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Flows Feedback

Just when California's Santa Claus was wondering how to run his sled without any snow, four federal agencies announced their final plan for keeping the Delta healthy rain or shine. Club Fed (U.S. EPA, Fish & Wildlife, BurRec and National Marine Fisheries) released a coordinated plan of action on December 15, and state water agencies and interests are now trying to get a piece of it.

• The plan - launched into a void left by decades of state inaction - includes:
• New water quality standards based on salinity.
• Reduced pumping and measures to get salmon and smelt out of the water diversion zone, as well as to up their habitat and populations.
• Listing changes - the winter-run Chinook salmon is no longer "threatened" but "endangered," and the Sacramento splittail joins the threatened species list.
• Steps for divvying up the 800,000 acre-feet of water set aside for fish and wildlife by the Central Valley Project Reform Act last year.

The feds estimate their plan will require state and federal water project users to give up 9-21 percent of their supply, depending on the weather. "Club Fed's trying to put a smiley face on the whole thing, saying it won't add up to much, when in fact it adds up to a whole lot," says Bob Potter of the state Department of Water Resources. He thinks the plan could mean more than a 50 percent reduction in water supplies from the projects during a drought.

Potter's particularly worried about the standard requiring that enough water be released to keep the 2 ppt (parts per thousand salt to water) isohaline within Suisun Bay, especially during a drought. "If the line was at the mouth of the rivers, it would be easier to control," says Potter. "Out in the bay we could be in compliance, but if the wind comes up or the barometric pressure changes, it could take half the Folsom reservoir just to get the line back where they want it." Potter also thinks "the scientific underpinnings of the decisions are pretty weak." But oceanographer Dr. Wim Kimmerer, who conducted a lot of the research behind the new standards, sees the relationship between the position of the 2 ppt isohaline and biological response as quite robust. "My impression is that the water management community is used to doing things a certain way and doesn't want to change," says Kimmerer.

State and federal officials do agree, however, that the action needs some fine-tuning. "We have to figure out how to deal with extended droughts and come up with a real, workable implementation procedure," says EPA's Bruce Herbold. The current plan, for example, ties the standards to rain or drought conditions each year rather than conditions over multi-year periods, according to Herbold. "Everyone now seems to be in favor of setting the standards by the state's wetness index, which takes previous years into account, rather than by year type," he says. Public hearings are being held on the federal action this February (see calendar), and comments are due by March 11.

Contact: Bob Potter (916)653-6055 or Patrick Wright, EPA (415)744-1993

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