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January 25, 2010--National science panel convenes on Calif. delta (Denver Post)

An expert in California's delta told a panel of the National Academies of Sciences on Sunday that their decisions about the largest estuary on the West Coast could alter how Californians use water. "I view this as the thorniest water environmental issue in the West," said Jeffrey Mount, a professor at the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis. The 15-member panel of independent scientists is meeting this week to examine whether the federal government should lift or modify limits on pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, restrictions that farmers blame for a water shortage that has left once-fertile fields to wilt. At the center of the discussions are two environmental plans written last year by federal wildlife agencies. Both are intended to protect threatened fish by restricting how much water can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The restrictions, combined with a three-year drought, have forced farmers to fallow thousands of acres and cities to impose severe water restrictions.
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