Northern Sacramento Valley Water Forum:
Is The Delta Water Plan (SBX 7 1) Draining the Northstate?
March 10, 2010, 2-4 pm, Chico Masonic Family Center

Moderator
Thad Bettner, General Manager, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District

Overview of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)
Karla Nemeth, California Resources Agency

A Fisheries and Habitat Perspective
Chuck Hanson, Hanson Environmental, Inc.

Pros and Cons of Proposed In-Stream Flow Criteria
Dan Kelly, Somach, Simmons and Dunn

An Environmental Perspective
Ann Hayden, Environmental Defense Fund

Potential Implications Discovered through Modeling
Walter Bourez, MBK Engineers

For further information, please call Vickie at (530) 538-2179.

California Water Policy 19 State of Turbulence
March 4-5, 2010
Wilshire Grand Hotel, Los Angeles

Agenda highlights include 12 workshops and the following keynote speakers:

• Peter Beattie, Commissioner, Queensland Government Trade and Investment Office and Former Premier of Queensland, Australia
• James Workman, Author, "Heart of Dryness: How the Last Bushmen Can Help Us Endure the Coming of Age of Permanent Drought".
• Bob Wilkinson, UC Santa Barbara and Noah Garrison, NRDC authors of "A Clear Blue Future: How Greening California Cities Can Address Water Resources and Climate Challenges in the 21st Century".

Register at www.cawaterpolicy.org or 858-272-9627

California Fishing Communities, Tribes and Conservation Groups Defend Salmon, Steelhead, Green Sturgeon and Killer Whales from Industry Attack

A broad coalition of fishing, environmental groups and tribes filed papers in federal court today defending California’s native salmon. The groups oppose legal efforts by commercial water users and large agricultural interests to overturn federal protections for salmon and other species.

Read more here.

Fisheries Service Issues New Rulebook to Protect Imperiled California Salmon

Current operations of state and federal water projects in California’s Central Valley jeopardize endangered California Chinook salmon and steelhead populations, according to a biological opinion filed today by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Today’s announcement also finds that current water operations jeopardize killer whales, which rely on Sacramento River salmon as a major food source.

The opinion establishes a new set of rules under which the state and federal water projects must be operated to protect California’s imperiled salmon. Key measures in the new biological opinion include:

• Requiring more cold water held behind Shasta dam for release during salmon migration and spawning seasons
• Reducing the amount of time Red Bluff Diversion Dam gates are closed, blocking salmon migration
• Modifying operation of Delta Cross Channel Gates to reduce the number of juvenile salmon unnaturally pushed to their deaths by predation and the delta water pumps
• Requiring better flows and colder water to enhance salmon spawning and habitat in the American and Stanislaus rivers
• Reducing water pumping when juvenile salmon are migrating through the delta

Read more about this issue here.