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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><b><span style='font-size:15.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Tightening the tap</span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"'>Feds order
state to cut water project flows</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#C50E00'>By Dan Bacher</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#C50E00'><a href="http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/dan_bacher/author"><b>More
stories by this author...</b></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><br>
<img border=0 width=300 height=201 id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01C9F01E.8BEF7120"
alt="cid:9712FF98-4E42-4618-A3D7-BE93392C9492@local"><o:p></o:p></p>
<table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=300
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:9.0pt;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:0in'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:
"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:9.0pt;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:0in'><b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Killer whales once roamed
the West Coast from Puget Sound to California by the thousands. Today, there
are only 85 orcas left in the region.</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:9.0pt;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:0in'><b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>PHOTO COURTESY OFNATIONAL
MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:9.0pt;margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:9.0pt;margin-left:0in;background:#E3E1E1'><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#333333'>Dan
Bacher is the editor of the Elk Grove-based Fish Sniffer magazine and a
longtime advocate for fishery restoration in California and the West.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>In a court-ordered plan
released on June 4,</span></b><span style='color:#333333'> <b>scientists from
the National Marine Fisheries Service concluded that current water-pumping
operations of the federal Central Valley Project and the California State Water
Project should be changed to ensure survival of four imperiled fish species and
one orca population.</b></span><b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>The biological opinion lists a
number of steps the state and federal governments must take to protect winter-
and spring-run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, southern green
sturgeon and southern resident killer whales from going over the abyss of
extinction. The whales, now numbering only 85 individuals along the coast from
Puget Sound to California, rely on Sacramento River salmon for food.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Changing water operations will
impact an estimated 5 to 7 percent of the water exported annually to San
Joaquin Valley water contractors and Southern California by the federal and
state pumps. That 330,000 acre feet per year, according to Maria Rea, the NMFS
area supervisor.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>The opinion also calls for
pilot passage programs at Folsom, Nimbus and Shasta dams to reintroduce salmon
and steelhead to historic cold-water habitat above the dams. We want to get
winter-run chinook back to habitat in the McCloud River and steelhead back to
habitat in the upper American River, said Rea.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Other key measures of the plan
include:</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Requiring more cold water held
behind Shasta Dam for release during salmon migration and spawning seasons.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Reducing the amount of time the
Red Bluff Diversion Dam gates are closed.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Requiring better flows and
colder water to enhance salmon spawning and habitat in the American and
Stanislaus rivers.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Reducing pumping when juvenile
salmon are migrating through the Delta.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>The biological opinion doesn't
take a position pro or con regarding the proposed peripheral canal, but
cautions that careful planning must be conducted to avoid jeopardy to
endangered species. The scientists also said the opinion would have to be
reinitiated if the canal is authorized for construction.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Sarah Woolf, spokesperson for
the Westlands Water District, called the opinion a death sentence for large
parts of California's economy. She said the district intends to file a lawsuit
to have this opinion set aside and compel the National Marine Fisheries Service
to go back and perform the careful analysis it should have done to assess the
potential harm this plan could do to public health and safety, communities and
the environment.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also
attacked the plan for its alleged economic impacts. This federal biological
opinion puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health
and security of the world's eighth largest economy, claimed Schwarzenegger. The
piling on of one federal court decision after another in a species-by-species
approach is killing our economy and undermining the integrity of the Endangered
Species Act.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:
yellow'>In contrast to Schwarzenegger's attack on the peer-reviewed opinion,
U.S. Reps. George Miller, Mike Thompson and Doris Matsui applauded the
decision.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>With this announcement, the
Obama administration has set a science-based course toward recovering the
populations of wild salmon and steelhead that are so critical to California's
economy and environment, said Miller.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333'>Representatives of fishing
organizations and California American Indian tribes reacted to the plans
release with mixed assessments, ranging from outright praise to skepticism.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:
yellow'>These changes are exactly what we have been looking for, said Dick
Pool, administrator of Water for Fish. We have been operating on an
environmental disaster course for salmon, and these actions are the beginning
of the turnaround.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:
yellow'>The biological opinion is a long overdue but welcome initial step in
protecting species hovering on the brink of extinction, stated Bill Jennings,
executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. However,
it is not a recovery plan that will restore seriously degraded fisheries; much
more will be required.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;
margin-left:0in'><b><span style='color:#333333;background:yellow;mso-highlight:
yellow'>Gary Mulcahy, governmental liaison for the Winnemem Wintu tribe, was
less optimistic. Though this biological opinion may set out new rules and
guidelines that seek to protect our water and fisheries, I truly expect the big
agribusiness and water buffaloes to use their power to find some way around it,
and complete the extinction they so readily pursue in the name of progress,
commerce and economic growth, he concluded.</span><o:p></o:p></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><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>
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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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