Delta Smelt Fish

Nine environmentalist and scientific groups demanded on Thursday that the U.S. Interior Department decide whether to declare the delta smelt an endangered species, and threatened to sue if the decision is delayed further. In the letter to the Interior Department, lawyer Michael Sherwood of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund pointed out that the deadline for making the decision came and went two weeks ago.

Any hope that a panel of scientists would end the brawl over environmental restrictions in the hub of California's water system evaporated as warring factions each found ammunition in a report released Friday. Charged with evaluating the basis of federal fish protections that are limiting the pumping of water supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the National Academy of Sciences committee concluded the protections were on the whole scientifically justified. "In no case did we say these did not have a scientific underpinning," said committee chairman Robert Huggett, professor emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences at the College of William and Mary.

Any hope that a panel of scientists would end the brawl over environmental restrictions in the hub of California's water system evaporated as warring factions each found ammunition in a report released Friday. Charged with evaluating the basis of federal fish protections that are limiting the pumping of water supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the National Academy of Sciences committee concluded the protections were on the whole scientifically justified. "In no case did we say these did not have a scientific underpinning," said committee chairman Robert Huggett, professor emeritus at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences at the College of William and Mary.

A National Academy of Sciences panel has concluded that the much-disputed fish protections that have curbed water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California are scientifically justified. The findings, contained in a report that will be released Friday, largely validate environmental actions taken by two federal agencies to save the imperiled delta smelt and protect declining populations of salmon that migrate through the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. The protections, imposed under the federal Endangered Species Act, have recently grown stricter, compounding water shortages stemming from the state's three-year drought.

A National Academy of Sciences panel has concluded that the much-disputed fish protections that have curbed water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California are scientifically justified. The findings, contained in a report that will be released Friday, largely validate environmental actions taken by two federal agencies to save the imperiled delta smelt and protect declining populations of salmon that migrate through the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. The protections, imposed under the federal Endangered Species Act, have recently grown stricter, compounding water shortages stemming from the state's three-year drought.

A federal judge Friday rejected pleas from environmentalists to temporarily curb pumping of water exports from Northern California that they fear could push the endangered delta smelt closer to extinction. U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in Fresno sided with state and federal water managers, who contend that the tiny fish have in recent days moved out of harm's way, fleeing the massive pumps that ship water south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

A federal court order Friday will cut water exports to Southern California next year by up to a third in a bid to save a tiny fish teetering at the brink of extinction in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In an 11-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in Fresno said that the delta smelt -- an endangered fish that exists only in the sprawling estuary that is the hub of the state's water system -- is in "imminent peril" without swift action.

A powerful Northern California congressman and Sen. Alan Cranston have joined the fray over the tiny delta smelt in what could turn into a major battle over the creature's fate and the Endangered Species Act. In separate letters, Cranston and Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) called on Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. to decide whether to give the delta smelt Endangered Species Act protection without regard to the mounting political pressure.

Local agencies that buy and distribute State Water Project water have sued to delay a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision on whether the delta smelt should be protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento seeks to force Fish and Wildlife to turn over internal documents on which it based its yet-to-be announced recommendation. If a judge grants the request, the recommendation to be announced by Saturday would be postponed.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has delayed for about three weeks a decision on whether to designate the delta smelt, a tiny fish found in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, as a threatened or endangered species. The decision was scheduled for June 29 but more time is needed for staff reviews of the issue, an Interior Department spokesman said.

The big federal pumps that were cranked up over the weekend to send more Northern California water south will be turned down Thursday in the ongoing tug of war between water exports and fish protections. U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, who last week temporarily lifted pumping limits designed to protect migrating salmon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Wednesday declined to block similar curbs federal biologists say are necessary to save the imperiled delta smelt. That means the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will turn off one of the five pumps it uses to draw water from the delta east of San Francisco.

A federal court order Friday will cut water exports to Southern California next year by up to a third in a bid to save a tiny fish teetering at the brink of extinction in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In an 11-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in Fresno said that the delta smelt -- an endangered fish that exists only in the sprawling estuary that is the hub of the state's water system -- is in "imminent peril" without swift action.

A congressional panel warned Monday that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the state's key crossroads for water exports to Southern California, teeters on the verge of crisis. The panel, consisting of Democrats on the House Natural Resource Subcommittee on Water and Power, also called for swift action to address ecological problems plaguing the delta.

A federal judge Friday rejected pleas from environmentalists to temporarily curb pumping of water exports from Northern California that they fear could push the endangered delta smelt closer to extinction. U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger in Fresno sided with state and federal water managers, who contend that the tiny fish have in recent days moved out of harm's way, fleeing the massive pumps that ship water south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

To protect a tiny imperiled fish, state water officials Thursday turned off the huge pumps that send water to Southern California from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Water Resources Director Lester Snow said he hoped that the shutdown would last no more than seven to 10 days, adding that it should not hurt deliveries to most State Water Project customers. "People will have water. Nobody is going without water," Snow said. "We would not expect to see rationing."

Last summer, state fish and game workers dragged a net dozens of times through the milk-chocolate waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, looking for a tiny, steely blue fish found nowhere else in the world. The catch, 17 delta smelt, was shockingly small. Never in the nearly five decades that the state has monitored smelt in the sprawling delta, where two of the state's biggest rivers converge just east of San Francisco Bay, have their numbers been as dismal.

A top U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official has determined that the Delta smelt should be listed as a species "threatened" by extinction, rather than "endangered." The distinction, which overrules a proposal made by lower-ranked officials, would extend less protection to the small fish. Explaining his conclusion in a two-paragraph memo, Deputy Director Richard Smith said the smelt's population has been "relatively stable" for five years.

Environmentalists who won federal protection for the delta smelt returned to court Tuesday, seeking more Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fresh water for the tiny fish. Nine environmental and fishing organizations sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, claiming the smelt is being threatened with extinction because of inadequate water allocations in the government's 1994 protection plan.

A sudden, dramatic rise in the mortality of the threatened delta smelt has sounded a new alarm about the biological degradation of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay just a few months after a new plan was adopted to protect the tiny fish's fragile habitat. Last week, officials of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game began to find that smelt were dying at up to five times the maximum daily mortality rate the species can survive.