EDITORIAL: Sewage dumping is part of Delta's problem
By: Alex Breitler

The National Academy of Sciences has begun five days of hearings at UC Davis on federal water pumping restrictions aimed at protecting fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

We urge the panel to also look at the impact of dumping treated sewage into the Delta. Sacramento and other cities dump millions of gallons of treated sewage into the Delta on a daily basis. That practice is hurting the fish population.

Some critics suggest that the real purpose of the hearings is to help Sen. Dianne Feinstein shore up her support among farmers in the San Joaquin Valley. But these same critics don't seem to be bothered by Northern California cities using the Delta as a toilet.

This is the kind of hypocrisy that has turned the state water system into a political pawn.

At issue at the hearings, which began Sunday, are federal wildlife regulations that protect steelhead, sturgeon, Delta smelt and two runs of salmon. At certain times of the year, the regulations set limits on reservoir operations and water diversions so fish aren't sucked into the Delta's water pumps.

Two scientific panels have released finding on the impact of water flows on the smelt. But the scientists have ducked the question of how treated sewage affects the species.

Valley farmers have lost irrigation supplies to the pumping rules. In September, Stewart Resnick of Paramount Farms, asked Feinstein for an outside review. Feinstein, who has received significant campaign contributions from Resnick and other farmers, helped get the NAS review. The study will take more than two years and cost an estimated $1.5 million.

We hope that Feinstein is right in asserting that the academy's review could lead to more informed decisions about the Delta. But if the panel doesn't look at all the causes -- farm pumping, sewage dumping, urban pesticide runoff -- we won't get an accurate picture.

The battle over Delta water has gone on for decades, yet the parties refuse to acknowledge all the causes of degradation.

We're not going to get any closer to resolving the conflict until we deal with all the reasons that fish are dying.