This is a revised version of my brief presentation to the State Water Resources Control Board on March 4 regarding the Bureau of Reclamation’s temperature management that will devastate salmon populations on the Central Valley rivers:
I’m Dan Bacher, an independent journalist that has been covering fish, water and environmental justice issues for over 35 years.
I ask you to reject the Bureau of Reclamation’s temperature management plan – and to adopt a management plan that protects the public trust, salmon and the Tribal, commercial and recreational fishing communities that depend on salmon in the Sacramento and Klamath-Trinity watersheds.
It is important to note that in 8 out of the past 10 years, the combined water exports from the state and federal water projects have exceeded the 3 million acre feet annual export figure that many believe to be the maximum amount of water that can be exported from the Delta without destroying the ecosystem and harming fish species. In every water year except two, 2014 and 2015, the state and federal projects exported well over 3 million acre feet of water from the Delta.
The 3 million acre feet cap of water exports in all years is a key recommendation of the Environmental Water Caucus (EWC) updated solutions plan titled “A Sustainable Water Plan for California.”
In fact, 2011 was the all time record export year with 6.67 million acre feet of water diverted from the Delta, followed closely behind by the 6.46 million acre feet exported in 2017. 2018 saw 4.62 million acre feet exported from the Delta, while 2019 saw 5.3 million acre feet exported and 2020 saw 3.65 million acre feet exported.
If the state doesn’t conserve enough water to maintain carryover storage so that salmon can successfully spawn and the juvenile fish can outmigrate, then we end up in the situation where the CDFW had to truck all of the Sacramento River hatchery salmon smolts downriver to the bay so that fish are able to survive in a drought year.
Members of the water board: again, please protect the public trust by rejecting the Bureau’s water management plan that will cause massive mortality of salmon eggs and fry and adopt a plan that protects Sacramento and Klamath-Trinity River salmon populations.
Below is the chart with the annual exports and the 15 year average. All of the figures are in million acre feet:
Year
|
Annual Export
|
15 Year Average
|
2010
|
4.773481183
|
5.368112135
|
2011
|
6.678547642
|
5.453433578
|
2012
|
4.971327374
|
5.441023876
|
2013
|
4.270590543
|
5.405164312
|
2014
|
2.037482936
|
5.216134646
|
2015
|
1.939412746
|
4.921947348
|
2016
|
3.508986048
|
4.814769057
|
2017
|
6.463958728
|
4.87413627
|
2018
|
4.6
|
4.758666667
|
2019
|
5.344226
|
4.705860648
|
2020
|
3.655797327
|
4.518263237
|
For more information, see: viewperformance.deltacouncil.ca.gov/…