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Editorial: Little fish, big bad idea
Smelt hatcheries would just be a waste
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, June 30, 2008
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B4
Even during a drought, goofy ideas flow through the Legislature like sludge in a sewer. The latest one? Sen. Dean Florez's plan to build factories for the Delta smelt.
The smelt, as you might recall, is a finger-length fish that lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It's threatened with extinction. Invasive species and lost habitat have hurt these little fish. So have the Delta's water pumping plants, which kill smelt directly, and alter the estuary's natural flows.
Last year, a federal judge cut back the pumping because of evidence the smelt were on the brink of oblivion. Ever since, cities and San Joaquin Valley farms dependent on the pumps have scrambled for remedies.
Some of this energy has been fruitful. Stakeholders have put extra effort into ideas to restore the Delta and reexamine its plumbing. But some of that energy has been misplaced. Exhibit A: the smelt factory idea.
Florez, who represents the farm region of Kern County, wants the state to build up to three hatcheries for Delta smelt, including one by 2010. Costs are unknown, but taxpayers would pick up the tab for construction. Water users would pay the ongoing costs of propagating smelt – getting mitigation credit for continuing to kill fish in the pumps.
This idea is nutty. Even if these hatcheries helped water users dodge a bullet in court, they'd do nothing for other troubled Delta species – including longfin smelt and shad.
It also probably would do little to help the Delta smelt. "Trying to keep Delta smelt going by raising them in hatcheries and releasing them is like trying to raise sheep in a drought-seared pasture surrounded by a forest full of wolves," wrote Peter Moyle, one of the state's leading fish biologists, in an analysis of the bill.
Despite such warnings, the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee approved Florez's legislation Tuesday and now Senate Bill 994 is headed to the appropriations committee. It shouldn't go further than that. During a budget meltdown, lawmakers shouldn't be wasting their time and our money on smelt factories. Fishy business, indeed.
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