The new B.O. is out on the salmon; our initial estimates on how it will affect water south of the delta are not good.

• The new 100% allocation for federal contractors is now 25%.
• The Exchange Contractors will have to revert to the San Joaquin River for 25% of their needs.
• Friant water users will be dragged into the fray.

The Delta was created by man, so by definition how do we establish what is or is not a “native species”? Do we agree that species that were in the swamps before levee construction are the original native species? If so most of them ceased to exist once the levees were constructed. The “migrates” that were there before and after construction of the delta, do we now classify them with a “dual native species” pedigree? Last are the “Johnny come lately” species that we are destroying our entire economy over. The smelt are not an endangered species; they thrive in areas all over America, especially in estuaries that do not have 785,000 acre feet of treated sewage water legally discharged into their habitat.

22 million acre feet of water flows out the San Francisco Bay annually, which is 48% of the water pie in the delta, with the new B.O. we will limit water exports by an additional 500,000 acre foot, David you are a numbers guy, that equals a 2% increase in total delta outflow to the ocean. We are going to destroy the central valley economy over a 2% increase in outflow, this is truly insane.

I believe that the radical environmentalists have greatly over reached with the new B.O., but there is no one to temper the opinion. With the current administration and make up of the controlling parties I do not foresee any economic impacts being allowed into the discussion.

The perfect storm has arrived, not to say I told you so in Firebaugh but I did, the additional export cuts will take out the San Luis unit roughly one million acres, this will force the Exchange Contractors to go back to the River for some if not all of their water needs which is 525,000af, this will adversely effect the Friant Unit greatly. The two largest Bureau of Reclamation units in California will effectively be taken out.

David this is just on the Federal side, I have to stop now because I think my head is going to explode!

For a different perspective, read this post from Spreck @ EDF. He quotes Lester Snow at DWR, who told DiFi that supplies in the San Joaquin Valley will be greater than 80% of normal — and 86% at Westlands! (Peter Gleick also wants to know who’s getting what. I noted that wacky accounting — net vs. gross, current vs. stored — will make it hard to know what DWR numbers really mean.)

Bottom Line: Everyone has a claim, concern or worry about water supply. If we had markets, we’d hear none of this. Hear any worries about how much gas or oil people are getting? No — because we ration oil with price!