(From the AP) The federal government said Tuesday it will reduce pumping in the delta this week because a threatened fish could be killed by the equipment, a decision that follows two years of limited deliveries that left fallowed fields across the Central Valley.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation intends to shut off one of its five pumps beginning Thursday because adult delta smelt swam into the area, said bureau spokesman Pete Lucero. The restrictions to protect the smelt, a finger-sized fish, primarily affect Central Valley farmers and could last until June 30.

The federal government had been pumping at full capacity since Saturday. That was the day after a federal court judge lifted separate federal pumping restrictions that had been in place to protect salmon.

Read more here: Feds reduce Calif. water pumping to protect fish