The lastest in the water wars..We're suing them....
The press release went out today...
Mike
POLITICS TRUMPS SCIENCE IN CALIFORNIA WATER MANAGEMENT
Government Study Ignores Serious Threats to Protected Salmon and Steelhead,
Lawsuit Says
Oakland, CA - A coalition of commercial and recreational fishing groups,
conservation organizations and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe filed suit in
federal court here today challenging government approval of a plan to
significantly change water management throughout the state.
The suit filed in the US District Court - Oakland is against the National
Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, also called NOAA Fisheries), and the US
Department of the Interior. It challenges an October 2004 biological opinion
concluding that the federal Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) and the state
Department of Water Resources (DWR) could strip away salmon habitat
protections and increase water exports without jeopardizing endangered
Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, threatened Central Valley
spring-run Chinook salmon, threatened Central Valley and Central California
Coast steelhead, and threatened Southern Oregon/Northern California Coast
coho salmon. The lawsuit also challenges the Bureau's long term operating
plan (called OCAP) for the federal Central Valley Project and State Water
Project due to the Bureau's failure to prepare an environmental impact
statement (EIS) on the plan.
Controversy over the NMFS opinion began well before its release and
continues today. An early draft leaked to the press found that the Bureau's
increased water exports would jeopardize multiple fish species, but this
conclusion was reversed in the final version. This flip-flop sparked a
Congressional investigation, and in July, the Dept. of Commerce's Office of
Inspector General issued a report finding that NMFS officials violated
procedural rules in reaching this conclusion and raising questions about the
integrity of the opinion. The Inspector General's report found that one of
the regional officials cut out of the review process said she would not have
signed off on the final document "because of her belief that there is a
basic disconnect between the scientific analysis and the conclusion."
"Exporting more water south is going to cause huge problems for the salmon
we have fought so hard to protect," said Mike Sherwood lead attorney from
Earthjustice, which is representing the organizations in the lawsuit. Added
Hal Candee, Senior Attorney and co-counsel from NRDC, "The biological
opinion's conclusions contradict its own findings in an obvious attempt to
conform with a preordained outcome. This is political science, not sound
science."
A recent letter from California State water and wildlife officials to State
Senator Mike Machado expressed concern about environmental impacts of the
plan. On May 17, 2005, the Directors of DWR and the California Department of
Fish and Game wrote that "the State anticipates increased impacts to
winter-run and spring-run Chinook will occur as a result of the changes in
water project operation and less stringent temperature compliance
requirements."
Central Valley salmon and steelhead depend on adequate water flows in the
rivers and through the Delta. They require cold water for successful
migration and reproduction. Government scientists who wrote the biological
opinion managed to include several key pieces of evidence in the document
showing that the proposed operational changes would eliminate crucial
spawning habitat and likely lead to temperature increases that would be
deadly to the fish.
The suit also comes against a backdrop of new state monitoring data showing
an unprecedented decline in a wide array of Delta fish species, including
threatened delta smelt and striped bass. Scientists note that record high
water exports have occurred in three of the last five years. A recent letter
from Rep. George Miller (Martinez) to Rep. Richard Pombo (Tracy) raises
questions about the health of the Delta due to water exports.
http://www.house.gov/georgemiller/pd...aterletter.pdf
"The Delta is already in crisis, the data are in," said Tina Swanson, Ph.D.,
Senior Scientist at the Bay Institute. "This biological opinion allows new
degradation of upstream habitats, including reversing protections we know
have helped salmon populations during the past ten years. This is not the
time to be adding to the already enormous stresses on the ecosystem and the
species that depend on it."
"Our brothers, the salmon, are already listed as endangered and threatened
due to the dams and their operating procedures," noted Gary Mulcahy of the
Winnemem Wintu Tribe, whose history and survival has been inextricably tied
to the salmon of the Central Valley. "This is not just a question of just
water, and fish. It is the basic question of life itself. We ask, how much
more 'no jeopardy' can the salmon withstand?"
"When political appointees manipulate the findings of government staff
scientists, we are all in trouble," said Zeke Grader of Pacific Coast
Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "The facts about the health of the
Delta and the fate of our fish are being papered over because certain
special interests have the ear of the Bush administration."
- 30 -
Media Contacts:
Mike Sherwood, Earthjustice 510-550-6725
Zeke Grader, PCFFA 415-561-5080
Hal Candee, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) 415-875-6100
Tina Swanson, Ph.D. The Bay Institute 510-756-9021, 415-272-4501
Bill Jennings, Baykeeper 209-464-5090
Doug Lovell, Northern California Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers,
510-520-3146
Steve Evans, Friends of the River 916-442-3155 x221
John Merz, Sacramento River Preservation Trust 530-345-1865
Gary Mulcahy, Winnemem Wintu Tribe 916-991-8493 or 916-214-8493 (cell)
Read the complaint online here:
http://www.earthjustice.org/news/doc...Pcomplaint.pdf
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