Are Rice Farmers and the Government Killing Off California’s Salmon?

For the second year in a row, California’s historic drought and record-high temperatures appear to have killed much of the winter-run juvenile salmon population.

But environmentalist groups aren’t placing the blame for the decline of the ecologically and commercially important fish species solely on the drought—they’re suing Central Valley rice farmers, local water districts, and the federal government for diverting too much water from fish habitat.

Led by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmentalists claim that the United States Bureau of Reclamation, which is in charge of the sprawling systems of dams, rivers, culverts, and tributaries that make up the vast water delivery network known as the Central Valley Project, used out-of-date science to justify diverting water to corporate agriculture, leaving fish such as delta smelt and chinook salmon high and dry.

For example, those diversions didn’t leave enough cold water behind Shasta Dam in 2014. During the hot summer months, water managers couldn’t provide the cold-water flows needed to keep salmon eggs and juveniles alive in the Sacramento River. That resulted in the loss of 95 percent of the endangered winter fish run.

“The issues we’re seeing with the chinook salmon are showing that these diversions are having real-world, on-the-ground effects on an endangered species,” said Earthjustice attorney Trent Orr.

The Bureau of Reclamation did not respond to a request for comment.

The claims first arose in 2005, when NRDC filed a suit in U.S. district court in Sacramento arguing that the Central Valley Project and the bureau’s management of the 11 million acre feet of water annually was harming delta smelt and chinook salmon. The judge subsequently required the National Marine Fisheries Service to reassess its 2004 review of the State Water Plan. In a revised biological opinion, NMFS researchers found that the Central Valley Project did cause damage to wildlife habitat and alter water conditions for winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon.

By 2009, NMFS had created new management practices that included requiring the Bureau to keep a certain amount of cold water stored behind Shasta Dam. That water would then be used to keep the water temperature from rising above 56 degrees Fahrenheit during the spring and winter salmon runs.

RELATED: Dams are Being Blown Up All Over America, and That's a Good Thing

But during the interim period between 2004 and 2009, the lawsuit claims the Bureau continued to sign off on 40-year contracts with water districts and rice farmers in the region, allocating water based on 2004 science. Now, the group is suing to have the updated science and the provisions protecting endangered fish species to be included in the new water contracts.

 “Look at what happened in 2014,” Orr said. “They didn’t have the cold water supplies to keep water temperatures where they needed to be. They only had two or three days out of all 90 days of June, July, and August where water temperatures were below 56 degrees—where the eggs need to be—and they were just fried.

“If the problems these salmon have faced the past two years aren’t proof enough that these contracts deserve a second look, I don’t know what will,” Orr said.

New to join the lawsuit is the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations, which has a vested interest in keeping farmers’ hands off California’s river water supplies. For example, the fall run of Chinook salmon from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system remains the one salmon fishery that’s viable for commercial fishers. The winter run and the spring runs through the Sacramento River are listed as endangered and threatened, respectively.

“You’re talking about a commercial fishery worth $1.4 billion when it’s healthy, and it’s decidedly not healthy at this point,” said PCFFA executive director Tim Sloane. “The problems aren’t out here in the ocean, they’re starting inland. There’s a certain privatizing of water resources going on, and it seems to be favoring industrial agribusiness over small boat commercial fishing fleets.”

But some farm groups are firing back. In a blog post, California Rice Commission president Tim Johnson said blaming farmers is unfair.

“Don’t get confused when you see water on the landscape and in a rice field,” Johnson Wrote. “Farmers are 30 percent more efficient with that water used today than they were three decades ago.” And he noted that the habitat created from those fields provides nearly 60 percent of the food needed for Pacific Flyway waterfowl.

While the salmon populations are the focus of this lawsuit, Orr said the end goal is to get the state to look at how water rights are allocated.

“It goes beyond smelt and salmon,” Orr said. “We’re trying to find a way to move us toward reforming and changing the state’s antiquated water supply models, and keep fish from going extinct in the process.”

Related stories on TakePart:

• Why Salmon Might Disappear From the Menu

• Drought-Weary California Tries to Make Wine out of Less Water

• California’s Illegal Pot Farms Are Killing Rare Animals

Original article from TakePart