[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 3/19/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

March 19, 2008

 

3. Watersheds

 

DELTA ISSUES:

Groups threaten to sue over decline of San Francisco Bay-Delta - Associated Press

 

Environmental groups to sue over California Delta's deterioration - Central valley Business Times

 

INVASIVE SPECIES:

Guest Column: Everyone needs to work together on invasive species - California Farm Bureau Federation

 

 

DELTA ISSUES:

Groups threaten to sue over decline of San Francisco Bay-Delta

Associated Press – 3/18/08

 

SACRAMENTO—Two environmental groups are threatening to sue the state water board if it doesn't act to stop the ecological decline of the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

 

The California Water Impact Network and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance filed the complaint against the State Water Resources Board on Tuesday.

 

The groups accuse the board of allowing the state and federal government to pump too much water from the delta to farms and water users in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. They claim the exports have harmed fish and water quality.

 

William Rukeyser, a spokesman for the water board, said the state already has been taking steps to restore the waterway.

 

"Just as there are multiple historic causes for the problems of the Delta, restoring it will take multiple actions and we are already doing our part," he said. #

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_8616777

 

 

Environmental groups to sue over California Delta's deterioration

Central valley Business Times – 3/18/08

 

Two environmental groups say they are preparing to haul officials of the State Water Resources Control Board into court for failing to protect the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta.

 

As a prelude to the probable lawsuit, the California Water Impact Network and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance on Tuesday filed a public trust, waste and unreasonable use of water and method of diversion petition with the State Water Resources Control Board.

 

It says the board has failed to halt the continuing ecological collapse of the estuary by permitting excessive amounts of water to be pumped to western San Joaquin Valley farms and to Southern California.

 

There was no immediate comment from the Water Board.

 

The California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) contend the Water Board has allowed the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) to pump so much water each year from the beleaguered Delta that

 

The draining of the Delta has pushed many fish species to the brink of extinction and forced citizen groups to turn to the courts instead of the Water Board, which has primary authority for protecting the state's surface water supplies, the two groups contend.

 

"The Water Board has served as a handmaiden for decades to special interest groups instead of doing its job as a regulatory agency," says Carolee Krieger, chairwoman of the California Water Impact Network board of directors. "Dying fish populations and degraded drinking water are the result of this shocking dereliction of duty.”

 

Bill Jennings, executive director of CSPA, says that because of the ongoing failure of the Water Board to do its job, a federal judge in Fresno recently was forced to order reduced pumping in the Delta to protect endangered fish species.

 

"The stall-and-delay tactics of the Water Board as the Central Valley's salmonid fisheries and the Delta's pelagic fishers collapse borders on the criminal," says Mr. Jennings, a longtime critic of the Water Board.

 

"Watching fisheries that God nurtured over tens of thousands of years being virtually destroyed in less than two decades while DWR, the Bureau and the State Board continue their embrace of denial is surely one of the most wretched and despicable spectacles we have ever witnessed," he says.

 

The two groups say that if the Water Board does not take decisive action to begin reversing the decline of the Delta within the next 60 days they will take the matter into state court.

 

Water Board action demanded by the two groups includes:

 

• Modification of existing water rights to improve the fishery;

 

• Mandatory daily flow requirements;

 

• Mandatory pulse flows during salmon migration;

 

• Functional fish passage facilities on all dams;

 

• State-of-the-art fish screens on all diversion points to prevent young fish from being ground up in the Delta pumps or sucked down irrigation ditches;

 

• Requiring the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to begin actually complying with all water and fishery protection laws; and.

 

• Establishing minimum pool and temperature requirements on all water storage reservoirs to protect fish.

 

The petition requests the board to begin holding evidentiary hearings including testimony under oath, cross-examination and rebuttal on the issues raised as soon as possible.  #

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=8160

 

 

INVASIVE SPECIES:

Guest Column: Everyone needs to work together on invasive species

California Farm Bureau Federation – 3/19/08

By Doug Johnson, executive director of the nonprofit California Invasive Plant Council, a membership organization for land managers, researchers, volunteers and concerned citizens

 

Those working in agriculture are no strangers to the impacts of invasive species. Non-native weeds, plant diseases and insect pests have challenged producers for millennia. In California, the Department of Food and Agriculture and the state's network of county agricultural commissioners have a long-running commitment to limiting the introduction of such agricultural pests.

 

Only in recent years have those working in another field, that of natural resource protection and habitat restoration, begun to recognize the full extent to which invasive species impact their work as well. Invasive species are now acknowledged as a top threat to biodiversity, second only to outright habitat destruction. For lands that have been protected from development, invasives are the No. 1 threat.

 

At least half of the species federally listed as threatened or endangered are significantly impacted by invasive species, and invasives are implicated as primary stressors for 415 special status species in California according to the Department of Fish and Game. From Scotch broom in the Sierra foothills to pampas grass along the coast, from Saharan mustard in the Mojave Desert to knapweeds at the Oregon border, invasive plants are wreaking havoc on native ecosystems.

 

More than ever, agricultural and environmental stakeholders are seizing the opportunity to work together on conservation issues. Successful collaborations like the Rangeland Conservation Coalition or the California Roundtable on Agriculture and the Environment show the great potential for joint efforts to address long-standing challenges. When diverse stakeholders build the trust necessary to work together, a synergy develops that benefits all participants. Nowhere is this approach more essential than in the invasive species arena.

 

When it comes to controlling invasive plants on the ground, weed workers recognize that "invasive plants ignore fences." Removing weeds on your property does not do much good if they move back in from a neighbor's land. To address this need for coordination, California borrowed a successful model from Idaho and Montana, forming Weed Management Areas (WMAs) at the local level. In the last decade, 45 WMAs have formed throughout California.

 

These collaborative groups bring together public agencies, private land managers, and conservation organizations to coordinate top-priority weed control projects. A project could, for instance, have Caltrans, the U.S. Forest Service, a land trust and a rancher all working together to address a mutual weed infestation that could not be effectively addressed by any one of the partners alone. With a small amount of state funding for seed grants, WMAs leverage diverse resources for on-the-ground to weed control, while keeping an eye out for new plants that might be spreading.

 

This same sort of coordination is critical at the state level as well. At least 20 state and federal agencies work on invasive species in California. Whether the pest is yellow starthistle, quagga mussel or red imported fire ant, effective response requires extensive coordination between these agencies. The state has strategic plans in place, but effective implementation is impossible without a formal interagency coordinating body given resources and responsibility to undertake the work.

 

Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Hawaii and Arizona have established such "Invasive Species Councils" in the last several years. It is high time that California did so as well. Our state has as many invasive species--and agencies--as any other state. New York recently created a state invasive species council and funded it at $5 million annually. Such funding is difficult to come by, but the cost of not addressing this problem will be far higher in the long run.

 

California faces continued increases in international trade, population pressure and climate change, all factors that make the state even more susceptible to new and spreading invasive species. In addition to the damage some of these species will do to agricultural production, some species will also have major impacts on our natural areas and the ecosystem services they provide--the water, fire protection, pollination and recreation we all depend on. To protect our environment and our agriculture, we need all hands on deck, working together.

 

Doug Johnson is executive director of the nonprofit California Invasive Plant Council, a membership organization for land managers, researchers, volunteers and concerned citizens. Visit www.cal-ipc.org for more information on invasive plants in California. Johnson may be contacted at dwjohnson@cal-ipc.org.#

http://www.cfbf.com/agalert/AgAlertStory.cfm?ID=1007&ck=D7322ED717DEDF1EB4E6E52A37EA7BCD

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