fears hard limits on water exports.
Nevertheless, he thinks the court would respond to a real effort by DWR to address the problem even without the permit.
"You can add some mitigations so there's a no net loss of fish. You can do that in 60 days and the judge would probably be receptive." Instead, Lozeau said, "They're going to roll the dice on whether the Delta's going to survive or not."#
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/145209.html
Water flow hinges on wildlife permits
Fish-kill license at issue as Department of Fish and Game director goes before Senate committee
CONTRA COSTA TIMES – 3/28/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
The only way to avoid a threatened shutdown of the state's largest water-delivery system is to adopt federal endangered species permits that are widely seen as flawed,
State regulators cannot issue their own permit within a court-imposed 60-day deadline, Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Brodderick told a state Senate committee. Adopting the federal permits is problematic because they already are being rewritten to address shortcomings, he said. They also were never meant to meet more protective state standards.
Testifying 19 months after the committee first inquired why the State Water Project lacks a permit to kill protected fish, Brodderick said his agency was never asked to issue one.
Several state senators expressed frustration with the Department of Water Resources for refusing to seek a permit and with Brodderick's department for not forcing the issue.
"You didn't take the step to try to enforce the law," said an exasperated Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden. "You cannot (harm or kill protected species) unless you have a permit, and you failed to do so."
"Correct," Brodderick replied, adding that he was acting within his discretion.
Last week, an Alameda County Superior Court judge tentatively ruled that he would cut off water delivery in 60 days unless the water department obtains a fish-kill permit.
The ruling affects the larger of two sets of Delta pumps. The state-owned pumps deliver water to fewer than 1 million acres of farmland and an estimated 25 million people from
If a shutdown occurs, most water agencies that depend on the Delta appear to have access to enough water to avoid an emergency.
State water officials, meanwhile, remain defiant, saying if they fail to convince the judge to change his ruling they will appeal.
Nancy Saracino, chief deputy director of the water department, told the committee that even though the agency lacks a state permit, a series of five documents issued from 1986 to 1995 together put the water project in legal compliance. The judge rejected that argument.
"Even today, Fish and Game and DWR don't seem to recognize the problem," Machado said after the hearing.
Despite years of planning and more than $3 billion spent to simultaneously improve water supplies and the Delta ecosystem, fish populations have plunged into a deep crisis with several fish species at or near record low numbers. Concern is growing among scientists and water managers that Delta smelt could be nearing extinction.
Many scientists believe the pumps, along with pollution and invasive species, are at least partially responsible.
Though there is no state permit, two federal endangered species permits are in effect. But both are being rewritten, in part because they were not sufficient to protect the ecosystem. One permit that protects salmon was the product of procedural irregularities and also criticized by a team of independent scientists as inadequate.
That leaves endangered species protection in the Delta largely hinging on an "environmental water account" used to offset water delivery curtailments. The account, which is set to expire this year, has been chronically undersized.
The response of state water officials to the eroding regulatory structure and plummeting fish populations is to develop a comprehensive plan for the entire ecosystem. But that plan began just last fall and is many years from completion.
"That's years off, and we're going to have species going extinct," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which brought the lawsuit that led to the threatened water shutdown.
A series of short-term voluntary measures also are being studied and, in some cases, implemented.
In 2005, the Times reported that biologists operating under the terms of the federal endangered species permits recommended slowdowns in pumping operations but were overruled twice at a time when the magnitude of the ecosystem problems was just becoming apparent.
That report led the Senate committee to inquire whether the water agency was complying with the state endangered species law, and that led to the revelation that the agency did not have a state permit to kill protected fish. A coalition of environmentalists and anglers sued.
The water department is expected to file additional arguments to change the ruling next week.#
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/email/news/16986419.htm
Lawmakers say state should have gotten permits to run water pumps
By Samantha Young, AP
Democratic state senators on Tuesday criticized the Schwarzenegger administration for failing to comply with environmental laws involving California's pumping of water out of the delta to the rest of the state.
The criticism comes less than a week after an Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered the Department of Water Resources to get the proper permits within 60 days. Otherwise, pumping could be halted, jeopardizing water deliveries to millions of Californians and hundreds of thousands of acres of farm land.
"Every time the court says what the administration should do, it looks more and more like the administration is failing," Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, said during a hearing of the Senate Natural Resources Committee.
At the heart of the dispute is one of the state's key pumping stations west of
But the pumps also suck in and kill fish species that are threatened or endangered, including chinook salmon and delta smelt.
Last Thursday, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that the state lacks the proper permits that would give it the authority to kill the fish. The state has known for years that its water deliveries rested on a patchwork of documents and agreements that might not give it explicit authorization.
Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow gave testimony before the same Senate committee in 2005, acknowledging that his department would like to have a single state permit to authorize its pumping operations.
"Why was there never a permit requested? Why are we where we are today given those promises of 2005?" said Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, chair of the committee.
State officials began a multiyear conservation plan for the entire delta last year. The effort is largely in response to long-held concerns about the survival of the spring and winter runs of salmon and the decline of the delta smelt.
That plan is being formed instead of obtaining individual permits but could be years from completion.
"We have acted affirmatively, immediately after that hearing, to engage in a process on a holistic level to address delta sustainability," said Nancy Saracino, chief deputy director of the Department of Water Resources.
The judge's ruling would require the California Department of Fish and Game to approve environmental permits so the state could operate its pumps. Water department officials said they plan to ask the judge for more than the 60 days imposed by his order so they can work through issues involving endangered species. They also want to continue working on the habitat conservation plan.
While he was critical of the Department of Water Resources, Sen. Mike Machado also placed blame with the Department of Fish and Game. He said the agency had abdicated its role by not requiring wildlife permits from the water agency.
"The reality is you didn't take the step to try and enforce the law," Machado, D-Linden, said.
State Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick said his agency was taking a broader approach to protect several vulnerable species in the delta by helping the water agency develop the larger conservation plan.
Broddrick and Snow, of the Department of Water Resources, are appointees of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said the state's conservation strategy is at least five years away despite pledges by state officials to complete a "conceptual" draft by the end of the year.
"We don't have five or six years to leisurely develop a comprehensive program,"
The sport fishing group filed the lawsuit that led to last week's court ruling.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/37943.html
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