Judge keeps Delta pumping limits in place

FRESNO - A federal judge turned down California farmers' emergency request Wednesday to suspend water pumping limits in the Delta, limits that are intended to protect threatened smelt.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger means regulators will follow new federal limits on the amount of water they can draw from the Delta, a delicate ecosystem that serves as the hub of California's water supply.

Wednesday's decision was the latest in what has become almost a daily series of legal skirmishes over the pumps.

Just last week, Wanger granted a similar emergency request, allowing water exporters to crank up the export pumps near Tracy because juvenile salmon - which are protected under similar rules - were not in the area. The federal government began pumping at full capacity Saturday, freeing up some water for farmers who had been crippled by two years of limited deliveries. On Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said unrestricted pumping risked pushing not salmon, but smelt, into extinction. Eight smelt were found at the pumps Saturday and eight more Monday as pumping sped up, according to federal data.

"(The exporters) essentially received permission to pump like mad. It brought smelt down (into the south Delta) and started to kill them," Stockton environmentalist Bill Jennings said.

Farmers throughout the fertile San Joaquin Valley argue pumping limits have caused millions of dollars in crop losses as the shortages have forced them to fallow their fields and lay off thousands of farm workers.

An attorney for the Westlands Water District, which gets its water from the Delta, said water districts plan to appeal Wanger's decision.

The state and federal government run massive pumps that siphon drinking and irrigation water from the Delta to more than 25 million Californians and the farms that produce half the nation's fruits and vegetables. The decision could cost residents as far south as San Diego about 90,000 acre-feet of water in the next week alone, the State Water Contractors said late Wednesday.

As a result of Wanger's latest ruling, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to shut off one of its five pumps today.

Those restrictions will serve to protect the smelt and salmon, and they could last until June 30.