Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA)

(Photo: George Rose/Getty Images)

Did you know that cows and their feed are the #1 users of Delta water? Even more than the almonds we love to complain about.

Remember those ads about California cows are happy cows and showed cows in the snow in Wisconsin versus happy cows in the sunshine in California? I’ve always said those Wisconsin cows weren’t THAT unhappy and that cows should be raised where there’s enough water! Harris Ranch, for example, is huge.

HOWEVER, orchards are still a BIG problem. I don’t want to focus on which crops/animals are THE WORST for taking necessary water from the Delta. The problem with orchards, versus line crops, is that they cannot be fallowed during dry years.

THE GOAL of the Delta Reform Act included providing EXCESS water for beneficial use. The original concept of the CVP was that excess water could be used for growing crops During drought years, the fields could be fallowed. I don’t know but suppose that it would include some Federal or State aid to farmers for fallowing their fields. That allowed us to have safe, California-grown table produce like beans, carrots, corn, lettuce rather than importing from Mexico, Costa Rica, and elsewhere. Orchards (almonds, pistachios, pomegranates) can’t be fallowed during drought years. The choices are to continue to pump more than the excess water and ruin the Delta environment or overdraft the ground water table and poor communities lose their drinking water (which happened during the 2014 drought). Orchards cause those to be the only two choices. Remaining with line crops instead of orchards gives an alternate, better choice: fallowing the fields in times of drought.

Stanislaus County replaced 1 in 6 of its farm acres with almonds during the 2014 drought. Westlands expanded the almond orchards on both sides of I-5 each year during that drought and have continued to do so. And we know about Resnicks and their pistachios and pomegranates. (They don’t worry as much about water – they are part owners of the Kern Water Bank!)

I would like to see the State come up with guidelines for farmers that are based on water availability and on what is best for America versus the farmers’ current profit-based decisions.

And while cows are bad, I won’t step down from my attacks on orchards (almond and other nuts and pomegranates) in the Central Valley desert fed by Delta water. I’ll need to throw a few more jabs at the cows, as well 🙂 Send them to Wisconsin!

Here’s the article: http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/11/cows-not-almonds-are-biggest-water-users.

This is a poignant letter written by the Delta Legacy Communities expressing their outrage that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority (DCA) continue to push forward with a Delta conveyance based on the cancelled WaterFix project. They rightfully object that the WaterFix was a project that did not use best available science, or comply with the Delta Plan, according to the Delta Stewardship Council’s draft 2018 findings. Yet DWR’s recent Section 404 permit application to the US Army Corps of Engineers is based in substantial part on the withdrawn WaterFix project specifications. This continuation of the previous project is wholly unacceptable to our communities.

They object to the agencies apparent rush to get federal permits.They rightfully point out that the WaterFix was remanded to the DWR because of the fact that it was inconsistent with the Delta Plan – protecting the Delta’s legacy communities, boating, and recreation.

They point out that at the January 22, 2020 SEC meeting, the DCA’s Intake Lead Engineer, Phil Ryan, announced to the SEC members that the DCA had reviewed potential intake locations, and decided that the WaterFix locations were the best possible locations. DCA Executive Director Kathryn Mallon then stated to the SEC that the fish agencies had approved the intake design and locations and the DCA would not be considering suggestions for alternatives. As with the twin tunnels project, Delta stakeholders had no input into this internal decision.

The intakes in the north are on top of the legacy communities. The Delta Protection Commission rightfully pointed out that:

It is not hyperbole to suggest that the CWF [California WaterFix] project presents an existential crisis for the small Delta communities that would be most affected by the protracted, intensive construction period, the permanent infrastructure, and the radical – not evolutionary – effects on the Delta economic drivers of agriculture, recreation, and emerging heritage tourism. DWR has failed to grapple with the reality, demonstrated through evidence in the record, that CWF puts the long-term sustainability of small Delta communities in serious jeopardy

And stated that it was equivalent on causing blight to those communities.

I’m glad to see they are pushing back. The Single Tunnel Project is abysmal. There is no argument to saying otherwise.

Read the entire letter here.

There is a new effort by NOAA to report sturgeon carcasses in the Delta area. The majority of these carcasses are the result of a vessel strike. Please distribute the flyer below to any interested partners.

Sturgeon Carcass Flyer

Carcass location and photos are very helpful. Scientists from the team (with a Scientific Collecting Permit) will collect samples (genetic, fin clips for ageing) from the carcasses.

In the fight to save the Delta, we just scored one big win for the Delta as a place – for boating and recreation and for some of the most critical waterfowl.

Apparently, we “killed” the Central Corridor/Through Delta Route !!!

The Single Tunnel project has been designing two alternate routes, or corridors: The Central Corridor (the same as the WaterFix Through-Delta Alignment) and the Eastern Corridor. We thought we’d killed the horrible WaterFix but here it was back renamed the Central Corridor.

And as we know with this beast, we think we’ve killed it again and again but it comes back as a beast with two heads.

Apparently, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) is applying to the US Army Corps for a permit to build the single tunnel along the Eastern Corridor. The application is not focused on the Central Corridor (closest to Mildred Island, the Bedrooms, and Discovery Bay) but instead is being reconsidered for the Eastern boundary. This is more encouraging than what we expected … so hurrah for our team … that was one big “field goal” to residents of Discovery Bay, Eastern County, and those who use Highway 4 … but we still have the rest of the game to play. The bad news is intakes #3 and #5 are the preferred route as well. And there has not been the scrutiny or analysis of the Eastern Route to know all of the issues there.
The US Army Corps Section 404 application for the Delta tunnel is available here …

The map of the project in the application is below. (NOTE: If the map looks skewed to you, that’s because they rotated it so North is to the left. Weird.)

By not chasing the Central Corridor as the construction corridor, that removes the concern that Delta Boating and Recreation would be SIGNIFICANTLY impacted by construction noise, dust, night lights, and barge activity. Not what you want when you’re trying to anchor out for a peaceful Delta outing. It also means they won’t be building on Staten Island which is home to Sandhill Cranes and migrating waterfowl. The idea of construction on that island was horrible.

The idea of a huge construction project, trucks, people, new haul roads, through the center of the estuary has always been unimaginably horrible. If that option is truly off the table, your Save the California Delta Alliance team can breath a collective sigh of relief.

There are still other issues to struggle with.

Eastern Corridor Still Has Impacts

While selecting the Eastern route means Delta Boating will continue and wetlands through the center of the Delta will not be impacted, the Eastern Route still goes on Delta islands, impacting farming on Roberts Island, Victoria, and others. Since construction will occur are Delta islands, there is still impact to migrating birds and wetlands. This route has gotten much less attention so impacts have not been clearly delineated.

Maps of the Eastern Corridor route. Eastern Corridor is detailed on pages 44-65.

Far Eastern Route is being Ignored as an Alternative

There was an alternative route recommended by the DCA Independent Technical Review Committee in 2020 and the same route was also recommended by the WaterFix Independent Scientists in 2010. Now, as then, DWR refuses to even evaluate that route.

Information on the Far Eastern I-5 route is here.

FIRST MAJOR ISSUE REMAINING: Northern Intakes are still a huge issue

The locations chosen to build the intakes are the same as WaterFix which were rejected. Yet DWR continues focused only on those sites because they have an existing water right there. They will need to pull a new water right and not build intakes in a location that would be so devastating to the legacy historical towns of Hood, Clarksburg, Cortland, and Locke.

SECOND MAJOR ISSUE REMAINING: Pumping water AROUND the Delta instead of flowing through it is a bad idea

The concept of any tunnel removing water before it can flow through the Delta is not good.

This article written by a Director of Westlands Water District showed up in CalMatters this week: California water policies inhibit food production by Valley farmers.

Over the past 30 years, federal and California policies have taken away millions of acre-feet of water used by San Joaquin Valley farmers to produce food. Photo via iStock

My reaction to this very slanted, misleading, and downright erroneous opinion piece in a recent CalMatters article written to support Westlands Water District’s ongoing push for more water from the Delta is below:

No one has “taken away millions of acre-feet (MAF) of water” from San Joaquin farmers. The fact is that for decades, twice as much water has been taken out of the Delta more than the environment can handle. This was recognized in 2009 by the legislature’s Delta Reform Act directing Delta projects to start with the Delta Flow Requirements, but the exporters rejected the science. They continue to reject the science and ignoring the law. OF COURSE, pumping six MAF per year instead of the scientifically-approved three to four MAF limit has failed to maintain the species.

It is true that the Valley grows fruits and vegetables for America. Thank you! That is wonderful and something everyone in the state wants to continue or expand. But the same area grows 80-90 percent of the world’s almonds and pistachio’s, mainly to ship to Asia for big profits, and a huge amount of feed, also shipped to Asia. The Valley could easily be the American food basket with half the water they grab today and could actually then restore the Delta and provide clean water for the communities in the North that require a clean and healthy Delta for their drinking water, instead of allowing saltwater to intrude. One might conclude that the San Joaquin farmers are driven by profits, not what food is needed on California’s tables. We’re finding an increasing number of types of produce arriving from Mexico and Costa Rica now in our Delta grocery stores, as the acreage of almonds continues to expand, as it did even during the 2011 to 2015 drought years.

Also, the San Joaquin Valley is NOT the only region on the planet that has class one fertile soils and ideal climate. The farmlands on Delta islands and surrounding lands are actually the most fertile, comprised of rich peat soil. The famous Brentwood white-corn, tomatoes, fruit, and vegetables abound. Delta farms are surrounded by the water they need. All of the Delta Islands, Contra Costa County’s farms, etc., are irrigated by pumping water out of the Delta and then the runoff returns to the Delta to support fish migrating to the ocean. Yet it is these farms the San Joaquin exporters are trying to get rid of. And the expanding almond orchards include farming on the tainted, selenium-laced desert lands near I-5, the Westlands district. These farms should be retired.

It is correct that, unlike the Delta farmlands, what is missing from the San Joaquin Valley is water. Once there was more than enough water – the Tulare Lake – larger than the Great Salt Lake in area. But the early cotton farmers dried it up. Tulare was also the natural percolation pond for the Valley’s groundwater table. Valley farmers have created their own water problem. They need to look for ways to balance their need with available water while reducing reliance on the Delta.

During this pandemic, the narrowly-focused view to rush a new Delta tunnel is forging ahead, even while the Delta Stakeholders have complained that with the COVID-19 rampant, now is not the time to ask communities in the North to try to defend themselves from this destructive project. Instead, now should be the time to focus on groundwater recharge, desalination, recycling, conservation to improve regional self-reliance. And we could use a plan to insure they deliver the food that America needs and not just the most profitable crop.

THIS is why we have a comment period on the single tunnel due Friday and why Karen Mann and the rest of the Stakeholder Engagement Committee are being asked to attend a video conference session DURING A PANDEMIC! This good write-up from California Water Research/ includes the letters Karen and other SEC members sent in requesting (pleading) with them to not move ahead while families and businesses were struggling to just keep their head above water (no pun intended).

Informative!

Worth reading and if you have the bandwidth to send in comments to the DWR this week, feel free to include an objection to them continuing to try to push this through while the Delta communities attention is diverted elsewhere. Here’s the details about sending in comments by April 17.

SWP Contract Amendment for Delta Conveyance meeting on Wednesday, April 8, 2020 at 10:00 a.m.

Dear All,

PARTICIPATE BY PHONE AND WEBINAR

Per the Governor’s direction on gatherings to protect public health and slow the spread of COVID-19, upcoming public meetings for the SWP Contract Amendment for Delta Conveyance will occur via phone and webinar only. Opportunities for public comment via conference call will occur as outlined in the meeting agenda.

For the best audio quality, participants should call in via conference call:

PHONE LINE: 719-359-4032
ACCESS CODE: 474346#

Please note that a guide has been posted online with step by step instructions on three different ways to join the audio conference based on phone and internet reliability. Please be patient as Adobe Connect adjusts for capacity.

The webinar can be accessed via the following link: http://kearnswest.adobeconnect.com/deltaconveyance.

WEBINAR CHAT INSTRUCTIONS

To make a public comment, navigate to the Chat Pod in the bottom right corner of the meeting’s interface.
In the empty field, highlighted in green, type the text Public Comment.
Hit enter or click the send icon to send the message to the entire group.

Participants can also listen to audio through the webinar. Please note that participants using webinar audio will be kept muted for the duration of the meeting. Detailed instructions for setting up webinar audio are included below.

WEBINAR AUDIO INSTRUCTIONS (Click here to access the detailed guide)

Enter the webinar using the Adobe Connect App, rather than through a web browser. This might happen automatically, or you may be prompted to open the Adobe Connect App when selecting the webinar link.
Once you have entered the webinar, turn on audio by clicking the Meeting button in the top left corner, and then selecting Audio Setup Wizard.
Navigate through the Audio Setup Wizard as prompted. You will then be able to hear audio from the meeting.
Please contact Kai Walcott of Kearns & West, the facilitation team, at (415) 568-9990 if you have any questions about the webinar.

AGENDA

The draft agenda for the SWP Contract Amendment for Delta Conveyance meeting on Wednesday, April 8, 2020 is posted on the Department of Water Resources Box site, here: https://cadwr.box.com/s/irusyewojv4nwzmxfznghzmgli9sswcw. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m.

Please contact Brian “BG” Heiland at Brian.Heiland@water.ca.gov if you have any questions or comments, or need additional information.

Thank you,

The Kearns & West Facilitation Team

I know a lot of you are small business owners, trying to navigate what to do during these trying times.

This is the US Senate’s Small Business Owner’s Guide to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. It talks about points of contact and the programs now available to support you and your businesses.

Click to access F2CF1DD78E6D6C8C8C3BF58C6D1DDB2B.small-business-owner-s-guide-to-the-cares-act-final-.pdf

I hope you and your family are hanging in there during this stressful time.

If you are like me, the last thing you want is one more issue to worry about right now. If you live in the Delta, one of the biggest stress-producing concerns over the past ten years has been worrying about what the impact to our lives and our economies would be from the Delta Tunnels project. The impact on our lives was not reduced when the project morphed from two tunnels to one. Yet no pandemic will stop the State from roaring ahead on this impractical, ill-conceived tunnel project.

The WaterFix project had to be withdrawn in 2019 and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) was told to go back to the drawing board. But they found a way around the problem and have been paying a separate group, the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority (DCA), to roar ahead on the design of the single tunnel, based on the WaterFix plan. The DCA board members are all water contractors, most from the Metropolitan Water District. Last year, the DCA formed a Stakeholder Engagement Committee (SEC), comprised of members throughout the Delta, to provide insight and feedback on the plans. Naturally, every SEC member is adamantly opposed to the project, but are being asked to help find the lest-objectionable route and help the State reduce impacts from the project. That’s a tough ask, and almost impossible to do.

Karen Mann from Discovery Bay was chosen as the SEC representative for local businesses in the South Delta. Karen owns her own appraisal business, helps raise four grandchildren, and is also the President of Save the California Delta Alliance. She’s a busy lady. But she is adamant about saving the Delta, so traveled to each SEC meeting to present concerns of Delta folks about the aspects of the “new” tunnel design.

As the Coronavirus crisis became more apparent, Karen had to miss the March 11 SEC meeting. About a third of the DCA Delta Stakeholder Engagement Committee members were unable to attend that meeting. DCA clearly knows the angst the tunnel project brings to Delta folks and that now they were in the middle of a pandemic. Yet DCA was determined to plow ahead – crisis or no crisis.

On May 16, as the representative of local businesses in the Delta, Karen wrote to Kathryn Mallon, DCA Executive Director, and to Karla Nemeth, Director of the DWR, to request

that the stakeholder outreach effort be put on hold during this crisis… The Single Tunnel EIR process and comment period should be on hold also for the same reason. The citizens are reeling right now. It is not the time to be ramrodding a project that has so many significant, hurtful impacts and expect people to have the energy to devote to provide thoughtful comments and input.

At the same time, Delta Defenders, a group formed to unite Delta residents fighting the Delta tunnels, based in the Northern part of the Delta, also noted the absurdity of the state moving ahead with the tunnel Stakeholder Engagement meetings at this time. They asked,

Seriously? During this public health emergency, the Department of Water Resources and the Delta Conveyance Design and Construction Authority are expecting Delta residents to go through a 95 page PowerPoint containing detailed information on two alternative alignments for the proposed Delta tunnel project? We are supposed to evaluate proposed mitigations and communicate any concerns to our “representatives” on the Delta Stakeholder Engagement Committee?

We ask the question, why is the DCA and DWR continuing to rush
forward with the Delta tunnel engineering design? Why does the Delta stakeholder engagement process have to be pushed forward during a public health emergency, regardless of what Delta residents are dealing with?

Karla Nemeth, Director of the DWR replied that the March 25 meeting would continue. The effort plowed ahead. After the May 19 announcement that the State was under a “Shelter in Place” order, the March 25 meeting was cancelled.

On March 23, DCA announced that “DCA Board meetings and Stakeholder Engagement Meetings will be accessible through video, phone or live.” Very insensitive. They should have postponed the effort indefinitely instead. They sent email out to the SEC members with a survey asking if members had a computer and internet at home and reminding them to submit answers to the questionnaires that were distributed at the last meeting. They were asking Delta residents to do homework, gather feedback from other Delta residents, and still work on this distasteful project, regardless of if there are kids being home schooled, people still trying to work, or sickness in the household.

Yesterday, Restore the Delta and the Sierra Club California joined in the call to stop any tunnel activities which

seek and receive benefit of other agencies’ actions for which public participation is critical, and during the pandemic, scarce and distracted.

I’ll let you know if what the DCA decides to do.

We hope all of you are staying safe and well.

In this stressful time of a world pandemic, we do not think it is also a time to have to worry about anything except our families, our communities, and our businesses.

The Delta Tunnel(s) project has always caused a lot of angst for we who live in the Delta and love the Delta. The groups who have been fighting the tunnel are pleading with the organizations that are still trying to rush this new destructive Single Tunnel project through to stop, let people focus on the important issues in their lives, and not add more stress.

We haven’t been pushing for our members to submit comments on the Single Tunnel Notice of Preparation (NOP) which were originally due tomorrow, it just didn’t seem right. Instead, groups have been pushing the DWR to delay. Fortunately, because of pushback, the DWR moved the comment period end from March 20 to April 17. Still, that’s only 10 days after the current “Shelter in Place” ends and, unfortunately, the shut-down is likely to be extended. We think the DWR needs to just cancel the Single Tunnel efforts until this coronavirus crisis is behind us.

If you are bored at home and want to keep track of when things are due and any updates, go to our Event Tracker tab. The top part of that page gives info on upcoming events, like the current April 17 comments due date and where to send comments. Below that is our history of events. We’ll try to keep that page current.

And there are some new developments we’ll be sending out.

But if you are like Karen and I, we are having trouble focusing on anything with all of our family worries right now. So the most important thing is to stay safe and well!

Karen Mann, President
Jan McCleery, Past President