Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA)

Hello SFBDF Members! We wanted to remind you about an important meeting Saturday.

The Diablo Valley League of Women Voters and the San Joaquin County League will co-sponsor a program on Our Delta Water.  Panelists scheduled to participate are

* Mary N. Peipho, Contra Costa County Supervisor
* Dr. Gregory Gartrell, Assistant Manager of the Contra Costa Water District
* Susanna Schlendorf, 15th Assembly District Director for Joan Buchanan
* Kari Fisher, counsel for the Farm Bureau
* Karla Nemeth, Resources Agency liaison to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)
* David Nesmith of the Environmental Water Caucus
* Dr. Lawrence Kolb, former Water Quality Control Board assistant director

The League announced in December:  “The Diablo Valley League of Women Voters and the San Joaquin County League is happy to announce that Contra Costa County Supervisor Mary N. Piepho will be a panelist. Supervisor Piepho will bring an invaluable perspective on recent legislative events to this discussion of water issues in the Delta, and we are pleased that she is able to participate.”

Delta residents and their representatives will not want to miss this chance to advance the education effort by asking informed questions and providing informed answers about ongoing issues in the Delta, including the impacts of the new legislation.

9:30 am-1 pm
Antioch Historical Society Hall – 1500 W. 4th St. Antioch, CA.
http://www.sjc.ca.lwvnet.org/calendar.html

We strongly suggest you attend.

I will be in touch soon about a Major Discovery Bay Town meeting scheduled for March 1^st 6:30pm at the Discovery Bay Elementary School Gym. We will have updates on the 2 Gates project and our efforts to maintain the beauty and health of the Southern Delta and Discovery Bay.

2009 another bad year for Delta ecosystem

The latest survey of Delta fish populations shows another ominous dip.

Despite ramped-up regulations meant to protect Delta smelt, the imperiled fish that has come to symbolize the conflict between the Delta ecosystem and statewide water demands fell to a record low, beating out the previous year’s record low.

But the survey numbers, posted late Tuesday, show the problems are not restricted to Delta smelt, which some biologists believe are dangerously close to extinction.

Longfin smelt and young-of-the-year striped bass, a popular sport fish, both fell to their second-lowest measures ever. And the number of threadfin shad, a widely used baitfish, plunged last year.

“The Delta smelt numbers are disappointingly low but not too surprising considering dry year conditions,” said Peter Moyle, a UC Davis fisheries biologist and one of the leading experts on California’s fish.

Threadfin shad, he said, are plentiful upstream of the Delta. Their absence in the Delta reflects a shortage of food or other environmental problems in the Delta, but those fish should bounce back quickly once the underlying problem is solved, he said.

Delta smelt, however, are so few that they could have much more difficulty reproducing fast enough to recover their numbers, he said.

Government biologists said it was not surprising, given dry conditions, that the Delta smelt numbers have not rebounded in response to new federal regulations on water

deliveries. Those restrictions are meant only to prevent Delta pumps from driving the fish to extinction and are not, by themselves, designed to lead to a full recovery of the fish.
“The fact that the fish are not extinct might mean (the regulations are) doing their job,” said Marty Gingras, a supervising fisheries biologist at the California Department of Fish and Game.

Still, the low measures increase the likelihood of water supply disruptions this year, because they will trigger tougher limits on how many fish can be killed before regulators intervene at the Delta pumps, which siphon water into canals that feed farms and cities around the state.

Once a certain number of fish are killed at the pumps, water managers will have to ask federal biologists for direction.

“We would consult with them as to what actions would be necessary at that time,” said Victoria Poage, a fisheries biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency that wrote the rules after its old regulations were nullified in 2007 by a federal judge who found them inadequate.

Since 1967, state biologists have trawled for fish from September to December to measure the health of a half-dozen Delta fish species. The numbers show that since about the time the big Delta pumps started running, the numbers for all those fish have fallen dramatically.

The index used to measure Delta smelt numbers was typically in the hundreds and occasionally reached over 1,000. Now it’s at 17. For longfin smelt, the index regularly reached over 10,000 and now sits at 65. For striped bass, the number was well into the thousands 40 years ago and now is at 70.

Still, experts say the problems are not limited to Delta pumping.

The Contra Costa Water District, for example, has found a strong connection between Delta smelt numbers and the saltiness of Delta water during the fall months. The connection points to the possibility that salt-tolerant clams that have moved into the Delta are filtering out food that small fish need.

Among the factors contributing to the increased fall salinity is the way state and federal water managers operate upstream dams and Delta pumps, which has resulted in less fresh water flowing through the Delta in the fall.

Discharges into water upstream of the Delta, particularly from Sacramento’s large sewer treatment plant, are also being considered as possible culprits.

Mike Taugher covers the environment. Contact him at 925-943-8257.

Dear Friends-

I want to thank everyone for helping get the word out about our meeting last night (November 23^rd) at Discovery Bay Elementary School. It was a strong turnout from hundreds of members of the Discovery Bay and Delta Community with some excellent presentations by Michael Brodsky, Scott Mann, Roger DiFate and several government officials that are all working to help us STOP the 2 Gates Project.

Our committee is fueled by your energy and the passion that you all bring to the table and we are committed to a long fight with your support.

Online donation is now live and set up at www.nodeltagates.com thanks to our fabulous webmaster Thomas Hentschel.

If you have contacts in the media or contacts with technical expertise let us know!

Also, we still urgently need:

• A Biologist with Delta specific knowledge.
• A Historical Consultant familiar with section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act

We are still submitting comments to the Bureau of Reclamation and will be collecting them at the Discovery Bay Yacht Club this SUNDAY from 4 – 7 pm. If you have comment sheets to send in stop by and see Karen Mann at the yacht club. She will collect your forms, make copies and submit to ALL the agencies…saving you a lot of time. You can get more comment forms off the web or you can get them Sunday from Karen and fill them out at the Yacht Club.

Here’s an article about last night’s meeting from Doug Caldwell at the Central Valley Business Times (including photographs and audio interviews with me and Roger DiFate) CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE AND LINKS . Doug has been great helping us get the message out.

You have all been fantastic about supplying information to us, know that we can’t do this alone. Keep the energy up and the information flowing…and if you know someone who can help us now’s the time for YOU to reach out to them. We can’t possibly make all the calls and write all the letters we need to alone.

We have until MONDAY for comment cards to the Bureau of Reclamation.

December 1 – 31 we submit comments to the Corps of Engineers.

We still have a lot to accomplish and our committee is meeting Monday to refine our action plan. We are also going to be creating a video to get our message out virally.

We’ll be in touch next week!

Thanks again for working to keep the California Delta a place to cherish and live.

Sincerely,

Mike Guzzardo – Direct Cell 925.864.5757

Media Relations – Save the San Francisco Bay and Delta Foundation http://www.nodeltagates.com

STOCKTON – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to plug electric vehicles at a new manufacturing plant, but in the process he stunned local officials by saying that a water agreement by legislators early Wednesday will allow the state to “fix the Delta and to build a canal around the Delta.”

It’s well-known that Schwarzenegger supports a peripheral canal, but Wednesday’s comment – one of his most direct endorsements to date – stung in Stockton, the heart of anti-canal country.

He spoke at the grand opening for Electric Vehicles International, near the Port of Stockton.

“You don’t come in our backyard, where you could spit and hit the Delta, and tell us he’s going to put the canal in without really understanding the impacts,” said San Joaquin County Supervisor Leroy Ornellas, who was invited to Wednesday’s ceremony but had to cancel after it was delayed to accommodate the governor’s news conference in Sacramento.

The package of bills, finished by legislators at 6 a.m. Wednesday, does not explicitly authorize a canal to send water past, rather than through, the Delta. It would, however, delegate future Delta decisions – including a canal, which is already being studied – to a new seven-member council, with four members appointed by the governor.

Full Article at this link.

additional information:

• Indibay.org
• indibay.org
• SF Chronicle

Hi all…
just got off a conference call with other organizations who have been thru this process before in the Delta. They said we ARE shaking up the Bureau of Reclamation and they did not anticipate such strong response. Dave Dove delivered the flyers to Sacramento today and one of the engineers – turned his badge around so it could not be seen…and clearly he was blown away by the bulk of responses. The office was very thankful that we did not fax!!!

So gang – let’s keep up the good work!!! It was suggested that we put the words “Please notify me of your decision by email and mail” Then each persons Comment must be addressed by the Bureau if they have a solution .

We will be able to use these forms for the Corps of Engineers – however, the Corp said they must have a comment – not just a “extend the project” or “I hate the project”. We need to use a reason why the project is a violation of our Health, Safety, Navigation, Environment and Economy. Our leadership team is in the final stages of developing a white paper which will zero in on the reasons, the Bureau’s proposal and the adverse effects to our community. This document will become the basis of our push for Public Relations in the community, with other Yacht Clubs, with news media, and other agencies.

Meanwhile we need your help in getting signed comment sheets – between the leadership team – we will deliver our comments to Sacramento weekly. We are keeping copies of all comment forms to submit to our Congressman, our files and to submit to the Corps of Engineers. If someone says they already filled out a comment – they can comment again but with a different comment.

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS TO ASSIST NANCY & EVERETT WALTROUS IN GETTING THE WORD OUT. Please email Nancy at cmmsys@aol.com or call her at 516-1119 or 383-8502.

Karen J. Mann
Vice Chair
“SFBDF” Save the San Francisco Bay & Delta Foundation

Dave Dove (our chair) wanted to remind you of our 3rd planning meeting scheduled for Monday, November 9th – 6pm at the Discovery Bay Yacht Club. We are hoping to fine tune our overall plan, our financial game plan and more. Thank you for your assistance in this challenging battle.

Edit: The agenda for our most recent meeting is at this link .