SACRAMENTO—State and federal water managers want to keep more water in California’s reservoirs this month so there will be enough cold water for salmon later in the year.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and state Department of Water Resources want to be excused from state water-quality standards that require them to increase water releases each February.
The releases come from dams that feed into the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and are intended to benefit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The water agencies made the request Thursday in a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board. It’s the first such request since 1977.
Jerry Johns, deputy director at the Department of Water Resources, says the move is an attempt to preserve water supplies for spawning and migrating salmon later in the year.
