October 2009
Delta water plan emerges for public to view
The San Francisco Chronicle
By Wyatt Buchanan
October 27, 2009
Strict conservation, new dams and a peripheral canal are all on the table after six weeks of closed-door negotiations to solve the state's water crisis and restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem.
Leaders in the state Senate and Assembly are still discussing how to pay for the plan, which could cost $9.4 billion.Two Gates pump plan gets mixed reaction
The Fresno Bee
By Robert Rodriguez
October 26, 2009
A proposal to keep a threatened fish species from getting caught in the pumps at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta got mixed reviews during a public meeting Monday in Fresno.
Representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave an overview of the proposed "Two Gates" project to about 50 people, including farmers, agriculture leaders and concerned citizens.Frustration mounts over closed-door water talks
The San Francisco Chronicle
By Wyatt Buchanan
October 24, 2009
Leaders at the Capitol say they are on the verge of a historic vote on a multibillion-dollar plan to overhaul California's water system, but for weeks negotiations on the package have been conducted entirely behind closed doors by a handful of lawmakers.
The public, the full Legislature and the various groups with a stake in the deal probably will have just a few days to see the final plan before it is put up for a vote, which could happen in the next several days. State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, introduced a copy of the 150-page bill late Friday. But many people say they are frustrated by the lack of an open discussion on one of the biggest issues facing the state.Pursuing pikeminnow: dropping catch rates
The Columbia Basin Bulletin
October 23, 2009
Success in the Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery Program may well be measured by anglers' declining ability to claim cash rewards for the removal of salmon-eating predators from the Columbia River.
The 2009 sport-reward season, which ended Oct. 11, resulted in 141,645 qualifying fish being landed. That's a big number but down from annual totals that ranged from 190,000 to a peak of 267,000 from 2000 through 2007.Delta smelt still close to extinction, surveys show
The Sacramento Bee
By Matt Weiser
October 22, 2009
New surveys this summer of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's tiny smelt show the fish remains close to extinction, prompting questions about whether cutbacks in water pumping to protect the species did any good.
The Delta smelt population this summer fell back to the historic low set in 2005, and is now well below high points recorded in the late 1970s.NOAA: El Nino on the way
Capital Press
By Mattew Weaver
October 22, 2009
Meteorologists anticipate a moderate El Niño will bring drier winter weather to the Pacific Northwest and wetter weather to California, possibly ending a three-year drought there.
El Niño is characterized by ocean temperatures about 2 degrees above average across the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which makes it a weaker event, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Prediction Center Deputy Director Mike Halpert during an Oct. 15 press conference.Counting redds: experts survey salmon spawning
Chico Enterprise-Record
By Barbara Arrigoni
October 21, 2009
OROVILLE -- After all the effort spent battling to get upstream, for this year's Chinook salmon population, the end of the life cycle is near. It's the spawning season, which will peak and then die down over the next few weeks, leaving thousands of eggs, but also many carcasses.
For the past few weeks, fishery technicians with the state Department of Water Resources have been carefully surveying miles of the Feather River for signs that spawning is under way and counting those signs, called redds.Initial Battle Creek chinook salmon counts disappointing
The Record Searchlight
By Dylan Darling
October 20, 2009
Fall's chinook salmon run on Battle Creek could produce even fewer fish than the dismal returns that last year blocked commercial salmon fishing.
As of Oct. 12, federal scientists had counted about 5,800 salmon caught on video by cameras submerged in the creek, said Jim Smith, project leader at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Bluff office.Word on Columbia River coho
The Seattle Times
By Mark Yuasa
October 19, 2009
Coho passage at Bonneville Dam through October 18 totals 196,300 adults compared to the preseason expectation of 160,100. Passage is typically 92% complete by October 18.
Coho returns to lower river facilities have generally been meeting or exceeding expectations. Tributary dam counts have been strong and some hatcheries are reporting very good returns to date. Some lower river hatcheries are not observing the returns expected likely due to lack of rain. Recent rains should trigger migration into those facilities.Snake River wild steelhead return breaks record
The Columbia Basin Bulletin
October 16, 2009
The total 2009 steelhead count at the lower Snake River's Lower Granite Dam has broken the record, and the so-called "wild" portion of the return is also the biggest on the books.
From March 3, when the counts at the dam's fish ladders began, through Wednesday a total of 60,359 unmarked steelhead had passed the southeast Washington hydro project. That betters the previous record, a March through December total of 59,291 wild steelhead in 2002.Group sues Fish & Wildlife Service on delta smelt
Yuba Net
October 16, 2009
Warning that the federal government is mismanaging the delta smelt into extinction, the Council for Endangered Species Act Reliability (CESAR), a nonprofit public interest group, filed suit today to compel the United State Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to declare these tiny, embattled fish an endangered species with all of the protections that federal law provides. At present, delta smelt are only listed as a threatened species.
"There is no question that the smelt are in desperate need of help," said Craig Manson, Executive Director of CESAR, who has studied the problem. "But for more than two years, USFWS has been sitting on a petition that would extend to the smelt the full range of protections that good science shows they need."A river comes to life
The Fresno Bee
By Mark Grossi
October 16, 2009
The San Joaquin River's first pulse of restoration water -- moving slowly about 45 miles downstream of Friant Dam -- soon may hit a temporary block. Except this barrier is legal, not physical.
So far, the water flow to reconnect the dried river with the Pacific Ocean has gone without a hitch. The first release of water on Oct. 1 went nearly 40 miles in less than three days, passing north of Fresno in a part of the river that still has water.Ocean science goes deep
Nature News
By Daniel Cressey
October 14, 2009
Fuelled by more than $100 million from the US economic stimulus package, an unprecedented network of underwater surveillance equipment is beginning to take shape in the world's oceans.
The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is the "single greatest step forward for ocean science in the United States for half a century", says Tim Cowles of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, a non-profit organization that manages and coordinates the OOI from its base in Washington DC.Restoring an ailing river in California
Green Inc
By Jermy Miller
October 14, 2009
For the first time in 60 years, water will flow through two long stretches of the San Joaquin River in California, a waterway that has been transformed - and often run dry - by engineering and agricultural, industrial and urban development.
This month, water surges were released from Friant Dam, near Fresno, into the San Joaquin River's main channel. The releases come after nearly two decades of negotiations between the Natural Resources Defense Council, the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the Friant Water Users Authority, a group representing agricultural water users in the area.Schwarzenegger, legislative leaders agree to fix delta
San Jose Mercury News
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen and Mike Taugher
October 11, 2009
SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lifted his threat of a blanket veto on hundreds of bills Sunday night and announced plans to call a special session of the Legislature after Republican and Democrat leaders came to sufficient agreement over a new state water policy to satisfy the governor.
"Over the past few days, we have made enough progress in our negotiations that I am calling a special session on water," Schwarzenegger said in a statement. "While we still have a few remaining issues to work out, I commend the legislative leaders for their focus and commitment to solving this crisis and I will weigh all the bills on their merits."Typhoon remnants threaten to bring CV flooding
Sacramento Bee
By Loretta Kalb
October 11, 2009
The remains of super typhoon Melor, which is barreling across the Pacific at high speed today, threaten to bring flooding to some areas of California's Central Valley and mud slides in recently fire-ravaged areas, the National Weather Service reports.
Idaho wants hatchery to increase Snake River sockeye
The Columbia Basin Bulletin
October 9, 2009
The state of Idaho hopes to soon take a huge step forward in its effort to rebuild a Snake River sockeye salmon stock that nearly winked out during the 1980s and 1990s.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game aims to buy and/or build a hatchery that would allow the total production of up to one million sockeye smolts each year for release into central Idaho high country streams. Such an output would be five times current production and is expected to greatly increase the adult return.Oregon dead zone blamed on climate change
Environment News Service
October 8, 2009
Climate change is likely responsible for the formation of a large dead zone that has formed off the coast of Oregon and Washington for the past eight years, researchers from Oregon State University said today.
Dead zones are ocean expanses that lose most of their marine life during the summer due to a lack of oxygen, called hypoxia. The Pacific Northwest dead zones, which have appeared every summer since 2002, are located in one of the nation's most important fisheries.Green sturgeon gains habitat protection
Center for Biological Diversity
By Jeff Miller
October 8, 2009
Restoring salmon and steelhead could cost billions
The Record Searchlight
By Scott Mobley
October 8, 2009
A plan to restore endangered chinook salmon and threatened steelhead to Central Valley streams asks Californians to cut their water consumption by 20 percent over the next decade.
The National Marine Fisheries Service on Wednesday released a draft of the plan, which would cost up to $1 billion over the next five years and $10.4 billion over a half-century.