FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – A federal judge in Fresno ruled late Friday that three fish species, threatened by drought, are at risk of extinction.

And state and federal water project operations are further jeopardizing the winter-run Chinook salmon, spring-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger wrote in a 118-page ruling.

Environmentalists say time is short because the three species in Wanger’s ruling are in steep decline.

In April, West Coast fisheries managers voted to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year.

They are seeking more than a half-dozen solutions to help the three species, including restricting water exports out of the delta when juveniles of the three species are migrating.

That is a decision that, if approved, could hurt millions of water users in the Bay Area and Southern California, as well as in the Westlands Water District on the Valley’s west side.

A wild card in the entire debate is the weather. Wanger has said that the Endangered Species Act contains an exception for human health and safety – in other words, the need for the public to have adequate water for survival.