Protecting freshwater environment will limit water for users

By WES SANDER
Capital Press

SACRAMENTO -- A draft report by the state Department of Water Resources says future water deliveries will suffer more than previously expected from the impacts of current environmental rules and projected climate change.

The report shows a "continuing erosion" of the state's ability to maintain its water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The report, the latest in a series published over the past decade, shows present-day Delta pumping shrinking under the weight of regulations to protect fish and future efforts to preserve the Delta's freshwater environment.

The report is one in a bi-annual series started in 2002. Only the current report and the 2007 version factored in climate change. The previous report accounted for altered amounts and patterns of runoff; the updated report further factors Delta impacts from rising sea levels.

As oceans rise, the state will increase Delta outflows to repel saltwater, which will further restrict Delta pumping, the report stated.

The current report reflects impacts from two biological opinions -- one by the National Marine Fisheries Service in June to protect salmon, and one by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2008 to protect the Delta smelt.

The reports show a decline of about 500,000 acre-feet in the median amount of water the state has expected to deliver since 2005, when DWR estimated it could deliver a median amount of 3.2 million acre-feet annually. It now estimates 2.7 million acre-feet.

Regarding future deliveries, climate-change impacts contribute to a 970,000 acre-foot reduction in the projections of future deliveries that the state has made in the past half-decade. The 2005 report projected the state would deliver a median amount of 3.6 million acre-feet annually over the next two decades. The current report shrinks that number to 2.6 million acre-feet.

Public comments on the report are due by March 5.