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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:6.6pt'><b><font size=4 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Delta diversion
threat to salmon, judge rules<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=byline1><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><a
href="mailto:pfimrite@sfchronicle.com">Peter Fimrite, Chronicle Staff Writer</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date1><font size=3 face=Verdana><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Saturday,
July 19, 2008<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><!-- types/ads/pages/oas/oas_rich.tmpl -->A
federal judge in <st1:City w:st="on">Fresno</st1:City> affirmed Friday that
water diversions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have jeopardized the
existence of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>'s
beleaguered salmon.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It was the latest in a
string of rulings ordering state and federal regulators to fix a water system
that supplies millions of Californians with water but is all but dysfunctional
when it comes to protecting fisheries and the environment.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>U.S. District Judge
Oliver Wanger told the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department
of Water Resources to come up with ways to protect salmon and steelhead trout,
but declined to order any immediate remedies. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Wanger's 118-page ruling
was issued as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense
Council and several other environmental organizations accusing the government
of endangering salmon and steelhead. The plaintiffs had asked the judge to
immediately curtail water diversions. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We are frustrated
that the court denied our requests," said Doug Obegi, a lawyer for the
council. "We want to assure that the water projects are operated to
sustain fisheries and farming. The court's decision shows that management has
not achieved that balance. The system is really out of balance, and the court's
opinion recognizes that what's happening right now puts salmon and steelhead in
danger of extinction."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The plan now is to hold
more court hearings on what to do about the problem before March 2009, when the
bureau is required to issue a new "biological opinion" outlining its
plans to deliver water and at the same time protect winter- and spring-run
chinook and steelhead trout in the <st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento River</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Wanger had ruled in April
that water regulators failed to consider the effects of global warming and
other environmental issues related to the decline of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> salmon when they approved
increased pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The decision invalidated
the original biological opinion that said the salmon would not be adversely
affected by pumping. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The report comes amid a
statewide fisheries crisis. The number of salmon in the ocean plummeted this
year, prompting a ban of fishing all along the <st1:State w:st="on">California</st1:State>
and <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:State>
coasts.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Some marine biologists
claim the problem resulted from a lack of nutrients in the ocean caused by
global warming, but most fisheries experts believe the biggest impact is from
dams, diversions and development along the <st1:place w:st="on">Sacramento
River</st1:place> system, which is the primary spawning grounds.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>However, curtailing water
diversions means cutting back on the flow of drinking water for 25 million
Californians and irrigation for 750,000 acres of cropland. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>California</span></font></st1:place></st1:State>'s
state and federal water project was established about 100 years ago and is an
integral part of the state's infrastructure. Changing it would become a
political football up and down the state, affecting the economy as well as the
environment.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Still, even those who
have interests in water rights and support diversions admit the state's water
distribution system is in turmoil.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Everyone is
realizing the delta is broken and there needs to be some kind of fix that will
meet the needs of the citizens who receive water as well as for the
environment," said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water
District, an agricultural area representing farmers who produce 60 commodities,
including most of the state's lettuce, almonds, tomatoes, pistachios and
grapes.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We need some sort
of conveyance around the delta," Woolf said. "Everything is pointing
to a peripheral canal as the solution."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The water fight started
in February 2005 when environmentalists sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
after the agency issued an opinion saying delta smelt would not be harmed by
water diversions. The council and its co-plaintiffs challenged the biological
opinion for salmon and steelhead a couple months after the delta smelt lawsuit
was filed.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The Natural Resources
Defense Council urged Wanger to require the bureau to open the gates of the Red
Bluff Diversion Dam earlier than normal. The dam is usually closed on Memorial
Day to create a lake for boat racing and other festivities. Water from the lake
is then diverted for farmers and other users through an irrigation channel.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Obegi said juvenile salmon
heading downstream get caught behind the dam and are eaten by predatory fish.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"When the dam is in,
the fish get concentrated," he said. "They go down the fish ladders
on the side and the predators know exactly where the fish are coming and wait
there. It's like serving them up on a dinner plate."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Environmentalists also
wanted Wanger to impose minimum stream flows on Clear Creek to store more water
in Lake Shasta to make sure there is adequate flow year-round and to increase
the amount of spawning habitat by releasing colder water farther downstream.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The judge apparently
decided not to grant the council's requests because the defendants already had
agreed to some operational changes, including opening the Red Bluff Diversion
Dam slightly earlier than originally planned and increasing flows on Clear
Creek, near Red Bluff, to better protect salmon and steelhead. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The latest hubbub comes
in the wake of a ruling last year to protect the endangered delta smelt. That
decision was attacked by lobbying groups for 400 agencies that deliver the
state's water. They claimed cropland would go fallow and cities in the
Tri-Valley, <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Santa Clara</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">County</st1:PlaceType>, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los
Angeles</st1:place></st1:City> and other areas of the state would have to
institute mandatory rationing programs to deal with the water cutbacks.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Drought conditions have
combined with the water situation to make some of those concerns a reality.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"We've abandoned
thousands of acres of crops, and hundred of jobs have been lost for farmworkers
this year," Woolf said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:17.3pt'><b><font size=3 face=Arial><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>The ruling <o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Project operations
through March 2009 will appreciably increase jeopardy to the three species. ...
All three testifying experts ... conclude that the three salmonid species are
not viable and are all in jeopardy of extinction. Based on two drought years, with
critically dry hydrologic conditions in 2008, and the presently unpredictable
risk of a third dry year, the three species are unquestionably in
jeopardy."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:9.0pt;line-height:17.3pt'><em><i><font
size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>- Judge Oliver
Wanger</span></font></i></em><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></b></p>
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<p class=MsoAutoSig><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><st1:PersonName w:st="on"><i><font
size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
color:gray;font-style:italic'>Byron</span></font></i></st1:PersonName><i><font
color=gray><span style='color:gray;font-style:italic'> Leydecker</span></font></i></st1:PersonName><i><font
color=gray><span style='color:gray;font-style:italic'>, JCT</span></font></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><i><font size=3 color=gray face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray;font-style:italic'>Friends of <st1:place
w:st="on">Trinity River</st1:place>, Chair</span></font></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoAutoSig><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:Street w:st="on"><i><font
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<st1:PostalCode w:st="on">94942-2327</st1:PostalCode></span></font></i></st1:place><o:p></o:p></p>
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