[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 7/11/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

July 11, 2008

 

3. Watersheds –

 

 

 

Editorial

To the defense of delta smelt

San Francisco Chronicle- 7/11/08

 

Editorial

Fish Affect California Water Supply

The New York Times- 7/11/08

 

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Editorial

To the defense of delta smelt

San Francisco Chronicle- 7/11/08

 

Thank goodness the federal government is finally stepping in on behalf of the beleagured delta smelt. It's been clear for years that the state of California hasn't been willing to do so - even though it's California's health, environment, and water supply that's at risk.

 

There is no surprise in the news that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a proposal to add delta smelt to the list of "endangered" animals. The smelt population has plunged in the years since it was listed as "threatened" in 1993, and most experts say that it will be completely extinct within a few years. The smelt are an indicator of the delta's (ill) health, and the state is well aware of their plight: A sportfishing group sued the state Department of Water Resources in 2006, claiming that the agency had illegally killed tens of thousands of them in the water pumps that send water to southern California. More recently, a judge ordered the state to shut the pumps down temporarily in order to save the smelt - and with the fish, the health of the delta.

 

So the latest push from U.S. Fish and Wildlife should come as no surprise to the state's powerful water interests. And yet, their initial reaction to the proposal has been to continue pushing the same old line: That "other factors" are causing the death of the smelt other than the water pumping that has devastated the delta's ecosystem. Odds are they will call for yet another "blue ribbon commission" to be set up in order to produce "solutions" for the delta. It would be so thoughtful if the state, and the many interests that have benefitted from the pumping, would spare us the endless hand-wringing and delaying tactics that have allowed them to continue the status quo.

 

The situation in the delta is dire, and it's not going away. If it takes federal action to do what should have been done at the state level years ago, then so be it.

 

If the smelt are indeed listed as endangered, the decision won't alter current regulations that much - supposedly, the fish are already "protected" right now, even as we suck their habitat dry. But the new listing could lay the groundwork for further actions by environmental and fishing groups, and it would prove invaluable in making a case to the public about the urgent need to implement a sustainable water strategy.

 

At some point, the state of California will have to do that anyway. The delta's collapse - whether from an earthquake that devastates the fragile levees built all over it, or from a final collapse in the water's biochemical makeup that makes it unfit for use - is imminent. The sooner we move forward with the many strategies that have been developed towards a new way of handling water in this state, the better. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/11/EDHT11N5P1.DTL

 

 

 

Editorial

Fish Affect California Water Supply

The New York Times- 7/11/08

 

SAN FRANCISCO — The federal Fish and Wildlife Service this week underscored the imminent threat of extinction facing the delta smelt, a two-inch-long fish native to the Sacramento River delta, when it announced it was considering whether to declare the fish endangered.

 

California is in a quandary because two-thirds of its residents get water through the pumps that have been killing large numbers of smelt. This year, for the first time, a federal judge’s order kept state and federal water agencies from collecting their usual part of the river water flowing from melting snow from the Sierra Nevada. Water users from the Bay Area to San Diego were affected by the resulting reductions of 20 percent to 30 percent.

 

This is taking place after a spring that has been one of the driest on record, leaving even less water for the fiercely competitive interests fighting for a share of a dear commodity.

 

“A comprehensive approach to conserving this fish is going to require onerous restrictions in pumping,” said Timothy Quinn, director of the Association of California Water Agencies.

 

The distribution of water used to mean “that you killed fish,” Mr. Quinn said, adding, “Now the fish have very strong legal protection, to the point where they are becoming a dominant policy consideration. To protect the fish means losing massive amounts of the water supply.”

 

A spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento, said smelt populations this year were 92 percent smaller than a decade ago. Should the agency decide to change the smelt’s status to endangered from threatened, he said, the protections would be largely the same.

 

Michael Boccadoro, a spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a group representing major water users, said that “from an operational perspective,” a status change for the smelt would “make little difference because threatened and endangered species have the same protection.”

 

Tina Swanson, executive director of the Bay Institute, a conservation organization, said the potential change in the fish’s status “should send up an urgency flag” for regulators that they need to resolve the complex issues involved in maintaining and transporting the state’s water supplies.#

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/science/earth/11smelt.html?_r=3&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin