SACRAMENTO - In a decision that could cripple state water deliveries, a judge has ordered the state to halt pumping water out of the delta within 60 days unless it complies with environmental laws that protect endangered fish.

The ruling pleased sport fishing groups that have long criticized the state's operation of the enormous pumps, which suck in and kill salmon and other fish.

"It's certainly an earthshaking decision," Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said Friday. His group had sued the state.

Thursday's ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch found that the state Department of Water Resources lacks the proper permits to run a key station that pumps water from the delta into the California Aqueduct.

Specifically, Roesch said the water agency should apply for permits that would allow it to kill spring and winter runs of salmon and Delta smelt, which are protected under the California Endangered Species Act.

At issue is the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant west of Stockton, which funnels 10,688 cubic feet per second of delta water through 11 pumps into the 444-mile long aqueduct. The heart of the State Water Project, the pumping station sucks in and kills significant quantities of fish.

Water for more than 23 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland passes through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The decision also has implications for federal water deliveries in the Central Valley. About 5 percent of water that is part of the federal Central Valley Project flows through the Banks pumping station.

"There is a coordinated operation between the two projects. We'll have to analyze the indirect effects," said Thomas Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, which supplies water to about 600,000 acres of farmland in western Fresno and Kings counties.

The Department of Water Resources had argued in court that its pumping operations were authorized by a series of agreements struck over the past 20 years and by a 1997 state law.

In his 34-page ruling, Roesch said those agreements "do not qualify as the carte-blanche authorization of incidental take" at the plant for all species of endangered fish.

Department of Water Resources spokesman Ted Thomas said the state is expected to appeal the ruling. If that happens, pumping would continue while the ruling is being challenged, according to the order.

Meanwhile, the spotlight will shift to the California Department of Fish and Game. Under the judge's ruling, the department would have to approve environmental permits for the state to operate the pumps.

Those permits would require the state to minimize fish kills and could lead to a change in how much water is sent through the pumps and when much of the pumping would occur.

Environmentalists have argued that the Department of Water Resources pumps too heavily during the winter months. They say that has led to declining populations of the Delta smelt because female fish that are sucked into the pumps die before their eggs are fertilized.

The smelt, which average 3 inches long, are considered a key indicator of the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

"This tale is only beginning," said Jennings, of the sportfishing alliance.

On the Net:

Department of Water Resources: http://www.dwr.water.ca.gov

California Sportfishing Protection Alliance: http://users.rcn.com/ccate/CSPAPagerev0.html