Earlier this week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued their formal biological opinion that limits drinking water supplies for Californians in an effort to spare endangered and listed species from extinction.

The ruling finally begins to halt habitat destruction by reducing pumping overall and apply a complex operational system that details when pumping can occur and under what conditions. The opinion also requires a portfolio of water supplies in order to reach California’s water needs.

For some, the opinion that reduces pumping by 17 percent during typical years, and potentially 33 percent during drought years, is long overdue. Water suppliers will have to call upon above ground and underground reservoirs, increase their use of reclaimed water limiting where fresh water supplies are used (let’s not send millions of gallons of fresh, drinking water to a golf course or acres of crops please), continue and possibly increase conservation to every extent possible, and consider desalination, and other water retention measures.

“This is a heralding in a new era of water management. Change is difficult. But it is necessary” said Doug Obegi of the Natural Resources Defense Council. While change may be difficult, it should have been expected. Any Delta water user has known for decades that the amount of water available for both habitat and people depends on the snow pack, which depends on the winter season’s precipitation. What has not always been expected is that environmentalists would gain ground protecting endangered species. Water users still expect Delta water to irrigate their Central Valley’s crops.

How inefficient! It is incredibly surprising that a state, which touts itself as a forward thinking leader in environmentalism, failed to set aside a contingency plan for this day.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the San Francisco Bay water system (Delta) is a network of rivers and tributaries receiving water from the melting Sierra Mountain snow pack. The system provides water supplies to hundreds of communities in the Sacramento, Central Valley and San Francisco Bay Area regions nourishing incredibly large populations and the state’s agriculture industry. As a result of years of pumping, fish entrainment, drought and impending climate change, the Delta’s fish are facing colossal habitat loss and species face extinction.

Last December, after a lawsuit brought by environmentalists against the Bush Administration for violating the Endangered Species Act, the court ordered that pumping be curtailed during spawning seasons. The order, the Wanger decision, gave strict instructions on how to operate the Delta during the sensitive time of year. Following that, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began working on a biological opinion that establishes new guidelines for pumping water from the Delta.