A Small Victory?

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:

Jerry Desmond, Jr.
916.441.4166

RBOC Applauds Decision Placing 2 Delta Boating Barriers “on hold"

Sacramento [January 26] - Recreational Boaters of California [RBOC] is pleased that a project to install two navigational barriers on Old River and Connection Slough in the Sacramento - San Joaquin Delta has been placed on hold.

Stated RBOC President Anne Sacks: “As the scientific basis for this project is reviewed, RBOC will continue to lobby the federal and state governments, and state legislators, in an effort to prevent the tremendous impact that the Two-Gates Project would have on the current, unrestricted access by recreational boaters navigating these popular Delta waterways."

The US Interior Department has placed the barriers, as well as the entire $80 million Two-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta, on hold while the US Geological Survey studies whether the project would have the intended impact of keeping endangered delta smelt away from water pumps by lowering turbidity.

As proposed, the structure and function of the two gates would not have provided reliable
recreational boating access. In addition, the operational scenario would have closed these waterways to boaters for significant periods.

RBOC has been pursuing a “call-to-arms" urging boaters to take action in opposition to the Two-Gates Project. Many individual boaters have expressed their opposition, and the US Bureau of Reclamation has acknowledged that boaters had a role in the decision to re-assess the project.

RBOC is the nonprofit governmental advocacy organization that works to protect and enhance the interests of the state's recreational boaters before the legislative and executive branches of state and local government. RBOC is in its 42nd year as a statewide organization, and since 1968 it has continued its commitment to promoting the enjoyment, protection, and responsible use of our waterways.

 

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The Obama administration released the Interim Federal Action Plan for the California Bay-Delta on December 22, 2009.

You can find information on the plan here:
http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/2009_12_22_releaseA.cfm

and the action plan here:
http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/upload/CAWaterWorkPlan.pdf

Reasons behind the decision to place the Two Gates project on hold is explained on page 10 of the work plan. Basically, the Feds agree that the gates are not needed to study the effects of turbidity on the Delta Smelt migration and life cycle. The Feds will do the science to prove or disprove DWR's claims without the gates.

C. Implement the Scientific Evaluation Called for in the 2-Gates Project on an Expedited Basis

1) 2-Gates Fish Protection Demonstration Project: In an effort to better inform water supply decisions and improve water operations, Federal agencies have been pursuing a demonstration project related to the movement of delta smelt. This project was proposed as a scientific experiment to test the hypotheses that delta smelt follow turbidity and that smelt entrainment at the pumps could be prevented by keeping turbid water away from the pumps. The project called for the mounting of gate structures on barges and then the installation of such structures at Old River and Connection Slough. Once in place, the gates would be operated to reduce turbidity near the State and Federal pumps, and an evaluation could then be made of whether turbidity is, in fact, an accurate predictor of the presence of smelt. If such a correlation were established, the new information potentially could be used to allow for higher pumping levels during periods of clear water near the pumps.
Federal agencies have undertaken intensive review and permitting efforts on this project in recent months. As the reviews have proceeded, it has become clear that the project purpose could most expeditiously be advanced by first proving (or disproving) the underlying hypothesis that must be established for the 2-Gates project to be effective as a potential water supply enhancement. Indeed, if the hypothesis that smelt move with turbid waters can be demonstrated in the field, it may be possible to adjust pumping rates without the physical installation of the gates (for example, by increasing pumping rates during clear water periods).
These developments spurred the Federal agencies, through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), to immediately undertake and implement a new project (described below) to evaluate the smelt-turbidity relationship, with the hope that the project can provide information more quickly than waiting for the installation of the 2-Gates project.

2) Accelerated Field Study of a Potential Smelt-Turbidity Relationship: The delta smelt Biological Opinion (BO) issued by FWS contains provisions prescribing a range of flow limitations that affect water exports from the Delta pumps. The flow limitations and levels at which the pumps may operate are to be determined by the interagency Smelt Working Group in consideration of hydrologic conditions and potential entrainment of the species at the pumps. USGS scientists, working together with other Federal and State agency scientists and independent scientists from UC Davis, have been working intensively over the last few months to implement a new project that will gather field-based data to evaluate a potential relationship between delta smelt and turbidity. The first phase of the project has been implemented and included the installation of 14 real-time turbidity sensors in the Delta. These sensors now record and feed real-time turbidity measurements into a central location where they can be accessed for use in connection with water supply decision-making.
In the second phase of the study, USGS and partners will coordinate and oversee a pilot smelt sampling project before, during, and after major turbidity events that will help provide information on the location of delta smelt, the relationship between smelt and turbidity, and other factors relevant to smelt location, behavior, and movement. If the results of this USGS-coordinated project demonstrate that smelt tend to move with turbid waters, this new information could inform decision-making regarding allowable pumping during periods when the newly-installed sensors indicate that turbid waters will not be drawn into the pumps. The project results also may provide information about whether it would be a cost-effective strategy to install physical gates to attempt to diminish the interaction between turbid waters and the pumps and, if so, what the optimal location of such gates might be.
USGS anticipates that this study will be the initial step in an ongoing, long-term scientific effort to work with the Interagency Ecological Program (IEP) for the San Francisco Estuary, the CALFED Science Program (which will become the Delta Science Program), and other State and Federal partners to conduct comprehensive research to provide critical understandings about the relationship between water conditions and smelt movement. In future years, such research could yield new knowledge needed for water and fish management. Elements of the proposed work include turbidity/sediment models, hydrodynamic models, delta smelt life-cycle population modeling, integration of the physical and ecological models, and science for optimal multi-species management.

Aside from the federal science standpoint quoted above, remember that the Two Gates project has never been funded nor has the project passed environmental impact review (which would take years, assuming it passed review.) I believe that the primary reason DWR wanted Two Gates was to reduce salinity at the pumps while increasing pumping during lower flows of the summer and fall. The effect of Two Gates on Delta Smelt was a red herring, so to speak.