Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA)

WRITE YOUR U.S. CONGRESS REPRESENTATIVES and OBAMA today (or soon) … It’s not to late for us to still try to have input into a “deal” being made with Westlands Water District. Details below. This deal still needs to be approved by Congress.

Westlands Water District is one of the worst offenders of overusing Delta Water. The district is on the west side near I-5. The deal would guarantee the district vast amounts of California’s water to sustain the irrigation of toxic soils filled with selenium. This is horrible for the Delta, for Taxpayers, and for California.

Read more here …

In July, we submitted comments regarding the Delta Islands project (officially SPK-1901-09804, SDEIS Delta Wetlands Project, San Joaquin & Contra Costa Counties, CA) which proposed converting two Delta Islands into wetlands habitat areas (Holland Tract and Bouldin Island), and converting two Delta Islands into reservoir islands (Bacon Island just west of Mildred Island and Webb Tract north of there). The latter two are on the tunnel route, so helps them pre-purchase some farmland without going the eminent domain route. I opposed the plan for many reasons:

1. The plan supports the Delta Tunnels
2. The reservoir islands, to be useful during drought years, would likely raise the need for more dams, like the False River Dam installed this summer
3. They will be constructing intake and discharge pumps near the South Delta anchorages of Mildred Island and “The Horseshoe,” likely to ruin the peaceful anchorages for months if not years.
4. They will be locating the docks in the main recreational ski runs near Mildred and Connection Slough, wiping out a significant portion of the recreational areas.

Here is the map showing the islands that were part of the

In addition, the plan includes habitat restoration on a small portion of Chipps island which is already owned by the southern water districts.

See more in the KQED article: Massive Delta Land Buy.

There are an important set of meetings coming up that may be more open to citizen input than past meetings. We will be getting more information out and are looking at one or two bus trips up to Sacramento to support these meetings.

The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) will be holding evidentiary hearings to review the petition to add the new diversion points for the California WaterFix project (i.e., for the Delta Tunnels). The State Water Board will also hold a pre-hearing conference on January 28, 2016 and January 29, 2016, if necessary.

The hearing itself will commence Thursday, April 7, 2016 and is planned in two parts:

• Part I will focus on the potential effects of the Petition on agricultural, municipal and industrial users of water, and conditions that should be placed on any approval of the Petition to protect those users.
• Part II will focus on the potential effects of the Petition on fish and wildlife and recreational uses and conditions that should be placed on any approval of the Petition to protect those uses, including consideration of appropriate Delta flow criteria for the California WaterFix Project. Part II of the hearing is not planned to commence until after the environmental and endangered species act compliance processes are completed.

The upcoming California WaterFix hearing dates are as follows:

• Jan. 5, 2016 (Tuesday) 12:00 noon – Deadline for receipt of protests against Petition and Notices of Intent to Appear for Parts I and II of the hearing.
• Jan. 28, 2016 (Thursday) 9:00 a.m. – Pre-hearing conference to discuss the scope of the hearing and procedural issues and continuing, if necessary, on Friday, January 29, 2016.
• March 1, 2016 (Tuesday) 12:00 noon – Deadline for receipt and service of witnesses’ proposed testimony, witness qualifications, exhibits, lists of exhibits, and a statement of service for Part I of the hearing.
• April 7, 2016 (Thursday) 9:00 a.m. – Part I of the hearing.
• Date to be announced – Deadline for receipt and service of witnesses’ proposed testimony, witness qualifications, exhibits, lists of exhibits, and a statement of service for Part II of the hearing.
• Dates to be announced – Part II of the hearing.

The hearing and pre-hearing conference will be held:
Joe Serna Jr. Cal EPA Building
1001 I Street, Second Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814.

In 2008, Wealthy Stockton-area farmer and food processor Dean Cortopassi came out against proposals then to move water around the Delta. “I will fight to the death to protect the Delta, because I love it,” he said then.

He and his wife, Joan, have now bankrolled the “No Blank Checks Initiative” ballot effort, which will be on the November 2016 ballot. The Sacramento Bee article calls passing the measure a “New hurdle for Delta tunnels,” because it could erect a significant political hurdle for Brown’s plans to build the Delta tunnels.

A Pro-Tunnels group admits, “It would be very problematic for ‘creating a secure water supply in California,’ ” where ‘creating a secure water supply in California,’ is pro-tunnel-speak meaning problematic for building the Tunnels. That’s good news!

However, Brown and his Delta Tunnel advocates are already out marketing against the proposal, saying it is too broad and could slow down even road and other projects. They’ve already got the Building and Trades Council (a group that stands to make a lot of money from projects like the High Speed Rail and the Delta Tunnels) to “mount an aggressive campaign to defeat this misleading initiative.” and others calling the measure “called the measure “both deceptive and dangerous.”

Since these are the people that have been deceptive and dishonest about the real purpose of the Tunnels (making money), I hope the measure will pass. Anything that puts hurdles in the way of the Delta Tunnels and other overgrown projects like the High Speed Rail is a good thing, to me.