[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Items for 5/24/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

May 24, 2007

 

1.  Top Items

 

Delta smelt population at lowest recorded level - Associated Press

 

Editorial: Water crisis looms; Dramatic decline of smelt is a troubling sign of a sick estuary - Fresno Bee

 

 

Delta smelt population at lowest recorded level

Associated Press – 5/24/07

By Samantha Young, staff writer

 

SACRAMENTO — The population of the tiny delta smelt, a species often seen as an indicator of problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is at an all-time low.

 

Just 25 baby smelt have been captured so far this year in research nets placed in the Sacramento River, a significant drop from the year before, said Chuck Armor, an acting regional manager for the California Department of Fish and Game. In 2006, researchers counted 326 fish through the middle of May.

 

The plunge has deepened concerns among wildlife officials about the ability of the species to survive.

 

"The numbers are so low that we are very concerned," Armor said. "Something happened out there this year. Hardly any are out there."

 

The state typically conducts eight smelt surveys through June. Because smelt live for just one year, this spring's low count does not bode well for the future, Armor said.

 

Environmental and fishing groups have complained that the state's water-pumping operations are a factor in the decline of several species, including smelt.

 

State researchers are studying whether other species are eating the smelt's food or toxins in the river are killing the fish.

 

State officials say no smelt have been killed at the Harvey O. Banks facility, the main pumping station outside Tracy that sends water to the Bay Area and Southern California.

 

Last month, an Alameda County judge ruled that the state Department of Water Resources had failed to comply with environmental laws designed to protect the smelt and other threatened fish from state pumping operations. The state has appealed the case.

 

Bill Jennings, executive director of a sportfishing group that sued the state, blamed the pumping for the decline.

 

"Delta smelt are the canary in the mine, and as the smelt goes so will a number of other species whose populations are also crashing," Jennings said in a statement. "This disaster would not now be occurring if state agencies had obeyed the law." #
http://www.insidebayarea.com/dailyreview/localnews/ci_5975369

 

 

Editorial: Water crisis looms; Dramatic decline of smelt is a troubling sign of a sick estuary

Fresno Bee – 5/24/07

 

It's easier for us all to understand certain problems. When a tanker trunk carrying gasoline overturns and ignites a freeway fire that crumbles a section of Oakland's MacArthur Maze, the impact on transportation is readily apparent. Or when two Humpback whales wander deep into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the rareness of this deviation is instinctive.

 

But there is another problem unfolding in the Delta involving a tiny fish known as a smelt. Biologists who track these fish should be finding thousands of them this time of year. Instead, they are finding a handful. The smelt are indicators of the overall health of the estuary.

 

Their dramatic decline could have a huge impact on the state. Management of our largest water sources, the state and federal pumps in the southern Delta, hangs in the balance. What's worrisome is that the experts may know more about nudging whales from the Delta than preventing these smelt from disappearing.

 

This vanishing tiny fish could very soon present Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with his first, true water crisis. None of the choices are easy, but running from the problem may be the riskiest of them all.

 

Environmental groups are expected to go to court demanding tougher enforcement of the California Endangered Species Act. Courts have threatened to take over control of the Delta before. It is inevitable unless fixing the Delta gets the same urgency as fixing the MacArthur Maze.

 

This is a sick estuary for many reasons. Invasive species such as Asian clams have taken hold. The food supply is profoundly altered. And the pumps in the southern Delta are changing the natural flow in the system. To sustain the state's economy, water must flow from north to south through the Delta. Nature intended the water to flow west into San Francisco Bay. Engineers and biologists have never resolved that conflict.

 

The level of pumping is a political obsession for obvious reasons. Southern California and San Joaquin Valley farmers rely on this supply. Many environmentalist believe the pumps are the core problem. Regardless, the pumps are the one variable in this very complex system that can be adjusted. They are the one dial that a judge can turn off (one threatened to recently; the case is on appeal).

 

If the state were to slow the pumps enough to prevent flows from reversing in the system, the impact could be huge -- a 50% cut in water supply. Imagine every other freeway lane going out of service until a solution is found for air pollution. That's one scenario for the Delta. Another is to find some "compromise" that eases the impact to farmers and the southland. But if the smelt don't buy the compromise, a judge won't. The Endangered Species Act is an unforgiving club when a species is about to vanish.

 

The smelt aren't a lovable fish. It doesn't matter. The real-world impact of a dysfunctional Delta is something that eventually we would all understand.  #

http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/49377.html

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