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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Water supplies from south Delta pumping facilities have been reduced significantly in early 2013 to protect Delta smelt, a threatened fish species found only in the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta.

On Feb. 8, further restrictions were ordered as take of adult Delta smelt by the facilities approached the number allowed as incidental to project operations, according to state water officials. As a result, water deliveries to the 25 million people and three million acres of farmland that get at least a portion of their supplies from the Delta will be reduced this year.

The pumping curtailment comes as public agencies prepare to release the latest draft of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a comprehensive, long-term plan for resolving such endangered species and water supply conflicts in the Delta, where waters from Clear Lake flow.

Between Nov. 1, 2012, and Jan. 31, 2013, the pumping curtailment reduced deliveries from the State Water Project (SWP) and Central Valley Project (CVP) to water districts in the Central Valley, Southern California, and San Francisco Bay Area by approximately 700,000 acre-feet – enough to irrigate more than 200,000 acres of farmland or supply 1.4 million households for a year.

Even with restricted pumping, the number of Delta smelt salvaged at the federal and state water projects pumps reached 232 by Feb. 6, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined that pumping should be curtailed even more significantly.

The California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation – operators of the CVP and SWP, respectively – are now conferring with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on measures to protect Delta smelt and provide for the water security of California.

The situation unfolding now in the Delta, in which both native fish and water supply reliability are compromised, is what multiple parties seek to address through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP).

For the last six years, federal and state agencies, including the California Natural Resources Agency, have worked with water districts, environmental groups and other interested parties to craft this plan under the U.S. and California endangered species acts to restore the Delta ecosystem, stabilize water deliveries, and safeguard water supplies from a catastrophic flood and sea-level rise.

The BDCP considers construction of new water intake structures along the Sacramento River, 35 miles north of the existing pumping plants in the south Delta.

The proposal includes three separate intakes on the river, with a combined diversion capacity of 9,000 cubic feet per second. Twin tunnels would carry water beneath the Delta to the existing CVP and SWP pumps in the south Delta.

The BDCP also proposes to create at least 100,000 acres of wildlife habitat, including the tidal marsh and inundated floodplain that provide fish shelter and food.

Modeling by the California Department of Water Resources shows that if such an alternative conveyance system had been in place this winter, the state and federal projects could have diverted approximately 700,000 acre-feet of additional water between Nov. 1, 2012, and Jan. 31, 2013, while still meeting all water quality and endangered species requirements. Delta smelt rarely move as far north in the Sacramento River as the proposed locations considered by the BDCP.

“This winter provides a case study in why we must find a better way to balance needs in the Delta,” said Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin. “The current plumbing configuration in the Delta serves neither people nor fish and wildlife well. Climate change will only increase the stress and conflict. California needs a rational discussion of the options presented by the BDCP, because to do nothing invites disaster.”

"The current approach is untenable: It too often puts our native and imperiled fish species in the West Coast’s largest estuary too close to the south Delta pumps," said California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Charlton H. Bonham. State and federal fishery agencies will continue to cast a critical eye on BDCP’s specifics, but we are confident that in concept a new diversion point can reduce this conflict between a healthy estuary and water needs in our economy.”

NORTH COAST, Calif. – A new bill authored by Lake County's representative in the California Senate would fund California’s higher education systems and state parks through a severance tax imposed on oil producers in California.

Senator Noreen Evans has introduced SB 241, the California Education and Resources Reinvestment Act (CERRA), which would potentially secure billions of dollars during the estimated course of oil production in California.

The legislation is supported by student, education, tax and environmental groups, as well as California economists. The bill is also co-authored by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), Chair of the Senate Budget Committee.

“California is the largest – and only – oil producing state in the nation that does not tax its vast oil resources,” said Evans. “Those are unrealized revenues we can, and should, use to endow our core services of government by fulfilling our commitment to higher education and similarly, preserve our natural resources in State Parks by funding them.”

The California Education and Resources Reinvestment Act would impose a 9.9 percent severance tax on the extraction of oil from the earth or water within California’s jurisdiction. The Board of Equalization estimates this bill would generate approximately $2 billion a year in revenues.

Revenues would be reinvested with 93 percent going to equally fund California’s three higher education systems – University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges – and the remaining 7 percent to the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

In 2011, public colleges and universities received 13 percent less state funding than they did in 1980, when adjusted for inflation, according to Evans' office. In 1980, 15 percent of the state budget went to higher education, but by 2011, the number dropped to a mere 9 percent.

Between the 2010-11 and 2011-12 state budget, another $1.5 billion in funding was cut, the largest reduction of any high-population state in the country, Evan's office reported. In 2010, California ranked 49th in the nation for the number of students who go straight from high school to college.  

Senate Bill 241 would provide a dedicated revenue stream outside of the general fund that would directly benefit California’s higher education systems and their present and future students without further impacts to taxpayers.

According to a recent report by the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education, in order to return the quality and fees (of higher education) to 2000-01 funding levels, it would cost taxpayers $6.405 billion.

"UC students have long called for new revenue dedicated specifically to funding higher education,” said Raquel Morales, UC Student Association president and UC San Diego student. “We can't have an affordable, accessible and quality public university system without a strong ongoing public funding commitment. This bill is a critical opportunity to provide the funding necessary to ensure the greatness of higher education in California."

Last year, 70 parks in California were targeted for closure while most others are lacking staff and suffering from more than $1.6 billion in deferred maintenance. Parks are public commons gifted to the people of California and maintained by taxpayer dollars with the intent that they are preserved for future generations.

“It is time for California to join all of the country's largest oil producing states in enacting an oil severance tax on big oil companies to mitigate the impact of extraction, protect our environment and public health, and strengthen our economy,” said Bruce Reznik, executive director, Planning and Conservation League. “Oil extraction can release tremendous amounts of toxins into our air and waters, and pose serious threats to humans and wildlife.”

Opponents of an oil severance tax have claimed for years that the oil companies will pass any taxes on to consumers, research proves otherwise. According to a study by the Rand Corp., which investigated the impacts of a 6 percent oil severance tax, the tax cannot be passed onto consumers and it will not affect production.

Although that study was done when oil prices were far lower, most economists agree that the world market sets the price of oil, and that underlying taxes whether from Texas, Kuwait or California, are not passed through at the pump.

Just as gasoline prices in California followed the world oil price upward during spikes in 2007 and 2008, and not local production costs, there is every reason to expect that local gasoline prices will continue to be set by global market forces, and not local crude production.

"Gasoline prices in California are driven by world oil prices and the availability of refinery capacity within the state, not by the cost of locally produced crude oil,” said James Bushnell, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Davis, and Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. “California currently imports more than 60 percent of the petroleum it uses, and these imports determine the value of all oil produced and consumed in the state. A severance tax on local oil production would impact the profitability of oil producers but should have little to no impact on the price of gasoline."

“Senator Evans’ bill merely does what every other state and country does: tax crude oil modestly as it is produced,” said Lenny Goldberg, Executive Director of the California Tax Reform Association.  “We owe our citizens no less.”

“California’s oil resources have made trillions-of-dollars in profits for the oil industry,” continued Evans. “Imagine what mere billions could do for Californians.”

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) invites the public to attend its upcoming annual salmon status update and outlook meeting.

Possible seasons for 2013 California ocean and river salmon fisheries will be discussed.

This year’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Sonoma County Water Agency, 404 Aviation Blvd. in Santa Rosa.

The meeting will provide the latest information on California salmon escapement in 2012 and the outlook for sport and commercial ocean salmon fisheries during the coming season.

The public is encouraged to provide input to a panel of California salmon scientists, managers and representatives, many of whom will be directly involved in the upcoming Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meetings in March and April.

Salmon fishing seasons are developed through a collaborative regulatory process involving the PFMC, the California Fish and Game Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The input will help California representatives negotiate a broad range of season alternatives during the PFMC March 6-11 meeting in Tacoma, Wash.

The 2013 Salmon Information Meeting marks the beginning of the two-month long public management and regulatory process used to establish this year’s sport and commercial ocean salmon fishing seasons.

A list of additional meetings and other opportunities for public comment is available on the ocean salmon webpage, http://www.dfg.ca.gov/marine/salmonpreseason.asp .

The meeting agenda and handouts will also be posted online as soon as they are finalized.

State agriculture officials said Tuesday that a 17-year-old Lusitano mare from California has been confirmed positive by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory for Taylorella equigenitalis, the bacterium that causes contagious equine metritis.

California Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman Steve Lyle told Lake County News that the mare was located in Tulare County.

Contagious equine metritis, or CEM, is a contagious bacterial infection spread between mares and stallions during live breeding or artificial insemination with infected semen. Officials said it also can be transmitted on contaminated breeding equipment.

CEM is not known to infect other livestock or humans. Stallions infected with CEM do not exhibit any clinical symptoms, but infection in the mare can cause fertility problems, CDFA said.

“Our goal is to isolate this disease and limit its spread as much as possible by quarantining and treating the infected mare and any other affected animals,” said California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones. “We have had success in the past in tracking and eradicating this disease and we are confident in the measures we are taking to protect our horse population. Peak breeding season is getting underway, so we encourage horse owners to work with their veterinarians if they have any questions or concerns.”

The positive mare was presented to a private practitioner for infertility concerns and samples were submitted for culture, according to CDFA. The mare remains under quarantine while being treated for the disease with antibiotics.

The epidemiologic investigation of the positive mare is currently in progress, CDFA reported. Information collected to date indicates that her breeding activities were limited, and no horses located outside of California are currently known to have been exposed.

CEM is considered a foreign animal disease in the United States. CDFA reported that the disease was previously detected in California in 2009 and 2010 and quickly eradicated.

There is no known relationship between the positive mare and any horses associated with previous US cases of CEM, agriculture officials reported.

Further, testing at the NVSL confirms that this isolate does not match those of any other isolates from previous CEM detections in the United States and do not match any isolates ever found on post-entry CEM quarantine testing of horses entering the United States from CEM-affected countries, according to CDFA's Tuesday report.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The discovery of a pipe bomb along the side of Soda Bay Road Tuesday morning resulted in a temporary road shutdown, with the device being detonated.

California Highway Patrol Officer Kory Reynolds said the device was found off the roadway west of the state park, near Sacramento Perch Drive.

Radio reports indicated the roadway was closed down near Clear Lake State Park at about 10:30 a.m.

Lake County Roads Division staff helped create a detour around the area while law enforcement secured the area, according to reports from the scene.

Reynolds said the device was detonated but didn't do anything; there was only a puff of smoke that came from it, he said.

“It was a real device but it didn't have any life-threatening power,” he said.

By about 11:30 a.m. the road had been reopened, said Reynolds.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force Chair Rep. Mike Thompson on Tuesday released documents from constitutional experts and groups seeking to prevent gun violence that highlight that laws aimed at reducing gun violence and respect for the Second Amendment are not mutually exclusive.

The documents were released in advance of Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the constitutionality of gun violence prevention legislation.

They include a letter signed by more than 50 constitutional law experts written and organized by leading members of the American Constitution Society and a memo commissioned by the Center for American Progress and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

“As a hunter and gun owner, I believe that we should protect the Second Amendment right of law-abiding individuals to own firearms. I will never give up my guns and I will never ask law-abiding individuals without a history of dangerous mental illness to give up theirs. Not only am I personally against this, but the Constitution wouldn't allow it,” said Thompson (D-St. Helena).

Thompson said that in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court affirmed once and for all that Americans have an individual right to keep and bear arms. “As a dad and grandfather, I also believe that we have a responsibility to make our schools, streets and communities safe. Constitutional experts agree: we can do both.”

“Justice Scalia’s opinion in the Heller case makes clear that Americans have a constitutional right to have a handgun in their homes for self-defense. And, the case makes equally clear that reasonable laws designed to keep military-style weapons off our streets and keep all guns from felons, domestic abusers, and the seriously mentally ill are constitutional,” said Arkadi Gerney, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

“The court’s opinion reflects the view of the vast majority of the American people, who agree that supporting the rights of responsible, law-abiding Americans goes hand-in-hand with doing more to fight gun crime,” Gerney added.

American Constitution Society President Caroline Fredrickson lauded the statement as a succinct, but significant, contribution to the discussion over measures to curb gun violence.

“Regardless of some of the overwrought claims emanating from those opposing any new gun regulations, this letter clearly explains why sensible and limited regulations to curb gun violence do not violate the individual right to bear arms,” Fredrickson said. “There is no effort afoot to shred the Second Amendment, only discussion of ways to address gun violence without violating constitutional rights.”

Said Robyn Thomas, executive director of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, “The Supreme Court made it clear in Heller that, while the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding individuals to possess firearms for self-defense in the home, that right does not interfere with the ability of Congress, states and cities to enact smart gun laws.  Because there is no constitutional impediment to common sense proposals aimed at reducing gun violence, such as universal background checks, banning dangerous assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and cracking down on gun traffickers, Congress has an important opportunity right now to enact new laws that we know will save lives.”

The letter, signed by more than 50 constitutional scholars, was crafted by two American Constitution Society leaders; UCLA School of Law Professor Adam Winkler and University of Chicago Law School Professor Geoffrey Stone are both longtime ACS supporters.

Stone is the former chair of the American Constitution Society Board of Directors and Winkler is the adviser of the UCLA ACS student law chapter.

The letter makes the case that measures being considered by national lawmakers to curb violence do not subvert the Second Amendment right to bear firearms. It goes on to argue that proposals like universal background checks, regulation of high-capacity ammunition magazines and military-style assault weapons are “clearly consistent with the Second Amendment.”

The Center for American Progress and Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence memo finds that the many forms of firearm regulation remain constitutional, including laws to prevent firearm possession by criminals and limitations on the possession of dangerous and unusual weapons.  

The measures endorsed by President Obama and proposed by Congress are safely within these confines; they reflect the sort of reasonable regulation that the Supreme Court endorsed in Heller and has accepted in a host of other constitutional contexts.