The Delta is an “ecosystem in crisis,” with state and federal water policies doing great harm to chinook salmon and steelhead populations, seven environmental groups and a Native American tribe allege in a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board. Two of the state’s top water delivery systems, the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, are “exacerbating conditions for endangered species at high risk of extinction in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary” that violate maximum fish take rates under the Endangered Species Act, the May 16 letter states. The groups and tribe allege that the State Water Project exceeded the annual loss limit for hatchery winter-run chinook salmon. And they blame the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for water releases that are killing more salmon and steelhead than their permits allow.