A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
October 2, 2007
1. Top Item
Judge to weigh water limits in Delta to protect salmon
Contra Costa Times – 10/2/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
One month after a federal judge ordered sharp reductions in Delta water deliveries to protect a tiny fish, the same judge this week will consider further limits to aid salmon.
Taken together, the rulings affect two permits that are supposed to spell out how fish will be protected from being killed or disrupted by the state's major dams, pumps and aqueducts.
The permits, called biological opinions, were badly flawed when they were written in 2004 and 2005. Federal regulators have been revising them since last year and plan to have new ones written in another a year or so.
Environmentalists and others who said that was not good enough sued to get tighter controls on water deliveries immediately.
"They weren't doing their job when they put these together," said Tina Swanson, a fisheries biologist at the Bay Institute, one of the environmental groups behind both lawsuits.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger ordered restrictions on Delta pumps that water agencies say will cut farm water supplies and could force water rationing in some parts of the state. In May he struck down the biological opinion meant to protect Delta smelt.
Many observers expect Wanger to toss out the second opinion - which is supposed to protect winter- run salmon, spring-run salmon and steelhead. That could further restrict water use, especially in the
Unlike Delta smelt, however, none of the state's major salmon runs are near extinction, so it is possible that the judge could toss out the permit but largely rely on federal regulators to come up with a better permit in the next year or so.
"When your fate is in front of a judge, you're always concerned," said Dan Nelson, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which represents agricultural water districts in the
The parallel lawsuits offer interesting comparisons.
The first was meant to protect Delta smelt, a pinky-size fish that smells like a cucumber but fails to generate much public sympathy. They are dangerously close to extinction.
Salmon and steelhead, on the other hand, are held in higher public esteem and, in the case of salmon, taste good and support commercial and recreational fishing industries.
Unlike smelt,
Likewise, the restrictions on water operations that are most likely to help the fish also differ.
For Delta smelt, the most immediate step - the one ordered by Wanger - involved limiting water exported from the Delta. The smelt are poor swimmers and are easily trapped and killed at the pumps.
For salmon, the biggest issues in play are how cold water is managed on the
The bottom line is the same for anglers and environmentalists: They say the way to protect fish that depend on the Delta is to reduce
"There is just no more water to be taken out of the system," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "These guys have known that for years but they keep dancing around the truth. They don't want to acknowledge that basic truth."
Among the salmon runs, the most endangered is the winter-run, which produced fewer than 200 spawning adults on the
Still, for unknown reasons this year the winter-run numbers are way down - the third-lowest since 1995, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"It's a good reminder that we're not in a recovered population by a long shot," said
Rea's agency was criticized for the 2004 opinion it wrote to protect salmon and steelhead. The Department of Commerce's inspector general found deviations in agency procedures that allowed managers to issue a decision that agency scientists did not agree with. Two independent science panels also criticized the opinion's conclusions.
The decision to rewrite the opinion came after the green sturgeon, another fish species that the marine fisheries service is supposed to protect, was listed for endangered species protection.
"We're real committed to following the law, following our process and following the science and see where that leads us," Rea said. "We're going to do it right this time." #
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7059909?nclick_check=1
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