Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA)

In August, 2014, I wrote “Can we Kill the Earthquake Bogey Yet?”

Unfortunately, the answer is “No”.

December 14, 2014, the Sacramento Bee printed another article: UC Davis study finds next Napa earthquake could imperil Delta levees.

Of course, the BDCP re-distributed that on their BDCP Facebook page January 21, 2015.

I commented both places – anyone else who wants to add a comment and chime in is appreciated. (I’m always kind of wordy – any pithy smart one-liner responses would probably make more of an impact. Help me out here.)

——————————- Jan’s Comment ————————————-
Why do we keep repeating this erroneous incorrect storyline? First, if there were a big risk of levee failure in the Delta, wouldn’t the state be taking rapid action to insure that human lives aren’t lost if levees fail and Delta communities flood? Would the state really be risking the economic issues of the railroads and major highways in the Delta flooding? Of course they wouldn’t. They are not taking action because the “Earthquake Bogey” is a false, erroneous scare tactic.

The scare tactic was thought up by the proponents of the BDCP tunnels (i.e., Big Ag) following the Katrina disaster and it has been effectively used since to scare Southern California water users into thinking there are risks to their water supply to try to get their buy-in to the expensive BDCP plan.

The fact that there are no active fault lines in the Delta should have put this issue to rest long ago. The Hayward Fault (the nearest active fault line) is 30-60 miles away from the Delta. Levees have been shown to not be affected by shaking.

Immediately after the Napa shaker, the civil engineering firm Kjeldsen Sinnock and Neudeck (KSN), the Stockton civil engineering company that maintains about half the levees in the delta, went out to inspect the levees. Delta Levees once again proved the “Earthquake Bogey” argument of the BDCP to be what it is – just a scare tactic. Just as during the Loma Prieta earthquake, the levees were unaffected. Neudeck insists delta levees are now even wider, taller and stronger. He also said inspections are done constantly by the engineers hired by reclamation districts.

The article states that during the last “century”, 162 levees have failed. It does not add that since 2004, no levee has failed. Levees are continually being expanded and improved. The article does not also identify that not one of the 162 levee failures was due to earthquake – not even during the 1906 earthquake when the levees were narrower. Nor during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Shame on the Sacramento Bee for printing this biased, un-researched article. Please get input from non-biased sources and show both sides of the story.

All Delta fish species are known to decline in drought years. That’s because they depend on ample freshwater outflow to support their habitat, and such flows decline during drought. The fish have long been affected by water diversions from the estuary, as well as other factors. The drop is quite staggering.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/water-and-drought/article6603369.html#storylink=cpy.

Some argue that a new dam here, raising a dam there, is part of the answer to the California water crisis.

The McClintock-Costa bill HR 934 which is expected to pass the House and may win Senate approval as well would remove the “wild and scenic” status from the Merced river to allow expand its large dam on the Merced River. Write Senators Feinstein and Boxer and ask them to vote against this bill.

Why is this an issue? Don’t we need more dams for more water?

The McClintock-Costa bill would do much more than help a water district enlarge its reservoir and ruin a portion of a majestic river. If passed by Congress, it would set a national precedent. The federal government has never before removed a wild and scenic designation on a river. The designation is considered to be one of the nation’s most important and powerful environmental regulations, and protects many California rivers from being further dammed up and diverted.

A great article was released today, Tunnel Vision Part Two that identifies the real risk in HR 934.

HR 934 is backed by the Merced Irrigation District, a water agency representing agricultural interests in the Central Valley that want to expand its large dam on the Merced River, but can’t — unless Congress lifts the wild and scenic status.

The bigger prize, though, is the rivers along the North coast. Wild and scenic — that’s the strongest designation that we have,” said Jon Rosenfield of the Bay Institute. “If we’re willing to remove that for one irrigation district, who’s going to stop us from doing that to another river?” The Eel, the Smith, and the Trinity are now protected by wild and scenic designations. Those rivers contain millions of acre-feet of water that could be diverted.

Currently, Big Agribusiness and powerful water interests in California are not only blocked from accessing North Coast rivers because of their wild and scenic designations, but they’re also stymied by the state’s water conveyance system, particularly the Delta. The fragile estuary serves as a natural barrier to those who want to move more freshwater from Northern California to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

That’s where the Delta tunnels come in with their oversized capacity.

“If you build this infrastructure,” said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity, referring to the giant water tunnels, “at some point, it’s going to be used to its max.”

Read more: Tunnel Vision Part Two.

Update on Federal Legislation which would destroy our Central Valley Salmon Runs. Need letters to legislators. Click http://water4fish.org/campaigns/index.php/.Water to send your comments.

In early 2014 a water bill was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives which would have devastated the Central Valley salmon populations. It was sponsored by the San Joaquin agricultural members of the House. In early December, both Senators Feinstein and Boxer were instrumental in stopping an amended version of that bill in the Senate because it would have overturned the Endangered Species Act protections for the salmon. Undeterred, later in December the House passed a new bill which contained most of the same salmon killing provisions.

The new Congress will take up these bills again in 2015. Water4Fish, the Golden Gate Salmon Association and other organizations are gearing up for the battle. You can help. Letters to Senators Feinstein and Boxer thanking them for their 2014 actions and requesting their continuing help in 2015 can have a big impact.

The WaterForFish group have drafted an email that you can easily send to Senators Boxer and Feinstein. Go to www.water4fish.org and click on “Send Letters to Legislators”. Fill out your information and click on “Send Emails”.

Seattle’s “Big Dig” tunnel project shows another example of what a Delta Tunnel project will look like.

How does Seattle’s “Big Dig” compare to the planned Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) tunnels?

After the first 3 weeks of the beginning of boring the Seattle tunnel in 2013, they were already 2 weeks behind schedule. Currently the projected 14 month project which was planned to complete December 2014 is now projected to take until August 2016 or later (almost 3 times as long as original projections). They’ve only tunneled 1,000 feet of the 2 miles/9,200 feet (our tunnels are 30 miles long) and have already used 70 percent of the estimated total cost (do I hear huge overruns?) Seattle’s “Big Dig” is only 2 miles long yet the tunnel-boring machine has been stuck underneath Seattle for more than a year. The machine is stuck in soft ground which used to be underwater (sound like Delta ground?) Now they are having to dig a huge hole down to haul the behemoth tunneling machine out to repair it. The huge hole caused them to have to dewater surrounding ground water and is causing nearby buildings to sink and crack. What a mess!

Why isn’t this what we will be looking at in the Delta if the tunnel plan goes through? Huge delays, cost overruns and unforeseen damage surrounds Seattle’s “Big Dig” and it’s only 2 miles long versus the Delta tunnel 30 mile, dual tunnel project.

Going “under the Delta” sounded so much less pervasive and more environmentally correct than a peripheral canal. Easier to “market” and “sell” to the general populace. But it is what it is – a huge construction project through the heart of sensitive Delta wetlands and rich farmlands that will do endless amounts of economic and environmental damage to Northern California.

Read the December 30, 2014 Washington Post Article.