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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Scientists
rip federal agencies for implementation of landmark Delta, salmon protection
law </span></strong><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br>
</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>By
Mike Taugher<br>
Contra Costa Times <br>
Updated: 04/23/2009 06:17:01 AM PDT </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>California's
federal water managers favored farmers over the needs of salmon and failed to
take seriously a law that was supposed to overhaul the state's water delivery
system and improve the environment, an independent scientific review of the
17-year-old law says.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
report casts a harsh light on the two federal agencies charged with
implementing the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act and said the
science panel was "flabbergasted" at how agencies reduced the amount
of water that was supposed to shift under the law from farms to fish. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Nearly
$1 billion spent led to some improvements, the panel said. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br>
But while salmon populations collapsed and the Delta ecosystem spiraled
downward, federal agencies let the programs that might have slowed or reversed
the declines languish at low levels in their bureaucracies, isolated from each
other and from state-led efforts to address the Delta's numerous problems.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"This
suggests the CVPIA program is not viewed as a high priority within either
agency or Department of Interior as a whole," said the report, which was
requested by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
act, signed by the first President Bush, was meant to be a sweeping reform of
the 76-year-old Central Valley Project that should have doubled salmon
populations, redirected water to environmental purposes and created a fund for
habitat improvements.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>It
was considered the top environmental achievement in Rep. George Miller's 34
years in Congress. Miller, D-Martinez, has made environmental protection in the
Delta and reform of federal water projects in the West one of his highest
priorities. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>He
could not be reached for comment Wednesday. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>A
spokesman for the reclamation bureau, which received the harshest criticism in
the report, did not return a phone call by deadline. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"The
independent panel confirms what we've known for some time, that the
environmental water authorized by the CVPIA has not provided the environmental
protection originally intended by the law," said Spreck Rosekrans, a senior
analyst at the Environmental Defense Fund in San Francisco.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>One
of the key tools to double salmon populations was a provision that redirected
800,000 acre-feet of water a year from San Joaquin Valley farms to
environmental purposes.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>That
provision led to bitter resentment among farm districts, and how that water is
accounted for has been the subject of years of litigation with the most
significant ruling to date going in favor of water users.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
panel assumed, however, that the provision meant 800,000 acre-feet of water
would be moved from reservoirs and through the Delta to improve conditions for
fish.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"We
were flabbergasted to learn this is not how the agencies implement this
provision," the report said. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Instead,
the agencies never determined how much water should flow through the river and
Delta system and does not even ensure that water released into the environment
stays there. About half of the water is released from dams to increase river
flows, but then taken back out of the Delta later for use on farms or in
cities.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
rest of the requirement is satisfied when other environmental rules restrict
the bureau's ability to pump water out of the Delta.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The
bureau's method of satisfying the law has passed muster in the courts, but the
science panel said it did not make sense.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>"This
approach seems fundamentally at odds with the intent and language of the
legislation," the panel concluded. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><br>
The report, "Listen to the River: An Independent Review of the CVPIA
Fisheries Program," is available at <a
href="http://www.cvpiaindependentreview.com">www.cvpiaindependentreview.com</a>
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
land</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 519 4810
cell</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net"><span style='color:blue'>bwl3@comcast.net</span></a></span></i></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org"><span style='color:blue'>bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>(secondary)</span></i><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'><a
href="http://fotr.org/"><span style='color:blue'>http://www.fotr.org</span></a>
</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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