State sued over handling of fish

Conservation groups decry water diversions

Alex Breitler
Stockton Record
10/10/2007

California's rivers and streams are diverted to cities and farms with almost no knowledge of how this affects fish, conservation groups said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday.

While hundreds of requests for water rights pile up in Sacramento, the state Department of Fish and Game has failed to study how much water can safely be taken from most streams, says the California Coastkeeper Alliance, a group that includes San Francisco-based Baykeeper, a Delta watchdog.

Fish and Game's "decades of hiding from the problem has not made it go away," said Linda Sheehan, executive director of the alliance, which includes groups from San Diego to the Oregon border.

The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, was being reviewed Tuesday by Fish and Game, an agency spokesman said.

When an agency or individual wants to divert water from a stream, an application must be filed with the State Water Resources Control Board. Applications for San Joaquin County waterways, including the Mokelumne River, are among the hundreds that are pending.

Fish and Game is supposed to determine minimum flows for certain streams. Few of these studies have taken place, the conservationists say. They allege that the program that carried out the studies was diminished in 2003 and disbanded in 2005.

However, the program still receives funds, the lawsuit says. When agencies or people apply for water rights, they pay an $850 fee to defray the costs of the Fish and Game studies. The department has continued to receive anywhere from $11,900 to $53,550 per year from 2002 to 2006, the conservationists say.

Of the state's 116 native fish, eight have gone extinct and 15 are threatened or endangered. "California's freshwater aquatic resources have been declining for decades," says a complaint filed in court.