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CAL-FED releases “State of Bay-Delta Science 2008″ report

Posted by: Maven on October 22, 2008 at 6:33 am

From the CAL-FED website:

The State of Bay-Delta Science 2008 report is the CALFED Science Program’s first extensive effort at compiling, synthesizing, and communicating the current scientific understanding of the San Francisco Bay Estuary and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystems. Intended for resource managers, policymakers, and the public, the report provides relevant scientific information in context to help make important policy choices about the Delta. This first report focuses on what was learned during the first stage of the CALFED Program and provides a basis for upcoming decisions during CALFED’s stage 2, the Delta Vision Strategic Plan, and other Delta planning initiatives.

Among the report’s findings:

* The Delta of tomorrow will be very different than it is today. Intensifying forces of change, such as land subsidence, rising sea level, species invasions, earthquakes and regional population growth, virtually guarantee that current land and water use in the Delta cannot be sustained. (Chapter 1)
* The largest estuary in western North America, the Bay-Delta is a system of extremes. Discharge from tributary rivers varies more from year to year than other large western rivers, such as the Columbia or Colorado. (Chapter 2)
* Many toxic chemicals are a concern in the Delta. Organisms can often be affected by very low concentrations of contaminants. Effects can be magnified though concentration up the food chain or synergistic effects of mixtures. (Chapter 3)
* Since 2001, both public and scientific attention has focused on the unexpected decline of several open-water fishes (delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad). It is clear that export pumping is only one of several factors contributing to the decline. Other factors include changes in food supply, loss of habitat and toxic chemicals. (Chapter 4)
* When levees were first constructed, Delta islands were close to sea level. Farming, water extraction, burning and wind erosion have lowered the island interiors and recent subsidence modeling suggests that by 2200, the Central Delta will be 30 to 40 feet below sea level. (Chapter 5)
* With climate change, California will become warmer, more precipitation will fall as rain and less as snow, the snowpack will be much reduced, and there will be less groundwater recharge. These changes will challenge the capacity of California’s water management system to provide reliable, high quality water to satisfy human and environmental needs. (Chapter 6)
* As science has developed a better understanding of Delta water supply, water quality, levees and ecosystem, it has become clear that many problems are tightly interlinked and cannot be solved independently. Greater study of the cross-cutting linkages among problems will be needed for effective solutions to be found. (Chapter 7)
* Delta problems involve multiple variables, are large in scale, are socially and economically significant, and transcend the established institutional approach to problem-solving. Social scientists call such problems “wicked problems.” The problems are characterized by an evolving set of interlocking issues and there is no definitive formulation of “the” problem or “the” solution. (Chapter 8)

You can download a copy of the report by clicking here.

Big day for reports! Check back later this morning as the Legislative Analysts Office will be releasing a report on California’s water system. For more reports and publications on California water issues, check out Aquafornia’s Research and Publications page.

October 22, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues

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