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California's electricity crisis a few years back is remembered for its bizarre blackouts. They resulted from a system that grew more dysfunctional over time until the lights simply couldn't stay on. Now California's water world is getting a taste of its version of blackouts. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, an endangered two-inch smelt is forcing a historic shutdown of pumps that supply 23 million residents and 5 million acres of farmland. Water will continue to flow from taps and onto fields during this shutdown as the water districts find various ways to maintain a steady supply. Never before have Delta...

SACRAMENTO -- The state has shut down the large pumps that send water to 25 million Californians in order to protect a tiny fish teetering on the brink of extinction. State officials said the shutdown could affect water supplies available to users in the Bay Area, the Central Valley and Southern California. Local areas that receive water from the State Water Project include the Tri-Valley, Santa Clara County, Yuba City and Solano County. Some of those areas can obtain water from other sources, including groundwater. The shutdown is expected to last seven to 10 days, officials said. Numbers of Delta...

A federal judge Friday ruled the permit that allows massive Delta water delivery projects to kill a tiny endangered fish is illegal. It is the second time in two months that a court has declared the state's water projects in violation of endangered species laws. The ruling comes the same week new information emerged showing the Delta smelt population has plunged yet again closer to extinction. U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno did not immediately revoke water agencies' ability to operate, saying such a step would amount to a "draconian" impact on the state's farms and cities. However, his...

A tiny fish native to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta deserves stronger protection under the Endangered Species Act, based on mounting evidence that preservation efforts have done nothing to stanch its rapid decline, environmentalists said Wednesday. The number of Delta smelt swimming today in the waters feeding San Francisco Bay has declined 2.6 percent from levels in 1993, when the federal government originally declared the species "threatened." "The population has completely collapsed since 2002," said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three groups petitioning the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an emergency listing of the...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Saving the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish considered a key indicator of the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, according to a report to be released Thursday. The price tag includes projects that also could aid other troubled species and the overall ecology of the delta, which provides drinking water to more than 70 percent of Californians. This summer, scientists said the delta smelt population had fallen to its lowest level since scientific measurements began in 1959. Three other bellwether fish populations also are at record or near-record...