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Savings Account for Fish

This winter, the federal and state agencies responsible for protecting wildlife took on a new role — water manager — as CALFED’s Environmental Water Account became operational.

In January, the agencies that manage the account — Cal Fish & Game, U.S. Fish & Wildlife and the National Marine Fisheries Service — provided commitments assuring water users that the EWA would provide any water needed to protect fish above the baseline levels required by the biological opinions on endangered Delta smelt and winter-run chinook, the 1995 Delta Water Quality Control Plan and the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. When the fishery agencies determine that the baseline is not sufficient to protect fish, they can require that pumping at the state and federal water projects be slowed or halted, and deliver EWA water instead. Later in the same month, when monitoring showed large numbers of salmon migrating through the Delta, the agencies did just that, curtailing pumping at the State Water project for about a week and spending between 60,000 and 80,000 acre-feet of EWA water, according to the State Water Resource’s Dave Fullerton.

By the end of January, the EWA had reached agreements to purchase more than 100,000 acre-feet of water from various water districts around the state. The account is authorized to purchase approximately 385,000 acre-feet per year. In addition, the account has entered into a source shifting agreement with Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District whereby MWD agrees to delay taking some of its State Water Project allotment.

"So far, so good," says Fullerton, "we’re buying water and we’re saving fish. The main problem we see is that not knowing how the hydrology is going to go makes it hard to know how to spend the water."

That hydrological uncertainty may be the fly in the ointment, says the Bay Institute’s Christina Swanson. "It’s too early to tell how well the account will work if things get serious and the need for fish protection actions interferes with the need of the projects to pump," she says, adding that it is still unclear whether EWA actions will be enough to promote fish population recovery rather than merely prevent losses. Meanwhile, the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office has issued a report suggesting that implementation of the EWA is premature in light of policy and management issues that remain unresolved.

Contact: Dave Fullerton (916) 653-4539

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