| (September 30) The Bureau of Reclamation today issued a statement announcing that it will close the Delta Cross Channel Gates for a period of up to 10 days from Tuesday, October 4 through Friday, October 14, 2011.
"The closure is an experimental research action intended to support the fishery resources in the lower Mokelumne River for Central Valley fall-run Chinook salmon migrating upstream to spawn and to help to reduce fish straying into other river systems," according to Peter Lucero, spokesman for the Mid-Pacific Region of the Bureau in Sacramento.
Lucero said the Delta Cross Channel Gates (DCCG) is a controlled diversion channel on the Sacramento River about 30 miles south of Sacramento that diverts water from the river into a branch of the Mokelumne River. When the gates are open, fresh water is drawn from the Sacramento River into the interior of the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta through Snodgrass Slough and the Mokelumne River.
The decision by the Bureau to open the gates for 10 days is a big victory by The Golden Gate Salmon Association, Water for Fish and conservation groups working to restore Central Valley chinook salmon populations.
"During this closure, the salmon will be able to find their way to the main stem Mokelumne River," said Dick Pool, Secretary Treasurer of the Golden Gate Salmon Association (GGSA) and Administrator of Water for Fish. "The river and hatchery will almost assuredly reach capacity."
Pool said this closure will result in six million fall run salmon smolts being able to migrate from the hatchery to the ocean, as well as between 2,000 and 4,000 adult salmon spawning naturally in the river. For more information, go to: http://www.indybay.org/newsite...
Reclamation advised boaters to continue to check the status of the gates to avoid problems in moving through the DCCG.
Information on gate operations can be accessed on Reclamation's Central Valley Operations website at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/cvo/vun... or by calling 916-979-2194 or 916-979-2196. For additional information, please call the Public Affairs Office at 916-978-5100 (TYY 916-978-5608).
Record numbers of splittail 'salvaged' as Delta exports reach all-time record
Meanwhile, two records were set on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta today as the water year ended.
First, 9 million Sacramento splittail were "salvaged" at the state and federal Delta pumps near Tracy in 2011. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006 (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1).
Second, the water projects pumped a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water from the Delta in 2011, according to government data compiled by Spreck Rosecrans at Environmental Defense. The previous record was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
"One of the reasons for the record-setting pumping is that much of the water this year went to refill the underground Kern Water Bank, largely controlled by billionaire farmer Stewart Resnick, and to the smaller Diamond Valley reservoir, which serves Southern California," according to Mike Taugher in the Silicon Valley Mercury News (http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19014459). "Both reservoirs were drawn down during the three-year drought that lasted from 2007 through 2009."
The fish "salvaged" at the "death pumps" of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. The salvage numbers reveal that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were "salvaged" between January 1 and September 7 of this year.
Agency staff also salvaged protected Sacramento River spring run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt and green sturgeon, all listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, in the pumping facilities. The salvage numbers list 35,560 Central Valley chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon. In all, a total of over 11 milllion fish including 46 species were salvaged in the facilities since January 1.
While the salvage counts are certainly alarming, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to be much greater than the salvage counts. The actual loss could be 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
The record splittail "salvage" and record Delta pumping occur at a time when the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal to export more water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California. If built, the peripheral canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley salmon and steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled fish populations. |
