This is just one post in the Delta Issues Category

Smelt hatchery a ‘misplaced band-aid’ says editorial; it won’t fix the problem

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 2, 2008 at 5:09 am

From the Chico Enterprise-Record, this editorial:

Say this for legislators: They sure know how to avoid a problem.

The latest example is a proposal by a state senator from the San Joaquin Valley, Dean Florez, who wants to spend $5 million of water-bond money to make a hatchery for delta smelt. Is that why voters approved the multibillion-dollar water bonds, so legislators can spend it on glorified aquariums for two-inch fish? Or was the bond intended to improve the state’s water supply and water quality?

The latter would certainly work better. See, if water quality in the delta and the water supply south of the delta improved, the tiny delta smelt likely wouldn’t be a threatened species, on the way to becoming endangered. But that’s where we are.

Until the environmental problems in the delta are identified and improved, and until the pumps near Tracy that send water south to cities and farms stop grinding up the smelt, we can grow all the hatchery smelt we want. It won’t to any good. Letting them loose in the delta is like releasing a bunch of kittens in mountain lion territory — or putting a flock of canaries in a coal mine.

Read the rest of this editorial from the Chico Enterprise-Record by clicking here.

May 2, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Delta smelt

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