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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><font size=6
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Scientists At
Congressional Hearing: No Simple Answers For Delta Decline</span></font></span><span
class=apple-style-span><b><font size=2><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-weight:bold'> </span></font></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText align=center style='text-align:center'><span
class=apple-style-span><b><font size=2 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-weight:bold'>by Dan Bacher</span></font></b></span><b><O:P></O:P><span
style='font-weight:bold'> </span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText><span class=apple-style-span><b><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Seven
state and federal scientists, who testified on the Delta fishery decline in a
House Resources Committee Hearing conducted by Congressman Richard Pombo in
Stockton on February 27, said they don't yet have any clear answers to why
Delta smelt, juvenile striped bass, longfin smelt and threadfin shad have
plummeted to record low levels over the past several years.<O:P></O:P></span></font></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Agency
administrators apparently </span></font></b>coached the scientists to avoid
answering the hard questions – those that connected science with water
policy – like those asked by Congressman George Miller and other
Representatives.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>“There
is no simple answer </span></font></b>to the causes of the pelagic organism
decline,” said Chuck Armor, Operations Manager of the DFG’s Central
Valley Bay-Delta Branch, contending that the causes are complex and vary by
species. Armor and other scientists said the three possible causes are toxics,
water flows and exports and invasive species.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Before
and after </span></font></b>the meeting, over 30 representatives of fishing and
environmental groups held signs on the street outside of the hearing, asking
Congress to save the Delta and stop water exports. Those folks joined with many
others inside the hearing room to make the event a standing room only affair.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Fishing
groups criticized </span></font></b>Pombo for not inviting independent
scientists and the public to testify. “I'm disappointed by the panel that
was chosen, since it was essentially representatives of state and federal
agencies who were there to defend the actions of those agencies,” said
Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
“ It's the proverbial case of asking the fox to guard the chicken coop.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Unfortunately,
the scientists </span></font></b>failed to point out the major role that
exports play in fish declines, in spite of the evidence accumulated by both
government and independent biologists for over 30 years. <O:P></O:P></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>“Although
the impacts</span></font></b> of entrainment losses have been implicated in the
decline of the delta smelt, particularly in the south Delta, it is apparent
that other causes such as non native species, contaminants and changes in food
supply may also be limiting species recovery,” said David Harlow, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service Sacramento Field Office Supervisor.
”Accordingly, it is unlikely that reduction of export pumping is
sufficient alone to bring about recovery.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>One
theory </span></font></b>advanced by the scientists - the “<st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Bad</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Suisun</st1:PlaceName>
<st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Bay</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> hypothesis” -
said that the Asian clam and other species have altered the bay's food web.
Introductions of various small shrimp-like animals have also impacted the bay's
food chain, according to Matt Nobriga of the California Department of Water Resources.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Miller,
who spurred Pombo </span></font></b>to conduct the hearings, emphasized that
the hearing should only be the first of several steps in solving the Delta
pelagic fish decline, including implementing policy to save the ecosystem.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>“In
addition to talking </span></font></b>to federal and state agency scientists,
we have a responsibility to discuss and implement policy. In addition to
learning what has been done, we need to determine what should be done to
protect the health of the Delta,” he said in his opening statement.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Pombo,
who in his 1996 book </span></font></b>This Land is Our Land” claimed
that the environmental protections needed for the restoration of the Delta and
other ecosystems “are borrowed from fascists, anarchists, globalists, and
communists,” said Delta policy decisions should be made on the basis of
“science” rather than “finger pointing.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>“Some
Delta fish </span></font></b>species are at all time low, but no one can
responsibly say why,” said Pombo “The easy way out is to point at
some policy or infrastructure hated by some groups. Throwing money at the cause
of the month will not get us anywhere either. Science, not politics, must be
the basis of our environmental politics and responses.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>However,
Miller pointed out how the advice of the scientists is frequently discarded by
state and federal water agencies when it conflicts with political pressure by
water users to provide water exports.</span></font></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Miller
emphasized how </span></font></b>the federal and state water agencies in 2005
twice overrode the recommendations of scientists to temporarily reduce pumping,
in spite of their full knowledge that Delta fish were<b><span style='font-weight:
bold'> </span></b>undergoing an alarming decline. “We can keep talking
about the best available science, but when you have the best available science,
it is not being followed,” said Miller.<b><span style='font-weight:bold'> <O:P></O:P></span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Miller
also criticized </span></font></b>the state and federal agencies for failing to
discuss the impact of proposed increases in state and federal exports upon the
Delta decline.'</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'> “We
got to </span></font></b>figure out what's going on today to make a decision on
the future protocol for the operation of the pumps,” said Miller.
“We must try to make sure that the impacts of increased pumping are not
taken out of the equation.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>At
one point </span></font></b>Miller asked David Harlow, “How can you have
an increase in exports at a time when you don't know the interaction of exports
among the impacts? You wouldn't introduce more Asian clams, would you? You
wouldn't increase more herbicides, would you?”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>To
Miller's question</span></font></b> about the impacts of export increases, <st1:place
w:st="on">Harlow</st1:place> said, “I've been advised by legal
counsel not to speculate.”</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>The
enforced silence</span></font></b> of the scientists about pumping impacts was
apparent again when Rep. Dennis Cardoza asked, “Do you see any tremendous
benefits in shutting the pumps down?</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>None
of the scientists responded. “By their silence we know a lot,” said
Cardoza.</span></font></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Rep.
Grace Napolitano, </span></font></b>D. -<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Norwalk</st1:place></st1:City>,
Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater, and Rep. George Radanovich, R. Mariposa, also
questioned the scientists at the hearing. <O:P></O:P></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>In
spite of the hearing's </span></font></b>shortcomings, Bill Jennings and other
fishing group representatives said it was an important step for Congress to
make. “I'm glad that Miller said that now is not the time to increase
water exports or undertake the hydrological changes proposed by the state and
federal governments,” said Jennings<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>. <O:P></O:P></span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>“<b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>I think that Representatives </span></b>Miller and
Cardoza had good questions, but the scientists didn’t have good answers
to the causes of the Delta decline,” summed up Red Bartley, northern
California board member of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.”</span></font></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>“This
is just stage</span></font></b> one of many stages in the battle to restore the
Delta. If we don’t stop money from being the driving force in making
decisions, rather than science, the Delta doesn’t have a chance,”
said Bob Strickland, president of United Anglers of California.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<O:P></O:P>
<p class=MsoBodyText style='text-indent:9.0pt'><span class=apple-style-span><b><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>A
diverse array of fishing and environmental groups appeared at the hearing. Dick
Pool, board member of the American Sportfishing Association, Jim Martin, West
Coast Director of RFA, <st1:PersonName w:st="on">Gary Adams</st1:PersonName>,
president of the California Striped Bass Association (CSBA), Jay Sorenson,
founder of the CSBA, Dan Wolford from Coastside Fishing Club, Mark Rockwell
from the Federation of Fly Fishers and John Ryzanych from the Bay Delta Sport
Fishing Enhancement Stamp Committee attended the hearing. <st1:PersonName
w:st="on">David Nesmith</st1:PersonName> of the Environmental Water Caucus,
Barry Nelson from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Brent Plater of the
Center for Biological Diversity also came to the event. Many gave written
statements to the Representatives to put in the hearing record.</span></font></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><em><i><font size=3 color=gray
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker</span></font></i></em></st1:PersonName><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends of <st1:place w:st="on">Trinity
River</st1:place></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Advisor, California Trout, Inc</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>PO Box</span></font></i></em></st1:Street><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'> 2327</span></font></i></em></st1:address><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on"><em><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray'>Mill Valley</span></font></i></em></st1:City><em><i><font
color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='color:gray'>, <st1:State w:st="on">CA</st1:State>
<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></em></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810 ph</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 9562 fx</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'><a href="http://www.fotr.org">http://www.fotr.org</a></span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><em><i><u><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'>http:www.caltrout.org</span></font></u><font
color=lime><span style='color:lime'> </span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'> </span><o:p></o:p></font></p>
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12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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