Deadline for smelt protection plan extended
John Ellis
Fresno Bee
05/04/2011
A federal judge in Fresno on Wednesday gave the federal government two additional years to finish an updated plan to protect the threatened delta smelt.
In December, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger invalidated key parts of the much-debated plan, which often resulted in water-pumping cutbacks from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
That ruling -- which found that while pumping hurt the smelt, the pumping restrictions set up to protect the fish were not justified -- forced the federal government to rewrite the plan for the second time in less than four years.
When Wanger issued his final judgment on the matter in March, he set a December deadline for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finish the rewrite. The agency immediately appealed, saying it couldn't finish the process by the end of the year.
Even the Westlands Water District and others who sought to invalidate the smelt plan -- known as a biological opinion -- acknowledged more time would be needed.
The Fish and Wildlife Service asked for an additional three years -- or May 1, 2014. Westlands and others countered with a 20-month deadline, which would have been Dec. 31, 2012.
Wanger's new deadline is December 2013.
On Wednesday, Westlands General Manager Tom Birmingham said additional time was necessary.
"We certainly appreciate Judge Wanger's sense of urgency, and from our perspective, it is important that we continue to approach this with a sense of urgency," he said. "However, to ensure sufficient time do a good job, this extension, I believe, is in our collective interest."
Birmingham said he hoped the Fish and Wildlife Service would put the extra time to good use and join with the National Marine Fisheries Service -- which is responsible for a similar biological opinion covering some steelhead and salmon species -- to draft its "coordinated or consolidated" plan for the delta-related fish species that are classified as endangered or threatened under the federal Environmental Protection Act.
Kate Poole, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the extension would be "more than sufficient time to do a proper job."
