State Urges Feds to Relax Delta Smelt Protections

by Dan Bacher, editor of the FishSnifffer
May 12, 2009 -- A recent petition by the Scharzenegger administration to relax federal rules protecting Delta smelt is shaping up to be a key test of whether the Obama administration will stand firm in the implementation of a court-ordered biological opinion aiming to restore the imperiled fish. 
 
In an attempt to weaken federal rules protecting the endangered Delta smelt, Lester Snow, Director of California Department of Water Resources, formally requested the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on May 7 to reinitiate consultation with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regarding state and federal water project pumping operations on the California Delta. The massive pumps have exported record amounts of water out of the estuary in recent years. 
 
Snow, in a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, claimed that freshwater flows to protect the smelt may not be necessary in the light of the recent discovery of a Delta smelt population at Liberty Island that is supposedly "unaffected" by State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) operations. The Delta smelt biological opinion issued on December 15 ordered restrictions on Delta water export pumping during wet years to protect the tiny fish during the fall spawning season. 
 
"There is new information that shows there are better ways to protect Delta smelt that also better protect water supply," said Snow. "The current biological opinion contains conditions which have a high degree of scientific uncertainty for the level of protection they provide, but these conditions have significant water supply impacts for California." 
 
Snow tried to dismiss State Water Project (SWP) operations as just one factor among many in the decline of the smelt. "The impact of the SWP as one factor influencing the Delta cannot be assessed without assessing the relative impact of other stressors: radical changes in species operations and food chain relationships, urban wastewater discharges, pesticide discharges and harvest practices." 
 
Snow also criticized the "Fall Measure X2 Provision," a provision for freshwater flows through the Delta that he said "significantly limits SWP operations and the Department's ability to store water in Oroville Dam." 
 
"In particular, the propriety of the provision should be reevaluated in light of the recent Liberty Island research, which revealed the existence of a Delta smelt population that is separate from the population addressed in the BO and which is unaffected by SWP and CVP operations," said Snow. "This population suggests that Delta smelt are less susceptible to a catastrophic event than previously thought and that increasing Delta smelt habitat south of Collinsville through the Fall Measure X2 Provision is not necessary." 
 
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not responded to Snow yet. "We're developing a response in coordination with the Bureau of Reclamation and we don't have a time line set for our response yet," said Steve Martarano, spokesman for the Service. 
 
However, Martarano pointed out that smelt actions taken because of the biological opinion in 2009 have impacted less than 2 percent of the water delivered through the federal project pumps. He also that he didn't anticipate any fall actions under the opinion this year because they are taken only in "wetter than normal" years. 
 
The Service is currently reviewing whether to upgrade the Delta smelt's listing from "threatened" to "endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). 
 
Environmental groups strongly criticized the Schwarzenegger administration's attempt to weaken flow standards - and expressed strong support for the biological opinion (BO) as written. 
 
Doug Obegi of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Gary Bobker of The Bay Institute, in a letter to the Service and Reclamation, 
emphasized that the current BO is based "on the best available science." "The BO underwent three separate peer reviews, which generally found that the effects analysis and proposed actions were based on the best available science and the Service modified the BO in response to those reviews," said Obegi and Bobker. 
 
"NRDC and others in the environmental community view the attempt to initiate consultation now as an attempt to politicize science and undermine existing environmental protections for delta smelt and other species," Obegi and Bobker stated. "We know of no valid reason for reinitiating consultation now. Reinitiation would require extensive duplication of staff time and scarce budgetary resources, which could be better used implementing the BO and addressing other stressors on the system, like water pollution." 
 
I totally agree. The request by the Schwarzenegger administration to reinitiate consultation with the federal government over protections for Delta smelt is outrageous in light on the continuing collapse of Central Valley Chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other fish populations of the Bay-Delta Estuary. This is the same administration that is relentlessly pushing for a peripheral canal and more dams in order to increase water exports to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California, a move that is expected to worsen the already deplorable state of northern California fisheries. 
 
We must do everything we can to stop Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Department of Water Resources and Senator Diane Feinstein from making the California Delta into a "fish-free" zone by building a peripheral canal. We must also keep pressure on the Obama administration to make sure that the federal agencies don't cave into the odious request from Lester Snow to strip badly needed regulations protecting Delta smelt.