By Robin Meadows
A decade ago, California fish advocates and water suppliers seldom crossed paths except as entrenched opponents in a court of law. Worse, both sides often drew opposite conclusions from the same science on how the state’s massive water delivery projects affect Delta smelt, salmon, and other species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Finally, in 2013, a judge decided he’d had enough.
“The courts got tired of hearing differing interpretations of the science,” says Samuel Luoma, a University of California, Davis research ecologist who has worked in the Bay-Delta for decades. “The judge said, ‘You guys need to start talking to each other―don’t argue it out in front of me!’”
The resulting court order sparked the Collaborative Science and Adaptive Management Program (CSAMP), a surprisingly little known effort considering that it literally brings top people from environmental nonprofits, water agencies, and state and federal fish and wildlife agencies to the same table. Program participants have undertaken the difficult task of finding science-based common ground for safeguarding both fish and the water supply. The former are increasingly imperiled and the latter is increasingly uncertain, as California restricts groundwater pumping and as climate change intensifies drought.
“For the first year and a half we were reporting to the judge―he was skeptical,” says Bruce DiGennaro, who has been involved with the CSAMP since its inception and has facilitated the high-level policy group that comprises the program’s top tier for eight years. But the program has stood the test of time, continuing and even expanding after the court order that led to its formation ended in 2015.
“We didn’t have to exist anymore but all parties decided they wanted to keep it going,” DiGennaro says. “Courts are not the best place to discuss science―we work together and try to resolve the issues.”
CSAMP BASICS
The CSAMP’s 17-member policy group ranges from leaders of the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and Defenders of Wildlife as well as directors of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and the state Department of Water Resources.
“Our job is to dig into the science behind the issues and to propose new studies to try to resolve them,” explains DiGennaro, who has worked on Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta programs for 30 years. “Talking things through decreases misunderstandings and increases understanding of different perspectives and interpretations of the data―there end up being more points of agreement and we often come to consensus by working together.”
The policy group is supported by the 13-member Collaborative Adaptive Management Team (CAMT), which helps hash out the nitty-gritty of the science and also commissions studies to help settle points of disagreement. In turn, technical teams carry out or oversee these studies.
“We try to walk that tricky line of talking about things we don’t agree on―it’s like any negotiation, it’s about trust and finding things we can agree on,” says Luoma, who co-chairs the CAMT and represents environmental organizations. His fellow co-chair is Darcy Austin, who is Science Manager for State Water Contractors and represents public water agencies.
“This effort tries to get us away from litigation and to get us talking,” Austin says. “We’re moving away from combat science where one person says one thing and another person says another―sometimes about the same study.”
Much of the CSAMP’s impact is invisible because there’s no way to measure how many lawsuits the program has forestalled. DiGennaro calls this a “silent outcome.” Luoma puts it this way: “Our focus is not products but process, and this kind of process is slow and cumbersome but everyone agrees on the value of getting together.”
HOT BUTTON ISSUES
The CSAMP tackles long-standing conflicts between environmental groups and water suppliers. “We’ve addressed three major sticking points,” DiGennaro says. One is how outflows―the amount of water flowing through the Delta to the ocean―affect Delta smelt. Another point of dispute is how water exports affect young salmon in the south Delta. “There’s been a lot of argument and debate,” DiGennaro says. “Exports are restricted when inflows are less than a certain level.”
A third hotly debated issue is how to lessen losses of Delta smelt to the pumps that export water from the south Delta to the Central Valley Project and State Water Project. These entrainment losses hinge on the direction of flows in Old and Middle rivers, which are the main channels in the south Delta. Water exports can reverse these flows, make the rivers―and so the fish―run backwards towards the pumps instead of toward the sea. A big question was whether slowing the pumps to limit reverse flows in Old and Middle rivers would protect Delta smelt.
While the first two sticking points remain contentious, DiGennaro, Luoma and Austin rightly count resolving the third as a huge achievement. A recent study commissioned by the CSAMP confirmed that limiting reverse flows in Old and Middle rivers actually does protect Delta smelt. “People really don’t argue about that anymore,” DiGennaro says. Some might contend that the point is moot because Delta smelt are all but gone. But knowing how to protect them is still critical because state and federal agencies are working to supplement the wild population with hatchery fish.
VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS
Some controversies are too fraught for the CSAMP to wade into. Participants tried addressing the proposed voluntary agreements, which would give water agencies a say in the Delta inflow and outflow standards meant to protect fish and wildlife. But voluntary agreements proved so divisive that the CSAMP lost some members, particularly from the environmental and fishing communities, and decided to table further discussions.
That said, CSAMP studies and reports could still inform voluntary agreements. “Our products could get picked by voluntary agreements, if they pass,” DiGennaro says. “Our role would be to identify things you could do, model their expected benefits, and monitor to see how they work.”
HELPING FISH, NOT JUST PROTECTING THEM FROM HARM
Now the CSAMP is moving beyond “simply” protecting at-risk fish from water project operations to finding ways to boost their populations. “We’re looking more towards recovery of Delta smelt and salmon,” Austin says, explaining that endangered species regulations only require offsetting the impacts of supplying water to people. Luoma adds: “This is something we all can agree on, that we’d all like to see.”
The move, which comes as Delta Smelt and Central Valley salmon have declined to historically low levels, reflects the fact that water project diversions are far from the only threats to fish. Other stressors include climate change, which can make water too warm for fish, and drought. “We’ve opened our eyes to working beyond the Delta,” DiGennaro says. “It’s connected to the whole watershed, and salmon migrate throughout the Central Valley.”
The CSAMP launched its recovery-focused initiatives by identifying Central Valley-wide management actions to reverse the declines of both Delta Smelt and salmon. “It’s super exciting,” DiGennaro says. “We used life-cycle models to test different scenarios to see what combination of actions could get you to recovery.”
These initiatives showed that saving these fish is doable. “The great thing is both efforts have found actions that get you to recovery,” DiGennaro says.
The key is addressing multiple factors that stress fish, not only the water projects. “There’s no silver bullet,” DiGennaro says. For Delta smelt, pivotal stressors include water that is too clear or too warm ―not just flows and diversions―as well as lack of the tidal marshes that produce the tiny creatures fish eat. Turbid water helps these nearly translucent fish avoid predation; higher water temperatures can favor predators such as largemouth bass and can also increase the risk of diseases.
For salmon, pivotal stressors include lack of floodplain nurseries and other habitats as well as hatchery and harvest practices. For example, straying hatchery salmon interbreed with wild-born salmon―which are genetically distinct―and commercial and recreational fisheries catch not only hatchery salmon but also the dwindling wild-born salmon.
But ameliorating these fish-stressing conditions will likely come at a considerable cost in terms of dollars and the state’s water supply. Next steps for the CSAMP include evaluating the costs of recovering Delta smelt and salmon, and developing a roadmap toward implementing recovery actions. “We can actually do it―the science says we can do it,” DiGennaro says. The question is: are we willing to pay for it?
