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<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=DeltaKeep@aol.com href="mailto:DeltaKeep@aol.com">DeltaKeep@aol.com</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, July 21, 2010 12:35 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> CSPA Press Release: State Board Delta Flow
Recommendations</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Geneva
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">Hi all: Below is a press release from the California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance regarding the State Water Board report released
today regarding Delta flow needs. It's an important report that for the
first time answers the question, "what do fish need in the Delta."
Cheers!<BR><BR></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=4 face=Geneva
FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><B>PRESS RELEASE<BR><BR></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=3
face=Geneva FAMILY="SANSSERIF">California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance<BR></B></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Geneva
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">3536 Rainier Avenue, Stockton, CA 95204<BR><BR></FONT><FONT
color=#000000 size=2 face=Geneva FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><B>FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE<BR></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=1 face=Geneva
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">Contact Information<BR></B></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=2
face=Geneva FAMILY="SANSSERIF">Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director:
209-464-5067, Cell 209-938-9053, <A
href="mailto:deltakeep@aol.com">deltakeep@aol.com</A><BR>Mike Jackson, CSPA
Attorney: 530-283-0712, <A
href="mailto:mjatty@sbcglobal.net">mjatty@sbcglobal.net</A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT
color=#000000 size=4 face=Geneva FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><B>State Board Identifies
Delta Flow Needs<BR><BR></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Geneva
FAMILY="SANSSERIF">CSPA applauds State Water Board staff for identifying flows
necessary to Protect Delta<BR><BR>Stockton, CA - Thursday, July 21,
2010.</B></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Geneva FAMILY="SANSSERIF">
The California Water Resources Control Board has released a draft report
identifying increased water flows needed to protect fisheries and water quality
in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary. The report was mandated by
the California legislature as part of the comprehensive water bill, enacted on
12 November 2001, which directed the water board to “develop new flow criteria
for the Delta ecosystem necessary to protect public trust resources” within nine
months of enactment. Extensive hearings were conducted during March 2010
and the report will be finalized at the Board's August meeting.<BR><BR>“For the
first time, the Board has come forth with explicit estimates on flows needed to
protect the estuary and the results are not surprising,” said Bill Jennings,
Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA),
“The increased flow recommendations are consistent with the vast majority of
testimony by scientists, biologists and hydrologists during the recent hearing
and with the recommendations of resource agencies and scientists during previous
evidentiary hearings over the last 30 years.” “Indeed, they comport with
scientific evidence regarding flow needs of the 113 estuaries in the world,” he
said.<BR><BR>The 180 -page draft report recommends significantly higher flows
for the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and Delta outflow. For example,
the report calls for net Delta outflow between January and June of 75% of 14-day
average unimpaired inflow (i.e., without dams or upstream diversions).
This compares to the present 30% in drier years). For the Sacramento
River, the recommendations are 75% of the 14-day unimpaired flow from November
through June (compared to the present 50% average). For the San Joaquin
River the recommendations are 60% of the 14-day unimpaired flow from February
through June (compared to the present 20% in drier years to almost 50% in wetter
years). The recommendations also include fall pulse flows for migrating
fish and increased fall outflow in above normal years. <BR><BR>The report
emphasizes that the flow recommendations are based on the “best scientific
information,” that ecosystem variability in the Delta is crucial and
“fundamentally inconsistent with continuing to move large volumes of water
through the Delta for export” and that the recommendations are designed to
restore estuarine populations as required by law and not simply, as in the
biological opinions, to prevent extinction of listed species.<BR><BR>The
dramatic increase in water diversions from the estuary in recent decades have
sent fisheries and water quality into a downward spiral. Populations of
salmon, steelhead, young striped bass, Delta and longfin smelt, splittail,
threadfin and American shad and sturgeon, as well as native zooplankton and
phytoplankton that comprise the food web, have collapsed.<BR><BR>“Everyone gives
lip service to protecting the Delta,” said CSPA attorney Mike Jackson, “These
numbers make it clear -as we have always believed - that the Delta needs
substantially more water than it has been receiving over the last 30 years if
its going to survive.”<BR><BR>The Delta flow recommendations will inform both
the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process underway and proceedings of the
recently established Delta Stewardship Council. The culmination of those
efforts will result in a comprehensive “Delta Plan” that will be forwarded to
the State Water Board for subsequent evidentiary hearings that will balance
competing water needs, approve potential structural modifications of delivery
systems and revise water rights to implement the plan.<BR><BR>CSPA participated
fully in the March hearing submitting testimony and recommendations prepared by
it's expert witnesses who had considerable expertise and experience in Delta
issues: Dr. Carl Mesick, Dr. G. Fred Lee and three retired Fish and Game
biologists; Don Stevens, Dave Kohlhorst and Lee Miller. <BR><BR>Over the years,
the State Water Board has conducted a number of hearings on measures necessary
to protect the estuary. For example, following a long evidentiary hearing
in 1988, the State Board issued a draft water quality control plan that call for
substantial reductions in Delta exports. However, then Governor George
Deukmejian, at the behest of state and federal water project operators, directed
the State Board to withdraw the draft order. Again, in 1992 the State
Water Board conducted an extensive evidentiary proceeding and issued a draft
water rights order that required increases in flow to protect the estuary
(D-1630). And again, the Governor, this time Pete Wilson, directed the
Board to withdraw the draft order. Today, pursuant to explicit direction
by the state legislature, the State Board has released a draft report on what
“what fish need” and measures necessary for Delta protection.
<BR>_________________________________________________________<BR></FONT><FONT
color=#000000 size=1 face=Geneva FAMILY="SANSSERIF">CSPA is a public benefit
conservation and research organization established in 1983 for the purpose of
conserving, restoring, and enhancing the state's water quality and fishery
resources and their aquatic ecosystems and associated riparian habitats.
CSPA's website is www.calsport.org. </FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=2
face=Geneva FAMILY="SANSSERIF"><BR><BR><BR><BR>Bill Jennings,
Chairman<BR>Executive Director<BR>California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance<BR>3536 Rainier Avenue<BR>Stockton, CA 95204<BR>p: 209-464-5067<BR>c:
209-938-9053<BR>f: 209-464-1028<BR>e:
deltakeep@aol.com<BR>www.calsport.org<BR>PRIVILEGE AND CONFIDENTIALITY
NOTICE<BR>This message is intended only for the use of the individual or entity
to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged,
confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law as confidential
communications. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you
are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this
communication or other use of a transmission received in error is strictly
prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, immediately notify
us at 209-464-5067.<BR><BR></FONT><FONT color=#000000 size=2 face=Geneva
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