Posted on 04/19/2007 7:43:34 AM PDT by SmithL
An Alameda County judge rejected last-minute pleas from state water officials and instead finalized his order that they shut off massive Delta pumps in 60 days unless they can comply with the state law that protects endangered species such as Delta smelt and salmon.
The California Department of Water Resources said it would appeal Wednesday's ruling and warned of dire economic repercussions should the pumps be shut off.
The State Water Project delivers water to 25 million people from the Bay Area to San Diego, but a shutdown would probably most severely affect Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore.
The Zone 7 Water Agency, which serves 200,000 people in those communities, gets 80 percent of its water from the state project and would have to impose a mandatory 20 percent reduction in the first year of a shutdown, said general manager Jill Duerig. That likely would prohibit watering of lawns, car-washing and other activities, she said.
"It would be water available for health and safety only," she said.
Some Livermore vineyards could be cut off entirely, she added. In the unlikely event that a shutdown extended into a second year, water use would have to be cut in half as water stored underground and in Lake Del Valle is used up.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch finalized his March 22 tentative order and ruled that the project lacks permits required under the California Endangered Species Act to kill Delta smelt and protected salmon runs.
Few expect the pumps to be turned off for any length of time, in part because it could cost the state economy hundreds of billions of dollars, according to state water officials. Still, it has brought new urgency to the ongoing water crisis.
"Today's ruling poses a significant threat to California water deliveries, potentially jeopardizing the statewide economy and causing severe impacts on residents and businesses up and down the state," said Laura King Moon, assistant general manager for the State Water Contractors, an association of water agencies served by the project.
The Department of Water Resources finds itself without a clear way to resolve a thorny legal predicament that it was made aware of nearly two years ago.
Last week, the agency for the first time asked the Department of Fish and Game to formally review its operation by asking it to endorse federal endangered species permits. If the Fish and Game department agrees that the federal permits are consistent with state law, the project would be in compliance and the shutdown threat would be averted.
But the federal permits are widely perceived as flawed, and they are already being rewritten to address several shortcomings.
Adding to the pressure on state water officials, a federal judge next week will hear arguments from environmental groups who want to invalidate one of the federal permits at issue. If the judge rules in favor of those environmental groups, it would significantly complicate the state's predicament.
"I cannot issue a consistency determination (for a federal permit) that has been deemed inadequate by the court," Fish and Game director Ryan Broddrick said.
He said there are provisions in the federal permits that provide enough flexibility that could allow him to grant the water department's request while changing the way the pumps are operated, in part by reducing the amount of pumping at certain sensitive times of the year.
Under that scenario, water agencies throughout the state might have to give up water to help the Delta's unraveling aquatic ecosystem, where several fish species have plunged to record low populations in recent years.
But Broddrick said he could not give an estimate of how much water could change hands.
"I don't know," he said. "It depends on the water-year type and where the fish are."
Environmentalists, meanwhile, have hinted they might sue if Fish and Game complies with the water department's request because they see it as an end-run around compliance with the stricter state Endangered Species Act.
"It was obvious that DWR failed to comply. Now, we'll see if Fish and Game will comply," said Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which brought the lawsuit against the water department.
The fact that the water project lacks permits under the state endangered species law first came to light in July 2005.
At that time, a state Senate committee wanted to review state permits in response to a story in the Times that showed how, at a time when Delta smelt populations were collapsing, water officials were able to soften fish protection measures under provisions in a federal endangered species permit.
Lacking jurisdiction over federal permitting issues, senate investigators asked to see the water department's permits required under the California Endangered Species Act.
They discovered those permits did not exist.
Department of Water Resources officials argued then, as now, that a combination of other documents add up to a de-facto permit. But they promised senators they would clear up the matter by seeking more straight-forward compliance with the law.
Since then, the agency has not sought a traditional permit but instead embarked on what is expected to become a massive, long-term planning effort to comply with the law and balance the competing needs for water from the Delta.
State water officials say they will appeal a court order that would shut off the State Water Project, which supplies 25 million people with water. At the same time, they are seeking permits that would render the shutdown unnecessary.
It is uncertain whether those permits will be issued, but if they are the result would likely diminish the water supply from the East Bay to Southern California.
Nice place to visit, but this is just another example of why I’d never in a million years live there.
Lets see...you can die from flooding, landslides, earthquakes, wildfires, riots, expressway shootings and if you happen to survive it all...you get the opportunity to die of thirst?
The sun shines in other states...and water isn’t an issue.
Another form of Brownout for California from their favorite liberal/progressives.
First sane recommendation I’ve heard anywhere.
Alternatively, if the endangered fish populations were exterminated the law would no longer apply since the species is gone and no longer endangered.
Brownout?.........Maybe a Wetout?.........H20ut?........
And insult to this injury...the activist lawyers, having prevailed, will likely walk away with thousands and thousands of legal fees having to be paid at the taxpayer's expense.
Yup, Living in Boston sucks but i’ll take this place any day over CA.
California. LOL
Indeed, nobody will take your ‘dirty water’ from you guys!
(just kidding)
If you think there is a water shortage now, just wait until all the homeless from South Park show up.
“endangered species such as Delta smelt and salmon.”
Delta smelt...
Well, he who dealt it, smelt it.
In the event of an economic downturn from this, I say lay off the judges first.
Congress needs to deprive all these presure groups of standing to sue and gum up the works of everything anyone tries to do. Maybe they should get into smelting, instead.
Time to get rid of the endangered species act. Dismantle the EPA and quit running our lives to the tune of enviros.
Simple solution, repeal the law making fish more important than people.
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