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OPINION: State’s New Voluntary Water Agreements Are A Good Deal For Delta Fish, Valley Farms

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Thomas Birmingham and Jason Phillips

Over the past three years, the State Water Resources Control Board has conducted a public process to increase the water flowing to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Delta with the intent of improving declining fish populations. However, an increase in river flow means a reduction in supplies for Californians, who are dependent on them for their lives and livelihoods. There are two approaches to this: painful, mandatory cuts to water supplies or voluntary agreements among water users to achieve specific goals in the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan update.

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Proposal To Increase Delta Water Flows Causes Contention Between Farmers, Fisheries

/in , /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Nadine Sebai

Following nine years of research, a California agency has proposed to increase water flows in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. But the decision is causing contention between farmers and fisheries. The California State Water Resources Control Board says the proposal will prevent an ecological crisis, including the total collapse of fisheries. About 70,000 fall-run Chinook salmon adults returned to the San Joaquin Basin in 1984, but that number fell to just 8,000 in 2014.

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Resurrecting The Delta For Desirable Fishes

/in , /by /California Water Blogby Peter Moyle, Carson Jeffres, John Durand

The Delta is described in many ways. When extolling the Delta as a tourist destination, it is described as a place of bucolic beauty; islands of productive farmland are threaded by meandering channels of sparkling water, a place to boat, fish, view wildlife, and grow cherries and pears. But when its future is discussed, especially in relation to big water projects, this heavenly place is often portrayed as being on its way to an aquatic Hellscape. The Sacramento Bee recently (April 8, 2008) published a reasonable editorial advocating a holistic approach to solving Delta problems.

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