Calif.'s largest water delivery system shut off?

[Toliver]

"Calif.'s largest water delivery system 'endangered' "

California's largest water delivery system...will have to be shut down in 60 days, unless water officials comply with endangered species laws.

That ruling was given last Friday from a state judge in Oakland, and stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a sport-fishing group.

Wasco grower Jim Crettol said if enforced, the judges order to shut down state water project pumps would have a ripple effect on the farm.

"He is jeopardizing cities and farms from San Francisco to San Diego," said Crettol....

Am I being too optimistic to think it won't come down to shutting the water off?

If shut down, it would be crippling to half of the state, which is why I don't think it would be allowed to happen.

[Sam Salmon]

While sport fisherman who rely on the Delta for their livelihood are elated with the ruling, water officials in Kern County are reeling.

The article as written is full of inaccuracies like the one quoted above-the group that sued represents recreational sport fishermen, not commercial fishermen-as there is no commercial fishery on those endangered species.

All that's needed is to spend the money for technology to stop juvenile fish from being sucked into pumps and monitoring to ensure water levels remain at levels sufficient for fish to survive.

[andiesenji]

I doubt that this is going to happen. The consequences of enforcing this will affect several million California citizens, in comparision to a few thousand sport fishermen.

There are already wiers in place to keep anything larger than fry from being caught in the pumps, and oddly enough, fry survive their trips through the pumps and down the California aqueduct, which had numerous fishing sites along the way and some respectable-sized fish are taken from it every year.

Such as this beauty!

It appears the suit was brought and apparently progressed with less-than-adequate information or possibly with the deliberate witholding of information that would counter the argument.

The governer has filed an appeal and hopefully more complete documentation will be presentedd, according to some people who actually live in the delta area (and operate a large houseboat rental business). The fact that the suit was filed and heard before an Oakland judge, instead of in Sacramento area, appears suspect because a judge with better personal knowledge of the area would not have been so ready to order this action.

There have been far too many of these nuisance suits filed in California, with the action brought in a county or city far from the area involved.

here is some more detailed information about who, when and why.

Edited March 27, 2007 by andiesenji (log)

[Toliver]

It turns out that the state water pumps have been shut off by court order afterall:

"Pumps shut off to save smelt"

The California Department of Water Resources turned off the massive Delta pumps that deliver water to 25 million people Thursday to protect a tiny fish that is plunging toward extinction.

For now, state water officials said the shutdown is likely to be in place for seven to 10 days.

Water agencies throughout California were generally supportive of the state's short-term pumping restriction but said they were worried that a prolonged shutdown — or more frequent shutdowns in the future — could cause shortages for residents and farms. Most will draw on water stored for droughts.

It's not as if Southern California has large reserves of stored water to beign with. Yearly rain totals for the last couple of years have been below normal.

The impact on agriculture/farms in the state remains a large question mark.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

They only need to turn off the pumps until the smelt move downriver from the pumps... and that happens as soon as the water starts to warm up some.

[Toliver]

And it apparently has.

In the news today they think the smelt have moved far enough away from the pumps that two of the pumps will turned back on, if they haven't been turned on already as I write this.

How do they know the smelt have moved away? They're rather small fish, I imagine they're difficult to see from above water. Underwater cameras?

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

The river isn't terribly deep, and they probably have someone in a boat with a net near the pumps to check the population of smelt.

It's been in the high 90s, low 100s in the area this week, doesn't surprise me that the smelt are moving to cooler water. Previous week we were in the mid to high 80s.