Delta smelt closer to extinction
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2008 at 5:59 amFrom KGO, ABC 7, San Francisco:
There is more bad news for the bellwether of the Sacramento Delta. The Delta smelt continue to edge closer to extinction. It is not good news for environmentalists or for the farmers and Southern Californians who count on the Delta for water. ABC7 News went along for this season’s fish count.
The California Department of Fish and Game has been casting nets in the Delta for the last couple of weeks. It is not so much about what they catch, as what they don’t.
Since 1967, biologists have searched the murky waters of the Delta looking for what is left of the once thriving fish populations. They take detailed notes on everything, from what they catch, where they catch it, to the temperature of the water.
“We sample from San Pablo Bay up to the lower Sacramento River and through the San Joaquin,” said Dave Contreas with the California Department of Fish and Game.
But again, the number of fish the department catches is extremely small. “What we started noticing were downward trends particularly at the start of 2000, 2001,” said Contreas.
Read more or watch the video from KGO ABC 7 by clicking here.
Stop handing Delta water rules to activists, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 27, 2008 at 10:48 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune, this editorial, which begins by reviewing the restrictions placed on Delta water exports due to the Delta smelt and now the longfin smelt:
… the impact on smelt of the restrictions so far? Zero. In the last five years, eight smelt were caught in the pumps. The regulations have saved none. Others suspect other culprits in the smelt’s decline, such as pollutants, invasive species and drought.
Only the pumps, however, offer the huge, adverse impacts on the water supply for 25 million residents.
Just how adverse is that impact? Between increasingly onerous smelt rules and continuing drought, the state Department of Water Resources projects that in 2009 wholesale water agencies may get as little as 15 percent of the water they need. Even record snowmelt in the Rockies won’t help, since the State Water Project can’t deliver it.
What would help? A new official attitude that comes right out of a state Supreme Court ruling and recognizes, as Director Don Koch of the Department of Fish and Game put it, “the importance of various agencies’ responsibilities to protect both humans and fish.”
Also at work is the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a move to address all possible hazards to Delta wildlife’s overall health, including a system to convey water for people around instead of through the Delta. A sizable coalition led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and water and wildlife agencies will run up against the activists and their strident opposition to the dual duty for the Delta.
At least 25 million Californians north and south have all the reason they need to encourage the success of the coalition’s efforts.
Read the full text of this editorial from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
Supporters of delta smelt lose legal bid to cancel water deals
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 20, 2008 at 7:23 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a request by environmentalists that could have slowed the flow of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to agricultural interests to the south. The 92-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger is the latest in a case involving the tiny delta smelt, which environmentalists say is facing extinction largely because of reduced water coming into the delta, and from increased pumping.
The environmentalists wanted Wanger to cancel long-term contracts for more than a dozen west-side water districts that get water from the delta. But Wanger’s ruling said that it would be pointless to renegotiate the contracts to help the smelt, because the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation already has the ability to stop water deliveries to the affected districts to satisfy requirements of the Endangered Species Act.
The districts — which include the James Irrigation District, centered on the town of San Joaquin, and the adjacent Tranquillity Irrigation District — said Wanger’s ruling gives them a sense of stability.
It also likely sets a legal precedent for nearby water districts with similar contracts that the environmentalists didn’t challenge. That includes the massive Westlands Water District on the Valley’s west side.
Read more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Environmental laws wedge state into hydrological corner, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 23, 2008 at 6:40 amFrom the Modesto Bee, commentary by George Radanovich and Jim Costa on the recent proposal in Congress to suspend the Endangered Species Act in times of drought. Citing the 900,000 acre-feet of water lost to the ocean this year due to the Wanger smelt decision, they write:
One of the main problems is the Endangered Species Act and its lack of flexibility in light of the drastic impact of its mandates on the economy of an entire state, and, most importantly, on human beings and their livelihoods. The immediate solution on this front is the bipartisan legislation that we introduced last week with other members of the California delegation. The California Drought Alleviation Act gives the secretary of the interior the ability to temporarily exempt the delta pumps from the ESA during times of extreme water shortage — such as now — in order to fill reservoirs to provide for agriculture and urban use.
Additionally, the CDAA protects the delta smelt by ordering the secretary of the interior to work in cooperation with the state Department of Fish and Game to develop a “conservation fishery” with the goal of preserving the smelt until we learn more about what is harming the population and how to best preserve it.
Californians are tired of the divisive politics of water. No longer can they afford political gamesmanship on an issue of such far-reaching importance. They need a consistent water supply to provide for their families, sustain jobs, fuel our economy and continue California’s tradition as the breadbasket of this country.
Congress needs to pass the CDAA, temporarily suspend the ESA and allow the delta pumping stations to store water in the San Luis Reservoir and prepare California for what could be a devastating 2009 for agriculture and urban water users.
We are ready and willing to continue to work toward a long-term solution to California’s water needs, but in the meantime we cannot afford to let our state dry up and blow away simply for the sake of protecting a few small fish.
Read the full text of this commentary in the Modesto Bee by clicking here.
Smelt threaten irrigation projects; Lawsuit could junk scores of valley water contracts
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 19, 2008 at 6:05 amFrom the Capital Ag Press:
Contracts for 42 irrigation districts that rely on Central Valley Project water could be tossed because of the tiny delta smelt.
U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger heard arguments late last week over whether to require the Central Valley Project to rewrite the contracts because each was based off a flawed ruling that the water promised to both farmers and urban dwellers would not harm the endangered fish.
Delta smelt are considered to be the bellwether species in the estuary, which forms the hub of California’s water system - and smelt numbers have been crashing for several years. Water exports are one of several causes of the smelt’s decline and environmentalists have been suing various state and federal agencies to restrict water flows from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Should the contracts be invalidated, it would likely mean that farmers would get less water and on a different schedule than they receive now. How much less and on what sort of delivery schedule would be up to the individual districts as well as the federal government - and the smelt.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is in the midst of rewriting the biological opinion concerning the smelt. The degree of damage a new series of water contracts could do to the Central Valley farming community will hinge on how much water government scientists say the smelt need.
Read more from the Capital Ag Press by clicking here.
Smelt again at center of water conflict; Environmentalists want 3 dozen contracts canceled or reworked, threatening operation of CVP
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 12, 2008 at 6:39 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
Environmentalists want the federal government to cancel or renegotiate more than three dozen long-term water contracts in the Central Valley because they say they were drawn up using flawed data. If the request is approved by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, agricultural users both north and south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta say it would likely mean less water for them.
Some say the environmentalists’ request has the potential to turn the state’s intricately woven water world upside down. That’s because some Sacramento River users say that if there’s no federal contract, they should be able to reassert their longtime state water rights — a claim that could devastate the Westlands Water District and even hurt the Friant Water Users Authority and other San Joaquin River water users.
Wanger today will hear arguments in his Fresno courtroom on the request to cancel water contracts in a case involving the tiny delta smelt, which environmentalists say is facing extinction. They say the population decline is driven largely by reduced water coming into the delta, and also because increased pumping for users south of the delta has helped wreck critical spawning areas and is damaging the smelt’s overall habitat.
Environmentalists say they aren’t seeking to stop water deliveries; they want the new contracts to be based on the new biological opinion when it is issued. But this could have dramatic affects on the Central Valley Project:
More potentially explosive, some say, is language in a legal brief on the contract issue filed by 22 Sacramento River settlement contractors — water users who had used Sacramento River water before the federal Central Valley Project was constructed beginning in the late 1930s.
These users say in court filings that if there are no valid federal contracts — as environmentalists want — then they would revert to using water under those pre-existing rights, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s “ability to operate the CVP would be severely compromised.” That in turn could affect users south of the delta whose supply originates in the state’s far north.
Get the whole story from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Lives affected by eco-imposed water laws
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 9, 2008 at 12:31 pmFrom the Gridley Herald:
The Department of Water Resources reports that California is in a drought that will result in the “most significant water crisis” since weather-pattern observations began. From the American Association of Climatologists, “We had the driest spring in California” on record in the last 114 years. It was the driest for Sacramento since 1849 and the driest for San Francisco in 159 years.
Between 1990 and 2000, as the result of new regulations, one million acre feet of water was taken from farms, residential and commercial use and handed over for “environmental” purposes - water that would have served eight million people andworth 250 million dollars annually.
To save the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from “ecological” collapse, these regulations were increased, preventing even more water from getting to farmers in counties such as Fresno and Kern.
Paul Gosselin, Director of Butte County’s Water and Resources, wrote in his monthly newsletter, “The largest court-ordered water transfer restrictions in state history contributed to place most of the state in a drought condition”.
This action has not only been devastating to agriculture but to California’s economy. Crops are whithering as fish take priority over families and food, health and stability.
Losses for the San Joaquin Valley are estimated to be at least $245 million. Read more from the Gridley Herald by clicking here.
Smelt decline indicates overall system failure; Water pumping restrictions cost $350 million
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 4, 2008 at 6:43 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
What is two inches long, smells like cucumber and costs $350 million?
It’s the Delta smelt, a tiny fish that is native to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and is threatened with extinction. Its survival is at the heart of a battle to change how the state operates its massive water distribution system, potentially affecting cities, farms, fishing and recreational uses as well as the fragile ecosystem on which they all depend.
The delta is the hub of the state’s water distribution system, formed where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers join, and Delta smelt are only found in the open waters of its upper reaches. The delta, once a rich, biologically diverse habitat for wildlife and abundant fish populations, carries water to the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project pumping facilities that provide water to 25 million people and more than 3 million acres of farmland.
In the process, a large volume of fresh water is diverted out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, affecting the habitat of the Delta smelt, salmon, bass and other native fish. The huge pumps that send the water south also suck up the Delta smelt and other fish, killing millions each year.
Steps taken to protect the threatened species resulted in recent court-ordered cutbacks from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California Aqueduct. That sent water agencies across the state scrambling to find new water supplies and caused an economic loss estimated at $350 million.
Why so much effort to protect a tiny fish that many refer to as “bait”?
The Delta smelt lives its entire life cycle in one year, and its population numbers can show the overall health of the delta, said Alex Pitts, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As such, the Delta smelt - whose numbers are about 92% less than a decade ago - is called an “indicator species.”
“One of the hallmarks of an indicator species is it indicates to you something is wrong. And often species more sensitive than ourselves are our first warning we’re causing environmental changes that may come back to bite us,” said Jeff Miller, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, a private, nonprofit conservation organization.
Delta smelt are at the bottom of the food chain, and without them “there’s a whole lot of other fish that aren’t going to have adequate food,” Pitts said.
A declining population of Delta smelt is “a clear indication that the ecological condition in the system is getting worse and this is an ecological system that many more species than Delta smelt depend on: Chinook salmon, striped bass, sturgeon and a bunch of other native species,” said Tina Swanson, executive director of the San Francisco-based Bay Institute.
Read more from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Is the Wanger court liberal or conservative?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 3, 2008 at 11:49 amFrom the Belleville News-Democrat, a newspaper somewhere in Southwestern Illinois & St. Louis, an article on the Wanger court in Fresno. Is the court too liberal?
Fresno, Calif.’s federal court has delighted liberals lately with decisions slapping down the auto industry, siding with the homeless and twice favoring fish over farmers. The high-profile decisions and their far-reaching effects drew the ire of politicians, the wrath of the agriculture industry and general scorn from local conservatives.
One letter to the editor published June 12 in The Bee criticized the homeless settlement and urged U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger to “go by the law, and use some common sense.” Republican California Assembly Member Mike Villines of Clovis called Wanger’s delta smelt ruling an “irresponsible decision.”
But legal experts and records of court decisions suggest that Fresno’s U.S. District Court is anything but liberal.
In criminal matters, a study has shown that the court has been very strict on sentencing, and many attorneys feel the court leans to the right on civil matters as well. But what about the other issues, like the Delta smelt ruling?
As evidence that Wanger, in particular, leans to the right politically and favors farmers over fish, some attorneys point to a case involving Francis Orff and other unhappy Westlands farmers who sought upward of $32 million from the federal government for undelivered irrigation water.
In a February 2005 oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia referred to “this friendly district judge” in a question to Orff’s attorney. The judge Scalia spoke of, the attorneys said, was Wanger.
Though attorneys for environmental groups declined to comment, Wanger’s reputation was one reason they filed two cases on behalf of endangered fish - one involving the delta smelt, the other involving salmon and steelhead species - in California’s Northern District, which is based in San Francisco.
Both times, the state and federal governments argued that the cases should be moved to Wanger’s court in Fresno.
The San Francisco court granted both requests, in part because Wanger has heard more than three dozen water cases and is the acknowledged judicial expert in California, and also because he was already hearing similar cases.
Ironically, even though the environmentalists still tried to get the trial moved to another court, Wanger has ruled in their favor twice:
Capozzi said the fish rulings show that Wanger followed the law rather than political ideology. In one ruling, Wanger wrote that Congress - and not the courts - gave endangered species “the highest of priorities” in the Endangered Species Act. “It is up to the political branches of government, not the court,” to solve any problems created for farmers and other water users by the act, he wrote.
Read the full text of this article from the Belleville News-Democrat by clicking here.
DWR & Bureau of Reclamation officials ask for more time to prepare biological opinions for Delta pumps
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 1, 2008 at 6:34 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
The state and federal owners of massive water export pumps in the Delta have asked a judge to grant them additional time to prepare a new operating plan to protect threatened fish.
The state Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation face a Sept. 15 court deadline to deliver a new biological opinion on their operations to protect the Delta smelt. The document, produced in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sets operating limits for the pumps to minimize harm to fish.
The agencies lost a federal lawsuit over their operations last year, and federal district Judge Oliver Wanger in December ordered them to prepare a new biological opinion.
The two giant pumping systems near Tracy kill millions of fish — smelt and other species — every year in the process of exporting water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. About 25 million Californians in the Bay Area and Southern California depend on that water.
They are asking for a three month extension. More from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Feds’ plan to improve Delta water system isn’t accurate, agency warns
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 1, 2008 at 6:51 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
A court-ordered fix for the threatened Delta smelt population is running into trouble before it has even seen daylight.
Federal water officials have been warned that their work on a draft plan for operating the Delta’s water works “contains deficiencies, incomplete analysis, inaccuracies and omissions.”
The warning came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which faces the same court deadline of Sept. 15 to submit the plan, called a “biological opinion.” The goal is to create a new set of operating rules for the massive state and federal pumping systems that export water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the Bay Area and Southern California.
Federal Judge Oliver Wanger, in Fresno, ordered the new plan in December. His ruling found that the state Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had violated the Endangered Species Act because their prior pumping rules did not adequately protect Delta smelt. The fish are ground up in the pumps and also killed by changes in water flows caused by the powerful pumps.
In its letter, the service set a July 7 deadline for the Bureau of Reclamation to fill in the data gaps, or it will be forced to complete the study using available information. The bureau is the lead agency responsible for drafting of the new rules. If that deadline isn’t met, the Fish and Wildlife Service could be forced to use incomplete information to prepare the new rules.
“We’re going to go with the best information we have when we prepare the biological opinion,” said service spokesman Al Donner. “Hopefully, we will have all the information we think we need.”
Read the full text of this article from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
California’s water future: crops wither–along with the water supply
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2008 at 6:43 amFrom the California Farm Bureau:
After decades of political bickering and inaction, California is on the brink of a water supply catastrophe. Today officials are calling the shortfall in the state’s water supply a crisis or an emergency. But farmers throughout the state who’ve had their water supplies drastically cut–see things in even more dire terms. For many, the increasing water supply shortage threatens their very survival.
Northern California had its driest spring in history this year. Southern California set records in 2007 for low rainfall. Added to this was a disappointing 2008 Sierra Nevada snowpack that totaled 67 percent of average. And, as parching as the lack of precipitation can be, supply has been further reduced by court-ordered cutbacks in pumping and water transfers from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to save endangered delta smelt. A trial currently under way in Fresno addressing the water needs of endangered salmon and steelhead also may result in further water delivery cutbacks.
Meanwhile major reservoirs in California are low, with Lake Oroville, the state water project’s most important reservoir, just half full. The Colorado River has suffered through an eight-year drought and, while last winter’s precipitation in the river’s snowshed was 110 percent of average, that won’t make up for years of drought.
Experts say if there’s no improvement in California’s precipitation during the next rainy season, the state will have less water in its reservoirs than during the state’s worst drought in 1976-77. During that drought, the state’s population was about 22 million residents. Today’s population is about 38 million, with expected growth to more than 46 million by 2030.
The last major state-built water storage projects were completed more than 30 years ago and California has been living on borrowed foresight ever since. Now, with growing demand and limited storage capacity, the drought will leave many major reservoirs half empty.
Avenal farmer Bob Wilson produces a wide variety of crops–processing tomatoes, cotton, alfalfa, garlic, garbanzo beans, wheat, pistachios, almonds and winegrapes. He’s proud of the diversity in the crops he grows and of the steps he and partner Gary Esajian have taken to make every drop of water count. “We foresaw there would be a limited amount of water going into this year and planted a variety of crops that either require less water or were finished in the late winter and early spring,” Wilson said. “That way they wouldn’t compete with our tomatoes, cotton and trees and vines in the summer months.”
One crop Wilson said he rarely grows is safflower, but he and other farmers have put in section after section of this oil crop because the stickery yellow plant is fairly drought tolerant and commodity prices are decent. “I’m afraid more people will be growing safflower and garbanzos next year because both are drought tolerant,” he said. “Prices for winter wheat prices have been pretty good and we’re harvesting now. We’ve also put in pistachios, which don’t need as much water as some other tree crops.”
Added to these strategic cropping decisions, the farm business has invested nearly a million dollars in irrigation technology, new wells and piping systems. “Wells in this area are fragile at best,” Wilson explained. “The ground is porous and they tend to collapse. Everybody we know in Westlands Water District is pumping right now. If you have a problem, it’s like going to the donut shop, take a number and stand in line. It’s hard to get a well company to come out these days.
“And, wells aren’t the answer to keeping us going,” said Wilson, who is a past president of Kings County Farm Bureau. “It’s critical that we find a solution to the supply problems and bring more water in. We’ve got to figure this problem out.”
Agencies issue biological assessments on pumping; 900-page document ‘just a starting point’ in Bay-Delta fish protection project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 25, 2008 at 7:57 amFrom the Capitol Press:
California’s Department of Water Resources and the federal Bureau of Reclamation have issued biological assessments on their Bay-Delta water-pumping operations in answer to a court decision last year that limited water exports because of impacts on fish species. The assessments, made public May 16, are part of the State Water Project and Central Valley Project joint operations criteria and plan, according to DWR.
Last year, Judge Oliver Wanger issued a decision in federal court limiting pumping operations because they were harming species like the dwindling delta smelt. Wanger’s decision found that biological opinions issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service didn’t adequately protect fish species in the delta, which necessitated new biological opinions for both the State Water Project and Central Valley Project.
As part of an Endangered Species Act re-consultation, Wanger ordered the agencies to develop by Sept. 15 new and more protective biological opinions, according to DWR. Until a new biological opinion is developed, the water projects are living under Wanger’s decision, which has resulted in water export reductions, said Jerry Johns, DWR’s deputy director.
Sue Sims, a DWR spokesperson, said the document is the first step in a formal process. “This biological assessment from our standpoint is clearly just the starting point,” with more work to be done, said Sims.
Read the full text from the Capitol Press by clicking here. You can read the biological assessment at the Bureau of Reclamation website by clicking here.
DWR Press Release: DWR and USBR Issue Biological Assessment on Delta Pumping
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 16, 2008 at 2:14 pm
From the Department of Water Resources:
SACRAMENTO – The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) issued Biological Assessments today on their respective water projects, particularly as they relate to Delta pumping and the effects on endangered fish species.
The assessments are posted on the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Region Web site at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/
[Aquafornia note: here is a more direct link: http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/ocap_page.html]
The assessments are part of what’s identified as the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) joint Operations Criteria and Plan.
Operational requirements are spelled out in permits known as Biological Opinions Issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
Recent court decisions conclude that current permits do not adequately protect certain fish species. That means the federal fish agencies must develop new Biological Opinions regarding SWP and CVP operations.
The court has ordered development of new, more protective, biological opinions by mid-September 2008. This process is known as federal Endangered Species Act re-consultation.
The Biological Assessment (BA) is a starting point in the consultation process. A considerable amount of new science on the Delta and additional fish protection measures will need to be integrated into project operations. DWR and the Bureau will be working with the federal fish agencies to assist them to develop this information.
The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.
Farmers shouldn’t blame Wanger, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 18, 2008 at 3:40 pmFrom the Fresno Bee, this editorial:
Farmers angry about losing irrigation water to environmental restoration have made his name an epithet, right along with the tiny delta smelt and majestic chinook salmon. They curse the day that Oliver W. Wanger got his federal judgeship and talk about hiring smart lawyers to overturn his rulings.
It’s their money to do with what they please. But they should know this: Wanger’s decisions are based on law, not liberal activist leanings.
Wanger, 67, was nominated to the bench by President George H.W. Bush and is a registered Republican. Before becoming a judge, Wanger was a senior partner at McCormick, Barstow, Sheppard, Wayte & Carruth — the Fresno cradle of judges specializing in business litigation.
Never have I heard anyone describe the firm as a bastion of liberal causes. But I have heard Wanger described as smart — brilliant, even.
When Wanger was sworn in, Judge Robert E. Coyle — for whom the federal courthouse in Fresno was named — said: “Ollie comes to us with the tools, intelligence, knowledge of the law and ability to grasp situations simultaneously.”
The column ultimately points out this:
Wanger is following the law. Not bending it left or right, or ruling capriciously. Even though the Bush administration pretends otherwise, the Endangered Species Act remains the law of the land.
By having the courage to remind growers, environmentalists and even presidents of that salient fact, Wanger is forcing stakeholders to confront the reality of what we’ve done to the delta.
Thanks to the judge, the choice is now ours. We can fix the delta with science and collaboration or we can elect to-hell-with-the-environment legislators willing to gut the Endangered Species Act.
Whatever the ultimate verdict, don’t blame Wanger.
Full text of this editorial from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Workers losing jobs to smelt; “Let us not lose sight of this human story” says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 14, 2008 at 3:30 pmFrom the Western Farm Press:
The smelt will soon be entering a phase in its life-cycle that has historically placed it in danger of floating into the pumps in increased numbers because of the flow pattern of water through the Delta. While farmers are keeping their fingers crossed in hopes of no additional flow restrictions, they are also being realistic and preparing for future interruptions in water deliveries.
Farmers have already put pencil to paper to determine which crops to plant this season and when to put the seed in the ground. For those who have both row crops that are planted each year and also trees or vine crops, the decision must be made whether to redirect available water from the row crops to the permanent crops. Some farmers are drilling new wells in hopes of tapping the groundwater source if necessary. But there is more at stake than just how many acres to plant and spending money for a new well. There is a human factor in these decisions.
Farmers have been forced to tell some of their workers that there will be no jobs for them this year. These jobs may be seasonal and related to harvest activity while others are year-round positions. Farmers responded to a survey about employee reductions and the numbers are startling—between 546 and 1,150 employees have already lost their jobs because of the uncertain water future. But only a portion of the farmers who receive water from the Delta were part of this survey. These numbers could easily double.
Let us not lose sight of this human story when we read news reports of water not being delivered to San Joaquin Valley farms and the millions of people who rely upon this flow for drinking purposes.
Read the rest of this editorial from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.
Dry March means state water contractor’s allocations stay at 35%
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 12, 2008 at 6:47 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Unless May brings some “miracle” rainstorms, State Water Contractors will not get one more drop of water from the California Aqueduct than the 35% already allocated this year by the Department of Water Resources, a top local water official says.
There’s “little chance” for a change in this year’s allocation despite all the rain in January and February, because March was such a dry month, Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency General Manager Russ Fuller told the agency board Tuesday night.
His assessment of state water woes reinforced comments in a news release issued by State Water Contractors Inc., a nonprofit association of 27 public agencies throughout the state that provide water from the State Water Project to more than 25 million residents and 750,000 acres of agricultural land.
“Urban water users and farmers are already feeling the pinch from restrictions imposed by an unprecedented federal court ruling that has slashed California’s water supply by 600,000 acre-feet of water in the first quarter of 2008,” the news release from State Water Contractors’ Sacramento headquarters said. An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, the amount used by the average single-family home in one year, according to water experts.
The news release referred to the December ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger that ordered the pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta slowed down, reducing the amount of water that flows into the 444-mile aqueduct - water that residents use for drinking, cooking and bathing and that farmers use to grow fruits and vegetables. Wanger ordered the slowdown in an effort to save an indigenous species of fish, the delta smelt, whose population dwindled as they got sucked into the machinery and died. Smelt are vital to the delta ecosystem, scientists say.
The news release said the amount of water lost to member agencies in the first three months of 2008 “is enough to serve more than 4.8 million people for one year.”
More on this story from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Water for smelt equals water supply for over 1 million homes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 9, 2008 at 7:42 amFrom Western Farm Press:
I stand corrected.
In the last edition I reported that 85,000 acre feet had already been held hostage behind the Delta pumps to protect a minnow.
Cannon Michael, the water watchdog for the family-owned Bowles Farming Company, Los Banos, Calif., kindly pointed out in an e-mail that I missed the mark by a mile. It is more like 300,000 acre feet that have been precluded from moving through the Delta and into the state and federal water projects delivering water to Central and Southern California since last Dec. 12. This is because of a federal district court judge’s ruling last fall protecting the Delta smelt.
The revised estimate came from Steve Chedester of the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority in Los Banos who said the inflow into the San Luis Reservoir is now at a trickle. The outflow is rapidly drawing down the reservoir three months before the peak irrigation season begins.
That ups the ante to representing 300,000 California households. If you figure a household is four people who use an acre foot of water (326,000 gallons) per year, then schools of minnows have basically taken the water supply equal to what is used by the cities of Anaheim, Santa Ana and Riverside for one year.
Of course radical environmentalists do not want to put it in those terms. They’d rather put it in terms of water used by farmers. It always amazes me when farmers are criticized for using water. What do people think farmers are using water for; brushing their teeth or washing pickups? It is used in their business to produce food.
The lost water could have been used to produce 168 million heads of romaine lettuce, or 60 million loaves of bread, or 350,000 tons of tomatoes. Read the rest of this editorial from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.
Cuts in Water Deliveries Affecting Jobs, Water Rates
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 7, 2008 at 6:58 pmHmmmm… something must have gone down today. I haven’t received any press releases from DWR, but I did get this one and the next. From Business Wire, this press release from the Association of California Water Contractors:
With deep cuts in water deliveries ordered this year to help protect a threatened fish species, the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today said impacts are beginning to ripple across the state and will likely continue until action is taken to improve the sustainability of the state’s water supply system.
“For the first time in a long time, California is losing income and jobs because our water supply system is in crisis,” ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn said. “Every day that goes by without a solution is another day of environmental deterioration and lost water supply.”
ACWA member agencies report that court-ordered restrictions on water deliveries through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are creating drought-like conditions despite the fact that snowpack levels were near normal last month. Runoff from the mountain snowpack is expected to be below average due to dry soil conditions and warm temperatures that evaporated some of the water content in March.
Agencies stand to receive just 35% of their requested water deliveries from the State Water Project (SWP), forcing many to dip into dry-year reserves and seek out expensive alternative supply sources where possible. In some cases, reserves already are low following a string of dry years and a 10-day shutdown of the SWP pumps last summer to protect the Delta smelt.
Enough Water to Serve 4.8 Million Californians Diverted to Help Protect Fish
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 7, 2008 at 6:52 pmFrom EarthTimes, this press release from the State Water Contractors:
Urban water users and farmers are already feeling the pinch from restrictions imposed by an unprecedented federal court ruling that has slashed California’s water supply by 600,000 acre-feet of water in the first quarter of 2008. The amount of water lost so far this year is enough to serve more than 4.8 million people for one year. Public water agencies are only receiving 35% of their annual allocation of water from the State Water Project (SWP) — a paltry level water agencies have not been restricted to since the severe 1991 drought. Notwithstanding recent optimistic snowpack reports, precipitation is very low this year for the second year in a row. Compounding the problem is the regulatory restriction, which makes it harder to move the water when it is available.
“We are experiencing a dry year shortage that is being exacerbated by regulatory restrictions,” said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors. “Our water system is being strangled, and there is no end in sight unless we change how we move water across the state and fix the broken Delta.”
“This untenable situation puts all Californians at risk. We are digging into our drought reserves to protect fish,” added Moon.
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