Judge invalidates study finding no harm to salmon

By Julia Cheever

April 17, 2008

A federal judge in Fresno Wednesday invalidated a biological study that concluded a plan to pump more water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta wouldn’t hurt Chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger said the National Marine Fisheries Service failed to consider the effects of global warming as well its own findings that expanded pumping would further reduce fish populations.

The agency’s biological opinion, prepared in 2004, had concluded that spring-run and winter-run Chinook salmon and steelhead trout would not be jeopardized by the pumping.

But the judge said that conclusion was “inconsistent, if not irreconcilable” with the study’s findings of further losses of juvenile fish.

The study would have opened the way for increased pumping of delta water by the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project.

The two projects are the largest federal and state water programs in the nation. Most of the water is used for agriculture in the Central Valley and some goes to municipalities in Southern California.

The judge stopped short of limiting future pumping, but set a hearing on April 25 to consider possible interim remedies until the fisheries service completes a new biological opinion in December.

The winter-run Chinook salmon are federally listed as an endangered species and the spring-run Chinook and steelhead trout are threatened species.

The fish hatch in streams and rivers and migrate through the delta to the ocean to feed and grow before returning to their native rivers to spawn.

Earthjustice, an environmental law firm representing conservation and fishing groups in the case, said a large number of juvenile fish migrating to the ocean are sucked in and destroyed by the delta pumps.

Representatives of environmental groups that challenged the study said the ruling could help preserve delta water quality as well as the fish.

Bay Institute biologist Christina Swanson said, “Ecological collapse in our rivers and in the delta is not just bad for fish, it’s bad for the millions of people who depend on delta water for farming and drinking.”

San Francisco Baykeeper program director Sejal Choksi said, “Today’s ruling is a huge step forward in restoring our delta to a healthy state.”

Sherwood said, “This ruling makes it clear that there are biological limits to the amount of water we can export south.”

Defendants in the case included the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the fisheries service and their parent agencies, the departments of interior and commerce.

Bureau of Reclamation spokesman Jeff McCracken said, “This is a very lengthy and complex decision that our attorneys are in the process of reviewing. The decision has no immediate impact on our operations.”

Fisheries service spokesman Jim Milbury said he hadn’t studied the ruling, but said the agency was already working on the revised opinion and had agreed that global warming should be taken into account.

In a related case, Wanger ruled last year that a separate biological study prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the effects of expanded pumping on the delta smelt was inadequate.

In another development, the Pacific Fishery Management Council called last week for cancellation of this year’s salmon fishing season in federal offshore waters because of a record decline in spawning of fall-run Chinook salmon. The fall-run salmon are not listed as endangered or threatened.

The council said the reasons for the collapse of the fall-run fishery were unclear, but ocean temperature changes may have played a role along with several other human-caused and natural factors.

FCJ Editor

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