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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
font-weight:normal'>Group wants chemical-filled farmland retired</span><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=byline1><span style='font-size:8.0pt'><a
href="mailto:kzito@sfchronicle.com"><span style='color:#015660;text-decoration:
none'>Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=date1><span style='font-size:8.0pt'>Tuesday, December 2, 2008<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span
style='font-size:9.5pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center>
</span></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-weight:normal'>(12-01) 19:17 PST </span></strong>--
The giant state and federal pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that
funnel water to 25 million Californians should be shut down until certain
Central Valley farmers retire hundreds of thousands of acres of chemical-laden
farmland, according to a lawsuit filed today by a state water watchdog.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Irrigating agricultural land in the western
San Joaquin Valley tainted with selenium, mercury, boron and other toxic
substances constitutes an unreasonable use of a public resource protected by
state laws and has contributed to the sharp decline of endangered fish species,
said the California Water Impact Network.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"We think there is a simple solution to
California's water problems - to retire all of the drainage-impaired lands in
the Central Valley. A second is water conservation - agriculture uses 80
percent of the developed surface water," said Carolee Krieger, president
and founder C-WIN.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>The lawsuit marks the latest twist in the
continuing Delta drama. The hub of the state's 1,300-square-mile water system
is also at the heart of the fight between uses for food and human needs, and
those of wildlife and rare plants. In recent years, failure of the ecosystem
forced legal rulings that curbed water exports - a move made more complicated
this year by a drought and fears of another dry winter. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>In the 27-page lawsuit filed in superior court
in Sacramento , C-Win, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and an
individual, Felix Smith, lays much of the blame for the system's problem on
water over-allocation. One culprit, the lawsuit said, is the State Water
Resources Control Board, which issues all water permits in the state. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Also named were the state Department of Water
Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the two operators of the huge
pumps and pipelines that send water, mainly from the north, to water users
throughout California.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Although turning off the pumps would impact
residential, industrial and agricultural users, plaintiffs in the case, as well
as environmental and other groups contend that recent, increased pumping by the
state and federal agencies through the Delta has killed millions of protected
and endangered fish species, including the Delta smelt. Much of the water has
gone to watering cropland</b> laden with chemicals that filter into the San
Joaquin River and back to the southern Delta.<o:p></o:p></p>
<h3 style='line-height:21.0pt'>Poor regulation decried<o:p></o:p></h3>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"California has regulated its waters like
the feds have regulated Wall Street and the result has been a collapse of
fisheries and aquatic ecosystems," said California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance Chairman and Director Bill Jennings. "We have little alternative
but to turn to the courts to prevent the extinction of our historic
fisheries."<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Officials at the state Department of Water
Resources, the Water Control Resources Board and the Bureau of Reclamation
could not be reached for comment. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>A spokeswoman for the largest irrigation
district in the country, located around Fresno, called the lawsuit
"disappointing." <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>To date, about 100,000 agricultural acres have
been taken out of production due to poor drainage and chemical saturation, said
Sarah Woolf, of the Westlands Water District, which serves 600,000 acres and
about 700 farms.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<h3 style='line-height:21.0pt'>Working with state<span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>At the same time, the agency has been working
with state and federal legislators over the past 25 years to craft a deal that
would fix the drainage problems with funds from the water district and
landowners. Westlands estimates there are about 100,000 more acres of
contaminated acres with poor drainage; Krieger put the number at closer to 1
million acres.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"We're moving forward and being
aggressive about it," Woolf said. "But really it's the environmental
community that's holding it up."<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>Last year, in an effort to curb the fish
population decline, a federal judge ordered reduced Delta pumping - a move that
critics like Westlands claim has not helped boost the smelt or other fish
species.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"In the last year we had the biggest
cutbacks in pumping in the history of the entire system," Woolf said.
"Six hundred acre feet were dedicated to helping fish, and the numbers of
the Delta smelt are still down."<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>But Krieger, of C-WIN, said the rapid die-off
of the Delta smelt adds more urgency to fixing the ecosystem. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='line-height:21.0pt'><b>"You can't interrupt the food chain
without having dire consequences," she said. "It's not just a little
fish. It's the bellwether of the Delta." <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'>Byron
Leydecker, JCT</span></i><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'>Chair,
Friends of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'>Mill Valley,
CA 94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'>415 383 4810</span></i><span
style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i><span
style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
(secondary)</span></i><span style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='color:gray;font-weight:normal'><a
href="http://fotr.org"><span style='color:blue'>http://fotr.org</span></a> </span></i><span
style='font-weight:normal'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-weight:normal'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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