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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=danielbacher@fishsniffer.com
href="mailto:danielbacher@fishsniffer.com">Dan Bacher</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, October 23, 2008 5:28 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> State of Bay-Delta Science Book: Fact or Fiction (Updated
Article!)</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva>State of Bay-Delta Science Book: Fact or
Fiction? </FONT></FONT>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>by Dan Bacher</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span
color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>The CAL-FED "Science" Program yesterday published a book, the "State
of Bay-Delta Science, 2008," supposedly summarizing the "significant new
knowledge" gleaned from eight years of research into water supply and water
quality, ecosystems and levee fragility in the California Delta, according to a
CAL-FED news release. </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>However, the question is whether the book is a non-fiction
publication based on scientific fact - or actually a highly compromised work of
science fiction.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>For those not familiar with CAL-FED, it is the joint-state federal
agency, formed after a "Water Summit" by the state and federal governments in
Sacramento in 1994, that has presided over the dramatic decline of Central
Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, white
sturgeon, striped bass, threadfin shad and other fish in the California
Delta-San Francisco Bay Estuary.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva
color=#111111><BR class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>The collapse of these species has huge implications for fisheries up
and down the West Coast, since the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the
largest and most important estuary on the Pacific Coast. Recreational and
commercial salmon fishing is closed in ocean waters off California and Oregon
for the first time in history this year, due to the collapse of Central Valley
fall run chinook salmon populations.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Those of us aware of the numerous examples of political manipulation
of science to serve corporate agribusiness and water developers under the
Schwarzenegger and Bush administrations have become very wary of "political
science" masquerading as "natural science" in reports such as this one. For
example, the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, a supposedly "independent"
body appointed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, released a report last week advocating
the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams to "restore" Delta
fisheries, even though they would certainly further imperil collapsing
populations of Central Valley chinook salmon and Delta
fish.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>The CAL-FED publication was released on the eve of the 5th Biennial
CALFED Science Conference, initiating the gathering of 1,200 San Francisco
Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta scientists, managers and policy makers at the
Sacramento Convention Center. The effort was led by Michael Healey, a
former CALFED Lead Scientist and Science Advisor to the Governor’s Delta Vision
Blue Ribbon Task Force. </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>“This is a landmark publication summarizing our current
understanding of the Delta by the most knowledgeable experts on the estuary,”
claimed Cliff Dahm, CALFED Lead Scientist. “I envision this as a go-to book for
managers and policy makers, as well as interested members of the public that are
working to gain a better understanding through science of forces at work in the
Delta."</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>One of the key findings, in an apparent attempt by "political
biologists" to exonerate the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations from their
role in engineering the Pelagic Organism Decline, as well as the collapse of
Central Valley salmon populations, appears to dismiss water exports as a primary
cause for the unprecedented fishery collapse.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>"Since 2001, both public and scientific attention has focused on the
unexpected decline of several open-water fishes (delta smelt, longfin smelt,
juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad)," the report claims. "It is clear
that export pumping is only one of several factors contributing to the decline.
Other factors include changes in food supply, loss of habitat and toxic
chemicals. (Chapter 4).</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span
color=#111111><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"></SPAN></FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Even worse is this statement in the same chapter, "Nevertheless,
there is no conclusive evidence that export pumping has caused population
declines. The lack of unequivocal evidence of pumping of large effects of
pumping on fish populations does not rule out such effects, and for rare species
such as Delta smelt, caution dictates that potential effects should not be
ignored (p. 89).</FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>The report admits on Page 87 that "Export pumping has been blamed in
part for the declines of species such as striped bass (Stevens et. al 1985),
Chinook salmon (Kjelson and Brandes 1989), and Delta smelt (Bennett 2005).
However, the document then goes on to say "no quantitative estimates have been
made of the population level consequences of the losses of fish caused by export
pumping."</FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Now doesn't it make sense that if the CAL-FED scientists were going
to do a truly scientific study of the reasons for fish collapses, they would
engage in an all-out effort to develop "quantitative estimates" of the losses of
fish destroyed by the operation of the massive state and federal pumps that
export water to subsidized agribusiness and corporate water
developers?</FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva>As Patrick Porgans, independent natural
resources consultant so accurately points out, "if the scientists developed
quantitative estimates of fish population losses that unequivocally
demonstrated the huge impact of the pumps on imperiled fish populations, that
would be the kiss of the death for the operation of the pumps. After all, this
is not really about fish, but about the mega corporations that receive
subsidized water from the state and federal projects only to sell the public
back its own water." </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva><BR
class=khtml-block-placeholder></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#333333><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva>The report fails to mention that some of the
largest annual water export levels in history occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre
feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6
MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increased to an average of 6 MAF between
2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent. The Pelagic Organism Decline and the
year classes of Central Valley chinook salmon in collapse correspond directly to
the years of record exports, but I couldn't find anywhere in the publication
where this crucial bit of scientific data is mentioned.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Other "key findings"of the report include:</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>• The Delta of tomorrow will be very different than it is today.
Intensifying forces of change, such as land subsidence, rising sea level,
species invasions, earthquakes and regional population growth, virtually
guarantee that current land and water use in the Delta cannot be sustained.
(Chapter 1).</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span
color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>• Many toxic chemicals are a concern in the Delta. Organisms can
often be affected by very low concentrations of contaminants. Effects can be
magnified though concentration up the food chain or synergistic effects of
mixtures. (Chapter 3)</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span
color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>• With climate change, California will become warmer, more
precipitation will fall as rain and less as snow, the snowpack will be much
reduced, and there will be less groundwater recharge. These changes will
challenge the capacity of California’s water management system to provide
reliable, high-quality water to satisfy human and environmental needs. (Chapter
6)</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Other areas of the book deal with Delta history, science,
geophysics, water quality and supply, aquatic ecosystems, levees, climate
change, policy development and some themes that are crosscutting across areas
and issues.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>The conference where the book was unveiled features seminars on the
Pelagic Organism Decline, salmon management and ecology, estuarine food webs,
water quality, riparian habitat and a host of other topics. Again, the topic of
export pumping is curiously absent from the conference sessions, as far as
I can tell, with the exception of two sessions, one entitled "Evaluation of
Daily Delta Flows and Delta Smelt Salvage Density Patterns" and "Splittail
Population Dynamics and Water Export from the Delta."</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Ironically, as the conference presentations are being made, our
public trust fisheries continue to collapse. CAL-FED, a joint federal-state
agency, has spent hundreds of dollars on scientific studies, conferences and
"restoration" programs, but has been a dismal failure to
date.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>The reason for its failure is that the state and federal governments
have constantly resisted taking the drastic measures needed to restore salmon
and other fish populations, including dramatically reducing water exports from
the California Delta and taking drainage impaired land on the west side of the
San Joaquin Valley out of production. The CAL-FED Process to date has produced
nothing but the collapse of Central Valley salmon fisheries and the Bay-Delta
ecosystem.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>The CAL-FED process has been an elitist process where the people
most impacted by fishery declines - recreational anglers, commercial fishermen
and California Indian Tribes - have been excluded from the decision making
process. Meanwhile, those who have presided over the destruction of public trust
fish populations - the Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of
Resources - have completely bent over to serve the needs of corporate
agribusiness and the state water contractors.</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Although I think there is some interesting information available at
conferences like this and in the CAL-FED book, the problem is that there are lot
of agency staff and consultants making good salaries incessantly "studying the
issue," often with apparently pre-determined conclusions, while failing to stop
the decline. The state and federal governments have set up a de-facto
"restoration industry," in cooperation with some corporate funded NGO's, that
extracts hundreds of millions of dollars from the taxpayers with fishery
collapses the only concrete result!</FONT></SPAN></FONT><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva> </FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN
class=Apple-style-span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva>Patrick Porgans often refers to CAL-FED as "CAL FED UP." This is an
appropriate term to describe his and my view of the agency that has squandered
hundreds of millions of dollars with only unprecedented fishery collapses,
yearly conferences and questionable documents to show for all of the money spent
while it refuses to study the quantitative impact of the operation of the pumps
on fish populations.</FONT></SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MIN-HEIGHT: 15px; MARGIN: 0px; FONT: 12px Verdana"><FONT
class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><SPAN class=Apple-style-span
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 16px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span
face=Geneva><BR></FONT></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><FONT class=Apple-style-span color=#111111><FONT
class=Apple-style-span face=Geneva>Copies of the The State of Bay-Delta Science,
2008, will be available to attendees of the CALFED Science Conference October
22-24, at the Sacramento Convention Center. Hard copies are available by
contacting Rhonda Hoover-Flores at rhondah [at] calwater.ca.gov. You can also
download a copy of he report by going to </FONT></FONT><A
href="http://www.science.calwater.ca.gov/pdf/publications/sbds/sbds_2008_final_report_101508.pdf"><FONT
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