State and federal agencies cancel fall protections for endangered Delta Smelt

SACRAMENTO — The Delta Smelt, once the most abundant fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, is virtually extinct in the wild, due to massive water exports to agribusiness and other factors over the past several decades.

Zero smelt have been caught over the past six years in the California Department of Fish and Game’s Fall Midwater Trawl Survey.

In light of the Delta smelt's catastrophic decline, representatives of fishing and environmental groups on October 1 blasted the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) for cancelling the fall flow protections for the few remaining Delta Smelt.

October 1 is the date water managers use to mark the end of the dry season and the beginning of the wet.

Current state and federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) permits require DWR and Reclamation to release a pulse of water through the Delta to the San Francisco Bay in September and October to improve habitat conditions for the listed Delta Smelt, according to a statement from environmental and fishing groups. This fall outflow requirement is only triggered in years when it is wetter than normal and is often referred to as “Fall X2.”

The groups pointed out that some the state’s largest Delta water exporters wrote to the agencies in August, requesting the suspension of Fall X2, despite Delta Smelt populations collapsing to record low levels in recent years.

The broad coalition of environmental and fishing groups said Reclamation ignored them when they said that acquiescing to the water users would be the “next step towards extinction.” Instead, advocates said “they moved forward with cutting short one of the only actions that could help the imperiled species at this time of year.”

“The Fall X2 outflow action uses the bounty of a wetter year to provide a rare measure of relief and recuperation — colder water, more food for Delta fish, and better water quality,” the groups revealed.

They also said the massive pumping facilities operated by DWR’s State Water Project and Reclamation’s Central Valley Project are ramping back up to export even more water to San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness and Southern California water agencies.

The water operations are still largely operating under rules — a biological opinion — written by the Trump administration. The state and many environmental groups challenged the biological opinion because it ignored legal requirements and discarded the “best available science."

Reclamation and DWR accused of driving fish towards extinction

Representatives of the groups slammed DWR and Reclamation for putting the final nails in the coffin of the Delta Smelt.

“It is incredibly disappointing to see the Newsom and Biden administrations willing to implement Trump-era water policies,” said Ashley Overhouse, Water Policy Advisor with Defenders of Wildlife. “This decision marks a somber start to the new water year, undercutting years of collaborative work to ensure the best available science is informing our water management decisions.”

Gary Bobker, Senior Policy Director at Friends of the River, agreed with Overhouse.

”At this time next year, we may be looking at the extinction of a fish species that was once incredibly abundant when the Bay-Delta Estuary was healthy, and it will have been completely preventable, because we know a lot about what it takes to restore the Estuary’s health,” noted Bobker.

Fish advocates said the “best available science” indicates that a “variety of complementary actions” — such as improving summer and fall outflows, expanding tidal marsh habitat, and operating salinity control gates differently — "are all needed to prevent the Delta Smelt’s extinction. DWR and Reclamation are only prioritizing Smelt survival if it doesn’t involve using any water.”

“DWR and Reclamation conveniently neglected to propose improving summer outflow this year, an ‘adaptive management’ decision that would have scientific justification,” noted Eric Buescher, Managing Attorney with San Francisco Baykeeper. “Instead, they are quelling the October fall outflow action — and with it, possibly, the survival of Delta Smelt itself.”

Cancelling the fall flow action in 2024 marks the second consecutive year in which wet-year protections for fish have been waived, according to Chris Shutes, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

“The rules protecting fish only work when they are enforced,” said Shutes. “But adaptive mis-management is making the rules optional each time water contractors clamor for more water.”

Salmon, steelhead and other fish are in deep trouble also

Smelt aren’t the only fish species in trouble, advocates point out.

“DWR and Reclamation have killed countless steelhead and salmon on several occasions in 2024, exceeding the legal limits of their ESA permits,” the groups said.

“The last two years recorded some of the lowest numbers of spawning salmon ever in the Sacramento River. Central Valley fall-run Chinook Salmon numbers are so low that it required two closures in a row of the California coastal salmon fishing season, threatening tens of thousands of California and coastal Oregon salmon fishing jobs,” they added.

In response to the agencies decision to change Delta operations, Scott Artis, Executive Director of the Golden State Salmon Association stated: “For the salmon fishing industry, this decision is infuriating. Years of reckless water project operations have in turn severely impacted the lives of our communities that depend on healthy salmon runs.”

“Fish like salmon and Delta Smelt are our ‘canary in the coal mine.’ When will the agencies realize they are jeopardizing our future? They slashed protections for fish during the drought. Now they’re doing the same in a wet year. They are preparing to permanently exacerbate conditions for salmon with new ESA permits that are even worse than those adopted under the Trump administration,” he argued.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director for Restore the Delta, concluded, “Once again, government agencies are changing the rules to weaken Delta protections for powerful special economic interests, rather than striving to save the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas for the people.”

Water Contractors are “extremely pleased”

On the other hand, Jennifer Pierre, General Manager of the State Water Contractors, said her organization was “extremely pleased with the decision to rely on the full body of scientific evidence to assess the value of Fall X2 releases and adjust October operations accordingly.”

“This adjustment ensures the same protections for fish and water quality as those contemplated in the ITP and 2019 BiOp while smartly protecting water supplies. We applaud state leaders for their continued commitment to science-based decision-making and ensuring adaptive management in the Delta is more than just a catchphrase,” she continued in a statement.

“The cost of releasing additional water in the few years Fall X2 has been implemented has had varying—but significant—costs to our water supply by releasing stored water and cutting exports to test the Fall X2 adaptive management action’s potential benefits to Delta smelt. In 2023 alone, the State Water Project sent 600,000 acre-feet to the ocean to implement the Fall X2 requirement,” Pierre claimed.

Delta Smelt is a key indicator species

Disparaged as a “little minnow” by agribusiness oligarchs and their political allies, the key role the Delta Smelt plays in the ecosystem can’t be overemphasized.

”Delta Smelt are the thread that ties the Delta together with the river system,” Caleen Sisk, Chief of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, said several years ago. “We all should understand how that affects all the water systems in the state. They are the irreplaceable thread that holds the Delta system together with Chinook salmon.”

For the sixth year in a row, no Delta Smelt were collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September through December 2023.

In addition, a weekly survey by the US Fish and Wildlife Service targeting Delta smelt caught only one smelt this summer. “A late April IEP juvenile fish survey (the 20-mm Survey) caught several juvenile Delta smelt in the same area,” noted scientist Tom Cannon in his blog on the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance website.

The 2 to 3 inch fish, found only in the Delta, is an “indicator species” that shows the relative health of the San Francisco Bay/Delta ecosystem. When no Delta Smelt are found in six years of a survey that has been conducted since 1967, the estuary is in a serious ecological crisis.
The Delta smelt is listed as “endangered” under both the federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act.

Other pelagic fish species have declined dramatically

Meanwhile, the other pelagic species collected in the survey — striped bass, Longfin Smelt, Sacramento Splittail and thread fin shad — continued their dramatic decline since 1967 when the State Water Project went into effect. Only the American shad shows a less precipitous decline.

The near-extinction of Delta Smelt in the wild and the collapse of striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad populations documented in the fall survey is part of the larger Pelagic Organism Decline (POD) caused by massive water diversions from the Delta by the state and federal water projects, along with toxics, water pollution, invasive species and other factors.

Between 1967 and 2020, the state’s Fall Midwater Trawl abundance indices for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95%, respectively, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

As the smelt moves closer and closer to extinction, Governor Gavin Newsom is forging ahead with the environmentally destructive Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and Big Ag-backed voluntary agreements, This will only make the ecosystem crash even worse by exporting more water to corporate agribusiness interests south of the Delta.

Follow the money

There is no doubt why Governor Newsom is backing the Delta Tunnel, Sites Reservoir and the voluntary agreements— to serve the wishes of his corporate agribusiness contributors and other Big Money donors.

For example, agribusiness tycoons Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of The Wonderful Company and major promoters of the Delta Tunnel and increased water pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, have donated a total of $431,600 to Governor Gavin Newsom since 2018, including $250,000 to Stop The Republican Recall Of Governor Newsom and $64,800 to Newsom For California Governor 2022.

Newsom received a total of $755,198 in donations from agribusiness in the 2018 election cycle, based on the data from http://www.followthemoney.org. That figure includes a combined $116,800 from Stewart and Lynda Resnick and $58,400 from E.J. Gallo, combined with $579,998 in the agriculture donations category.