This is just one post in the DWR & State Water Project Category

Judge Wanger rules against DWR; might issue a stay

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 30, 2007 at 8:58 am

From the LA Times:

For the second time this year, a judge has ruled that management of California’s water system is illegally imperiling fish, making it increasingly likely that the state will have to pump less water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California cities and Central Valley farms.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger issued the ruling Friday and ordered a hearing for next week at which he could issue a stay in the case, forestalling any immediate effect on the pumping operation. The ruling was another victory for environmentalists who have been attacking the state’s delta operations on multiple legal fronts, arguing that water shipments are helping drive the once abundant native delta smelt to extinction.

For the full text of the LA Times Story, click here.

From the LA Times Opinion section:

An estimated 23 million of us receive some or most of our water from the delta. And the delta is in trouble. Has been for at least 30 years. But this year, the juvenile population of the endangered delta smelt — an “indicator” species — dropped by 93%, a plunge toward extinction that could signal imminent disaster. Arresting that disaster could require a cut in water delivered to you and me.

The delta is a 700-square-mile maze of river channels, sloughs, marshes and mostly artificial islands protected by a tenuous levee system. Two giant water-delivery systems — the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project — draw their water from the delta and send it southward in canals to the farms of the San Joaquin Valley and homes and businesses in Southern California.

The problem is that extensive pumping over the last half a century has disrupted the environment of the delta. Fish sometimes end up in the machinery, and the pumping is so strong that it sometimes reverses the natural river-to-delta-to-bay water flow. Temperature, depth and salinity are affected. On top of that, increased irrigation using pumped delta water means increased irrigation runoff, which has reduced the overall quality of delta water.