[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 4/22/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

April 22, 2008

 

1.  Top Item -

 

Lawmaker proposes hatchery expansion to save Delta smelt from extinction -

Contra Costa Times

 

Valley senator backs smelt hatchery

Facility aims to ease water cuts for farms, cities. -

Fresno Bee

 

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Lawmaker proposes hatchery expansion to save Delta smelt from extinction

Contra Costa Times – 4/21/08

By Mike Taugher

A San Joaquin Valley lawmaker wants to ease restrictions on water supplies by boosting the number of endangered fish raised in hatcheries.

State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, introduced his bill to do that in response to a court ruling last year that cut the amount of water available for pumping out of the Delta by as much as one-third to protect Delta smelt.

 

His idea is to raise enough fish to remove Delta smelt from the list of threatened and endangered species, which would eliminate the endangered species law mandate to protect the fish from Delta pumps.

 

"The fate of the fish in some ways is tied to the fate of the farmers," said Jason Peltier, deputy general manager of the Westlands Water District and supporter of the bill. "We need more smelt in the system."

 

Critics immediately faulted the idea. They contended that increasing hatchery production of fish would not address the larger problems in the Delta, where Delta smelt and three other open-water species have declined precipitously.

 

In February, state regulators took a preliminary step toward listing another fish, longfin smelt, to the list of protected species.

 

"Then you do the same thing for longfin smelt?" asked Peter Moyle, a UC Davis fisheries biologist. "You've got to have an environment to put them back into."

Another expert supported more hatcheries but also called for action on the Delta itself.

 

"It doesn't get anyone off the hook in terms of the Delta," said Joan Lindberg, co-director of UC Davis' Fish Conservation and Culture Lab, which raises Delta smelt in tanks for scientific research. "You can raise 1 million fish, but if the Delta is not suitable habitat, those fish may not survive."

 

"It's a strategy," Lindberg said. "It's not necessarily going to be a successful one."In effect, Florez' measure would replace limits on the number of fish killed at the pumps — limits that can cut into water supplies — with a system that would require water agencies to invest in the hatcheries as a means of offsetting the losses at the pumps.

 

"We have to get the population up to a certain level before we can have that conversation," he said.

 

Even if it becomes state law it is unclear how effective it will be because federal regulators in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who decide whether fish are endangered or not and how they should be protected, are not subject to state law.

 

"This represents a diversion," said Tina Swanson, a biologist at the Bay Institute, an environmental advocacy group. "I'm concerned it would deflect attention and resources from what the real problem is."#

http://www.contracostatimes.com/bayandstate/ci_9006616

 

Valley senator backs smelt hatchery

Facility aims to ease water cuts for farms, cities.

Fresno Bee – 4/21/08

By Mark Grossi, staff writer

 

State Sen. Dean Florez on Monday proposed a $5 million fish hatchery to expand the population of delta smelt, a threatened species that has caused major water cutbacks for farms and cities.

 

Experts estimate that since January, farms and cities have lost 640,000 acre-feet of water -- a year's supply for 1.2 million households -- to protect the 3-inch minnow from extinction.

 

The hatchery proposed in Senate Bill 994 would build up the smelt's numbers and allow the state's water projects to avoid future cutbacks, said Florez, a Shafter Democrat, who joined Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, in sponsoring the measure.

 

"This ought to be something everyone gets behind," Florez said. "If we don't get those water pumps moving, it can mean big economic problems."

 

He did not suggest that simply breeding more smelt will fix the ecosystem at the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where the fish lives. He called it an interim step so water could flow more freely again to farms and cities.

 

San Joaquin Valley farm and Southern California water officials said they support the idea. Valley farmers and residents south of the Tehachapis face higher water costs and shortages because of pumping cutbacks.

 

An official from the California Sportsfishing Protection Alliance, a nonprofit group based in Stockton, said he was hesitant to support the idea until he and others had studied it. Environmentalists, who filed suit over the dwindling smelt, could not be reached to comment.

 

To protect the smelt, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in Fresno last year ordered a 30% water pumping cutback at the delta. Scientists believe the habitat is harmed and smelt are dying in the pumps.

 

Now, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is urging 18 million residents in its service area to conserve as much as possible this summer. In January, the district's rates will increase 14%, about a third of which is for additional water the agency must buy after losing delta supplies.

 

"We don't see any rationing this year," said general manager Jeff Kightlinger. "But if this situation continues, I'm not sure what will happen next year."

 

A third of the 600,000-acre Westlands Water District has been taken out of production, officials said. Farmers will rely as much as they can on ground-water pumping, lowering underground water supplies this summer.

 

"The water system is truly broken," said west-side farmer John Harris. "One of every three people in our farming organization has lost a job over this."

 

There may be more delta cutbacks as Wanger considers protections for Northern California salmon runs in a different case. A hearing is set for Friday.

 

Scientists consider the stressed smelt and salmon to be an indication that the delta's entire ecosystem is spiraling downward.

 

The delta is a sensitive estuary where 40% of the state's river water flows. Huge south delta pumps divert the flow to 23 million people and 3 million acres of farmland.

Florez proposes to use water bond funds in Proposition 13, which voters passed in 2000, to construct the smelt hatchery. Farmers, industries and cities would share the $3 million annual tab for operating it.

 

He said it would be the first time in almost 40 years that the state has built a fish hatchery, adding that his legislation calls for completion by January 2011. The state Department of Fish and Game would work with the state Department of Water Resources and the University of California to operate the hatchery.

Researchers have been able to breed smelt in captivity for more than a decade. Captive breeding has been helpful in restoring other species, such as the California Condor, Florez said.

 

The idea is a positive step, said Westlands general manager Tom Birmingham: "This is the first real effort to recover the species, other than pumping restrictions at the delta."#

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/542751.html