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Lawmaker urges Delta hearings Fish protection issue would come before Pombo's resources panel

Published in the Stockton Record on 07/29/05

DANA NICHOLS
Record Staff Writer
Published Friday, Jul 29, 2005

STOCKTON -- Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, has asked Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, to direct the powerful House Resources Committee Pombo heads to hold hearings on the environmental crisis killing fish populations in the Delta, which is in Pombo's district.

Pombo has been largely silent on the catastrophic decline in fish species near his home even as many of his peers from the Bay Area call for investigations. Pombo has been an activist on other endangered-species issues, especially advocating for the rights of property owners and seeking to reform the Endangered Species Act.

Resources Committee staffer Brian Kennedy said Pombo was busy Thursday with various conference committee negotiations on major bills and was not available to comment on Miller's request.

Late last year, state and federal biologists sounded an alarm over the decline in fish species in the Delta, including the endangered Delta smelt, threadfin shad and young striped bass.

Environmentalists have long accused federal agencies of caving to political pressure and ignoring factors choking the Delta, including massive exports of water, pollution from farms and cities, the invasion of exotic species, and dredging and shipping projects.

In October, for example, the National Marine Fisheries Service gave its blessing to increasing water exports from the Delta, saying that struggling San Joaquin River steelhead and salmon populations would not be hurt if more water is shipped south.

Similarly, the Fisheries Service last week gave its approval to the Port of Stockton's plans to expand shipping here. The Fisheries Service said in its report that increased shipping would kill hundreds of thousands of young salmon each year but that destroying the San Joaquin River population is not a problem because the species should be able to survive in the Sacramento River.

Now, Miller and other Democrats are also asking why the National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other agencies failed to protect fish. Miller is a former chairman of the Resources Committee and remains a member.

"These disturbing developments in California necessitate increased committee oversight at this time, given the committee's jurisdiction over the CALFED Bay-Delta Program," Miller said in the letter he sent Wednesday.

CALFED, a joint federal-state program now administered by the state, was supposed to both protect the Delta's fish and secure the waterway as a stable water supply for farms and cities.

Political support for CALFED eroded in California, however, as money ran short and conflicts between water interests and environmentalists escalated. Much of the project remains unfinished and unfunded.

Kennedy said Pombo and the Resources Committee are aware of the problems.

"We've had hearings ad infinitum on CALFED," Kennedy said. "And there are any number of studies that are forthcoming on these problems. ...These are not new issues."

Bill Jennings of DeltaKeeper, a Stockton-based group advocating for rivers and fish, said he doubts Miller's letter will inspire Pombo to protect the Delta.

"It will probably have as much effect on Richard Pombo as a mosquito bite on an iron bull," Jennings said.

"If Central Valley fisheries ultimately survive," he added, "it will largely be the result of George Miller."

Contact reporter Dana Nichols at 209 546-8295 or dnichols@recordnet.com

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