Ruling to protect delta smelt may force water rationing in (SF) Bay Area

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Cities around the Bay Area face the possibility of mandatory water rationing next year as a result of a federal court decision Friday to protect a rare fish found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, state officials and water experts said.

The decision, which could cut by up to a third the amount of water drawn from the delta, will definitely force conservation measures and, in the end, could be the most far-reaching decision ever made under endangered species laws, according to experts.

The ruling, made Friday evening by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, was an attempt to help the delta smelt, a tiny fish once plentiful but now facing extinction. Environmentalists insist the huge Tracy-area pumps used by the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project suck up smelt, killing huge numbers of them. Those water systems redistribute delta water to parts of the Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

"This is the most drastic cut ever to California water supplies," said Tim Quinn, the executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, a lobbying group that represents more than 400 agencies that deliver 90 percent of the state's water. "It is the most significant decision ever made in the implementation of either the state or federal Endangered Species Act. It's the biggest impact anywhere, nationwide."

Water agency representatives said cropland is likely to go fallow, and cities in the Tri-Valley, Santa Clara County, Los Angeles and elsewhere could have to institute mandatory rationing programs in order to deal with the cuts in water.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/09/01/MNPCRT83Q.DTL

[Doremus]

1. Wassa matta? Somebody forget to remove them from the endangered list?

You know that's next. Can't let some stinking fish stand in the way of progress yanno.

Conservation is so overrated anyway.

:sarcasm:

[pinto]

2. The pressure for water, and side effects such as these, are increasing

throughout the West, from the Colorado to the delta, the SJ Valley and SoCal.

[ohio2007]

3. Heavily tax water usage and demand will go down for frivolous waste

stop habitually washing those SUV's and watering the pricey lawns they park them in front of

/sarc

[Trillo]

4. Do I hear the sound of grocery-store cash registers going

KaChing?

West Coast Cities are going to have to start a massive effort at ocean water desalinization. California's central valley feeds A LOT of people.

Either that or CEOs and their ilk will be the only ones who can afford food....

[RestoreGore]

6. Desalination is a catch 22 situation

Desalination burns much in CO2 which is causing drought to begin with. There are methods to desalinate water that will not use as much energy process wide, but they are expensive. Just how much are people willing to pay to have a sustainable planet? And will corporations now use this as a way to break the poor? Once again the viscious cycle of greed will determine our fate if we do not stand up to it... and that means, conserve it now or literally pay later.

[ohio2007]

7. You think they will allow a NUKE plant to be built for a desalinization plan?

How many will protesters will ralley against it in the earthquake belt?

[RestoreGore]

8. Exactly. And that is the quandary we now face

For not thinking about the future in the past.

[Trillo]

9. It takes a lot of energy to push salt water through an RO membrane.

There seem to be other methods of desalinization, whether they can be scaled up is one question about them.

My point was NOT about nuclear, but ohio2007 asserted that point.

My point, applied to yours, is that the alternative is to go without food, plants don't grow without water. Does it make sense to conserve the watering of food crops? Does it make sense for residential water users to subsidize the cost of water for farmers? If they do so, shouldn't they get a price break on the food produced?

These social/economic questions are of more interest to me.

The nuclear fission / fusion / solar / whatever energy source needs to be explored and implemented by scientists and engineers: the former have often been ignored (sabotaged by the political arm of biz?), the latter are often incompetent in spite of their college degrees (sabotaged by the financial arm of biz?).

[RestoreGore]

10. Farmers should get perks for using drip-micro irrigation

http://www.waterplan.water.ca.gov/docs/cwpu2005/vol4/vol4-data-surveyofirrigationmethods.pdf

I am far from an expert on this, but I do not believe that in California that most crops are grown using this method (drip-micro?) It does conserve water and allows for more concise and even root coverage which in my view would also lessen runoff. This is going to come down to the way farmers irrigate, plant, and what they eventually will be able to grow in the way of less water intensive crops, and if they do that in a way that truly conserves water while being able to sustain the demand for food they should then be rewarded for it. There might not then be a need for residents to subsidize it if it used efficiently to begin with, but if they did then yes, I think they should also be rewarded for that when they purchase the food they then helped to produce. I'm not really for desalination only as a last final resort as building plants near coastal areas also endangers the marine life there. So we have a choice... either we start looking to our moral compass and doing what needs to be done before it is beyond the point of no return, or we may be forced to do once again what we should not have had to do.

[RestoreGore]

5. Such an important issue and not one recommend?

Well, you have one now. The day will come when our wasteful ways will catch with us even worse than theyare now, and we will have no water. Those who moved to this area to have their desert lawns and pools because they only care about their own are going to reap what they have sown unless they change. They either save it now, or watch the Western US burn and more species disappear. And I do not believe that is an exaggeration. And this deserves much more attention than it gets currently. Water is our lifeblood, and for the life of me I do not understand why so many simply take it for granted.

[Exultant Democracy]

11. Looks like SF will have to change their planes for cutting out bottled water.

[BrotherBuzz]

14. SF's water comes directly from Hetch Hetchy in the Sierra...

and is not an issue that involves the delta, other than the fact that SF's water never reaches and feeds the delta. I used to live in SF and enjoyed the tap water, so I have no problems with the city cutting out the bottled water.

[roody]

12. We waste so much water.

Conservation is simple.

[ohio2007]

13. there is only so much glacier ice left in the Rocky mountains...and it's going..going...

gone in a generation at most according to experts.
Truely, the Rocky mountains will be just standing barren rock piles

maybe not