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Current News Delta water flows; more needs to be done
Current News Delta water flows; more needs to be done | Delta water flows; more needs to be done |
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| Thursday, 14 June 2007 | |
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While increased water flows through the federal C.W. "Bill" Jones Pumping Plant,
more action needed from state on water pumping and resolving Delta smelt issue.
INCREASED WATER FLOWS WELCOMED; MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE An increase of water flows from 850 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 2,500 cfs through the federal C.W. "Bill" Jones Pumping Plant brought a limited sigh of relief from San Joaquin Valley farmers and water district officials. The increased water flows began Wednesday morning and brings the combined flow of water from the State and federal pumps to only 30 percent of normal flows because of the Delta smelt presence at the pumps. "Reports indicate that the smelt are moving well out of the lower Delta region where the pumps are located," said Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition. "This is good news for farmers and water districts south of the Delta that had been faced with reduced flows from both federal and state pumps in the Delta." The state pumps were shut down completely on June 1 and the federal pumps had been operating at the reduced level for the past seven weeks. The state pumps were increased slightly to provide municipal water to Bay Area contractors. "The shutdown of the state pumps had unexpected effects that rippled through the agricultural community, causing farmers to scramble to find replacement water through groundwater pumping, exchanges or any means possible," Wade said. "We are already receiving reports of some farmers abandoning some acreage in order to shuffle their limited water supply to other crops. "Both farmers and water districts have already taken action to make up the lost water resulting from the reduced pumping. Dry year conditions have already forced a cutback in deliveries to 50 percent from the federal system and 60 percent from the state. If the pumping curtailment continues much longer, additional farm jobs and crops will be lost. The only way to avoid these losses is to increase the flows from both the State's Banks Pumping Plant and the federal C.W. "Bill" Jones Pumping Plant." Wade expressed hope that increased pumping will take place soon since the Delta smelt, believed to be a bell weather of environmental conditions in the Delta, have moved beyond the pumps. "It is really frustrating to realize that hundreds of millions of dollars and millions of acre-feet of water have already been spent on trying to protect the smelt and its numbers continue to decline," Wade added. "A tremendous effort has been expended at attempting to prove the pumps are the culprit when it is becoming more and more obvious that it is not the pumps. "Drawing increased attention from scientists is the absence of food supplies for the smelt during its developmental stages. Instead of reducing pumping flows and causing a loss of jobs and crops, now's the time to focus on the food supply and determine what it takes to remedy the situation." The California Farm Water Coalition is the largest organization in the state to focus solely on farm water. Its membership represents 7 million irrigated acres out of a total of 10 million in California. ### Contact Office (916) 391-5030 Mike Henry (home) (209) 727-0716 |
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