October 30, 2008

Water Diversions Threaten Smelt
Blame for Diamond Valley’s
launch ramp closure rests with
the radical environmentalists

The public boat launch ramp at Southern California’s most productive freshwater fishery, Diamond Valley Lake, closed at the end of the day on Oct. 13th. Boat launching at this facility was suspended until water levels come back up in the lake. That won’t happen until at least well after the first of the year, and it could take a lot longer. A lot longer.
There are murmurs it could take a year or two or more.
This launch closure will affect hundreds of anglers each week. Last year, there were 12,800 private boat launches at the lake, an average of nearly 250 launches per week, and the number was increasing each year since the lake opened.
The Metropolitian Water District is trying to look out for anglers by opening up an additional five miles of steep lakeshore to shore fishing, but the reality is that without boat launching and the availability of rental slips, Diamond Valley Lake is going to become a sleepy place. Arguably the best bass, trout, and catfish lake in the region, it is going to be largely untouched by anglers.
You can place the blame for this closure squarely on the shoulders of the radical environmental community that has battled against sound water transfer measures for decades in this state. All proposals and plans to increase water shipments to Southern California have been squashed by these groups for years, and then they sued in federal court to protect the endangered Delta smelt from the siphons in the Delta that ship water south through the California Aqueduct.
They stop any new, environmentally better solution, and then they sue over the old ones already in place. They don’t want any water to come south. Period.
The five-year-old Diamond Valley Reservoir reached full pool in June, 2006, and it has been dropping since that time, and only a small part of that water decline was due to drought. Reacting to the environmentalists and to protect the smelt, a judge stopped water diversions from the delta for much of this year and water deliveries were greatly reduced for all users. For the MWD and Diamond Valley Lake, water supplies from the California aqueduct were cut this year alone by 250,000-acre feet, or about 30 percent of the water historically pumped from the Delta by MWD.
“That water would be in Diamond Valley right now had we not been faced with pumping restrictions because of the Delta smelt,” said Bob Muir, a spokesman for the MWD.
With that water, DVL would be full and there would be no interruption in recreational use at DVL and no threats of water shortages throughout Southern California. Let me say that again: Diamond Valley Lake should be at full pool right now. This isn’t about a lack of water. It’s about a lack of common sense.
No one is arguing that the water diversions from the Delta are not threatening that great ecosystem and its fisheries. The Delta smelt’s problems are real. Wild salmon and steelhead stocks in the Delta are also dramatically lower than just a decade ago.
But the blame rests not with the pumps and aqueducts that bring water south, the blame lies with the environmental community that refuses to allow for alternative water storage and transportation facilities. These people fought against the peripheral canal, which would have protected the Delta better than all their lawsuits. It is all but impossible to build a new reservoir in California because of extreme environmental law and the threat of lawsuits.
Unless you buy into their world view of no swimming pools, rock lawns (instead of grass ones), elimination of golf courses, total water recycling and water conservation, and restoration of all environmental systems to some mythical pre-human influence, your opinion doesn’t matter. If they had their way, no one would be fishing on any reservoir in Southern California and water would cost more than gasoline.
From bad science that calls for marine sanctuaries without sportfishing, to environmentally driven oil policies that forbid local offshore drilling (even with $3.50 per gallon gasoline), to “wilderness” designations supported by only a tiny fraction of the public, today’s environmentalists are social engineers, not protectors of resources.
What happened at Diamond Valley this fall is just proof they are winning.