November 11 was Simm’s 7th Annual Pro Delta Day for Professional Bass Fishermen. Jan McCleery and Bill Wells represented STCDA on the Delta Conservation Panel. The event was held at SugarBarge on Bethel Island. It was fun for me be back at SugarBarge. Our family used to go there every Friday night for dinner. We’d leave Silicon Valley, stop at SugarBarge for dinner, then head to Russo’s Marina to spend the night on our boat. On Saturday we’d take the boats out for a weekend on the Delta.
The Pro Delta Day was a great event, a record turnout, and this year’s bass fishing award (again) went to Bobby Barrack and his fishing partner Brett Hite.
Clockwise from top left: Simms products on display, record turnout at the SugarBarge, Winners of the bass fishing tournament Bobby Barrack, Professional Angler and Bass Elite Fisherman Brett Hite, Bobby with Jan McCleery, STCDA, John Sherman the organizer of the event
If you look back at the events on our Event Tracker page, the very first event was August 1, 2009, the event that started Save the California Delta Alliance’s efforts. Our entire history was due to Bobby Barrack passing out fliers one early weekend morning, alerting Jan and Mike McCleery (who were anchored out at Mildred that morning) about the “2-Gates Fish ‘Protection’ Project” which was misnamed, like many of the State’s projects. The project was to install two permanent gates (aka dams) in the Delta, one in Old River between Holland Cut Marina and Bethel Island; the second in Connection Slough. Those dams would have virtually cut off all boating traffic between Bethel Island and the rest of the South Delta and severely limit the ability of Discovery Bay boaters to take their boats in and out of Discovery Bay. After seeing that flyer and finding out about the dreadful project, Jan and Mike couldn’t find anyone that even knew about it, not our Contra Costa Supervisor, local representatives, or state senator. Only our Assemblyperson knew it was going to happen, had been trying to fight it, and said it sadly was a “done deal.”
The Discovery Bay community mobilized, held meetings, had the USBR come to present their 2-Gates project and 500 angry citizens showed up in the DB Elementary Gym to complain. The USBR didn’t know anyone was against the project! The presence of so many angry citizens got all of our representatives listening and Jerry McNerney, our US Representative, jumped in and held a meeting with all of the parties: USBR, County Supervisor, Army Corp of Engineers, RBOC, and Discovery Bay representatives. The EPA chimed in and concluded the gates wouldn’t “Protect” fish, they would kill them. In 2010 the project was withdrawn.
Then we found out about the Peripheral Canal . . . now Delta Tunnels/California “WaterFix” (another misnomer). In that battle, again citizens have mobilized, attended meetings in Sacramento, protested, entered in comments, and STCDA won their law suit against the Delta Plan. (Naturally, that win is being contested, but at this point they are supposed to go back and rewrite significant portions of that Plan before proceeding.) We have other law suits underway or planned to stop the tunnels!
That just shows that each person is important in this fight against the Tunnels. If Bobby hadn’t shown up that morning, we would have had dams in our waterways and worse, we wouldn’t have found our amazing lawyer, Michael Brodsky, who is successfully leading the fight to stop the tunnels.
If you also want to make a difference, please donate. Proceeds go to expert witnesses to testify about the negative effect of the tunnel project!!!
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Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA) 
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