Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
May 29, 2007
1. Top Items
Judge says better management of delta needed - Associated Press
Judge rules against water system; Action is another win for environmentalists concerned about how delta pumping operations affect the threatened native smelt - Los Angeles Times
Another judge agrees: Projects harm delta fish - Contra Costa Times
Judge: Smelt left unprotected; Delta pumping plan criticized in ruling -
Opinion: Preserving the imperiled California Delta; The fragile Northern California ecosystem from which L.A. gets much of its water can't wait very long for a plan to fix it - Los Angeles Times
Judge says better management of delta needed
Associated Press – 5/25/07
By Paul Elias, staff writer
U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger in
"The Delta smelt is undisputedly in jeopardy as to its survival and recovery," Wanger wrote in tossing out a 2005 pumping plan developed by federal scientists, who found the current program didn't jeopardize the fish. That finding was "arbitrary, capricious, and contrary to law."
Giant pumps are constantly sucking water out of the delta and sending most of it to thirsty
The Fish and Wildlife Service in July 2004 said the Bureau of Reclamation's water management plans would not jeopardize endangered and threatened delta fish.
It renewed the scientific opinion in February 2005.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and five other environmental groups sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in February 2005. The action followed the federal agency's ruling that said increases in state and federal pumping from the delta to benefit farmers and
The environmentalists asked a federal court to invalidate that opinion, which Wanger did late Friday. "I think it sends a pretty clear message to the agency that they can't treat the delta like a piece of plumbing," said Earthjustice attorney Andrea Treece, who represented many of the environmentalists who sued. #
http://www.dailynews.com/search//ci_5991786
Judge rules against water system; Action is another win for environmentalists concerned about how delta pumping operations affect the threatened native smelt
By Bettina Boxall, staff writer
For the second time this year, a judge has ruled that management of
U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger issued the ruling Friday and ordered a hearing for next week at which he could issue a stay in the case, forestalling any immediate effect on the pumping operation.
The ruling was another victory for environmentalists who have been attacking the state's delta operations on multiple legal fronts, arguing that water shipments are helping drive the once abundant native delta smelt to extinction.
"I think it certainly demonstrates we need to take a pretty hard look at what we're doing to this system and find other ways of meeting water needs than 'Let's pump the delta dry,' " said Andrea Treece, associate attorney for Earthjustice, which won the ruling on behalf of a coalition of environmental and sport-fishing groups.
"I don't think anyone is trying to get the pumps shut down. They're trying to save a species."
Wanger invalidated a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opinion that had concluded that the federal and state water operations did not jeopardize the survival of the tiny smelt, which is protected under the federal Endangered Species Act.
"The delta smelt is indisputably in jeopardy as to its survival and recovery," Wanger wrote in a 120-page opinion.
The "no-jeopardy finding is arbitrary, capricious and contrary to law."
The fish and wildlife agency was already rewriting the opinion but is not expected to issue a new one until next year.
In a separate case this spring, a state judge threatened to turn off the delta pumps after finding that the state Department of Water Resources had not received proper authorization under the California Endangered Species Act to operate the pumping.
The state has obtained a stay in that case pending an appeal.
Meanwhile, the smelt's fate has grown more precarious. When researchers went looking for larval smelt last week, they caught 25, compared with 300 last year.
"The survey this year is much lower than we expected," said Jerry Johns, water resources deputy director.
But Johns argued it was wrong to blame the smelt's plummeting numbers entirely on the water operations.
"We've got to be looking at this from a broader standpoint," he said.
Scientists suspect a number of factors besides the pumping are at play in the smelt's decline, including toxic contaminants in the delta and invasive species that are altering the waterway's food sources.
Johns said toxic levels of pesticides were found in the smelt's spawning waters this year. "This is the first time we've seen a toxic event like this," he said.
"You're going to get started on an immediate solution, but we need to turn the right knob. It's possible we turn the pumping knob and nothing happens to the delta smelt."
The court rulings are placing increasing pressure on one of the largest water diversion projects in the world.
The pumps are so powerful they can reverse flows in the delta's water channels and have changed the balance of salinity in the delta, which empties into
"I hope it's marking a turning point where we can force some real change in how this system is exploited," Treece said of the rulings. #
Another judge agrees: Projects harm delta fish
Contra Costa Times – 5/26/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
A federal judge Friday ruled that a permit allowing massive water delivery projects to be built in the delta is illegal because it fails to account for the risk posed to a species of tiny endangered fish.
It is the second time in two months that a court has declared the state's water projects in violation of endangered species laws.
The ruling comes the same week as a new study was released showing the delta smelt population has plunged closer to extinction.
U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger in
However, his 120-page order seems likely to lead to cuts in the amount of water taken out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for use in the
At issue is a 2005 document issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that is supposed to analyze the impact the water projects have on delta smelt and then set limits on those projects to ensure the fish does not become extinct.
Wanger ruled that the document failed to include information that showed smelt populations were in very bad shape, and that it opted for a voluntary approach instead of setting firm requirements to protect the fish. The order said the Fish and Wildlife Service's document was too lenient to satisfy the Endangered Species Act.
"I think it sends a pretty strong signal that the agencies have to comply with the law rather than just skate by," said Andrea Treece, a lawyer for Earthjustice who argued the case for environmentalists.
The ruling is the latest development on the future of the delta ecosystem and the state's ability to sustain massive water deliveries.
A separate lawsuit challenges the water projects' authorization to harm protected salmon runs.
Last month, an
A spokesman for the federal water agency, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said a new permit was in the works and scheduled to be completed by July 2008.
"I don't know what happens in the meantime. We've never been here before," said the spokesman, Jeff McCracken.
The state Department of Water Resources, which has now been told by two different courts that its water operations are in violation of both state and federal endangered species laws, had no comment.
Wanger wrote in his order that he would hold a hearing on how to remedy the situation within 30 days.
Treece, the lawyer, said environmentalists would press the judge and the water agencies to follow recommendations from scientists about how to protect the fish.
"Maybe the agencies will start listening to their scientists now," she said. #
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_5994242
Judge: Smelt left unprotected; Delta pumping plan criticized in ruling
By John Ellis, staff writer
Environmentalists are claiming victory after a federal judge in
U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger declined to impose any remedies until after environmentalists and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confer on his decision.
Still, Andrea Treece, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council -- the lead plaintiff in the case -- said "certainly reductions in [water] pumping are on the table."
Wanger's decision will require the agency's opinion -- known as a "biological opinion" -- to be rewritten. That could affect those who depend on delta water deliveries, such as
The Natural Resources Defense Council and five other environmental groups sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in February 2005 in response to the opinion by the agency. The opinion was assembled in response to a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation water management plan for the delta.
In the 120-page decision, Wanger found the Fish and Wildlife Service didn't use the best-available scientific data or consider climate change in putting together its smelt impact report; failed to require any real-time protection for the tiny fish; failed to consider impacts to the smelt's habitat; and failed to analyze impacts on the smelt's overall population numbers.
The decision wasn't absolute, however. In two areas, Wanger ruled against the environmentalists.
"Overall, I think it certainly is a victory and hopefully a turning point in how agencies look at the delta and the way they approach its management," Treece said. "We hope this sends a very clear signal that they can't ignore the law anymore."
Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Al Donner declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit because agency attorneys have yet to review it. Still, Donner said, the service has been working since last summer on an updated smelt impact report that it hopes to complete in the near future.
In an April hearing on the matter before Wanger, lawyers for the environmental groups claimed the agency had ignored 2004 data -- which showed a steep decline in the delta smelt population -- in favor of more favorable 2003 data when it was preparing the biological opinion.
At stake is a federal Endangered Species Act permit that allows both state and federal water-delivery projects to operate. Smelt are killed in the operation of pumps that send delta water southward.
While the agency works to update the opinion, Donner said, it also is working to help the delta smelt. Recent surveys, he said, show very small numbers of juvenile smelt, which is a concern. As part of that, he said, water pumping is at a very low level, which he said "should be good for the smelt."
Environmentalists also have a parallel lawsuit -- in which similar legal arguments are being made -- involving the effects of delta pumping on steelhead and salmon. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/50117.html
Opinion: Preserving the imperiled
By Bill Stall, contributing editor to the Opinion page
DELTA AND DAWN, the wayward humpback whales stranded near Rio Vista, have taught thousands about the location of the California Delta, where the
And the delta is in trouble. Has been for at least 30 years. But this year, the juvenile population of the endangered delta smelt — an "indicator" species — dropped by 93%, a plunge toward extinction that could signal imminent disaster. Arresting that disaster could require a cut in water delivered to you and me.
The delta is a 700-square-mile maze of river channels, sloughs, marshes and mostly artificial islands protected by a tenuous levee system. Two giant water-delivery systems — the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project — draw their water from the delta and send it southward in canals to the farms of the San Joaquin Valley and homes and businesses in Southern California.
The problem is that extensive pumping over the last half a century has disrupted the environment of the delta. Fish sometimes end up in the machinery, and the pumping is so strong that it sometimes reverses the natural river-to-delta-to-bay water flow. Temperature, depth and salinity are affected. On top of that, increased irrigation using pumped delta water means increased irrigation runoff, which has reduced the overall quality of delta water.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Delta Vision task force recognizes the problem, and it is supposed to produce a comprehensive solution to a host of delta problems by the end of 2008. Good luck.
Efforts to address the situation go back to the 1960s and the original State Water Project, which was supposed to deliver 4.2 million acre-feet of water a year to
In 1982, however,
Next came Cal-Fed, a consortium of state and federal agencies and a score of "stakeholders" (environmental groups, commercial fishermen, urban water users, irrigators, etc.) that attempted to negotiate an end to the state water wars. The process had a warm and fuzzy feel, and in 2001, we got a multiyear, $13-billion plan for more infrastructure, to be paid for by state and federal funds.
Turns out, however, that consensus works best when it comes to "protecting the environment" and "serving the needs of people." This one fell apart over details like where to spend the money first and who would pay which bill. Each stakeholder wanted to come out ahead, but there's not enough water left in
The delta doesn't have another 30 years for more warm and fuzzy negotiations. The state — beginning with Schwarzenegger's task force — must make tough decisions now.
Once and for all, it has to build a canal or another conveyance to send
The state should immediately buy up thousands of acres of irrigated farmland on the west side of the
And finally,
####
No comments:
Post a Comment