Bush Administration Rams through Plan to Export More Northern California Water

State And Federal Government Rush Plan To Increase Delta Diversions

By Dan Bacher

The state and federal governments are attempting to rush through a complex plan that would expand the pumping capacity of the Delta pumps, paving the way for ship more northern California water  south to the Westlands Water District and Southern California.

The  National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency supposedly responsible for protecting endangered salmon and steelhead, gave its approval to the plan by releasing a final report on Friday, October 22. Last month the Bush administration ordered an earlier version of the federal agency’s report rewritten because the draft document said increased diversions would threaten salmon and steelhead recovery.

Environmental, fishermen’s groups and Indian tribes argued during two public meetings in Sacramento held jointly by state and federal agencies in Sacramento on October 7 and October 12 that the Operations Criteria and Plan (OCAP) would spell doom for salmon, steelhead and other fish now recovering from years of massive water diversions and habitat degradation.

“Kiss Northern California rivers goodbye if the state and federal agencies get the plumbing in place to suck more water out of the Delta,” said Steve Evans Conservation Director of Friends of the River. “Already, water exports are killing salmon and poisoning water in upstream rivers and the Delta. Increasing diversions will only add to the problem, while subsidizing corporate cotton growers in the San Joaquin Valley and urban sprawl in Southern California.”

The public meetings appear to be “dog and pony shows” masquerading as attempts to provide “information” and get “public input” when the real decisions have already been largely made behind the scenes in backroom secret agreements like last year’s “Napa Agreement.

The state Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the federal Bureau of Reclamation plan to integrate their parallel storage and pumping facilities and sign 25 to 40 year contracts with San Joaquin Valley irrigation districts and municipal water districts.

The Bureau and DWR are seeking immediate approval to begin implementing the water deal, in spite of criticism by 15 representatives, led by Congressman George Miller, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein, that not enough public involvement or oversight was included. The Bureau , DWR and a few favored water districts developed the joint-state federal plan away from public scrutiny, excluding Indian tribes, fishermen’s organizations and environmental groups from the process.

Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, at the October 7 meeting referred to an explosive Sacramento Bee report where NOAA Fisheries biologists were ordered to revise a draft biological opinion to be less protective of winter run chinooks. He asked the Bureau’s Chet Bowling whether he knew of any political interference with the OCAP biological opinion and whether the report would be peer reviewed.

“I don’t have personal information on that,” Bowling responded.

When Gary Hayward Mulcahy of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe questioned whether the expansion of Shasta Dam was being considered under the biological opinion, Bowling said it wasn’t on the table in the OCAP review process.

“This is a life and death issue for our tribe, since the raising of the dam would flood several of our sacred sites,” said Mulcahy. “The raising of Shasta Dam is a key component of the expansion of the storage capacity of the state and federal projects. When I bring this up at a meeting, they say we can talk about one piece of the plan but not another. The problem is that you can’t talk about one piece of the plan without talking about the other. And all of this plan is contingent on Shasta Dam being raised to provide more capacity for water storage.”

And when I asked a federal biologist how the Bureau of Reclamation’s OCAP process was going to deal the extensive pre-spawning salmon mortality in the American River (181,709 over the past three years) because of low, warm water, he responded that fishermen were catching less fish in the ocean and too many fish were moving in to the river for the available habitat.

In a press conference at Discovery Park on October 12, representatives from environmental and fishing organizations and Indian Tribes vigorously attacked the OCAP process. One of the problems about OCPA is that it is very hard to get a straight answer on how much water will be actually exported.

In an interview with Bob Simms of KFBK Radio, a Bureau of Reclamation official, Jeff McCracken, contended that the water exported by the federal government through 2020 would be actually less than it is now. Environmental groups argue that the Bureau and state are practicing a “shell game’ where the amount of water they claim is destined for export is different, depending upon whom they're talking to.

According to Barry Nelson, policy analyst of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Bureau is operating two different sets of books. “They told the fish agencies that just under 700,000 acre feet of water – 61 percent of capacity, will be diverted. At the same time, they have told Westlands Water District in their 12 a pricing documents that they will give them 100 percent of their deliveries, 1,100,000 acre feet of water,” he stated.

Nelson said the plan proposes to export 600,000 additional acre-feet of water under the Napa Agreement. This is separate from proposed transfers within the system.

“OCAP provides for a massive increase in Delta diversions,” said Nelson. “They are turning Calved into a sham. CalFed was intended to develop balanced solutions in an open process. The Napa Deal and OCAP are a huge step backward.”

Zeke Grader said now is a good time to actually reduce water diversions, rather than signing new long-term water contracts that provide for more diversions. Grader emphasized that Central Valley salmon provide 90 percent of the salmon caught commercially and recreationally off the California coast, as well as a large percentage of fish taken off Oregon and Washington.

“The Bureau of Reclamation and agribusiness are trying to bring to the Bay-Delta the same style of management that led to disasters on the Columbia, Klamath and Trinity Rivers, ignoring science while deal-making in smoke filled rooms,” he stated.

The subversion of science, the exclusion of the public from the real decisions regarding their public trust resources and the favoring of agribusiness over other water users smacks of political corruption and deal making at its worst.

“It appears that the agencies are taking their marching orders from the Bush administration,” said Christina Swanson, fisheries biologist for the Bay Institute. “If they don’t like the scientist’s finding, they simply sweep the data under the rug.”

And restoring water to rivers like the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam, as ordered under a recent federal court decision, seems even more improbable with an increase in water exports.  "There are five year old catfish in the San Joaquin below Friant that haven't learned how to swim yet," quipped John Banks of the California Striped Bass Association.

The OCAP process is clearly yet another example of political science triumphing over natural science – and the fish, Indian tribes, recreational anglers and commercial fishermen are all losing. Everybody concerned about this blatant water grab should send a letter immediately to their Congressman and Senators asking them to suspend the water contract process until the public has more real input into the OCAP Process.