Costa bill aims to increase delta pumping
Courtenay Edelhart
Bakersfield
03/28/2011
Congressman Jim Costa plans to introduce legislation this week that would increase the amount of water that could be pumped from the delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet.
Central Valley farmers rely heavily on water pumped from the delta, but their supply has been limited since 2007. That's when a federal judge ordered state and federal officials to cut water deliveries in order to maintain enough flow in the delta to protect spawning smelt.
Environmentalists cheered the ruling because the smelt and the Pacific salmon, also threatened, were dwindling at an alarming rate. But farmers protested, particularly during three subsequent years of drought when many were forced to fallow their land.
Costa, D-Fresno, would modify rules laid out in so-called "biological opinions" on the operations of the water system issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The goal is to make the rules more flexible so that more water could be pumped.
The congressman was traveling Monday afternoon and could not be reached for comment, but he issued a statement.
"Our streets are flooding, our food banks are going empty, and unemployment in the valley is nearing 20 percent. California's water system is broken. We can fix it," he said.
If the bill becomes law, the valley could receive an additional 200,000 acre feet of water that could be available as soon as this summer, Costa said.
Among other things, the bill would increase the level of "reverse flow" allowed in the Old and Middle Rivers. When pumps are turned on, it changes the direction of these waterways, which interferes with seasonal fish runs.
Growers and water districts have challenged the biological opinions in court, arguing they're based on faulty science and don't give enough weight to other factors contributing to fish decline such as pollution and natural predators.
In that case, a judge granted agriculture a small victory when he ruled that economic impact on people should have been given greater consideration.
The Madera agriculture group Families Protecting the Valley says it is tentatively pleased with Costa's proposal, but wants to see its actual language before it celebrates.
"The devil's in the details in all of this kind of stuff," said board member Kole Upton. He's anxious to see if the legislation garners enough support to pass.
Previous bills aimed at restoring pumping in the delta have not survived, including a proposal in a continuing resolution that Costa voted against.
A continuing resolution is a temporary funding mechanism that has been used to keep the federal government going during budget negotiations.
"Considering that Rep. Costa has repeatedly voted against measures and bills to turn on the pumps in the past two years, I seriously question his motives now," said Johnny Amaral, chief of staff for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia. "But, for the sake of his constituents and the valley, it's better late than never."
Costa said at the time that he opposed the other proposal because it barred the federal government from paying for the implementation of the rules but did not exempt water systems from complying with the Endangered Species Act. That could have exposed the water system to legal action, making a bad situation worse.
There's also the problem of the California Endangered Species Act, said Brent Walthall, assistant general manager of the Kern County Water Agency. It won't help to address problems created by federal rules without also looking at state regulations, he said.
Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, called the proposal "nothing more than an end run around the Endangered Species Act" and said passing it would reverse progress on reinvigorating the salmon population.
