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<DIV>Posted on Sat, Oct. 09, 2004</DIV></TD></TR>
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<H1>Dems demand inquiry into salmon study</H1><IMG height=5
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width=1><BR><B><FONT size=-1><SPAN class=byline>By Mike
Taugher</SPAN></FONT></B><BR><IMG height=1
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<P>More than a dozen congressional Democrats called for an investigation
Friday into allegations that an analysis of how California salmon might be
affected by the state's water system was politically manipulated.</P>
<P>The 300-page study examines how politically charged plans to rejigger
operation of dams and pumps that deliver water through the Delta from
Northern California to Southern California will affect several species of
threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead.</P>
<P>The lawmakers said they feared there was an ongoing "catastrophic
failure of oversight" that could drive salmon and steelhead toward
extinction.</P>
<P>"I would hope the inspectors general would investigate these
allegations immediately," said Rep. George Miller, one of 19 members to
seek the investigation. "There is a great deal at stake."</P>
<P>Miller, D-Martinez, was reacting to the differences between two
versions of the salmon report: one written late this summer by biologists
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries office
and a second version that contained revisions by the agency's
managers.</P>
<P>The latter version, if made final, would make it far easier to renew
long-term water contracts in the Central Valley and boost the capacity of
Delta pumps that deliver water to Southern California.</P>
<P>Although the study, called a "biological opinion," has yet to be
finalized, the Times obtained portions of the earlier draft and a full
copy of the most recent draft.</P>
<P>The versions have key differences, most notably that the earlier
version says water operations will jeopardize the continued existence of
some fish species, and the later draft does not. The differences were
first reported in the Sacramento Bee last week in a story that prompted
the congressional letter.</P>
<P>In addition, the earlier draft contains a requirement that would have
forced the Contra Costa Water District to shut down one of its water
supply canals for six months a year. The revised report says only that the
agency must monitor salmon caught in the canal.</P>
<P>A Contra Costa water official said the earlier version was in error
because biologists had wrongly assumed the canal at Rock Slough was used
for all of the district's water supply, an assumption that led them to
conclude more fish were being killed there than actually were.</P>
<P>"That was a goof," said Contra Costa Water District assistant general
manager Greg Gartrell.</P>
<P>Jim Lecky, the assistant regional administrator at the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration who oversees the salmon report, said there
were other errors.</P>
<P>"I reviewed my staff's work and I didn't think they did a good job,"
Lecky said. "There were a bunch of errors in their assumptions about the
project."</P>
<P>The congressional letter is the latest in a series of efforts by Miller
to slow down and examine plans by federal water managers in California.
For weeks, he has been trying to get the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to
reconsider plans to renew dozens of long-term water contracts for farmers
and others throughout the Central Valley that Miller considers unduly
favorable to water users.</P>
<P>In addition, water officials are looking to increase the capacity of
pumps that move water from the Delta to Southern California.</P>
<P>Both the contract renewals and the increased pumping hinge on the
salmon study, which technically is a review of a U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation document called the "Operations, Criteria and Plan" that
describes how the state's two largest water delivery projects, the Central
Valley Project and the State Water Project, will be operated.</P>
<P>The congressional letter suggests the bureau, "in its haste to finalize
water contracts in California, has improperly undermined the required NOAA
fisheries environmental review process."</P>
<P>Reclamation Bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken said his agency had no
improper influence on the biological opinion.</P>
<P>"We never saw the earlier draft that had the alleged different opinion
in it," McCracken said.</P>
<P>Earlier in the week, state Sen. Mike Machado, D-Stockton, asked for an
independent scientific review of the biological opinion.</P>
<P>Lecky said the issue was being blown out of proportion.</P>
<P>"This is a typical consultation process," he said. "It's nothing out of
the ordinary."</P>
<P><FONT size=2></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT size=2><A
href="http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9878072.htm">http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/9878072.htm</A></FONT></P>
<P> </P>
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<TD class=v1>Posted on Sat, Oct. 09, 2004</TD></TR>
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<H1>Probe of water report urged</H1><IMG height=5
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width=1><BR><B><SPAN class=deck>Article says analysis
rewritten</SPAN></B><BR><IMG height=10
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width=1><BR><B><FONT size=-1><SPAN class=byline>By ERICA
WERNER</SPAN></FONT></B><BR><IMG height=1
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<P><B><SPAN class=dateline>WASHINGTON</SPAN><SPAN
class=dateline-separator> - </SPAN></B>Leading Democrats called for
an investigation Friday into a report that federal biologists
rewrote an analysis that said a water transfer plan could hurt
endangered salmon in northern California.</P>
<P>In a letter to the inspectors general of the Interior Department
and the Commerce Department, the House members said the report
suggested a ''catastrophic failure of oversight.''</P>
<P>At issue is a recent report in The Sacramento Bee that said
federal biologists evaluating the effects of shifting millions of
gallons of water to Southern California from rivers in the north
were ordered by their superiors to revise a conclusion that the plan
would hurt endangered salmon.</P>
<P>Biologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
initially found that the water project would harm fish in many
rivers in Northern California, including salmon in the American
River.</P>
<P>But NOAA administrators overruled the findings and supervised a
rewriting of the analysis, according to documents obtained by the
Bee. An updated version, dated Sept. 27, no longer concluded that
winter-run salmon or other fish could face extinction by the extra
water diversions.</P>
<P>The reported actions ''may further undermine public confidence in
the Bureau of Reclamation's and NOAA fisheries' ability to
appropriately manage the resources that the public has entrusted to
them,'' the Democrats wrote.</P>
<P>The letter was signed by 19 House members led by Rep. George
Miller, D-Calif., and including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif. and Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., top Democrat on the House
Resources Committee.</P>
<P>NOAA officials, including the assistant regional administrator
who supervised the rewriting, contended the revisions were
justified.</P>
<P>''This was just supervisor-employee stuff. I received a draft
document that had some errors in it and when those were corrected it
changed the conclusion,'' James Lecky, assistant regional
administrator for the southwest region for NOAA, said in an
interview Friday.</P>
<P>He said he was confident the conclusion that fish would not be
harmed was accurate, but noted that a final version of the report
still has not been issued.</P>
<P>''What got leaked was a very preliminary draft, and then a
subsequent more developed draft that had some different conclusions
in it,'' he
said.</P><!-- end body-content --></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></P><!-- end body-content --></SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>