From the Delta Stewardship Council:
At the request of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program has completed facilitating an inde
Juvenile Winter-run Chinook Salmon – an endangered species under both the California and federal Endangered Species Acts – face many threats during their migration through the Sacramento River and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including being drawn into the large pumping facilities of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project and DWR’s State Water Project. To protect the species, federal and state permits for operating the water projects set limits on the number of juvenile salmon that can be drawn into water facilities each year.
Recommendations from this review will help Reclamation and DWR stay within the allowable threshold and include management changes, improvements in monitoring and predictive modeling methods, and expanded information sharing between agencies to reduce the threat to this endangered fish.
The final report was collaboratively prepared by the three panel members, who are subject-matter experts in salmon biology and behavior, hydrodynamics, and water operations.
