The groups claim that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has failed to abide by restrictions on the harming, trapping or killing of fish.
By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service
The San Francisco Baykeeper and others sued the federal government on Monday, accusing it of harming fish protected by the Endangered Species Act.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the River and baykeeper claim that pumping excessive amounts of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta hurts fish like the Central Valley steelhead, North American green sturgeon and Chinook salmon.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s operation of the Central Valley Project affects factors like water temperature and salinity. Those factors, along with the volume and direction of the water, cause fish to swim into harmful environments, the conservation groups say in their suit.
The Central Valley Project is a large system that moves water from the delta to the Central Valley, mostly for agricultural use. In addition to changing water temperature, it also blocks access to fish breeding areas, the groups say.
“The delta is the irreplaceable home of iconic and endangered California fish, like salmon and steelhead, and we can’t let Trump’s reckless pumping destroy it,” said Harrison Beck, staff attorney with the center, in a statement. “If the Trump administration continues to pump as much water as it can out of the delta ecosystem, we may lose these native fish forever. We can’t allow mass extinction when it’s entirely avoidable.”
The groups ask a federal judge to declare that the bureau has violated the act and stop it from taking action that harms the endangered fish.
According to the groups, the act requires the bureau to consult the National Marine Fisheries Service to ensure its actions don’t imperil protected species or their habitat. A 2024 biological opinion issued by the service contains restrictions on bureau operations and mandates certain actions it must take to limit any impacts.
The bureau has exceeded its take limits — restrictions on harming, trapping or killing — in that opinion, the groups say.
“The bureau continues to violate the water export rules it proposed as recently as 2024,” said Eric Buescher, managing attorney for San Francisco Baykeeper, in a statement. “Those rules, which were embedded in permits to operate the Central Valley Project, are inadequate to protect San Francisco Bay’s endangered fishes. But the adequacy of the rules won’t matter if the bureau refuses to comply with them.”
The groups say the bureau has exceeded its take limits for Central Valley steelhead and North American green sturgeon. Data showed that a three-year rolling average loss of juvenile steelhead was over the 2,319 limit.
Additionally, the bureau “salvaged” 20 green sturgeon in water year 2025. The annual take limit is 14, they add.
The bureau is required by the opinion to work with the state Department of Water Resources when it exceeds certain loss thresholds for Chinook salmon and adjust its water flows according to a formula. The groups say it failed to comply with the requirement.
“Every time the bureau violates the already minimal protections that are in place for California Bay-Delta species listed under the Endangered Species Act, the agency is pushing these species that much closer to permanent and irreversible extinction,” said Gary Bobker, program director at Friends of the River, in a statement.
The suit comes as the bureau is prepping to increase water flows from the delta in future years — a response to an executive order by President Donald Trump, despite the harm that will cause the protected fish, the groups say.
The Bureau of Reclamation couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
