This is just one post in the Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling Category

Commentary: Delta water plan is key to California’s future

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2008 at 8:14 am

From the Sacramento Bee, this commentary by Tom Zuckerman, special projects manager of the Central Delta Water Agency:

This month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will release a draft plan to protect the endangered Delta smelt, which lives only in the Sacramento-San Joaqin River Delta. Last year, a court order to protect the smelt drew protests from water users south of the Delta who are concerned about their water supply. We sympathize, because we also understand the importance of water.

We represent, respectively, farmers in the Delta and California’s commercial salmon fishermen. Our communities depend on water. Healthy rivers produce healthy salmon runs, sustaining fishermen, their families and fishing communities. Delta farmers also depend on healthy rivers.

When others divert too much water from the ecosystem, Delta farmers find their crops damaged by salty water intruding from the bay and the salty San Joaquin River drainage discharges that collect in the South Delta, as a result of the operation of the export pumps.

For the past five decades, we have seen steady increases in the amount of water pumped from the Delta – to record levels in recent years. Today, as a direct result, the entire Delta ecosystem is collapsing. In addition to the smelt, some salmon runs, steelhead, sturgeon and other fish are threatened by extinction.

This damage is no surprise. The massive pumps in the Delta divert more water than is pumped at any single location in the nation.

December 4, 2008 · Filed Under Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling, Other Delta Issues