Archive Page 34

Farm Bill Trickery

Published January 27, 2014 News and Events , STCDA News , Tunnel(s) Leave a Comment

The House Bill for Farm aid (food stamps) has been revised to include provisions to to start the Delta pumps and stop the San Joaquin River Restoration flows – both of which reverse the little progress made to-date to save the salmon and protect the Delta from total demise.

We don’t want their surprises! The Central Valley farm representatives are urging everyone to contact Feinstein and Boxer and ask them to pass the “Farm Bill”. They are very “pleased” that they are sneaking in these trick provisions – see Pass the Farm Bill! It Has Some Surprises!

The House Bill is similar to the Senate Jobs Bill Sen. Feinstein sponsored in Feb 2010 where she slipped in a measure to remove restrictions for endangered salmon. She withdrew that part after public outcry. The Bill is now going to the Senate.

We need public outcry again. Contact the senators and complain that the right answer isn’t to send more water to Westlands for Almonds to Asia. As Bill Jennings with the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance explains, “We entered 2013 with Shasta, Oroville and Folsom reservoirs at 115 percent, 113 percent, and 121 percent of historical average storage. In April, they were still at 101 percent, 108 percent and 96 percent of average. With no rainfall and little snowpack, the Department of Water Resources and the Bureau (of Reclamation) notified their contractors that water deliveries would be reduced. But they didn’t reduce deliveries. Instead, they actually exported 835,000 acre-feet more water than they said they would be able to deliver.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/26/6097073/viewpoints-better-solutions-for.html#storylink=cpy.

Here’s what I entered in both of the Senator’s on-line comment forms (kind of rushed – not sure how good a job it was):
————
Revise the Farm Bill:
The House has added the emergency drought relief package to start the Delta pumps and stop the San Joaquin River Restoration flows to the Farm Bill which includes needed food stamps. This is a very bad trick. Those actions will put Northern California cities and farmers at even more risk due to the lack of water in the North.

We entered 2013 with Shasta, Oroville and Folsom reservoirs at 115 percent, 113 percent, and 121 percent of historical average storage. In April, they were still at 101 percent, 108 percent and 96 percent of average. With no rainfall and little snowpack, the Department of Water Resources and the Bureau (of Reclamation) notified their contractors that water deliveries would be reduced. But they didn’t reduce deliveries. Instead, they actually exported 835,000 acre-feet more water than they said they would be able to deliver.”

– Reservoirs serving the Metropolitan Water District in Southern California are filled to 90 percent
– It’s the reservoirs in the North that are at an all-time low due to earlier releases for unsustainable farms
– The answer isn’t to release more water for farming in the desert or building tunnels.

The answer is to cut back on unsustainable farming in the arid desert. Powerful corporate agribusinesses have been expanding farmlands, especially water-thirsty almonds to ship to Asia, without regard for how much water actually exists that is needed by Northern California farmers, communities and the environment.

This bill’s hidden provisions and the BDCP Delta Tunnels only make the matter worse. Please protect my community and surrounding Delta communities and remove the offensive clauses from the Farm Bill.

Contact Dianne Feinstein:

E-Mail (Contact form): https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me

San Francisco
One Post Street, Suite 2450
San Francisco, CA 94104
Phone: (415) 393-0707
Fax: (415) 393-0710

Contact Barbara Boxer:

Email (Contact Form): http://www.boxer.senate.gov/en/contact/policycomments.cfm

Office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
70 Washington Street, Suite 203
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 286-8537

Office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
2500 Tulare Street, Suite 5290
Fresno, CA 93721
(559) 497-5109

Office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
312 N. Spring St. Suite 1748
Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 894-5000

Office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
501 I Street, Suite 7-600
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 448-2787

Office of U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3553

Water Usage in California

Published January 25, 2014 News and Events 2 Comments

I thought this was interesting – who uses the most water in California from the latest survey:

Sacramento Bee – January 17, 2014

For those of us who didn’t grow up in California and didn’t learn the county names, here’s which counties are which:

Critical Meeting Feb 12 6:30 PM

Published January 23, 2014 Tunnel(s) Leave a Comment

With the Governor’s drought declaration, Central Valley agribusinesses are calling to turn on the pumps as if there’s a wealth of fresh water somewhere to send south.

We have until April 13th to send in comments on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (aka the “Tunnel Plan”). To help you, Save the California Delta Alliance will host a Town Hall Meeting Wednesday, February 12, 6:30 PM at the Discovery Bay Elementary School. More information below.


Discovery Bay Press – Friday January 24, 2014

If you already have comments to make, send them in as below.

You can send in as many comments as you want.

Carrying on the good fight

Published January 5, 2014 News and Events Leave a Comment

Bill Wells, our Bay & Delta Yachtsman Magazine’s “Delta Rat” journalist was honored for his efforts in battling the BDCP in a recent Rio Vista newspaper:

They ask why we don’t trust them

Published January 5, 2014 News and Events , Tunnel(s) Leave a Comment

Photo by Randy Pench/rpench@sacbee.com

Yesterday, Jerry Meral was quoted in a Sacramento Bee Viewpoint piece that Sacramento should not worry that the tunnels will harm their city: “Through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the state and federal water project operators offer [their] commitment to contribute to the recovery of threatened and endangered species,” he penned.

Here’s more proof about why we cannot trust those types of comments from people who want the water. Today’s Sacramento Bee discusses Owens Valley. The LA Municipal utility that oversees that valley “defend their stewardship” and say “We’re very protective of the valley. Some will imply anything we do is the source of all the problems. There are many more factors, weather probably being the biggest one.”

Doesn’t that sound just like BDCP representatives saying the current fish decline in the Delta is all about the drought, not excessive pumping?

How about this statement? “Utility officials also point to a recent track record of environmental gains. Seven years ago, DWP returned water to the lower Owens River, bringing a Lazarus-like, 62-mile-long stream corridor back to life. And it diverts significantly less water out of the valley than a generation ago.”

I don’t think Owens Valley is exactly healthy and blooming.

In addition, Owens Valley representatives of the tribes and people who live there say that Los Angeles had to be pushed to make those changes through years of legal and regulatory conflict. “It’s not voluntary,” said Daniel Pritchett, a board member of the Owens Valley Committee, an environmental nonprofit based in Bishop. “It’s only because they’ve been forced, kicking and screaming, by the courts.”

It sounds so all too similar to the current Delta battles. Jerry Meral and BDCP proponents say the tunnels are to provide “reliability” and point to the unreliability caused by environmental restrictions (i.e., the judges not letting them continue to pump until the salmon are extinct). But if they operated the system in a balanced way, with true concern for the co-equal goals which allows for excess water put to beneficial use while restoring the Delta ecosystem, the Delta would not be in the condition it currently is in.

The goal of the BDCP is to gain approval of a 40-year plan during which time legal challenges will be much more difficult. Yet another reason why the BDCP cannot be approved. To-date, unfortunately, the only thing that has kept the salmon from extinction has been the legal challenges.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/01/05/6046630/outrage-in-owens-valley.html#storylink=cpy

2014’s Off to a Dry Start

Published January 4, 2014 News and Events , STCDA News 2 Comments

Rocks are visible below the Headwall run as skiers make their way down a run at Squaw Valley Resort on Monday, December 30, 2013 in Olympic Valley, Calif. Lack of snow has left many resorts with runs full of obstacles, like rocks, grass and small trees for skiers and boarders to navigate on their way down the mountain. – Photo Sacramento Bee


Snowpack Report

See Sacramento Bee’s “Sierra snow survey points to dry year ahead” January 4, 2014.

Meanwhile, Jerry Meral is still arguing in favor of tunnels today – see Jerry Meral Viewpoint in the Sacramento Bee also January 4, 2014. It’s amazing how he can continue to justify his viewpoints when every paragraph in that story is either misleading or just untrue. See our rebuttal to Meral’s Viewpoint here: “Meral resigned, but is not gone”.

If the tunnels were already built, they would be sitting dry.

Tunnels will not help.

What if

From 1982 when the Peripheral Canal was voted down until today, what has the state done to get ready for another drought? What if we’d started building water recycling and desalination plants and implemented real conservation projects like upgrades to the LA aging water pipelines? Instead of water contractors putting hundreds of millions of dollars into producing 40,000 pages of meaningless documentation to justify a water grab, what if the contractors had been investing in regional self-sufficiency like ground water clean-up, recycling and ground water recharge?

Perhaps 2014 would be a good year for the state to change direction and start implementing projects that will protect us all during drought years. Instead of spending $67 billion on tunnels, we should start investing today in real solutions.

Meral resigned, but is not gone

Published January 4, 2014 News and Events Leave a Comment

Jerry Meral may have resigned, but he is still arguing in favor of tunnels today in the Sacramento Bee. It’s amazing how he can continue to justify his viewpoints when every paragraph in his article is either misleading or just untrue.

The Sacramento Bee has a new Comment system based on vouchers. I don’t know the California Farm Water Coalition representative manages to get vouchers to post a negative comment on every anti-tunnel SacBee press article, but I can’t get one even after I signed up for a Sac Bee subscription!

So in case you saw the Jerry Meral article, here’s what he has wrong:

  • Meral says: “Existing water diversions from the south Delta cause fish problems by diverting and killing fish from dead-end channels. Moving the diversion point upstream to the Sacramento River would allow river flows to safely carry young fish past the fish screens at the new intake.”

    Misleading. The main cause of the fish problems is too much water being exported which reverses the flow. The Bay Institute and State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Delta Flows report clearly states that the “fix” is to reduce the level of pumping during migration times. Removing more fresh water upstream and reducing the overall flow through the Delta is not a fix. The Delta needs fresh water flowing through it.

    Unproven and Speculative. The new diversion point “fish protection” is based on fish screens that haven’t been invented yet. Meanwhile they claim they can’t invent screens or a configuration at the current location to better protect fish.

  • Meral continues: “A new diversion point is strongly supported by independent and university biologists and state and federal fish agencies.”

    Misleading. There are as many or more scientists that oppose the tunnels saying they will mean the extinction of salmon and other species. The Federal Fish & Game have not agreed that the tunnels will not kill the fish.

  • Meral states: “Another concern is whether Sacramento County water users might somehow be harmed by a new diversion point on the Sacramento River south of the city of Sacramento.”
    1. Meral has two responses to this concern – first: “The proposed new diversion is downstream of the water intakes for the city of Sacramento and Sacramento County water users. Physically, there would be no way for the new diversion (the intake to the tunnels) to take any water needed by Sacramento water users.”

      Misleading. Sacramento water users may not be harmed directly from where the pumps are located but will be harmed long-term due to more water being extracted from the system and sent south. The BDCP modeling shows their plan is to take Folsom Reservoir down to a dead pool level (10% full) during dry years to provide enough water for the farmers. That is Sacramento’s drinking water. Also, by removing fresh water before it flows through the Delta, it risks the Delta becoming saltier which threatens other Delta communities’ drinking water.

    2. Second: “Layers of institutional guarantees ensure that none of Sacramento’s water could ever be diverted by the state and federal water projects. Sacramento has very secure water rights, which long predate those of the state and federal water projects. State “area of origin” water laws protect the rights of counties upstream of the Delta to use the water they need before any can be exported.”

      Untrue. The layers of agencies all have a water contractor with veto power so that any decision that would protect the fish by cutting back water exports could be postponed indefinitely while the fish all die. See “The fox are guarding the henhouse”.

  • Last, Meral states: “Through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the state and federal water project operators seek the same assurances and offer the same commitment to contribute to the recovery of threatened and endangered species.”

    Untrue: The water contractors will have veto power over operations and they have no commitment to endangered species. I’ve heard the two top officials of the Westlands Water District at different times both say they weren’t going to spend any more money for salmon. Westlands sued to try to get water releases from the Trinity stopped even when it was clear to not release some water would kill the salmon eggs. Westlands is trying to get rid of bass in the Delta and Orcas in the NorthWest because they claim those species are what is causing harm to salmon – they won’t admit it is the over exporting that is killing the salmon. Metropolitan Water District was the agency behind the “2-Gates” project which would have been a disaster for boating communities in the South Delta.

    Yet Meral can believes there is a “commitment” to the recovery of endangered species?

See Jerry Meral Viewpoint to read it for yourself.

Where is Jerry Meral Now?

Published January 2, 2014 News and Events , Tunnel(s) Leave a Comment
  If you wondered about where Jerry Meral would work next, here’s the answer: Natural Heritage Institute Hires Jerry Meral.

He announced in a statement on December 31 that he will be now working for the Natural Heritage Institute (NHI), a pro twin tunnels “environmental” NGO that touts itself as “an early and strenuous proponent of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.”

Jerry Meral is joining an organization that not only has been an “early and strenuous” cheerleader of the BDCP, but has long championed water markets and water transfers that have privatized water and transformed a public trust asset, belonging to all citizens, into a “profit center to enrich special interests,” according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).

Sounds like a great fit!

End-of-Year News

Published December 28, 2013 STCDA News , Tunnel(s) Leave a Comment

As 2013 wraps to an end, the media appears to be swinging against the tunnels. Here’s a few of this weeks articles.

Several were spawned from a recent presentation at Westlands Water District that presented an update to anticipated cost of the Delta Tunnels: now $67 billion! Some note that the cost revision was not included as part of the 40,000 pages of documents released 2 weeks ago.

Tuesday, December 24th, Rep. John Garamendi repeated his plan and words of wisdom about the real solutions for California’s water situation. Garamendi: California needs a comprehensive water plan – not a $25 billion boondoggle. A few key points Rep. Garamendi makes:

  • The technology already exists for agriculture to conserve 3 million acre feet of water each year. That would cut the Delta exports in half and take it back to the amount recommended by the SWRCB “Delta Flow” report.
  • One million acre feet could be recycled and stored in the underground aquifers in Southern California at a cost of $1.3 billion.
  • Conservation, recycling programs and new storage could create approximately 5.7 million acre feet of new water to use each year at a projected cost of $7.8 billion.

Good News/Bad News

Published December 22, 2013 News and Events , STCDA News , Tunnel(s) 1 Comment

Here’s the Good

Good News/Bad News: Here’s the good – December 19 Sierra Club issues a White Paper opposing the Tunnels and offers common sense alternatives that should be pursued instead: “Sierra Club offers alternatives to the governor’s giant tunnels”.

Here’s the Bad

Sen Feinstein in the past has bent to the request of Resnick and big Agribusiness when she tried to add legislation in the Senate Jobs Bill to remove protection for endangered salmon.

Boxer’s reputation in the past has been to want to aid the environment, not abandon it.

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