Water Education Foundation

To save salmon, stop subsidizing toxic farming, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 22, 2009 at 8:56 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by Dave Bitts, president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations:

State and federal water managers are pumping California’s most valuable resource as fast as they can, and the consequence - the ecological crash of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - is a catastrophe for us all. Especially hard hit are coastal communities, where salmon fishing has been central to the economy and culture for more than a century.

To bring back salmon and other native fish, we must stop depleting the delta by sending millions of acre feet of water each year to the western San Joaquin Valley, where corporate megafarms pay pennies for taxpayer-subsidized water to irrigate cotton and other thirsty crops on arid lands with toxic soil. The biggest of these farms are in the Westlands Water District, long the most powerful player in the state’s water politics.

A draft report released last Thursday by the National Marine Fisheries Service confirms that the operations of the federal Central Valley Project and the smaller State Water Project, which pump delta water southward, jeopardize the very existence of the state’s spring and winter run of Chinook salmon, steelhead and green sturgeon - all endangered or threatened species. Undoubtedly, pumping is devastating the commercially valuable fall run of Chinook as well.

Read the rest of this commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

January 22, 2009 · Filed Under C-WIN lawsuit, Westlands Water District

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Environmentalists renew attacks in battle over Delta water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 6:58 am

From the California Real Estate Journal:

A lawsuit seeking to shut down the large pumps that remove water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has opened a whole new chapter in the protracted battle over the state’s thirst for water and the threat of ecological collapse in the delta.

The two environmental groups that filed suit Dec. 1 in Sacramento Superior Court are also seeking to take hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, reliant on delta water, out of production. In California Water Impact Network v. California Department of Water Resources, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the California Water Impact Network claim that water draining off mineral-damaged land in the western San Joaquin Valley is ending up in the delta and harming fish.

“California has regulated its waters like the feds have regulated Wall Street and the result has been a collapse of fisheries and aquatic ecosystems,” Bill Jennings, chairman of the sportfishing alliance, said in a statement. “Given bureaucratic paralysis, we have little alternative but to turn to the courts to prevent the extinction of our historic fisheries.”

Ted Thomas, spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources, which runs the state pumping operation, said the suit focuses too narrowly on the pumps as the center of the delta’s environmental problems.

“There are myriad factors contributing to the decline of the delta ecosystem,” Thomas said. Shutting down the pumps would leave Central Valley farmers and city water users high and dry and the economic impacts would be draconian, he added.

“We are totally concerned about the condition of the delta and we understand the groups’ impatience regarding the delta but we’re very cautious that any hastily constructed ’solution’ could have unintended consequences,” said William Rukeyser, spokesman for the state Water Resources Control Board, which was named in the suit.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, also named in the suit, declined to comment.

Read more from the California Real Estate Journal by clicking here.

December 24, 2008 · Filed Under C-WIN lawsuit

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Study underscores impact of court imposed water pumping restrictions; “Environmental activists are playing a very dangerous game with the state’s economy and the livelihoods of the state’s residents as they seek additional restrictions” says spokesperson

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 12, 2008 at 1:26 pm

From the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, this press release:

A new study released today underscores the severity of the statewide economic and water supply implications of ongoing water pumping restrictions imposed by federal courts in California to protect the Delta smelt. According to the study, statewide economic impacts can exceed $1 billion per year during drought years such as those currently facing the state and may well exceed $3 billion should the state enter a prolonged dry period.

Additionally, the report documents the severe water supply implications of the Court’s orders. Even during average and wet periods the Court imposed restrictions exacerbate ongoing drought conditions by limiting the ability of water managers to replenish water storage facilities and groundwater reserves. The net result is a significant additional blow to the state economy and a greatly reduced ability to respond to severe drought and other emergencies.

“The study documents immediate and very severe economic impacts to an already reeling state economy and highlights the longer-term water supply implications resulting from a reduced ability to replenish our reservoirs, groundwater storage facilities and other critical reserves, said Terry Erlewine, General Manager of the State Water Contractors. The sad reality is the courts have taken over operational control of the state’s water supply system. Clearly, the state’s residents, farms and businesses will be paying a steep price for years to come.”

Commissioned by Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water users, the timely report was designed to provide a better understanding of the economic and water supply impacts of an Interim Order, designed to protect the Delta smelt, imposed by Judge Oliver Wanger of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California last December 14, 2007. The study also provides important insight on the economic and water supply reliability impacts of additional restrictions being sought for fishery and ecosystem protection.

The crucial assessment comes just as a court-ordered revised Biological Opinion outlining the impacts of the state’s water pumping operations on the endangered smelt is due to be submitted. The study’s estimates are very conservative since only the Delta smelt restrictions were considered, and modeling assumptions tended to underestimate supply impacts. Other equally problematic restrictions could soon be in place for salmon, longfin smelt and other native Delta fish. As a result, total economic and water supply implications would likely be even more severe in the future.

“The export restrictions imposed in a effort to conserve the Delta smelt clearly add significant new risks to California’s water supply system, said Dr. David Sunding, author of the study and a professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Berkeley. The water pumping restrictions not only worsen the current drought, they also ensure that water rationing, fallowed farm land and economic dislocation will be the norm. The study highlights the unsustainable nature of the state’s current water system. Rather than a series of court-imposed restrictions aimed at individual species, California would benefit from a more comprehensive fix for the delta.”

Specific water supply and economic impacts include, but are not limited to the following:

— Pumping restrictions, such as those resulting from the Wanger Interim Order, significantly reduce the reliability of water deliveries from both the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP).
— For both the SWP and CVP, supply reductions are greatest in years with near average water supplies greatly impacting water storage and groundwater replenishment efforts.
-SWP impacts average 414 thousand acre-feet (TAF)/yr or roughly the amount of water needed to serve over 3 million residents. Impacts would be as high as 700 TAF/yr in “above average” years.
-CVP impacts average 170 TAF/yr but exceed 263 TAF/yr in “above average” years.
— Statewide economic impacts average over $500 million annually with most of that impact in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Economic impacts will be much greater in drought conditions.
— Annual economic losses could soar in excess of $3 billion should the state enter a prolonged dry period, such as the one experienced from 1987-1992.

“The economic and water supply impacts of court imposed water supply restrictions are very sobering,” said Michael Boccadoro, spokesperson for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta. “The study underscores the need to make sure we get the science correct before more restrictions are imposed. Environmental activists are playing a very dangerous game with the state’s economy and the livelihoods of the state’s residents as they seek additional restrictions.”

Environmental and sportfishing groups last week filed suit to force the complete and total shutdown of delta water pumping operations.

The study was prepared by Berkeley Economic Consulting, under the direction of Dr. David Sunding, a well known and respected University of California professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Berkeley.

Questions about the study can be directed to Dr. Sunding directly at 415-299-2653. All other inquiries should be directed to Mr. Boccadoro at the numbers listed below.

For more information or a copy of the full report, visit http://www.sustainabledelta.com/

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta is an ad hoc group of water users who depend on conveyance through the delta for a large portion of their water supplies. The Coalition is dedicated to protecting the delta and is committed to promoting a strategy to ensure its sustainability.

December 12, 2008 · Filed Under C-WIN lawsuit, Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling, Other Delta Issues

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Editorial: Don’t cause major drought in attempt to protect Delta ecosystem

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 7, 2008 at 7:48 am

From the Contra Costa Times, this editorial regarding the latest lawsuit filed last week to stop Delta pumping:

While we support a broader consideration of the entire Delta ecosystem and all of the public benefits it offers, this latest legal action could do major economic harm in the middle of a recession.

The plaintiffs seek to stop water deliveries from the Delta until huge state and federal pumping stations near Tracy fully comply with laws environmentalists say are being broken. Limits on pumping already have been imposed by the courts. But the curbs are not sufficient to satisfy the groups that filed the lawsuit. They argue that the Delta ecosystem is collapsing rapidly and that more drastic action is necessary.

Perhaps, but we urge the court to carefully consider the enormous negative impact that is likely to result if the Delta water pumps are shut down. After all, the judicious use of water for agriculture is also a part of the public trust.

The state water resources department is understandably worried that closing the Delta pumps could cause the worst drought in California history. Such a calamity must not be allowed to happen.

No wonder water users are opposed to the use of the public trust doctrine in the Delta. Besides, the State Water Resources Control Board already is planning several actions over the next five years to address the Delta environment, conservation and efficient water use.

But that is not good enough for the groups pressing the lawsuit. They claim that the Delta ecosystem will falter in less than five years.

We doubt that will happen as long as pumping is decreased and is done in a manner that protects fish.

Read the full text of this editorial from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

December 7, 2008 · Filed Under C-WIN lawsuit

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Michael Fitzgerald column: Lawsuit seeks to halt Delta pumping, “They’re determined to kill the biggest estuary in the Western Americas and pipe a Peripheral Canal around the corpse”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 5, 2008 at 8:19 am

From Stockton’s Record, this column by Michael Fitzgerald:

The rape/kill of the San Joaquin Delta is unjust and intolerable enough. What is even worse is that it has been done with the blessing of the state.

But a new lawsuit seeks to stop that.

Northern California’s natural heritage is being destroyed for the economic benefit of other regions, making this region’s residents second-class citizens.

And instead of guarding the public trust, the regulatory system cravenly flows toward money, as water is said to do. With regulators like this, who needs violators?

It would be one thing if we could blame this catastrophe on the mid-20th-century mind-set that dams were cool and fish mere obstacles to progress.

But state-of-the art science shows sucking too much water out of the Delta - to say nothing of pumps that make rivers flow backward, and other violent engineering touches - is causing the Delta’s collapse.

Yet in recent years, state and federal agencies charged with guarding the Delta actually increased water exports.

Merely degrading the Delta wasn’t enough. They’re determined to kill the biggest estuary in the Western Americas and pipe a Peripheral Canal around the corpse.

Read more of this commentary by columnist Michael Fitzgerald by clicking here.

December 5, 2008 · Filed Under C-WIN lawsuit

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Coverage wrap-up: Environmentalists sue to shut down Delta pumps and retire drainage impaired land

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 2, 2008 at 8:18 am

Great coverage this morning from the state’s three top environmental writers on the lawsuit filed yesterday. Each story is well written with different angles - each is worth the click-through. From Kelly Zito at the San Francisco Chronicle:

The giant state and federal pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that funnel water to 25 million Californians should be shut down until certain Central Valley farmers retire hundreds of thousands of acres of chemical-laden farmland, according to a lawsuit filed today by a state water watchdog.

Irrigating agricultural land in the western San Joaquin Valley tainted with selenium, mercury, boron and other toxic substances constitutes an unreasonable use of a public resource protected by state laws and has contributed to the sharp decline of endangered fish species, said the California Water Impact Network.

“We think there is a simple solution to California’s water problems - to retire all of the drainage-impaired lands in the Central Valley. A second is water conservation - agriculture uses 80 percent of the developed surface water,” said Carolee Krieger, president and founder C-WIN.

The lawsuit marks the latest twist in the continuing Delta drama. The hub of the state’s 1,300-square-mile water system is also at the heart of the fight between uses for food and human needs, and those of wildlife and rare plants. In recent years, failure of the ecosystem forced legal rulings that curbed water exports - a move made more complicated this year by a drought and fears of another dry winter.

Mike Taugher of the Contra Costa Times/San Jose Mercury News focuses on the public trust doctrine:

If it succeeds, the lawsuit would shift the focus away from the worsening conflict between individual species of fish and the amount of water pumped out of the Delta to a comprehensive attempt to balance competing interests.

“The only things that are already protected are already endangered,” said Michael Jackson, a lawyer for the environmental groups. “But what’s happening is the whole bottom is falling out of the ecosystem. You cannot list everything (as an endangered species) and you can’t protect species by species.”

By invoking the public trust doctrine, a legal concept that dates to the Roman Empire, the environmental groups seek to force regulators to consider the environment, recreation, aesthetics and other values to be passed to future generations in the Delta much more rigorously.

The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network and retired federal biologist Felix Smith, seeks to stop water deliveries from the Delta until the massive state and federal pumping stations near Tracy come into compliance with laws that the environmentalists say are being broken.

A spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources said the lawsuit could lead to “draconian” cuts in the East Bay and South Bay and threatens what little stability is left in the state’s water supply outlook. “It used to be that drought was determined by hydrology. Now it is determined by hydrology and by regulatory and judicial constraints,” said water resources department spokesman Ted Thomas. “This condition could toss us into the worst drought in California history very easily.”

From Alex Brietler of Stockton’s Record:

State and federal water managers have increased exports to farms and cities south of the Delta even as fish populations plummet, says the lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court. Northern California reservoirs have been “cannibalized” for the sake of Southern California, and irrigation of drainage-impaired lands in the western San Joaquin Valley is a waste of water, the groups say.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources, both of which export Delta water, are targets of the lawsuit. So is the State Water Resources Control Board, which is charged with regulating water rights and ensuring water quality in California. The board has failed to provide important oversight, environmentalists say.

“It’s clear that if the Delta, this estuary and its fisheries are to be saved, it will be under a court’s jurisdiction,” said Stockton-based Bill Jennings, whose California Sportfishing Protection Alliance is among several plaintiffs. “This may be the last, best chance for California fisheries.”

A federal court has already restricted exports from the Delta to protect threatened smelt, and the state is enduring its second year of drought. That double-whammy has triggered water rationing from portions of the Bay Area to San Diego.

Ted Thomas, a spokesman for Water Resources, said the department was “disappointed once again that everyone focuses only on the pumps,” just one factor in the decline of fish. Shutting down the pumps would be Draconian, Thomas said.

Read the press release from C-WIN by clicking here.

December 2, 2008 · Filed Under Agriculture, C-WIN lawsuit

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