By Mark
Grossi, The Fresno Bee
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Valley farmers and environmentalists are feuding again over a 3-inch fish.
The stakes in the fight: irrigation water for 2 million acres of San
Joaquin Valley farmland and the health of the West Coast's biggest estuary where
California's two longest rivers meet.
It is the latest chapter in a saga
dating back to the early 1990s, when authorities began cutting water deliveries
for multibillion-dollar west Valley agriculture to protect the tiny, dwindling
fish, called delta smelt.
The fish lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta, the biggest water supply hub in the state, pumping billions of
gallons of river water for agriculture and 22 million Southern Californians.
The pumping has been curtailed periodically for years when the fish are
nearby the huge south delta pumps.
And for years, farmers and
environmentalists have argued over the process of protecting the smelt, a
threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
Now, the smelt
population has hit its lowest levels ever recorded, and the explanation of the
crash remains elusive despite years of research.
Another population of
fish, threadfin shad, is dwindling, too.
The state Department of Fish
and Game has launched an expansive, $2 million study as fears rise about the
future of the delta.
Farmers and environmentalists quickly staked out
their positions again.
West Valley farmers, who say they have paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars to replace lost irrigation water, maintain
research does not show water pumping is harming the fish. Environmentalists
blame the smelt's decline on record water pumping from the delta in the past few
years.
"It's a scientific fact that the pumping is connected to the
delta smelt decline," says analyst Barry Nelson of the Natural Resources Defense
Council. "There has been record pumping. We welcome this investigation."
The Natural Resources Defense Council is leading a campaign to delay a
long-anticipated program called the South Delta Improvement Project, which would
increase water pumping capacity.
Farmers reacted by writing to Gov.
Schwarzenegger, arguing for the increased pumping. Research points to a loss in
food and pollution as culprits in the smelt's decline, says Thomas Birmingham,
general manager of Westlands Water District, a 600,000-acre district based in
west Fresno County.
"It's not pumping," he says. "After all the money
and time spent on research in the last 15 years, we think it is absolutely time
to find out what's going on. The focus is always shutting down the pumps, but it
obviously has done nothing to return the species."
Birmingham says the
South Delta Improvement Project would help protect fish.
"It provides
more flexibility," he says. "The pumps can be shut down whenever there's a need.
But with the added capacity, pumping can be increased when the fish are not
present. It provides more protection for fish and allows contractors south of
the delta to get the water they need at other times."
Rep. George
Miller, a longtime defender of the delta, wrote a letter last week to leaders of
the House Committee on Resources asking for a hearing on the fish decline.
"We have an obligation to find out what happened, impose accountability
and design appropriate solutions -- for the benefit of all those in California
who depend on the health of the delta," wrote Miller, D-Concord.
Fish
and Game officials will not be drawn into the argument. Chuck Armor, operations
manager of the Central Valley and Bay-Delta branch, says the $2 million study
will look into pollution, invading species, food availability as well as flow
issues, including water pumping.
"The delta is really a dynamic place,"
he says. "We got more water from the San Joaquin this year than we normally get.
What effects did that have?"
At 738,000 acres, the delta is almost the
size of Yosemite National Park. The area is laced with 57 islands and 700 miles
of meandering sloughs and canals. Aside from the flows of the two major rivers,
the rising and falling tides of the Pacific Ocean have a powerful effect on the
delta, research shows.
Ship ports, farmland, industry, marinas and a
population of about 500,000 people add complexity to the ecosystem. Ocean-going
ships, for instance, have brought exotic species into the delta.
West
Valley farmers have paid an environmental scientist, B.J. Miller, for years to
follow the delta research and developments. Miller says the statistics show no
relationship between pumping and the abundance of smelt.
"But there is a
relationship between their food, a zooplankton called Pseudodiaptomus forbesi,
and their abundance," he says. "The zooplankton -- their food source -- has
bottomed out. Nobody is disputing this."
Scientists suspect a toxic
algae, called Microcystis aeruginosa, could be affecting the zooplankton.
Fishing groups and environmentalists point out that three of the past
five years have set records for pumping. When the massive pumps are running in
the south delta, they can change the direction of river flow, scientists say.
About 7 million acre-feet of water annually are pumped from the delta.
Each acre-foot -- 326,000 gallons or a 12- to 18-month supply for a household --
is monitored by an armada of government agencies, farm groups, Southern
California leaders, fishing groups and environmentalists.
Nelson with
the Natural Resources Defense Council says farmers have undermined delta
restoration with court challenges that have reduced the amount of fresh water
available for cleansing flows.
"If you saw a decrease in pumping and a
decrease in the smelt population, then they might be right about the pumps
having no effect," Nelson says. "But there's no credible debate about it, and
there hasn't been for decades. If the pumping increases, people should expect
the collapse of the delta to get worse."
Bee reporter Jennifer Fitzenberger contributed to this report. The reporters can be reached at mgrossi@fresnobee.com, jfitzenberger@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6330.
© 2005, The Fresno Bee
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