[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 10/23/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

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

 

October 23, 2008

 

1.  Top Items -

 

 

Change certain for the delta, report says

San Francisco Chronicle – 10/23/08

By Kelly Zito

 

 

(10-22) 19:43 PDT -- With or without human intervention, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will change radically in the future, the result of climate change, invasive species and earthquakes, according to a new scientific report.

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With implications for everything from drinking water supplies in California to urban planning, the study's authors hope their work will help policymakers to revive an ecosystem widely recognized as on life support.

 

"The delta is in crisis," said Joseph Grindstaff, director of the CalFed Bay-Delta program, sponsor of the report and the state agency that oversees the delta. "Now and in the next year or two, we'll make really important decisions - this report is a foundation."

 

Grindstaff and others spoke during a gathering in Sacramento on Tuesday for the release of "State of Bay-Delta Science, 2008," a 174-page report detailing the history of the delta and its myriad problems today.

 

The CalFed report, unveiled during a three-day conference on the delta, pulls together information from several other recent, influential studies.

 

A report earlier this year by the Public Policy Institute of California, for instance, recommended the building of a so-called peripheral canal, a massive pipeline that would route water from the Sacramento River to pumps in the southern delta. Last week, the governor-appointed Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force concluded some kind of conveyance system is necessary, along with new dams, reservoirs, desalination technology and a new governing body for the delta that would replace CalFed, an agency often criticized as ineffectual.

 

The CalFed report did highlight a handful of key points, including recent data showing dwindling groundwater supplies and land levels in the Central Delta declining to 30 to 40 feet below sea level by 2200.

 

Of immediate concern is the fate of crashing fish populations within the 1,300-square mile estuary. The delta smelt, a tiny fish that smells like cucumber, remains the most imperiled due to increasing toxicity, warmer water and to large-scale killings by giant pumps that send water around the state.

 

In response, a federal judge last year slashed water exports from the delta, adding urgency to plans to fix the hub of a system that supplies water to 23 million urban and rural Californians.

 

In their report, CalFed scientists said some "last ditch" efforts may be the answer to preserving species like the delta smelt. Those include freezing the fish's genetic material, genetically engineering the fish's ability to withstand higher water temperatures, or creating hatcheries, or "zoos" for the fish.

 

"When you look at how the delta will change, it will probably become uninhabitable for some species ... the delta smelt being one of the prime examples," said Michael Healey, former lead scientist for CalFed and editor of the report.

 

To safeguard the dozens of endangered delta plants, Healey suggested depositing their genetic material into seed banks.

 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Al Donner acknowledged that smelt populations "are going low, and lower and lower." But he said his agency is focused first and foremost on protecting the species and minimizing any harmful impacts. Donner had not seen the study's discussion of saving genetic material.

 

One of the most significant conclusions of the report had less to do with solutions to a specific problem and more to do with a more comprehensive approach to the delta. Decisions on the delta come not just from global warming and fish spawning data, authors said, but also from diverse groups - urban and rural communities, environmentalists, industry and government.

 

Work on the delta has been characterized by "constant tension," according to report author Richard Norgaard. "The delta depends on all of us working together."#

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/23/BAO313MGE2.DTL

 

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