Water board chief admits he was 'just wrong’

It is rare when a public official admits when he/she does something wrong. It's even rarer when a state water official serving the administration of Governor Jerry Brown admits they did something wrong.

But that's exactly what happened in Sacramento on Wednesday, February 18, when Tom Howard, executive director of the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), the controversial agency overseeing California water, claimed he was “mistaken” last year when he approved emergency actions that harmed imperiled Delta smelt, Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon and other fish species.

"At a 12-hour hearing in Sacramento on Wednesday, Tom Howard, executive officer of the State Water Resources Control Board, made clear the impact of the severe drought on people," according to Alex Breitler in the Stockton Record on February 19. (http://www.recordnet.com/article/20150219/NEWS/150219563)

"But he also said he was 'just wrong' when he concluded last year that temporarily changing the rules to keep more water in reservoirs would not cause unreasonable harm to the environment. Despite that admission, Howard approved many of the same emergency changes this year, such as reducing flows through the Delta to hold back more water in upstream reservoirs," Breitler said.

"He denied, however, a request by state and federal water agencies to also increase water exports from the south Delta under certain conditions. Wednesday’s meeting was to gather comments on that decision and other aspects of the emergency rule changes," noted Breitler.

Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), responded to the water official's "mea culpa" by pointing out the hypocrisy of Howard making his admission while proposing to do the same thing again.

"He admitted he was wrong last year in assessing the impacts to fish - and so now he is proposing to do it again," said Jennings.

In his presentation to the water board, Jennings pointed out how the water board's decisions in 2013 and 2014 have brought Delta smelt and other fish species to the edge of extinction. (http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2015/02/21/cspa_jennings_tucp_presentation.pdf)

"In early 2013, we predicted what would happen if the Board failed to enforce standards," said Jennings. "The result? In the fall midwater trawl survey, Delta smelt abundance dropped by 57%, striped bass by 44%, and salmon were hammered."

"In early 2014, we predicted what would happen if you adopted the TUCP (Temporary Urgency Change Petition)," Jennings told the board. "The result? Delta smelt dropped another 50% (and the spring Kodiak survey by 84%) longfin smelt dropped by 90%, and 95% percent of the winter-run Chinook salmon were killed."

"Today, we're telling you that, if the TUCP is adopted, disaster is likely as species may be pushed over the brink into a death-spiral of extinction," Jennings warned.

Environmentalists, fishermen, Delta residents, water agency officials, growers and farmworkers packed the hearing room into the evening. A public comment period followed reports by agency and water board staff, elected officials and panels made up of growers, the Friant Water Authority users, the water contractors, San Joaquin County and Delta interests, and environmental NGOs.

Jennings spoke on the first environmental NGO panel including the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), AquaAlliance and Restore the Delta. Representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Bay Institute spoke on the second environmental NGO panel.

The board made no decision at the hearing, since its purpose was to gather information and public comment to advise issuing an order. Board members indicated at the end of the hearing that they wanted more information before issuing an order, perhaps in March.

For complete coverage of the hearing, go to: http://us3.campaign-archive2.com/?u=06887fa70084fef8e939fef63&id=9201e548e3&e=120d0c2b69

Fishermen, Delta leaders protest plan to exterminate salmon

On Tuesday afternoon, Delta fishermen and community leaders held a news conference outside the State Water Resources Control Board meeting and announced they have filed protests against the Board for its January 27, 2015 Notice of Temporary Change Petitions (TUCP). They said granting the petitions will weaken Delta outflow and water quality standards to the point of extinction for Delta smelt and winter-run Chinook salmon this year.

You can listen to an audio of the conference at: http://bit.ly/1L8cnyB

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, said, “The State Water Resources Control Board is in a difficult position. The Westlands Water District and other powerful agribusiness interests are pushing to press the Water Board into giving them every last drop of water during this drought."

"Senator Feinstein and the usual list of Central Valley Congressional Reps are using their Federal positions to intrude on issues that are supposed to be settled at the State level – all for the benefit of these growers in three of California’s 58 drought stricken counties. Yet, the TUCP as written by the Water Board is suspending standards that were too weak to begin with to protect fisheries, putting coastal, and Bay-Delta fisheries at immediate risk," she stated.

According to Barrigan-Parrilla, the Board's action, "Lowered Delta outflow for purpose of managing the ecosystems and salinity control - bad for fish, good for invasive species, helps storage by reducing how much water the projects spend from upstream reservoirs to keep salt out of the Delta."

RTD's protest focuses on the following:

The public interest in this matter concerns the protection of fish species, salinity control in the Delta, water supplies, and ecosystem conditions that prioritize a Bay-Delta estuary that continues to be fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable in drought years as well as wet.

Droughts are recurrent and predictable weather patterns in California. Droughts are not emergencies, except when our water agencies fail to manage for their recurrence.

Current water quality objectives give a green light to the Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation to gamble that each water year will be normal to wet: they prioritize upstream storage for exports to south of Delta storage, resulting in a “beggar-thy-neighbor” competition pitting against each other exports, salinity control, fish protection, and ecosystem-protective outflows. Dry-year south of Delta export demands put the Board in the difficult role of a veritable God Squad with immediate power over the Delta’s endangered fish.

This situation is preventable and state and federal agencies failed to prevent it.

Water rights attorney and C-WIN Board Member Mike Jackson warned of the tremendous environmental and economic damage that would result from approval of the Temporary Urgency Change Petitions.

"Evidently after the Bureau of Reclamation’s killing of 95% of the endangered winter-run salmon last year, the Federal government has decided to propose a much worse water plan for 2015," said Jackson. "It’s a much more complicated plan, but if it is approved by the California Water Board it may send both the endangered salmon and Delta smelt to extinction. We will find out soon if the Governor’s office intervenes with the Water Board to help finish off the fish.”

“Once again, Senator Feinstein (D-Westlands) favors big agribusinesses on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley over the economic and environmental needs of the people who live in the Bay-Delta Estuary," said Jackson. "Commercial salmon fishing is a $1.5 billion economy, Delta farming a $5.2 billion economy, and of course there are the millions of people who live in communities surrounding the estuary. With this drought, we are poised to lose Delta smelt, Winter-run salmon, and steelhead as these fisheries are collapsing."

"Where is Senator Feinstein's concern for the people of the estuary?” Jackson asked.

Just blocks away, record low numbers of steelhead show...

The board meeting took place as just blocks away, the worst-ever run of steelhead continued to trickle into the American River, Sacramento's imperiled urban jewel.

The Nimbus Fish Hatchery in Rancho Cordova has trapped a total of only 111 fish to date. In a good year, the hatchery would have already trapped thousands of steelhead.

The previous record low was 200 steelhead in the early 1990s, but this run looks like it will be well below that disastrous return. The peak of the run is over and increasingly fewer fish are expected to return to the hatchery while the ladder remains open.

During 2013 and early 2014, the Bureau of Reclamation drained Folsom to a record low level of 17 percent of capacity in order to export water to corporate agribusiness, Southern California water agencies and big oil companies. The Bureau did this in spite of it being a record drought year. Nimbus Dam releases were reduced to 500 cfs during most of the steelhead season last year.

“The steelhead died for a noble cause - almonds," quipped CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings.

“The reason why American River steelhead are in collapse is the same reason why Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass and other fish are down to less than 1 percent of their historic levels – overpumping of Delta water,” said Jennings.

For more information about the collapse of American River steelhead, go to:http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/02/19/18768785.php