Water Education Foundation

Delta pollution results in stunted and deformed baby striped bass

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 11, 2008 at 6:25 am

From Dan Bacher of the Fish Sniffer:

Pollution in the California Delta is contaminating the eggs of wild striped bass, resulting in stunting and deformation in baby striped bass, according to an alarming scientific report released by UC Davis Professor David Ostratch.

“Striped bass in the San Francisco Estuary are contaminated before birth with a toxic mix of pesticides, industrial chemicals and flame retardants that their mothers acquire from estuary waters and food sources and pass on to their eggs,” according to a statement from the UC Davis researchers.

This report was released as Central Valley chinook salmon and Delta fish populations continue to crash, due to massive increases in water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and an alarming decline in water quality in the estuary in recent years. State and federal scientists have documented a precipitous decline of juvenile striped bass and three other pelagic (open water) species - Delta smelt, longfin smelt and threadfin shad - since 2005.

“This is one of the first studies examining the effects of real-world contaminant mixtures on growth and development in wildlife,” said study lead author David Ostrach, a research scientist at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences. He said the findings have implications far beyond fish, because the estuary is the water source for two-thirds of the people and most of the farms in California, including drainage impaired land in the Westlands Water District of the San Joaquin Valley.

Using new analytical techniques, the researchers found that offspring of San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary fish had “underdeveloped brains, inadequate energy supplies and dysfunctional livers.” They grew slower and were smaller than offspring of hatchery fish raised in clean, unpollluted water.

“If the fish living in this water are not healthy and are passing on contaminants to their young, what is happening to the people who use the water, are exposed to the same chemicals or eat the fish?” Ostrach emphasized. “We should be asking hard questions about the nature and source of these contaminants, as well as acting to stop the ongoing pollution and mitigate these current problems.”

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December 11, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues, Water & Wildlife

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Q&A on Delta ecosystem challenge

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 10, 2008 at 6:41 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

By New Year’s Eve, a panel of state Cabinet secretaries called the Delta Vision Committee will send the governor and Legislature a plan to replumb and restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of California’s freshwater delivery system.

It will be one of the most ambitious infrastructure and habitat restoration projects ever proposed in America.

The Delta provides drinking water to 25 million Californians and irrigates 3 million acres of farmland via diversion pumps near Tracy. But these diversions have contributed to a broad ecosystem collapse in the Delta, including nine fish species in steep decline. As a result, water deliveries to the Bay Area and Southern California have been curtailed.

California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, who chairs the Delta Vision Committee, and Karla Nemeth, his liaison to the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, describe how their planning efforts likely will converge, probably in 2010, in a big decision for California voters.

Read more of this Q&A with Mike Chrisman & Karla Nemeth in the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

December 10, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Other Delta Issues

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Commentary: Delta water plan is key to California’s future

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2008 at 8:14 am

From the Sacramento Bee, this commentary by Tom Zuckerman, special projects manager of the Central Delta Water Agency:

This month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will release a draft plan to protect the endangered Delta smelt, which lives only in the Sacramento-San Joaqin River Delta. Last year, a court order to protect the smelt drew protests from water users south of the Delta who are concerned about their water supply. We sympathize, because we also understand the importance of water.

We represent, respectively, farmers in the Delta and California’s commercial salmon fishermen. Our communities depend on water. Healthy rivers produce healthy salmon runs, sustaining fishermen, their families and fishing communities. Delta farmers also depend on healthy rivers.

When others divert too much water from the ecosystem, Delta farmers find their crops damaged by salty water intruding from the bay and the salty San Joaquin River drainage discharges that collect in the South Delta, as a result of the operation of the export pumps.

For the past five decades, we have seen steady increases in the amount of water pumped from the Delta – to record levels in recent years. Today, as a direct result, the entire Delta ecosystem is collapsing. In addition to the smelt, some salmon runs, steelhead, sturgeon and other fish are threatened by extinction.

This damage is no surprise. The massive pumps in the Delta divert more water than is pumped at any single location in the nation.

December 4, 2008 · Filed Under Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling, Other Delta Issues

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Restore the Delta’s 2009 Platform

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2008 at 6:24 am

From the California Progress Report:

Over the last six months, Restore the Delta staff, board members, and advisors have worked to create a campaign platform that expresses our vision for restoration of the Delta. Below are the principles of this work. The campaign platform will be used as a tool to make our vision known to legislators and for organizing volunteers throughout the year.

To create in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta a world-class region in which productive agriculture and habitat protection are successfully interwoven, Restore the Delta advocates the following principles:

Restore the flow of fresh water by immediately reducing exports to a level compatible with protecting Delta communities. All proposals for long-term Delta management must be based on a firm understanding of Delta freshwater needs and must include strong protection of sufficient flows of water necessary for public health, agriculture, and habitat for native and desirable species. We advocate restoring enough Delta outflow pattern to return the mixing zone of salt water and fresh water to the western part of the Delta near Suisun Bay. We also advocate restoring freshwater flows to the San Joaquin River by retiring drainage-impaired lands loaded with selenium and salt in the Central Valley. Appropriate and sustainable water export reductions must be made before any proposals for alternative export conveyance or diversion are considered.

Read more of Restore the Delta’s 2009 Platform from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

December 4, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Debunking the myth of having to choose between water for people vs water for fish

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 3, 2008 at 6:30 am

From the NRDC Switchboard:

Last week, the San Diego Union Tribune published an editorial on water policy and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Not only did the editorial get many of the critical facts wrong, but it also perpetuated a superficial theory that California can only protect water or fish. The truth is, California can meet the water needs of both people and fish. But in order to do so, we must invest in a 21st Century water supply system that utilizes efficiency and conservation, what we call the “Virtual River.” To do otherwise would be the wrong water policy for the wrong era.

Only a few decades ago, delta smelt were one of the most abundant native fish in the Bay-Delta. Unfortunately, since then the population has crashed to historically low levels. An ambitious multi-agency scientific effort was launched several years ago to investigate all suspected causes of this collapse. This effort supports a growing scientific understanding that the operation of the State and federal water projects in the Delta, which exports more water than any other diversion project in the Western Hemisphere, are one of the most important factors in the decline of the smelt. The giant pumps that export water from the Delta unnaturally reverse the flow of water in the Delta, essentially causing rivers to run backwards. Not only does this dramatically alter the clarity and quality of the water in the Delta, it sucks smelt and their food into the pipes and kills them.

In what must be an editorial oversight, the Tribune’s editorial claims that fewer than 10 smelt were caught in the pumps in the past five years. That’s off by thousands, according to the State and federal governments. In May of 2008 alone, more than 900 delta smelt were killed by the pumps. And if you go back a few more years, you’ll see that more than 9,500 delta smelt were killed by the pumps in January 2003. While it may initially sound good that fewer smelt have been caught in the pumps in recent years, the unfortunate reality is that the reason behind this is there are simply fewer smelt in the delta. And this number only includes the fish that were found in the pumps and counted; recent studies suggest that the vast majority of delta smelt that are sucked into the forebay of the state pumps die without ever being counted.

Read more from the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.

December 3, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues, Water & Wildlife

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C-WIN, CSPA file suit to end wasteful Delta diversions, protect public trust resources

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2008 at 4:02 pm

From C-WIN:

Calling it “the biggest lawsuit about the biggest ecological and legal catastrophe in California today,” the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court Friday, November 28, 2008, to protect Delta public trust resources—including endangered migratory fisheries of salmon and open water fish species—and to end wasteful and unreasonable diversions of water from the Delta by big state and federal water projects.

The suit also asks the court to halt irrigation of several hundred thousand acres of selenium-contaminated lands on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, the drainage from which pollutes wetlands, the San Joaquin River, and the Delta.

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

The suit names as defendants the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). Specifically, the seven-count lawsuit charges that the huge export pumps near Tracy in the south Delta kill thousands upon thousands of smelt and small salmon fry every year, at different times of year, and are the main threats to public trust resources in the Delta. DWR and USBR, operators of the two largest water storage, pumping, and canal systems in California, violate numerous federal and state water quality and fish protection laws, the state’s public trust responsibility, water rights orders, and the terms of their appropriative water rights permits through excessive pumping—all illegally allowed by the SWRCB, the state’s water regulator, and the third defendant charged in the suit.

“The State Water Board hasn’t applied one significant measure to protect fisheries in over a decade and the Governor’s Delta Vision and Bay-Delta Conversation Program processes are little more than smokescreens to justify the status quo,” added Jennings.

“It took lots of people all over California to protect the public trust resources and protect the rivers of northern California as it did at Mono Lake,” said Carolee Krieger, executive director and board president of C-WIN. “We must stop the carnage in the Delta now.”

After construction and operation of the federal Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project, runs of migratory salmon went extinct below Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River near Fresno in the early 1950s. The Delta smelt, an open water fish native to the Delta estuary, has almost gone extinct, and desperate biologists may try to cultivate an artificial smelt refuge.

“Our state government has utterly failed to enforce the public trust and obey the constitution,” said Krieger. “In our suit, we petition the court to force the State Water Resources Control Board to enforce the letter and spirit of the water laws and the State constitution.”

“A lot of people don’t realize that the voters of California passed a constitutional amendment in 1928 to ban wasteful water use and harmful diversions from streams,” said attorney Michael Jackson who represents both C-WIN and CSPA in this case. “Even the federal government must adhere to state water law and the constitution, and we intend to show the court how they haven’t time and again, and to persuade the court to end the lawlessness of water exports from the Delta.”

Wasteful water use harms the Delta, argues the suit, when water exported by the Central Valley Project is used to irrigate western San Joaquin Valley lands that are naturally contaminated with selenium, boron, arsenic, and even mercury in some areas. These lands then drain to the San Joaquin River, the Delta, and Suisun Marsh. Settling in sediments where clams and other aquatic organisms feed, the toxins concentrate through the food chain, resulting in embryonic deformities and dead offspring for many fish, bird, and mammal species in the Valley.

“These two projects pump water from the Delta to irrigate impaired lands and recycle contaminated drainage back via the San Joaquin River to an increasingly polluted estuary thereby accelerating the decline of fisheries,” adds Jennings of CSPA. “Enough is enough!”

“We’re getting our slingshots ready,” said attorney Jackson with a smile. “And we know who won the last meeting between David and Goliath.”

For more information on C-WIN, click here.

December 1, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Delta smelt closer to extinction

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2008 at 5:59 am

From 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.

December 1, 2008 · Filed Under Delta smelt, Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling, Other Delta Issues

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Overwhelmed by conservation, Yolo County wants a say; Supervisors consider local regulation of mitigation efforts

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 25, 2008 at 6:29 am

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

Yolo County officials and farmers are growing nervous as water utilities, housing developers and private conservation banks eye the county as a prime spot for wetlands mitigation efforts. Five proposed and pending projects would convert about 2,500 to 3,000 acres from farmland to riparian wetlands, vernal pools and other habitats, Phil Pogledich, senior deputy county counsel, wrote in a report to the Board of Supervisors.

And there could be more acreage on the way. The Bay Delta Conservation Plan, created by water agencies, environmentalists and state officials, proposes restoring and creating 100,000 acres of wetlands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Among the proposals: remove levees at the south end of the Deep Water Ship Canal, which connects to the Port of Sacramento, to inundate 2,000 to 5,000 acres of farmland.

County officials are concerned enough to consider regulating wildlife habitat projects. Although they have not proposed specific measures, they have suggested mimicking Solano County, which requires a conditional use permit for wetlands-creation projects. That approach means the project proponents have to prepare environmental reviews detailing potential impacts to adjacent farms and wildlife species.

Read more from the Sacramento Business Journal by clicking here.

November 25, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues, Sacramento

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Discovery Bay CSD to weigh in on Frank’s Tract project; some fear it is a precursor to a peripheral canal

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 14, 2008 at 6:47 am

From the Brentwood Press:

As residents and local agencies throughout East County continue to grapple with the details of a proposal backed by the state and federal governments to improve water quality and habitat conditions in the Delta, the Discovery Bay CSD Board is preparing to respond to a state agency’s request for public input on the Frank’s Tract Project.

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Federal Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) are proposing the construction of flow-control gates in the Frank’s Tract sector of the Delta. The purpose of the project is to improve the salinity of the water while preserving the habitats of the Delta Smelt.

But while some agree that the short-range benefits, particularly to Discovery Bay and surrounding areas, are indisputable in terms of water quality, it is the long-term effect of the project that has some viewing the proposal as little more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing – and the wolf is a peripheral canal.

Reclamation 800 District Engineer Chris Neudeck is one such person. Speaking before the CSD board at a recent meeting, Neudeck urged the board and the community to see beyond the proposed scope of the Frank’s Tract Project. “Your interests in this (project) are substantial and you have much to lose,” said Neudeck. “Where you live and play could be grossly impacted.”

Read more from the Brentwood Press by clicking here.

November 14, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues, Peripheral Canal

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Restore the Delta commentary: A Gradual ending of Delta water exports - a potentially cost effective solution to the Delta’s water woes

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 7, 2008 at 6:36 am

From the Restore the Delta E-news, this commentary:

In a new report, Dr. Jeffrey A. Michael, Director of the Business Forecasting Center and Associate Professor in the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific, calls into question the findings of this summer’s Public Policy Institute Report endorsing the peripheral canal as the best long-run solution for the Delta. Dr. Michael notes that the PPIC report finds that “ending Delta water exports is significantly better for the environment than the peripheral canal, but reject the strategy because it is too costly. ” Dr. Michael then elaborates that cost estimates in the PPIC report are exaggerated because they depend on “inaccurate assumptions that utilize outdated, undocumented, or fabricated sources” in relation to future population growth and desalination costs.

In his findings, Dr Michael also asserts that:

The headline news about the PPIC report is that a group of independent academics concluded after an extensive study that the peripheral canal is the best strategy for the Delta. This is unfortunate, because there is no objective way of reaching this conclusion with their data. The PPIC report finds that ending Delta exports has higher environmental benefits (including direct economic benefits to fisheries and recreation they do not calculate) that they do not attempt to value in economic terms, whereas the peripheral canal has lower economic costs in terms of its water supply costs and benefits. To reach their conclusion, the authors most impose their own subjective value judgment that the environmental benefits of ending Delta exports is not worth the additional costs of the water supply system. However, it is quite plausible that these environmental benefits could have values in excess of $1 billion per year, and the burden is on the PPIC team to argue that the benefits are less — It is astonishing that a group of reputable academics would make such a value-laden conclusion in a research report rather than simply identify the trade-offs.

Since the release of the PPIC report this summer, Restore the Delta has questioned the report’s incomplete economic analysis and the lack of value that it ascribes to Delta agriculture, fisheries, and communities, while promoting the economic value of another region in California. What is particularly disturbing is that the PPIC reports promoting the peripheral canal have been considered an important source for decision making by the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, leadership at the Department of Water Resources, and those promoting the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. What we find in Dr. Michael’s analysis is that the second PPIC report is truly an incomplete and inaccurate source for making such important water policy decisions.

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November 7, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues, Peripheral Canal

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Urgent efforts a race against time; Freezing smelt DNA, tweaking genetics explored

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 30, 2008 at 6:22 am

From Stockton’s Record:

Delta smelt may be threatened, but thousands of the little guys swim circles in dark tanks near the pumps that ship water to Southern California. Can these fish, bred mostly for research, be bolstered in number and someday released to the wild?

A report issued last week says this strategy should be considered, along with possibly freezing and preserving smelt DNA or tweaking the fish’s genetics to make it more adaptable to the Delta’s rapidly changing environment.

Some kind of solution is urgent. Not only are smelt a bellwether for the health of the Delta overall, but the well-being of the fish is directly tied to how much water farmers and cities south of the Delta receive. The fish are imperiled by many factors, including the pumps, exotic clams that eat their food and toxins in the water.

Some biologists are skeptical that a refuge population or other far-reaching plans would be successful. “Those are all acts of desperation,” said Peter Moyle, a fisheries biologist at the University of California, Davis, “There’s no substitute for fixing the environment” in which the fish live.

Read more from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.

October 30, 2008 · Filed Under Delta smelt, Other Delta Issues

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Sacramento Delta levees get FEMA scrutiny

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 30, 2008 at 5:22 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is again zeroing in on Sacramento Delta levees, seeking assurances from owners of about 85 miles of barriers that they will withstand a 100-year flood.

The effort, under way in counties throughout the region, stems from a 2005 policy requiring that local jurisdictions nationally verify that their levees can hold back a flood having a 1 percent chance of striking in a given year.

Throughout Sacramento County, about a dozen reclamation districts, the city of Elk Grove and owners of other publicly owned levees have until late January 2009 to vouch that they can give FEMA proof that their levees will withstand such flooding. If the districts agree to go through the process, they’ll have another 20 months or so to provide documentation.

Districts that can’t document their levees’ integrity will be drawn into a FEMA flood hazard zone, requiring residents with federally backed loans to buy flood insurance and that any new construction be as much as 16 feet above ground. Business owners would face similar requirements.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

October 30, 2008 · Filed Under Levees, Other Delta Issues

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Wetland restoration in Dutch Slough will be first in Delta history

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 29, 2008 at 6:43 am

From the San Jose Mercury News:

The first wetlands restoration project in the Delta promises to turn Dutch Slough into a learning laboratory that will provide scientists and the public a glimpse into the region’s early ecology.

After years of planning, environmental documents for the project will be released in November and the initial funding has been secured. The 1,166-acre former cattle grazing and dairy operations in Oakley will be transformed into habitats for freshwater tidal marsh and sand dunes.

“We have specifically designed the restoration project to teach us more about the role of tidal marshes in the ecology of the Delta,” Natural Heritage Institute restoration ecologist John Cain said. “We don’t have significant natural tidal marsh in the Delta today to adequately measure how native fish use tidal marsh.”

The $30 million project should receive the bulk of its funding from Proposition 84, a safe drinking water and water quality act passed in 2006. It will be constructed in phases, with completion expected around 2012. The construction process will include bringing in fill material, contouring the site, and breaching the levee.

The environmental report will cover how the plans will affect air quality, noise, dust, water quality, aesthetics and endangered species. The project’s main goals are to create habitats for species and improve the ecosystem there.

“It is not an experiment because we have a high level of confidence that it would result in a lot of benefits for the Delta,” Cain said.

More from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

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October 29, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Wall Street collapse kicks up Delta dust

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 25, 2008 at 5:55 am

From the San Jose Mercury News:

First there was the flooding. Then the bone-rattling, drywall-cracking pounding of compaction equipment. Now, the endless dust that has one of Marguerite Lawry’s neighbors comparing Bethel Island to a movie set in desert sands. “One of the guys says, ‘You could have filmed Lawrence of Arabia on Stone Road yesterday,” Lawry said. “From my house I can’t see the road. It gets that bad that you can barely see it.”

The source of the nuisance is a controversial housing development that, three decades after nearly 500 waterfront homes were approved, appears ready for hammers and nails. But instead of construction crews and trucks, the 310 acres form a ghostly, fenced-off site with ramps leading from levee-top pads to empty docks in the new lagoon. Not a single home has been built.

What makes Delta Coves different from other stalled projects in the collapsed housing market — or perhaps a harbinger of things to come — is the developer is facing severe fines because it lacks the money to meet environmental rules. In particular, the project has not protected the new levee from wind and erosion, which regulators say should have been done earlier this month.

The engineered levee is massive enough that there is no realistic threat of it failing anytime soon, but it could end up needing expensive repairs. And the sand blowing and washing off it into the lagoon, nearby channels and on neighbors’ properties is not just a nuisance, it could clog drainage systems, which are particularly important on this Delta island that is more like a bowl surrounded by water than a traditional island.

Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

October 25, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Delta gates proposal churns up controversy

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 24, 2008 at 5:44 am

From the Brentwood Press:

A proposed plan to build flow-control gates along the Frank’s Tract area of Bethel Island is being touted by state and federal water agencies as an ecosystem-saving, water-quality improvement measure for the Delta. But some residents and local officials fear the project is no more than a thinly veiled first step toward the construction of a peripheral canal.

“Yes, I’m very concerned; I live on the Delta,” said Supervisor Mary Piepho when asked about the proposed project. “We need to protect fish and species and water quality and stop salinity from coming in and this is one proposal … But being fearful is good; we should all be afraid and we should all be paying attention.”

The $25 million pilot project calls for the construction of one and possibly two operational gates along Three Mile Slough and West False River. The plan is a joint venture by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the Federal Bureau of Reclamation, the Contra Costa Water District, the Westlands Water District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Officials believe that by installing the gates along these two channels located near Frank’s Tract, fish flow – specifically the Delta smelt – would be restricted from traveling from the lower San Joaquin River to Old River, where they risk swimming into and being killed by export water pumps. Officials say a reduction in the influx of higher salt water levels coming through those channels would have the added benefit of improving water quality.

Read more from the Brentwood Press by clicking here.

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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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

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“State of Bay-Delta Science, 2008″ is Released: Landmark Publication on the California Delta

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 21, 2008 at 6:13 am

From Cal-Fed, this news release:

The CALFED Science Program has published a book summarizing the significant new knowledge gleaned from eight years of CALFED science research into water supply and water quality, ecosystems and levee fragility in the California Delta. The State of Bay-Delta Science, 2008, is being released on October 21, 2008, on the eve of the 5th Biennial CALFED Science Conference, initiating the gathering of 1,200 San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta scientists, managers and policymakers.

“This is a landmark publication summarizing our current understanding of the Delta by the most knowledgeable experts on the estuary,” said Cliff Dahm, CALFED Lead Scientist. The effort was led by Michael Healey, a former CALFED Lead Scientist and Science Advisor to the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. “I envision this as a go-to book for managers and policy makers, as well as interested members of the public that are working to gain a better understanding through science of forces at work in the Delta,” said Healey.

The definitive reference pulls together in one publication information on a broad array of issues critical to the sustainable management of water and the Delta. The science outlined in this volume is expected to play a critical role in the implementation of Delta Vision and the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan. Some of the key points made in the 174-page book include the following:

• 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)
• When levees were first constructed, Delta islands were close to sea level. Farming, water extraction, burning and wind erosion have lowered the island interiors. Additionally, 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)

Other areas of the book deal with Delta history, science, geophysics, water quality and supply, aquatic ecosystems, levees, climate change, policy development and some themes that are crosscutting across areas and issues.

In addition to Healey, other editors of the publication are Michael D. Dettinger, Research Hydrologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Robert B. Norgaard, Professor of Energy and Resources at the University of California, Berkeley. Darcy Jones and Jana Machula of the CALFED Science Program were managing editors.

Among the authors are two former CALFED lead scientists, Samuel Luoma and Johnnie Moore; retired state chief hydrologist, Maurice Roos; present and former CALFED scientists Steven Culberson, Matt Nobriga, Mark Roberson, Elizabeth Soderstrom and Lisa Holm; USGS scientists Brian Bergamaschi, Robin Stewart, Cathy Ruhl, David Schoellhamer, Jan Thompson and Larry Brown; academics Wim Kimmerer and Peter Moyle; and consultants Roy Shlemon, Susan Anderson and Loren Bottorff.

Copies of the The State of Bay-Delta Science, 2008, will be available to attendees of the CALFED Science Conference October 22-24, at the Sacramento Convention Center, or beginning October 22 on the CALFED website. Hard copies are available by contacting Rhonda Hoover-Flores at rhondah@calwater.ca.gov.
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I will post a link to the report when it becomes available.

October 21, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Small fish “tracers” detect Bay mercury threats

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 15, 2008 at 6:14 am

From the California Aggie:

In collaboration with the San Francisco Estuary Institute, UC Davis researchers have made headway in understanding the sources of toxic mercury in the San Francisco Bay and Delta. The findings, revealed in SFEI’s annual report of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality (RMP), indicate that changes in current habitat management techniques could prevent mercury from entering the food web and threatening the health of wildlife and humans.

A small fraction of elemental mercury is converted to the organic form methylmercury by bacteria in the sediments of aquatic environments. Metyhylmercury poses a health concern if it enters the aquatic food web and builds up to toxic levels further up the food chain.

According to SFEI’s annual report, this threat is a reality. Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey documented a higher risk of hatch failure for the eggs of exposed Bay water birds, and mercury concern is the main incentive for fish consumption advisories in the Bay.

Insights about the controlling factors and areas where methylmercury is most problematic may indicate what can be done in terms of management, said Richard Looker, an engineer for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Read more from the California Aggie by clicking here.

October 15, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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Dan Bacher commentary: More greenwashing by Schwarzenegger as California fisheries collapse

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 10, 2008 at 7:48 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

After vetoing a number of key environmental bills last week and presiding over the destruction of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations the past several years, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today had the audacity to gush about “green policies” and “clean, green technology” today when he gave the keynote address at TechNet’s “Growing Green Technology in California” forum.

“It is more important than ever that we secure our state’s long-term competitiveness—and green technology is the future,” Governor Schwarzenegger claimed. “We are all going through tough economic times, and this is exactly why I am talking about investing in clean, green technology. It’s one of the best investments out there, and it’s where the innovation and job growth will be, which is why California is leading the way with smart policies that unleash our ingenuity.”

According to the Governor’s Office, “Governor Schwarzenegger has led California in establishing laws and policies to protect the environment while growing the economy: The Governor has set a goal of increasing California’s renewable energy sources to 20 percent by 2010, and he supports reaching 33 percent by 2020.”

While Schwarzenegger extolls “smart policies and “clean, green technology,” he is presiding over the worst aquatic ecosystem collapse in history on the West Coast. Due to policies by his administration and the Bush regime that have exported record amounts of water to subsidized agribusiness in recent years, Central Valley fall chinook salmon and Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad and juvenile striped bass populations have collapsed to record low levels.

Read more of Dan Bacher’s commentary at IndyBay.org by clicking here.

October 10, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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More players surface in the shallow pond of California water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2008 at 6:28 am

From the Visalia Times-Delta:

Nothing like a dry summer to bring new players into the enormously complex issue of providing more water for California’s thirsty farms, cities, waterways, industries, fish, wildlife and the environment.

Just when we thought we might identify all the players, and predict their positions and opinions, the picture has broadened. A group of farmers and water districts in Kern County has decided to take legal action in hopes of focusing attention on one piece of the state’s water puzzle.

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta has brought a suit against at least three entities that regularly discharge into the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. One of the group’s aims is to show that discharges such as warm water from power plants or sewer effluent from municipalities can cause more trouble for fish than the pumps that pull water out for use elsewhere.

Environmentalists and others are quick to blame the powerful pumps that suck water and incidentally some fish from the delta for many of the area’s woes. The pumps direct the water to urban and agricultural users over a wide area through the California Aqueduct and other conveyances.

The coalition plans to make the case with a legal exclamation point that the city of Stockton, San Joaquin County and one or more power plants on the delta’s shores are causing substantial harm.

Read more from the Visalia Times-Delta by clicking here.

October 6, 2008 · Filed Under Other Delta Issues

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