From Estuary News:
After two critically dry years that coincided with Trump-era rollbacks to environmental protections, some iconic Delta fish are closer than ever to the point of no return. Last fall, for the second year in a row, the fall midwater trawl found zero wild Delta smelt, while a coalition of environmentalists and fishermen is asking a federal court to help prevent a repeat of 2021’s near-obliteration of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon. Their lawsuit is just one of the balls to watch this spring as several projects and processes that could radically affect how much water flows through the Delta, and when, percolate.
“There’s a lot going on right now, kind of bubbling just below the surface,” says the Natural Resource Defense Council attorney Doug Obegi. NRDC is one of the parties to the lawsuit seeking to ensure that State Water Project and Central Valley Project operations protect salmon and other species. Last year, the projects released water from Lake Shasta early in the year, and did not leave enough cold water behind Shasta Dam to maintain cool water temperatures in the Sacramento River Basin during the winter-run spawning season.
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