The state and federal owners of massive water export pumps in the Delta have asked a judge to grant them additional time to prepare a new operating plan to protect threatened fish.
The state Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation face a Sept. 15 court deadline to deliver a new biological opinion on their operations to protect the Delta smelt. The document, produced in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sets operating limits for the pumps to minimize harm to fish.
The agencies lost a federal lawsuit over their operations last year, and federal district Judge Oliver Wanger in December ordered them to prepare a new biological opinion.
The two giant pumping systems near Tracy kill millions of fish -- smelt and other species -- every year in the process of exporting water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. About 25 million Californians in the Bay Area and Southern California depend on that water.
In a letter to Judge Wanger today, the water agencies asked for three more months to prepare the biological opinion, saying they "no longer believe it will be possible" to meet the Sept. 15 deadline. The Bee reported July 1 that the Fish and Wildlife Service repeatedly pleaded with Reclamation to provide more data to complete the study in time, but got no response.
Kate Poole, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said today her group won't contest the request for a deadline extension to Dec. 15.
"Our primary concern is that they do the biological opinion right, rather than fast," Poole said.
Call The Bee's Matt Weiser, (916) 321-1264.
