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California water agency (DWR) changes course on delta smelt

Posted by: Maven on May 12, 2009 at 2:46 pm

From the New York Times:

A fragile truce in a long battle over an endangered fish took a hit last week as California water regulators urged the federal government to reconsider protections for the delta smelt.

Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources, is questioning whether increasing freshwater flows in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect the tiny fish is worth the effort — a reversal of the department’s position.

Citing “new information,” Snow told the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that a federal biological opinion in place since December may be overstating threats to the smelt. The opinion ordered pumping restrictions throughout California’s State Water Project in wet years to ensure water flows for the smelt during the fall spawning season.

Unpublished research conducted by Snow’s department, in concert with the California Department of Fish and Game, has revealed the existence of a separate delta smelt population in an area that is not affected by state water operations, Snow said. The population in question is thriving in a tidal marsh around Liberty Island in the northern delta.

“This population suggests that delta smelt are less susceptible to a catastrophic event than previously thought,” Snow wrote in the letter to Ren Lohoefener, FWS’s regional director in Sacramento.

Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.

May 12, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Wildlife & Endangered Species

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