ConnectingCalifornia.org

Friday, April 10, 2009

Assorted Goodies on Calif. WATER POLITICS:

Delta fish get new environmental protections

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2009/san-jose-mercury-news-03-04-2009.html

San José Mercury News, March 4, 2009

The Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to list the longfin smelt as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.

Commissioners also voted to classify the longfin's cousin, the tiny delta smelt, as an endangered species, moves hailed by environmentalists as a victory for the fragile ecosystem and its bellwether species.

-------------------------------

Lawsuit Looming Over Bay-Delta Fish Protection

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/smelt-03-24-2009.html

3/24/2009--While the state of California is moving (slowly) toward safeguarding two of the San Francisco Bay-Delta's most imperiled fish, the longfin and delta smelt, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has stalled on responding to petitions for protection -- so this week, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Bay Institute filed a notice of intent to sue. In 2007, the Center and allies petitioned the federal government and California to protect the longfin smelt, but the Bush administration didn't make a decision on protection by its August deadline. Way back in 2006, the Center petitioned to upgrade the delta smelt's federal and state Endangered Species Act status from threatened to endangered -- but 23 months after a decision was due, the feds still haven't responded. Luckily, California has been a bit more proactive, designating both fish as candidates for greater protections. But meanwhile, thanks to degraded conditions in the Bay-Delta caused by water diversions, pollution, and introduced species, both the delta smelt and the Bay-Delta population of the longfin smelt are fading fast. The "smeltdown in the Delta" -- as the extinction trajectory of Bay-Delta smelts is known -- is on fast-forward, but despite court orders to clean up their act, federal and state water agencies are still mismanaging California's largest and most important estuary. Check out all the details in our press release and learn more about the delta smelt and longfin smelt

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2009/smelt-03-24-2009.html

--------------------------------------------

http://www.water.ca.gov/deltainit/maps0309.cfm

bay delta conservation plan EIR EIS page—with maps of peripheral canal routes

------------------------

http://aquafornia.com/archives/7770

http://westchesterparents.org/?p=2128

structure discriminate against families?">Does L.A.’s proposed water rate
structure discriminate against families?

----------------

http://www.norcalwater.org/

fans of Sites reservoir

http://www.norcalwater.org/images/sites_green.jpg