Dan Bacher Commentary: State of Bay-Delta Science Book, Fact or Fiction

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 24, 2008 at 5:43 am

From Dan Bacher, this commentary:

The CAL-FED “Science” Program yesterday published a book, the “State of Bay-Delta Science, 2008,” supposedly summarizing the “significant new knowledge” gleaned from eight years of research into water supply and water quality, ecosystems and levee fragility in the California Delta, according to a CAL-FED news release. However, the question is whether the book is a non-fiction publication based on scientific fact - or actually a highly compromised work of science fiction.

For those not familiar with CAL-FED, it is the joint-state federal agency, formed after a “Water Summit” by the state and federal governments in Sacramento in 1994, that has presided over the dramatic decline of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, white sturgeon, striped bass, threadfin shad and other fish in the California Delta-San Francisco Bay Estuary.

The collapse of these species has huge implications for fisheries up and down the West Coast, since the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the largest and most important estuary on the Pacific Coast. Recreational and commercial salmon fishing is closed in ocean waters off California and Oregon for the first time in history this year, due to the collapse of Central Valley fall run chinook salmon populations.

Those of us aware of the numerous examples of political manipulation of science to serve corporate agribusiness and water developers under the Schwarzenegger and Bush administrations have become very wary of “political science” masquerading as “natural science” in reports such as this one. For example, the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, a supposedly “independent” body appointed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, released a report last week advocating the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams to “restore” Delta fisheries, even though they would certainly further imperil collapsing populations of Central Valley chinook salmon and Delta fish.

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under CAL-FED

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Change certain for the delta, report says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 23, 2008 at 7:43 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

With or without human intervention, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will change radically in the future, the result of climate change, invasive species and earthquakes, according to a new scientific report.

With implications for everything from drinking water supplies in California to urban planning, the study’s authors hope their work will help policymakers to revive an ecosystem widely recognized as on life support. “The delta is in crisis,” said Joseph Grindstaff, director of the CalFed Bay-Delta program, sponsor of the report and the state agency that oversees the delta. “Now and in the next year or two, we’ll make really important decisions - this report is a foundation.”

Grindstaff and others spoke during a gathering in Sacramento on Tuesday for the release of “State of Bay-Delta Science, 2008,” a 174-page report detailing the history of the delta and its myriad problems today.

The CalFed report, unveiled during a three-day conference on the delta, pulls together information from several other recent, influential studies.

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here. You can read the Cal-Fed report by clicking here.

October 23, 2008 · Filed Under CAL-FED

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CAL-FED releases “State of Bay-Delta Science 2008″ report

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 22, 2008 at 6:33 am

From the CAL-FED website:

The State of Bay-Delta Science 2008 report is the CALFED Science Program’s first extensive effort at compiling, synthesizing, and communicating the current scientific understanding of the San Francisco Bay Estuary and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystems. Intended for resource managers, policymakers, and the public, the report provides relevant scientific information in context to help make important policy choices about the Delta. This first report focuses on what was learned during the first stage of the CALFED Program and provides a basis for upcoming decisions during CALFED’s stage 2, the Delta Vision Strategic Plan, and other Delta planning initiatives.

Among the report’s findings:

* The Delta of tomorrow will be very different than it is today. Intensifying forces of change, such as land subsidence, rising sea level, species invasions, earthquakes and regional population growth, virtually guarantee that current land and water use in the Delta cannot be sustained. (Chapter 1)
* The largest estuary in western North America, the Bay-Delta is a system of extremes. Discharge from tributary rivers varies more from year to year than other large western rivers, such as the Columbia or Colorado. (Chapter 2)
* Many toxic chemicals are a concern in the Delta. Organisms can often be affected by very low concentrations of contaminants. Effects can be magnified though concentration up the food chain or synergistic effects of mixtures. (Chapter 3)
* Since 2001, both public and scientific attention has focused on the unexpected decline of several open-water fishes (delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad). It is clear that export pumping is only one of several factors contributing to the decline. Other factors include changes in food supply, loss of habitat and toxic chemicals. (Chapter 4)
* When levees were first constructed, Delta islands were close to sea level. Farming, water extraction, burning and wind erosion have lowered the island interiors and recent subsidence modeling suggests that by 2200, the Central Delta will be 30 to 40 feet below sea level. (Chapter 5)
* With climate change, California will become warmer, more precipitation will fall as rain and less as snow, the snowpack will be much reduced, and there will be less groundwater recharge. These changes will challenge the capacity of California’s water management system to provide reliable, high quality water to satisfy human and environmental needs. (Chapter 6)
* As science has developed a better understanding of Delta water supply, water quality, levees and ecosystem, it has become clear that many problems are tightly interlinked and cannot be solved independently. Greater study of the cross-cutting linkages among problems will be needed for effective solutions to be found. (Chapter 7)
* Delta problems involve multiple variables, are large in scale, are socially and economically significant, and transcend the established institutional approach to problem-solving. Social scientists call such problems “wicked problems.” The problems are characterized by an evolving set of interlocking issues and there is no definitive formulation of “the” problem or “the” solution. (Chapter 8)

You can download a copy of the report by clicking here.

Big day for reports! Check back later this morning as the Legislative Analysts Office will be releasing a report on California’s water system. For more reports and publications on California water issues, check out Aquafornia’s Research and Publications page.

October 22, 2008 · Filed Under CAL-FED, Other Delta Issues