The Multiple Factors Contributing to Delta

Decline:
Testimony Highlights to State Water Resources Control
Board
From State Water & Central Valley Project Agencies

This document reviews the highlights of the testimony submitted to the State Water
Resources Control Board by the public water agencies served by the Central Valley
Project and the State Water Project. Page references to the source material are
indicated in parentheses.

Predation
• Nine-out-of-ten juvenile salmon are being killed by predators before ever
reaching the Delta. (main, 8)

• There is an estimated nearly one million striped bass in the Delta and the
watershed and catch of large-mouth bass has quadrupled since the 1980s.
Both are non-native fish that prey on young salmon; (main, 8-9)

• Research last year estimated that striped bass consumed 21 to 42 percent of

endangered winter- and spring-run juvenile salmon, respectively. Other
studies show the water projects took less than 3 percent. (main, 9)

• The National Marine Fisheries Service has stated that predation on winter-run
salmon is a “major stressor.” (main, 9)

• Ocean food sources for salmon have dropped in recent years, coinciding with
the lower salmon population levels. (main, 8)

• The force of the inbound and outbound tides has a greater influence on the
movement of juvenile salmon than river outflows. (main, 13)

• Commercial salmon fishing claims significantly more salmon than losses due
to the water projects, according to research by the University of California.
(main, 21)

March 15, 2010

Project Operations
• The causal relationship between Delta outflow and fish abundance remains
unproven and undefined. Research indicates that flow may in fact be
masking other important factors, such as contamination and predation, which
are limiting fish abundances and are unrelated to flow. (main, 3)
• There is no relationship between Delta outflow and abundance of Delta smelt.
(main, 3)
• There is no evidence that Old and Middle River flow restrictions result in
changes to the population level of Delta smelt. (main, 17)

Pollution and Invasive Species

• The Delta’s production of key food sources such as phytoplankton is among
the lowest of all estuaries in the world, and the food that is being produced is
of low value to the native fish. (main, 32)

• Studies have shown that elevated ammonia levels from wastewater plant
discharges can inhibit the production of a key food source, diatoms. (main,
37)

• Ammonia levels inhibiting food development are now almost always

exceeded in the Delta. (main, 37)

• Increases in ammonia levels in Suisun Bay have coincided with the decline of
fish species such as Delta smelt. (summary, 6)

• Millions of pounds of pesticides are applied throughout the Sacramento and

San Joaquin River watersheds. Urban pesticide use could potentially be the
most problematic. (main, 37)

• Exposure to common pesticides may pose important constraints on salmon

recovery. (main, 41)

• Invasive species now comprise the majority of biomass in the Delta. (main,
69)

• The evolving scientific understanding of Sacramento splittail illustrates the

importance of improving floodplain habitat as opposed to increasing river
flow (summary, 3)

• Flows are not a proven effective control against the invasive Asian clams.
(main, 34)

Conclusions

March 15, 2010

 • Flow is only one driver of ecosystem health; flows can mask other
stressors that need to be addressed; key existing outflow requirements
are, at best, hypotheses; a new framework built largely around narrative
criteria that would examine the relative importance of all stressors would
provide great value to Delta planning efforts. (summary, 12-15)

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March 15, 2010