Water restrictions ordered to help California fish

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California officials ordered on Friday an additional 17 percent cut in the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect a fish in the most populous U.S. state's fresh water hub.

Combined with a prior U.S. court order to reduce pumping to protect another fish in the delta, the amount of water drawn from it by state and federal water systems will be cut by nearly half from average levels, said Don Strickland, a spokesman for California's Department of Water Resources.

Water from the delta, which is east of San Francisco, is distributed as far away as Southern California, where a number of local water authorities in the most populated part of the state have already imposed water use restrictions after two years of below-average rainfall and snow in California.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in June declared a statewide drought and state water officials fear it may press on.

California's farmers are also concerned about the drought and reduced supplies of delta water could raise their costs and force many to change plans on the kind of crops they will plant, Strickland said.

"If we don't get substantial rain and snowfall, next summer is going to be exceptionally dry," Strickland said. "An average precipitation winter is not going to refill the reservoirs ... It'll help but it won't refill them."

Strickland noted the biggest reservoir in California's state-managed water system is currently at 29 percent of its capacity.

(Reporting by Jim Christie)