TBI In the News: NEW PROTECTIONS ISSUED FOR DELTA SALMON

As reported by CBS 5 News San Francisco:

The National Marine Fisheries Service today recommended changes to water pumping and dam operations in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and delta that it said jeopardize the survival of Chinook salmon and other species.

The recommendations will limit the amount of water diverted to farmers in the Central Valley and residents in Southern California.

The Fisheries Service estimated its recommendations would lessen the amount of water moved by federal and state pumps by 5 to 7 percent, or about 330,000 acre-feet, annually. Exceptions would be made for drought, and health and safety issues.

The agency said today the projects threaten winter- and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, North American green sturgeon and resident killer whales that feed on the salmon.

"What is at stake here is not just the survival of species but the health of entire ecosystems and the economies that depend on them," said Rod Mcinnis, the southwest regional director for the Fisheries Service, in a prepared statement.

"We are ready to work with our federal and state partners, farmers and residents to find solutions that benefit the economy, environment and Central Valley families," Mcinnis said.
Both the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which runs the Central Valley Project and the California Department of Water Resources, which runs the California State Water Project, said today they have provisionally accepted the recommendations.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later issued a statement condemning the decision, saying it "puts fish above the needs of millions of Californians and the health and security of the world's eighth largest economy."

Before the decision, salmon industry representatives and environmental advocates, spoke in San Francisco in support of the changes. Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association, said the loss of salmon has been catastrophic for local fishermen. Collins said two or three fisherman on every boat are now out of work.

"We've got a lot of families that are hurting," he said.

The salmon fishing season has been cancelled each of the past two years because of extremely low numbers of the fish.

According to conservation biologist Jon Rosenfield of the Novato-based environmental advocacy group the Bay Institute, as young fish are trying to migrate downstream to the San Francisco Bay and into the ocean, high levels of water pumping often confuse their sense of direction.

In addition, Rosenfield said, "Thousands of them get sucked into the pumps." Those that are not carried away are delayed getting to ocean waters and also exposed to predators and poor water quality, he added.

Accompanying the pumping restrictions, which should go into effect by the end of this year, the Fisheries Service recommended increased upstream storage of cold water and changes in flow rates of that water.

According to Rosenfield, the cold water helps the eggs of Chinook salmon incubate properly.
Another recommendation is for the construction of a pumping plant at the Sacramento River's Red Bluff Diversion Dam in Tehama County to allow salmon and green sturgeon to move through the dam unimpeded.

Rosenfield said that dam has been a barrier to both adult fish returning upstream and juvenile fish migrating downstream.

The Fisheries Service produced the new report after a federal judge in Fresno last April invalidated the agency's previous 2004 study that concluded the water pumping would not jeopardize the fish.

"The piling on of one federal court decision after another in a species-by-species approach is killing our economy and undermining the integrity of the Endangered Species Act," said Schwarzenegger. He added that he plans to bring his case directly to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and that his administration "will be pursuing every possible avenue to reconcile the harmful effects of these decisions."

Rosenfield said today he expected the agricultural industry would challenge the recommendations in court.