The Department of Water Resources, which holds permits to appropriate water for the State Water Project, has petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to extend several of those permits for five years to December 31, 2015. Last week, SWRCB noticed the petitions (PDF), allowing protest until September 20. The relevant permits authorize diversions from … Continue reading
The battle for the pumps is on. Quick recap: on February 5, 2010, Judge Wanger issued a 14-day temporary restraining order against one action contained in the NMFS salmonid biological opinion, which (if Wanger had allowed it to be implemented) would have lessened the negative Old & Middle River (OMR) flows. These are the reverse … Continue reading
On June 4, 2009, the National Marine Fisheries Service released a biological opinion that revised a previously invalidated BiOp. The purpose of the 2009 NMFS BiOp is to assess the impacts of water projects in the Delta on several listed species: winter and spring run Chinook salmon, green sturgeon, Central Valley steelhead, and Southern Resident … Continue reading