CSPA Files Additional Protests Over Illegal Water Transfers

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California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
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CSPA Files Additional Protests Over Illegal Water Transfers

June 10, 2009 -- The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) has filed two more protests against proposed water transfers with the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board). These follow the 13 protests CSPA submitted on June 2 and 3. CSPA believes the proposed transfers are illegal, will exacerbate water quality problems and further damage salmonid and pelagic fisheries.

Placer County Water Agency has asked the State Board for a temporary change in their water rights permits 13856 and 13858 to enable the Agency to sell 20,000 acre-feet of water to San Diego. The water is presently stored in their Middle Fork Project reservoirs on the Rubicon and American Rivers and would be transferred through the Delta to the San Diego County Water Authority. The majority of the water will be transferred between June and September. CSPA believes this water should remain within the American River system and be used to reduce impacts from excessive temperature during the critical fall period when spawning salmonids enter the river.

Placer County Water Agency also asks for a change in water rights permits 13856 and13858 in order to deliver 12,000 acre-feet of water from the Rubicon and American Rivers to Co-Petitioner Sacramento Suburban Water District (SSWD) for sale through the Drought Water Bank (DWB) for use within the State Water Project (SWP) and the Central Valley Project (CVP) service areas south of the Delta. Again, most of the water would be transferred between June and September.

CSPA believes the transfers threaten water quality and further damage to salmon, steelhead and Delta pelagic fisheries by increasing the amount of water pumped through the SWP and CVP pumping facilities in the south Delta. Increased pumping will degrade existing poor water quality and increase entrainment of fish in the pumps.

The DWB transfer request also seeks to add points of diversion of both the SWP and CVP. The State Board approved a consolidation of the SWP/CVP places-of-use in an evidentiary hearing last month. CSPA opposed the consolidation as illegal and without legislative authorization and is appealing the Board's decision. The DWB transfer also cumulatively exceeds the 16,000 acre-foot cap the State Board placed on through-Delta transfers pursuant to the consolidation decision.

CSPA maintains that the DWB Transfers, which were approved on the basis of Governor Schwarzenegger's declaration of emergency, are illegal because the Governor cannot legally waiver compliance with CEQA and water quality standards because of droughts that occur more than a third of the time in California. CSPA, the Butte Environmental Council and California Water Impact Network (CWIN) are already suing the Department of Water Resources over the Drought Water Bank's CEQA exemption.

The cumulative effects of the proposed transfers have never been analyzed and CSPA believes the CEQA exemption is illegal. Environmental review is one of the fundamental cornerstones protecting fisheries and the public interest. We expect the State Board to schedule a hearing regarding the protests. Should the Board approve the transfers without a hearing, CSPA is prepared to challenge the approvals.