Free Republic

Environmentalists sued Tuesday to cut off water deliveries across California after state and federal water managers refused to follow a recommendation from scientific experts to slow down massive Delta pumps. The legal showdown comes after hopes were dashed that a crisis pitting Californians' need for water against a dying ecosystem would abate during the weekend. Instead, hundreds of imperiled fish have been killed since an unprecedented 10-day pumping shutdown ended June 9 and water officials began gradually restoring water deliveries. Water officials, who have been increasing pumping rates for more than a week, plan to continue ramping up water deliveries...

SACRAMENTO -- The state has shut down the large pumps that send water to 25 million Californians in order to protect a tiny fish teetering on the brink of extinction. State officials said the shutdown could affect water supplies available to users in the Bay Area, the Central Valley and Southern California. Local areas that receive water from the State Water Project include the Tri-Valley, Santa Clara County, Yuba City and Solano County. Some of those areas can obtain water from other sources, including groundwater. The shutdown is expected to last seven to 10 days, officials said. Numbers of Delta...

Seattle (AP) -- The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to stop water from being purposely spilled over five Northwest hydroelectric dams, overruling a lower court's order that the release was necessary to help young salmon migrate to the Pacific. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was forced to allow substantial flows to bypass energy generating turbines following a June 20 order by U.S. District Judge James Redden of Portland. Redden ruled that the salmon were imperiled when swimming through those dams' turbines as they headed to the sea hundreds of miles away. "What the court has ordered...