Pacific Legal Foundation commentary: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proves Governor Schwarzenegger wrong on the delta smelt

From the Pacific Legal Foundation’s blog, PLF on the ESA:

Last week we reported on the U.S. District Court’s decision to require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to better justify delta smelt-based water restrictions. The Court also ruled that before the Service decides to impose unnecessarily restrictive water cutbacks, it must first consider the harm the restrictions are likely to cause humans.

Given the over 250,000 acre-feet of water at stake and the dire status of the Central Valley economy, the Court was particularly concerned over the economic and environmental impacts of the Service’s future delta smelt decisions. The Court listed several likely (and unfortunately harmful) results of the Service’s delta smelt regime: loss of water supplies, damage to permanent crops, crop loss or reduction in crop productivity, job losses, reductions in public school enrollment, limitations on public services, impaired ability to reduce the toxic effects of salt and other minerals in the soil, groundwater overdraft, increased energy consumption, and land fallowing that causes air quality problems.

The Court’s decision (available here) was a small but important victory for sanity in the otherwise insane world of environmental litigation, as it recognized that the human side of the delta smelt story cannot simply be ignored. Governor Schwarzenegger rightly remarked that the decision seemed “to provide additional balance to the operation of the state and federal water projects in the Delta.” (hat tip: News Blaze)

Read more of this commentary from the PLF on the ESA blog by clicking here.

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