Federal ruling could limit water for Californians

Regulating rivers to protect fish may cost millions

By Michael Gardner
U-T Sacramento Bureau
2:00 a.m. June 5, 2009

SACRAMENTO — Escalating the conflict between fish and people, a powerful federal agency yesterday ordered a new round of safeguards for endangered species that could cost millions of dollars and further drain the state's already over-tapped water supply.

The decision, which will likely be challenged in court, is aimed at protecting Chinook salmon, steelhead and green sturgeon that migrate and spawn along major Northern California rivers: the Sacramento, American and San Joaquin.

The National Marine Fisheries Service also based its sweeping action on the need to protect Southern Resident killer whales, which rely on salmon for food.

There will be no immediate effect on water deliveries out of the Sacramento delta because the fish have already run the river courses this summer, according to Maria Rea, a supervisor in the federal agency's Sacramento office.

Also, the order was crafted to provide “leewayâ€