Smelt ruling may cut into water supply

A federal judge Friday ordered protective measures for a tiny endangered fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a mandate state water officials warned could cut Northern California water exports to Southern California by a third or more.

Environmental lawyers disputed the officials' draconian assessment of U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger's decision to protect the delta smelt, a creature that biologists say is facing extinction in large part because of increased pumping from the delta. The fish are weak swimmers and tend to be sucked into the water system's massive pumps and killed.

Water officials said the judge's decision could be the most significant ever on the state's ability to deliver water through the delta, the key crossroads for the movement of water supplies to Southern California.

In a normal water year, they said, deliveries through the delta could be cut by up to 37% -- a loss of enough water to supply upward of 4 million households. Dry years could see smaller cuts, but there would be less water to begin with.

"It means there will be less water delivered than we normally do," said Jerry Johns, deputy director of the state Department of Water Resources, which runs the California Aqueduct.

The decision comes in a suit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice against the Department of Interior and water agencies, among others.

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