Elite Science Panel Wades Into Calif. Water War

Scientists tasked with unraveling one of the nation's most vexing environmental puzzles started their first field trip to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta at a fish processing facility here near one of the estuary's major water-pumping stations. Assembled by the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists -- 15 experts in estuarine ecology, hydrology, fisheries science and water resources engineering -- were gathering information for a series of reports that could influence management of the West Coast's largest estuary for decades to come. The stakes for the two-year study are high. All around the delta, demand for water is growing -- water for endangered fish, for farms and for 25 million people. Political pressure from California's senior U.S. senator, Democrat Dianne Feinstein, and others finally forced the White House to order the review this spring. So the National Research Council panel has parachuted into a decades-long environmental battle being fought over a 700-mile-long maze of shipping canals, rivers, levees and aqueducts. The scientists are moving at a rapid clip to satisfy political pressure on all sides as they try to get a clear picture of the science behind two federal recovery plans for endangered chinook salmon and delta smelt and a number of proposals aimed at solving regional water problems...more