The California Legislature was the first in the country to
protect rare plants and animals through passage of the California
Endangered Species Act (CESA) in 1970, Congress followed suit in
1973 by passing the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The federal ESA aims to, “protect and recover imperiled species
and the ecosystems upon which they depend.”
The state ESA states that, “all native species of fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, invertebrates, and plants,
and their habitats, threatened with extinction and those
experiencing a significant decline which, if not halted, would
lead to a threatened or endangered designation, will be protected
or preserved.”
Imperiled species are defined as follows: “Endangered” if it is
in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion
of its range and “threatened” if it is likely to become an
endangered species within the foreseeable future.”
An irrigation district in the Klamath Project can no longer
divert water from the Klamath River under a state-issued water
right without approval from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, a
federal judge has determined. Reclamation sued the Klamath
Drainage District in July 2022 for taking water from the river
despite curtailments intended to protect endangered fish. The
2022 irrigation season was severely hampered in the project
following several consecutive years of drought. Reclamation
allotted just 62,000 acre-feet of water from Upper Klamath Lake
for irrigators, about 14% of full demand, including zero water
for districts with junior rights.
For two decades, researchers worked to solve a mystery in West
Coast streams. Why, when it rained, were large numbers of
spawning coho salmon dying? As part of an effort to find out,
scientists placed fish in water that contained particles of new
and old tires. The salmon died, and the researchers then began
testing the hundreds of chemicals that had leached into the
water. A 2020 paper revealed the cause of mortality: a chemical
called 6PPD that is added to tires to prevent their cracking
and degradation. When 6PPD, which occurs in tire dust, is
exposed to ground-level ozone, it’s transformed into multiple
other chemicals, including 6PPD-quinone, or 6PPD-q. The
compound is acutely toxic to four of 11 tested fish species,
including coho salmon.
Jesus Campanero Jr. was a teenager when he noticed there was
something in the water. He once found a rash all over his body
after a swim in nearby Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake
in California. During summertime, an unbearable smell would
waft through the air. Then, in 2017, came the headlines, after
hundreds of fish washed up dead on the shore. “That’s when it
really started to click in my head that there’s a real issue
here,” says Campanero, now a tribal council member for the
Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians of California, whose
ancestors have called the lake home for thousands of years. The
culprit? Harmful algal blooms (HABs).
We are living in the Anthropocene, an era being defined by
global mass extinctions caused by humanity. While on-going and
impending extinctions of birds and other terrestrial
vertebrates gain the most attention, the situation with
freshwater fishes (and other freshwater organisms) is as bad or
worse, partly because many freshwater extinctions are nearly
invisible events, hidden by murky waters (Moyle and Leidy
2023). The extinction threat is especially high for obligatory
freshwater fishes including many species endemic to California
(Moyle and Leidy 2023). The ultimate cause is competition
between people and fish for clean water.
In an eight-mile swath of a damaged creek in unincorporated
Santa Clarita, the connections between humans, nature, water
supplies and survival of a rare fish are frayed by climate
change. … The project recently received a $12 million
grant to kickstart planning and design. The money was granted
to Public Works last week by the California Wildlife
Conservation Board. Construction is expected to begin in late
2024, according to Public Works. … The project has many
interrelated objectives: flood control, habitat restoration,
and returning safe, reliable water flow into the downstream
wells of homeowners who have been cut off from their water
source.
Call it a win for the little species, though all kinds of
endangered animals and plants stand to benefit. A sweeping
legal settlement approved this week has put the Environmental
Protection Agency on a binding path to do something it has
barely done before, by its own acknowledgment: Adequately
consider the effects on imperiled species when it evaluates
pesticides and take steps to protect them. … In the same
area as crop-damaging insects, there may be threatened
bumblebees and butterflies; among unwanted weeds, endangered
plants. At the same time, pesticides help farmers produce
enough food to meet the demands of a growing population.
… Aquatic species like salmon and mussels do, too, as
they are particularly vulnerable to pesticides that contaminate
nearby water …
Wildlife biologists in Utah are trying to bolster the state’s
population of roundtail chub, a fish endemic to the Colorado
River system. The fish is listed as a sensitive species in Utah
due to habitat loss and competition with invasive species.
About 30 round tailed chub were released recently into the Old
City Park pond in Moab as part of a statewide project to boost
the native fish population. Tyler Arnold, a wildlife biologist
with the Division of Wildlife Resources in Utah, says
roundtail, like many of our native species in the Colorado
River system, have been on the decline.
A popular federal effort to protect threatened Western fish is
in murky waters as stakeholders await Congressional action on
reauthorization. The Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish
Recovery Program has for 30 years sought to restore four
species that once thrived in the river: the razorback sucker,
Colorado pikeminnow, bonytail and humpback chub. A sister
effort, the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation
Program, works to restore the same fish in the Four Corners
region. The species are imperiled by human-wrought habitat
disruption, like dams, and preyed upon and out-competed by
introduced species like rainbow and brown trout.
A relatively simple, inexpensive method of filtering urban
stormwater runoff dramatically boosted survival of newly
hatched coho salmon in an experimental study, according to a
press release from Washington State University (WSU). The
findings, published in the journal Science of the Total
Environment, are consistent with previous research on adult and
juvenile coho that found exposure to untreated roadway runoff
that typically winds up in waterways during storms resulted in
mortality of 60% or more. For the coho hatchlings in this
study, mortality from runoff exposure was even higher at 87%.
When the stormwater was run through a biofiltration method —
essentially layers of mulch, compost, sand and gravel — nearly
all the coho hatchlings survived, though many of resulting fish
had smaller eyes and body sizes than a control group.
A magistrate judge in Oregon sided with the Klamath Tribes on
Monday in finding that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation violated
the Endangered Species Act by misallocating limited water
supplies from the Upper Klamath Lake, harming endangered sucker
fish and other aquatic wildlife. In the 52-page findings and
recommendation, U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke found the
central question is whether the federal government broke the
law by allocating water for irrigation when it knew it could
not comply with its Endangered Species Act obligations to
endangered sucker fish in the Upper Klamath Lake, a freshwater
reservoir in the southern Oregon portion of the Klamath Basin.
Setting the course for a Colorado River with less water is an
enormous challenge that’s not likely to satisfy everyone. And
climate change has created a collision course with wildlife.
… The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is an
important player in the battle that’s ahead. A letter submitted
by USFWS to the Bureau of Reclamation has as many questions as
answers. … As agencies weigh in on how to manage the
river in the future, they are asking Reclamation to tell them
precisely the water conditions they might have to deal with in
protecting wildlife. It’s uncharted territory.
Grand Canyon National Park will get more than a quarter-million
dollars to remove invasive species and protect native species
of fish in the Colorado River. The funds come from the
Inflation Reduction Act and are part of a nationwide effort to
restore natural habitats and address climate change impacts.
Lake Powell, a key Colorado River reservoir, dropped to
historically low levels last year due to climate change and
drought. This created viable breeding conditions and easier
passage through Glen Canyon Dam for high-risk invasive species
like smallmouth bass and green sunfish.
The Morris Graves Museum of Art, at 636 F St., Eureka, will
hold a closing celebration of Becky Evans’ Installation “30,000
Salmon” on Sept. 17 from 2 to 4 p.m. Museum-goers will hear a
dozen poems about rivers and dams, water and power, spawning
and dying, salmon and community, and half a century of life
upriver and downriver and on Humboldt Bay by Jerry Martien.
Martien will be accompanied by Becky Evans, Fred Neighbor
(guitar), Gary Richardson (bass) and Mike Labolle (percussion
and trumpet). … Engaging educators, students, community
members and artists, the project culminated in an installation
of 30,000 objects depicting or symbolizing the fish die off on
the Klamath River, which was exhibited at the First Street
Gallery in 2004.
Today is California Biodiversity Day, which marks the
anniversary of the launch of California Biodiversity
Initiative in 2018 and celebrates our amazing state, the
exceptional biodiversity we have in the Sacramento Valley and
throughout California, and the actions we can work on with our
many partners to ensure biodiversity. In the Sacramento Valley,
our goal is to promote functioning ecosystems and sustainable
water supplies by preserving, sustaining, and promoting our
communities and working agricultural landscapes that support
ecosystem function and provide landscape-scale habitat benefits
for fish, bird, and wildlife populations.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will not curtail water to the
Klamath Project in Southern Oregon and Northern California,
despite an earlier warning to irrigators that cutbacks might be
necessary to satisfy protections for endangered fish.
… The reversal is “due to improved hydrology in the
Klamath Basin over the last two weeks; opportunities for Upper
Klamath Lake water conservation this fall and winter; and
coordination with tribal partners and water users,” according
to officials.
Over the last 150 years, the effects of human activities such
as agriculture, mining, damming, logging, and overfishing have
led to declines in Pacific salmon species. For decades, efforts
have been made to help salmon persist through the challenges
they faced. Now climate change is adding to the suite of
challenges threatening the long-term viability of salmon and
the cultures, traditions and economies of the communities that
depend on them. In the Pacific Northwest, the populations
of many salmon species have declined significantly,
with some protected under the Endangered Species
Act. In Alaska, a place with historically healthy salmon
runs, the decline of some runs has caused tremendous hardship
and concern.
Water levels at Lake Mohave are expected to drop about 10 feet
in the coming weeks to improve habitat and spawning cycles for
two endangered fish species native to the Colorado River
system. The annual fall drawdown of the reservoir is part of an
ongoing effort by the federal government to restore populations
for the boneytail chub and razorback sucker, the National Park
Service said in a news release. The surface of Lake Mohave will
go from its current elevation of roughly 643 feet above sea
level down to about 633 feet by mid-October. Water levels will
start to tick back up starting in November and return to normal
by mid-January.
On an unseasonably hot July day, Jerrod Bowman peers into the
water flowing through a box-like passage for endangered fishes,
checking their route is clear. Bowman works as a fish biologist
for the Navajo Nation, based west of Farmington, where the San
Juan River borders the reservation. A small dam here forms a
barrier to the seasonal migration of two rare fish species, the
razorback sucker and the Colorado pikeminnow. On the south side
of the river a narrow, rocky channel leading to a concrete
bypass serves as a passage around the dam. “I’m just trying to
give them the chance to move upstream,” Bowman says.
Historically, Colorado pikeminnows traveled hundreds of miles
through the free-flowing rivers of the Colorado River Basin,
from Wyoming to northern Mexico. Razorback suckers also
migrated seasonally to spawn through a similar range.
National Park Service biologists planned to close off and
poison a slough connected to the Colorado River upstream of the
Grand Canyon to kill young, non-native bass this weekend, the
agency said. It’s the second time that officials have used
rotenone, a fish-killing agent, as an emergency measure to slow
a mushrooming smallmouth bass invasion from Lake Powell that
threatens native humpback chubs that swim the Colorado farther
downstream. This time they’re seeking hundreds of young bass,
instead of the handful first detected in the slough between
Glen Canyon Dam and Lees Ferry last year.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it will
provide Endangered Species Act protections to four of the six
geographically and genetically distinct population segments
(DPS) of the foothill yellow-legged frog. After reviewing
the best scientific and commercial information available, the
Service determined endangered status for the South Sierra DPS
and South Coast DPS and threatened status for the North Feather
DPS and Central Coast DPS of the foothill yellow-legged frog.
The Service is including a 4(d) rule for the North Feather DPS
and Central Coast DPS that excepts take incidental to habitat
restoration projects and forest fuels management activities
that reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire. The Service will
designate critical habitat for the frog at a later date.
Today, the bumblebee is among more than 200 endangered species
whose existence is threatened by the nation’s most widely used
insecticides (one classification of pesticides), according to a
recent analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The endangered species range from Attwater’s greater
prairie chicken to the Alabama cave shrimp, from the American
burying beetle to the slackwater darter. And the star cactus
and four-petal pawpaw are among the 160-plus at-risk plants.
The three neonicotinoids — thiamethoxam, clothianidin and
imidacloprid — are applied as seed coatings on some 150 million
acres of crops each year, including corn, soybeans and other
major crops. Neonicotinoids are a group of neurotoxic
insecticides similar to nicotine and used widely on farms and
in urban landscapes.
What do nail polish, children’s foam-padded sleeping mats and
tires have in common? Not much at first glance, but all have
been identified as “priority products” under California’s Safer
Consumer Products regulations administered by the California
Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) under the state’s
Green Chemistry law. The Regulation and Its Requirements The
regulation designating motor vehicle tires containing the
chemical N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine
(6PPD) as a priority product became final on July 3, 2023,
making tires containing 6PPD the seventh priority product
identified under the law.
One of our favorite aspects to teaching is (occasionally) being
able to really surprise a student. Many of the fun nature facts
folks pick up nowadays come from TV, YouTube, social media, and
other media outlets. But these outlets have an inherent bias:
they focus on the charismatic species. That is, the species
that are big, fluffy, and widely adored. Yet there are so many
fascinating species and ecology in the lesser appreciated
taxonomic groups (not to mention, focusing on charismatic
species leads to inequitable conservation – Rypel et al. 2021).
And often, learning about these overlooked species can really
blow the mind! Today, we’d like to introduce you all to the
fascinating reproductive behavior of freshwater mussels.
Flowers that haven’t been seen in years bloomed across Southern
California this spring after massive winter downpours, creating
not only colorful landscapes but a boon for conservationists
eager to gather desert seeds as an insurance policy against a
hotter and drier future. In the Mojave Desert, seeds from
parish goldeneye and brittlebush are scooped up by staff and
volunteers working to build out seed banks in the hope these
can be used in restoration projects as climate change pressures
desert landscapes. Already this summer, the York Fire burned
across the Mojave National Preserve, charring thousands of
acres in the fragile ecosystem including famed Joshua trees.
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced nearly $200
million in federal infrastructure grants to upgrade tunnels
that carry streams beneath roads but can be deadly to fish that
get stuck trying to pass through. Many of these narrow passages
known as culverts, often made from metal or concrete, were
built in the 1950s and are blamed in part for declining
populations of salmon and other fish that live in the ocean but
return to freshwater streams to spawn. By extension, fisheries
— including tribal-run operations in the Pacific Northwest —
have experienced losses they blame in part on such barriers as
culverts and dams. … While the most funding went to
Washington and Alaska, Maine was next with $35 million. Other
Western states to receive money are California, Oregon and
Idaho.
Late in the morning on July 12, a helicopter landed in a field
near the entrance to AhDiNa, a campground on the McCloud River
in Northern California. Children ran ahead to greet the craft,
and soon the road was lined with spectators waiting to witness
the delivery of precious cargo: an insulated bucket containing
25,000 fertilized winter-run Chinook salmon eggs. These eggs
would not only bring the Winnemem Wintu Tribe one step closer
to bringing salmon, or Nur, back to their ancestral waters, but
could also help save the species from extinction. Winter-run
Chinook spawn in summer, but the spring-fed McCloud River runs
cold all year round, buffering eggs and young salmon from even
the worst summer drought. For 80 years the formidable Shasta
Dam has blocked Chinook from the McCloud.
The Klamath River Basin was once one
of the world’s most ecologically magnificent regions, a watershed
teeming with salmon, migratory birds and wildlife that thrived
alongside Native American communities. The river flowed rapidly
from its headwaters in southern Oregon’s high deserts into Upper
Klamath Lake, collected snowmelt along a narrow gorge through the
Cascades, then raced downhill to the California coast in a misty,
redwood-lined finish.
In the vast labyrinth of the West
Coast’s largest freshwater tidal estuary, one native fish species
has never been so rare. Once uncountably numerous, the Delta
smelt was placed on state and federal endangered species lists in
1993, stopped appearing in most annual sampling surveys in 2016,
and is now, for all practical purposes, extinct in the wild. At
least, it was.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
Does California need to revamp the way in which water is dedicated to the environment to better protect fish and the ecosystem at large? In the hypersensitive world of California water, where differences over who gets what can result in epic legislative and legal battles, the idea sparks a combination of fear, uncertainty and promise.
Saying that the way California manages water for the environment “isn’t working for anyone,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shook things up late last year by proposing a redesigned regulatory system featuring what they described as water ecosystem plans and water budgets with allocations set aside for the environment.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
Less than 50 miles northeast of Chico, California, begins the
93-mile Butte Creek – a tributary of the Sacramento River. It is named
after Butte County, which was in turn named for the nearby
volcanic plateaus, or “buttes,” and travels through a massive
canyon on its way southwest to the Sacramento Valley.
As a watershed, it drains about 800 square miles, both for
agricultural and residential use. The upper watershed is
dominated by forests, while the lower watershed is primarily
agricultural.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
The federal government passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973,
following earlier legislation. The first, the Endangered
Species Preservation Act of 1966, authorized land acquisition to
conserve select species. The Endangered Species Conservation Act
of 1969 then expanded on the 1966 act, and authorized “the
compilation of a list of animals “threatened with worldwide
extinction” and prohibits their importation without a permit.”
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines science –
the answers it can provide to help guide management decisions in
the Delta and the inherent uncertainty it holds that can make
moving forward such a tenuous task.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
In California and the West, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a
critical issue. Development and agricultural interests say the
law should not be used to unjustly block new projects, while
conservationists view the law as a major bulwark against the
destruction of vital habitat. In the water world, municipal and
agricultural interests say there is room to streamline the ESA’s
application to prevent undue interruption of water delivery.
Two events that transformed the West, population growth and the
dominance of agriculture, are inextricable parts of the battles
fought over its most vital resource, water. Throughout the 19th
century, as settlers sought to tame the rugged landscape,
momentum built behind the notion of a comprehensive, federally
financed waterworks plan that would provide the agrarian society
envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. The Reclamation Act of 1902,
which could arguably be described as a progression of the credo,
Manifest Destiny, transformed the West into an economic
powerhouse while putting an exclamation mark to the tide of
American migration.
