Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
June 1, 2007
1. Top Items
State halts key water pump to protect endangered delta smelt - Associated Press
State shuts off delta water to protect smelt; Pumping will be halted for no more than seven to 10 days, official says. Deliveries to Central Valley farms, Southland cities won't be affected - Los Angeles Times
State shuts off one of SoCal's water supply taps - North County Times
State shuts down pumps; Officials say halt will help fish on verge of extinction - Bakersfield Californian
Water flow to region cut
Smelt decline turns off delta water pumps; Official says users relying on state project will be OK - San Francisco Chronicle
Delta pumps turned off to protect fish; No shortages of water expected, state officials say - Inside Bay Area
Delta pumps idled to save smelt; NO WATER RATIONING SEEN BECAUSE OF MOVE - San Jose Mercury News
Delta pumps halted; If shutdown is long, agencies may order conservation or rationing - Sacramento Bee (This same article also appeared in today’s Fresno
State Halts Key Water Pumps To Protect Fish; Move Intended To Save Endangered Delta Smelt - KCRA Channel 3 (Sacramento
Delta pumps shut down; Water exports halted due to smelt's dire state - Stockton Record
State shuts down Delta pumps - Lodi News Sentinel
State halts key water pump to protect endangered delta smelt
Associated Press – 5/31/07
By Juliana Barbassa, staff writer
“As of this morning, we've gone to complete shutdown to avoid any further take of delta smelt at our facility,” said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources. “We're calling on other agencies, other entities to take similar action.”
The pump shutdown will not leave customers without water. Urban and rural water districts will get deliveries from the San Luis Reservoir and other sources, Snow said.
State officials said shutting the Harvey O. Banks pumping station outside
“It was a difficult decision,” said Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan L. Broddrick, who asked the state to stop the pumps. “There are trade-offs from an economic and even an environmental standpoint.”
The move comes less than two weeks after officials reported the smelt population at an all-time low, raising questions about the species' ability to survive. The three-inch long fish – considered a key indicator of the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – are protected under the California Endangered Species Act.
The shutdown follows an April decision by an
The state has appealed the ruling.
Environmentalists who have long asked for a reduction in the amount of water drawn from the fragile ecosystem celebrated the news. But they expressed concern the pumps are expected to resume within less than two weeks, without a long-term solution on the table.
“We were standing with the smelt on the precipice of extinction,” said Bill Jennings, head of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and longtime delta advocate. “Something had to be done.”
One of the State Water Department's largest customers, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, supported the move, even though it meant falling back on water supplied through sources such as the Colorado River that are already experiencing low water flows.
“This highlights the fact the system is broken,” said Jeff Kightlinger, the water district's general manager.
Kightlinger said more needs to be done to cut back on other sources of stress on the species, including agricultural runoff that brings pesticide into the delta, invasive species that compete with the smelt, and predatory fish that eat them.
Water districts more heavily dependent on delta water showed more concern about the immediate impact of the pump shutdown.
“We're not panicked, but we are concerned, and we have all our engineers working on how we can reconfigure our system to deliver what we've promised,” said Susan Siravo, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which gets about 50 percent of its water from the delta.
Interruptions in the supply of delta water might cause the district to increase reliance on groundwater, which could increase costs, hinder their ability to manage future droughts and cause the land to sink, district officials said.
Environmentalists, water districts and state officials all agreed that a long-term solution was essential.
“If we don't fix the delta, this is going to start happening every year,” Snow said. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070531-1803-ca-troubleddelta.html
State shuts off delta water to protect smelt; Pumping will be halted for no more than seven to 10 days, official says. Deliveries to
By Bettina Boxall, staff writer
To protect a tiny imperiled fish, state water officials Thursday turned off the huge pumps that send water to
Water Resources Director Lester Snow said he hoped that the shutdown would last no more than seven to 10 days, adding that it should not hurt deliveries to most State Water Project customers.
"People will have water. Nobody is going without water," Snow said. "We would not expect to see rationing."
The state acted after more than 200 young delta smelt were killed at the south delta pumps over Memorial Day weekend. The population of the native fish had fallen precipitously in recent years and surveys last month found record low numbers of larval smelt.
"Drastic times call for drastic measures," Snow said. "While there are clearly many factors at play in the current decline of smelt in the delta, we must act on the one that is within our control."
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which runs a smaller set of delta pumps at which nearly 300 smelt have been killed recently, also announced that it was substantially cutting pumping rates for now.
Fish and game officials hope that when the delta water temperature warms up over the next week, the smelt will move toward
Meanwhile, the federal and state water projects will draw from San Luis Reservoir, south of the delta, to maintain deliveries to Central Valley farms and
The pumping shutdown is the latest development in an escalating crisis over the delta, a long-troubled ecosystem that is the major water crossroads for
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the State Water Project's biggest customer, supported the pumping halt but said state officials needed to do more immediately to help the smelt.
"We don't see any action being taken there [now]," Metropolitan General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said, referring to pesticide contamination, invasive species and other delta problems thought to be contributing to the smelt decline.
Deputy Water Resources Director Jerry Johns said the regional water quality board needed "to be all over" the pesticide contamination.
"The key would be, let's not let it happen again — figure out where it's coming from," Johns said.
He also said the state was moving to restore fish habitat and hoped to take steps this winter that would increase the smelt's food supply in the north delta.
Water officials all view the pumping shutdown as another sign that the state needs to change the way it moves water from Northern to
"We have a system that is not sustainable for our water supplies or the ecosystem," Snow said. "If we don't fix the delta, this is going to start happening every year."
This spring, both a federal and a state judge ruled that the water operations were illegally endangering the smelt and salmon, opinions that if upheld could force a long-term reduction in delta water exports.
The pumping problems are occurring as Southern California is headed for its driest year on record and another major source of water for the region, the
"This feels like a lot of things piling up, making it extremely difficult to move water in the state," Kightlinger said.
The agency is launching an advertising campaign to encourage voluntary water conservation in
Kightlinger said that if the dry conditions persist into next year, water rationing may become necessary.
"I think everything is on the table if we have another dry year," he said. #
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-delta1jun01,1,2655894.story?coll=la-headlines-california
State shuts off one of SoCal's water supply taps
By Gig Conaughton, staff writer
In a move that seemed to shake water leaders across
Water and state fish and game officials immediately convened teleconferences to proclaim that the hoped-for seven- to 10-day shutdown would not cut anyone's water supply.
But they just as quickly said the shutdown could last longer and urged people all around the state to find ways to voluntarily cut their water use. They used words such as "ominous," "drastic" and "serious" in describing the situation and the long-debated future of
| |
The ecologically fragile bay delta is the heart of
"It all depends upon the length of time that the pumps are down," San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Maureen Stapleton said.
Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said the agency had decided to shut down the Water Project's main pumps, the Harvey O. Banks pumping plant ---- effectively turning off the tap for Southern California ---- when it was determined that already-endangered delta smelt were being killed by being sucked into the pump.
In March, a Superior Court judge stunned water officials statewide when he gave the Department of Water Resources 60 days to get new permits to allow the killing of delta smelt by pumps or shut the pumps down. Snow said Thursday's shutdown was unrelated to the court order, which the state is appealing.
Snow and California Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick said the endangered fish normally migrate away from the pumps to other parts of the bay delta by this time of year, but that they had stayed around because water temperatures had not heated up.
Snow said the department's plan was to shut down the pumps and monitor the situation daily, in the hope they could resume pumping within seven to 10 days.
Meanwhile, officials from Southern California's main supplier, the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District, said if the shutdown lasted 10 to 12 days, Southern California probably would not lose any of its expected
However, Metropolitan General Manager Jeff Kightlinger said if the shutdown lasted any longer, the region would lose part of its water supply because there wouldn't be enough days left to deliver the entire supply.
Southern California in general, and
However, the region has relied more heavily upon the State Water Project in recent years, after signing a historic agreement in 2003 with six other Western states to cut
Kightlinger, meanwhile, said Thursday that although
For now, Kightlinger said, Metropolitan would increase radio and television advertisements prodding people to cut water use, especially outdoor water use that accounts for 50 percent to 60 percent of all residential use.
He said that
But he said the current looming "crisis" felt different because there were so many problems: a historic eight-year drought on the Colorado River, the problems in the bay delta, and a record-setting drought this year in
"I've never seen it so dry in every single place where we draw water," he said. "It feels like an awful lot of things piling up."
Although water officials were not happy about the idea of shutting off the bay delta's pumps, they universally applauded the state's action, saying it was the right thing to do.
Kightlinger said Metropolitan would lobby state lawmakers to immediately allocate "hundreds of millions of dollars" that could be used to rebuild bay delta wetlands and sloughs to support endangered fish and keep pumps running.
Kightlinger, and others, also said the shutdown would likely renew cries for the "peripheral canal" ---- a plan to build a canal around the bay delta to deliver water that was trounced by
Echoing comments from Kightlinger and Snow, Stapleton and Water Authority Assistant General Manager Dennis Cushman said Thursday's shutdown proved the bay delta was "broken."
"If a shutdown doesn't underscore how broken the delta is, then some people just aren't getting the message," Cushman said. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/06/01/news/top_stories/40_21_266_1_07.txt
State shuts down pumps; Officials say halt will help fish on verge of extinction
Bakersfield
By Vic Pollard, staff writer
The shutdown probably will last no longer than seven to 10 days, after which the fish are expected to move away from the pump intakes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta west of Stockton, officials said.
If that is the case, farmers and city dwellers are not expected to see any shortages because some replacement water is available in a big reservoir near Los Banos.
But if the fish don't move away and the shutdown goes on longer, both agricultural and urban water suppliers likely will have to begin using more expensive ground water pumped from wells.
That could mean higher prices in the supermarket and higher water bills for homes.
The shutdown took Kern County Water Agency officials by surprise, but Jim Beck, the agency's general manager, said local officials and farmers were "reassured" to hear that managers of the State Water Project believe the county's water supply from the project's California Aqueduct will not be interrupted immediately.
"I'd hope this situation gets resolved prior to any additional shortages," Beck said, "but with that amount of uncertainty on the horizon, we will continue to take measures to deal with any looming shortages."
The aqueduct supplies more than one gallon of water out of every five used in
Officials of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which uses even more aqueduct water than
Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, announced the shutdown in a conference call with reporters.
He said the aqueduct pumps were shut down Thursday morning because they were pulling in and chewing up many migrating Delta smelt that had moved too close to the pump intakes.
The Delta smelt, a 2- to 3-inch fish currently listed as a threatened species, is the focus of an intense legal battle. Environmental groups have won rulings in recent weeks that state and federal water projects are operating without the environmental permits they need to ensure protection of the smelt.
At the same time, this spring's annual population count of smelt showed they may be at the lowest level in history.
Scientists consider the smelt, which spends its life in the Delta, an indicator species for the health of the habitat for salmon and a variety of other threatened and endangered fish species that depend on the Delta.
"As the Delta smelt goes, so go a lot of other species," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which filed one of the lawsuits.
"Obviously they took this action because they knew the environmental community would be in court seeking an emergency restraining order," he said.
Beck, Snow and other water officials said they believe it is unfair to point to the pumps as the only remedy for the smelt decline. They say the species is also threatened by an explosive invasion of tiny clams that eat their microscopic food, pesticides and other factors.
They said the shutdown shows the need for construction of a canal that would channel water around the delta directly to the pumps, so the fish would not be drawn in.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced it has sharply reduced pumping from its nearby plant that also supplies water to many farmers in the valley, including those in the Westlands Water District west of
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/154639.html
Water flow to region cut
Riverside Press
By Jennifer Bowles, staff writer
State water officials on Thursday turned off the pumps that send water to 25 million Californians and thousands of acres of farmland to protect a rare fish whose numbers recently fell to historic lows.
Calling it a drastic and urgent measure, state officials said the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps could be shut down for seven to 10 days. Water supplies should not be affected unless the shutdown lasts longer because the fish remain at risk, they said.
The delta supplies about one-third of the Inland region's water, and regional officials are urging residents to voluntarily conserve.
"Nobody is going without water," said Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources.
"We will take emergency actions as necessary, but we will have water for businesses and for people to drink."
Less than two weeks ago, officials reported that the Delta smelt population had plummeted to an all-time low, raising questions about the species' ability to survive. The 3-inch-long fish are chewed up by the massive pumps and are vulnerable to invasive species, pesticides and other threats.
Smelt are protected under state and federal endangered species laws.
The shutdown also follows an April decision by an Alameda County Superior Court judge ordering the state to stop pumping water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta within 60 days. The judge ruled that the Department of Water Resources lacks the proper permits or authority to run a key pumping station outside
Whether the pumps will be turned back on will be determined in part by temperature -- whether the delta warms up enough that the smelt head away from the pumps and into a marsh, said Sue Sims, a department spokeswoman.
In the meantime, the state will draw water for
The delta is a major Inland water source. Depending on the area, it could provide the majority of water. In the Coachella and
Western Municipal Water District, which serves 650,000 people from
The district's general manager, John Rossi, said the region should be able to get through the summer and the rest of the year with the expected shutdown.
"If it's longer than that," he said, "we'll have to more carefully evaluate the impact."
Other Sources
Peter Odencrans, a spokesman for Perris-based Eastern Municipal Water District, said the agency has local water sources, including
Snow said the state will draw water from other reservoirs along the California Aqueduct. The level at
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the region's largest urban supplier, said he agreed with the decision to turn off the pumps but pointed out that it comes at a time when all sources, including the
Water officials are asking residents to conserve, especially on outdoor watering, which can account for 60 percent to 80 percent of a household's consumption.
Kightlinger also said the district will ask farmers in the Palo Verde Valley in eastern
The pump shutdown, Kightlinger said, highlights ongoing problems with the delta despite a major effort to find remedies. He said the state should be doing more to protect the water supply by financing habitat restoration for the smelt, among other steps. #
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_pumps01.3dfbaf7.html
Smelt decline turns off delta water pumps; Official says users relying on state project will be OK
San Francisco Chronicle – 6/1/07
By Glen Martin, staff writer
In a bid to save a tiny endangered fish, state officials stopped on Thursday the giant delta pumps that deliver water to 25 million Californians, including hundreds of thousands of
The move was set off by record low numbers of delta smelt, a small, silvery fish endemic to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The smelt is an indicator species for the delta, a gauge by which to measure the ecological health of the vast marshy region.
Many scientists consider the huge water pumps near
The pumps are blamed for grinding up large numbers of smelt. Pesticides and invasive fish that eat smelt are also considered likely culprits in their decline.
Lester Snow, the director of the California Department of Water Resources, said the pumps will be turned off for seven to 10 days, with agency staffers evaluating the situation daily. The smelt typically congregate around the general location of the pumps early in the year, but move out to the brackish waters of the west delta by late May, seeking cooler water.
Snow and California Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick said biologists don't know why the smelt have lingered near the pumps longer than usual this year.
Snow said urban and agricultural contractors south of the delta will continue to receive water from San Luis Reservoir, a vast impoundment in the
The situation is somewhat more tenuous for water districts in
Snow said the East and
"No one is going to run out of water," he said.
Boni Brewer, a spokeswoman for the Zone 7 Water Agency, which supplies water to 200,000 residents in
"We're probably going to be OK," Brewer said. "We have good groundwater resources, and we also get water from Lake Del Valle (in the
But she pointed out that a statewide drought has already increased pressure on many water agencies. The snowpack this year was at its lowest level since 1988.
"This is a dry year. We need our customers to use water wisely," Brewer said.
Zone 7 is not considering imposing water conservation measures at this time, she said.
Environmentalists and fishery advocates generally were happy with the pump shutdown.
"I'm surprised and delighted," said Bill Jennings, the executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, a group which recently has won key legal decisions against the state over smelt issues.
"There are so few smelt out there now that you might as well name them instead of counting them," he said.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also owns a set of massive water pumps near
Legal analysts say the state and federal agencies have themselves in a bind over the smelt because of recent court decisions.
"They're enormously exposed," said Barry Nelson, a senior policy analyst with the
Nelson cited an Alameda County Superior Court ruling issued earlier this year that said the state should shut down the pumps or get permits that would allow officials to legally continue killing smelt. That decision is being appealed. Last week another court ruled that it was illegal for the federal government to contend that increasing water exports from the delta wouldn't harm the smelt.
"This was not a case where the (state and federal agencies) were doing everything they could (to help the smelt), or even that they were doing nothing," Nelson said. "The courts found that they were causing the problem. This crisis is now coming to a head, but it has been developing for years." #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/01/BAGD4Q5TJK1.DTL
Delta pumps turned off to protect fish; No shortages of water expected, state officials say
Inside Bay Area – 6/1/07
By Mike Taugher, Contra Costa Times staff writer
The California Department of Water Resources turned off the massive Delta pumps that deliver water to 25 million people on Thursday to protect a tiny fish that is plunging toward extinction.
The state's move, which is apparently unprecedented, is not expected to trigger immediate water shortages. But it could cause reservoirs popular with boaters and anglers, such as Lake Del Valle near
For now, state water officials say the shutdown is likely to be in place for seven to 10 days. It could be extended if it is not endangering public health and safety and if turning the pumps back on would kill more imperiled Delta smelt.
"People will have water. Nobody is going without water," DWR director Lester Snow said.
But Snow also emphasized that the Delta's ecology and its ability to meet state water demands are broken.
"If we don't fix the Delta, this is going to start happening every year," he said.
The federal government, which also operates massive Delta pumps, did not follow suit and announced plans to continue pumping at reduced levels.
Water agencies across
"I think you have to be realistic that it could be a lot longer — a month or two," said Jill Duerig, general manager of the Zone 7 Water Agency.
Duerig's agency, which serves nearly 200,000 people in
Duerig said water customers are unlikely to face mandatory rationing during the next week, but the agency is developing contingency plans in case the pumps are not turned back on soon.
The shutdown, apparently the first time the pumps have been turned off to protect fish, comes after two judges ruled in separate lawsuits that the pumps are operating in violation of endangered species laws.
Then last week, new data emerged showing that the population of Delta smelt, the most severely imperiled of a host of declining Delta fish species, once again plunged sharply downward this spring.
And finally, Delta smelt began showing up in the fish salvage plant near the pumps last weekend, proving that the fish were being killed there as they got sucked into a nearby channel and trapped. The numbers of Delta smelt that turned up at the pumps increased through the week.
On Thursday, Fish and Game director Ryan Broddrick asked the state water agency to turn the pumps off.
"Right now, we expect it is going to be seven to 10 days," said Broddrick spokesman Greg Hurner.
Broddrick's agency today will ask the Contra Costa Water District, the federal government, hundreds of small farmers and others to stop or alter their water pumping, Hurner said.
The Contra Costa district has several intake pipes in the Delta and storage in Los Vaqueros Reservoir, so it was unclear late Thursday how that agency and its 500,000 customers might be affected. But other actions to protect Delta smelt could increase salinity in the district's water supply, adversely affecting water quality, Hurner said.
Other than the State Water Project pumps, the next largest pumps in the Delta are the massive Central Valley Project pumps that are operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, delivering water to San Joaquin Valley farmers, Santa Clara County and others.
The federal pumps will continue to run at a rate that is 75 percent lower than is normal for this time of year, said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken.
McCracken said the federal pumps cannot run any slower without being completely shut off. And, he said, the bureau cannot completely shut the pumps off because the city of
However, of the 850 cubic-feet per second that are being pumped,
Invasive species, particularly a clam from
But scientists determined last year that the direction of flow on two southern Delta rivers are important to the Delta smelt's survival. When the pumps are running so hard that
Water agencies this year continued to draw the rivers upstream, but at a much slower pace than in recent years. That may partly explain why very few Delta smelt were showing up at the pumping plants' fish screens until recently.
Fish biologists have recommended the flow in those two rivers be watched closely until the water warms up to about 77 degrees, at which point the surviving smelt are assumed to have moved safely to colder water. The water temperature near the pumps now is lower than 72 degrees.
Although the poor results of recent fish surveys have led some biologists and environmentalists to express concern that the fish could be approaching extinction, Fish and Game director Broddrick was not so pessimistic.
"I would not ring the extinction bell," he said.
State water officials say the last time the pumps were shut off was in 2004, when the Jones Tract levee broke and officials stopped pumping to reduce saltwater intrusion into the Delta. #
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_6036506
Delta pumps idled to save smelt; NO WATER RATIONING SEEN BECAUSE OF MOVE
By Paul Rogers, staff writer
In a move that highlights the fragile nature of
The pumps, on the south edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, near
The move is designed, he said, to allow the delta smelt, a thin, nearly translucent fish whose population has been crashing in recent years, to migrate past the pumps. During the past week, the pumps have sucked in and killed at least 200 delta smelt.
Under the state and federal endangered species acts, it is illegal to kill endangered fish and wildlife.
Although the news sent shock waves across the state's water districts, Snow said he does not expect water rationing.
"People will have water. Nobody is going without water. We will have water for business and water for people to drink," he said.
In many parts of the state, the lost water can be made up by increasing the pumping of groundwater or by diverting more from local reservoirs, he said.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District said it will increase reliance on groundwater. Its 10 local reservoirs are 59 percent full. But if the delta pumps remain off for longer, shortages could arise, the district said.
"We are concerned. However, we do have quite a bit of water in the reservoirs. There won't be any rationing. But we are asking people to voluntarily conserve," said spokeswoman Susan Siravo.
Also Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced it will temporarily cut pumping by 75 percent from the delta to the Central Valley Project, a network of dams and canals that provides water mostly to farms.
Snow, the state water director, said Californians will be asked to conserve water during the coming week to help the situation.
He also noted that state water officials will increase releases of water from San Luis Reservoir, a massive lake along Highway 152 near Los Banos, to make up the difference.
Spawning smelt
Smelt live in
Snow said state officials will monitor the situation daily. As the smelt, now clustered near the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near
He said the shutdown will stop 10,000 acre-feet of water a day from leaving the delta. One acre foot is enough for a family of five for a year.
Environmental groups said the move stems from years of mismanagement, mostly because of over-pumping of fresh water from the delta, an expanse of marshes and sloughs where the
"This all could have been handled with much less drastic measures if the water project agencies had anticipated the problems coming at them," said Tom Graff, state director for Environmental Defense, in
"The scientific and environmental communities have been sounding the alarms for years, but even court orders didn't really move the agencies to be aggressive. It's taken the threat of imminent extinction of an indicator species to do that."
As smelt populations have fallen, environmental groups have sued. An
Previous shutdowns
The pumps were last shut off in 2004, to block saltwater flows after a levee break at a delta area known as the Jones Tract. In 1999, state official shut the pumps for about 10 days because of endangered fish issues.
Scientists say the heavy pumping of fresh water from the delta to farms and cities has been a major factor in the smelt's decline through the 1980s and 1990s. But other factors are believed to be harming the fish. They include pesticides and non-native species. The tiny overbite clam, for example, brought to the bay in the ballast water of ships, has been consuming huge amounts of the plankton that delta smelt eat.
This year, which had
"I don't think that they are at the edge of extinction, but you've seen a long-term decline," said Ryan Broddrick, director of California Fish and Game.
Solutions to the delta problem have been elusive. The state's human population has been growing by 600,000 a year. Permanent reductions in freshwater pumping from the delta would mean less water for farms and probably higher water costs in cities.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing for two new reservoirs at a cost of $4billion - one in
Democrats have killed the idea in the Legislature, however, saying the projects are too costly, would result in urban residents giving large subsidies to agribusiness, and would harm the environment.
Others have called for major re-engineering of the delta, such as a canal that would take water out of the Sacramento River and send it around the delta to the pumps at
A 600-mile-long series of dams, canals and pumps, the State Water Project stretches from Oroville Dam in
"If we don't fix the delta," Snow said, "this is going to start happening every year." #
http://www.mercurynews.com/lifestyle/ci_6035871?nclick_check=1
Delta pumps halted; If shutdown is long, agencies may order conservation or rationing
Sacramento Bee (This same article also appeared in today’s Fresno
By Matt Weiser, staff writer
State Department of Water Resources officials said the action is expected to last seven to 10 days, until water conditions allow the fish to move to safer areas. Shortages are not expected for the 25 million Californians who get water from the Delta.
But if the shutdown lasts longer, some water agencies, mainly in the Bay Area, may have to impose mandatory conservation or rationing measures. Many have called on customers to adopt extra voluntary conservation steps amid what is already one of the driest years on record in the state.
"Nobody is going without water," said DWR Director Lester Snow. "We will ramp up efforts for additional conservation. We want everybody to conserve water both because of this circumstance and the low snowpack this year."
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also has shut down all but one of the six pumps at its separate, federal Delta water export facility, an unprecedented step.
"We have never been in the situation we are right now," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken.
Bureau engineers are working to further cut the flow while still sending enough water downstream to keep
This may be the first time state water exports have been halted to protect fish. The pumps were last silenced in 2004, and only for a couple of days, to protect water quality after a levee break in the Delta.
The latest shutdown came after a request from the state Department of Fish and Game, which also asked small water users in the south Delta to halt diversions. Fish and Game also suspended all scientific collection of smelt except for those needed to monitor the population.
The smelt is a translucent, minnow-like fish that has little commercial or recreational value. But it is a fragile fish that lives for only one year. It is extremely sensitive to water quality, so it is considered a strong indicator of the health of the entire Delta.
The smelt has been in a steep decline for three years, along with other species that share similar habitat, including striped bass, threadfin shad and longfin smelt. Biologists have been unable to explain the decline, but blame a combination of water exports, water contamination, and competition from wildlife not native to Delta waters.
The Delta is the hub of the state's water system, channeling abundant snowmelt in the north to dry regions in the south. But that function is increasingly threatened by crumbling levees, poor habitat and climate change.
"This just kind of underscores what a difficult dynamic we have in the Delta," said Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick.
"The long-term health of the state, from an environmental and economic standpoint, requires finding a more durable solution."
The smelt are expected to move downstream to
Politicians and biologists have struggled unsuccessfully for years to balance the competing needs of wildlife and water users, and it has become increasingly clear that a balance cannot be struck given how the Delta is used today.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a panel of experts to figure out how to re-engineer the Delta to protect fish while it conveys water. The findings are more than a year away.
Water users and environmentalists separately praised the decision to cease pumping, but called for more action.
"This really highlights that the system is broken," said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. He called for equally strong measures to control water contamination and invasive species. "I believe we are at a crisis point. This really feels like a lot of things piling up and making it very difficult to move water in this state." #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/201715.html
State Halts Key Water Pumps To Protect Fish; Move Intended To Save Endangered Delta Smelt
KCRA Channel 3 (Sacramento
State officials stopped the massive pumps that send water to some 25 million Californians and thousands of acres of crop land, a move aimed at protecting an endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The Harvey O. Banks pumping station outside
"We're calling on other agencies, other entities to take similar action," said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources.
The pump shutdown will not leave customers without water. Urban and rural water districts will get deliveries from the San Luis Reservoir and other sources, Snow said.
"It was a difficult decision," said Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick, who asked the state to stop the pumps. "There are trade-offs from an economic and even an environmental standpoint."
The move comes less than two weeks after officials reported the smelt population at an all-time low, raising questions about the species' ability to survive. The three-inch long fish are protected under the California Endangered Species Act.
The shutdown follows an April decision by an
The state has appealed the ruling.
Environmentalists who have long asked for a reduction in the amount of water drawn from the fragile ecosystem celebrated the news. But they expressed concern the pumps are expected to resume within less than two weeks, without a long-term solution on the table.
"We were standing with the smelt on the precipice of extinction," said Bill Jennings, head of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and longtime delta advocate. "Something had to be done."
One of the State Water Department's largest customers, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, supported the move, even though it meant falling back on water supplied through sources such as the Colorado River that are already experiencing low water flows.
"This highlights the fact the system is broken," said Jeff Kightlinger, the water district's general manager.
Kightlinger said more needs to be done to cut back on other sources of stress on the species, including agricultural runoff that brings pesticide into the delta, invasive species that compete with the smelt, and predatory fish that eat them.
Water districts more heavily dependent on delta water showed more concern about the immediate impact of the pump shutdown.
"We're not panicked, but we are concerned, and we have all our engineers working on how we can reconfigure our system to deliver what we've promised," said Susan Siravo, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which gets about 50 percent of its water from the delta.
Interruptions in the supply of delta water might cause the district to increase reliance on groundwater, which could increase costs, hinder their ability to manage future droughts and cause the land to sink, district officials said.
Environmentalists, water districts and state officials all agreed that a long-term solution was essential.
"If we don't fix the delta, this is going to start happening every year," Snow said. #
http://www.my58.com/news/13424830/detail.html
Delta pumps shut down; Water exports halted due to smelt's dire state
By Alex Breitler, staff writer
State officials on Thursday halted water exports from the Delta to protect a 3-inch fish that may be on the edge of extinction.
Export pumps near
The shutdown could last seven to 10 days, said Lester Snow, head of the Department of Water Resources. Californians from the Bay Area to
"In the long term, this is very serious," Snow said. "If we don't fix the Delta, this is going to start happening every year."
Surveys this spring have turned up about 30 juvenile Delta smelt, more than 10 times fewer than last year.
And, as of Thursday afternoon, 216 smelt had been killed at the state pumps in the past week. Prior to last Friday, no fish had been killed there all year.
Killing any more would be unacceptable, California Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick said Thursday. Officials hope the smelt, no longer sucked in by the pumps, can escape the south Delta in the next week or so and swim west, where water temperatures are cooler.
Not far from the state pumping facility, just one of six federal pumps continued to send water south, mostly to farms in the
Federal exports are less than one-quarter normal, and officials are trying to reduce them even more, said Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken.
"We're delighted,"
But, he said, the federal pumps must shut down, too, if smelt will be able to swim away from the south Delta.
During the state shutdown, water from San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos can be shipped south to
Jeff Kightlinger, head of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said turning off the pumps was "reasonable and prudent."
However, other factors contribute to the smelt's decline, he said: exotic species, toxic runoff and agricultural pumping within the Delta.
His district's customers will be asked to conserve water this summer, a call that likely will be repeated in the east Bay Area, which also receives water from the state pumps. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070601/A_NEWS/706010320
State shuts down Delta pumps
By Chris Nichols, staff writer
The state Department of Water Resources has shut down massive water pumps near
Today's shut down could strain water supplies in
The plant supplies water for 25 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland, most south and west of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, according to DWR.
Smelt are a species of small fish considered an "indicator" animal that is used to gauge the environmental health of the Delta. The three-inch long fish are protected under the California Endangered Species Act.
But because the vast majority of local farmers and residents get their water either from the
"This water is pumped down south — so it's not going to affect anyone in
"I'm sure it's affected farmers (in
The state expects the shut down will only be temporary. In the meantime, the state will direct water from the San Luis Reservoir, south of the Delta, to make up for the loss, said Ted Thomas, a DWR spokesman. He added that no mandatory calls for water conservation have been made.
Thomas said all users are encouraged to conserve water voluntarily.
Smelt numbers, which are at historic lows in the Delta, will be monitored over the next week or 10 days by DWR. #
http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2007/05/31/update/delat-update.txt
####
No comments:
Post a Comment