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Coverage wrap-up: Judge delivers vindication but no relief for imperiled salmon, steelhead

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 19, 2008 at 4:53 pm

From the >Los Angeles Times:

A federal judge struck a largely symbolic blow for imperiled salmon and steelhead Friday, declaring that the state’s vast water-export system is putting the fish at risk but rejecting environmentalists’ key demands for change.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger of Fresno said in a 118-page opinion that the Central Valley’s winter- and spring-run salmon as well as the remnants of its once-thriving steelhead population are being threatened by the dams and aqueducts that store and move water around California.

The water projects’ operations “appreciably increase jeopardy to the three species,” Wanger concluded, saying it is “undisputed” that water exports will in the short term continue to kill eggs, fry and juveniles while reducing the abundance and distribution of the fish and the chances of long-term recovery.

But the judge denied several remedies suggested by environmental attorneys with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice, such as storing more water behind Shasta Dam to be released for migrating salmon and opening a pivotal diversion dam’s gates to allow the fish to reach spawning grounds.

Fishermen who have seen this year’s salmon season canceled because of a historic slump in returning fish gave the ruling a tepid review. “It’s a mixed bag,” said Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns., one of the plaintiffs. “It verified what we’ve been saying all along — that the fish are in jeopardy. But he did nothing to fix it.”

From Mike Taugher at the Mercury News (CCT):

The order, issued late Friday by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno, contained both good news and bad news for environmentalists and commercial salmon fishing advocates, representatives of those groups said. Although they did not win immediate measures to protect the fish, the judge’s conclusions mean regulators will be forced to impose more protective conditions when they issue a new permit in March, lawyers said.

“It’s a clear signal that business as usual in the Delta is not going to be acceptable,” said Kate Poole, a lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

At issue is how water is stored in Northern California and delivered through the Delta to parts of the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Those operations have taken a severe toll on several fish populations.

The order addressed winter-run salmon, spring-run salmon and steelhead. It did not address fall-run salmon, the backbone of the state’s commercial salmon fishery that collapsed last year and forced the state’s first-ever closure of the salmon season. Fall-run are not covered by endangered species laws.

“The system is badly broken,” Poole said. “The record high exports that we’ve been taking out of the Delta have been crashing fish and killing the fishing industry. These agencies are pretty much incapable of turning that around.”

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The report comes amid a statewide fisheries crisis. The number of salmon in the ocean plummeted this year, prompting a ban of fishing all along the California and Oregon coasts. Some marine biologists claim the problem resulted from a lack of nutrients in the ocean caused by global warming, but most fisheries experts believe the biggest impact is from dams, diversions and development along the Sacramento River system, which is the primary spawning grounds.

However, curtailing water diversions means cutting back on the flow of drinking water for 25 million Californians and irrigation for 750,000 acres of cropland. California’s state and federal water project was established about 100 years ago and is an integral part of the state’s infrastructure. Changing it would become a political football up and down the state, affecting the economy as well as the environment.

Still, even those who have interests in water rights and support diversions admit the state’s water distribution system is in turmoil. “Everyone is realizing the delta is broken and there needs to be some kind of fix that will meet the needs of the citizens who receive water as well as for the environment,” said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District, an agricultural area representing farmers who produce 60 commodities, including most of the state’s lettuce, almonds, tomatoes, pistachios and grapes.

“We need some sort of conveyance around the delta,” Woolf said. “Everything is pointing to a peripheral canal as the solution.”

From the Fresno Bee:

Environmentalists say time is short because the three species in Wanger’s ruling are in steep decline. In April, West Coast fisheries managers voted to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year.

They are seeking more than a half-dozen solutions to help the three species, including restricting water exports out of the delta when juveniles of the three species are migrating. That is a decision that, if approved, could hurt millions of water users in the Bay Area and Southern California, as well as in the Westlands Water District on the Valley’s west side.

Woolf said that even if this winter brings record rains, contractors who depend on delta water will be “lucky to get above 50% of deliveries.”

Environmentalists are also proposing additional solutions for the Stanislaus, Cosumnes, American and Mokelumne rivers.

Wanger’s Friday ruling did deny requests by environmentalists to increase cold-water releases from Lake Shasta to make the Sacramento River’s temperature lower at a point farther downstream and to maintain 1.9 million acre-feet of water in Shasta. He wrote that “neither of these are possible given current hydrologic conditions.”

And Wanger also said the Red Bluff Diversion Dam — which sits on the Sacramento River and raises its water line to allow a gravity water flow into the Tehama-Colusa Canal — should be opened Sept. 2 if 5% or more of young winter-run Chinook salmon are present in the river. That is two weeks earlier than normal. Environmentalists had sought to immediately open the dam gates to allow upstream passage of salmon.

If September is a hot month, opening the gates two weeks early could have an adverse effect on Sacramento Valley growers who depend on water from the Tehama-Colusa Canal.

A wild card in the entire debate is the weather. Wanger has said that the Endangered Species Act contains an exception for human health and safety — in other words, the need for the public to have adequate water for survival.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Natural Resources Defense Council urged Wanger to require the bureau to open the gates of the Red Bluff Diversion Dam earlier than normal. The dam is usually closed on Memorial Day to create a lake for boat racing and other festivities. Water from the lake is then diverted for farmers and other users through an irrigation channel.

Obegi said juvenile salmon heading downstream get caught behind the dam and are eaten by predatory fish.

“When the dam is in, the fish get concentrated,” he said. “They go down the fish ladders on the side and the predators know exactly where the fish are coming and wait there. It’s like serving them up on a dinner plate.”

Environmentalists also wanted Wanger to impose minimum stream flows on Clear Creek to store more water in Lake Shasta to make sure there is adequate flow year-round and to increase the amount of spawning habitat by releasing colder water farther downstream.

The judge apparently decided not to grant the council’s requests because the defendants already had agreed to some operational changes, including opening the Red Bluff Diversion Dam slightly earlier than originally planned and increasing flows on Clear Creek, near Red Bluff, to better protect salmon and steelhead.

From the AP & Riverside’s Press Enterprise:

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger denied the groups’ request to release more water from a federal reservoir to help young endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon reach the ocean. That could have left hundreds of acres of almonds, walnuts and tomatoes without irrigation supplies next month, at the height of California’s drought.

“I’m on cloud nine here,” said Jeff Sutton, who manages a canal system that delivers water to farms from near Redding to just north of Sacramento. “We’re obviously ecstatic that the service area is going to continue to finish the irrigation season and be able to harvest the crops.”

Still, the battle is far from over.

Judge Wanger’s ruling:

“Project operations through March 2009 will appreciably increase jeopardy to the three species. … All three testifying experts … conclude that the three salmonid species are not viable and are all in jeopardy of extinction. Based on two drought years, with critically dry hydrologic conditions in 2008, and the presently unpredictable risk of a third dry year, the three species are unquestionably in jeopardy.”

July 19, 2008 · Filed Under Judge Wanger salmon ruling

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