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National Academies deliver mixed message on California Delta dilemma

Posted by: Maven on March 19, 2010 at 10:10 am

From the New York Times:

“A highly anticipated study of water diversions in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has found federal efforts to protect endangered fish “scientifically justified” but added that problems facing delta smelt and chinook salmon are not entirely caused by thirsty farms south of the estuary.

With release of the study today, the National Academy of Sciences stepped into a battle over a pair of federal biological opinions that limit water for farmers to protect the fish. But what many had hoped would clear up controversy over water restrictions has been greeted as another mixed analysis of the region’s overlapping environmental stressors.

The National Academies’ National Research Council said the diversions ordered under the bi-ops from the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service are sound, but the timing of methods to protect fish from pumps on the south end of the delta — the water source for many farmers in the San Joaquin Valley — is “less well-supported” by science. … ”


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March 19, 2010 · Filed Under Delta Issues

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