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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>How far
have we come in resolving the water crisis? <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Fresno
Bee-6/29/10<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>By Thomas
W. Birmingham<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><i><u><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;color:black'>Thomas
W. Birmingham is the general manager of Westlands Water District.</span></u></i></b><b><u><span
style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>In the past few weeks, the
Westlands Water District and other public water agencies, with the support of
Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the Valley congressional delegation, have made
progress toward improving the rules that have crippled the operation of California's
water system and driven west-side communities toward an economic catastrophe.
How much have these reforms really accomplished and will they prevent more
water shortages in the future?</span></b><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>In 2010, for the second
year in a row, farmers on the west side faced a zero water allocation due to
federal environmental restrictions. The prospects for the 25 million urban
water users who depend on water pumped through the Delta were not much
brighter.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>But when Sen. Feinstein in
February proposed that the federal rules should allow at least 40% of the
state's normal supplies, she ran into intense criticism from environmentalists
and many editorial writers around the state. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Sen. Feinstein acted to
prevent a repetition of the severe cutbacks in water deliveries that in 2009
had thrown tens of thousands of people out of work, imposed rationing in many
urban areas and fallowed hundreds of thousands of acres of farmlands.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>In support of her
proposal, she distributed a letter summarizing the questions that scientists, engineers
and public officials were raising about the science underlying the federal
restrictions. Reporters, however, fastened on who signed the letter and ignored
the substance of those questions.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Fortunately, the Obama
administration was much smarter. Early in the year, they agreed to administer
the environmental restrictions with greater sensitivity to the impacts on water
supply.This meant allowing water deliveries to continue at the upper end of the
range allowed by the federal biological opinions for salmon and Delta smelt.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>This was all that Sen.
Feinstein had proposed. And indeed, with rainfall returning to normal, the
millions of water users she sought to protect will receive even more water this
year.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>More important for the
long term, the questions she and others in Congress asked about the scientific
basis for the biological opinions got the careful review they deserved.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>First the federal
departments of Commerce and Interior joined to create a special panel of the
National Academy of Sciences to review the biological opinions. Their initial
report this spring found that, while there was a theoretical basis for the
opinions' general prescriptions, there wasn't enough data to support many of
the actions they required.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The seriousness of those
lapses in the scientific record were more precisely detailed in May in 250
pages of factual and legal findings by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Among other things, Judge
Wanger found that the federal agencies "completely abdicated" their
responsibility under the National Environmental Policy Act to consider
alternative actions that would do less harm to the human environment. By
failing to perform certain fundamental calculations that "any prudent and
competent fish biologist and statistician would have done" the agencies
committed a "fundamental and inexplicable error" that reduced their
restrictions to mere "guesstimations." <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The court cited numerous
examples of the agencies' failure to link pumping to the survival of endangered
species. Judge Wanger was particularly critical of the agencies' "not
rational" misuse of data. Their misrepresentation of other scientists'
research "raises the spectre of bad faith," he wrote. "The
absence of explanation and analysis for adoption of (pumping) limits uses no science,
let alone the best available, and is simply indefensible."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The immediate relief that
we sought from the court was very limited, and the federal agencies and
environmental groups have now agreed with us on a short-term plan. But the
problems that Judge Wanger and the National Academy of Sciences identified in
the biological opinions are fundamental and can only be resolved through
substantial revisions to both.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>As better science is
applied, the old orthodoxy that blamed the pumps for all the Delta's problems
is beginning to crumble. On June 9, federal officials announced their
commitment to an extensive research program to fill in the gaps and correct the
agencies' mistakes. The operational flexibility that helped us get through the
first half of 2010 will be continued. Now federal agencies will be required to
assess the benefits of their actions for the public water supply as well as the
fish.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>On other fronts, the Obama
administration is calling for an unlimited open season on striped bass to
reduce a major cause of the salmon decline. New research from the University of
Maryland and the University of California suggests that another important part
of the problem lies in the changes in the food chain for aquatic species that
are the result of contamination by human and industrial wastes.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>Clean water, good science,
cooperation and respect for the human environment -- these are all values that
responsible environmental organizations have long endorsed. The Endangered
Species Act is not being weakened by our progress. Judge Wanger's findings will
merely compel the federal fish agencies to live up to its standards. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt'>The Delta is not being
endangered. Rather, we are learning more about how to protect it without
sacrificing the public water supply.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><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><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/fax</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
mobile</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>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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