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<H1>Fish threatened with extinction shuts Delta water pumps</H1>
<H3>By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer</H3>
<P>Last Updated 3:49 pm PDT Thursday, May 31, 2007</P>
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<P>State water officials Thursday morning stopped exporting water from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect the threatened Delta smelt, a tiny
native fish that appears to be on the brink of extinction.</P>
<P>The action, announced in a press release by the California Department of
Water Resources, could mean water shortages for some cities and farms served by
the California Aqueduct, which conveys water exported by the state's Delta pumps
near Tracy. But it was not clear Thursday afternoon who will be affected and for
how long. Some users will be able to continue drawing water already in the
aqueduct. The Delta supplies 23 million Californians with a portion of their
drinking water, as well as to 5 million acres of farmland.</P>
<P>The action follows bad news from a recent population survey for smelt.
Preliminary results from the annual spring survey turned up only 25 smelt at
regular survey points in the Delta, down from a seven-year average of 353 fish.
On May 14, state officials also began finding dead smelt in the pumping system.
This is a routine event, but had not occurred previously this year. DWR decided
to halt the massive pumps when numbers of smelt in the pumping system began to
increase. </P></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>