"For the second day in a row, the state and federal water project pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have taken over 500,000 Sacramento splittail, a native minnow species found only in the Central Valley and Delta.

The Bureau of Reclamation "salvage" report on May 17 recorded 525,260 splittail entrained in the federal Central Valley Project pumps and 5,355 in the State Water Project pumps.

On the same day, the agency counted 424 spring run chinook salmon in the federal pumps and 140 in the state facilities.

Leaders of the Winnemem Wintu, a northern California tribe that has launched a campaign to restore endangered winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Shasta, were outraged by the huge numbers of salmon and splittail killed by the Delta pumps.

"Will they call this an act of nature like they do to explain man's stupid actions?," commented Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. "How are the salmon to survive moving through the Delta when this happens at the pumps? What a waste!"

"Salmon need the splittail to survive in the Estuary," said Caleen Sisk-Franco, chief and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. "The Estuary is necessary for the survival of Chinook. The Chinook are necessary for the water to be drinkable and for the People. Climate change will come in to balance once we follow the salmon runs. This is why the Winnemem will dance for the salmon and Estuary on June 5th at Glen Clove in Vallejo!""

Get the Story:
Dan Bacher: Death in the Delta (Counter Punch 5/19)

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