Being shut down too long, more than a couple weeks, will create some serious issues focusing attention to the underlying rationale for water storage and delivery.
Delta pumps haltedIf shutdown is long, agencies may order conservation or rationing.
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, June 1, 2007
California water officials on Thursday halted water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta after rising numbers of a rare fish, the Delta smelt, were sucked to their deaths in the pumps.
State Department of Water Resources officials said the action is expected to last seven to 10 days, until water conditions allow the fish to move to safer areas. Shortages are not expected for the 25 million Californians who get water from the Delta.
But if the shutdown lasts longer, some water agencies, mainly in the Bay Area, may have to impose mandatory conservation or rationing measures. Many have called on customers to adopt extra voluntary conservation steps amid what is already one of the driest years on record in the state.
"Nobody is going without water," said DWR Director Lester Snow. "We will ramp up efforts for additional conservation. We want everybody to conserve water both because of this circumstance and the low snowpack this year."
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also has shut down all but one of the six pumps at its separate, federal Delta water export facility, an unprecedented step.
"We have never been in the situation we are right now," said bureau spokesman Jeff McCracken.
