Dan  Bacher on the peripheral canal and the American Rivers Report

Fishing Groups Blast Canal and BDCP Process

by Dan Bacher, editor of the Fish Sniffer
April 8, 2009 -- Fishing groups are very critical of any proposal for "restoring" the Delta that involves a canal - and some consider it to be a classic example of greenwashing. They believe that a canal will transfer the impacts of Delta pumping that have killed millions and millions of salmon, steelhead, striped bass, delta smelt, longfin smelt and other species from the San Joaquin River side of the Delta to the Sacramento River. 
 
Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), criticized the organization's statement on the canal, particularly the group's stress on achieving "co-equal goals" of ecosystem restoration and water supply. 
 
"The co-equal goals were what doomed the CalFed process," said Jennings. "There is a limited supply of water in California that has been seriously over-allocated. It is a zero-sum game, there is no win-win situation and there is no painless solution to restoring the Delta. The canal will only exacerbate the collapse of Central Valley salmon, delta smelt, longfin smelt and other Delta fish populations." 
 
Jennings ridiculed the report’s reliance upon a Bay-Delta Conservation Plan process that is essentially a massive hydrologic modification of the Delta masquerading as a habitat conservation plan. “BDCP is essentially an end run around the Endangered Species Act,” he said. “It promises take permits, fifty-year guarantees and no surprises in an incredibly complex and degraded estuary while refusing to address how much water the Delta needs to maintain ecosystem integrity or to analyze the costs and benefits of various reduced or zero export scenarios,” he added. 
 
He also took aim at the group's call for an "enforceable framework of governance" on the estuary. "We already have water rights, water quality and endangered species laws and other environmental regulations on the books," he stated. "The failure of state and federal governments to enforce and comply with these laws has led to our current ecological crisis. How will the very same people that ignored and evaded these long-existing laws now magically establish an effective governmental structure to restore the Delta?" 
 
"Imperfect as they are," Jennings emphasized, "we have adequate laws to prevent the Delta collapse, if they’re enforced." 
 
He also criticized American Rivers' assessment of the Delta for being "a sloppy and over simplistic" analysis with no evidence buttressing it. "However, we certainly agree with them that the Delta is indisputably the most endangered waterway in North America," he concluded. 
 
Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), responded to the report's release by saying, "It doesn't come to us as a surprise that the Sacramento-Sacramento River system has been listed as endangered. Everything in them is also endangered, including incredibly valuable salmon runs that support the whole West Coast salmon fishery." 
 
Like Jennings, Spain is opposed to the building of a peripheral canal. "The construction of the peripheral canal would be a disaster for the Delta," he said. "What the salmon runs need in the Delta for their survival is more water. A peripheral canal would mean less water." 
 
Restore the Delta Calls On Political Leaders to Protect the Estuary 
 
Restore the Delta, a Delta- based coalition including Delta farmers, environmentalists, fishermen, business leaders, the faith community, recreation enthusiasts and everyday folks, reacted to the report by calling on local, state, and federal political leaders to take "broad actions" to protect and restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. 
 
"The report notes that outdated flood management practices, the 1600 miles of levees that border the San Joaquin and Sacramento River, prevent rivers from spilling over into flood plains," explained Restore the Delta Campaign Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla. "Restore the Delta maintains that restoration of flood plains could become the most environmentally sound way to store water for agricultural uses throughout the state, thereby reducing the demand for water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. A permanent and significant reduction in Delta water exports could help to improve Delta water quality and improve fisheries." 
 
As noted in the American Rivers report, enhanced levees, while necessary to protect existing urban populations, could inadvertently increase development in floodplains, said Barrigan-Parrilla. 
 
"We need a flood management plan, for the protection of people, that ensures that continued urban development does not take place in floodplains," she explained. "We need a water plan that finds ways to augment the water supply in each region, rather than our current practice of shipping water from one part of the state to the other. These are two sides of the same coin." 
 
While Barrigan's organization agrees with American Rivers' findings that excessive water exports of over 6 million acre feet of water per year have led to the decline and destruction of Delta fish species, the group questions the role of new "conveyance" - the peripheral canal - in solving the problem. 
 
"American Rivers maintains that new conveyance will only work with water conservation and efficiency measures on a scale that has not yet been set in place in California," said Barrigan-Parrilla. "We fear that the planning process that has been set in place (the Bay Delta Conservation Plan) has skipped over putting such conservation programs into place as well as addressing governance for the Delta. They have left out protection for Delta communities from the plan's desired outcomes." 
 
"The question at this point in time should not be from where water should be taken from the Delta. What needs to be answered now is how much fresh water should flow through the Delta for restoration of our fisheries and for improved water quality for Delta communities," stated Barrigan-Parrilla. 
 
In January, the Nature Conservancy, a national environmental organization, endorsed the peripheral canal. Let's hope that the American Rivers doesn't follow suit with an official endorsement of the canal in the near future. 
 
The report is funded by Orvis, the oldest mail order company in the US. 
 
Here is the list of this year's rivers: 
1. Sacramento-San Joaquin River System (CA) 
2. Flint River (GA) 
3. Lower Snake River (ID, OR, WA) 
4. Mattawoman Creek (MD) 
5. North Fork of the Flathead River (MT) 
6. Saluda River (SC) 
7. Laurel Hill Creek (PA) 
8. Beaver Creek (AK) 
9. Pascagoula River (MS) 
10. Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway (MN, WI) 
 To read the report online, go to the following link: http://www.AmericanRivers.org/EndangeredRivers