A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
July 3, 2007
1. Top Items
Delta on the brink, panelists warn; Democrats urge action on the Sacramento-San Joaquin estuary and assail water managers for failing to better protect imperiled smelt - Los Angeles Times
Water crisis may not be over; Fish and Game director says Delta pumps might be shut down again to protect smelt - Tri Valley Herald
Congressional panel wades into delta dilemma - Fairfield Daily Republic
Delta on the brink, panelists warn; Democrats urge action on the Sacramento-San Joaquin estuary and assail water managers for failing to better protect imperiled smelt
By Eric Bailey, staff writer
The panel, consisting of Democrats on the House Natural Resource Subcommittee on Water and Power, also called for swift action to address ecological problems plaguing the delta.
Several of the representatives criticized state and federal water managers for failing to better protect the fragile estuary's most imperiled resident, the delta smelt, a tiny fish at risk of being swallowed by the giant aqueduct pumps that send water south.
Some subcommittee members also questioned whether Bush administration officials pressured federal water managers and scientists to boost water deliveries at the expense of the delta ecosystem.
With the smelt in jeopardy and numerous other fish species struggling, the delta is on the brink of an outright collapse that could threaten water deliveries throughout the state, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) said. "The delta cannot continue to give and give and give and give."
During a three-hour hearing at Vallejo City Hall, not far from San Francisco Bay, Miller and other lawmakers warned of a coming era of limits for the delta — and painful choices that almost certainly will have to be made.
In particular, they suggested, decisions could be forced on
Miller singled out cotton grown in the southern
Agriculture leaders balked at the idea.
Jim Crettol, a Shafter farmer testifying before the panel, noted that heavily irrigated crops like alfalfa might seem a bad choice compared to less-thirsty commodities like wheat, but "cows need alfalfa and people need milk."
He and others raised the possibility of building the peripheral canal, the long-debated aqueduct designed to skirt river water around the delta to state aqueducts for export south. That would eliminate the delta pumps that have long threatened the smelt's survival.
But several of the congressional panelists rejected the idea, siding with environmentalists who say the peripheral canal would cause further deterioration of delta water quality, allow bay salt water to intrude and virtually shut down delta farming and sportfishing.
Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk), chairwoman of the subcommittee, called on state and federal agencies to work more cohesively to resolve what she called a burgeoning crisis.
Napolitano said that with drought looming, climate change posing a long-range risk and the federal courts increasingly weighing in, management of the state water system "is in disarray."
State and federal officials didn't disagree.
"This summer has been difficult," said Ryan Broderick, director of
To help the smelt survive, Broderick noted, the state made "nearly unprecedented reductions" in the amount of water it pumped into the California Aqueduct in late spring. For more than a week in early June, the state shut down exports to let the smelt — a notoriously poor swimmer that can't escape the pull of the pumps — flee to colder waters near San Francisco Bay.
Despite those efforts, the past weekend saw more than 700 smelt taken by the pumps, prompting environmentalists to warn that the fish remains endangered.
None of the Republicans on the subcommittee attended the meeting, and Napolitano said they criticized the session as a "dog-and-pony show."
Miller and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) pressed a U.S. Fish and Wildlife official about his experiences with Bush administration officials.
Steve Thompson, manager of Fish and Wildlife's
He declined to go into detail, citing an ongoing federal investigation of MacDonald, who resigned earlier this year amid allegations that she bullied field biologists who were dealing with endangered species.
Thompson, who is not related to the congressman, said after the hearing that he has queried biologists under his supervision and is confident that "we got it right on the delta smelt." #
Water crisis may not be over; Fish and Game director says Delta pumps might be shut down again to protect smelt
By Mike Taugher, MediaNews staff writer
Department of Fish and Game Director Ryan Broddrick told reporters outside a congressional oversight hearing on the Delta that the water supply crisis might not be over this year because a surprising number of fish continue to be killed at the pumps.
"Is this time to ramp back down?" Broddrick asked, adding that he and other officials will discuss that issue today.
Rep. George Miller said during the hearing that the ongoing Delta crisis — in which fish populations are crashing and water supplies have been rendered less reliable — suggests it might be time to shift water away from low-value crops.
"Perhaps it is time to consider that not all water is equal in
Water could be shifted away from cotton and alfalfa farms in the San Joaquin Valley, for example, by changing subsidy policies or if the governmentdecides not to renew contracts from the federally owned Central Valley Project.
Miller also addressed a growing number of calls to build a canal to deliver water around the Delta.
Citing two recent court decisions that found state and federal water delivery systems are violating endangered species laws, Miller said the system may be broken because government agencies failed to follow environmental laws. He added that it appeared there was political pressure from the Bush administration to alter scientific findings.
"It's incredible that we're basing decisions on science that was flawed — maybe intentionally — at the beginning of the process," he said.
The hearing was requested by Bay Area lawmakers after spring fish surveys showed that the Delta's ecological crisis appears to be worsening.
Delta smelt, which are considered an indicator of the overall health of the Delta, have been in a long-term decline that worsened substantially beginning in 2002. Surveys for juvenile Delta smelt this spring showed a 90 percent drop compared with last year, triggering pumping shutdowns.
In April, a state court ruled that the State Water Project should be shut down until it obtains a permit to comply with the state endangered species law, a ruling that is on hold pending appeal. Then in May, a federal court ruled that the federal permit that is supposed to protect Delta smelt from going extinct due to the water pumping was illegally lax. The federal court is expected to decide how to address that problem next month.
"We have the courts directing water policy decisions for
"What little is left of
The hearing was attended by more than 200 people, including a coalition of environmentalists, Delta farmers and anglers who held up signs with slogans like "Fewer water exports, not fewer Delta fish."
During one tense exchange, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, pressed the regional director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about whether there was political pressure brought to bear on Delta decisions.
The regional director, Steve Thompson, at first dodged those queries before acknowledging that the former deputy assistant secretary of the interior, Julie MacDonald, frequently attempted to influence decisions about Delta operations. Thompson nevertheless defended the scientific integrity of the decisions.
Meanwhile, what appeared to be the end of a water supply crisis this year might not be quite over.
The state-owned pumps were turned off for nine days in early June to protect Delta smelt from being drawn into the pumps and killed, while smaller federal pumps were run at a slower-than-usual rate during the first part of the month.
Despite the hopes of water officials that Delta smelt would move downstream and away from the pumps, the fish have continued to be killed since pumping rates began accelerating June 10.
Over the weekend, as state pumps were ramped up significantly, hundreds of Delta smelt were killed.
Biologists, including a team of Delta smelt experts assembled to protect the fish, have urged a dramatic but temporary curtailment of the pumps because the population appears to have declined so dramatically that the fish deaths could help drive the species closer to extinction.
But water agencies contend there are other factors at play, including pesticides and other pollutants and invasive species, and therefore the pumps should not be shut down. #
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_6288386
Congressional panel wades into delta dilemma
By Barry Eberling, staff writer
"Today, I'm looking for answers about what we can do right now," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, during the meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee Water and Power subcommittee.
Although panel members took state and federal regulators to task, no easy answers emerged for either the short or long term.
"Unfortunately, I think this is probably going to be the first of a series of hearings on this complicated topic," said Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, at the morning meeting in the Vallejo City Council chamber.
The 492,000-acre delta includes part of eastern
The population of delta smelt, a small native fish protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, has crashed in recent years.
That led the courts to get involved and the state to shut down for 10 days the pumps taking water destined for Southern California cities and
"In effect, we have the courts directing water policy to
The state has not yet shut down the North Bay Aqueduct pumps that bring water to
Miller said federal and state agencies are not meeting Endangered Species Act requirements that protect the smelt.
Miler and Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, also probed whether political forces influenced science on the delta smelt to justify a certain level of delta water exports. That comes in the wake of a recent Washington Post report that Vice President Dick Cheney got involved in an issue involving water pumping and fish survival in the
"Now we find people are walking around there with no scientific background, but a political agenda," Miller said.
Suisun Marsh was mentioned a few times at the hearing.
The 115,000 acres of wetlands, sloughs and hills includes 10 percent of the remaining wetlands in
Peter Moyle, a professor of fish biology at UC Davis, predicted much of Suisun Marsh will ultimately flood with tidal waters as levees collapse due to flooding and the rising sea level.
Steven Chappell, executive director of the Suisun Resource Conservation District, said after the hearing that he believes levees will continue to be maintained for the foreseeable future. Flooding marsh islands could allow salt water to encroach to the pumps that take water to cities and farms, he said.
Lawmakers talked of tough decisions ahead to help the delta. Phil Isenberg, chairman of the state's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, said that "it's nuts - it's psychologically insane" to think government can guarantee everybody everything when the delta is a finite water source. #
http://local.dailyrepublic.net/story_localnews.php?a=news05.txt
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