A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 26, 2008
3. Watersheds
DELTA ISSUES:
Guest Column: Smelt ruling lacks appeal — literally; Judge could have final say about Delta water flow - Marysville Appeal Democrat
LEGAL ISSUES:
Coho salmon focus of lawsuit -
WATERSHED FORUM IN
Sonora hosts watershed forum - Sonora Union Democrat
DELTA ISSUES:
Guest Column: Smelt ruling lacks appeal — literally; Judge could have final say about Delta water flow
Marysville Appeal Democrat – 2/26/08
By Thomas Elias, writes on
It may be the oddest legal situation seen in
This is truly man bites dog, the very definition of news, but hardly anyone appears to have noticed. For in modern
It's almost as if the operative rule in legal circles were simply that you never run out of appeals until you run out of money.
But when Senior U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger of
Immediately, farmers began talking about fallowing fields and cutting down fruit trees because there would be insufficient water to keep all their fields and orchards green. Cities talked of reviving the "drought police" who cited profligate lawn watering in previous droughts. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa exhorted his constituents to use 10 percent less water. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger floated a plan for new dams and reservoirs and talk of a
But no one talked about an appeal. Why?
For one thing, there's the reputation of Judge Wanger, a jurist whose decisions are rarely overturned by higher courts.
For another, there's the fact that his ruling, aimed at protection of the endangered minnow-like delta smelt, appears to rest on solid legal ground. And for a third, some of the people bleating loudest are likely to benefit from this in the long run.
The law on this — the often controversial Endangered Species Act — is clear and has stood for almost 35 years since that greenest of Republican presidents, Richard Nixon, signed it in 1973. If it can be shown that the pumping kills smelt, whose threatened status no one has seriously questioned, something has to be done to try to bring its numbers back.
Never mind that plenty of experts believe other invasive species, toxic runoff from farms and other land uses, wastewater dumping and the obsolete system of managing the overall delta water scene are all at least as responsible for the plight of the smelt as any pumps. The pumps are highly visible and can be shut down, at least in part, while it's tough to screen out predator fish and waste dumpers.
So when a judge has to do something, he goes for what he can control.
No one seriously affected really objects. Environmental groups have no problem with the decision because they don't want any species anywhere to die out. Business interests also don't mind much.
Their reasons are a bit more complex. But the fact is that no one has managed to significantly expand
A drought, even a manmade one, might prove very useful to large farms, water districts and others who want more water storage in
They reason (but not for the record) that water shortages, whatever the cause, just might dent public consciousness enough to win passage of some of the water system expansions now under discussion in Sacramento.
Environmentalists, thinking similarly, reason that a drought of whatever origin might accelerate the process of fixing the delta, where levees are no longer considered reliable in earthquakes and salt water intrusions threaten water quality and the long-term survival prospects of many other fish besides the smelt.
So there's a convergence of facts and interests here, one that no one involved likes to discuss.
The result is that the most significant federal court decision in
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/elias_60748___article.html/lacks_ruling.html
LEGAL ISSUES:
Coho salmon focus of lawsuit
Redding Record Searchlight – 2/26/08
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Monday against the state Department of Fish and Game, in an effort to get the agency to overturn logging regulations adopted in December.
The groups -- which include the
The sea-run fish are protected by the state's Endangered Species Act and found in the north state's Trinity and Klamath rivers. #
http://www.redding.com/news/2008/feb/26/coho-salmon-focus-lawsuit/
WATERSHED FORUM IN
The California Statewide Watershed Advisory Committee will host the last of four San Joaquin River Hydrologic Region Forum meetings in
The public forum will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Sonora City Fire Department,
California Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman has tasked the Department of Conservation with changing CALFED's Bay-Delta Watershed Program into a wider reaching, statewide effort.
The CALFED Bay-Delta Program is a collaboration among 25 state and federal agencies that work to improve
The majority of the state's water runs through the Delta and into aqueducts and pipelines that distribute it to 25 million Californians throughout the state, making it the single largest and most important source of water for drinking, irrigation and industry.
"Through local conversations, we hope to learn what support is needed to help steward natural resources in each watershed," said Teri Murrison, advisory committee member and Tuolumne County Supervisor. "This important information will help construct an effective collaborative statewide watershed program to undergird local efforts."
Advisory committee members from the state's 10 hydrological regions are leading an extensive outreach process to help with the transition. They represent local government, agriculture, resource managers and other groups.
"Needs, conditions and capacities differ significantly by hydrological region, geography and political boundary, Murrison said. "The more we hear about each region's unique qualities and needs, the better program we'll have."
The San Joaquin Hydrologic Region contains eight major tributaries plus the Stanislaus, Tuolumne,
It includes all of Calaveras, Tuolumne, Mariposa,
Forums have already been held in Los Banos,
http://www.uniondemocrat.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=25871
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