Yesterday, I reported on the incredulous national reaction fellow Democrats had to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D, CA) proposed amendment to the upcoming Jobs Bill, the one where she wanted to suspend the Endangered Species Act protections to migrating baby salmon and Delta smelt in the Sacramento & San Joaquin River Delta, with the excuse that increased water pumping out of the Delta to her billionaire water broker donors would “increase jobs.”
This ignored the fact that the salmon fishing season has been suspended the past 2 years on the CA coast and may be heading for a 3rd year of cancelation because of the collapse and crash of the salmon population.
Story here:
DiFi Does a Pombo on Salmon, Jobs Bill Amend Guts EndSpecAct
I found a letter from CA Assemblyperson, Chair of the “Water, Parks, & Wildlife Committee,” Jared Huffman, to Mark Corwin, Director of the CA Dept of Water Resources (DWR) from 1 week ago, Feb 10th. In it, Chairman Huffman asks why the CA Dept of Water Resources (DWR) is flouting the CA Endangered Species Act (CESA) with regards to Judge Oliver Wanger’s opinion Feb 5, 2010, that Delta water pumping extraction must decrease to protect Delta Smelt and migrating salmon. In 2008 and 2009, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service said that if water agencies such as CVP + SWP pumped high amounts of water out of the Delta at certain times, it was going to drive Federally listed endangered fish in the Delta to extinction. (state rules need to comply with Federal listings) In the summer of 2009 the Dept of Water Resources requested rules clarification, then turned around and started attacking the new rules in court.
Huffman to DWR:
{{{ On August 3, 2009, (the CA) Dept Water Resources (DWR) filed legal papers in support of a motion
by its water contractors seeking to invalidate the biological opinion – even though the effect would
be to invalidate DWR’s own CA Endangered Species Act coverage for the SWP pumps.
Then DWR took aim at the salmon biological opinion. Last week, detection of salmon triggered an
obligation under the salmon biological opinion for the SWP/CVP pumps to reduce reverse flows in Middle
and Old Rivers. State and federal water contractors went to court seeking to overturn the heavily peer
reviewed salmon biological opinion and replace it with a previously invalidated Bush-era opinion.
Now, detection of smelt has triggered protections under the delta smelt biological opinion. As you know, a limitation on reverse flow to protect delta smelt would also meet your requirements to protect salmon and longfin smelt. Monday, Central Valley Project contractors filed for a Temporary Restraining Order on the delta smelt protections. And Dept of Water Resources, fully informed as to the deference the court gave its last letter, filed another “non-opposition” letter yesterday.
Having actively worked to create these problems, please explain how DWR intends to fix them. }}}
______________
a pdf download of Huffman’s letter to the DWR is here:
http://www.lloydgcarter.com/fi…
I expanded some of the acronyms above, so it would read more easily
I’m quoting this to to help illustrate the breadth of the problem Senator Feinstein created with so many levels of both state and Federal water and fisheries law, when she decided to play Top Water Distributress of the SacJoaquin Delta. The state of CA was trying to work this out with the Federal government, and she meddled to make a favor to Kerns County water brokers, and Westlake Mutual Water Company and billionaire donor Stewart Resnik, so they could sell a bigger water allotment to the highest bidder in Southern CA. And this is going to be tacked on to a JOBS Bill.
Congress has had this week off because of President’s day. They had the previous week off because of 2 massive snowstorms. So they’ve had plenty of time to interact people who are either mad at them or wish to purchase their influence.
Today, The Hill is reporting that Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid doesn’t have the cloture votes to even begin debate on the jobs bill.
