The delta smelt, a tiny, threatened fish that dwells in the California Bay Delta, might have felt even more threatened at the O.C. Water Summit in Anaheim Friday.

The conference room full of water-agency board members, administrators, staffers and policy experts included many who seemed angry about a judge’s decision in 2007 to order cutbacks in pumping from the delta to avoid harming the fish and its habitat.

Water officials across Southern California say drought and cuts in other allocations are already placing the brakes on imported supplies; protecting the fish has tightened supplies further, prompting the Metropolitan Water District, the region’s wholesaler in Los Angeles, last month to order a supply cut to downstream agencies — which could lead to mandatory conservation and even water rationing.

Increased costs could well be passed on to consumers, along with a variety of new rules and conservation programs. In some cases, the new programs include provisions for punishing excessive use.

That’s why some hoped for help from the “God squad.” It’s a fanciful name for a U.S. committee that rarely meets, but has the power to overturn endangered species protections if they determine that circumstances warrant it — even if it leads to the species’ extinction.

Hence the nickname.

In a session Friday titled “Water Wars,” Joel Kuperberg, a Costa Mesa attorney who specializes in land use and environmental law and acts as general counsel for the Orange County Water District, made quick work of the “God squad” idea.

“Will the God squad save the California Water Project?” Kuperberg asked. “Probably not.”

In three decades, he explained, the “squad” – its real name is the endangered species committee — has met to consider only six applications to overturn endangered species protections. One request was granted, one was granted in part and the other four were either denied or withdrawn.

Even more troubling for God-squad interventionists, Kuperberg said: When the question was recently put to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — the man who would chair the rarely convened committee — he was “very cool” to the idea.

“While at this point the God squad is theoretically possible for state water project problems, it is highly unlikely, given the climate, and the history of it, to prove to be the saviour some people hope,” Kuperberg concluded.

Other water officials on the panel said the best idea would be to try to preserve the smelt’s habitat while, at the same time, ensuring adequate water supply.

“From 1990 to the present, Southern California added 4.5 million people to the service area,” said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of Metropolitan. “We import the same amount of water today as we did then. We fully expect to add another six million people by 2050. We can still accomodate that growth by recycling, conservation, reclamation and desalination, and not import more water than we do today.

“That is our plan, and we believe it will work.”

(Photo of delta smelt by Peter Johnson, courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)

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