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CSPA Files Protests Over Illegal Water Transfers
by Dan Bacher
This has been a week jam-packed with news impacting the future of water and fish in the California Delta and Central Valley. Just days after Judge Wanger in Fresno issued a temporary injunction weakening protections for Delta smelt, the National Marine Fisheries Service released a biological opinion stating that the operation of the Central Valley and State Water projects pose jeopardy to Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales. In the latest battle in the water wars, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), a group that has relentlessly fought for fish and the environment for decades, has filed a series of protests with the State Water Resources Control Board over requests by Sacramento Valley water agencies and farmers for temporary changes in their water rights permits that would enable them to sell water for export to southern California. Water would be transferred through the Delta for export. Here is the latest news release from Bill Jennings, executive director of the CSPA: "The transfers threaten to further damage salmon, steelhead and Delta pelagic fisheries by increasing the amount of water pumped through the State Water Project (SWP) and the Central Valley Project (CVP) facilities in the south Delta," said Bill Jennings, executive director of CSPA. The water transfers are made possible by Governor Arnold Schwarzengger's false declaration of a "drought emergency" to facilitate water exports to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness at a time when Central Valley salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and the southern resident population of killer whales have decline to record low population levels, due to increases in water exports in recent years and a decline in water quality.