Plan to push salt water from Delta blocked
Smelt-friendly proposal drew ire of water districts
Alex Breitler
Record Net
09/03/2011
A federal judge this week blocked a plan to help the Delta smelt by sending more fresh water through the estuary instead of diverting it to cities or farms.
The plan was intended to push salt water back toward the ocean, allowing young smelt to move into the area of Suisun Bay, where they might find more food than in the narrow confines of the Sacramento or San Joaquin rivers.
Those who rely on water pumped out of the Delta sued to stop the federal government's plan, which would have been implemented starting Thursday.
Water districts warned that sending more freshwater toward the ocean could cost them anywhere from 300,000 acre-feet of water to 670,000 acre-feet of water - enough supply for 1.5 million to 3.3 million people for one year.
U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger found that while it would be wise to keep the saltwater west of the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, there was no need to push it as far west as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had proposed.
He also blasted the feds for failing to consider the human impact of their decision.
"The agencies still 'don't get it,' " he wrote in his 140-page decision. "They continue to believe their 'right to be mistaken' excuses precise and competent scientific analysis for actions they know will wreak havoc on California's water supply."
Cities and farms as far south as San Diego rely to some degree on water diverted from the Delta. For five years now, water districts, environmentalists and the government have fought in court over how much water can be taken while preserving the diminutive Delta smelt and other more recognizable species such as salmon and steelhead.
The plan that Wanger halted was part of a larger set of rules to protect smelt from the huge south Delta pumps and the changes they cause to flow patterns in the estuary. Wanger has twice ordered those rules rewritten.
In this latest decision, Wanger said there appears to be no relationship between the inland infiltration of saltwater and the number of Delta smelt.
There's an explanation for that, said Bill Jennings, Stockton environmentalist and head of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
