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<P align=left>California Sportfishing
California Water </P>
<P align=left>Protection Alliance
Impact Network </P></B></FONT><I><FONT face=Times-Italic
color=#0000ff size=1>
<P align=left>“An Advocate for Fisheries, Habitat and Water
Quality”
"The Water Watch Dawgs"</P></I></FONT><B><FONT face=Arial-BoldMT size=1>
<P align=left>Embargoed for Release until 10 a.m. Wednesday:</P></B></FONT><FONT
face=ArialMT size=1>
<P align=left>19 March 2008</P></FONT><B><FONT face=Arial-BoldMT size=1>
<P align=left>For information:</P></B></FONT><FONT face=ArialMT size=1>
<P align=left>Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director, 209-464-5067, 209-938-9053
(cell), deltakeep@aol.com</P>
<P align=left>Carolee Krieger, C-WIN Chairperson, 805-969-0824,
caroleekrieger@cox.net</P>
<P align=left>Michael Jackson, attorney for petitioners, 530-283-0712,
530-927-7387 (cell), mjatty@sbcglobal.net</P></FONT><B><FONT face=Arial-BoldMT
size=4>
<P align=left>Public Trust, Unreasonable Use Complaint Filed With State
Board</P></B></FONT><FONT face=ArialMT size=3>
<P align=left>Groups will Sue in 60 Days if Board Fails to Schedule Evidentiary
Hearing</P></FONT><FONT face=ArialMT size=2>
<P align=left>Two statewide environmental organizations filed a public trust,
waste and unreasonable use of water and</P>
<P align=left>method of diversion petition with the State Water Resources
Control Board today (March 19) contending</P>
<P align=left>the Board has failed to halt the continuing ecological collapse of
the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary by</P>
<P align=left>permitting excessive amounts of Northern California water to be
pumped to western San Joaquin megafarms</P>
<P align=left>and Southern California.</P>
<P align=left>The California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) and the California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA)</P>
<P align=left>contend the Water Board has allowed the California Department of
Water Resources (DWR) and the U.S.</P>
<P align=left>Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) to pump so much water each year
from the beleaguered Delta that many</P>
<P align=left>fish species have been pushed to the brink of extinction, forcing
citizen groups to turn to the courts</P>
<P align=left>instead of the Water Board, which has primary authority for
protecting the state's surface water supplies.</P>
<P align=left>“The Water Board has served as a handmaiden for decades to special
interest groups instead of doing its</P>
<P align=left>job as a regulatory agency,” said Carolee Krieger, chair of the
C-WIN board of directors. “Dying fish</P>
<P align=left>populations and degraded drinking water are the result of this
shocking dereliction of duty. It is time board</P>
<P align=left>members realize they have a duty to protect the public's interest
in our state's aquatic resources and</P>
<P align=left>drinking supplies," she added.</P>
<P align=left>Bill Jennings, executive director of CSPA, noted that because of
the ongoing failure of the Water Board to</P>
<P align=left>do its job a federal judge in Fresno recently was forced to order
reduced pumping in the Delta to protect</P>
<P align=left>endangered fish species - an action C-WIN and CSPA said the Water
Board should have taken years</P>
<P align=left>ago.</P>
<P align=left>"The stall-and-delay tactics of the Water Board as the Central
Valley’s salmonid fisheries and the Delta’s</P>
<P align=left>pelagic fishers collapse borders on the criminal," said Jennings,
a longtime critic of the Water Board's</P>
<P align=left>history of inaction and delay. "Watching fisheries that God
nurtured over tens of thousands of years being</P>
<P align=left>virtually destroyed in less than two decades while DWR, the Bureau
and the State Board continue their</P>
<P align=left>embrace of denial is surely one of the most wretched and
despicable spectacles we have ever</P>
<P align=left>witnessed,” he said.</P>
<P align=left>The two groups say that if the Water Board does not take decisive
action to begin reversing the decline of</P>
<P align=left>the Delta within the next 60 days they will take the matter into
state court.</P>
<P align=left>The petition filed by C-WIN attorney Michael B. Jackson notes that
despite a massive accumulation of</P>
<P align=left>evidence that something is seriously wrong in the Delta, the Water
Board has still not established</P>
<P align=left>mandatory minimum daily flows from upstream dams on the main
rivers feeding the Delta in order to</P>
<P align=left>protect salmon and other species of fish. The petition alleges the
Water Board is violating the Public</P>
<P align=left>Trust Doctrine, the California Constitution and numerous
California Water Code sections and federal laws</P>
<P align=left>by allowing clearly excessive export of Northern California water
from the South Delta pumps resulting in</P></FONT><FONT face=Times-Roman>
<P align=left>2</P></FONT><FONT face=ArialMT size=2>
<P align=left>an unreasonable use and method of diversion of water. While there
is more than one cause contributing</P>
<P align=left>to the Delta's decline, including invasive species and degraded
water quality, excessive pumping is</P>
<P align=left>clearly the main problem, the petition contends.</P>
<P align=left>Water Board action demanded by the two groups includes: (1)
modification of existing water rights to</P>
<P align=left>improve the fishery; (2) mandatory daily flow requirements; (3)
mandatory pulse flows during salmon</P>
<P align=left>migration; (4) functional fish passage facilities on all dams; (5)
state-of-the-art fish screens on all diversion</P>
<P align=left>points to prevent young fish from being ground up in the Delta
pumps or sucked down irrigation ditches;</P>
<P align=left>(6) requiring DWR and the Bureau of Reclamation to begin actually
complying with all water and fishery</P>
<P align=left>protection laws; and (7) establishing minimum pool and temperature
requirements on all water storage</P>
<P align=left>reservoirs to protect fish.</P>
<P align=left>The petition requests the board to begin holding evidentiary
hearings including testimony under oath,</P>
<P align=left>cross-examination and rebuttal on the issues raised as soon as
possible.</P></FONT><FONT face=ArialMT size=1>
<P align=left>CSPA is a public benefit conservation and research organization
established in 1983 for the purpose of conserving, restoring, and</P>
<P align=left>enhancing the state’s water quality, fisheries and associated
aquatic and riparian ecosystems. On behalf of its members, CSPA</P>
<P align=left>participates in administrative and judicial proceedings before
state and federal agencies and actively enforces laws protective of</P>
<P align=left>fisheries and water quality.</P>
<P align=left>C-WIN is a non-profit public benefit corporation formed under the
laws of the State of California for the purpose of protecting and</P>
<P align=left>restoring the scenery, fish and wildlife resources, water quality,
recreational opportunities, agricultural uses, and other natural</P>
<P align=left>environmental resources and uses of the rivers and streams of
California, including the Bay/Delta, its watershed and its underlying</P>
<P align=left>groundwater resources.</P></FONT></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>