california delta smelt controversy

Instead, the largest spike in public interest in the delta smelt by far is in September 2009, when Hannity held his exposé on Fox News. Or hurting? Durand chuckles and combs his fingers through his white goatee. But in California, it's representative of a decades old clash over water allocation. The tiny fish, known as the delta smelt, has helped touch off some of the most cataclysmic battles in California’s unending water wars. Agriculture and nature can work together, Durand says, so long as people are willing to let them. We cover climate change, clean energy, solar power, healthy food, and the national and local politics and policy that make it all possible. Required fields are marked *. “I’d guess at least a thousand or more, but we have no way of actually knowing,” Durand says. 4/25, This area, known locally as “the Delta,” is the lynchpin of California’s water system. A key area of controversy centers on impacts to delta smelt associated with exporting large volumes of freshwater from the estuary to supply California’s significant agricultural and urban water demands. That little fish is the delta smelt. That’s much easier said than done, Rosenfield says. Then the crew lifts the net up, splashes the contents into a bucket. What’s next for smelt? For Trump and Hannity, the delta smelt controversy is not simply about water in California. However, delta smelt continue to take the blame for the water controversy in California, often scapegoated when farmers face challenges involving water. The Delta Smelt is a small fish, endemic to California that only occurs in the San Francisco Estuary. It’s about the politics of “us” and “them.” 8/25 The delta smelt is listed under the Endangered Species Act. CALIFORNIA / Delta smelt numbers plunge / Debate over state's pumping of water after only 25 found Patrick Hoge , Chronicle Staff Writer May 22, 2007 Updated: Jan. 17, 2012 7:36 p.m. Though its historic range encompassed, at different times, the entire Delta and parts of Suisun Bay, our diversion of that freshwater for our own uses has changed the smelt's habitat. 18/25, Hannity and other conservative elites outside of California used the delta smelt’s small size and uncharismatic appearance to suggest that liberals in faraway cities care more about a “stupid little fish” than ordinary Americans. On a warm November morning, John Durand squints over the stern of a small research boat, and gestures toward gray-blue water, and the chaotic tangles of tube-like tule reeds. Last fall, Trump signed a memorandum directing federal agencies to review and roll back environmental standards slowing down the flow of water to farms in the Central Valley. The trouble is, the behemoth pumps run by the state and federal government, which can draw up to 10,000 and 5,500 cubic feet of water per second, respectively, can cause rivers to run backward, sucking smelt and other fish into their system. And thank you. Shortly after the new biological opinions were released, Westlands concluded negotiations to permanently lock in its water service contract, which entitles them to 1.15m acre-feet of water per year – about twice what the city of Los Angeles uses annually. Based on data collected in early 2017, US Fish and Wildlife extrapolated that about 48,000 were still surfing the sloughs, but researchers say it’s unclear how many delta smelt still exist in the wild. 9/25, However, it only entered the national stage in 2009, when Hannity dedicated a special to the species, which alleged “incredible suffering in this region because of a government that has put the interest of a two inch delta smelt … before the people of California” 10/25, The delta smelt would go on to be labeled as a “stupid little fish” by Congressman Devin Nunes. In 2016 Trump pointed to the delta smelt as evidence that “there is no drought” in California. 16/25, The delta smelt controversy reveals important patterns underlying partisan controversies. “The smelt are just a scapegoat,” Rosenfield says. On Thursday, the Trump administration released its final environmental impact statement on the pumping plan, which claims to manage water in an “environmentally and economically sound manner”. Invasive overbite clams and Asian clams have been leaving the smelt with less to eat. But it’s been four years since Durand and his team of researchers from the University of California, Davis, have found the finger-length fish that gleam golden and “smell kind of like cucumber” in the brackish streams and sloughs of northern California’s bay delta. Westlands, he says, is being unfairly antagonized by environmental groups. 19/25, Although protections of the delta smelt are not the cause of California’s water problems, the state’s water system does face threats. (Then the book!) All rights reserved. At the helm, Christopher Jasper, a graduate student, motors forward, dragging the trawl down the slough for five minutes. He and other officials who drafted the reports “are career professionals”, Souza said in a statement to the Guardian. “The ‘real-time management’ part especially has some huge air quotes around it.” The idea is that federal scientists will monitor the water, and signal for the pumps to be turned down. Westlands has reportedly threatened to walk away from state efforts to broker water-sharing deals if Newsom sues. “The problem is, while they’re going through that system of canals, or waiting in a truck, they’re exposed to all these other fish, all these predators that are happily snacking on them the whole time,” says Jon Rosenfield, a fish biologist at San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental watchdog group. 7/25, For Trump and Hannity, the delta smelt controversy is not simply about water in California. “All right, what have we got?” Jasper positions his pen over a clipboard. “At the end of the day, sure, it’s just a crummy little fish and there aren’t a lot of them left,” he says. Is Coca Cola helping the environment? Lovely! We should acknowledge what he is doing and refuse to take the bait. The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by, and do not necessarily represent the views of Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc., its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries. Protections have sometimes placed limits on water extracted from its habitat, although far less than is often claimed. I n late December 2017, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife revealed that its regular fall survey of the delta’s waters had captured a total of two smelt, the lowest in the survey’s 50-year history. The delta smelt lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the West Coast's largest estuary that supplies water to Central Valley farms and millions of Southern California residents. Here it is a thread, I was bombarded w/ messages about Trump’s claims about California water & a “certain little tiny fish,” the delta smelt, the topic of my dissertation & current book project. “The next generations of Californians deserve nothing less.”. I do have an article already out, but it's on a different dimension of the case (https://t.co/v2EgGSMRkm). Because most Delta smelt live for just one year, even temporary environmental changes can decimate the population. Durand says he’s sick of talking about delta smelt. But this time of year, the system could use a bit of nutrient infusion to feed the delta’s fish. But no smelt. Paul Souza, the US Fish and Wildlife official who oversaw the drafting of the biological opinions, says, “there’s absolutely no connection” between Bernhardt’s past work with Westlands and the results presented in the biological opinion. Hannity did not merely report on a controversy. 11/25, A systematic scientific analysis of restrictions on Delta water use refutes these claims. “At this point, they barely register in the ecosystem.”. Delta smelt: the tiny fish caught in California's war with Trump Harbingers of a diminishing ecosystem, the smelt are almost extinct. 24/25, The next time the president makes false claims about water in California, his words should be taken for what they are: an attempt to divide Americans against their common interest in a livable planet. Surveyors from the California fish and wildlife department netted two in 2017, and none since. businessinsider.com, However, the President’s statement, while factually incorrect, was far from unusual. The smelt are poor swimmers, and they’re drawn to cloudy, turbid patches of water, where they like to hide and feed. And after all of that, the smelt may still die from the stress of the whole ordeal, or they may get caught up in the pumps again – rinse and repeat. In theory, diverting water before it reaches the Delta could help restore historic flow patterns through the Delta, lessening the impact on species like the Delta smelt. Trump was merely repeating a narrative that Hannity himself popularized over a decade ago. The agency touted “smarter delta operations through real-time adaptive management and greater management oversight of delta pumping operations informed by updated science” to help the smelt and other endangered species recover even as the mammoth state and federal pumps drained more water out of the ecosystem. California has a new endangered species on its hands in the San Joaquin Valley—farmers. The lack of appropriate data, however, impedes efforts to resolve these issues and develop sound management and restoration alternatives. It is an endemic species that is on verge of extinction, largely because it is in direct competition with people for water. Your email address will not be published. The last time the UC Davis researchers caught one was in 2016. Even as he oversaw a board effort to weaken Endangered Species Act protections to ease conditions for the oil and logging industries, he delivered a huge victory to Westlands, rolling back protections for the delta smelt and the endangered Chinook salmon and paving the way for more pumping. All the while, delta smelt have also been coping with the encroachment of invasive species. 21/25, Scientists argue that the decline of the delta smelt is a warning sign that California’s relationship with water is unsustainable. In response to the federal government’s chipping away of protections for endangered fish, environmental and fishing industry groups have banded together to sue the federal government, as well, alleging that fewer protections for smelt, steelhead trout, and Chinook salmon will devastate the delta ecosystem and commercial fisheries will be the collateral. The major decline and the extinction of these fish has shown a major problem with the delta and is the first domino to fall in the diverse ecology of the delta. In fact, Governor Newsom is currently fast-tracking the construction of the Delta Tunnel, considered potentially the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history by fish advocates, scientists, Tribal leaders, recreational and commercial fishermen, environmental justice leader, family farmers. It is an endemic species that is on verge of extinction, largely because it is in direct competition with people for water. As the one journalist in the country who has covered the demise of the Delta smelt for over 30 years, as well exposing in article after article the underlying cause of the Delta smelt’s march toward towards extinction — deep regulatory capture by corporate agribusiness and other Big Money interests — it’s good to see when somebody else takes interest in the issue. Here it is a thread 1/25 pic.twitter.com/AlNYTCskdq, — Caleb Scoville (@calebscoville) October 14, 2020, The Real Meaning of Trump’s “Bizarre” Claims About California Water Politics: Trump’s recent behavior may be erratic, but his statements on California water politics have been remarkably consistent. Is food grown hydroponically as healthy as soil-grown crops. RedGREENandBlue is part of the Important Media network of blogs working to make the world a better, greener place. Professor of Sociology at Tufts University, that confirms everything that I have discussing in my articles for decades. 2/25, In one of his first interviews after being diagnosed with COVID-19, President Trump complained to Sean Hannity of Fox News that California has to “ration” water because it pours its supply into the sea to “take care of certain little tiny fish.” 3/25, The fish in question is the delta smelt, an endangered species that is found only in the northeastern part of San Francisco Bay, where it receives the flow of the mighty rivers that drain the Sierra Nevada. In February this year, the president nominated David Bernhardt to serve as his interior secretary. “Everybody wants to be the good guy, and do right by the environment,” he says. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST. In response, the federal reclamation commissioner, Brenda Burman, derided Newsom’s preference “to have judges dictate these important projects instead of the career professionals at the federal and state levels who have developed a plan based on the best science and significant input from the public.” If Californians want a legal fight, she said in a statement to the Guardian, “that’s their choice, we’ll see them in court”. Their numbers dipped even lower after a period of extended drought in the late 80s and early 90s, then lower still during California’s most recent drought, which lasted from 2012 through 2016. Birmingham points out that the provision to convert its contract is courtesy of a 2016 law, which was approved by a bipartisan Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama. Before joining the administration, Bernhardt worked as a lobbyist and lawyer for the Westlands Water District, the nation’s largest agricultural water contractor. The federally endangered delta smelt, a minnow on the brink of extinction, is at the heart of a bitter struggle over the use of California’s most important estuary, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. If enough fresh water isn’t, to paraphrase Donald Trump, shoved out to sea, the sea will shove into shore, flooding the estuary with salt water. “As biologists, we call those ecosystem inputs,” he says with a laugh. Protections have sometimes placed limits on water extracted from … “As stewards of this state’s remarkable natural resources, we must do everything in our power to protect them,” Newsom announced. Because they want to take care of certain little tiny fish.’, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8mh3r97j…. 23/25, Stoking partisan resentment by mobilizing the delta smelt has become an electorally convenient way to avoid talking about climate change and other systemic environmental problems that threaten humans and aquatic ecosystems alike. Even if they could, turning down the pumps isn’t quite as easy as shutting off a faucet. In 2014, Bernhardt represented Westlands in an appeals case challenging Endangered Species Act protections for delta smelt. “We have led this effort with our teams over the past year and this is a career conservation professional documentation.”. That’s what the Romans did to punish their enemies.”In most years between 2011 and 2018 – at peak drought – maintenance issues, and a lack of storage capacity limited pumping more than the smelt did, as did protections for other threatened and endangered fish. So, why do they still get so many Californians so riled up? On October 14, Restore the Delta shared a thread from Caleb Scoville Ph.D., Asst. AB 1325, as introduced, Salas. Watchdog groups say Bernhardt hasn’t quite kept his word. But it’s pretty hard to know where exactly the smelt are – after all, they’ve eluded researchers for years. During these dry spells, California’s cities and farms needed to pump more and more delta water – leaving these fish without enough fresh, cold water to survive. Last modified on Tue 24 Dec 2019 18.16 EST. Delta smelt. Found only in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, the smelt is an indicator species that shows the health of the ecosystem. 22/25, Even when detached from underlying reality, political symbols like the delta smelt have consequences. Underlying many of these issues is the climate crisis, which has fueled extended periods of drought and heatwaves that have made the waters uncomfortably warm for smelt, and other species struggling to survive in a shifting delta ecosystem. That would have been enough to sustain 6.4 million Californians for six years. California’s state government has joined the morass as well: California’s governor Gavin Newsom declared that the state is drafting litigation as well. “The whole process is just beautiful,” he says. Delta smelt nears extinction The survival of a tiny fish, the delta smelt, is threatened by a lack of freshwater flows to its habitat. © 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. “American shad, 67mm,” yells Caroline Newell, her indigo hair exploding out of the back of her UC Davis baseball cap. “Even if the smelt disappeared, and we no longer had to worry about protecting them, it’s not like we could get much more water out of the system.”. Harbingers of a diminishing ecosystem, the smelt are almost extinct. Back on the research boat, as an afternoon of sampling winds down, and the weather warms and mellows and stills, it’s impossible not to notice the spicy scent of dung and fertilizer in the air. The multi-story state and federal pumping plants operate in tandem and are powerful enough to make rivers flow backward. It’s not just the overpumping, but the pumps themselves that have strained the smelt. It will be interesting to see if 2020 will be the third year the smelt goes missing from the fall CDFW survey, but we won’t find out the results until late December of this year. For Trump and Hannity, the delta smelt controversy is not simply about water in California. For the second year in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s annual fall midwater trawl survey in 2019 found zero Delta smelt during the months of September, October, November and December. Decades of water exports and environmental degradation under the state and federal governments have brought the smelt to the edge of extinction. “I don’t know how much more stress the system can take.”, Available for everyone, funded by readers. The smelt inhabits the boundary between fresh and salt water in the Delta, where ocean tides that bring saltwater into the estuary from the Pacific Ocean meet freshwater flows from California's rivers. From the deck of the research boat, gliding down Cache Slough, it’s easy enough to imagine how the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta used to look – before the Gold Rush, before colonial settlers built their farms and ranches, before they constrained the marsh with levees and cut its flow with dams and diversions, before massive pumps began sucking it dry, before all the infrastructure drove native wildlife to the brink of extinction. “Cache Slough right here had been known as a hotspot for delta smelt,” he says. Over the course of the day, they count a total of 78 fish, including some native species, like the splittail, and some invasive ones, including a massive catfish. Even Donald Trump has an opinion on the delta smelt. At a March 2016 campaign rally in Fresno, California – in the state’s agricultural heartland – then presidential candidate Trump mocked the environmentalists who were desperate “to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish”. Westlands contests that the biological opinion benefits them in any way. During the presidential campaign, the lowly smelt turned up in Donald Trump’s gunsights, when he repeated California farmers’ claim that the government was … Thanks go to Dr. Scoville for writing this tweet thread and Restore the Delta for sharing it. Because they want to take care of certain little tiny fish.’ Does he think we’ll see any today? Interest in the species does not track its effect on water policy. 25/25. By the time the two agencies coordinate with each other and taper down the pumping, “these fish are already dying”, Rosenfield says. Dung from these cows, and runoff from the nut orchards and fruit farms a few yards inland infuse nutrients into the water that triggers algal blooms. You've probably never heard of it. It’s unclear how many smelt are left in the estuary. New reports, called biological opinions, released in October and overseen by the department’s Fish and Wildlife Service found that the salmon wouldn’t be imperiled, and a separate delta smelt opinion similarly concluded that the fish would be just fine. Now, the creatures caught in the crossfire of the state’s water wars have all but disappeared, and biologists worry that newly empowered forces within the Trump administration could usher them into oblivion. The slender-bodied fish typically reaches about 60-70 mm to a maximum size of about 120 mm (Figures 1, 2 and 3). When regulations governing the species’ protection were being attacked in federal courts in the late 2000s, conservative opinion leaders seized on an opportunity to blame liberal environmentalists in cities for CA’s water woes. Most importantly, it demonstrates the immense power of media personalities. The minuscule delta smelt, a ... outsize importance this weekend when Donald Trump speculated that it may be responsible for drought-stricken Fresno, California’s water woes. 09339-3, Your email address will not be published. “I believe that, having talked to some of the local farmers and ranchers in this area.”, The trouble is, once environmental groups and government officials start talking about reallocating water rights and rationing, “those are triggers, those are fighting words in California”, he says. Delta Smelt and Water Politics in California February 13, 2018 Journal Reviews The Delta Smelt Hypomesus transpacificus is a small translucent fish that lives in the heart of California’s water distribution system. Many lawsuits have been filed in a dispute over the amount of water that … I was bombarded w/ messages about Trump’s claims about California water & a “certain little tiny fish,” the delta smelt, the topic of my dissertation & current book project. 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