Article from Central Valley Business Times.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=26055
SAN FRANCISCO
June 11, 2014 12:27pm
- Environmental groups say water transfers are being done improperly
- “May catapult the species into the abyss of extinction”
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is being sued by two environmental groups over what they say are the bureau’s inadequate disclosure, avoidance of impacts, and mitigation of major water transfers from the Sacramento Valley through the Delta to the San Joaquin Valley.
The Bureau proposes to transfer up to 175,226 acre-feet of Central Valley Project surface water to San Luis Delta Mendota Water Authority.
As much as 116,383 acre-feet of that water may be in the form of groundwater, the lawsuit says.
Coinciding with that, the State Water Project and private parties are proposing to transfer another possible 305,907 acre-feet or more of water.
The lawsuit by AquAlliance and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, asks U.S. District Court to declare that the Bureau’s Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact was arbitrary and capricious, ignored relevant new information and failed to meet minimum requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.
“Depleting already stressed aquifers so that special interests can sell and export their surface water to the San Joaquin Valley directly threatens the environment, human health and economic wellbeing of the communities, businesses, and farms of the Sacramento Valley, the groups say.
“Exporting massive quantities of water during periods of negligible Delta outflow draws the low salinity zone into the central Delta and exposes endangered delta smelt to lethal temperatures and entrainment in Delta pumps,” they add.
AquAlliance and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance say Delta flow and water quality standards have been weakened six times in less than 90 days and state and federal agencies are grossly overestimating actual Delta outflows.
“Selling surface water and pumping groundwater places an extraordinary strain on the groundwater basins and streams of the North State that are already taxed by the very dry conditions, past transfers, and local agricultural demand,” says AquAlliance Executive Director Barbara Vlamis.
“For years, USBR has relied upon quick-and-dirty Environmental Assessments and Findings of No Significant Impact instead of the required and long-promised full Environmental Impact Statement that would fully examine the adverse impacts of water transfers on the area of origin and Delta,” she says. “It’s past time for USBR to comply with the law and factually analyze the enormous impacts caused by their water transfers to agricultural interests with junior water rights that chose to plant permanent crops in a desert.”
CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings says that in 2013, excessive water exports and low outflow drew delta smelt from Suisun Bay into the central Delta “where they were butchered by lethal water temperatures.”
He says this year, with fish population levels hovering at historic lows, excessive transfers and exports, relaxed flow standards, high temperatures and negligible outflows “may catapult the species into the abyss of extinction.”
“On top of these threats, we were astonished to discover that the estimates of Delta outflow that state and federal agencies have reported and regulators have relied upon for years are wrong and significantly overestimate outflow in low flow conditions,” Mr. Jennings says. “Indeed, last month there was actually a minus 45 cubic feet per second net outflow to the Bay while DWR and USBR were reporting a plus 3,805 cubic feet per second.”
The Net Delta Outflow Index (NDOI) used to assess compliance with required flow standards is based upon a formula of both actual and estimated data. Examination of tidally filtered outflow data from the U.S. Geological Survey’s state-of-the-art UVM flow meters on the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and Three-mile and Dutch Sloughs reveals that actual Net Delta Outflow (NDO) in low flow conditions are considerably lower.
These USGS sites capture all outflows from the Delta to the Bay. Incredibly, say the two environmental groups, the state’s own evaluation of NDO with the NDOI, as reported on DWR’s Dayflow website and the Dayflow 2013 Comments, reveals that the NDOI significantly overestimates outflow in drier periods.
Any new water transfers will be in addition to the 1,500 cfs of water exports already allowed by State Water Board emergency orders. The total amount of water transfers by the USBR, SWP and private parties is unknown. The State Water Board has been routinely approving virtually all transfer requests without environmental review, they say.