Stop the agribusiness water grab from fish in CA - you can help

I avoid politics on this blog except fish and water politics. If you care about anadromous fish - Salmon, Steelhead, Stripers, Shad, etc. - please send an email to BDO@usbr.gov . The details are below, but letters are needed by Nov. 16 to enter comments into a suspiciously short comment period on the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) described below. This MOA gives excessive control of Sacramento-San Joaquin water to agribusiness and Southern California water contractors and minimizes control of water reserved for fish. Even if you are not a Californian, please add your voice by sending an email to Interior Secretary Salazar opposing the MOA. You can use this letter as an email template: http://water4fish.org/write-letters-to-legislators/index.php/id/.215/ . These letter writing campaigns have helped immensely in the past, so please add your voice. It will make a difference. The details can further be found in the newsletter below.

Newsletter of Water4Fish.org

November, 2011

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) Now Poses Great Danger to Fisheries

A government Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) has recently given the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water contractors near complete control of the BDCP process.  Salmon and other fisheries are now at great risk unless the plan can be put back on track.  The peripheral canal has been put on fast track and fishery concerns are being ignored.  The action also excludes the fishery agencies from key decisions.  We need to fight back with letters of protest.  Please go to  http://water4fish.org/write-letters-to-legislators/index.php/id/.215/ and use the model to write to Interior Secretary Salazar opposing the MOA.  Send the letter as an email to BDO@usbr.gov.  The salmon industry and the fisheries and environmental groups are all writing letters but individual letters can be a huge help.     

Salmon Industry Targets the BDCP Habitat Conservation Plan as “No Help”

In testimony before the Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife Committee, the Golden Gate Salmon Association charged that the BDCP Habitat Conservation Plan will fail to rebuild the Central Valley salmon runs as required by law.  The BDCP plan is restricted to eight habitat restoration projects that take place only in the Delta.  The plan’s $3.7 billion cost is unfunded and most of the projects take forty years to complete.  The salmon can’t wait that long. The plan also ignores the impact the peripheral canal project would have on upriver salmon losses.  Approximately half of the salmon problems occur in the upper river as a result of the excessive pumping from the Delta and its impact on reservoir releases, temperatures and flows that destroy the upriver spawning and rearing habitat.  You can read the GGSA testimony at http://water4fish.org/res/pdf/BDCP_Testimony.pdf .

Bureau of Reclamation Provides a Major Boost to Mokelumne River Salmon Production
On October 4^th 2011 history was made in the Delta and in the Mokelumne River.  The Bureau of Reclamation closed the Delta cross channel gates for ten days starting the 4^th.  This allowed the adult salmon attempting to return to the Mokelumne to locate the river by smell.  When the cross channel gates are open, the flow through the gates is so heavy that the salmon miss the smell and swim through the gates.  They end up as strays in the Sacramento system.  The result of the closure was dramatic.  Return records were broken.  The Mokelumne hatchery will run at capacity this year and there will be a huge natural spawn in the river.  The result will be over 100,000 additional adults in the ocean when they mature in three years.  You can read the report on the success of the closure at   http://water4fish.org/res/pdf/Gates_Report.pdf . The photo on the left shows GGSA thanking Don Glaser and Dave Gore of the Bureau for their leadership.

Thanks for your continuing support.  80,000 supporters have now signed our petitions demanding better water policies for fish.

Dick Pool –Editor

Water4Fish.org  P.O. Box 5788, Concord, CA 94524  email: action@water4fish.org.