Saturday’s top of the scroll: Divisive Delta canal now on the fast track; Fears loom that moving water south could devastate, contaminate supply

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 4, 2009 at 8:25 am

Happy Fourth of July! May you have a safe and enjoyable holiday! Today’s top of the scroll comes from Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times:

Chuck Baker grows pears on land his family has worked since 1851 and has a farmer’s sensitivity to the plagues of modern agriculture — pesticide regulations, the intrusive hand of federal regulators, the threat to private property posed by wetlands restoration — and, most of all, the need for water. So, he sympathizes with San Joaquin Valley farmers who are short of water this year, but he also has little patience for the argument being trumpeted by valley politicians: that the problems confronted by valley farmers can be reduced to the simple equation of “fish versus farmers.”

“I don’t think we’d be in this situation if they paid any attention to their own rules,” Baker said. “They’re the ones that ruined the fish. Not me, not me who’s been irrigating the same piece of land for 150 years.” The “they” Baker was referring to was not so much his kindred farmers, but the state and federal agencies that ship them Delta water. Those agencies, he said, created the ecological crisis by taking more water out of the Delta than they should have.

As Delta pumping increased in recent years, fish populations collapsed and triggered new rules to prevent fish from going extinct. Those rules will affect water deliveries for years, but so far have had a minor impact because shortages this year are mostly due to dry conditions and drawn-down reservoirs.

Now, the solution proposed to keep Delta water flowing south — a peripheral canal — poses a threat to water rights his family has held since statehood, Baker said. It is not something north Delta framers like Baker should have to worry about. They have the law, contracts and water-quality standards on their side.

But given a long record of broken promises and aborted plans, Baker and others say there is no reason to trust the government will protect their rights from the thirst of others, especially the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. “They’re going to build this canal whether we want it or not,” he said. “The best we can do is fight them until we run out of money.”

Baker’s son, Brett, a 25-year-old UC Davis graduate who represents the sixth generation of his family to live on the same 30-acre orchard, put it this way: “This is being framed as a fish-versus-people issue, when in actuality it’s a people-versus-people issue.”

Read more from Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

July 4, 2009 · Filed Under Peripheral Canal

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How it works: The Bay Delta Conservation Plan

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 4, 2009 at 8:19 am

From the Contra Costa Times:

In early 2005, state biologists began sharing some alarming new information: The populations of an entire suite of Delta fish species had begun a nose dive three years earlier. Since one of those fish was protected under endangered species laws, the findings meant Delta pumps surely would be more tightly regulated.

This confronted big water agencies with two basic problems: First, they already knew the channels that convey water to the southern Delta pumps were becoming increasingly unreliable. Second, endangered species laws were now threatening to restrict their access to Delta water.

The solution was to attempt an escape from the strict, extinction-preventing rules of the Endangered Species Act by turning to a more flexible section of the law. The shift would allow water agencies to partially escape tight regulatory oversight, but it also requires them to come up with a detailed “habitat conservation plan” to improve the fate of all sorts of wildlife, including endangered fish.

The success of such plans has been mixed, but in theory they turn efforts away from single species to broader conservation goals. In the process they can provide regulatory stability — in this case, assurances that water supplies will be predictable.

Read more from Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

July 4, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Delta Conservation Plan

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Delta advocates plan Capitol rally; Peripheral canal looms large in estuary debate

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 3, 2009 at 7:43 am

From Stockton’s Record:

Hundreds of Delta advocates plan to rally next week at the state Capitol, fearing that behind-the-scenes negotiations by legislators over the future of the estuary will shut them out of the debate until it is too late.

Earlier this week, it appeared a key committee hearing would take place next week, on Tuesday or Thursday. Grass-roots group Restore the Delta sent an alert to its members, warning that the proposed legislation - perhaps a combination of existing bills - could include authorization of a peripheral canal. That hearing is now in question as legislators grapple with the state budget. Some advocates are concerned there could be no hearing at all.

“One public hearing for a set of water policies that has far-reaching and expensive implications for the entire state is a mockery of the democratic process,” Restore the Delta director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said in her message to members. “We are tired of the decisions being made without our consent and involvement,” she wrote.

Read more from the Record by clicking here.

July 3, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues, Peripheral Canal

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Dan Bacher commentary: Peripheral Canal - Panama Canal North?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 2, 2009 at 7:27 am

From Dan Bacher, this commentary:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, corporate agribusiness and other supporters of the peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have carefully avoided discussing what an actual canal would look like, as well as its enormous environmental impacts and budget-busting cost to the taxpayers.

However, in the size and scope of the project, it would be very similar to the Panama Canal, according to recent comments by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan on the floor on the floor when she and other legislators were asked to vote on a bill to fund a committee to develop a plan to implement the Delta Vision recommendations.

The recommendations call for a “conveyance” that will transport 15,000 cubic feet of water per second (cfs) from the Sacramento River around the Delta, according to Buchanan. This is smaller than the proposed 1982 peripheral canal that was intended to transport 22,000 cfs.

During drought years, the Sacramento River does not have 15,000 cfs. flow for over half the year. In 2007, the flow exceeded 15,000 cfs. in three months with the highest month at 22,500 cfs.

“Based on an engineering report completed in 2006, a conveyance to transport 15,000 cfs. would be between 500 and 700 feet wide requiring a 1300 foot right-of-way,” said Buchanan. “That’s the width of a 100 lane freeway! The length of the conveyance would be 48 miles. By comparison the Panama Canal is between 500 and 1000 feet wide and is 50 miles long.”

“I’m not going to vote for a plan that builds a Panama Canal down the middle of the 15th Assembly District!” concluded Buchanan.

July 2, 2009 · Filed Under Peripheral Canal

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Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Dutch expert offers advice on saving Delta

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 1, 2009 at 7:24 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

Tropical islands and mountain glaciers get all the attention. But the planet’s river deltas are the real front lines of climate change. Sharing that message is a goal of the Delta Alliance, a new effort by officials in the Netherlands to unite people around the world struggling to manage river delta regions. This includes Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nigeria – and California.

Scientists have advised California to prepare for 55 inches of sea level rise in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by 2100. Protecting communities and the Delta freshwater supply, which serves 23 million Californians, will be a complicated and pricey task.

The Dutch have lived below sea level for hundreds of years. They’ve survived by building massive levees that are the envy of the world. Last week, a delegation from the Netherlands visited San Francisco and the Delta. One result is a planned September symposium in California on common challenges.

On Thursday, The Bee interviewed Bart Parmet, director of the Deltateam for the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, during the delegation’s stop in Sacramento.

Read the interview from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

July 1, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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CSPA goes to war with Schwarzenegger over Delta salinity standards

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2009 at 8:37 am

From Dan Bacher of the Fish Sniffer:

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance is going to war with the Schwarzenegger administration over its failure to comply with California Delta salinity standards in an evidentiary hearing in Sacramento on Thursday, June 25.

“The State Water Resources Control Board is again attempting to provide the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) with a shield to protect the agencies from the law: in this case, DWR/USBR’s 31-year failure to comply with salinity standards in the Delta,” according to Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. “Compliance with the salinity standards would also benefit fish.”

The hearing takes place as the California Delta ecosystem is in its worst-ever crisis, due to massive water exports from the estuary to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that result in increased saltwater intrusion into the Delta. This increased salinity not only endangers Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish populations, but threatens Delta farmers who depend on fresh water to irrigate their crops.

“In a sense, the hearing is not about DWR and USBR: it is about Governor Schwarzenegger’s and the State Water Board’s ability and willingness to enforce the law,” emphasized Jennings. “It is about whether anyone can rely on the assurances, guarantees and promises to implement, comply with and enforce statutory and regulatory requirements.”

June 25, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Restore the Delta commentary: The good, the bad, the confused and the ugly

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2009 at 8:17 am

From Restore the Delta, this commentary:

Many different legislative initiatives have been appearing at both the Federal and State level centered on solving the Delta crisis. This newsletter is dedicated to analyzing these efforts.

First, the good. After a great deal of consultation with our Delta supporters, Restore the Delta has decided to support Senator Lois Wolk’s Conservancy Bill SB 458. We believe that it is one piece of a multi-prong effort toward improving governance, funding, and most importantly future management of the Delta. This conservancy bill provides, thus far, the best representation of Delta interests within the structure of a state conservancy. We also applaud Senator Wolk’s consistent effort to remind her colleagues that Delta communities and people have to be part of any future governance changes within the Delta.

While Restore the Delta does not believe that a conservancy alone will solve the primary crisis in the Delta - the crisis of poor water quality and insufficient flows. But a well funded conservancy that represents Delta farming and ecological interests, along with more than adequate fresh water flows into the Delta and a permanent reduction in exports, can help to bring about Delta restoration. Our one question for the Senator regarding the bill, however, still relates to fees. We want to see fees paid into the conservancy to be used only for Delta conservancy projects.

More good. Last week on the floor of the US Congress, Congressman Mike Thompson (D - District 1) and Congressman George Miller (D-District 7) successfully defended the Delta and salmon fisheries from an exemption to the Endangered Species Act. In a tight roll call vote last week, the House voted “no” on Congressman Nunes’ s amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2010 to override the biological opinion on salmon.

Click the “Read More” to read Restore the Delta’s ‘bad, confused, and ugly’. Read more

June 25, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Dan Bacher: Schwarzenegger amps up canal campaign, war on fish

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 21, 2009 at 10:05 am

From Dan Bacher, this commentary:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, after protesters in Fresno Thursday accused him of not doing enough to support San Joaquin Valley growers in their battle to export more water from the imperiled California Delta, yesterday amped up his campaign to build the peripheral canal and more dams and affirmed his opposition to increased protections for salmon and other fish.

“We need to rethink the Delta, fix the Delta, and build a canal around the Delta,” said Schwarzenegger, in pushing a project that would cost an estimated $12 to $24 billion at a time when the state budget deficit is the largest in California history and thousands of teachers, health care workers and game wardens face layoffs.

Schwarzenegger, who appeared at a meeting and press conference Friday in Mendota, also emphasized the necessity to build Temperance Flat Reservoir on the San Joaquin River and Sites Reservoir on the west side of the Sacramento Valley. “Dams need to be built,” he stated. “We need above ground storage, below ground storage, new infrastructure.”

In a similiar vein, the Governor stated, “We urgently need a clean, reliable water supply, and I am committed to getting comprehensive water reform done once and for all. We must invest in our future, protect our precious resources and protect the state of California.”

He also again slammed the court ordered federal biological opinion, released on June 4, that directed the state and federal governments to change export pumping operations out of the Delta to avoid jeopardizing the continued survival of Sacramento winter run and spring run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales.

“I think the judge’s decision is wrong,” said Schwarzenegger. “If you start choosing species, and the smelt and salmon over people, I think you’re wrong. I think it’s a mistake when you see the impacts that it has.”

Schwarzenegger yet again parrotted the false claim by Westlands Water District and corporate agribusiness giants that the biological opinion chooses “fish over people.” In fact, the conflict is in reality a conflict between restoring salmon and other fish populations and the thousands of jobs they support and keeping in production drainage-impaired land in the west side of the San Joaquin, land laced with selenium that should have never been irrigated.

June 21, 2009 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack, Peripheral Canal, Salmon

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Fixing the Delta is critical, says commentary; compromise is essential

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2009 at 8:29 am

From the San Diego Union Tribune, this commentary by Ellen Hanak, director of research and a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, and Jay Lund, a professor of environmental engineering and co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis:

Now in a third year of drought, Southern Californians are once again facing the realities of living in a region with variable and unpredictable rainfall. Voluntary rationing, increased water rates and a proliferation of water-use restrictions are the order of the day. This is an opportunity for residents to achieve durable gains in water conservation. One key to resolving the state’s biggest long-term water crisis: fixing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

We believe there is a solution to the crisis in the Delta — the hub of the state’s water supply and the focus of years of conflict — that balances the state’s need for both a reliable water supply and a healthy ecosystem. But it’s one that requires compromise. For Southern Californians and others who rely on Delta water supplies, it is likely to mean taking less water from this source in the future than they’ve gotten in the past.

The most recent flare-up in this troubled region began in 2004, when the populations of several key fish species crashed, including the endangered delta smelt. In 2007, the fish crisis became a water supply crisis: To protect the delta smelt, a federal judge restricted the operations of water export pumps at the Delta’s southern edge. In 2008, he made a similar ruling to protect Chinook salmon. Yet the numbers have continued to tumble for smelt, salmon and other species, raising the specter of additional cutbacks. Compounding these environmental woes, the fragile levees that help keep Delta waters fresh face a high and increasing risk of failure from earthquakes and floods. A catastrophic failure of Delta levees could shut down the pumps for months or even years.

Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area depend on the Delta pumps for nearly a third of their water supplies, and Delta water irrigates nearly a third of the farmland in the San Joaquin Valley. It is not surprising, then, that water managers in regions that rely on Delta exports are reacting to the crisis with a sense of urgency.

Read more of this commentary by clicking here.

June 20, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Governor Schwarzenegger issues statement supporting Two Gates Fish Protection Delta project to bring more water to Californians; & Aquafornia answers the question, what’s the Two Gates project?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2009 at 7:57 am

From Governor Schwarzenegger’s office, this press release:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement regarding the Two Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project, designed to protect Delta smelt and increase the reliability of water exports:

“With mandatory water restrictions and crops lying fallow, it is clear that every Californian is suffering from our water shortage - and this project will provide much-needed relief. While I remain committed to getting a comprehensive water deal done this year, I will aggressively work with local, state and federal officials toward the speedy approval and completion of the Two Gates project so that California’s bread basket can continue to feed the world.”

Under the plan, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation would install and operate removable gate structures in two key locations in the central Delta. The Two Gates Project is designed to provide the same or better protection for delta smelt and other sensitive aquatic species at the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project, while allowing additional water for use by municipal and agricultural water users south of the Delta. The gates would be temporary facilities to be removed after five years.

Today, Governor Schwarzenegger traveled to Mendota in the Central Valley to view some of the worst affects of our three-year drought. There, he announced that he has requested a federal disaster declaration from President Obama for Fresno County and issued Executive Order S-11-09, activating the California Disaster Assistance Act.

So what is the Two Gates project? Here’s a description from the June 9 board meeting of Metropolitan Water District:

The Two-Gates Fish Protection Project is a key near-term project that, according to modeling analysis, should assist in reducing entrainment of Delta smelt and other sensitive aquatic species at the state and federal Delta pumping facilities without adversely affecting Chinook salmon, steelhead, sturgeon or Longfin smelt. The Project would be implemented by installing of an operable gate structure on Old River and Connection Slough in the central Delta between the cities of Stockton and Antioch. Hydrodynamic modeling analyses have also indicated that gate operations could improve water quality in the central and south Delta.

Staff from Metropolitan, San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority, and Contra Costa Water District have been working together to analyze the Project’s benefits and impacts, and to initiate development of the environmental review documents. The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) would likely act as lead agencies under the California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Protection Act, respectively.

Read more from the MWD Board of Directors notes by clicking here.

June 20, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Environmental groups sue regional water board over Tracy discharge permit; Permit authorizes massive increase in pollutants discharged to degraded Delta

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 19, 2009 at 7:32 am

From the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the Environmental Law Foundation, this press release:

Today, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) filed a lawsuit against the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) for issuing a permit to the City of Tracy allowing increased discharges of polluted wastewater to the seriously degraded Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The Complaint, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, alleges the Regional Board failed to comply with fundamental state and federal antidegradation requirements in issuing the Tracy wastewater discharge permit.

“The Tracy permit is a poster-child of the state’s failure to comply with laws designed to protect the water quality and fisheries of the Delta,” said CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings. “Antidegradation requirements are fundamental to protecting the estuary and the Regional Board, under pressure from dischargers, has abdicated its responsibility to protect the people and environment of California,” he said.

Erin Ganahl, an attorney with ELF observed that, “at a time when Delta water quality is deteriorating and Delta smelt and other fish species are hovering on the brink of extinction, the Regional Board’s actions in allowing massive increases in the discharge of toxic pollutants in violation of state and federal statutes are simply unacceptable.”

The Regional Board issued the permit in May of 2007 and CSPA and ELF appealed it to the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board). The State Board reviewed the appeals and, on 19 May 2009, remanded the permit back to the Regional Board to correct several deficiencies (i.e., final limits for salinity, ammonia, narrative toxicity and elimination of a dilution credit). However, the Board dismissed core claims that addressed Tracy’s degrading pollution and the antidegradation laws by suggesting that the Board was considering a revision to the antidegradation policy, apparently believing that voicing consideration of modifying a policy excuses compliance in the meantime.

Antidegradation provisions of the Clean Water Act and the state’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act were established to prevent degradation of waters beyond certain levels. In other words they establish a floor beyond which degradation is simply not allowed. For lesser degrees of degradation, the provisions explicitly mandate that permitting agencies must perform a detailed socioeconomic and alternatives analysis of potential degradation from the proposed action and make findings, supported by evidence, that any degradation is justified by important social or economic development. The Regional Board refused to conduct the required antidegradation socioeconomic and alternatives analyses for the Tracy permit even though it allowed major increases in pollutant loading.

Without benefit of an adequate antidegradation analysis, the Tracy permit allows the City to discharge 78% more aluminum, 62% more arsenic, 78% more barium, 54% more copper, 77% more fluoride, 78% more iron, 79% more lead, 14% more nickel, 114% more silver, 88% more thallium, 75% more zinc, 78% more MBAS, 78% more Nitrate (N), 77% more phosphorus, 78% more chloroform, 74% more dibromochloromethane, 77% more MTBE and 78% more 2,4-D. Additionally, there was no evaluation of increased toxicity caused by additive or synergistic interactions between metals.

The Delta is one of the most degraded and polluted waterbodies in the Central Valley. It is listed as an “impaired waterbody” and Toxic Hot Spot” under state and federal law and its aquatic ecosystem is collapsing. Toxicity from pollutants, along with water exports, have been identified by state and federal scientists as one of the principle causes for the catastrophic collapse of the Delta’s pelagic (i.e., Delta smelt, splittail, threadfin shad, longfin smelt, striped bass) and salmonid (steelhead, sturgeon and winter, spring and fall-run Chinook salmon) fisheries.

Michael Lozeau, an attorney representing CSPA stated that, “As the Delta’s water quality continues to decline, the Regional Board is opening the pollution spigots more rather than ensuring that the Delta’s cities and industries take steps to reduce their already dangerous levels of pollution. California’s water quality law is supposed to protect water quality, not shield polluters from its requirements.”

CSPA is a non-profit public benefit conservation and research organization established in 1983 for the purpose of conserving, restoring, and enhancing the state’s water quality and fishery resources and their aquatic ecosystems and associated riparian habitats. CSPA has actively promoted the protection of water quality and fisheries throughout California before state and federal agencies, the State Legislature and Congress and regularly participates in administrative and judicial proceedings on behalf of its members to protect, enhance, and restore California’s water quality and fisheries. CSPA’s website is: www.calsport.org.

ELF is a California non-profit organization whose mission is to reduce pollution in California’s waters and ensure public access to clean water for recreational, commercial, consumptive, scientific and wildlife purposes. ELF is dedicated to the protection of human health and the environment. ELF’s website is: www.envirolaw.org.

Brief coverage of this story from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.

June 19, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Carquinez water flows in to revive Martinez tidal marsh

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2009 at 7:14 am

From the Times-Herald:

For the first time in about a century, water from Carquinez Strait began rushing Tuesday up a slough in the shadows of heavy industry on the Martinez shoreline. The tide gates were opened shortly after 10 a.m. and water flowed into a reach where it could convert up to 200 acres of seasonal wetlands into a permanent tidal marsh.

It was the second attempt to restore Peyton Slough just east of Interstate 680, before the Benicia Bridge. In 1997, a levee was breached and tidal gates were opened for about three hours before regulators shut the project down because of heavy copper and zinc contamination from a smelter that was at the site until the 1960s.

The polluted dirt was covered up, the slough rerouted, and on Tuesday they tried again, this time with the Bay Area’s top water quality regulator watching and smiling. “This is a big step, to be able to open this (tide gate) to let the water flow in a more natural situation,” said Bruce Wolfe, executive officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control District.

Read more from the Times-Herald by clicking here.

June 18, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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State Water Board launches another assault on Delta water quality

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 12:30 pm

From Bill Jennings, of the CSPA, posted at IndyBay.org:

The State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) is yet again discarding long-existing regulations protecting water quality (and fisheries) in order to protect the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the United States Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) from their continuing violations of the Public Trust and Bay-Delta water quality standards.

This despicable charade is another poster-child of why the Schwarzenegger administration’s “assurances,” “guarantees,” “promises,” and even “regulations” aren’t worth a warm bucket of spit. CSPA is prepared to go to the mat in opposing this blatant effort to immunize DWR and the Bureau from the law.

The State Board has issue a Notice of Public Hearing to determine whether to modify Order WR 2006-0006 that, in part, adopted a Cease and Desist Order (C&D) against the DWR and the Bureau. Notices of Intent to participate in the expedited evidentiary hearing are due by 19 June, testimony and evidence circulated to hearing participants by 22 June and the hearing will occur on 25 June. CSPA will participate fully in the hearing by direct testimony, evidence, cross-examination and rebuttal.

The State Board adopted delta salinity standards in 1978 and reaffirmed them in 1995 and 2006. The salt standards were set at levels protective of Delta agriculture; however, the standards also serve to protect the aquatic ecosystem. The DWR/Bureau, who operate the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP), were assigned responsibility for meeting the standards because Delta salinity is controlled by SWP/CVP export pumping, salt loading via export pumping and releases of water from upstream project reservoirs. CSPA participated in those hearings.

The salinity standards have been routinely exceeded over the last 30 years. In 2006, the State Board finally issued a C&D against DWR and the Bureau over salinity violations. Despite repeated subsequent violations, the State Board has refused to enforce the 2006 Order. CSPA testified in the C&D hearing.

Read more of Bill Jennings commentary at IndyBay.org by clicking here.

June 10, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Army Corps orders thousands of trees chopped down on levees nationwide

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 8:00 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

The Army Corps of Engineers is on a mission to chop down every tree in the country that grows within 15 feet of a levee - including oaks and sycamores in Louisiana, willows in Oklahoma and cottonwoods in California. The corps is concerned that the trees’ roots could undermine barriers meant to protect low-lying communities from catastrophic floods like the ones caused by Hurricane Katrina.

An Associated Press survey of levee projects nationwide shows that the agency wants to eliminate all trees along more than 100,000 miles of levees. But environmentalists and some civil engineers insist the trees pose little or no risk and actually help stabilize levee soil.

Thousands of trees have been felled already, though corps officials did not have a precise number of how many will be cut.

The corps has “this body of decades of experience that says you shouldn’t have trees on your levees,” said Eric Halpin, the agency’s special assistant for dam and levee safety.

The saws are buzzing despite the outcry from people who say the trees are an essential part of fragile river and wetland ecosystems. “The literature on the presence of vegetation indicates that it may actually strengthen a levee,” said Andrew Levesque, senior engineer for King County, Wash., where the corps wants trees removed on the six rivers considered vital to salmon populations.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

June 10, 2009 · Filed Under Levees, Other Delta Issues

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Analysis on ruling that Fish and Wildlife Service required to justify pumping restrictions in the Delta

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 7:44 am

From Jacqueline L. McDonald of Somach Simmons & Dunn:

On May 29, 2009, in the United States Eastern District Court case of San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, et al v. Salazar (Case No. 1:09-CV-00407), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) was enjoined from restricting pumping operations in the Delta without justification and an explanation of why alternative, less severe restrictions would not adequately protect the delta smelt. The Court found that Plaintiffs San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District (collectively “Westlands”) were reasonably likely to succeed on their claim that the Service violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in failing to conduct environmental review before establishing pumping restrictions for the protection of delta smelt.

The Biological Opinion

In May 2007, in the related case of Natural Resources Defense Council v. Kempthorne (E.D. California, Case No. 1:05-CV-1207) (Kempthorne), the Eastern District Court invalidated the Service’s 2004 biological opinion that addressed impacts of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the United States Bureau of Reclamation’s (Reclamation) joint operations of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project (collectively “Project”) on the delta smelt. The delta smelt is an aquatic species residing in the Delta that is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Court ordered the Service to prepare a lawful biological opinion to ensure that the Project operations would not jeopardize the delta smelt in violation of the ESA. The Court held additional proceedings to impose interim remedies that would ensure that Project operations would not jeopardize the delta smelt while the Service prepared a new biological opinion. Due to the narrow considerations allowed by the ESA, the Court refused to hear any evidence related to the economic and environmental harm resulting from the proposed remedies.

Read more analysis, conclusions and possible implications from Jacqueline L. McDonald at Somach Simmons & Dunn by clicking here.

June 10, 2009 · Filed Under Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling

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Analysis: Pacific Legal Foundation complaint alleges that the Delta smelt biological opinion is unconstitutional

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 7:26 am

From Brian D. Poulsen of Somach, Simmons & Dunn:

Introduction

On May 21, 2009, the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), on behalf of three farms in the San Joaquin Valley, filed a complaint in federal court against the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (Service) challenging the validity of the Service’s December 15, 2008, Biological Opinion on the effects of operating the diversion facilities in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Delta) to the threatened delta smelt. The complaint alleges various violations of the Administrative Procedures Act (APA), but more fundamentally, it challenges the constitutionality of the Endangered Species Act’s (ESA) application to purely intrastate species. Such application, PLF asserts, violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Given the current state of the case law on this issue, it is possible that this case could reach the United States Supreme Court.

Background

The delta smelt, Hypomesus transpacificus, is a tiny fish endemic to the Delta. The Service listed the smelt as “threatened” under the ESA in 1993. See 58 Fed. Reg. 12,854 (Mar. 5, 1993). The United States Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) and the California Department of Water Resources cooperatively divert water from the Delta and convey it through extensive infrastructure to central and southern California. The ESA requires the Bureau to consult with the Service in order to ensure the Bureau’s water diversions do not jeopardize the continued existence of the delta smelt. Such a consultation results in the Service issuing a Biological Opinion (BiOp) regarding the Bureau’s impacts to the delta smelt.

Could this case make it all the way to the Supreme Court? More background and analysis from Brian D. Poulsen of Somach, Simmons and Dunn by clicking here.

June 10, 2009 · Filed Under Delta smelt, Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling

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Assembly passes Delta bill package

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2009 at 2:54 pm

From YubaNet.com:

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) announced today the California State Assembly has approved four bills to help resolve the current crisis in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the heart of California’s water system and the most valuable estuary on the west coast of North and South America. These bills reflect recommendations from Governor Schwarzenegger’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and Cabinet Committee.

“The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a critical respiratory system for California’s water supply and ecosystem,” Bass said. “These bills represent important steps in preventing the collapse of the Delta, which would have catastrophic effects on the health of our environment and economy.”

The bill authors include participants in the Speaker’s 60-day process to review the Delta Vision Strategic Plan and consider how best to fix the Delta.

Read more from YubaNet.com by clicking here.

June 5, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues, Water Legislation

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Group knocks Delta steps; Advisory committee regroups to push for more action on water issues

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2009 at 6:07 am

From the Capital Press:

Six months after publishing their final report, former members of the governor’s delta advisory group have graded the state “incomplete” on its progress on Delta issues.

The Delta Vision Foundation, formed this year by members of the dissolved Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, announced its assessment at a public meeting Monday, June 1, in Sacramento.

“What we fear is that, by the necessity of our policy leaders having to focus on our budget crisis… that there may be a tendency to drift away from following through on the actions that we recommended,” said board member Sunne Wright McPeak. “And the economic and budget issues are only going to get worse if the water problems aren’t solved.”

Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.

June 5, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Salmon Bi-op: New restrictions placed on Delta water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 4, 2009 at 2:58 pm

From Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times:

Federal regulators levied sweeping new rules on Delta water deliveries Thursday to prevent the thirst of California’s farms and cities from rendering extinct several salmon runs, steelhead, green sturgeon and a northwest population of killer whales. The suite of regulations would ensure more cold water is available for spawning fish, and that water operators make it easier for fish to swim between San Francisco Bay and upstream spawning grounds.

The National Marine Fisheries Service estimated the new regulations would cut water supplies from the Delta beginning next year by about 5 percent to 7 percent, or roughly 330,000 acre-feet a year, enough water for a city of about 2 million people.

State water managers put the figure slightly higher and said the decision “further chips away at our ability to provide a reliable water supply for California,” said Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow.

The hit to Delta water supplies comes on top of rules put in place in December to prevent Delta pumps from driving another fish, Delta smelt, to extinction.

Of the fish to be protected under the permit issued Thursday, the most imperiled is the Sacramento River’s winter-run chinook salmon, which numbered nearly 100,000 during the 1960s. But with Shasta Dam blocking access to spawning grounds, those numbers were down to fewer than 200 fish in the 1990s. By 2006, winter run salmon had rebounded to more than 17,000 fish but then plunged to fewer than 3,000 in the last two years.

The new rules require more cold water be held in reserve and regulates how flows are managed, among other restrictions.

Read more from Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

More, much more to come on this developing story. I will continue to post press releases as they come in today; look for a comprehensive wrap-up of coverage around the state at the top of the scroll tomorrow!

June 4, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Salmon

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Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Group wants Delta flood report halted; Quake threat exaggerated, some contend

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 3, 2009 at 8:21 am

From Stockton’s Record:

Local officials Tuesday asked the state to put the brakes on a Delta flood risk report, claiming that it exaggerates the risk of earthquakes to the levees protecting the estuary’s islands and much of California’s water supply. Such overstatements are already being used to justify proposals that could affect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region’s future, local officials told the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors.

The board then passed a resolution calling on the state to keep the study from moving forward until concerns raised in earlier independent reviews are adequately addressed.

“It is not ready to be used as a basis for major policy decisions,” Mark Connelly, engineering manager of the county’s Flood Management Division, said in a presentation to the board. “We believe there are serious technical questions.”

The science behind the report is sound and has been reviewed by expert consultants and the U.S. Geological Survey, said Dale Hoffman-Floerke, executive environmental manager at the state Department of Water Resources. “We stand by the information that’s in the document.”

Read more from The Record by clicking here.

June 3, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Levees

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Delta debate rages five years later; Some say Jones Tract disaster played key role

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 3, 2009 at 8:17 am

From Stockton’s Record:

Engineer Tom Rosten drove the winding levee road three times that June afternoon. The next morning, Rosten, still wearing his bathrobe, answered the telephone. Thirty-five minutes later he stood at the edge of a 200-foot abyss where the road he had traveled hours earlier had crumbled away and torrents of water spewed onto farmland.

“When I got up there and saw what had happened, I said, ‘Oh, my God,’” Rosten said. “There’s just nothing we can do.”

Indeed, at that point it was a question only of how long it would take the water to spread across Upper and Lower Jones tracts, flooded five years ago today. More than 12,000 acres of farmland was swamped, dozens of farm workers were displaced, and only a mad rush saved Highway 4 and prevented floodwaters from spreading to the south.

Read more from The Record by clicking here.

June 3, 2009 · Filed Under Levees, Other Delta Issues

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Miracle: Delta export pumps were silent on May 31!, says Bill Jennings of the CSPA

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 2, 2009 at 3:57 pm

From Bill Jennings of the CSPA, posted at IndyBay.org:

May 31: The Day the Pumps Shut Down

I suggest that we set aside 31 May 2009 as an annual CSPA holiday in celebration of the Day the Pumps Shut Down. Perhaps, 31 May should be our annual fundraiser, as it symbolizes our holy grail. Attached is a pdf of May salvage and exports.

Admittedly, the stoppage only occurred because salvage of Delta smelt at the state and federal project pumps had reached 423 the previous day and the legal limit for “take” in May was 449. DWR and the Bureau would have been in violation of the take provisions of the federal Endangered Species Act had they salvaged 27 more Delta smelt the next day.

More from Bill Jennings by clicking here.

June 2, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Tuesday’s top of the scroll: Delta progress glacially slow, governor lacks an integrated water policy, task force says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 2, 2009 at 8:08 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A panel tapped two years ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to revive the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta issued the administration an “incomplete” grade Monday on the progress made in completing the group’s list of recommendations. The seven-member Delta Vision Foundation argued that, despite increasing pressures on the state’s water system, the state has failed to start new water facilities, restore battered ecosystems or improve the 1,100 miles of earthen levees that protect scores of islands within the confluence of California’s two largest rivers.

At Monday’s meeting in Sacramento, the foundation said the state must move aggressively to solve the system’s myriad problems. “The economy and environment are on the brink of collapse,” said Sunne Wright McPeak, a member of the panel and president of the California Emerging Technology Fund. “This crisis is so great it requires immediate action.”

More from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

From Stockton’s Record:

Little or no progress has been made on four of the task force’s seven broad goals for the Delta, the foundation charged.

The governor has never directly responded to those goals and lacks an integrated water policy, while there seems little chance of developing “coherent” legislation to advance the goals, according to Monday’s report.

“The problem is the choices are tough, painful and political,” said Phil Isenberg, former Sacramento mayor and chairman of the task force. “If this were easy to solve, it would have been solved in the last 30 to 40 years.” But, he said, the urgency of the state’s water woes call for a more aggressive approach.

You can read the full text of this article from The Record by clicking here.

A spokesperson for the Governor says things are happening, but just not in the public’s view, according to this article from the Bakersfield Californian:

The governor isn’t ignoring them, said Joe Grindstaff, the state’s deputy director for water policy and director of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. “There’s a lot happening, but it’s not always the kinds of things that everybody on the outside would see,” Grindstaff said. “But (the delta) is something that the governor has been committed to for a long time.”

The strategic plan called for investment in infrastructure and better planning to balance the needs of competing interests such as farmers already parched by a drought and environmentalists anxious to protect the delta smelt and other threatened species in the region.

There are at least 16 major bills working their way through the state Legislature that address components of the water system.

Isenberg said he’s worried there will be a “30-hour frenzy at the end of the session to hammer out consensus and work out inconsistencies.”

Click here to read the full text of this article from the Bakersfield Californian.

You can read the press release from the Delta Vision Foundation by clicking here.

June 2, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Monday afternoon update: Delta Vision Foundation says state efforts to fix Delta don’t make the grade

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2009 at 3:46 pm

From the Delta Vision Foundation:

Sacramento – Today, members of the Delta Vision Foundation (formerly the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force) released a mid-term “Report Card” to determine the State’s progress in shaping policy to restore the beleaguered Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta and ensure a reliable water supply for California.

“The urgency of our water supply problems and the crisis of the Delta ecosystem dictate a more aggressive, cohesive, and integrated approach by the Governor and the Legislature,” said Phil Isenberg, former Chair of the Delta Vision Task Force. “We need the Administration to issue a clear position on the Strategic Plan’s recommendations, and state lawmakers to take immediate action to adopt the comprehensive package.”

The Delta Vision Foundation analysis charges that in the six months since its release, the Governor has not responded to the recommendations and strategies documented in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan, which his Cabinet Committee reviewed and largely supported. In addition, although the Foundation gave the State Legislature credit for devoting an impressive amount of time and thought to state water policy, they say the current roster of water bills is inconsistent.

According to William K. Reilly, a member of the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Time is running out both on prospects for a sustainable Delta ecosystem and on legislative opportunities to act to protect it this session. I very much hope that the Governor, who signaled his priority by establishing and appointing the Delta Vision Task Force, gets the chance to act on its recommendations as part of his legacy.”

Stakeholders’ testimony at today’s public meeting confirmed that time is running out on the Delta, and that the State must act soon.

The Delta Vision Strategic Plan was released in October 2008. The plan included a set of integrated recommendations by which the fundamental and co-equal goals of water supply reliability and Delta ecosystem restoration could be met by adopting the package in full.

“The State Legislature and Governor made a major investment in and helped facilitate the Delta Vision, but so far have failed to take action on our recommendations,” said Isenberg. “The Report Card we issued today gave lawmakers a grade of incomplete.”

The recommendations as stated in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan are:
• Make the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem restoration the legal foundation of Delta and water policy
• Recognize and enhance the unique cultural, recreational and agricultural values of the California Delta as an evolving place
• Restore the Delta ecosystem as the heart of a healthy estuary
• Promote statewide water conservation, efficiency and sustainable use
• Build facilities to improve the existing water conveyance system and expand statewide storage; operate both to achieve the co-equal goals
• Reduce risks to people, property and state interests in the Delta by effective emergency preparedness, appropriate land uses and strategic levee investments
• Establish a new governance structure with the authority, responsibility, accountability, science support and secure funding to achieve these goals

View the full Report Card at http://www.deltavisionfoundation.org/reports.php

June 1, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Judge Wanger issues injunction against federal Delta smelt plan

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2009 at 3:29 pm

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in Fresno has granted a preliminary injunction by corporate agribusiness against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) biological opinion for Delta smelt, a plan providing for increased protected for the imperiled fish.

The state and federal pumps will increase water exports to San Joaquin Valley growers unless USFWS can justify reduced pumping on a week by week basis, according to Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

The injunction takes place at a time when Delta smelt, an indicator species that demonstrates the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, has declined to its lowest ever population level, according to surveys by the Department of Fish and Game. The collapse of Delta smelt is paralleled by the dramatic decline of longfin smelt, threadfin shad, juvenile striped bass, green sturgeon and Central Valley Chinook salmon. The Delta smelt and other estuary fish populations have crashed because of increases in water exports, toxic chemicals and invasive species in recent years.

Westlands Water District and the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority had filed suit against the USFWS Biological Opinion, alleging failure to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and requested a preliminary injunction.

In issuing the injunction, Wanger agreed with the plaintiffs that the reduction of exports to their agricultural operations would result in “irreparable” economic and environmental harm.

“Plaintiffs have shown that irreparable harm will likely occur in the absence of injunctive relief, including loss of water supplies, damage to permanent crops, including orchards and vineyards, 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,” said Wanger.

Read more from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org by clicking here.

June 1, 2009 · Filed Under Delta smelt, Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling

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Monday’s top of the scroll: Delta vision ‘report card’ to be issued at today’s meeting; Delta panel to give California an “incomplete”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2009 at 8:05 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

A panel of officials appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to solve the Delta’s water and environmental problems plans to give the state an “incomplete” grade for its progress so far. The rating, to be presented in a “report card,” will be finalized after testimony Monday from environmentalists, water groups and state officials at a meeting in Sacramento.

The seven-member Delta Vision Task Force, led by former Sacramento mayor Phil Isenberg, officially doesn’t exist anymore. But after releasing its December recommendations, it decided to stay alive as a private group to press for action.

Results in the draft report card don’t look good: The group finds that the state has made little to no progress on most of its recommendations.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here. The meeting is today from 10am to 3pm at the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) Conference Center, 1020 11th Street, 2nd Floor, in Sacramento. More information: http://www.deltavisionfoundation.org/

June 1, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Barry Nelson on Bill Reilly’s call for leadership from Governor Schwarzenegger

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 31, 2009 at 7:21 am

From Barry Nelson, director of the Western Water Project, and the NRDC Switchboard Blog:

On Wednesday, Bill Reilly, the former Administrator of the EPA under President George H. W. Bush wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, urging the Governor to lead an effort to reform the agencies that manage (or don’t) the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

Mr. Reilly’s piece is remarkably well timed. For the past two months, bipartisan working groups composed of members of the California legislature have been involved in an intensive, quiet process of education and discussion on Bay-Delta issues. The Delta Vision Task Force, on which Mr. Reilly served as a member, seems to have been successful in shaping the legislature’s initial thinking. Agency reform - referred to as “governance” in water-speak — is a central part of these discussions.

In the next few weeks, legislators including Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Senator Fran Pavley, Senator Lois Wolk and Senator Joe Simitian will take the results of those internal discussions and amend - probably dramatically - their current governance bills, which have already begun moving through the legislature. At the top of Mr. Reilly’s priority list is the creation of a new Council and a plan to oversee Delta management. The Delta is a critical, complex, changing, and vulnerable ecosystem - yet today there is no state plan and no single state agency charged with ensuring its future. The Delta Vision Task Force has several other critical governance recommendations, such as stronger rules governing land use, particularly on below-sea-level Delta islands.

Read more from Barry Nelson’s blog by clicking here.

May 31, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Saturday’s top of the scroll: Draft Delta Vision Foundation report card for governor, Legislature mixed; Final ‘report card’ to be announced at Monday meeting

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 30, 2009 at 8:40 am

From the Contra Costa Times:

Six months after recommending sweeping changes to address California’s water problems and an ecosystem crisis in the Delta, a task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the governor has not responded to their report and lacks a comprehensive policy to address the problems.

The draft “report card” released by Delta Vision gives state leaders, including the governor and Legislature, mixed grades saying they have made only modest progress in following through on the task force’s recommendations.

And it notes that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan being pursued aggressively by the governor and many of the state’s biggest water agencies “would not satisfy a single one of the seven goals recommended in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan.”

More from Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

The final report card is set to be announced at a meeting on Monday. Here’s the announcement from the Delta Vision Foundation:

The Delta Vision Foundation (formerly the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force) will hold a public meeting in downtown Sacramento to release a mid-term Report Card on the state’s performance in shaping policy to restore the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta and ensure a reliable water supply for California. The Report Card assesses the progress of the Governor, the California Legislature, and specific policy proposals to adopt and implement key recommendations and strategies identified in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan, released November 2008, is designed to ensure long-term sustainable management of the Delta.

WHEN: Monday, June 1, from 10am to 3pm

WHERE: California State Association of Counties (CSAC) Conference Center
1020 11th Street, 2nd Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814

WHO: Members of the Delta Vision Foundation, including:

Phil Isenberg, Chair

Monica Florian

Richard Frank

Thomas McKernan

Sunne Wright McPeak

William Reilly

Raymond Seed, Ph.D.

John Kirlin, Executive Director

Associated stakeholders

Directions to the CSAC Conference Center:

The CSAC Conference Center is located at 1020 11th Street, 2nd Floor between K Street & J Street. The entrance to the center is located between the Pyramid Restaurant patio and Smith Gallery across from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament main entrance on 11th Street. The building has a black awning with gold diamonds.

For more information about the Delta Vision Foundation, visit www.deltavisionfoundation.org.

May 30, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Events

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Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Time for the governor to wade into the delta, says commentary: “Governance is the one issue everybody tries to ignore. Achieving it requires brave leadership and heavy lifting. It requires leadership by the governor.”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2009 at 7:54 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by William K. Reilly, member of the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force:

Clean, abundant water is something most people take for granted. Yet, with California in its third year of drought, that nonchalance is no longer justified. Across the state, there is a growing consensus that we cannot go on as before, and that we need serious change in the way in which we view and use water. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken on some of the fearsome challenges California faces on his watch. But he has yet to meet the water challenge.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is ground zero in the water debates currently taking place at the state Capitol. The delta provides water for more than 25 million Californians and 3 million acres of agriculture, supporting a $400 billion economy. But the delta’s ecosystem is crashing, portending a water crisis for the entire state.

Schwarzenegger has called for a 20 percent reduction in statewide water use, a notably bold recognition that excessive water use and population increase are doubly threatening to our water future. But he and legislative leaders have not acknowledged that the critical missing ingredient in water management in the delta is governance.

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

May 27, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Other Delta Issues

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Delta smelt biological opinion: Wanger grants preliminary injunction

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2009 at 7:52 am

More on Friday’s Wanger ruling from the Pacific Legal Foundation:

This past Friday, Judge Wanger heard arguments on Westlands Water District and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority (Westlands) motion for a preliminary injunction of Component 2 of the delta smelt biop’s reasonable and prudent alternative. Component 2 will be in effect until June 30 or until the water temperature of Clifton Court Forebay reaches 25 degrees Celsius, whichever occurs first. The goal of this component is to protect larval and juvenile delta smelt in the central and south delta from entrainment at the project pumps after spawning commences in March. Under Component 2, negative water flows must be between 1250 and 5000 cfs.

Shortly after arguments were presented, Judge Wanger announced his ruling from the bench. Although he declined to reach the merits of Westlands’ ESA claims (failure to distinguish b/w non-discretionary and discretionary CVP operations; failure to analyze cumulative effects and other stressors on the delta smelt), Judge Wanger ruled in Westlands’ favor on the claim that the FWS failed to comply with NEPA in issuing the biop. Westlands had claimed that FWS was required to prepare an environmental impact statement along with the biop, as the biop constitutes a “major Federal action[] significantly affecting the quality of the human environment.”

Read more from the Pacific Legal Foundation by clicking here.

May 27, 2009 · Filed Under Delta smelt, Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling

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Board fires away at canal supporter; San Joaquin supervisors also oppose bill they say would hurt farming

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2009 at 7:52 am

From Stockton’s Record:

County policy-makers stepped into the ever-changing maelstrom of water-related bills Tuesday long enough to debate a peripheral canal proponent before voting officially to oppose one piece of developing legislation in Sacramento.

County officials have never been shy about voicing opposition to any plan to build a canal to divert water bound for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to pumps sending water to points across the state, but at their meeting Tuesday, members of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors were able to deliver their disapproval directly to a representative of a group promoting such a canal.

They listened to Karla Nemeth, a spokeswoman for the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, lay out her presentation, including her take that the fragile estuary would sustain less damage if exported water were diverted around the Delta instead of being sucked out at pumps along with nutrients and fish. The Bay-Delta Conservation Plan proposes to balance ecological needs of the Delta with the needs of the 25million Californians who use the estuary as a source of water.

“It’s a major challenge to restore an ecosystem in an environment like the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,” she said. Rough estimates say the plan could restore at least 55,000 acres of wetlands, she said.

But county supervisors noted any canal would do nothing to create new sources of water for an increasingly thirsty state, and they were concerned a peripheral canal would harm the county’s water quality and the livelihoods of farmers who use that water.

I definitely do not want Karla Nemeth’s job! You can read more from The Record by clicking here.

May 27, 2009 · Filed Under Peripheral Canal

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Worn-out ferry to make way for more reliable Real McCoy

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2009 at 6:11 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

A new Real McCoy, the venerable Delta ferry important to farmers, is on the way.

The Real McCoy is operating but worn out, said California Department of Transportation officials. Continuing to repair it would not be financially prudent, said Caltrans. The current vessel has been in service 63 years. The age of the ferry, deterioration of its hull and an outdated drive system convinced officials that a more reliable vessel was needed.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

May 27, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Going with the flow: Sludge boat sailors keep tanks, Delta clean

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 25, 2009 at 8:12 am

From Stockton’s Record:

The phone won’t shut up. But that’s to be expected on a holiday weekend. Thornell Washington answers as his 24-foot boat plows through heavy wake along the Stockton Deep Water Channel.

“Yeah, we can be there in 12 minutes,” he tells the caller, and veers off toward Paradise Point Marina, where the Don’t Worry About It needs to relieve herself, septically speaking. On the way, Washington - who never thought he’d own a boat, much less service them - listens to the blues, toots the horn and waves at familiar faces.

Pumping sewage from houseboats may not be glamorous, but then again, Washington’s Septic Brothers office is a 700-square-mile playground, and his clientele are carefree folks who, well, aren’t worrying about it. And when Washington makes his rounds this Memorial Day weekend, he sees a world many city dwellers can’t even fathom.

It starts Sunday morning not with hoses or tanks but a stranded motorboat, which stalls and is pushed against the rocks near Village West Marina in north Stockton. Washington tows him to the dock. The man is not deterred. “It ain’t over yet,” said Mark Soran of Modesto. “I still got food and beer.”

Read more from The Record by clicking here.

May 25, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Saturday’s top story: Wanger rules that humans, not just fish, must be considered in divvying delta water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 23, 2009 at 9:01 am

From the Fresno Bee:

A federal judge stunned and delighted west-side farmers on Friday, ruling that the federal government must consider the effect on humans — not just fish — when allocating delta water. U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger did not tell officials how to operate the Central Valley Project, and he said it was up to them to manage the massive water pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

But Wanger said officials must focus not just on protecting the endangered delta smelt when discussing these issues. They also must take into account “the harm being visited upon humans, the community and the environment.” He also said officials must explain and justify how they reached their water-allocation decisions.

A few months ago, the federal government in effect reduced the volume of water pumped out of the delta by issuing new rules to protect the smelt. That means west-side growers are receiving less water for crops.

Wanger’s ruling Friday raised growers’ hopes of getting some of that water back, although the case is far from over.

Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.

May 23, 2009 · Filed Under Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling

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Historic water tower begins journey to new home along Delta

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 22, 2009 at 7:48 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

For all of Dick Brann’s life, the water tower has been perched along the banks of the Sacramento River. The 132-feet-tall tower has been as much a part of the river town’s identity as striped bass or the nearby lift bridge. When you saw the tower from boat or car – and you could for miles away in the flat-as-a-pool-table Delta – you knew Rio Vista was near. “It’s a landmark,” he said.

Brann never saw the water tower being built even though he grew up here. After all, he’s only 92. The water tower is more than a century old.

The bottom tank of the two-tank tower supplied water for drinking, and the top one fed a flume that transported asparagus into a cannery.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

From Stockton’s Record:

It will be refurbished, painted, loaded on a barge and shipped across the river to the site of a new Delta visitor center that one organizer said is expected to break ground within a month. The goal of the center: to give the often-overlooked Delta a new identity.

Dozens of witnesses, including some from Lodi and Stockton, watched as workers atop the 132-foot-high tower prepared the 50,000-gallon upper tank for removal. Sparks rained down from the platform.

“The Delta has been part of my life for 60 years now, and I hate to see it go down the tubes,” said Stockton fisherman Jay Sorensen. “This landmark is going to raise the profile of the Delta.”

Read more from the Record (which includes a slideshow of pictures) by clicking here.

May 22, 2009 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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