Water Deliveries to Farmers Cut to Aid Fish : Conservation: Plan is designed to save threatened salmon in Sacramento River. Some critics say steps are too little, too late.

Under pressure from federal scientists, the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation today will initiate an ambitious program designed to save a threatened run of salmon on the drought-stressed Sacramento River.

An important element of the rescue effort this year will be the elimination of all federal water deliveries to some farmers in the Central Valley and substantial cuts in shipments to many others. This will leave more water in the river system, helping scientists carry out measures to aid the fish.

The plan, to be unveiled in Sacramento, is designed to protect the river’s few winter-run chinook salmon, a species battered by drought and the accumulation of dams and other projects along the once mighty waterway.

It represents an agreement between the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dams and canals that make up the massive Central Valley Project, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which in 1989 declared the winter-run chinook salmon a threatened species.

“We realize (the cuts in water deliveries) will cause a hardship for many people,” the bureau’s commissioner, Dennis Underwood, said Thursday in a telephone interview from Washington. “But we’re talking about six straight years of drought--an extremely rare hydrologic event. There are bound to be hardships.”

The announcement comes one day after environmentalists held a news conference to denounce the bureau. Members of Share the Water Coalition faulted the federal agency for failing to make significant cuts in water deliveries earlier in the drought, a practice they said was reckless and contributed to the salmon’s decline.

“We feel that these are important steps to take, but we fear it may be too little too late,” said John Boesel, field director for the coalition.

Farmers accepted the federal water cuts with grim resignation--and little surprise. In recent weeks, water districts served by the Central Valley Project have been holding meetings to prepare farmers for the bad news.

The most serious economic damage will be felt by farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, where water deliveries will be cut to nothing. Elsewhere, the cuts will range from 25% to 75%. The few cities served by the bureau will receive 50% of their normal supply.

Already, farmers set to receive no water have begun to fallow their land or switch to more drought-tolerant crops, said Mike Henry of the California Farm Bureau.

John Vereschagin, a farmer in Orland in the Sacramento Valley, estimated that the water cuts would cost him about 25% of his profits. He said he has decided to idle 400 acres planted in wheat to save what water he can get for his almond, prune and olive orchards.

Some in the farm business cursed the salmon and the law that protects it--the Endangered Species Act--for causing woes for agriculture.

“We’re protecting one strain of one kind of fish and in the process we’re going to put a lot of people out of work,” said Stephen Hall, executive director California Farm Water Coalition.

In the 1960s, the winter run numbered more than 100,000 fish. But last year, the count had plummeted to only 191 fish, and scientists have worried that the species may be in jeopardy of extinction.

In order to avoid a complete interruption of its water deliveries--a possibility because of the salmon’s status under the Endangered Species Act--the bureau agreed to take a series of measures to ease the effects of its numerous diversion canals, dams and other structures on the fish. The highlights include:

- Regulation of water releases from Shasta Dam. This month and next, officials will release warm water from the dam to encourage fish migrating upstream from the Pacific Ocean to continue swimming. Biologists say this is designed to lure fish to an upper section of the river where temperatures are considered cool enough for spawning. Later in the year, cold water will be released from the bottom of the reservoir to create the river temperatures necessary for salmon eggs to survive.

- Manipulation of gates on canals and dams to allow salmon to swim upstream more easily and keep them from wandering into tributaries.

- Controlling predators such as squawfish, which feed on salmon.

“I think if they can pull this off it will do good things for the fish this year,” said Jim Lecky, chief of the protected species division for the National Marine Fisheries Service. “But they have suffered for five years during this drought. There’s been a lot of damage already done.”