State and Feds Release New Biological Assessment of Delta Tunnels Plan

On August 2, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) released their revised biological assessment for the California WaterFix, Governor Jerry Brown’s controversial Delta Tunnels project, claiming that the plan “minimizes potential effects on listed species.”

The agencies submitted the detailed documents to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to begin the formal consultation process under Section 7 of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA), a process that will determine whether the controversial tunnels plan would violate the ESA because of negative impacts on listed fish and wildlife species.

The documents were released at a time that the State Water Resources Control Board is holding hearings in Sacramento regarding the permit request by DWR and Reclamation to change the points of water diversions on the Sacramento River, as proposed under the California WaterFix. The hearings are expected to last for six months.

“The goal of WaterFix is to balance the needs of California residents with the needs of Delta fish and wildlife,” the California Department of Water Resources claimed in a statement. “This biological assessment articulates how WaterFix would be operated to meet the needs of endangered species.”

A biological assessment is required to obtain “incidental take” authorization of endangered and threatened species, including Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt and green sturgeon, under the landmark ESA.

DWR explained, “The document presents an assessment of effects on listed species and their designated critical habitats, due to any component of the project, including construction-related activities, or as a result of operations and maintenance. The biological assessment also proposes mitigation, monitoring, adaptive management, and other actions DWR and Reclamation may take to ensure that California WaterFix will avoid, minimize, or compensate for the potential impacts resulting from incidental take of listed species or Critical habitat loss.”

If NMFS and USFWS accept the consultation request, they will then make a determination related to the project’s potential jeopardy to species. They then may issue a biological opinion reflecting this determination, according to DWR.

DWR said the biological assessment presents a “species-by-species analysis” of the project’s potential effects and must make a ”likely to adversely affect” determination for each federally listed species even when the impacts are small – potential harm to one fish, for example – or “nearly negligible,” and notwithstanding the fact that the overall project effect to that particular species may be beneficial.
Click here for the complete biological assessment, appendices, and figures: http://cms.capitoltechsolutions.com/ClientData/CaliforniaWaterFix/uploads/FIX_BA_TOC_V8.pdf

Opponents of the project are currently reviewing the environmental assessment. In reaction to the new document, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, said:

“While we are still working through the document, it is clear the increased presence of toxic algal blooms will be a threat to species, and, thus, public health. As it has been every step of the way, the devil is in the details. What the Brown Administration sells as solutions through public relations ends up being a no pass when it comes to real science. We will keep the public up to date on our findings.”

To date, virtually every scientific panel that has reviewed previous environmental documents for the Delta Tunnels plan, ranging from the Delta Independent Science Board to federal Environmental Protection Agency (ESA) scientists, has strongly criticized the badly flawed “science” the project is based upon.

The EPA diagnosis, released on August 30, 2014, revealed that operating the proposed conveyance facilities “would contribute to increased and persistent violations of water quality standards in the Delta, set under the Clean Water Act,” and that the tunnels “would not protect beneficial uses for aquatic life, thereby violating the Clean Water Act.” (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/8/30/1325955/-Tunnel-opponents-applaud-EPA-s-scathing-comment-letter)

The previous incarnation of the Delta Tunnels plan, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), “was doomed from the beginning because it was conceived on the fatal premise that you can restore an estuary hemorrhaging from a lack of flow by depriving it of another 2.5 million acre-feet of flow,” said Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), at the time.

The agencies released the assessment as a number of fish species, including Delta and longfin smelt, winter-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and green sturgeon, are moving closer and closer to the abyss of extinction, due to water mismanagement by the state and federal agencies. While there are a number of factors in the decline, the number one cause behind the ecosystem collapse is massive water exports to corporate agribusiness interests and Southern California water agencies through the state and federal Delta pumping facilities, according to public trust advocates.

The Delta smelt collapse is part of an overall ecosystem decline driven by water diversions by the federal and state water projects. The CDFW’s 2015 Fall Midwater Trawl demonstrates that, since 1967, populations of striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 98.3, 99.9, 97.7, 98.5 and 93.7 percent, respectively, according to Bill Jennings.