Opinion ID: 2763492
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Indirect Mortality Factors

Text: The BiOp evaluates the impact of both direct and indirect mortality factors on listed species. Direct mortality factors, such as entrainment, are those project components that directly harm or kill listed species. See 50 C.F.R. § 402.02. Indirect mortality factors are those caused by continued operations that do not directly cause the death of listed species, but lead to it. Those indirect mortality factors include predation, harm inflicted on native species by non-native species, pollution, and food limitations. See 2009 Salmonid BiOp at 374. NMFS concludes that CVP/SWP 17 G.M. Kondolf, et al., Reconnaissance-Level Assessment of Channel Change and Spawning Habitat on the Stanislaus River Below Goodwin Dam, Rpt. to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1 (Mar. 22, 2001). 58 SAN LUIS V. LOCKE operations cause indirect mortality for listed species by creating conditions in the Delta that favor non-native species, species that prey on listed Salmonids. CVP/SWP operations also negatively influence the listed species by lengthening the time members remain in the interior delta—where they are exposed to pollution and other indirect mortality factors—before outmigrating to the ocean. See id. Plaintiffs challenged this finding at summary judgment. See In re Consolidated Salmonid Cases, 791 F. Supp. 2d at 869–71. The district court mostly agreed with them, holding that although NMFS sufficiently established that Delta hydrologic conditions—as altered in part by the Projects—are favorable to invasive species, NMFS failed to articulate the connection among continuing Projects operations, invasive species, and harm to listed species. See id. at 870 (posing the following questions: “What effect do these exotics have on the Listed Species? To what extent does the contribution of the Projects to the continued presence of these exotics contribute to the jeopardy finding?”). That failure, according to the district court, rendered the indirect mortality analysis arbitrary and capricious. Id. at 870–71. We disagree. NMFS adequately connected indirect mortality factors to CVP/SWP operations, thus satisfying its obligations under the APA and ESA. NMFS’s conclusion that the Projects’ operations exacerbate Salmonid indirect mortality proceeds in three steps. First, NMFS explains how, over the past half century, the Projects’ operations have worked to degrade the environment in the interior delta, converting a thriving river system into an unnatural inland lake-like habitat ill-suited to many native species. This statement is uncontested. See id. at 870 (“Plaintiffs do not directly contest the conclusion that the altered hydrologic SAN LUIS V. LOCKE 59 conditions are favorable for invasive species. Nor do Plaintiffs challenge the BiOp’s conclusion that CVP and SWP operations contribute to this ecosystem alteration.”). Second, NMFS concludes that continued CVP/SWP operations (specifically pumping from the Jones and Banks facilities) cause fish outmigrating through the main channels of the Delta to divert into intersecting channels that split off from the main rivers and lead towards the inner delta. 2009 Salmonid BiOp at 374. The Projects’ operations cause this diversion by, among other things, reversing the flows of the Old and Middle Rivers. Id. at 651 (citing Vogel (2004) to support the conclusion that “fish chose channels leading south more frequently when exports were elevated, than when exports were lower”). Third, fish that are drawn through intersecting channels and into the inner Delta have a lower survival rate than fish that remain in the main Delta. Id. at 375. Not all of these fish are killed in pumping plants; many are eaten by non-native predators, trapped by non-native plants, or fall prey to pollution in the inner Delta. Id. at 374–81. The second step provides the critical causal link between the Projects’ operations and indirect mortality factors that the district court found lacking. We find that NMFS cited enough scientific evidence to support its conclusions that high levels of pumping from the Jones and Banks facilities influence fish to swim towards the inner Delta where they fall prey to indirect mortality factors. See id. at 651 (citing Vogel (2004), SJRGA (2006), SJRGA (2007), SJRGA (2008)). Although the agency’s analysis is not perfect, it may 60 SAN LUIS V. LOCKE reasonably be discerned, see Bowman Transp., 419 U.S. at 286, and is thus not arbitrary or capricious.18