CSPA, AquAlliance and the California Water Impact Network is calling attention to poor government policy that could doom salmon runs in a press release. Currently the Sacramento River is providing exports south of the Delta, draining reservoirs of cold water needed to ensure the survival of native salmon in the Central Valley. Federal and state agencies are exporting this water despite laws and regulations ensuring delta flow and water quality standards. Similar cold water shortages are possible in salmon-bearing streams across the state, including the Klamath, American, Feather, and Trinity.
“The system is fundamentally broken,” Bill Jennings, CSPA’s executive director states in the press release “The State Water Board has assured the Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that it won’t enforce Delta water quality and flow standards. The temperature compliance point on the Sacramento has been moved upstream, eliminating crucial spawning habitat for endangered Winter-run Chinook salmon.”