For a small fish found only in the San Francisco Estuary, the Delta smelt has caused much controversy over the years, ranging from lawsuits to executive orders.
What is the history of the Delta smelt?
In 1993, the smelt was listed as threatened under the Federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website. The slender fish, which ranges from 2 inches to more than 4 inches long, was upgraded to endangered in 2009.
The smelt used to be the most abundant fish in the estuary and numbered in the millions before state and federal projects began exporting large quantities of Delta water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and Southern California water agencies, according to a 2021 Stockton Record article.
The Delta smelt has declined to the point of near-extinction in the wild due to several factors, including big changes to the Delta ecosystem resulting from water exports, the impact of invasive species, and drought, according to the 2021 article.
The fish is also capable of shutting down massively powerful water pumps near Tracy that suck water out of the Delta and into the south San Joaquin Valley and Southern California, according to a 2002 Stockton Record article. The state and federal water-export pumps on the Delta are routinely slowed or stopped when the smelt or adolescent Chinook salmon get near the pumps, which can kill the fish. Lawsuits resulted between water agencies and environmental groups over the shutdowns.
How is Trump getting involved with the smelt?
More recently, President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to cut funding for a breeding program created to ensure the fish’s survival, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Last month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation informed UC Davis scientists they would not renew financing to maintain a refuge population of smelt for reintroduction and research in Contra Costa County, according to the publication. The funding is set to end on Feb. 28, but no reason was given.
The news is not unprecedented. On Jan. 20, Trump issued an executive order titled “Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California.”
The order mandated water from Northern California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, one of the state’s primary water sources, to be redirected south.
It’s seen as an attempt to change the smelt’s environmental protections, and it criticizes the state’s efforts to battle the raging and deadly wildfires that wreaked havoc across greater Los Angeles.
The executive order comes after Trump initially promised in 2016 to redirect California’s water runoff south to help farmers and growers in the Central Valley. In 2020, then-President Trump issued a federal memorandum to redirect millions of gallons of water. However, California Gov. Gavin Newsom successfully sued in federal court to limit the flow from the Delta.
Trump vs Newsom feud
Trump criticized Newsom over the smelt in a Jan. 8 Truth Social post.
“Governor Gavin Newscum refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water, from excess rain and snow melt from the North, to flow daily into many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way,” Trump said. “He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt by giving it less water (it didn’t work!), but didn’t care about the people of California.”
Brian Sobel, a longtime political analyst based in the San Francisco Bay Area, said Trump is using the executive order to argue that California politics, especially around water, is dysfunctional. The debate dates back to when Ronald Reagan was governor before he became president.
Fresno State University Political Science Professor Tom Holyoke, who specializes in western water policy, explained to USA Today last month that scientists believe pumping water out of the Delta is mainly responsible for the smelt’s near extinction.
As a result, Holyoke said the Endangered Species Act requires the government to do everything possible to stop the species from going extinct.
Since the Delta smelt, a food source for larger fish including salmon and sea bass as well as sea lions is near extinction, the government has been pumping less water out to save the fish for about 20 years, Holyoke added.
Dan Bacher and Audrey Cooper contributed to this report.
Wes Woods II covers West County for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at wesley.woodsii@vcstar.com, 805-437-0262 or @JournoWes.
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