In his State of the State Address on January 18, Governor Jerry Brown emphasized his commitment to fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal under the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), a Nineteenth Century "solution" to Twenty-First Century problems.
Brown said that water is a "huge issue we must tackle" - and then greenwashed the BDCP process by claiming it will somehow "restore" the Delta ecosystem and create "new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife."
Brown proclaimed, "Last week, Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar - met here in Sacramento with those in my administration who are working to complete the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
Together we agreed that by this summer we should have the basic elements of the project we need to build. This is something my father worked on and then I worked on-decades ago. We know more now and are committed to the dual goals of restoring the Delta ecosystem and ensuring a reliable water supply.
This is an enormous project. It will ensure water for 25 million Californians and for millions of acres of farmland as well a hundred thousand acres of new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife. To get it done will require time, political will and countless permits from state and federal agencies. I invite your collaboration and constructive engagement."
Ironically, the theme of his speech was "California on the Mend." Delta advocates oppose the construction of the peripheral canal because it will lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other fish species.
This canal won't "mend" imperiled Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations; it will only exacerbate the ecosystem collapse caused by record water exports from the Delta in recent years!
The plan will not only greenwash the destruction of Delta fish, but will remove vast tracts of Delta farmland, some of the most fertile on the planet, from production in order to increase water exports to corporate agribusiness interests farming drainage-impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley.
Again, removing good land from production in order to irrigate bad land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, land that should have never been irrigated, is hardly "mending" California!
Not only would the canal be environmentally destructive, but it would be enormously expensive. A draft economic report by Steven Kasower of the Strategic Economic Applications Company, released to the California Legislature in 2009, revealed that the costs for the construction of a peripheral canal around the California Delta or a tunnel under the estuary would be much higher than previously estimated, ranging from $23 billion to $53.8 billion depending upon the type of conveyance facility. (http://yubanet.com/california/Op-Ed-Dan-Bacher-Peripheral-Canal-Would-Cost-23-to-53-8-Billion.php)'
"The peripheral canal will only cause more destruction," summed up Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe at a Tribal Water Summit in December 2009. "Our efforts should be instead focused on cleaning up the water to the point where we can drink the water in our rivers and streams."
Record Delta exports and fish kills aren't 'mending' the ecosystem
In his address, Brown claimed, "California is on the mend," touting his "accomplishments" in 2011.
"Last year, we were looking at a structural deficit of over $20 billion," Brown stated. "It was a real mess. But you rose to the occasion and together we shrunk state government, reduced our borrowing costs and transferred key functions to local government, closer to the people. The result is a problem one fourth as large as the one we confronted last year."
However, the "mending" Brown spoke of doesn't appear to apply to the Brown administration's management of Delta fisheries and California water.
The Brown and Obama administrations authorized the export of a record amount of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in the 2011 water year. The water export total, including water diverted by the Contra Costa Canal and North Bay Aqueduct, was 6,633,000 acre-feet in 2011 - 163,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, according to DWR data.
The record pumping from the Delta in 2011 - used to fill billionaire Stewart Resnick's Kern Water Bank and southern California reservoirs - resulted in a huge, unprecedented fish kill at the Delta pumps. Agency staff "salvaged" a total of 11,158,025 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011 alone. Scientists estimate that the actual amount of fish lost in the pumps is 5 to 10 times the "salvage" numbers.
Approximately 9 million Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were "salvaged" during this period. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
These unprecedented water exports and fish killed in the Delta pumps hardly can be described as "mending" the Delta. By exporting a record amount of water and killing a record number of fish, the Brown and Obama administrations surpassed even the Schwarzenegger and Bush administrations in their total disregard for the Delta ecosystem and the public trust.
With a record like this, how are we to possibly believe that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan will "restore" the Delta ecosystem and create "new habitat for spawning fish and other wildlife?"
The BDCP Management Committee that oversees the plan has completely excluded Delta residents, family farmers, Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, elected officials and business owners.
At the same time, the Department of Water Resources has hired two employees of powerful water contractors, Laura King Moon of the State Water Contractors Association and Susan Ramos of the Westlands Water District, to help develop the plan to build the peripheral canal (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/12/14/westlands-official-working-for-dwr-on-delta-plan). If this isn't an overt conflict of interest, I don't know what is.
MLPA Initiative doesn't 'mend' the ocean
While presiding over record water exports and pushing for the construction of the peripheral canal, Governor Jerry Brown has also continued the abysmal environmental legacy of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger by forging ahead with the corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative process. The MLPA Initiative is a parody of "protection," since it creates "marine protected areas" that fail to protect the ocean from oil spills and drilling, pollution, military testing, wind and wave energy projects, corporate aquaculture and all other human impacts other than fishing and gathering.
The illegitimacy of the privately funded process is demonstrated by the alarming fact that Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, chaired the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force to create "marine protected areas" on the South Coast. Reheis-Boyd, a strong supporter of new oil drilling off the West Coast, the Keystone XL Pipeline and the gutting of environmental laws, also served on the North Coast and North Central Coast MLPA panels. What is a big oil lobbyist doing overseeing the creation of "marine protected areas" in California? (http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/02/the-oil-industrys-marine-reserves)
Brown's claim that "California is on the mend" is false when you review his 2011 environmental record, including his forging ahead with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's BDCP and MLPA Initiative fiascos, record Delta water exports and record fish kills in the Delta pumps.
Assemblymember Alyson Huber's bill to prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta without a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the state legislature failed in committee on Tuesday, January 10.
The bill vote in the Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife Committee was 5 ayes and 7 nos, with 1 member not in attendance.
However, Huber, a Democrat from El Dorado Hills, noted that the bill made significant progress over last year when the same bill, SB 550, failed to get a second to the motion to vote on it.
"Although my Delta protection bill, AB 550, was unsuccessful, it succeeded in getting support from the Water Parks & Wildlife Chair, Jared Huffman, and bipartisan support from 4 other committee members," said Huber.
"We have made great progress from last year and I am still committed to pressing for a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the legislature before any Delta water conveyance program can move forward," said Huber.
AB 550 would "prohibit the construction and operation of a peripheral canal from diminishing or negatively affecting the water supplies, water rights, or quality of water for water users within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, or imposing any new burdens on infrastructure within, or financial burdens on persons residing in, the Delta or the Delta watershed," according to the bill text.
Tracy Chimenti, a Penryn mandarin farmer and recreational angler who attended the hearing, said, "I supported the bill because it gives the Legislature a chance to analyze the fiscal impacts and true cost of the project so a rational decision can be made in the open."
"I oppose the canal because from the economic standpoint, it is a multi-billion dollar boondoggle," said Chimenti. "As a small farmer, I try to use the most cost effective way to grow fruit."
He also opposes the canal because of the dramatic impacts it would have on fish populations and the environment.
"Taking more water from the Delta in an alternate flow regime will simply damage the sport fishery and native fish populations," emphasized Chimenti. "On top of that, the many fishing businesses that Delta and Central Valley fisheries support would go down the tubes with the construction of the canal."
Supporters of the bill included Restore the Delta, Food and Water Watch, the California Delta Chambers, Central Delta Water Agency, City of Lodi, City of Stockton, the Rio Vista Chamber Commerce, South Delta Water Agency, Wilson Farms and Vineyards and numerous other groups and individuals.
"Restore the Delta maintains that the people of California deserve to know that due process will take place before tax payers and rate payers are asked to spend billions of dollars on a peripheral canal," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. "It is imperative that our state's Legislature continues to oversee large-scale projects and does not delegate its authority to unelected bureaucrats who are not held accountable by voters."
The Association of California Water Agencies, Westlands Water District, the State Water Contractors, Kern County Water Agency, Santa Clara Valley Water Agency, Metropolitan Water District, County of Los Angeles and numerous others receiving water exports from the Delta opposed the bill.
In a letter to Huber, these agencies stated, "We view AB 550 as a threat to achieving the co-equal goals of ecosystem restoration and reliable water supplies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Most importantly, your legislation will undermine water supply reliability throughout California and will threaten jobs and the economic health of three quarters of the state's population residing south of the Delta. AB 550 is a blatant repeal of the historic Delta/water management legislation enacted in November 2009 that created a path towards new Delta conveyance."
The Brown and Obama administrations are currently fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal in order to export more Delta water to southern California and corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Delta advocates believe the construction of peripheral canal or tunnel would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish species.
Advocates of openness and transparency in government believe that the BDCP, like the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create so-called "marine protected areas" on the California coast, is a corrupt process filled with numerous conflicts of interest. For example, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, president of the Western States Petroleum Association and a strong advocate for new offshore oil drilling, chaired the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that developed the "marine protected areas" that went into effect in Southern California ocean waters on January 1.
Likewise, an employee of the Westlands Water District is currently working "on loan" for the Department of Water Resources (DWR) on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the plan initiated by state and federal water contractors to allow them to build a peripheral canal or tunnel.
Documents obtained by this reporter under the California Public Records Act reveal that Susan Ramos, Deputy General Manager of the Westlands Water District, was hired in an inter-jurisdictional "personnel exchange agreement" between the Department of Water Resources and Westlands Water District from November 15, 2009 through December 31, 2012. (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/12/14/westlands-official-working-for-dwr-on-delta-plan)
The news of Ramos' hiring followed the alarming disclosure that DWR hired Laura King Moon, the Assistant General Manager of the State Water Contractors, to assist in the completion of the BDCP. (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/10/25/state-hires-water-contractor-rep-to-help-oversee-bay-delta-plan/)
"People have come to accept these political moves, without any consideration for the Tribal, fishing, small farming and other communities impacted by these processes, as normal," summed up Michael Preston, spokesman for the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and a UC Berkeley Junior studying Society and the Environment and Native American Studies.
Preston's tribe is now engaged in an ambitious campaign to reintroduce McCloud River winter run chinook salmon from the Rakaira River in New Zealand to the McCloud above Shasta Dam.
Assemblymember Alyson L. Huber (D-El Dorado Hills) has re-introduced legislation, A.B. 550, that would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta without a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the state legislature.
"Please stand with me as I continue the fight to protect one of our region's most vital natural resources: The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta," said Huber. "I believe this legislation is critical to ensuring oversight over one of the largest infrastructure projects California has seen in decades."
Assembly Bill 550 will be heard in the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife at the State Capitol, Room 437, January 10 at 9 a.m. Space is limited in the hearing room, so please arrive early if you would like a seat.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, urged people concerned about the future of the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast of the Americas to attend the hearing and to send a letter in support of the legislation.
"We believe that Assemblymember Huber's bill is one of the most important pieces of proposed legislation for Californians," said Barrigan-Parrilla. "Can California tax payers and water rate payers afford to pay more out of pocket for a project that will benefit a few powerful water district leaders and corporate agribusiness growers? We encourage all RTD members to take the time to support this important piece of legislation."
"With your help we can show that Delta area residents will not stand idle while Southern California water interests attempt to bulldoze their way through the Delta," concluded Huber.
AB 550 would "prohibit the construction and operation of a peripheral canal from diminishing or negatively affecting the water supplies, water rights, or quality of water for water users within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, or imposing any new burdens on infrastructure within, or financial burdens on persons residing in, the Delta or the Delta watershed," according to the bill text.
The Brown and Obama administration are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal in order to export more Delta water to southern California and corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Delta advocates believe the construction of peripheral canal or tunnel would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish species.
The BDCP, like the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, is a corrupt process filled with numerous conflicts of interest. Documents obtained by this reporter under the California Public Records Act reveal that Susan Ramos, Deputy General Manager of the Westlands Water District, was hired in an inter-jurisdictional personal exchange agreement between the Department of Water Resources and Westlands Water District from November 15, 2009 through December 31, 2012. (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/12/14/westlands-official-working-for-dwr-on-delta-plan)
I applaud Assemblymember Huber for standing up for our fish populations, the Delta and all Californians by sponsoring this legislation to stop the canal!
Send your letter of support to: Honorable Jared Huffman, Chair, Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, 1020 N Street, Suite 160, Sacramento, CA 95814, P.O. Box 94249, Sacramento, CA 94249-00119, FAX: (916) 319-2196
Pasted below, you will find Restore the Delta's letter in support of the bill. Feel free to use it as a template to send your own letter to Assemblymember Jared Huffman.
January 5, 2012
Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Chair
Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee
1020 N. Street, Suite 160
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Assemblyman Huffman:
Restore the Delta supports Assemblywoman Huber's bill AB 550. AB 550 would prohibit the construction of a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without a full fiscal analysis and a vote of the Legislature.
Restore the Delta maintains that the people of California deserve to know that due process will take place before tax payers and rate payers are asked to spend billions of dollars on a peripheral canal. It is imperative that our state's Legislature continues to oversee large-scale projects and does not delegate its authority to unelected bureaucrats who are not held accountable by voters.
Sincerely yours,
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Executive Director
Restore the Delta
Please send copies of the letter to assemblymember.huber [at] assembly.ca.gov, FAX 916-319-2110. For more information about the campaign against the peripheral canal, go to: http://www.restorethedelta.org.
Congress should continue ban on "catch shares" programs
by Dan Bacher
As the Occupy movement spreads throughout the nation and world, sustainable fishing communities, consumer groups and grassroots environmentalists have mobilized to stop the 1 percent from stealing ocean public trust resources from the 99 percent.
This week the U.S. Congress is expected to vote on a critical bill that would continue a recently instituted ban on a wasteful government program that gives large corporations control of the nation's fishery resources, in effect privatizing the ocean's public trust resources.
The Obama regime is promoting a "catch shares" program for fisheries that, like the Wall Street bailouts, will concentrate money and natural resources in fewer hands. Corporate environmental NGOs promoting the catch shares fiasco are heavily funded by the Walton Family Foundation (WalMart) and other foundations that represent the 1 percent (http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/08/19/wal-marting-the-oceans).
The ban has broad bi-partisan support. On November 3, nineteen Members of Congress from seven Eastern Seaboard states signed a letter urging Congress to not fund the Obama administration's catch shares program.
Drafted by Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House Appopriations Committee and the Commerce subcommittee, the letter asks that "language be included in the final FY 2012 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill to restrict the use of funds for development or approval of new 'catch share' programs for any fishery under the jurisdiction of the New England, Mid Atlantic or South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils." (http://www.savingseafood.org/washington/19-members-of-congress-ask-appropriations-and-authorizing-committees-not-to-fund-new-catch-share-pro-3.html)
"The last thing the American government should be doing in these economic times is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to expand programs that will put even more Americans out of work," the letter stated. "But that's exactly what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is attempting to do by requesting $54 million in its FY 12 Budget to accelerate implementation of new fisheries catch share programs across the U.S."
Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, is one of the organizations leading the charge to ban catch shares. "In recent years the government has been ramping up spending of taxpayer dollars on catch share programs," according to Zach Corrigan, Fish Program Director of Food & Water Watch. "These programs divide up our nation's fishery resources for exclusive use by the biggest and fastest fishing operations and then allow corporations and banks to buy and sell these 'shares' for profit."
"Catch shares turn the opportunity to go fishing into a commodity, requiring commercial fishermen to buy shares before being able to go fishing. As has happened with family farms on land, the added costs push smaller-scale fishermen out of business and consolidate the industry, paving the way for industrial fishing methods that can destroy sensitive ocean habitats," Corrigan noted.
Make your voice heard now!
Last year, Congress passed a one-year measure to stop new catch share programs on the east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, but industry proponents are attempting to end this ban this week, noted Corrigan.
"Congress needs to hear that you oppose making small-scale fishermen a relic of the past and increasing our reliance on corporate-controlled food production. Can you ask your member of Congress to keep this ban on "catch share" programs?" urged Corrigan.
If you don't want what's happened to our housing, banking, health care and other industries to happen to our ocean, send a letter today!
On a similar note, the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance (http://namanet.org) is circulating a graphic entitled, "Occupy the Ocean?" warning of the increasing consolidation of fisheries in the hands of a few.
"In 2010, 20% of vessels accounted for about 80% of the gross nominal revenues from groundfish sales in New England," the alliance states. "Diversity matters when it comes to who catches our fish, grows our food, banks our cars or keeps us healthy."
Privatization of the public trust and conservation is bad for fish, communities
The increasing corporate control of public resources that has occurred wherever "catch shares" have been introduced has devastated fish populations and fishing communities.
"The current focus of U.S. policy for managing our fisheries, called catch shares, is destroying the way of life of our nation's fishermen and coastal communities," according to a groundbreaking Food & Water Watch event released in August. (http://documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/Fish-Inc.pdf). "This time-honored trade is being replaced by a privatized system that often leaves the future of our nation's fish, one of our most precious natural resources, in the hands of a small number of larger operations, whose primary goal is often immediate profit rather than sustainable use and long-term conservation."
In California, the shadowy Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, a private corporation, has funded the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative. The MLPA Initiative, overseen by oil industry, real estate, marina development and other corporate interests, creates so-called "marine protected areas" that fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling and spills, pollution, military testing, corporate aquaculture, wind and wave energy projects and all other human impacts other than fishing and gathering.
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA), was chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force that oversaw the development of these questionable "marine protected areas" on the Southern California coast. She also served on the panels for the North Central and North Coast. Reheis-Boyd has lobbied for new oil rigs off the California coast and tar sands drilling in Canada - and is no friend of the environment.
Yet MLPA advocates refused to question or oppose the appointment by Schwarzenegger of a big oil lobbyist - and falsely claimed that the rigged process was "open, transparent and inclusive," while it was anything but. For more information, go to: http://redgreenandblue.org/201...
Occupy movement message spreads to the California Delta
Meanwhile, the same Obama administration that is promoting the catch shares program and the same Brown administration that has continued Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's MLPA Initiative are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the peripheral canal to export more water from the California Delta to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies. Delta residents, family farmers, Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, conservationists and environmental justice advocates are opposing the enormously expensive government boondoggle because it would likely lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and green sturgeon populations.
In a public meeting held by the Department of Fish and Game on November 8 regarding the Department's striped bass eradication proposal, Dawn Gulick, owner of Eddo's Harbor, echoed the theme of the Occupy Wall Street protests taking place throughout the country. Gulick said the water contractors, including Stewart Resnick, the politically connected Beverly Hills billionaire who has made tens of millions of dollars annually from buying and reselling water back to the state for a big profit, are waging "class war" against the people of the Delta.
"This is a class war and they're winning," she stated, followed by a person next to her shouting, "Occupy the Delta!" Others joined in shouting, "Occupy the Delta."
"It's our Delta. Big Money has big influence over our government and it's time to take our government back!" she continued as people in the crowd applauded.
After reading my article on the meeting, an editor of the San Francisco Chronicle decided to interview Gulick (http://blog.sfgate.com/opinionshop/2011/11/11/occupys-message-heard-in-the-delta) regarding the water contractors' war on the Delta.
"It's the 1 percent coming after our water, our fish and our farms," Gullick told the Chronicle. The real elephant in the room is pumping, not bass predation, she said. "The pelagic organisms decline the more water they pump from the delta."
Caleen Sisk-Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and one of the most outspoken opponents of the peripheral canal and state and federal plans to export even more water out of the Delta, urged support for the Occupy movement as the police were raiding the Occupy Oakland encampment Monday.
"All California people need to keep up with what is happening to the 99%! That is US, we are the 99%!" she emphasized.
Her Tribe is pushing for an innovative plan to restore native winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta with eggs provided by the Maori and New Zealand governments. Although extinct in their native habitat on the McCloud, the salmon are now thriving in the Rakaira and other rivers in New Zealand.
I believe it is time to "occupy the oceans," "occupy the Delta," and stand up for local communities and our oceans against the privatization of conservation and public trust resources. The 99 percent must rise up against the 1 percent that only care about their profits as they greenwash their privatization plans.
More than 200 organizations, representing an astonishing cross-section of the environmental, fishing, tribal and environmental justice communities, have taken aim at the Delta Stewardship Council's draft Delta Plan, according to Bill Jennings, Chairman/Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA). You can find the letter by the groups on CSPA's website at http://www.calsport.org.
"In order to recover the health of the Bay-Delta ecosystems and its fisheries, scientifically developed criteria that would allow increased flows through the Delta must be established," according to the groups. "Water exports from the Delta must be decreased and current federal and state water contract levels must be reduced in keeping with a safe, healthy, and reliable supply."
"It's become clear that the Delta Plan is little more than CalFed in another costume and CalFed's 'getting better together' has been reconstituted as the 'co-equal goals,'" said Jennings. "The Council simply can't bring itself to define the 'co-equal goals' or acknowledge that, in an over-appropriated watershed where protection of public trust resources requires more water, someone will have to make do with less water. Consequently, the state is addressing its water crisis and the collapse of the Bay/Delta ecosystem in the same manner it addresses its budget crisis; though smoke and mirrors."
The letter was issued as the Brown and Obama administrations are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal to export more Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies. The canal's construction would lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled species.
The letter's release is also underscored by the setting of two disturbing "records" on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta as the water year ended on September 30.
First, 9 million Sacramento splittail were "salvaged" at the state and federal Delta pumps near Tracy in 2011. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006 (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2011/09/09/over-11-million-fish-salvaged-in-delta-death-pumps-since-january-1).
Second, the water projects pumped a record 6.5 million acre-feet of water from the Delta in 2011, according to government data compiled by Spreck Rosecrans at Environmental Defense. The previous record was 6.3 million acre-feet in 2005.
I applaud the 200-plus conservation, environmental justice, tribal, and commercial and recreational fishing organizations for coming together to challenge the plan!
"It is seriously deficient; it does little more than maintain the status quo; it will not achieve the "co-equal" goals of the enabling legislation; and it will cost the state billions of dollars more than we need to spend; and it does nothing to balance public trust values - one of the foundations of state water management policy," the groups summed up.
The complete press release is below. The letter can be found at http://www.calsport.org or http://www.ewccalifornia.org. "I would urge you read pages 7-11 of the letter, as we're prepared to go to war over the failure to address or balance the public trust," emphasized Jennings.
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, September 30, 2011
HISTORIC RECOMMENDATIONS PRESENTED TO THE DELTA STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL
The Delta Plan, recently produced by the Delta Stewardship Council, will affect virtually every citizen and every part of our state, and it will largely shape the water landscape of California for decades to come. It will guide the path to restoring one of the world's great estuaries or write its obituary. It will determine the future abundance of our fisheries and the quality of our waters from the Sierra to the Sea and from the Oregon to the Mexican borders.
An astonishing array of more than 200 environmental, environmental justice, tribal, and commercial and recreational fishing organizations has responded to the Plan: It is seriously deficient; it does little more than maintain the status quo; it will not achieve the "co-equal" goals of the enabling legislation; and it will cost the state billions of dollars more than we need to spend; and it does nothing to balance public trust values - one of the foundations of state water management policy.
This massive coalition of grassroots organizations has responded in a formal letter to the Delta Stewardship Council with these and other recommendations, which are included in the Environmental Water Caucus' ground-breaking report: California Water Solutions Now.
· In order to recover the health of the Bay-Delta ecosystems and its fisheries, scientifically developed criteria that would allow increased flows through the Delta must be established. Water exports from the Delta must be decreased and current federal and state water contract levels must be reduced in keeping with a safe, healthy, and reliable supply.
· In order to compensate for reduced exports from the Delta, the state must sponsor a long-term, aggressive water efficiency program state wide that would apply to both urban and agricultural users. The favorable economics of water efficiencies and water recycling have been proven and would be billions of dollars less expensive for the state than constructing major new conveyance facilities through the Delta or major new storage dams.
· In order to further reduce the export pressures on the Delta, thousands of acres of impaired and pollution-generating farmlands south of the Delta must be retired from irrigation and turned into more sustainable and profitable uses, such as solar energy generation.
· Delta levees must be improved beyond the current US Army Corps of Engineer standards in order to address potential earthquake and future sea level rise concerns. The reinforcement of core levees beyond current standards is estimated to cost $1 to $2 billion and is orders-of-magnitude less expensive that major conveyance projects that are currently being contemplated by state and federal planners.
· The Delta ecosystems and wildlife cannot be restored without major reductions of pollutants that are currently being poured into the Delta or without a significant program of habitat improvements for the Delta.
The coalition's Comments Letter on the Fifth Draft of the Delta Plan, which includes the names of the 200 plus supporters and their logos as well as the full set of recommendations, can be viewed at the Environmental Water Caucus web site: http://www.ewccalifornia.org.
Contacts:
· Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta, Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org, 209 479-2053
· Jonas Minton, Planning and Conservation League, jminton [at] pcl.org (916) 719-4049
· Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Deltakeep [at] me.com, 209-464-5067
· Dr. Mark Rockwell, Endangered Species Coalition, Federation of Fly Fishers, mrockwell [at] stopextinction.org, 530 432-0100
In one of the biggest fish kills in California history, the state and federal government agencies "salvaged" a total of 11,158,021 fish in the Delta water pumping facilities between January 1 and September 7, 2011.
The Central Valley Project and State Water Project pumps in the south end of the California Delta export water to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.
A horrific 8,985,009 Sacramento splittail, the largest number ever recorded, were salvaged during this period, according to Department of Fish and Game data. The previous record salvage number for the splittail, a native minnow found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, was 5.5 million in 2006.
During the 8-day period from May 16 though May 23 when the splittail were entering the pumping facilities in the greatest numbers, a total of 4,400,073 splittail were documented.
The fish "salvaged" at the "death pumps" of the state and federal water projects also include hundreds of thousands of threadfin shad, striped bass, American shad, white catfish and other species. The salvage numbers reveal that 742,850 threadfin shad, 514,921 American shad, 496,601 striped bass and 100,373 white catfish were "salvaged" between January 1 and September 7 of this year.
Agency staff also salvaged protected Sacramento River spring run chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt and green sturgeon, all listed under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts, in the pumping facilities. The salvage numbers list 35,560 chinook salmon, 1,642 steelhead, 51 Delta smelt and 14 green sturgeon.
The staff recorded a total of 46 species of fish salvaged in the facilities, including bigscale logperch (695), bluegill (92,615), lamprey (3,861), largemouth bass (59,041) and Sacramento sucker (27,358).
Though no comprehensive studies have been conducted on how many of the salvaged fish survive, fish advocates believe that the majority of many species perish during and after the salvage process.
Actual fish losses greatly exceed salvage numbers
While the salvage counts are certainly alarming, the overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to be much greater than the salvage counts. The actual loss could be 5 to 10 times the salvage numbers, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
"These salvage statistics greatly understate the total number of fish entrained, since they do not include the number of fish lost to predators or lost through the fish screens," the report stated. "In fact, recent estimates indicate that 5-10 times more fish are lost than are salvaged, largely due to the high predation losses in and around water project facilities."
Based on this data, the actual number of fish killed in the pumps to date this year could be anywhere from 55 to 110 million!
The Walker report also cites DFG and DWR studies as showing that 75% of fish entering Clifton Court Forebay are lost to predation in project facilities before they reach the salvage facilities. An additional 20-30% are lost at the salvage facility louvers.
Of the remaining fish actually salvaged, 1-12% are lost during handling and trucking operation and another 10-30% are lost to post-release predation because there are only 4 release sites, according to the report.
The numbers are far worse for Delta smelt, an endangered species that is considered an indicator of the health of the estuary, since 94-99% are lost to predation in project facilities and virtually no salvaged delta smelt survive trucking and handling.
Fishing Group, Winnemen Wintu Tribe outraged over Delta fish kill
Bill Jennings, executive director/Chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), is outraged by the massive carnage that
has occurred in the state and federal pumping facilities this year.
Reacting to the release of the latest salvage data, Jennings said, "I don't think any estuary can stand an assault on fish populations in the numbers that we're seeing. The project pumps are by far the largest predator in the entire estuary. The Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation are the biggest poachers in California history!"
Caleen Sisk-Franco, the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Tribe, who is working on an innovative plan to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Lake Shasta, is also appalled by the millions of fish killed to date.
"I am just wondering why it is okay to have the largest fish kill going on in the Delta and no one notices," said Sisk-Franco. "There are more endangered fish killed every day in the Delta pumps that are supposed to be protected. Try catching one of them to eat, and see how fast you get in trouble, but just let them swim into the Delta pumps and no one is trying to save them!"
Sisk-Franco asked, "How many dead fish is too many? Who will speak up for the fish? Everything is connected and soon we will understand what this fish kill means to the human beings."
Bush and Obama administrations oppose splittail protection
The Sacramento splittail, the imperiled native fish that have perished in the greatest numbers in the Delta "poaching" facilities this year, were formerly protected as a threatened species but illegally stripped of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in 2003 during the Julie McDonald "Splittailgate" Scandal. McDonald, a high-ranking Bush administration official, helped remove the splittail from the list of threatened and endangered species because of the economic threat she believed that it posed to her farm near Dixon, California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last fall made a controversial determination that the species does not warrant protection, despite the fact that numbers of splittail found in the annual fall DFG midwater trawl surveys have fallen to consistently low levels since 2002, and that the estimated population from 2002 to 2010 has been the lowest recorded since surveys began in 1967, according to Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Obama administration, in denying the splittail ESA protection in October 2010, claimed that the capture of huge numbers of fish by the pumping facilities in wet years has little impact on splittail abundance.
The unprecedented loss of fish life in the pumping facilities occurs as the pumps are currently exporting record amounts of water to corporate agribusiness and southern California under the "leadership" of Governor Jerry Brown and Natural Resources Secretary John Laird.
"Exports from the Bay-Delta may reach an all-time high in 2011," according to Spreck Rosecrans, an economic analyst at Environmental Defense (http://blogs.edf.org/waterfront/2011/07/15/delta-exports-projected-to-reach-record-level-in-2011/). "Through July 15, pumping for the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project has totaled 4.86 million acre-feet. With ample supplies in northern reservoirs and Sierra rivers still full of melting snow, it is likely that the pumps will continue to run at or near capacity through the end of the water year (September 30)."
The annual export total is projected to reach 6,610,000 acre-feet - 140,000 acre-feet more than the previous record of 6,470,000 acre-feet set in 2005, Rosecrans explained.
At the same time, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is wholesaling water at discount prices, since southern California reservoirs have largely filled (http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_surplus11.3abcf4c.html).
Instead of taking long-needed action to stop the carnage at the water export facilities, the Brown and Obama administrations, in the foot steps of the Schwarzenegger administration, are instead pushing for the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to facilitate the export of more northern California to drainage impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.
If built, the peripheral canal would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other imperiled species. However, if the state and federal agencies keep pumping water and killing fish like they have this year, extinction for these species may come much sooner!
First, please contact John Laird, California Natural Resources Secretary, and demand that he take immediate action to stop the killing of millions of Sacramento splittail and thousands of threatened spring run Chinook salmon by the Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Water Resources!
His contact information is:
California Natural Resources Agency
1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 653-5656
(916) 653-8102 fax
Email: secretary [at] resources.ca.gov
Second, take action to protect the Endangered Species Act and The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by going to: http://restorethedelta.org/tak...
In the latest federal attack on democratic process and transparency in California, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation barred downstream representatives from meetings of a group tasked with monitoring toxin selenium discharges from western San Joaquin Valley agricultural wastewater into the San Joaquin River, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and San Francisco Bay.
Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), said the move came on the heels of a new U.S. Geological Survey study indicating that toxic selenium discharges into the San Joaquin River need to be up to 50 times smaller than the current water quality objectives. New federal documents also indicate toxic selenium pollution already exceeds legally safe water quality objectives in water below the federal export pumps in the Delta Mendota Pool.
The banned "non-persons," including representatives from the Southern California Watershed Alliance, Food & Water Watch, Crab Boat Owners Association, Sierra Club California, Friends of the River, North Coast Rivers Alliance, California Water Impact Network, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Salmon Water Now, and AquAlliance, filed a protest letter over the Bureau's outrageous action on Wednesday, September 7.
"Late Friday, September 2, 2011, we were informed by Reclamation's Chair of the Grassland Bypass Project's Data Collection and Review Team (DCRT) that 'outside observers' will be barred from the meetings of these public agencies who oversee the monitoring of the GBP," the letter stated. "This action seems arbitrary and designed to exclude those most impacted by pollution caused by the GBP-the conservation, fishing and community groups advocating for water quality downstream from the discharge."
Why the exclusion from meetings?
"No rationale was provided as to why these meetings suddenly need to be held in secret, behind closed doors, excluding only selected members of the public, while others are granted access. For example, consultants for the dischargers, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, lawyers for the Grassland Drainers, and others, are given access," the letter emphasized.
Pete Lucero, spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation, responded that the meetings that members of the public were barred from are not public meetings, but are "agency discussions" among scientists doing data collection.
"This is not a public forum," said Lucero. "This is a deliberative discussion among the agencies and this is not the right time for public participation. Once we have a document that is ready for public review, there will be the opportunity for the public to weigh in with their comments, questions and concerns relative to the public document."
However, Carolee Krieger, Executive Director and President of the California Water Impact Network, responded, "That's BS because other members of the public are being allowed in. Why are they just excluding those whose interests will be hurt? What do they have to hide? What are they afraid of?"
Representatives of fishing, conservation, and community organizations were originally granted access to the now-barred meetings in committments made before the State Water Resources Control Board leading up to the granting of a decade-long pollution waiver for the San Joaquin's toxic selenium dischargers.
"The Board granted the pollution waiver extension with the understanding there would be public participation in the monitoring process," according to the groups. "This change in the participation policy alters a material condition upon which granting the permit was based."
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, said she was "very disappointed" with this decision to exclude public input under the Obama Administration.
"Do I dare say it?" Barrigan-Parrilla stated. "Transparency on water related issues with the Obama Administration is no better than it was with the Bush Administration. This is very, very disappointing. As the Who sang, 'Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.'"
Secret meetings lead to disaster
"This is yet another set of secret meetings just like the Monterey Plus Agreement closed door meetings in 1995 that led to higher water rates for millions of urban ratepayers in southern California," said Krieger. "Do we really want to go down this road again? How long are we, the public, going to sit and take this?"
"Nothing good can come of secret, closed door meetings that welcome polluters and exclude the public and victims of pollution," noted Jennings.
The San Joaquin's toxic selenium disaster drew national attention in the early 1980s when toxic runoff sparked die-offs and grotesque deformities among waterfowl and other wildlife within the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, as exposed by US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and environmental hero Felix Smith, now a board member of the Save the American Association.
"Even though the poisoned ponds of Kesterson were buried in the 1980's, selenium continues to pollute the waters and wildlife refuges of the San Joaquin Valley and the Delta," said Krieger.
Selenium acts as a beneficial nutrient for humans and other animals in small doses, but can cause serious health problems or death in higher doses, according to the groups.
The larger context: the state and federal war on democracy
The exclusion of the public by the Bureau of Reclamation occurs in the context of the state and federal governments' war on civil liberties, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, transparency in government and the democratic process. The exclusion of the public from meetings where decisions are being made that will adversely impact them are paralleled in the state and federal plans to build the peripheral canal through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), California's corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and numerous other government boondoggles.
In the BDCP's Management Committee, Delta residents, fishermen, family farmers, California Indian Tribes and environmental justice communities have been completely excluded. Their exclusion is no surprise, since the Brown and Obama administrations fear that they would question plans to build the peripheral canal ("conveyance"), a budget-busting disaster that would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish species.
Likewise, the privately funded MLPA process to create so-called "marine protected areas," in a classic example of institutional racism and elitism, completely excluded tribal scientists from the MLPA Science Advisory Team. Nor did state officials appointed any tribal representatives on the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force until 2010, six years after the privatized process began in 2004 under the direction of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, one was finally appointed.
To date, the California Fish and Game Commission has refused to acknowledge tribal gathering rights on the California coast under the MLPA Initiative, a process overseen by a big oil lobbyist, agribusiness hack, real estate executive, coastal developer and other corporate operatives. "Any attempt to institutionally diminish our right to gather coastal resources is essentially an act of ethnic cleansing," Yurok Tribal Chairman Thomas O'Rourke said in a news release on June 27. "We depend on these traditions to carry on our culture for the rest of time."
For more information, call Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, 209-938-9053, http://www.calsport.org, or Carolee Krieger, California Water Impact Network, 805-969-0824, http://www.c-win.org.
EPA will propose new water quality criteria for selenium
U.S. EPA, on September 1, 2011, announced that they will propose new site-specific water-quality criteria for selenium that will protect fish and wildlife in the San Francisco Bay and Delta. The new criteria will be based on results of scientific studies by the U.S. Geological Survey .
C-WIN's analysis of the reports shows that the science provides the basis for a change in the water-quality standard for selenium from 5 ppb to less than 1 ppb, and for some species and hydrologic conditions, less than 0.1 ppb, which is 50 times less than the current 5 ppb. . This change is needed to protect economic resources of the Delta Estuary and Bay including salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and diving birds.
"These scientific documents raise questions about the wisdom of letting the Grassland drainers continue to use the San Joaquin River as a de-facto drain and whether the existing Central Valley water quality selenium standard of 2 ppb for wildlife refuges is adequate," stated Tom Stokely, a water policy analyst with C-WIN.
Washington, D.C. - Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11) slammed state and federal plans to build a peripheral canal in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta during his speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on July 27.
In his remarks, Rep. McNerney also shared his strong support for landowners in the Delta area who are fighting attempts by the State of California to conduct surveys and studies without permission on private land.
"Mr. Speaker, I rise to stand shoulder to shoulder with landowners from the San Joaquin Delta who are fighting against the peripheral canal," said McNerney. "Without permission, the state is sending its employees onto private farmland to conduct the surveys and studies it would need to build a canal."
"Delta farmers aren't standing for it," affirmed McNerney. "Delta farmers have taken their case to the courts, and I urge them to keep fighting for their property rights and the health of our Delta."
"A peripheral canal or tunnel that takes large amounts of fresh water from the Delta would devastate families, farmers, and businesses in our community. A canal will cause saltwater intrusion, destroy thousands of acres of farmland, and devastate our water quality. It's time for state and federal agencies to respect the Delta and its people. We won't tolerate anything less," he concluded.
Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and board member of Restore the Delta, applauded McNerney for speaking out against plans to build the peripheral canal.
"McNerney is one of the most celebral, educated and thoughtful members of Congress," said Jennings. "We had no doubt that, after thoughtfully analyzing the facts, he would could come out staunchly against the peripheral canal that would devastate farming, busienss and fishing communities in the Delta."
"Anyone who values the natural resources of the estuary and Delta communities would inevitably come to the conclusion that a peripheral canal would be the executioner's' warrant for this estuary," said Jennings.
McNerney joins a growing coalition of fishing groups, family farmers, Indian Tribes, environmental organizations, environmental justice communities, Delta residents and other Californians opposed to the construction of the peripheral canal/tunnel.
The Brown and Obama administrations, in the footsteps of the Schwarzenegger administration, are fast-tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal or tunnel to divert Sacramento River water to corporate agribusiness and southern California.
As McNerney spoke out against the canal, one of the greatest fish kills in California history continued to take place in the state and federal Delta pumps.
An astounding total of 8,942,347 splittail, 35,435 chinook salmon, 385,392 striped bass, 49,812 largemouth bass, 67,383 bluegill, 66,403 white catfish, 20,178 channel catfish, 91,956 threadfin shad, 166,336 American shad, 1,642 steelhead and 51 Delta smelt were "salvaged" in the state and federal water export facilities from January 1 to July 21, 2011, according to DFG data. However, an array of scientific studies indicate that the actual numbers of fish killed in the pumping facilities is
Record amounts of water are being exported from the Delta, even though southern California reservoirs are full and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is selling water for cut-rate prices. For more information, go to: http://blogs.alternet.org/danb...
The Brown and Obama administrations, rather than exporting record amounts of water and presiding over one of the largest fish kills in California history, should instead work to restore Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations. They should heed the call by the majority of Californians to abandon plans put in place by the worst Governor in California history, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to build a peripheral canal or tunnel.
"The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn't make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective," summed up Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, who are now working to restore winter run chinook salmon to the McCloud River above Shasta Dam. "Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand- it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die."
The horrific counts of Sacramento splittail, Central Valley chinook salmon and other fish species "consumed" by the "predator" water export pumping facilities on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta continue unabated, according to Bill Jennings, chairman/executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
A total of 8,830,515 splittail, 35,435 chinook salmon, 246,833 striped bass, 33,822 largemouth bass, 60,822 bluegill, 50,634 white catfish, 17,514 channel catfish, 44,011 threadfin shad, 65,763 American shad and 1,614 steelhead were "salvaged" in the state and federal water export facilities from January 1 to July 11, 2011, according to Department of Fish and Game data.
The number of splittail "salvaged" to date is greater than in any previous years since the federal and state governments started keeping records on splittail in 1993. The splittail is a member of the minnow family found only in the Central Valley and Delta,
"And these 'salvage' numbers represent only the tip of the iceberg," Jennings emphasized.
The overall loss of fish in and around the State Water Project and Central Valley Project facilities is believed to dwarf the actual salvage counts, according to "A Review of Delta Fish Population Losses from Pumping Operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," prepared by Larry Walker Associates in January 2010 for the Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District (http://www.srcsd.com/pdf/dd/fishlosses.pdf).
"The Walker report cites DFG and DWR studies as showing that 75% of fish entering Clifton Court Forebay are lost to predation in project facilities before they reach the salvage facilities," said Jennings. "An additional 20-30% are lost at the salvage facility louvers."
Of the remaining fish actually salvaged, 1-12% are lost during handling and trucking operation and another 10-30% are lost to post-release predation because there are only 4 release sites, according to the report.
The numbers are far worse for Delta smelt, as 94-99% are lost to predation in project facilities and virtually no salvaged delta smelt survive trucking and handling.
"Fish losses at export facilities represent a staggering embezzlement of public trust resources belonging to all Californians," Jennings concluded.
The DFG's 2010 Fall Midwater Trawl survey revealed that fish populations were at or near historic lows. The 2010 survey documented that splittail were 0% of their 1998 population, striped bass were 0.2% of 1967 numbers, threadfin shad were 0.8% of 1997 numbers, American shad were 7.3% of 2003 numbers, longfin smelt were 0.2% of 1967 numbers and Delta smelt were 1.7% of 1970 numbers, according to Jennings.
"The massacre at the pumps pushes already-struggling salmon and native fish populations closer to extinction and is entirely unnecessary," said Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. "This is a high rainfall year, and there was no need for continued pumping at this level while so many fish were being killed. Excessive pumping and the highest-ever water diversions from the Delta the past decade have crippled Central Valley fish runs, including commercially valuable chinook salmon."
Splittail were formerly protected as a threatened species but illegally stripped of Endangered Species Act (ESA) protection in 2003. "The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last fall made a controversial determination that the species does not warrant protection, despite the fact that numbers of splittail found in annual California Fish and Game surveys have fallen to consistently low levels since 2002, and that the estimated population from 2002 to 2010 has been the lowest recorded since surveys began in 1967," stated Miller.
The Obama administration, in denying the splittail ESA protection in October 2010, claimed that the capture of huge numbers of fish by the pumping facilities in wet years has little impact on splittail abundance.
"Research has shown no evidence that south Delta water export operations have had a significant effect on splittail abundance, even though fish collection facilities can capture a large number of fish (up to 5.5 million) during wet years, when spawning on the San Joaquin River and other floodplains results in a spike in population numbers," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contended in a press release in October 2010. "The number of splittail captured by these facilities drops during dry years when recruitment is low (1,300 in 2007; about 5,000 in 2008) and the splittail is most vulnerable."
The carnage at the pumps continues as Republicans in Congress push legislation, HR 1837, to exempt export pumping in the Delta from Endangered Species Act protections for salmon, Delta smelt and other species and to block restoration efforts on the San Joaquin River. Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA), the darling of San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness interests, has authored the job-killing legislation that will devastate imperiled California fish populations and fishing communities.
Rather than taking long-needed action to stop the carnage at the water export facilities, the Brown and Obama administrations, in the foot steps of the Schwarzenegger administration, are instead pushing for the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to facilitate the export of more northern California to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water agencies.
A broad coalition of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, family farmers, Indian Tribes, grassroots environmentalists and Delta residents is opposing the construction of the peripheral canal because it is likely to lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other imperiled fish species. Many also oppose the BDCP because it puts the burden on the primary zone of the Delta and Sacramento River watershed for habitat restoration and mitigation for the massive diversion of northern California water by San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and Southern California.
Two Delta legislators, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and Assemblyman Bill Berryhill (R-Ceres), have introduced legislation to ensure that the imperiled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is protected from potential conveyance projects to export water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California.
Wolk's legislation, coauthored by Berryhill, establishes specific criteria and assurances that will enable the state to meet its "co-equal goals" for the Delta as established by a package of laws, enacted in November 2009, that canal opponents criticized for creating a "clear path" to the construction of the peripheral canal.
"Those goals are to provide a more reliable water supply for California-and to protect, restore, and enhance the Delta ecosystem," according to a news release from Wolk's office. "By law, these goals must be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place."
In 1980 during his second term as Governor, Jerry Brown negotiated the legislative package that included several important protections for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, according to Wolk. Thirty years later, Wolk and Berryhill are revisiting Brown's proposed safeguards for the Delta "as a means of protecting the region from future attempts to siphon off its water."
"When Californians voted down Governor Brown's proposed peripheral canal 30 years ago, they decided that the safeguards included in that package were not strong enough to protect this valuable and irreplaceable resource," said Senator Wolk, an outspoken advocate for the protection of the Delta's environment, economy, and communities.
"Now, a new canal or tunnel is being proposed with even weaker protections for the Delta then were promised before," Wolk explained. "Our legislation ensures that, at a bare minimum, if a new facility is built, critical guarantees are written into State law to provide real, enforceable protections for the Delta ecosystem and the Delta communities, while also enhancing water reliability statewide."
Wolk's Senate Bill 200 would provide unequivocal commitments to maintain water quality within the Delta in order to support vital Delta agriculture, recreation, and drinking water. Additionally, the bill would ensure that communities within the Delta have access to adequate water supplies-and would encourage the development of alternative water supplies in regions that rely on imported Delta water, and improvements in the efficiency of the State and Federal projects within the Delta.
The bill, supported by the Delta Counties Coalition, would also:
• Require planning, specific operational criteria, and other measures that contribute to the recovery of Delta fish species and protect beneficial uses of water within the Delta to be in place prior to construction of any new water conveyance infrastructure in the Delta.
• Establish enforceable water flows and reductions in Delta water exports to protect water quality and other environmental conditions in the Delta, the Suisun Marsh, and the San Francisco Bay.
One provision would authorize the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) to administer a study to "determine the interrelationship between Delta outflow and fish and wildlife resources in the San Francisco Bay System and waste discharges into the San Francisco Bay system." For decades, federal and state officials have avoided studying this complex relationship that is essential for understanding the decline of Central Valley salmon and Delta pelagic (open water) fish species.
The bill would also require the Department of Water Resources to study the possible interconnection between the State Water Resources Development System and water supply systems serving the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, and San Mateo, and the City and County of San Francisco.
Dante Nomellini, a Stockton attorney and veteran of the battle against the peripheral canal in the previous Brown administration, hasn't reviewed the specific language of the current legislation, although he is familiar with the language of the original SB 200. He did emphasize that any protections can be overridden once the peripheral canal/tunnel is in place.
"All of these protections can be circumvented through the use of emergency powers both at the state and federal level," said Nomellini. "An isolated conveyance system, once in place, will take the water and destroy the Bay Delta ecosystem."
He also noted that the House of Representatives has passed a Continuing Resolution Bill that has stripped funding to protect Central Valley salmon under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This legislation would prevent the National Marine Fisheries Service from enforcing the biological opinions that protect the Central Valley salmon and steelhead from extinction, letting Delta export pumping go back to maximum levels.
"We think the intentions of the Senator and Assemblyman in sponsoring the legislation are good," commented Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. "We look forward to Delta leaders working with them to strengthen the bill."
Barrigan-Parrilla added that Delta advocates need to work for the passage of an amendment to the State Constitution that protects flows in rivers and recognizes that water is a public trust resource.
Senate Bill 200 has been introduced at a time when the Delta ecosystem is in its biggest crisis ever. Central Valley salmon and Delta pelagic fish populations have collapsed to record low levels, due to increased water exports and declining water quality in recent years. Fishermen, members of Indian Tribes, environmentalists, family farmers and Delta residents fear that the construction of a peripheral canal/tunnel would lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, southern green sturgeon, southern resident killer whales and other species.
The Brown administration, like the Schwarzegger administration that preceded it, supports the construction of a peripheral canal/tunnel. The Obama administration has also officially endorsed the peripheral canal, being the first federal administration to do so. Even the G.W. Bush administration didn't endorse the canal's construction.
Wolk said she will also be introducing legislation this session intended to reduce reliance on water from the Delta, as well as another bill to reform water financing in California to make it "more efficient, transparent, and effective."
For more information about SB 200, call Craig Reynolds, Senator Wolk's Office, 916-651-4005.
The Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) on February 14, Valentines Day, released the first draft of the Delta Plan and posted it onto the DSC website.
For those fighting against the construction of the peripheral canal and the export of more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the release of the document was anything but a "Valentine."
The document is the first of four drafts that will be developed and released over the next three months before the plan, part of a thinly veiled process to build a peripheral canal/tunnel around or through the Delta, goes under an environmental review in June.
Although the canal/tunnel was not mentioned specifically in the initial recommendations, the document is based on achieving the co-equal goals of water supply and ecosystem restoration. The objectives of achieving these goals include building a peripheral canal/tunnel - "improved conveyance" - as noted in the draft plan.
The plan "is designed to put the key issues on the table for the Council to discuss and receive input from stakeholders and the public," according to a statement from the DSC. "It's expected that three subsequent drafts will be released following the environmental review, according to a statement
"This is just the beginning of the process and it is expected the final Delta Plan will be considerably different," said Joe Grindstaff, Executive Officer of the Delta Stewardship Council. "The final Delta Plan will be released on Jan. 1, 2012 as directed by the Delta Reform Act of 2009. It will be a major step toward furthering the coequal goals that will be used in guiding actions impacting the Delta."
"'Coequal goals' means the two goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem. The coequal goals shall be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place," according to CA Water Code 85054.
The document has four preliminary staff draft findings, according to Grindstaff.
1. "California's total water supply is oversubscribed. California regularly uses more water annually than is provided by nature." This reality makes the management of our limited surface water supplies and the Delta even more critical. When water exports from the Delta are reduced, the unintended consequence is increased demand on an already overused and unsustainable groundwater system.
2. "California's water supply is increasingly volatile. Precipitation and runoff patterns are changing, increasing uncertainty for water supply and quality, flood management, and ecosystem functions." We must adapt our management practices in order to protect ourselves against present and future risk and if we are to achieve the coequal goals.
3. "Even with substantial ecosystem restoration efforts, some native species may not survive." Best available science indicates that some stressors are beyond our control and the system may have already changed so much that some species may never be able to recover.
4. "There is no comprehensive state or regional emergency response plan for the Delta." In spite of all the analysis that says that we have greater risk than New Orleans, all we have at the state and regional level are plans to develop plans.
"On the positive side, I do believe the Delta Plan finally offers California an opportunity to address some of the Delta's most vexing problems, specifically, achieving the co-equal goals," claimed Grindstaff.
While I agree with the draft plan's conclusions that California's water supply is oversubscribed and that there is no regional emergency plan for the Delta, I take strong issue with the co-equal goals that the document is based upon and the claim that some native species may not survive, in spite of restoration efforts.
First, these same co-equal goals are precisely the ones that doomed the CalFed process, a joint federal-state Delta "restoration" plan, to failure. The state and federal governments, by making the delivery of subsized water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies on equal par with fish and ecological restoration, helped to engineer the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other species by allowing record water exports from 2003 to 2006.
These increased exports, combined with declining water quality and poor ocean conditions, set in stage the unprecedented Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon collapse that resulted in the closure of commercial and recreational salmon seasons off the California and southern oregon Coast in 2008 and 2009 and in limited seasons in 2010.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and Delta Vision processes and the legislative water package, passed in a special session called by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in November 2009, enshrined the co-equal goals just like the CalFed process did.
Amidst some pseudo-environmental language to give the plans to build the environmentally destructive and costly peripheral canal/tunnel a green veneer, the real goal of the legislation that created the Delta Stewardship Council is revealed in the legislation's language that is included in the Chapter 6 of the draft plan document.
In the "inherent objectives" to achieving the co-equal goals in Water Code Section 85020, section (f) states, "Improve the water conveyance system and expand statewide water storage."
"Improving the water conveyance system" is a euphemism for the peripheral canal, a project that was overwhelming voted down by the voters in November 1982. Recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, family farmers and Delta residents oppose the construction of the peripheral canal because they believe is will lead to the extinction of Central Valley salmon and Delta pelagic (open water) species and the degradation of Delta water quality.
Second, to say that "some native species may not survive," even with restoration efforts, appears to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. What the Council staff appears to be saying is that they're willing to sacrifice some endangered and threatened species to further the Delta's role as a water supply for subsidized corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water privateers.Of course, if you build a canal to divert more northern California water, a number of species are bound to become extinct!
As Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, said at a protest against the canal at the State Capitol in July 2009, "The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn't make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective. Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand- it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die."
"If the canal is built, it will turn the Delta into a cesspool and send the remnants of Delta fisheries to the scaffold," said Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).
I wish the Legislators and the Brown and Obama administrations would heed the words of Franco and Jennings, rather than only listen to the agribusiness executives, water agency officials and corporate environmental NGO leaders that are pushing for the construction of the canal/tunnel.
The Delta Stewardship Council process:
The issues encompassed on the first draft will be discussed in public Delta Stewardship Council meetings. During the Council meetings, specific components of the Delta Plan will be discussed and debated in a workshop environment. Overall the Delta Plan addresses: 1) key findings relating to the objectives set for the in the Delta Reform Act; 2) an overview of the kinds of strategies necessary to achieve those objectives.
Following the Council meetings and workshops revisions will be made and three subsequent drafts of the Delta Plan will be released in March, April and May. An administrative draft Delta Plan will be released in June as part of the formal environmental review process. Subsequent drafts will address: 1) performance measures and targets; 2) linkages and integrations of components; 3) phasing of various components; 4) cost sharing among all interests.
A copy of the first draft of the Delta Plan and a full release schedule of subsequent draft Delta Plans can be found on the DSC website at http://www.deltacouncil.ca.gov
About the Council
Created by the legislature in 2009, the Delta Stewardship Council is composed of members who represent different parts of the state and offer diverse expertise in fields such as agriculture, science, the environment, and public service. Of the seven, four are appointed by the Governor, one each by the Senate and Assembly, and the seventh is the Chair of the Delta Protection Commission.
The Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) on February 14, Valentines Day, released the first draft of the Delta Plan and posted it onto the DSC website.
For those fighting against the construction of the peripheral canal and the export of more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the release of the document was anything but a "Valentine."
The document is the first of four drafts that will be developed and released over the next three months before the plan, part of a thinly veiled process to build a peripheral canal/tunnel around or through the Delta, goes under an environmental review in June.
Although the canal/tunnel was not mentioned specifically in the initial recommendations, the document is based on achieving the co-equal goals of water supply and ecosystem restoration. The objectives of achieving these goals include building a peripheral canal/tunnel - "improved conveyance" - as noted in the draft plan.
The plan "is designed to put the key issues on the table for the Council to discuss and receive input from stakeholders and the public," according to a statement from the DSC. "It's expected that three subsequent drafts will be released following the environmental review, according to a statement
"This is just the beginning of the process and it is expected the final Delta Plan will be considerably different," said Joe Grindstaff, Executive Officer of the Delta Stewardship Council. "The final Delta Plan will be released on Jan. 1, 2012 as directed by the Delta Reform Act of 2009. It will be a major step toward furthering the coequal goals that will be used in guiding actions impacting the Delta."
"'Coequal goals' means the two goals of providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem. The coequal goals shall be achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place," according to CA Water Code 85054.
The document has four preliminary staff draft findings, according to Grindstaff.
1. "California's total water supply is oversubscribed. California regularly uses more water annually than is provided by nature." This reality makes the management of our limited surface water supplies and the Delta even more critical. When water exports from the Delta are reduced, the unintended consequence is increased demand on an already overused and unsustainable groundwater system.
2. "California's water supply is increasingly volatile. Precipitation and runoff patterns are changing, increasing uncertainty for water supply and quality, flood management, and ecosystem functions." We must adapt our management practices in order to protect ourselves against present and future risk and if we are to achieve the coequal goals.
3. "Even with substantial ecosystem restoration efforts, some native species may not survive." Best available science indicates that some stressors are beyond our control and the system may have already changed so much that some species may never be able to recover.
4. "There is no comprehensive state or regional emergency response plan for the Delta." In spite of all the analysis that says that we have greater risk than New Orleans, all we have at the state and regional level are plans to develop plans.
"On the positive side, I do believe the Delta Plan finally offers California an opportunity to address some of the Delta's most vexing problems, specifically, achieving the co-equal goals," claimed Grindstaff.
While I agree with the draft plan's conclusions that California's water supply is oversubscribed and that there is no regional emergency plan for the Delta, I take strong issue with the co-equal goals that the document is based upon and the claim that some native species may not survive, in spite of restoration efforts.
First, these same co-equal goals are precisely the ones that doomed the CalFed process, a joint federal-state Delta "restoration" plan, to failure. The state and federal governments, by making the delivery of subsized water to corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies on equal par with fish and ecological restoration, helped to engineer the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other species by allowing record water exports from 2003 to 2006.
These increased exports, combined with declining water quality and poor ocean conditions, set in stage the unprecedented Sacramento River fall run chinook salmon collapse that resulted in the closure of commercial and recreational salmon seasons off the California and southern oregon Coast in 2008 and 2009 and in limited seasons in 2010.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and Delta Vision processes and the legislative water package, passed in a special session called by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in November 2009, enshrined the co-equal goals just like the CalFed process did.
Amidst some pseudo-environmental language to give the plans to build the environmentally destructive and costly peripheral canal/tunnel a green veneer, the real goal of the legislation that created the Delta Stewardship Council is revealed in the legislation's language that is included in the Chapter 6 of the draft plan document.
In the "inherent objectives" to achieving the co-equal goals in Water Code Section 85020, section (f) states, "Improve the water conveyance system and expand statewide water storage."
"Improving the water conveyance system" is a euphemism for the peripheral canal, a project that was overwhelming voted down by the voters in November 1982. Recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, family farmers and Delta residents oppose the construction of the peripheral canal because they believe is will lead to the extinction of Central Valley salmon and Delta pelagic (open water) species and the degradation of Delta water quality.
Second, to say that "some native species may not survive," even with restoration efforts, appears to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. What the Council staff appears to be saying is that they're willing to sacrifice some endangered and threatened species to further the Delta's role as a water supply for subsidized corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and southern California water privateers.Of course, if you build a canal to divert more northern California water, a number of species are bound to become extinct!
As Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe, said at a protest against the canal at the State Capitol in July 2009, "The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn't make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective. Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand- it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die."
"If the canal is built, it will turn the Delta into a cesspool and send the remnants of Delta fisheries to the scaffold," said Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).
I wish the Legislators and the Brown and Obama administrations would heed the words of Franco and Jennings, rather than only listen to the agribusiness executives, water agency officials and corporate environmental NGO leaders that are pushing for the construction of the canal/tunnel.
The Delta Stewardship Council process:
The issues encompassed on the first draft will be discussed in public Delta Stewardship Council meetings. During the Council meetings, specific components of the Delta Plan will be discussed and debated in a workshop environment. Overall the Delta Plan addresses: 1) key findings relating to the objectives set for the in the Delta Reform Act; 2) an overview of the kinds of strategies necessary to achieve those objectives.
Following the Council meetings and workshops revisions will be made and three subsequent drafts of the Delta Plan will be released in March, April and May. An administrative draft Delta Plan will be released in June as part of the formal environmental review process. Subsequent drafts will address: 1) performance measures and targets; 2) linkages and integrations of components; 3) phasing of various components; 4) cost sharing among all interests.
A copy of the first draft of the Delta Plan and a full release schedule of subsequent draft Delta Plans can be found on the DSC website at http://www.deltacouncil.ca.gov
About the Council
Created by the legislature in 2009, the Delta Stewardship Council is composed of members who represent different parts of the state and offer diverse expertise in fields such as agriculture, science, the environment, and public service. Of the seven, four are appointed by the Governor, one each by the Senate and Assembly, and the seventh is the Chair of the Delta Protection Commission.
One of the most deceptive arguments used by agribusiness, southern California water agencies and the state and federal governments in their campaign to build the peripheral canal/tunnel on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is the myth of the Delta's "fragile, earthquake-prone" levees.
This narrative has been pushed forward by the water "experts" of the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) in their reports, funded by Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, to scare California residents into building the peripheral canal/tunnel.
in the July 2008, the PPIC released a report stating that, "A major earthquake would cause a catastrophic
failure of the levee system, jeopardizing water supplies from the Bay Area to San Diego."
The report (www.ppic.org/main/pressrelease.asp?p=859) concluded, "Building a peripheral canal to carry water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the most promising strategy to balance two critical policy goals: reviving a threatened ecosystem and ensuring a high-quality water supply for California's residents."
In an otherwise good San Jose Mercury News editorial: "Brown needs to find a way to fix the Delta," this myth is perpetuated (http://www.mercurynews.com/editorials/ci_17230039?source=rss&nclick_check=1).
"The Calaveras and Hayward faults are less than 50 miles west of the Delta's 1,300-mile levee system, parts of which are more than 50 years old and fragile at best. A major earthquake could mean catastrophic failure of the levees, which are the only thing keeping San Francisco Bay's saltwater from intruding into the freshwater estuary, which is below sea level," the editors wrote.
However, Delta advocates take issue with the argument that imminent disaster awaits the Delta and California water supplies from an earthquake if a peripheral canal isn't built.
"Do Delta levees need repairs and upgrades?" asked Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. "Of course they do, as do all levee systems. Levees need constant maintenance."
However, Barrigan-Parrilla emphasized, "We have never lost one levee in the Delta to an earthquake. Not in 1989, and not before that."
The greatest threat to the Delta is a catastrophic flood, not an earthquake. Ironically, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) will not release the bond money marked for such levee improvements as voted on by Californians, according to Barrigan-Parrilla.
Why is that? "So that the failing Delta becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and DWR protects its relevance by building a new state water project," she suggests.
I agree with Barrigan-Parrilla and other Delta advocates that to prevent Delta levees from collapsing, DWR needs to release the bond money marked for levee improvements, not build a new canal.
While the "canal huggers" in the state and federal governments claim that they want to build the peripheral canal/tunnel to increase "water supply reliability" and "restore the ecosystem," the real reason behind building such a big government project is to increase water exports to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, Southern California water agencies, and corporate water privateers.
There is no example in U.S. or world history where a canal system has ended up diverting less water from a watershed and restoring an ecosystem, as the "canal huggers" claim the canal/tunnel will do. California water is already overallocated many times - and the canal will only serve to divert more water needed for imperiled Central Valley and Delta fish populations to recover to agribusiness and southern California.
Bill Jennings, executive director/chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance pointed out in a recent Delta Stewardship Council meeting in Stockton that the unimpaired flows down the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers amount to 29,000,000 acre feet of water per year, while the state has identified 345 million acre feet of water rights, including water for hydropower.
Construction of the canal may mean big profits for engineering firms, real estate companies and construction corporations that raid the public trough to build the canal, but the export of more water from the Delta is likely to lead to the extinction of Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish populations.
For more information, go to www.restorethedelta.org.
A diverse coalition of national and local environmental, fishing and environmental justice groups have recommended solutions to settle California water wars and recover the San Francisco Bay-Delta. The recommendations were released at a time that Central Valley salmon and Delta pelagic (open water) fish populations are in collapse, due to massive exports of water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California.
The coalition's recommendations including reducing exports and replacing the water with an aggressive statewide conservation program, in contrast with plans by the state and federal governments to facilitate the export of more northern California water to agribusiness and southern California by building a peripheral canal/tunnel and new dams. Below is the press release:
For Immediate Release: January 25, 2011
Contact:
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta, Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org, 209 479-2053
Jonas Minton, Planning and Conservation League, jminton [at] pcl.org (916) 719-4049
Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Deltakeep [at] aol.com, 209-464-5067
Dr. Mark Rockwell, Endangered Species Coalition, Federation of Fly Fishers, mrockwell [at] stopextinction.org, 530 432-0100
Barry Nelson, Natural Resources Defense Council, bnelson [at] nrdc.org, 415-875-6143
Nick DiCroce, Lead Author: California Water Solutions Now, troutnk [at] aol.com, 805-688-7813
Barbara Vlamis, AquAlliance, barbarav [at] aqualliance.net, 530 895-9420
Historic Recommendations Presented to the Delta Stewardship Council
Diverse coalition of national and local environmental, fishing and environmental justice groups recommend solutions to settle California water wars and recover the San Francisco Bay-Delta watershed
Stockton, California - At Monday's meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council a coalition of diverse environmental, environmental justice and fishing groups from throughout California presented a consensus set of recommendations designed to bring balance to the historic conflicts between water for California, and water for the environment.
The recommendations presented by this diverse group calls for an analysis of various conveyance and export alternatives, including recommendations to reduce exports and replace the water with an aggressive statewide conservation program.
The recommendations follow in the footsteps of the State Water Board's ground-shaking and scientifically-based Delta Flows report, which indicates that the health of the largest estuary on the west coast needs to have greater inflows and outflows and less water diversions if it is to survive as a home for fish and wildlife.
Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, and long time Delta advocate stated, "Water flows are at the heart of the challenges faced by in-Delta and through-Delta fisheries. How we meet the California legislature's requirement of 'reduced reliance on the Delta' will be a challenge, but the State Water Board has shown us it must be done."
The groups have presented data that clearly shows that agricultural and urban interests can accommodate to the changes while saving California taxpayers billions of dollars in the process. They are clear that the changes will take time, with a phased approach necessary to allow accommodation by communities, businesses, farmers and urban citizens alike.
Jonas Minton, Water Policy Advisor at the Planning and Conservation League noted, "These fiscally prudent recommendations can allow California's economy to prosper with a healthy environment."
Barbara Barrigan Parilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, explains that, "Successful habitat restoration in the Delta requires those living and working in the Delta to be full partners in designing, implementing and evaluating the restoration projects." She further states, "In many cases restoration can be designed to be compatible with sustainable Delta agricultural practices."
There is no doubt that the status quo cannot continue. Commercial and recreational fishing for salmon has essentially been closed for the past three years as a result of Bay-Delta problems. Chinook salmon is probably the iconic fish of California, especially for coastal communities from Santa Barbara to the Oregon Coast.
Zeke Grader, Executive Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations, speaking for those who bear the brunt of this disaster said, "Restoring the Delta estuary means restoring salmon - a native California food and unequaled source of quality protein; moreover, restoring that estuary and its fish will create sustainable, high value jobs for the state."
The groups feel that both fishing communities and farmers must find solution, and do it by working together.
Dr. Mark Rockwell, California Representative for the Endangered Species Coalition says, "Endangered species challenges, especially for California fisheries, have put the Delta problems on the National stage, and we have to find balanced solutions through cooperation not conflict. We have to resist reverting to our old ways of water management, and find methods that brings recovery of endangered species, and adequate water for farmers and city dwellers alike."
The Delta Stewardship Council is charged with developing a plan for the Delta by the end of the year. Debbie Davis, Policy Director for the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water stated that she "looks forward to working with the Stewardship Council to assure that the Delta Plan is just and equitable for disadvantaged communities."
Barbara Vlamis, Executive Director of AquAlliance in Chico added, "Without protection for the mighty Sacramento River watershed, California's cities, Delta, and economy are lost. As the state struggles to regain its hydrologic health, preservation is equally as important as restoration."
This is a critical moment for the Council, the Bay-Delta ecosystem and all Californians. The Delta's ecosystem is in a state of ongoing collapse and there are concerns regarding the long-term physical stability of the Delta.
Barry Nelson, Senior Policy Analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council, feels that "Crafting a visionary and effective Delta Plan will require the careful consideration of a wide range of alternative actions, including significant new directions in water management which this diverse group has presented."
Governor Jerry Brown has appointed Gerald Meral, a long time supporter of the peripheral canal/tunnel on the California Delta, as the Deputy Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency in charge of the Bay Delta Conservation Planning and Funding program. He was sworn in on January 20.
Meral served as deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources from 1975 to 1983 under Governor Brown - and pushed for the construction of canal, in spite of strong opposition by fishing groups, environmentalists and Delta residents. The proposition to build the canal was defeated by an overwhelming vote of the California public in November 1982.
Dr. Meral is a well-known speaker and lecturer on environmental issues, according to Sandy Cooney, Deputy Secretary for Communications of the Natural Resources Agency. He served as the executive director of the Planning and Conservation League from 1983 to 2003.
Meral was a director of the western water program of the Environmental Defense Fund from 1971 to 1975. Dr. Meral holds a Ph.D. in zoology from the University of California, Berkeley and received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan. He lives in Inverness, Calif. with his wife Barbara.
Meral's appointment received mixed reviews from fishermen and environmentalists. Elizabeth "Izzy" Martin, CEO of the Sierra Fund, praised the appointment of Meral, who served as a board member of her organization until his appointment.
"Jerry Meral is one of the most visionary, hard working and practical environmentalists in California," said Martin. "His knowledge of the complex legal, scientific, cultural and economic issues that shape the Bay Delta will be crucial to helping the state struggle with long term sustainability issues that must be solved to secure a safe water supply over the long term for all Californians. We will miss his expertise on our Board, but wish him well in this challenging new appointment."
On the other hand, Bill Jennings, chairman/executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), criticized the appointment.
"By choosing Meral, Brown appointed a long time cheerleader for the peripheral canal as the deputy director in charge of the effort to push the canal through," said Jennings. "Dr. Meral will be confronted with the same problems and morasse that his predecessors faced."
"If the canal is built, it will turn the Delta into a cesspool and send the remnants of Delta fisheries to the scaffold," Jennings noted.
Jennings did point out one difference with Meral and his predecessors in the Schwarzenegger administration. "We can disagree with Jerry, but we can still talk with him," said Jennings.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger initiated the Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) processes to build a peripheral canal and new dams to facilitate the export of more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to corporate agribusiness and southern California. A coalition of Tribes, environmentalists, fishermen, family farmers and Delta residents oppose the construction of the canal because they fear it will lead to the extinction of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other imperiled fish populations.
Jerry Brown will replace Lester Snow, the Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, after he takes office as Governor on January 3.
Brown's transition team has already informed Snow, along with other Schwarzenegger appointees, that he will not be asked to stay on in the incoming administration.
"A number of the current administration appointees have been informed that their appointment will conclude when the current Governor's term ends," said Evan Westrup, Brown's spokesman. "The Governor-elect will be assembling a leadership team and will make additional appointments in the weeks ahead."
"As is standard in adminstration changes, the services of many of the current Governor's appointees will no longer be needed," he noted. "Our focus is on making sure that most qualified candidates are chosen for leadership positions."
Westrup said the incoming Brown administration hasn't chosen a new Resources Secretary yet and a number of candidates are being considered to fill Snow's position.
California's Natural Resources Agency is responsible for the state's natural resource policies, programs and activities. It oversees 25 departments, commissions, boards and conservancies, according to the agency website.
Fishing groups, Indian Tribes and environmentalists have criticized Snow, as Schwarzenegger's head environmental official, for his support of the peripheral canal and new dams, the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and the annual dewatering of the Scott and Shasta rivers, key Klamath River tributaries, by irrigators.
As the director of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) until Schwarzenegger appointed him as Resources Secretary earlier this year, Snow presided over the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass, threadfin shad and other Delta fish species. Under his leadership, the state exported record amounts of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from 2004 to 2006.
"Lester Snow's removal from the Natural Resources Agency gives me hope that Jerry Brown will work on Delta issues with an open-minded attitude," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director for Restore the Delta. "I am hopeful that Brown that won't perpetuate the party line that the Delta is nothing other than a transfer site for California water. I am hoping that Snow's termination is a sign that Delta fisheries and Delta communities will be given equal weight in the discussion of California water policies."
"Our hope is that Governor Brown will take heed of what Tribal people and recreational anglers are saying about the MLPA and other water issues," said Georgianna Myers, organizer for the Klamath Justice Coalition and Yurok Tribe member. "I encourage the Governor-elect to have not just big oil and corporate interests at heart, but to listen to the real Californians who use the ocean."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has received awards for his "green" leadership from NRDC, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the "Beautiful Earth Group" and others in recent weeks in a carefully orchestrated campaign to greenwash his legacy before he leaves office.
In spite of the claims of his collaborators, Schwarzenegger's true legacy is the unprecedented collapse of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, young striped bass, Sacramento splittail and other fish populations spurred by record water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from 2004 to 2006.
Rather than taking the necessary measures to restore these imperiled these fish populations, the Governor only tried to make things worse by attacking the biological opinion protecting Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River spring and winter run chinook salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales, along with the biological opinion protecting the endangered Delta smelt.
He relentlessly campaigned for a peripheral canal and new dams that are likely to lead to the extinction of many of these species while fast-tracking a corrupt Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative that does nothing to "protect" the ocean from water pollution, oil drilling and spills, military testing, corporate aquaculture, habitat destruction and other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering.
Schwarzenegger will finally leave office on January 2, 2011 after waging an unprecedented war on California fish populations and fishing communities. Millions of us will celebrate the departure of Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor for fish, water and the environment in California history.
Faced with the environmental wreckage that Schwarzenegger has left in his wake, Jerry Brown will have a monumental task ahead if he plans to restore California salmon and other fish populations. Here are seven immediate actions that I advise Brown to take to begin the recovery of California fish and fishing communities.
First, issue an executive order mandating all state agencies to comply immediately with the provisions of the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other species. To comply with these decisions, the state and federal governments must reduce water exports, better manage water releases from dams, remove dams and provide fish passage for fish above dams.
Second, direct all state agencies, in cooperation with the federal government, to comply with the "doubling goal" of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) of 1992. The law set as its goal the doubling of all natural spawning anadromous fish populations - chinook salmon, steelhead, white sturgeon, green sturgeon, American shad and striped bass - by 2002. However, rather than doubling, these populations of fish collapsed to record low levels because of abysmal management by the state and federal governments.
Third, abolish the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) that was instituted under Schwarzenegger and all state plans to build a peripheral canal and new dams. Instead of continuing the BDCP's path to the Delta's destruction, Brown should establish the first ever "Blue Collar Task Force" (a concept inspired by Troy Fletcher, acting executive director of the Yurok Tribe), to recover fish populations and restore the Delta. The task force would be made up of representatives of California Indian Tribes, recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, grassroots conservation groups, family farmers, environmental justice organizations and those who have been marginalized in the BDCP and Delta Vision fiascos.
Fourth, cancel or suspend the controversial MLPA Initiative and work with the Legislature to begin an investigation of corruption, conflicts and the violation of numerous state, federal and international laws, including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, under the process. The investigation would begin with an executive order by Brown, citing the provisions of the California Public Records Act, asking the Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, MLPA officials, Department of Fish and Game to turn over all of their records relating to the implementation of the MLPA.
Fifth, remove Lester Snow, Schwarzenegger's Natural Resources Secretary, and appoint a new Secretary, a person with integrity and environmental ethics, who will work closely with Tribes, fishermen, conservationists and family farmers to restore California's declining fish populations. While he's at it, Brown should also immediately remove Jack Baylis, a Schwarzenegger stooge, from the California Fish and Game Commission. You can't rebuild California fish populations by keeping the people appointed by the "Fish Terminator" in power!
Sixth, Brown should meet with Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator, and demand she terminate the "catch shares" program being instituted on the West Coast, since it is a failed environmental strategy that will result in local, sustainable fisheries being replaced with corporate, unsustainable fisheries. This policy, if implemented, will result in the privatization of public trust resources and the concentration of West Coast fisheries in a few corporate hands.
Seventh, Brown should officially oppose the Water Bond on the November 2012 ballot and should find an alternate source of money to finance California's costs for removing the four PacifiCorp dams on the Klamath River, like the State of Oregon has done. Schwarzenegger stuck $250 million for Klamath dam removal in the water bond, an initiative that funds new dams in the Central Valley.
These seven actions by Brown would help to reverse the fishery collapses that the Schwarzenegger administration helped to engineer and will begin to put California fish and fishing communities back on the path to restoration and sustainability.
On December 15, the Obama administration officially announced its support for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal/tunnel, a project opposed by fishermen, Indian Tribes, environmentalists, family farmers and Delta residents.
A coordinated report issued by six federal agencies calls for the construction of a "new water conveyance system" - the peripheral canal/tunnel - to move water from north of the California Bay-Delta to corporate agribusiness on the side of the San Joaquin Valley and to Southern California water agencies.
The federal report, which complements a related report issued Wednesday by the Schwarzenegger administration, urges "continued progress toward completion of the California Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and supports major elements of the plan as a promising means of addressing the critical needs of both the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the state's water delivery structure," according a news release from the Department of Interior.
"After years of drought, growing stress on water supplies, and with the Bay-Delta in full environmental collapse, it has become clear to everyone that the status quo for California's water infrastructure is no longer an option," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Salazar went on to praise Governor Schwarzenegger for developing "forward-thing solutions," in spite of the fact the Schwarzenegger administration has presided over the collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and young striped bass populations by exporting record amounts of Delta water from 2004 to 2006.
"Governor Schwarzenegger and the State of California have worked tirelessly and in partnership with us to develop responsible, forward-thinking solutions that can help us break the cycle of shortages and water conflicts," Salazar gushed. "This is the moment to push forward with solutions, apply the best science available, and build a water future for California that is good for our economy, guards against the impacts of catastrophic earthquakes and other natural disasters, and helps restore California's Bay-Delta to health."
Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke also lauded the release of the "coordinated report," repeating the "co-equal goals" rhetoric that defined the failed CalFed process and now defines the BDCP.
"Through the Interim Federal Action Plan for the Bay Delta, the Obama Administration has made significant progress working with California to address the State's complex and long-standing water issues," stated Sutley. "However, there is still much more work to do. Finalizing a Bay Delta Conservation Plan is a key part of establishing a long-term sustainable future for California's water system. Any solution must address the dual goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem health, be science-based, and be developed with the full engagement of stakeholders. We look forward to working with Governor-Elect Brown to continue and accelerate our progress."
"Over the long-term, rebuilding the ecology of the Delta and securing the reliability of California's water delivery systems carries huge promise for growing jobs across California, from the salmon-dependent fishing communities of coastal California to the farming communities of the Central Valley to Los Angeles basin," said Locke. "We will continue to focus on critical next steps, including applying the best scientific research available to inform sound decisions and long-term planning."
Locke failed to indicate how two mutually exclusive goals - restoring salmon populations and the jobs that depend on them and providing increased, more "reliable" supplies of water for unsustainable corporate agribusiness on drainage impaired land and land developers in southern California - can possibly achieved at the same time.
"The progress we've made together is historic," gushed California Secretary for Natural Resources Lester A. Snow, the man who has prosecuted Schwarzenegger's "scorched earth" policy towards fish and the environment, welcoming the federal support. "No group of federal, state and local interests, diverse stakeholders and committed individuals has ever come this far with a strategy to restore the Delta ecosystem and develop a more modern way to deliver our water. This is another important step we take together, but there is more to be done."
Inexplicably in light of the collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, the federal agencies are completely abdicating their mandate to protect the public trust by supporting this peripheral canal/tunnel plan. They are doing this even though the best available science, including the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt, point to the key roles that water exports and declining water quality play in fish declines.
The release also claims that "Preliminary modeling results summarized in the state's BDCP Highlights suggest that a new north-south water conveyance facility could be operated in a manner that would generate average annual water exports over the long term that are more reliable, and greater, than the average annual exports that would be achievable under current constraints. For context, this modeling also suggests that these quantities may be comparable to the average annual Delta exports that have occurred since the Bay-Delta Accord, 15 years ago."
The key word here is "greater." As environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes and scientists have pointed out for many years, what the Delta needs is less water exported out of it, not more.
The Obama and Schwarzenegger administrations have instead committed themselves to increasing Delta exports, while calling for the "restoration" of tens of thousands of acres of marshes, wetlands, and habitat to greenwash the destruction of the Delta ecosystem. The building of the canal and this "restoration" farce will result in kicking many family farmers and Delta residents off their land in order to deliver water to rich water privateers like Stewart Resnick of Paramount Farms, who has made millions of dollars in selling subsidized water back to the public for an enormous profit.
The peripheral canal/tunnel will cost an estimated $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to an economic analysis conducted by Steven Kasower and Associates in 2009. Fishermen, Tribes and grassroots environmentalists fear that increased exports of water from the Delta will lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other collapsing populations of fish.
As Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, told me at a rally against the peripheral canal at the State Capitol in Sacramento in July 2009, "The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn't make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective. Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand- it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die."
The Obama administration has definitely signed on to "change" - change for the worse. Fishermen, Indian Tribal members, conservationists, family farmers and Delta residents must rise up and organize to stop this abdication of the public trust to serve the interests of agribusiness, southern California land developers and corporate water privateers.
Political leaders, NGO representatives and the corporate media have incessantly greenwashed the deplorable environmental legacy of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in a series of photo opportunities, press releases, news conferences and awards ceremonies over the past several months. This disgusting campaign by the Governor and his collaborators to portray Schwarzenegger as the "Jolly Green Giant" is bound to get even worse as Schwarzenegger prepares to leave office.
On December 2, Schwarzenegger accepted an award from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) Region 9 Administrator Jared Blumenfeld for his "environmental leadership."
According to a news release from the Governor's office, "The award ceremony coincides with the celebration of U.S. EPA's 40th anniversary. Governor Schwarzenegger has made California a national and world leader in enacting some of the most ambitious policies to fight climate change, including: AB 32, a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases; the world's first Low Carbon Fuel Standard; and a directive for the California Air Resources Board to adopt regulations increasing California's Renewable Portfolio Standard to 33 percent by 2020."
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and E2 also gave Arnold the first-ever "climate leadership" award for his cap and trade corporate "green" energy scams at an event at Bimbo's in San Francisco on October 28.
Greenwashing of the Governor's record is nothing new. The mainstream media and corporate environmental NGO's have worshipped Schwarzenegger as the "Green Governor" since he took office in November 2003, in spite of his relentless war on fish, fishermen and California Indian Tribes and his complete subservience to corporate water privateers, agribusiness and southern California water agencies.
On April 14, 2010, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., greenwashed the abysmal environmental record of Schwarzenegger by honoring him with an "environmental advocacy" award at the Hudson Riverkeeper's annual "Fisherman's Ball" in New York City (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/04/14/18644697.php). This was done in spite of a protest where three grassroots environmentalists were arrested for exercizing their rights of freedom of speech and assembly.
However, Schwarzenegger's real environmental legacy is much different from how Schwarzenegger and his collaborators portray it. What is his actual environmental record?
• Schwarzenegger allowed the Department of Water Resources to pump record levels of water out of the Delta from 2003 to 2007, resulting in the Central Valley salmon and California Delta pelagic species collapses.The largest annual water export levels in history occurred in 2003 (6.3 million acre feet), 2004 (6.1 MAF), 2005 (6.5 MAF) and 2006 (6.3 MAF). Exports averaged 4.6 MAF annually between 1990 and 1999 and increasing to an average of 6 MAF between 2000 and 2007, a rise of almost 30 percent, according to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
• He has constantly attacked two federal biological opinions, released in 2009, protecting Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales.
• His administration did nothing while tens of thousands of striped bass, Sacramento blackfish, Sacramento splittail and other species perished during a levee repair project at Prospect Island in the California Delta in November 2007.
• He has vetoed numerous environmental bills, including vetoing a badly needed bill sponsored by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) in 2008 that would provide for emergency fish rescue plans on the Delta.
• He has consistently slashed funding for game wardens in the field while California has the lowest ratio of wardens to residents of any state in the nation.
• He has constantly directed the Central Valley Regional Water Control Board to continue to grant waivers to agricultural polluters, in spite of the dire condition of Delta fisheries.
• Since 2004, he has fast-tracked a controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative filled with conflicts of interest and corruption. Rather than creating marine protected areas that truly protect the ocean, this initiative kicks sustainable fishermen, Indian tribal members and seaweed harvesters off the water while refusing to deal with pollution, coastal development, military testing, wave energy projects and other human uses of the ocean that imperil marine life and ecosystems.
• As Schwarzenegger fast-tracked the privately-funded MLPA fiasco, he twice vetoed two crab pot limit bills needed to preserve California crab fisheries.
• Schwarzenegger introduced a bill that would allow the lame-duck Governor to choose 25 development projects each year that would be exempt from the state's strict standards under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (http://www.ecovote.org/blog/?p=1674).
• The Governor's Office of Pesticide Regulation on December 1, 2010 inexplicably approved methyl iodide to replace the soil fumigant methyl bromide, even though methyl iodide is even more toxic to animals, fish and people than methyl bromide (http://www.sacbee.com/2010/12/04/3231811/inexplicably-state-approves-new.html).
However, the "crown jewel" of Schwarzenegger's water policies is his campaign to build a peripheral canal/canal and new dams through his Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan processes. This construction of a canal/tunnel, estimated to cost anywhere from $23 to $53.8 billion, is likely to lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other species.
In his zeal to build the canal, Schwarzenegger attempted to sabotage the campaign by the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes, fishermen and environmentalists to remove four Klamath River dams by making $250 million for dam removal contingent upon the voters' passage of an unpopular water bond that creates the infrastructure for a peripheral canal and new dams. Because it would have faced certain defeat at the polls this November, Schwarzenegger and the Legislative leadership postponed the water bond until November 2012.
In addition, the Schwarzenegger administration has granted agribusiness permits to divert water from the Scott and Shasta rivers, resulting in the de-watering of these Klamath River tributaries at tremendous risk to endangered coho salmon. Schwarzenegger's "scorched earth" policy towards the Scott and Shasta forced Earthjustice to file a lawsuit against the Department of Fish and Game on behalf of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Klamath Riverkeeper, the Sierra Club, the Quartz Valley Indian Tribe, Northcoast Environmental Center and Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC).
While his record regarding fishery and water issues is arguably the worst of any Governor in California history, Schwarzenegger's portrayal by the corporate media and corporate environmental NGOs as a relentless advocate for "clean energy" is also very deceptive. Former Senator Sheila Kuel eloquently exposed the myth of the "Jolly Green Giant" in her article, "A Lame Duck Governor Fabricates A Hoped-For Legacy," in the California Progress Report on July 29 (http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/site/?q=node/8010).
"One of the myths Arnold has floated out to the world is the story of his wonderful environmental credentials," said Kuehl."He takes credit for Senator Fran Pavley's greenhouse gas bill that is now under attack in the November election in an initiative sponsored and funded by Texas oil companies. However, virtually minutes after he signed AB 32 and had multiple press conferences touting this act, he issued an Executive Order undermining the center of the bill, which was environmental regulation of greenhouse gases, and, instead, insisted on joining a multi-state cap and trade system, creating a market for pollution. This solution was allowed in AB 32, but only after stricter regulations were in place."
"In addition, in every single budget negotiation, he has insisted on 'waiving' (read: doing away with) the requirements of the California Environmental Protection Act for big construction projects. He adopted and further promulgated the myth that analyzing the environmental effects of projects (which is all CEQA does) was tantamount to stopping them and that, therefore, that step should be skipped," Kuehl concluded.
We cannot allow Schwarzenegger's deplorable environmental legacy to be greenwashed. People who care about the restoration of collapsing Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, environmental justice and the truth must counter the myths being spread about the "Jolly Green Giant" every chance they get!
Natural Resources Secretary Lester Snow on November 16 announced that two major reports on the Bay controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), developed after 4 years of meetings and $140 million spent, will be released in the next few weeks.
He made the announcement during his testimony at an oversight hearing held by the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife at the State Capitol in Sacramento.
Snow described the BDCP as "a comprehensive conservation plan to protect species/habitat protection and improve the reliability of water supplies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta."
However, many fishing groups, Indian Tribes, environmental organizations and family farmers say the plan is a thinly veiled plan to build a peripheral canal/tunnel to export more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California.
"While the Delta has become the most politically contentious water management issue in California," Snow said, "our progress in developing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan speaks to a growing consensus that we must achieve a Delta ecosystem that is more resilient and improve the state's water supply reliability."
Snow said that the BDCP Steering Committee plans to finalize its "working draft plan" at its meeting on Thursday, November 18.
Snow lauded the draft as "a product of a collaborative process that has included the California Department of Water Resources, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, federal and state fisheries agencies, water contractors, environmental organizations and other stakeholders. It will reflect substantial progress towards a completed Bay Delta Conservation Plan, and identify remaining elements where scientific work and other analysis is needed."
The 1,500 page draft report won't be available to the public until Monday, November 21.
Snow said a separate "status report and issues summary" on the BDCP will be released the week of December 6, 2010. This document will include the State of California's assessment of the issues, but will reflect the work of both state and federal agencies, water users, and the environmental community.
"It will also identify issues that require further resolution, including additional scientific analysis to improve upon water operations for Delta fisheries, ecological metrics to measure progress, and ongoing development of an adaptive management plan," according to Snow.
Snow stated that a draft habitat conservation plan/environmental impact report will be released in mid-2011 and the final report will be released in 2012. He said the current plan could lead to the construction of the peripheral canal/tunnel by 2013.
Snow said the process has come to six major conclusions, including the "need" for a peripheral canal/tunnel:
1. Large scale habitat restoration is necessary.
2. Dual conveyance - a combination of a peripheral canal/tunnel and in-Delta conveyance - is necessary.
3. An economic plan must be developed
4. The BDCP must develop a resilent ecosystem.
5. California needs an increasingly diversified water supply.
6. Water management in California has suffered from a "lack of of truly integrated resource management."
BDCP "stakeholders" who testified included Jason Peltier, Chief Deputy General Manager, Westlands Water District; Laura King-Moon, California Water Contractors Association; Cynthia Koehler, California Water Legislative Director, Environmental Defense Fund; Jonathan Rosenfield, Ph.D., Conservation Biologist, The Bay Institute; Melinda Terry, Manager, North Delta Water Agency; and Don Nottoli, Delta Stewardship Council Member, Delta Protection Commission Chair, and Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.
Westlands Water District: political appointees, Not biologists, should decide Delta flows
Jason Peltier, during his testimony and while responding to questions by Senator Jared Huffman, criticized environmental groups for "nasty rhetoric" and spreading a "mythology." Peltier voiced frustration about the "never-ending stream of letters" from environmental organizations both on and off the BDCP steering committee who ignore economic realities.
"They seem to envision a perfect world," claimed Peltier. "We can't find perfection in this process. If that is their demand, that rock doesn't exist, and we ought not continue spending money to try and find this perfect world."
Peltier also said the water contractors have heard from federal agencies that the BDCP is on track to produce a document that the federal government does not consider permittable. He blamed this on the work of "mid-level biologists" and boldly recommended that political appointees, rather than scientists, make the decisions over how much water must flow through the estuary.
At the same time, he blasted a report by unnamed federal biologists that said that at least one species of fish would be threatened with extinction if the BDCP went forward. The biologists conclude that "overall habitat conditions under the proposed project are likely to be worse than present day conditions or future conditions (if the project is not built),"
"Yes, I would ask political appointees to weigh in to make a decision based on informed views - not a little paper with no names," he emphasized. "The world is bigger than the word of a few biologists."
"It is important that agencies get the best available science," Peltier stated. "It's unfair to ask biologists to choose the flows for fish."
He also claimed there is "scientific uncertainty" on the flows needed for fish, noting the "complex tidal swing" in Delta channels of 30,000 cfs on every tide change. "We have to listen to debate and to make the best decisions we can," said Peltier.
Jonathan Rosenfield responded to Peltier by stating that federal, state and independent biologists have all identified, in a number of reports, the flows needed to maintain healthy salmon and Delta fish populations.
"I don't know of any scientist who disagrees with the need for flows out of the Delta," he emphasized.
The Legislature failed to ask members of California Indian Tribes, recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, or environmental justice groups to speak on the panels, even though they will be impacted dramatically by the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel. However, Dick Pool, administrator of Water 4 Fish, spoke in the public comment period about the urgent need for immediate action to save collapsing runs of Sacramento River chinook salmon.
"I have a major concern about the rapid decline in fall-run chinook salmon from 800,000 fish in 2002 to only 39,500 fish in 2009," said Pool. "We don't have a lot of time left - there won't be any fish around if we rely on the BDCP schedule. We need to implement early projects to recover fish populations."
Delta advocates who attended the hearing were very critical of the BDCP's failure to address how it can possibly provide both the water and habitat that imperiled fish populations need and the water that the exporters desire.
"After 4 years and $140 million, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan is going to release some kind of document this week, but it won't answer the central question of the exercise: how do exporters plan to get the amount of water they want while giving fish and habitat the water they need?," said Jane Wagner-Tyack, a policy consultant for Restore the Delta.
Wagner-Tyack also criticized the BDCP for its failure to address how it will come up with the money for canal/tunnel construction and habitat "restoration" at a time when the state of California is besieged with an unprecedented budget crisis.
"And no one knows how this will all be paid for," she concluded. "However, one thing that seems clear is that exporters are unlikely to continue to pay for a plan that will not give them the amount and reliability of water that they thought they were getting with their investment in the BDCP."
