{"id":3950,"date":"2021-10-22T06:05:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T13:05:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/?p=3950"},"modified":"2021-10-21T21:57:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T04:57:30","slug":"the-delta-where-do-we-go-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/?p=3950","title":{"rendered":"The Delta \u2013 Where do we go from here?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s note: The opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily represent the positions of CSPA.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The Delta is still here, albeit not what it used to be.\u00a0 Yes, the Delta smelt are gone, the striped bass are at historic lows, and largemouth bass and bluegill abound.\u00a0 Plankton densities are way down and their species-composition is highly altered.\u00a0 Waters are warmer and saltier, and less turbid in dry-year summers.\u00a0 Invasive aquatic plants are taking over. \u00a0Tidal flows now dominate over river inflows and Delta outflows.\u00a0 Winter flushes still occur in odd years, but droughts predominate.\u00a0 Climate change, heavy water use, and pollution have taken a toll.\u00a0 But the Delta is still home to a vast array of native fish and other aquatic organisms, and remains a seasonal critical rearing and migrating habitat of endangered salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, lamprey, and smelt.\u00a0 So what does the future have in store for the Delta, and how can we influence the outcome, especially for the aquatic ecosystem and its fish community?<\/p>\n

To me, it has always been a simple solution involving the following array of strategic actions, although they are a very hard sale. \u00a0I have seen little progress and further damage to the Delta in my nearly 50 years working on the Delta issues, because of uncertainties and high costs, slow planning processes, and oh so many delays.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Stop exporting from the south Delta<\/strong>. Most of the water supply comes in from the north, so why pull it through and export it from the south?\u00a0 It has always been the main problem.<\/li>\n
  2. Cut back on taking water from the Delta<\/strong>. Projects take a quarter of inflow and other users take another quarter or more (Figures 1 and 2).\u00a0 In early June 2021, just 2000 cfs was reaching the Bay, out of 6000 cfs of Delta inflows.<\/li>\n
  3. The Delta needs more inflow in most years<\/strong>. The Delta is too warm in summer (Figure 3), and now more prone to blue-green algae blooms.\u00a0 Inflow from the San Joaquin is especially important to the Delta ecosystem.<\/li>\n
  4. The Delta needs more nutrients <\/strong>to produce more plankton and benthos; it lacks nutrients because nutrients and aquatic productivity are exported\/diverted and replaced by reservoir water that is very low in nutrients and productivity.<\/li>\n
  5. The low salinity zone should be located west of the Delta in the cooler eastern Bay<\/strong> where it can be more productive \u2013 more outflow is needed. This is especially important in spring of dry years (Figure 4), when low outflow results in the low-salinity zone being located in the Delta.<\/li>\n
  6. Invasive aquatic plants should be cut back<\/strong> as much as possible \u2013 this will help improve plankton, lesson water clarity, lower water temperature, and reduce habitat of non-native fishes.<\/li>\n
  7. The biomass and productivity of non-native fishes should be reduced<\/strong> by whatever means possible.<\/li>\n
  8. Pollutant inputs to the Delta should be minimized. <\/strong>Herbicides and pesticides and other pollutants inputs are too high.<\/li>\n
  9. Ship-channel dredging and shoreline-shoal habitat degradation should be lessened.<\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. The tidal-prism should be increased with expansion of flow-through Delta tidal channels. <\/strong>Avoid shallow floodplain enhancements that increase water temperatures.<\/li>\n
  11. Restore Delta channel riparian habitats <\/strong>to increase shoreline protection, provide shade, and increase aquatic and terrestrial food for fish.<\/li>\n
  12. Release hatchery-raised delta smelt in optimal habitats in the Delta<\/strong> to reduce the imminent threat of their extinction.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are more planning and restoration efforts today than 50 years ago.\u00a0 So much more information is available.\u00a0 It should not be this hard.<\/p>\n

    \"\"

    Figure 1. Delta outflow (DTO) plus major sources of Delta inflow in May-June 2021. Wilkins Slough (WLK) is contribution from upper Sacramento River system (mainly Shasta\/Trinity reservoir water). Freeport is Sacramento channel in north Delta including Feather and American system reservoir inputs (total Sacramento Valley inputs minus its diversions). Vernalis (VNS) is San Joaquin Valley inputs to Delta. Flow through Georgianna Slough is water crossing over from Sacramento to San Joaquin channel including some from Delta tributaries (primarily Mokelumne River). In early June, only slightly over 2000 cfs was reaching the Bay out of slightly more than 6000 cfs of Delta inflows.<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"

    Figure 2. The major inputs and outputs from the Delta in summer 2021. DTO = Delta outflow. VNS = San Joaquin River inflow to Delta at Vernalis. FPT = Sacramento River inflow to Delta at Freeport.<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"

    Figure 3. Water temperatures in Delta plus Delta outflow in June-July 2021. FPT = Freeport. DLC = Delta Cross Channel. OH4 = Old River in central Delta.<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"

    Figure 4. Salinity (specific conductance or EC) in the western Delta near Jersey Point 2014-2021. Note three April-July periods highlighted in drought years 2014, 2015, and 2021.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    (Editor\u2019s note: The opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily represent the positions of CSPA.) The Delta is still here, albeit not what it used to be.\u00a0 Yes, the Delta smelt are gone, the striped bass are at historic … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bay-delta"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3950"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3955,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3950\/revisions\/3955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calsport.org\/fisheriesblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}