As fish deaths increase at pumps, critics urge California agencies to improve protections

Powerful pumps that supply much of California’s population with water have killed several thousand threatened and endangered fish this year, prompting a coalition of environmental groups to demand that state and federal agencies take immediate steps to limit “alarming levels” of deaths.

In a letter to state and federal water managers, leaders of five fishing and environmental groups said the estimated losses of threatened steelhead trout and endangered winter-run Chinook salmon have exceeded maximum annual limits for water intakes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.