Farmers Fight Endangered Species Act

SAN FRANCISCO — Central Valley farmers, worried that some of their historic supply of cheap water may be taken to save a dwindling salmon species, are gearing up for a major political fight over federal protections for endangered animals.

Like the loggers who are battling the northern spotted owl, many farmers have come to see their enemy as the Endangered Species Act, which could force costly changes in agriculture to help save the Sacramento River’s winter-run chinook salmon and another fish in decline, the delta smelt.

“The timber industry has fought so long by themselves,” said Tina Dennis, a rice farmer from Maxwell and a leader of a new group called the Family Water Alliance. “Now water is being shut off all down the line and we’ve got a lot of fired-up people.”

Up and down the Sacramento Valley along Interstate 5, fields have sprouted signs bearing such slogans as “No Water, No Jobs, No Future,” and “Farmers Are the Real Environmentalists.” Thousands protested outside the state Capitol last week, charging that threatened water cutbacks will make farmers an endangered species.

As California enters its sixth year of water shortages and the winter-run chinook salmon nears extinction, some growers may be facing their most drastic reductions ever in water supplies from the Sacramento River system. With Congress set to consider whether to reauthorize the 20-year-old Endangered Species Act, farmers are joining the chorus of interest groups seeking to weaken the law.

“We’re in a period of intensive enlightenment as far as the Endangered Species Act,” said Jason Peltier, manager of the Central Valley Project Water Assn. “We’re learning that every water right, every water contract, is subservient to the Endangered Species Act. People are learning quickly and they’re scared to death.”

Just as federal protections for the northern spotted owl have threatened the timber industry with drastically reduced logging, farmers are concerned that the plight of the winter-run chinook salmon and the delta smelt could permanently change the arrangement by which the massive Central Valley Project has brought them cheap water for the last four decades.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that for the first time some farmers might receive no federal water because of the drought and the need to protect the salmon. Since then, however, steady rains have increased the water supply by at least 28% and the bureau is expected to announce in early March that it will increase its water deliveries for some farmers.

Also, U.S. District Judge David F. Levi last month ordered the large Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District to stop taking water from the Sacramento River in mid-July so that its pumps will not suck in large numbers of newly hatched salmon. The cutoff would come at the height of the irrigation season, but the district could avert a shutdown if it improves pump screens to keep from killing young salmon.

The winter-run salmon, one of four species of chinook in the Sacramento River, once numbered more than 100,000 but fell to 191 last year. It is classified as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, which prohibits actions that further jeopardize its existence. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is scheduled to decide this year whether to list the smelt as an officially threatened species.

Environmentalists argue that it is not the salmon and the smelt that could create water shortages for farmers. Rather, they contend, it has been the farmers’ greed and the Bureau of Reclamation’s mismanagement of the water system that has produced the current crisis.

The bureau’s decision to supply full water allocations to farmers during the first years of the drought--and its failure to provide adequate water for fish and other wildlife--have wreaked such havoc on the river environment that the Endangered Species Act has come into play, environmentalists say.

The farmers, they say, are simply trying to divert attention by blaming the fish.

“The reason the cuts are necessary now is we had very bad management over the last decade,” said Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), who is urging legislation to devote a greater share of federal water in California to wildlife. “In their need to satisfy every farmer, the system is now dreadfully short of water. This was a system that was captured by a very narrow special interest.”

Environmentalists also see a parallel between the farmers, whose water diversions have jeopardized the salmon, and the timber industry, whose extensive harvesting has brought the northern spotted owl to the verge of extinction.

“In both industries, you have had a fire sale approach to management,” said Patricia Schifferle, a spokeswoman for the Share the Water Coalition. “The agriculture interests in the state believe that as long as they can frame the issue as fish versus people they will win, even if it’s not true.”

Farmers who are cut off from federal water have a variety of alternatives, including the more expensive options of drilling wells or buying water from farmers who have a surplus. They may also choose to leave some land fallow or switch to crops that use less water.

Indeed, many farmers who were cut off last year by the separately run State Water Project were able to find sufficient water to grow crops. This year, no farmers are expected to be cut off from state water, and recent storms have increased the Northern Sierra Nevada snowpack to 83% of normal.

In the Central Valley, the growing pressure to save the salmon has galvanized opposition to the Endangered Species Act and inspired the formation of the Family Water Alliance, a group of farmers centered in Glenn and Colusa counties who have posted signs along freeways and organized protests.

“We need to find a balance between man and nature here,” Alliance spokeswoman Dennis said. “The water that’s used on the crops is the water that’s eaten on your table. We’re just the messengers of the water. We’re not the users of the water.”

Across the northern part of the state, the farmers have found a kindred spirit in the logging companies that face restrictions on harvests because of the northern spotted owl. The California Forestry Assn., a leading timber industry lobbying group, has provided “tremendous support” to farmers as they begin organizing, Dennis said.

The alliance between the farmers and the logging companies in California mirrors a growing national coalition that is emerging to lobby Congress for weaker environmental protections.

Much of the push has come from the West, where developers, loggers and other interests have sometimes been stymied in their attempts to construct buildings or harvest resources because of the presence of endangered or threatened species.

In recent months, the California Chamber of Commerce, the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California and other groups have been planning strategy and drafting amendments to weaken the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act, which are both up for reauthorization in Congress this year.

On the other side, environmental groups have been hiring extra staff to prepare for the battles they expect over the two acts.

With such mounting political pressure in an election year, the debate over the reauthorization of both laws may be delayed until 1993, congressional sources say.