Farmers in the Central Valley heard encouraging words from U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger last week when he put a two-week hold on pumping restrictions that were a part of a plan created to protect endangered salmon. 

However, on February 10, 2010, when examining similar pumping restrictions to protect a fish called the delta smelt, the same Fresno District Court Judge denied temporary restraining orders that would allow water to continue to be pumped into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which serves as a main source of California's water supply. 

The previous decision issued last Friday initially resulted in pumping into the Delta at full capacity and was expected to save ranchers and farmers an estimated $10 to $12 million in just two weeks.  However, when federal biologists announced that they had found 6 dead smelt near the pumps on Tuesday, it was enough to compel Judge Wanger to deny the restraining order, placing restrictions back onto the water being pumped. 

As a result, water will again be restricted from being pumped into the Delta, which provides drinking and irrigation water to more than 25 million Californians and Central Valley Farmers that produce half of the nation's fruits and vegetables.  Flows will be scaled back to negative 4,000 cubic feet per second, from negative 5,100 cubic feet per second.  Additionally, if more delta smelt are found dead, it could result in further restrictions on water flows that could take the flows all the way down to 1,250 cubic feet per second, even though the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has already been allowed to kill about 300 of these fish for scientific surveys throughout the Delta this year.