Articles

Author: Brandon Middleton While the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authored the controversial delta smelt biological opinion, the Bureau of Reclamation is the federal agency responsible for its implementation and severe restriction of water deliveries. In implementing the delta smelt biop, Reclamation failed to prepare a critical Environmental Impa ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff The Department of the Interior announced today that the Bureau of Reclamation will increase the water allocation for those who receive Central Valley Project water south of the Sacramento Delta, from 5% of contractual allotment to 25%.  That's definitely good news for farmers, farm workers, and all the peop ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff The long-awaited report from the federal government's go-to group of scientists, dealing with the Delta smelt and other species protected under the Endangered Species Act, and whether water cutbacks to the San Joaquin Valley are justified to protect these species, is now available (an embargoed copy of the report ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Last Friday, Doug Obegi of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) had this post on NRDC's Switchboard blog giving the environmental group's take on the recently issued NAS-NRC report on the Delta pumps and their effects on the Delta smelt and other ESA-protected species in the Delta (I blogged about the ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Today's Sacramento Bee has this article detailing the significant snow pack in the state's mountains that will allow a fairly large allocation of water to beleaguered farmers in the San Joaquin Delta (40% as opposed to 10%). The end of the article discusses the impact of the bigger snowpack, and the … ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Yesterday evening, the court issued its ruling on the preliminary injunction motion filed in the Delta smelt consolidated cases.  Below is a quick resume of the decision.  Bottom line, however, is that the cutbacks are illegal, but the court is not yet prepared to order immediate relief. 1. The baseline i ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Today, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service issued a 12-month finding under the Endangered Species Act on whether to list the Sacramento splittail, a small fish found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.  The Service determined that the listing is not warranted, largely because the splittail's ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Below is PLF's press release applauding Judge Wanger's favorable ruling today in The Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases. … ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Last week, Judge Oliver Wanger of the Eastern District of Sacramento overturned the Delta Smelt biological opinion imposing severe water cutbacks on Central Valley farms and towns.  The opinion is filled with sharply worded rebukes of the Service's errors.  In this post, we catalogue those zingers, wi ...