Delta Water Diverters Slapped (Hard) By Federal Judge Over Proposed Increase in Water Exports

Dan Bacher does a beautiful job of summarizing a recent (and complex) legal ruling by Federal Judge Wagner denying a plan to export more water from the California Delta — even as salmon, steelhead, and other fish populations are in a state of collapse:

Federal judge Oliver Wanger today tossed out a controversial water plan that would have allowed more pumping of water from the imperiled California Delta at the expense of five species of protected chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

Recreational fishing, commercial fishing and conservation groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe celebrated the ruling as a victory for the millions of Californians who depend on the delta for drinking water, fishing jobs and agriculture. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast - and increased state and federal exports to subsidized agribusiness and southern California in recent years are a key factor in the collapse of Sacramento River salmon.

In his opinion Judge Oliver W. Wanger relied on the National Marine Fisheries Services’ (NMFS) own finding that diverting water from the bay-delta was killing huge numbers of salmon. He said, “This morbid projection is inconsistent, if not irreconcilable” with the agency’s opinion that the project operations did not jeopardize the survival of the fish. He also faulted the agency for failing to analyze the effects of global warming on the fish, calling that failure “arbitrary and capricious.”

"How extirpation of approaching one-third of the species affected by Project operations does not constitute jeopardy is not explained," said Wanger. "NMFS’s no jeopardy conclusion for the Project operations’ effects on the spring-run Chinook is expressly contradicted by underlying data and opinions of the BiOp."

More Bad News for Fishermen

The ocean fishing season for salmon has already been killed off by extremely low returns, and it looks like a zero-take policy will apply to river fisheries too:

The Commission will decide on whether or not to close salmon season on Central Valley rivers at its meeting in Monterey on May 9. However, it is extremely likely that the Commission will close salmon fishing on the Sacramento, American, Feather, San Joaquin and other rivers in conformance with the PFMC’s "zero take" allowance for the dwindling salmon population.

An Underground Rant

Here’s the scenario; salmon populations in the Sacramento River are collapsing (several species, including the stalwart Chinook run), steelhead are hurting, Delta Smelt and Longfin Smelt are on the brink of extinction, and they want to export more water from the Delta?

Here’s a thought: maybe it’s time California learned to live within its water budget.