AquAlliance on the offensive

Earlier this month, local nonprofit water advocates AquAlliance, along with the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network and Restore the Delta, filed a lawsuit in federal court to protect water quality in the San Francisco Bay/San Joaquin Delta region.

The suit is a reaction to relaxed water quality standards passed by the State Water Resources Control Board back in February. It alleges that the board, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Department of the Interior and the California Department of Water Resources are violating several laws protecting the cleanliness and viability of the state’s waterways. It also maintains that by relaxing standards, species such as the Delta smelt and chinook salmon are increasingly in jeopardy of extinction. The suit seeks a judge’s order to throw out the relaxed standards.

“Extinction is forever,” AquAlliance Executive Director Barbara Vlamis said in a statement. “We cannot shut the door on our fisheries because the state and federal water projects drain reservoirs during a drought on the hope that the next year might be wet.”