Ecologists say unrestricted pumping will harm fish
Associated Press
San Jose Mercury News
02/08/2010
FRESNO, Calif.—Environmentalists say a federal judge's order to temporarily allow unrestricted pumping in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta threatens to push endangered salmon into extinction.
Last week's decision by U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger freed up irrigation supplies for farms hammered by years of drought. Farmers had complained that pumping restrictions in place to protect winter-run Chinook salmon worsened their situation.
Some of the country's largest growers pressed for the restrictions to be lifted to nurture their fields and orchards.
