With the spectacular scoop of an excavator, water flowed from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta across 8,500 acres for the first time in a century this week.
The ceremonial breaching of the dike at Lookout Slough, north of Rio Vista, was attended by nearly 200 spectators on Wednesday, who cheered the completion of the largest tidal habitat restoration project in the Delta region.
The Department of Water Resources-led project is an example of legally mandated habitat restoration to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of the State Water Project, the sprawling concrete system that provides water to most of the state’s population.
The goal is to revitalize habitat for the troubled Delta smelt, a native fish species on the brink of extinction, and provide additional flood protection in the Yolo Bypass. The endangered fish is considered functionally extinct by many experts.
After more than six years, $130 million, dozens of land use permits and the transportation of six million cubic meters of soil, the agency celebrated the project’s completion with a partner organization with a catered event in the remote area.
According to Natural Resources Minister Wade Crowfoot, major projects are needed to address both the environmental and water supply problems in the Delta.
“In the past, our processes were simply too slow to address the challenges we face. We need to go further and faster to address these challenges, whether it’s the environment or water supply,” he said. “We can’t play small… This project thinks big and proves that we can work at a landscape level.”
The Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat Restoration and Flood Improvement Project was conducted in partnership with Ecosystem Investment Partners, a land restoration organization that helped purchase ranchland from private landowners, some of whom were granted land elsewhere.
They also built a new 3-mile setback dike along the northern site of the project area. By flooding the area with Delta water at nine different breach locations, DWR and EIP expect the land to quickly become vital habitat for Delta smelt and other species.
In addition to ecological benefits, the project provides additional flood protection for the Sacramento region by allowing for more water storage at the southern end of the Yolo Bypass. Portions of the sloughland will be opened to the public for fishing and other recreation.
There are several other, much smaller, state-sponsored projects underway that will restore Delta tidal habitat on lands that have been used for agriculture for decades. These include restoration efforts on Decker Island, Prospect Island and Winter Island.
DWR’s largest and most controversial priority in the Delta is pushing ahead with Delta Conveyance, the planned $20 billion tunnel project that would transport water from the Sacramento River below the mouth of the estuary to the State Water Project’s aqueducts.
It’s unclear what impact this new habitat will have on the Delta smelt, perhaps California’s most notorious fish. The species faces an uphill battle for survival after large-scale pumping for California farms and cities has nearly decimated its habitat over the course of a century.
This fish species is endemic to the freshwater delta estuary and was listed as endangered in 1993. Efforts to protect the species through regulations on pumping water have historically placed the fish at the center of the state’s water wars.
The fish has also become a political target for former President Donald Trump, who took aim at the smelt in Los Angeles last week when he promised California voters he would scale back environmental protections and “give you more water than almost anyone has.”
Due to its long-term population declines and acute mortality rates, the State Water Project has long drawn the ire of environmentalists for killing native fish that support California’s ecosystems, fishing economy and native cultures.
It’s easy for environmentalists to be suspicious of a single project’s ability to make a positive impact. But Jacob Katz, a senior scientist at California Trout, said he’s optimistic that smelt could one day find a home in the Lookout Slough.
“As far as a mitigation project for the State Water Project, this is by far the largest. It’s big enough to actually make a difference,” Jacob Katz said. “You have to get down to the landscape level to make a population level and difference … you have to go big.”
