Family Farm Alliance Calls for Withdrawal of Biased, Unscientific Order for Delta Smelt

Fifteen Years of Failure to Protect the Delta is Enough; Group Calls on
Government to Restore Scientific Integrity
FRESNO, Calif.--(Business Wire)--
Declaring that fifteen years of failure is enough, the Family Farm Alliance has
filed suit to force the withdrawal of the federal government`s latest order
cutting back California`s water supplies on behalf of the delta smelt. The order
issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) does not meet the Endangered
Species Act`s standards for quality of data and scientific integrity according
to the suit filed on Friday with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of California.

"Fortunately, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) sets strict standards to protect
the public and the environment from biased and unscientific abuses of its
provisions," said Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Alliance. "We are taking
this action to protect the integrity of ESA and to ensure that those standards
are applied to correct the federal government`s unmitigated record of failure in
the Delta."

For the past 15 years, federal regulators have ordered more and more stringent
restrictions on the water supplies pumped through the Delta to serve
California`s farms and cities, on the presumption that the pumps were harming
delta smelt. Those restrictions have cost California billions of dollars in
economic losses and tens of thousands of jobs. But instead of showing any
benefit from these measures, the population of delta smelt has continued to
decline.

Among the many defects in USFWS`s December order, which reduced by one third the
state`s water supplies to more than 25 million people, the Alliance pointed out
that:

* Instead of conducting the independent peer review that the law requires, USFWS
brought in the authors of the papers on which the agency`s order was based. In
effect, they were being asked to review the adequacy of their own work. None
would qualify under the standards set by ESA, the Information Quality Act or the
federal Office of Management and Budget guidelines.
* Although ESA requires USFWS to use the best available scientific and
commercial data, the agency instead based its findings in part on an analysis
which had not been published or peer reviewed and, supposedly, on data which
USFWS refused even to disclose. Moreover, it turns out the agency did not
actually possess some of the data that it claimed it used to order the cutbacks
in water supplies.
* Rather than relying on scientific evidence to form its conclusions as the law
requires, USFWS only cited the bits and pieces of information that supported its
own assumptions and ignored the rest.

FFA is not alone in questioning the integrity of USFWS`s smelt order. The
California Department of Water Resources has formally asked that it be withdrawn
for reconsultation and revision. DWR says there is new information on better
ways to protect the smelt that was not considered in the existing order.

And the federal court recently granted a temporary injunction against USFWS`
order on a complaint that the order violated the National Environmental Policy
Act because the federal government failed to prepare an environmental impact
statement. Instead the order was drafted in secret and put into effect without
any public hearings or review.

At a recent town hall meeting in Fresno, where area congressmen, business
leaders, landowners and farmworkers criticized the order`s scientific
inadequacy, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar declined to defend USFWS`
action, pointing out that these cutbacks in water supplies had been the work of
the previous administration.

"President Obama and the leadership in Congress have declared their commitment
to upholding the standards and bringing the best science to bear on governmental
decision making," said Keppen. "We applaud their commitment and call on them to
live up to that promise by withdrawing this flawed and fallacious order now,
before it does any more harm."

Numerous scientific studies have identified multiple causes for the delta
smelt`s decline, including ammonia discharges from Sacramento and other
industrial pollution, temperature changes, and invasive non-native species that
are devouring the smelt`s food supply as well as the smelt themselves.

"USFWS has refused to analyze these other factors and their importance, sticking
instead to their assumption that pumping must be the problem," Keppen said. "But
if anything, their failure to produce any benefits for the smelt over the last
fifteen years should demonstrate that the pumps are not the problem."

According to analyses prepared by the University of California, federal
restrictions on pumping water through the Delta, combined with the ongoing
effects of drought, cost California`s Central Valley economy more than $300
million in 2008 and nearly $1 billion this year. The economic impacts statewide
are much greater.

"These are critical issues for the members of our Alliance," Keppen pointed out.
"More than 300,000 acres of productive farmlands have been fallowed because of
these water shortages. Rationing is being imposed in many California cities. Our
membership includes farmers, but we also represent irrigation districts,
commodity associations, private water companies, and suppliers of a wide range
of farm-related services and equipment. We are all being hurt by these federal
cutbacks in water deliveries."

The Alliance brought its concerns with the adequacy of the data used for this
order to the attention of USFWS as soon as the order was released in December,
2008. But USFWS has so far refused to address these problems or correct the
order. The Alliance has now exhausted all of the opportunities for
administrative relief.

"This is the first time that the Alliance has engaged in litigation, and it`s
not a step we take lightly," said Alliance President Patrick O`Toole. "But in
this case, we had no other choice. Preserving the scientific basis for these
decisions and ensuring the fairness and transparency of all the proceedings
under ESA is a vitally important issue for all of our members throughout the
western states."

KP Public Affairs
for Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Alliance
Nicole Ratcliff, 916-267-1834
nratcliff@ka-pow.com

Copyright Business Wire 2009