Fishing and Conservation Groups Sue to Block Delta Tunnels Project

SAN FRANCISCO (June 29, 2017) - Conservation and fishing groups filed litigation today challenging the biological opinions issued Monday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service that pave the way for construction and operation of California WaterFix, the massive tunnels project that experts say will further devastate fisheries and water quality of the San Francisco Bay-Delta.

According to the lawsuits — which were brought by Golden Gate Salmon Association, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Defenders of Wildlife and The Bay Institute — the biological opinions violate the Endangered Species Act. While the biological opinions identify significant harm to winter-run Chinook salmon and other threatened and endangered species from the construction and operation of the proposed project, they do not identify how the massive new diversion tunnels can and should be operated to prevent that harm. Decades of increasingly unsustainable water diversions have brought several of the Central Valley’s migratory and resident fish to the brink of extinction; the proposed project is expected to increase these diversions.

“This version of the tunnels will wipe out California’s salmon fishery and the families and communities that rely on salmon,” said John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association. “The problem is the state basically allowed the water users to design the tunnels and they’re so huge that the federal fish and wildlife agencies are basically throwing up their hands. It’s like they let the fox design the hen house so of course he made it easy to rob.”

The lawsuit claims that the biological opinions not only unlawfully fail to protect native salmon and other fish from extinction, but allow river conditions to degrade further. The biological opinions also fail to consider the long-term effects of the project after its scheduled opening in 2031. The lawsuits also claim that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to use the best available science in its biological opinion.

“Politics has trumped science once again,” says Doug Obegi , senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council’s water program. “Instead of fixing the major environmental problems with the project, the agencies tasked with protecting our natural resources are making things worse and assuming that someone else will fix them down the line.”

The tunnels would divert millions of acre-feet of water from rivers before it reaches the Bay-Delta. Studies indicate that reduced water flows into, through and out of the Delta damage water quality in the San Francisco Bay estuary. Freshwater flows are particularly important to endangered species, including two populations of Chinook salmon, steelhead, green sturgeon and two species of smelt.

“Decades of research and study demonstrate that unsustainable diversion of water from the San Francisco Bay estuary is the single most important factor driving the decline of numerous fish and wildlife populations,” said Jonathan Rosenfield, lead scientist for The Bay Institute. “The tunnels do not change that reality and neither will an amorphous ‘adaptive management’ program that amounts to wishful thinking. The agencies need to come to grips with the negative impacts of maintaining the unsustainable status quo now, not after the concrete has been poured.”

“By green-lighting WaterFix, the federal government is green lighting extinction,” said Rachel Zwillinger , water policy advisor for Defenders of Wildlife. “The proposed Delta tunnels could be the nail in the coffin for native fish like Chinook salmon and Delta smelt, causing them to disappear from the San Francisco Bay-Delta forever. We’re going to court to ensure that WaterFix meets the requirements of the Endangered Species Act so that our children and grandchildren can experience the ecological treasure that is the Bay-Delta.”