Bakersfield.com: Kern County news, events, classifieds, shopping, & search

RSS Feed   Print Story   E-mail Story        

Fuller, Parra call on state to release water

BY STEVEN MAYER, Californian staff writer
e-mail: smayer@bakersfield.com | Thursday, Jun 14 2007 10:05 PM

Last Updated: Thursday, Jun 14 2007 10:08 PM

Two local Assembly members called on state water officials Thursday to immediately resume full releases of State Water Project water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

In a release Thursday, Assemblywoman Jean Fuller, R-Bakersfield, blamed the May 31 shutdown of the Delta pumps on "the environmental lobby and some Democrats" in what she said was a badly timed attempt to reduce losses of the endangered Delta smelt.

State water officials, however, said the shutdown was accomplished to protect declining numbers of the small, silvery fish, which are native to the delta. They called it a temporary measure.

Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, also called for the resumption of state water flows. In her letter, she noted the Delta smelt population has migrated away from the pumps as Delta and Bay waters have seasonally warmed.

In Parra's letter to the director of the State Department of Water Resources, she noted she co-signed a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on May 25 requesting his intervention to remedy the smelt problem.

"I signed this letter, in part, due to my belief the governor and members of his administration hold a better position to remedy this situation than to allow a further deterioration of the population that would most likely invite federal court intervention under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act," Parra wrote.

The letter "did not specify what action the governor should initiate," Parra said, "and it certainly did not call for a shutdown of the State Water Project's Banks Pumping Plant."

Fuller also refers to the letter, but in a more critical light.

"On May 25, before the pumps were turned off, Democrat Assemblywoman Lois Wolk and her liberal colleagues on the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee sent a letter to Gov. Schwarzenegger demanding cutbacks in water exports from the Delta," Fuller wrote. "They were concerned that the pumps were taking in smelt, an endangered fish. Ms. Wolk and the other Democrats on the committee claimed that the Delta smelt population was 'down to a handful.'

"If this was in fact the case," Fuller continued, "Democrats should have known this issue was on the horizon and the pumps should have been shut down only as a last resort."

Kern water officials discussed the Delta problem with Schwarzenegger Thursday. Managers with the Kern County Water Agency have said the county could suffer more than $100 million in economic impacts if water deliveries are not returned to normal by early July.