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| New era of limits for Delta water users | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 16 2008, 05:25 AM (360 Views) | |
| RNelson | Dec 16 2008, 05:25 AM Post #1 |
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Federal regulators on Monday slammed the brakes on years of record and near-record water pumping from the Delta with restrictions to prevent the tiny Delta smelt from going extinct. The new measures required in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit will restore more natural rhythms and flows to the Delta at a cost that state water officials estimated would amount to about one-fifth of the annual water supply in most years. In dry years and in the worst cases, some agencies could see their Delta supply cut in half. The two sets of pumps in question deliver water to millions of acres of farmland and about 25 million Californians, and water officials predicted a severe economic cost. "The water supply is becoming less certain," said state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow. Snow warned that the water flow restrictions could become worse in the coming months with more protections for other declining fish species, including longfin smelt and several runs of salmon and steelhead. The document issued Monday, called a biological opinion, was ordered last year by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger after he ruled in favor of environmentalists and invalidated the previous permit that he said was allowing water managers to drive fish into extinction. Its more than 300 pages blame the state's giant pumps for sucking up fish and killing them and for dramatically altering the Delta's ecosystem in ways that have made it more hospitable to harmful invasive species, including clams, algae and plants. The biologists' prescription strictly limits the number of fish that can be killed at the pumps and also limits water managers' ability to run the pumps so hard they reverse the flow of two channels. Those limits are similar to interim measures Wanger ordered last year. State water officials said that ruling cut water supplies by about 730,000 acre-feet, or enough for about 1.5 million families. The permit also will require water managers to release water to flush the Delta of saltwater in the fall of wet years. That could significantly deplete water supplies in about one in five years. Environmentalists were pleased. "It's certainly a forceful step in the right direction," said Bill Jennnings, director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. Water agency representatives across the state were displeased. They said the new conditions were unnecessarily draconian and were unlikely to revive the fish. "The thing that's really disturbing about it is in a drought you're hoping it will end. With these regulations, we're never going to get back to normal," said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors. Moon said it was "definitely a possibility" that her organization would sue to overturn the permit. In the Bay Area, the Zone 7 Water Agency that serves Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton appeared to be the most likely affected because it takes 80 percent of its water from the State Water Project. But Zone 7 spokeswoman Boni Brewer said the agency does not expect mandatory rationing next year because of groundwater stored for use in a drought. At the Contra Costa Water District, assistant general manager Greg Gartrell said the permit probably would not affect the district's water supply, which is part of the federal water project but has its own pumps. San Joaquin Valley farms could take a big hit. "We cannot sustain the kind of devastating impacts we had this year, and that seems to be the prescription they want to write for us," said Jason Peltier, deputy general manager of the Westlands Water District. The lawsuit that led to the new permit was brought by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Bay Institute. |
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