Insight: Ruling to save tiny fish aids salmon
Zeke Grader
San Francisco Chronicle
02/14/2010
The tiny delta smelt came to the rescue of California's once-mighty salmon last week in a Fresno federal courtroom, possibly saving the thousands of jobs that depend on the iconic salmon. Much maligned, the tiny smelt is part of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem and food chain and a key indicator species of the health of the San Francisco Bay and delta, one of the most important estuaries on the West Coast of the Americas.
U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger's refusal to lift the protections for the endangered smelt will save millions of baby, ocean-bound salmon that had lost their legal protection from the massive delta pumps only the Friday before in that same court. In his first decision, the judge had allowed the Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project pumps near Tracy to operate at full throttle. Pumping at this level kills fish, including the endangered Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon -- and the once-abundant fall run salmon that supports the coastal fishery. That order had turned on the bureau's failure to comply with paperwork requirements. This end run to the courts by California water super-powers makes clear their disregard for the Schwarzenegger administration's "win-win" delta solution hammered out in November.
When the judge dropped the science questions raised by the Westlands and the Metropolitan water districts, the issue became "irreparable harm to the plaintiffs," claiming that protecting fish in the delta resulted in "irretrievable resources losses, social disruption and dislocation."
That could not describe the situation in California's fisheries and fishing industry better.
A study last fall study found that 23,000 jobs have been lost to the two-year shutdown of California's salmon fisheries, a shutdown triggered by "degradation of the estuary and river habitats," according to government scientists.
Meanwhile, we learn that the high unemployment in the Central Valley is caused by the bust of the housing construction boom, not from water supply issues.
According to a study released last fall by the University of the Pacific in Stockton, 47,000 construction jobs were lost in San Joaquin Valley in the last two years, compared to 8,500 in agriculture. Indeed, agricultural employment this past year was at a record high in the Central Valley, the very place the water powers' PR firms and Fox News are calling a "dust bowl" caused by a "congressionally created drought."
Yet the very same growers complaining about their deliveries of taxpayer-subsidized "farm" water are turning around and selling that water for obscene profits to wealthy developments in Southern California and golf courses in the desert.
Meanwhile, from Fisherman' Wharf to the small ports that dot the California and Oregon coasts, salmon boats are berthed and families are out of a job. Fish houses and sport fishing docks sit idle in these communities, and even the tourists seem to stay away when there's no fishing. The half-century of work by commercial fishermen and recreational anglers, together with conservationists, tribes and scientists to rebuild the magnificent salmon, is going south with the delta water. If nothing else, the court-maneuvering by the water superpowers this month shows how little they care for the health of the San Francisco Bay and delta estuary. Their participation in the Bay Delta Conservation Plan process was just another head fake. Their lawsuit to force the continued killing of young salmon at the delta pumps says all you need to know.
