Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA)

Listening to the video tape of the March 20th BDCP Public meeting, I heard the comment from a farmer who had found out 4 days prior that the state planned to turn his farm into a “muck” farm. His comments followed a statement by Jerry Meral, Deputy Resources Secretary for the California Natural Resources Agency who chairs the BDCP public meetings, who claimed that they “really” weren’t taking that much farmland out of production for habitat restoration. That the main habitat restoration was north, much near the Yolo Bypass, and the impact was only about $1 million to ag.

But Delta Farmer Daniel Wilson on Andrus Island countered that claim. “I have two muck sites on my land probably destroying $6 million a year – my fruit packing facility, orchard, and home once occupied by a renowned artist.” (Their beautiful house is shown below.)

He also added, “Another point, you are probably going to distroy the town of Walnut Grove because you’re putting a 3.5 million yard leaching plant upwind of the town.” (A town that is listed in the Delta Plan as one of the Delta “Legacy” towns to be preserved and protected.)

Construction and “Muck”

This caused me to wonder what this “Muck” was all about (BDCP term, not ours). What I discovered was very distressing. The route of the Delta Tunnels is right through the heart of the Delta. During construction, they are building 50×300 foot docks – definitely impacting boat transit and any water skiing activity. The will be bringing in transmission lines and lights and pile drivers.

One construction site is on Bacon Island right next to the largest, most popular anchorage in the Delta – Mildred Island. Construction, night lights and pile driving all night all summer – from June 1 to October 31 for who knows how many years. The nighttime lights and pile driving is likely to be easily heard from the smaller but also popular Horseshoe anchorage on Connection Slough. I didn’t get an answer to the question if boating will be affected. But google earth shows prime farmland on Bacon Island. It sounds like in addition to flooding Islands for habitat restoration projects, farms will be disrupted for years during construction.

After construction, they are leaving piles of muck (dirt mixed with foaming agents, chemicals and polymers), hundreds of acres destroyed along this path. In total, approximately 1,600 acres will be covered by piles of smelly muck.

This muck is so bad they need to build a retaining dike around them to “ensure containment” and a complicated system to leach out the toxins. They store the muck in an impervious liner to be sure it doesn’t get into the ground water. I’ve been told that this type of removal and treatment normally requires removing the substance far away from cities and to be professional managed, not just left here and there throughout our Delta, on Delta farms, homes and operation facilities. Will farmers even be able to still farm those lands that remain with this big pile of mess in the middle, roads to it, 60 foot wide shafts down to the pipeline 100 feet below? The Bacon Island muck pile is just upwind of the Mildred Island Anchorage, near Horseshoe Anchorage and not far from Tinsley Island. These waterways are the primary sloughs for weekend boaters, fisherman and water skiiers. I’ve heard this kind of muck dump is like living next to sewage dump.

Smelly Muck next to Discovery Bay

In addition to the smelly site near Walnut Grove, one of the largest sites is about a mile east of Discovery Bay, on Victoria Island farmland, for the entire length of the city! Right in our own back yard. A smelly wastage dump right next to the most populated Delta boating community.

And what if the muck ponds leak? Will toxins get into the ground water or run off into the Delta? The leaching process is to dry it out. What is left afterwards? Dusty remnants blowing our way? Will it contaminate Discovery Bay’s drinking water?

These are some of the many questions that I wanted to go to the April BDCP meeting to ask.

The Plight of the Farmers

In the March 20 meeting, Delta Farmer Daniel Wilson had asked an obvious question: “Why is it going through Grand Island, Tyler Island when it could be Stone Lakes Refuge or Statton island where there are no capital improvements? Do it on public property, not private citizen’s property. I didn’t find out until 4-5 days ago when I saw it on a blurry map! Right now my house is under 20 feet of mud. Another point, you are probably going to distroy the town of Walnut Grove because you’re putting a 3.5 million yard leaching plant upwind of the town.” (A town that is listed in the Delta Plan as one of the heritage Delta towns to be preserved and protected.)

Jerry Meral gave a comment that is becoming similar to many of their responses: “Nothing is final. When people down near Courtland said the forebay is in a bad place, we took that pretty seriously and we ended up proposing to move the forebay to an area that may not welcome it but the impacts will be less. I would like to meet with you directly, go down and see the land.” In other words they are reasonable people, they are willing to be educated and flexible.

It didn’t sound that way when at the March 20 meeting a farmer specifically raised the question about what happens if the BDCP decides that a particular piece of property was needed for habitat restoration and the seller is unwilling to sell and was told that it was within the bounds of the project to use eminent domain to take the property. A farmer later questioned the entire premise of removing farmlands to save the fish. “But farming coexisted with the salmon for years, they flourished with the farming until the 60s and the State Water Project. It is not the farming, it is not the levees, it is the pumping.”

At the April 4th meeting another farmer asked when they would know for sure what lands were at risk. He was told plans could still be changing for a couple of years. He needs to plant vineyards this year – what is the risk? No answer. He asked what if the farmer was unwilling to sell. This time Jerry Meral avoided saying anything about eminant domain. The farmer left the podium with his head down, almost grieving.

A Clifton Court Forebay farmer who is also a school teacher complained that Clifton Court Forebay already put their farms underwater and more is at risk from this new project. Her story of being ignored by the state when their pumping facility caused damage and issues for their current farmlands was heartbreaking. She complained that her classroom is underfunded, it’s a struggle to teach and asked where is the money coming from? We need it in the schools.

Jerry Meral gave one of the standard answers including an air of being totally reasonable, surprise that there could be issues affecting people from their current plans and the offer to come meet with him and he’s sure something can be done to help her current problems with the pumps. As far as the schools, Jerry responded saying well, he couldn’t take money from the BDCP and support the schools. However, that wasn’t actually a truthful question, at least from what we know so far (the later chapters will spell out the funding plan). But to-date the plan has been for the water rate payers to ultimately pay for the tunnel pumping/operations. But the habitat restoration and mitigation would be from a new state water bond. Remember the water bill that Governor Schwarzenegger took off the ballot in 2008 because it would have been voted down and again it was removed from the 2010 ballot? Currently it is misleadingly titled “Safe, Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act” planned for the 2014 ballot. That bond is what they plan to have voters vote for to do the actual beneficial side of the BDCP plan. Bond funds that would come out of the General Fund, and yes, take away from the schools. So the farmer was exactly right – it will come down to saving the Delta from the continual and expanded destruction of pumping versus schools.

Plus why after spending hundreds of millions of dollars creating this BDCP plan is it the case that they have no clue about what exists in the Delta: where the farms and homes are, where the cities are, where the scenic waterways are. Why are they waiting for farmers and citizens to read through their thousands and thousands of pages of plan to alert them to the issues?

The plight of the farmers and more pictures is in the Sacramento Bee:
Article: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/07/5322193/state-water-tunnel-plans-call.html
Photos: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/06/5321873/delta-farmers-concerned-about.html

Impacts including the Boating Community:

At last Thursday’s BDCP (April 4), Chapter 4 describing the construction and muck was to be one of the chapters reviewed at the April 4th meeting. Save the California Delta Alliance met before the meeting and car pooled there. The BDCP reviewed Chapter 4 and called for questions. I was confused because they had not mentioned the words “Construction” or “Muck” in their overview about what Chapter 4 contained. So I raised my questions anyway. Why does the tunnel go through the heart of the Delta? Didn’t they know they are putting a major construction site right next to the most popular anchorage in the South Delta? And leaving a smell muck pile afterwards? And a bigger muck pile next to Discovery Bay! Is it toxic? What if it leaks? What is the risk to our drinking water? etc., etc.

Jerry Meral gave a variation of his standard answer/non-answers – that the exact location of the tunnel and construction is not set in concrete. All will be well.

South Delta impacts from the Construction: Bacon Island/Mildred Anchorage site

South Delta Muck Dump Sites: Upwind from Mildred and one just East of Discovery Bay

”
And how close will it be? Less than 2 miles from the DB Yacht Club

What good is the “Delta Plan”?

The Delta Plan is supposed to protect the Delta. It is supposed to protect the “Delta as a Place” including communities and farmlands. It has wonderful sections describing the beauty of the waterways best enjoyed by boat, the tranquil anchorages. The sloughs around Mildred and Connection slough are favorite ski runs. Yet they have decided construction should go down the middle. For those of us in the South, they really picked the our favorite waterways for their tunnel building disruption which could go on for years.

The Delta Plan says it recognizes the “Delta as a Place” and boating as an important aspect of the Delta. They talk about the cost benefits of additional recreation in the Delta. Yet this could very well remove our largest, most popular anchorage in the south Delta. Incredible!

Save the California Delta Alliance (www.NoDeltaGates.com) is based in Discovery Bay and working to protect boating, Delta farming, and local community interests for the entire Delta. We would love to have more boating and farming groups contact us to join forces against the Delta Tunnels and all related impacts harmful to our area.

Email Jan McCleery at stcda@nodeltagates.com to get on our mailing list. Let us know if you want to volunteer to do more. Together we can make a difference!

We don’t have enough sign-ups to order the buses, but we will have a good showing to attend the meeting and show our concern.

Because there’s only 12-15 of us, we’re changing our game plan and won’t be bringing the signs to this meeting or have a noisy group outside with photos and news reporters. We’d need one or two buses to make a noisy showing. We know a large number of our community want to go – we think we aren’t giving people enough notice and need the buses. So we are going to start taking sign-ups now to do the buses for the next meeting – date not firm but listed as the week of May 6th.

But first, this Thursday, April 4th: We will be there.

Everyone who can should still attend the meeting. At the last meeting, the BDCP asked everyone attending to state their name and affiliation (i.e., Discovery Bay resident or member of Save the California Delta Alliance) so having a group in the audience is still great and shows our interest and concerns and we can cheer/applaud for comments we agree with. The meeting time is now from 1-5 PM (previously was 1:30 – 4:30).

1:00 PM Red Lion Hotel Woodlake Conference Center, 500 Leisure Lane, Sacramento, CA 95815

Pre-meeting and Carpooling from the Boardwalk Grill at the Discovery Bay Marina: Michael Brodsky (our legal council) and I will be at the Boardwalk Grill an hour early (10 AM) to brief anyone interested on talking points. We will leave in car pools at 11:00 AM to give us time to get there on time and get seats (the last meeting was crowded). If you plan to meet us and haven’t emailed me, please let me know.

10:00 AM to meet ahead and discuss talking points
10:50 AM to form car pools and leave at 11 AM.
Boardwalk Grill: 5879 Marina Road, Discovery Bay, CA 94505.

As far as getting on the buses …

We think that part of why we aren’t getting the sign-ups is the short notice (or maybe it is because it is during the working day?)

Email me if you would have gotten on the buses this week but couldn’t and why (work, too far, already had other plans/too short a notice, etc.) If it was because the meeting was during the day, what would be better (6:30 some evening or on a Saturday morning). We want to get you all to a meeting or get a meeting to come here to us!

The next meeting will be the week of May 6th and will likely be mid-week during the day in Sacramento. Email me if you want to be counted to “GET ON THE BUS”. We need 40 to hire one bus and it would be great to have at least two buses headed up!

Email Me:

1. Let me know if you want to meet in Discovery Bay to carpool April 4th and haven’t already responded. Right after this email I’ll mail the current list of attendees to form car pools and see if people want to meet an hour early for talking points.
2. Let me know if you wanted to go April 4 but couldn’t and why (time, distance, no bus, etc.)
3. Let me know if you are going to “get on the bus” the first week of May (time/place to be announced but likely during the work week

Jan McCleery, President
Save the California Delta Alliance

The public meeting of the BDCP is Thursday April 4 in Sacramento.

Car pools are being organized in Discovery Bay – 11 to 11:30 at the Boardwalk Grill to meet and drive up. The meeting is from 1:30-4:30 pm at the Red Lion Woodlake Conference Center, 500 Leisure Lane, Sacramento. We need to show we are against the entire tunnel idea!

The 2nd set of BDCP chapters were released yesterday. Just more of the same. Everyone knows that over exports is what is causing the demise of the salmon. It’s the amount of water being removed. That is what the State Water Board’s Delta Flow report stated in August 2010. But it was the wrong answer for the Delta Stewardship Council and the BDCP. Charlton Bonham, director of the state Department of Fish and Wildlife claimed “An immense amount of science has gone into the (plan).” That may be – but it’s bad science if it ignores the key parameter: “How much water does the Delta need?” And the answer is “More than it’s getting today.”

On Capital Public Radio, Amy Quinton reported that

The new chapters of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan look at the effects of the project on endangered species like Delta Smelt and Chinook salmon.

They are progressing with their same, unscientific proposal to continue to take too much water out of the Delta, flood some islands, and want us to believe there is scientific evidence that then the fish will be happy.

Habitat restoration alone can’t save the Delta

I agree with Bill Jennings:

Bill Jennings with the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance is highly critical of the project.

“You can’t deprive an estuary of half its flow and expect it to survive. And frankly, BDCP is essentially a death sentence for one of the great estuaries in the world.”

Jennings says the proposed tunnels to pump water south would have disastrous effects on fish populations.

Who will pay for habitat restoration and for damages?

In a Mercury News article Paul Burgarino’s report identifies the “catch”:

Plans call for creation of more than 140,000 acres of new habitat — floodplains, tidal marshes and grasslands — from existing Delta islands at a cost of about $4 billion to be footed by taxpayers.

1. First, new habitat will not help fish if the water is salty and polluted.
2. Second, new habitat will not ever be created if the “bill” is from bonds in place of schools or higher taxes. That’s right. The BDCP funds only cover the construction of the new tunnels. The rate payers will have to pay for the higher operational costs of the tunnels. And there’s no money identified for habitat or environment restoration. That will need to be voted on as new bonds or higher taxes!
3. Third, other estimates claim the amount for just purchasing proposed habitat restoration acreage will be $9 billion, not $4.

And who’s land will they be flooding, anyway?

Jerry Meral at the last BDCP Public Meeting said that if the farmers are unwilling to sell their lands, the state would use eminent domain to take them.

And why?

The BDCP plans to force farmers to sell and then flood their fertile delta farmlands, farmlands that take half the water as desert farms down south, so that mega-corporation farmers living in Beverly Hills and Pacific Heights can get subsidized water and continue to increase the acerage of water-intensive crops like almonds and re-sell their subsidized $20/acre foot water to Mojave Desert developers at $5,000/acre foot. When these huge corporations are making so much profit from Delta water, what will stop them from wanting more and more?

The state can’t afford more almonds and other water-intensive crop expansion!
STOP TAKING OUT TOO MUCH WATER!

The big agri-business corporations have been expanding their water-intensive almond acreage for years (the past 10-15) which is directly responsible for the last 10-15 years’ increase in exports. That has also been compounded by the loss of the Colorado River water for LA but the most significant driver behind the increase is the big corporation almond farms. The increase moved the pumping from “excess” to “too much”, the river reversed flows, and the salmon and other fish populations collapsed.

Isn’t it intuitive?

The amount of acerage of water-intensive almonds goes up:

The amount of water exported goes up:

The salmon decline:

What about our water fowl?

Here’s what really gripes me. I love sitting on my back deck and watching the waterfowl. In last week’s chapters, Appendix 1-A specifically does NOT protect the magnificent blue heron, white egrets, or most other birds in the area, even ones on the “CDFW Watch List”. Part of living in and loving the Delta is our rich and varied, wonderful birdlife. If salt water intrudes and our water becomes polluted, these birds will die or leave. Specifics from Appendix 1-A:

• Snowy egret and Great egret, GREAT BLUE HERON – even though the report states that their “rookeries are considered sensitive colonial breeding sites for this species and are thus included on the CDFW Special Animals list.” But no reason is provided why they would not be “Yes” on the list.



• Cackling Goose, Tule white-fronted Goose – “Winters in the Yolo Basin and various locations in the Delta and could be affected by restoration activities” but not “Yes” on the BDCP list.
• Peregrine Falcon, Prairie Falcon, Bald Eagle, Golden Eagle, Osprey, various hawks. These are not included even though they are on the CDFW Watch List and the plan says they are occasionally observed foraging in the Plan Area, mostly during the winter.
• “Comorants, Western grebes (small duck)” because they have “no special conservation status”. And not listed at all in the Appendix are our common Mallard ducks or Canadian geese. These aren’t endangered species and many of us don’t like the geese poop on our golf course, but we certainly don’t want to lose sight of them flying in our skies, honking in their V-formations in the evenings, and paddling in our bays. We do have a lot of them now (and I’m sure the duck hunters appreciate that) but I doubt any of us want them to move elsewhere as another impact from the decay of the Delta.

In researching, it’s interesting to me that birds like the herons, egrets, and sandhill cranes need BOTH wetlands to nest in and agricultural lands to forage in. The BDCP puts great stock in converting Delta islands to wetlands for environmental reasons. Yet that causes worries that species like the cranes will be negatively impacted by removing their foraging areas.

It all shows me how delicate the environmental balance is and why humans should stop doing experiments to “correct” the damage that was done by their last experiment. And why the BDCP reliance on “wetlands restoration” as the “fix” for the environmental damage they know the tunnels will cause is more than just risky and naive.

The public meeting of the BDCP is Thursday April 4 in Sacramento.

Car pools are being organized in Discovery Bay – 11 to 11:30 at the Boardwalk Grill to meet and drive up. We need to show we are against the entire tunnel idea!

“Ho ho, the tunnels must go!”

At the Town Hall Meeting in February, everyone wanted to “get on the buses” to show Sacramento what we think about their Big Dumb Canal Plan (aka BDCP) – let’s do it at the next BDCP Public Meeting !!!

April 4th, 1:30 PM, Sacramento

We’ll organize car pools. We’ll look into getting buses.

We’ll be sending out more info – but wanted you to “Save the Date”.

1:30-4:30 pm at the Red Lion Woodlake Conference Center, 500 Leisure Lane, Sacramento. (Confirm meeting details and view agenda at the BDCP Website).

How about signs? Let’s make signs like “STOP THE TUNNELS RECALL BROWN”, “Big Dumb Concrete Pipes”, “SAVE THE DELTA STOP THE TUNNELS”. We’ll make some signs for people but anyone creative that wants to make their own, that would be great.

Please contact me if (1) you could drive in case we do car pools and (2) you can attend. I’ll start getting a headcount.

One of the big complaints of the Delta Plan and related processes for “fixing” the Delta is the lack of alternatives being evaluated and presented.

The current plan being advocated by Gov. Brown and the BDCP is the huge massive twin tunnels to export 4 million gallons of water per hour from the Sacramento River to send South which would move the water around the Delta instead of flowing through it. The amount of water the tunnels could remove is basically all of the fresh water from the Sacramento River which would leave the Delta farms and communities surrounded only by brackish, stagnant water – not exactly an environmentally friendly situation.

Mary Piepho, Contra Costa County Supervisor, expressed her concerns last week in a KCBS San Francisco Radio Interview.

Contra Costa Supervisor Worries Gov’s Plan Would Divert Too Much Water To SoCal

“Brown’s nearly $24 billion tunnel system would divert water from farmland and cities.” “They’re focusing on the delta specifically to resolve greater statewide problems. The delta simply does not have the supply, the capacity or the ecosystem to withstand that sort of pressure,” Piepho said. Click here to read the entire article and hear the radio interview first-hand.

This week environmental groups proposed an alternative to the two massive tunnels called the “‘Portfolio-Based’ Single Peripheral Tunnel Proposal” which would export less water than the BDCP plan and still pump some water from the existing Tracy pumps in the South Delta. While this does result in some fresh water flowing through the Delta, Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA) does not deem that as a viable alternative since it means exporting more water from the already stressed Delta.

The Restore the Delta response to the Single Tunnel Proposal was “We maintain that the best way to restore the Delta is to improve levees to the highest standard, to add habitat to those wide upgraded levees, to restore flows in and through the Delta, to screen the existing pumps properly, in addition to promoting regional self-sufficiency for water development in other parts of the state. If the existing pumps at Tracy remain in use, and a 3000 cfs tunnel is added at Hood, the total export capacity from the Delta would remain at 6 million acre feet. You cannot restore the Delta by taking that much water out of it.”

STCDA response to the Delta Plan calls for the Delta Stewardship Council to consider other alternatives besides the massive tunnels which to-date have been the sole focus of Governor Brown and the BDCP. Thursday the Contra Costa County Supervisors formally called for a wider range of options to be studied.

There are better alternatives. STCDA suggests evaluating better use of spring water runoff, which now overflows into the Yolo Bypass and various Weirs and is not recovered, and instead piping it south to re-charge central valley aquifers. A new proposal has been suggested to build a reservoir on Sherman Island in the West Delta and pipe water from there to the Tracy pumps, thus allowing the fresh water to first flow through the Delta. Proposals have long existed to restore the Tulare Lake basin. And of course water conservation, retiring toxic farmlands that leach salt and selenium, and a plan for regional self-sufficiency seem like the most obvious first steps.

Destroying the Delta can’t be the only alternative for the state’s water issues.

Don’t forget to Save the Date for the STCDA Town Hall Meeting on Delta Water including a free showing of Restore the Delta’s acclaimed movie “Over Troubled Waters.”

Don’t forget to submit any comments to the Delta Plan Final Draft before the January 14th deadline. Email your comments to deltaplancomment@deltacouncil.ca.gov. The PDF of the Final Plan is here. The website with all of the details and appendices is here.

The Plan has a lot of good information, clearly states the problems and issues facing the Delta today and recognizes the Delta as a “place” for communities, boating, and farming as well as being an important ecosystem. However for boaters, while it recognizes the value of boating to the Delta communities and all of Northern California, there is nothing that discussed boaters’ significant concerns and issues which would be caused by restricting navigation such as was planned for the Two Gates project.

In addition, a primary focus for “fixing” the Delta is “habitat restoration” – flooding Delta islands. However, the scientific reviews I have heard and read are concerned that there is no proof that flooding islands does help significantly and it reduces fertile farmland in order to send water to the desert Westland farms that leech selenium and other chemicals and toxic salts so they can expand growing water-intensive crops such as cotton and almond production for export. I for one am not excited to reduce our local wonderful produce in exchange for supporting the growing market for almonds and pistachios in China. I feel there aren’t enough restrictions and guidelines about exporting water and for what.

The comments I submitted are here in case they are useful: Jan’s Comments.

On November 19th, a new petition was initiated by Jan McCleery of Discovery Bay to Save the California Delta because of concern about the ongoing progress towards a Peripheral Canal (aka Delta Tunnels) which local scientist know will cause the dismise of the Delta.

(Note: If you search on the SignOn site you will see two petitions with exactly the same name. Someone else started the second one yesterday – we are not sure if that person had good intentions or wants to divert signees. Be sure you use the link so you find the right petition so the community speaks with one voice and doesn’t end up divided.)

In July Governor Brown said they will build the Canal first, then figure out how to restore the Delta later. In October, Congressman Jerry McNerney, John Garamendi and other local legislators cosponsored H.R. 6484, the SAFE Levee Act, to push the need for a complete cost-benefit study on the impact of the Peripheral Tunnel proposal, which the state and federal governments have thus far refused to do.

The Delta Stewardship Council (DSC), Bay and Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and other well-funded efforts directed by the Governor continue to move forward in their drive to build a Peripheral Canal – a shortsighted alternative to solving California’s water issues.

Enough is enough. Recent news about on-line petitions garnering thousands of signees made me hopeful that the people against the Peripheral Canal can do the same to make our voices heard by signing Save the California Delta.

The Petition Statement is: We oppose Governor Brown’s push to build huge tunnels, estimated to cost up to $60 billion, to bypass the California Delta. The impacts to the fish, fertile Delta farmland, Delta economy and recreation in both the Delta and San Francisco Bays more than offset any benefits provided by the tunnels.

Petition Background: Help us save the California Delta – the largest freshwater estuary West of the Mississippi, critical to the Northern California environment (the most important biological asset on the west coast, home to 750 species of fish, birds and other animals), recreation, local Delta farmers and Delta economy. Water exports have increasingly affected Delta water quality, resulting in a salmon fishery closure in 2008/2009 with significant economic losses, all to benefit the desert farmland’s big agribusiness millionaires. I live on the Delta and love it – it’s my backyard. Current plans will cause the demise of salmon and other fish and fowl and will harm the Delta economy and the health and quality of Delta water.

MAKE SURE YOU SIGN THE RIGHT PETITION. SOMEONE ELSE STARTED A COMPETING PETITION ON THURSDAY WITH THE EXACT SAME PETITION NAME BUT THAT WILL DIVIDE OUR NUMBERS.

MAKE SURE YOU SIGN JAN McCLEERY’S Save the California Delta PETITION.