Conservation News
Items of Interest
Submitted by Dougald Scott
Items of Interest
Submitted by Dougald Scott
* Judge Orders State: Stop Killing Delta Fish
Excerpted from SF Chronicle 3/24/07, written by Glen Martin
The pumps that send water to 24 million Californians illegally kill endangered and threatened fish species and must be shut down, an Alameda County judge has decided. The judge's draft decision, released Friday, is far-reaching in scope, but nobody expects immediate rationing in the areas that receive the water -- the East Bay, the South Bay and Southern California. Judge Frank Roesch gave the state 60 days to figure out a way to comply with the law.
Ultimately, the state Department of Water Resources could be forced to radically change the way it allocates water via a complicated set of canals and reservoirs known as the State Water Project. Changes could mean more water for the beleaguered Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and less for municipalities and Central Valley farms. At a minimum, complying with the judge's decision will force the state water agency to obtain a permit from the California Department of Fish and Game allowing the "incidental" killing of delta smelt and chinook salmon at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant near Tracy as well as to develop a plan to aid in the recovery of the protected fish.
Roesch's ruling was in response to a 2006 lawsuit over the killing of the fish. The suit was filed by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance against the California Resources Agency, which oversees the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Project. "This was a bell ringer," said Bill Jennings, the executive director of the Alliance, a confederation of anglers based in Stockton. "We have a real likelihood now that the delta will receive more water," he said. Jennings said that the Water Resources Department ignored the California Endangered Species Act and state Fish and Game codes in operating its pumps, which have ground up large numbers of fish.
* Coho Reported in Soquel Creek
Local fisheries biologist Don Alley reports that he was notified of a fish caught in Soquel Creek in early March that appeared to be a young coho salmon. According to Alley, the reporter was "a very experienced fisherman and has probably handled hundreds of adult steelhead and salmon in his life. When he caught this fish, he knew it was something unusual. From its color, brown to bronze, and the dark grey to black gums on the lower jaw, it appeared to be a young coho salmon. The fish was 16-18 inches long with a modestly hooked jaw. Alley goes on to state "the last reliable report of coho in Soquel Creek that I know of was in 1992. This is late in the spawning season for coho, but the rains have come late this year. Elsewhere in the county, they are seeing very few coho this year."
* Valencia Creek Migration Barrier to Be Removed
Based on "State's vanishing fish gets a lift in Aptos," By Roger Sidemanm, Santa Cruz Sentinel
A migration barrier to steelhead in Valencia Creek will be removed this summer. The project at the Soquel Drive over-crossing of Valencia Creek will help to reopen about five miles of habitat that have been blocked to migrating steelhead since 1985. It involves retrofitting an 80-year-old culvert, and reconstruction of a broken fish ladder. The present culvert and fish ladder are considered a complete barrier to migrating adult steelhead.
Valencia Creek is the southernmost boundary for the Central California Coast Distinct Population Segment (DPS) of steelhead. Steelhead in this DPS are listed as "threatened" under the federal Endangered Species Act, and have suffered such a steep decline that their status will likely be downgraded to "endangered," according to a report by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The South-Central California Coast steelhead DPS begins in the Parjaro River watershed, and is also listed as "threatenedÓ with a likely downgrade to Òendangered."
The project was approved by the county Board of Supervisors, and construction is set to begin July 1. About 15 other countywide projects to remove fish barriers and improve water quality are either in the works or have been recently completed under a four-year, multi-mullion dollar effort, which is known as the Integrated Watershed Restoration Program (http://iwrp.sccrcd.org/).
Another top priority project was completed farther up Valencia Creek last summer, where an old culvert was rebuilt to make it easier for the fish to swim upstream. Other fish passage projects are scheduled for this summer on the San Lorenzo River and Corralitos Creek. "These projects in isolation are probably not a big deal, but we're trying to make a small dent in a bigger cumulative problem up and down the coast," said Jim Robbins, project coordinator with the Integrated Watershed Restoration Program.
Spawning steelhead typically run up area waterways between January and May, and the Valencia Creek project, set to be completed in September, is timed to cause the least disturbance. Funding for the project comes from Proposition 40, a state bond measure passed by voters in 2002 to support clean air and water, neighborhood parks and coastal protection.