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."
The Obama administration has joined the Schwarzenegger administration in supporting the peripheral canal/tunnel, according to the latest newsletter from Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. Canal opponents fear that the construction of the peripheral canal will lead to the extinction of collapsing populations of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other fish species.
Both the federal and state governments are going out of their way to serve corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies at the expense of imperiled fish populations, the recreational and commercial fishing industries and family farmers on the California Delta.
Dan
News from Restore the Delta, Oct. 22, 2010
Never mind the NHA. Keep your eye on the Department of Interior.
We now know something about what has been going on the BDCP Principals' meetings, (which were not "secret" but which anybody present had to promise not to talk about).
We reported on October 10 that Lester Snow has said that decision-making about the BDCP would take place in public meetings.
Forget that.
Last week Interior Secretary Salazar met with the State and the Principals. His deputy, David Hayes, said that Delta conveyance is necessary and that "short term" protections and restoration of the Delta should be weakened.
We shouldn't be surprised at this position, considering that Hayes was formerly an attorney with a firm that represented the Metropolitan Water District. Before that, he was one of the architects of the failed Cal Fed process.
Salazar isn't contradicting Hayes. David Nawi, Senior Advisor to Secretary Salazar for California and Nevada, is apparently deferring to Salazar and Hayes on this issue.
On November 9, Salazar is scheduled to meet with BDCP Principals in Washington, D.C. The expectation is that the product of the Principals' meetings, a report titled "Issues for Discussion for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan" (available at http://www.resources.ca.gov/re... will form the basis of a federal/State agreement.
This is the report that Lester Snow said was not a draft plan, just a progress report on what has been considered throughout the planning process.
A public draft of the BDCP and a draft EIR/EIS are coming due. It has become apparent to everyone that they won't be ready. Alternative approaches? There don't seem to be any. The long, costly BDCP charade may be coming to any end as the State and the feds push forward with the conveyance they always wanted.
Once again, as so often in the past, environmental protections are being treated as an inconvenience. It will be interesting to watch the Department of Interior contradict the biological opinions that shaped the most recent pumping limits.
And, of course with increased pumping, fragile fisheries hanging on by a thread may be wiped out all together. Then again, that may be the intent. No need to protect fish species that no longer exist.
The expectation is that Interior will lift pumping restrictions soon.
So what do Delta Counties do?
It is our understanding that representatives from the Five Delta Counties participated in this October 15th meeting in Tracy with Salazar and Hayes, either in person or on the phone. We have also heard that the Five Delta Counties have to decide if they as a group or individually want to participate in the BDCP discussions with the caveat that they cannot offer input and cannot vote.
Restore the Delta staff certainly understands that local government entities have a responsibility to interact with Federal and State officials in order to represent local communities. And in the case of these BDCP meetings, having the Five Delta Counties gathering information is better than having local government not knowing what is happening.
But, Restore the Delta strongly objects to a process directed by the BDCP Principals, in which officials from State and Federal government agencies can make the decisions on behalf of Delta fisheries, Delta resources, Delta communities, and Delta people without our input and consent.
We believe that this defiles what American democracy is all about.
This is not representative government.
More contempt for science?
The Environmental Water Caucus (EWC) gave the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) recommendations for meeting California's water needs without building a canunnel, and - no surprise - the BDCP folks didn't like those recommendations.
Byron Buck, Executive Director of the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, fired off a letter to Phil Isenberg taking issue with the recommendations, which are taken from EWC's publication "California Water Solutions Now."
EWC recommendations include aggressive statewide conservation, reductions in Delta pumping, and retirement of toxic farmlands. Byron Buck objected to the "emotional pejorative" of referring to lands on the west side as "toxic."
"The reality," he said, "is that the West Side Drainage Plan . . . has halved the salt and selenium loads to the Delta from this region. State mandated water quality requirements have been consistently met for over ten years and completion of the plan is expected to eliminate regular subsurface farmland drainage from the Grasslands drainage area to the Delta."
Westlands, according to Buck, is proposing to use similar techniques. Fallowing of select lands is part of salt management plans, but whole scale retirement is not necessary.
We'd just like to note that half of too much salt and selenium is still too much. We'd also like to note that it isn't too hard to meet state-mandated water quality requirements when you are in a position to bully the Water Board into mandating only the quality of water that is convenient for you to deliver.
Bethel Island Bass Tournament benefits the Delta
The first rain of the season didn't keep some dedicated bass fishermen from turning out last Sunday for a Bass Tournament at Russo's Marina benefiting Restore the Delta and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA). The largest fish was caught by the youngest fisherman. Thanks to all those who donated raffle items, including Steve Herringer of Heringer Wines. And a special thanks to Michael Frost, Bobby Barrack, Russo's Marina, and Cooch Cuchera for organizing the event. In our next issue, we will have a special section on the good works of our tournament sponsors and winners.
Give the Delta Protection Commission your input
DPC Primary Zone Study Updates, all from 6-8 p.m.
Wednesday, November 3, Brentwood
Thursday, November 4, Thornton
Tuesday, November 9, Rio Vista
DPC Economic Sustainability Plan Forums
Monday, November 8, Oakley, 9-10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, November 10, West Lodi/North Stockton, 6-8 p.m.
Proponents of the peripheral canal and new dams often complain that critics of these controversial water projects have no "solutions" to California's water and fishery problems.
Well, the Environmental Water Caucus (EWC), a coalition of 27 environmental groups, fishing organizations, environmental justice groups and Native American tribes, has crafted a comprehensive solution to how Californians can restore their fisheries and meet water needs at the same time.
The EWC recently presented a ground-breaking series of proposals to the Delta Stewardship Council, the newly-formed state agency that is charged with finding a balance between water reliability and Bay-Delta environmental recovery.
The caucus provided a series of recommendations on water that included an aggressive statewide water conservation program that can reduce water use by 8 million acre feet annually and the retirement of toxic farmlands that use almost 4 million acre feet of water per year, acccording to a news release from EWC. They paired their recommendations with a reduction of Delta pumping that will help restore the Bay-Delta ecology and fisheries.
"The Caucus recommendations have been boosted by the State Water Resources Control Board's recent report that concluded that more water must be allowed to flow through the Bay-Delta in order to protect the health and public resources of this critically important watershed," EWC noted.
The recommendations by the Caucus were presented as an alternative to the pending proposals by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The widely-criticized plan, now being discussed in secret meetings convened by the Schwarzenegger administration, is designed to construct either a tunnel under the Bay-Delta or a peripheral canal around the Delta
BDCP critics fear that the peripheral canal/tunnel, designed to facilitate water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California, will lead to the extinction of collapsing populations of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and other fish. The canal/tunnel would cost an estimated $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to an analysis last year by economist Steven Kasower.
Bill Jennings, chairman/executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA); Jim Crenshaw, president of CSPA; Bret Baker, a Delta pear farmer, biologist and Restore the Delta board member; and I disrupted a secret meeting of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) in Sacramento on September 30 to protest the closed process. The 50 participants in the closed door meeting decided to leave rather than to allow the four of us listen to the proceedings (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2010/10/08/secret-meeting-participants-flee-from-delta-residents-fishermen).
Dr. Mark Rockwell, representing the fishing community for EWC, said, "This BDCP plan will continue the destructive water extractions from the Delta and block any hope of recovery for fisheries and the Delta environment. We have to find a new way to manage water that does not involve reliance on the Delta. The recently published EWC report, California Water Solutions Now, accomplishes this goal."
For many years, fishermen, Tribes and environmentalists have worked relentlessly to increase the amount of water flowing through the Delta and to San Francisco Bay in order to restore and protect the health of the estuary. Large water contractors south of the Delta, led by Westlands Water District, have fought just as incessantly to increase the amount of water pumped through the Delta in order to irrigate farms and accommodate a growing population.
"It's a classic California water battle and seems to have no end," said David Nesmith, EWC coordinator. "This battle for water must end if we are to ever achieve a balance between the State's need for water, and our desire to have a healthy environment and save our fisheries."
"The Environmental Water Caucus has presented this alternative proposal that stresses water use reductions and avoids the multiple billions of dollars that would be needed to construct a major tunnel or canal through the Delta," said Nick Di Croce, long time water advocate and EWC consultant. "It is a non-structural alternative (no surface storage or new Delta conveyance) that can meet the needs of our growing population at least until 2050."
This report documents numerous analyses of water efficient technologies and approaches that can save or reduce water consumption in urban areas by as much as 5 million acre-feet a year by 2030 compared with current trends - enough water to support population growth of almost 30,000,000 people.
"According to the California Water Plan Update 2009, the state's population can be expected to increase by 22,000,000 over the next 40 years if current population trends hold," the report's executive summary states. "Clearly, a well-managed future water supply to take us to 2050 is within reach with the current supplies and with an aggressive water conservation program."
Using the Strategic Goals and Recommendations from the Environmental Water Caucus' report, the Caucus showed in their presentation how the actions called for in the report will save or reduce enough water consumption to allow the Delta exports to be reduced, in keeping with the State Water Board's report on Delta flows.
"In the same way that California can no longer just continue to build highways to accommodate our population growth, we must find different kinds of technological and societal solutions to protect our most valuable, limited and life-giving resource: water," said Michael Jackson, EWC steering committee member.
The Caucus closed their proposal by challenging the Delta Stewardship Council to analyze their proposal as one of the alternatives to be considered in the future Delta Plan. Additionally, they proposed a council workgroup to further develop the recommendations in the EWC report, and to bring together people from all sides to discuss how this can be implemented.
Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and an EWC member, pointed out the absurdity of claims that building a peripheral canal, as envisioned by BDCP officials, will somehow "save" the Delta.
"The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn't make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective," stated Franco. "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 EWC report shows how California can meet its water needs and restore its imperiled fish populations without building an environmentally destructive and enormously costly peripheral canal and new dams. You can read the report and find out more about the Environmental Water Caucus at their website: http://ewccalifornia.org.
Here is Brett Baker's excellent piece, "Crashing the Principal's Office," about our attempt on September 30 to attend a secret meeting of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, followed by other news from Restore the Delta.
Delta Flows, October 11, 2010- News from Restore the Delta
Crashing the Principals' Office
By Brett Baker
Over the past several weeks, the media has reported on "secret meetings" being held behind closed doors to set the course for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Resources Agency Director Lester Snow went before the DSC last week to refute the reports of "secret meetings" saying they were due to insufficient fact checking on the part of reporters and news media.
On the morning of September 30th, 2010, a BDCP principals meeting was convened at the California Farm Bureau Federation off of Garden Highway in Sacramento. Those on the invite list included BDCP steering committee members who were only privy to the discussion, but not allowed to speak. (Melinda Terry of the North Delta Water Agency- the sole Delta rep in the room - told us that she was offered a seat for having signed the planning agreement, but not offered a speaking seat.) Speaking seats were reserved for "principals"- representatives of the entities who have financed the planning process-the finest display of pay-to-play I have never seen in government.
A group of four individuals Bill Jennings, Dan Bacher, Jim Beuttler, and I walked into the conference room unannounced, and were welcomed by complete silence and awkward stares. It was as if the scent of the Ganges on a warm summer evening had followed us into the room, which is ironic when one realizes that we were there to protect the Sacramento River.
As folks attempted to regain composure, we were asked by the meeting facilitator to introduce our selves. So we did. She then recommended to the group that we be allowed to stay as did David Nawi, Senior advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Interior.
The meeting was recessed, and immediately a group convened in the hallway to discuss how the "principals" would like to address our presence. It could be described as a secret meeting within the secret meeting.
We were approached by the meeting facilitator, and asked to leave for the sake of equity..Apparently, other folks, including Senator Lois Wolk's staff, had been turned away because the "principals" felt it was a necessity to have closed door discussions in addressing such contentious issues. The meeting facilitator then attempted to pacify our concerns, saying the entirety of the discussion would be reported to the Delta Counties Coalition(DCC) next Thursday (October 7, 2010). Of course this reply begs the question, "If they intended on reporting the entirety of the discussion, what was the harm in letting us stay?" After all, we should trust them to self-disclose the decisions that they reached in private that will greatly affect Delta communities and water resources for the entire state for centuries to come.
The meeting facilitator also informed us that if we were to stay that we must swear to remain silent for the remainder of the meeting and not report the names or attribute quotes to any of the folks in the room. Specifically, folks in the room had agreed to a non attribution clause, because having the dialogue around the table attributed to any one particular entity may be problematic for the entity's public relations efforts.
We responded that as American citizens we felt we were entitled to our first amendment rights and could make no such promise. She went on to say that this was not a first amendment issue, and the discussion digressed from there.
Lester Snow then called her out into the hallway for a brief discussion and she returned to ask us to leave. Mr. Jennings, for clarifications sake, asked if she was prepared to have us arrested if we refused. She replied that they weren't. Overall, the meeting facilitator was pleasant and courteous as were we. We were then told that if we did not leave, the "principals" would have to leave.
And leave they did. The meeting was not reconvened, and following Lester Snow's lead the attendees began to slowly file out of the room.
As this event was scheduled to be a two-day meeting. I surmised that they might hold the next day's meeting at the Federal Building in downtown Sacramento, where security is a little tighter.
As our fate was being decided in the hallway, we were greeted by environmental observers (others relegated to non-speaking seats), Kim Delfino from Defenders of Wildlife, Cynthia Koehler and Ann Hayden from Environmental Defense, and Gary Bobker of The Bay Institute. We also had a polite talk with Jason Peltier of Westlands Water District. We made small talk and joked about the deficiencies of the process.
The last two principals remaining in the room were Roger Patterson and Jeffry Kightlinger of Metropolitan Water District, who also followed us into the parking lot for a bit of civil discussion.
I feel that we walked away with a new found respect from the folks in the room. Several told us that for the most part they understood and even supported our bit of formal protest.
On a personal note, I felt like I was able to exercise my rights as an American that morning, and having done so now posses a much better understanding of Margaret Mead's quote: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does"
All in all we walked into the meeting at 9:20 a.m., and discussion ceased by 10:30 a.m. The room was empty and the only sign that a meeting had occurred were the empty coffee cups left around the table.
It was encouraging to feel a victory in this war on the Delta- no matter how small. Today is another day, and our work continues...
Called into the Principals' Office: The Not-So-Superintendent
Lester Snow may have been kicked upstairs from DWR Director to Resources Agency Secretary partly to ensure delivery of the Bay Delta Consesrvation Plan. The Administration may have been thinking that potentially regulated entities (PREs) around the BDCP table were losing focus and Snow would be the one to get fol
ks back on track and encourage compromise. Unfortunately, last month the table was moved to a back room, and people from the Delta weren't given a key to get in.
Delta legislators complained in a formal letter to Snow and the Department of the Interior, but the Schwarzenegger Administration is showing itself to be increasingly contemptuous of California's elected representatives.
At the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) meeting on September 23, Snow provided a briefing on the situation, With his federal counterpart, Interior Undersecretary David Nawi, at his side Lester presented his rebuttal letter sent to Senator Wolk and other state legislators and federal representatives.
Snow vehemently argued that the "closed-door, back room discussions" referenced by legislators were not in-fact taking place in "smoke-filled rooms." He blamed the whole fuss on inexperienced media people not fact-checking their claims prior to filing their stories. (Most people wouldn't classify the Contra Costa Times' Mike Taugher with careless media people.)
Snow stopped just short of criticizing the judgment of Senator Wolk and everyone else who signed the letter. What was really going on, he said, was an attempt to get BDCP Principals on the same page, and he felt the talks made BDCP a better process because in his opinion all the "main caucuses" were in the room. He pointed out that, after all, the decision making will take place in public meetings.
But Snow was clearly shaken, as if even he didn't believe that what was coming out of his mouth was the whole truth. We wouldn't blame him for feeling that from the standpoint of ethics, continuing to strong-arm Delta communities and the ecosystem really isn't worth it.
The product of the meetings was a report titled "Issues for Discussion for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan." (Available at http://www.resources.ca.gov/re... Snow was careful to point out that this was not a draft plan, just a progress report on what has been considered throughout the planning process. Something that will give the transition team of an incoming administration an idea of where things stand.
Nawi noted that the current information compiled by the BDCP steering committee lacked a framework that made BDCP understandable. Is this a nice way of saying that the whole plan is basically incoherent?
There was some discussion about assigning a staff "point person" from both DSC and BDCP to ensure increased communication between the two entities.
Nawi spoke briefly about the federal government's commitment to best available science and the furthering of the "co-equal goals," as well as increasing its involvement in Delta Planning.
They had to pay someone to tell them this....
DSC independent consultant ARCADIS released a report that bashed BDCP's progress and lack of significant findings, and the lack of willingness and/or ability to ask the right questions. A notable weakness is the vagueness surrounding proposed operational criteria and conservation measures. RTD reported on this last month (August 25) in our "Haste makes waste, again" article.
The DSC briefly discussed the ARCADIS report, and we can only hope that they give it the attention it warrants.
If the folks running BDCP had listened to and addressed the issues and concerns we have heard continually brought up at public scoping meetings and community outreach meetings, maybe the council could have saved itself the ARCADIS consulting fee.
Technically speaking
There was a good bit of discussion regarding the DSC's adoption of a Delta Plan, the folding in of BDCP, and how an appeal should be handled if someone takes issue with the Plan.
Greg Zlotnik (State Water Contractors) requested some clarification from the Council on the necessity of BDCP in a Delta Plan. Isenberg reminded Zlotnik that "necessity" was not the critical point; the critical point was whether the BDCP would remain eligible for state funding. (It is easy to forget that taxpayers are funding this process on which the State of California has now spent over $100 million.)
Isenberg: "That is why you are here."
Zlotnick: "No, it isn't."
Isenberg: "Trust me, that IS why you are here."
After some debate on legislative interpretation, it was determined that if the BDCP is submitted and DSC receives no appeal requests (unlikely), then BDCP is automatically rolled into the Delta plan.
Mr. Zlotnik and Mark Rentz of ACWA took issue with a perceived conflict of interest that DSC will be the ruling body if the Delta Plan, which the DSC is charged with approving in the first place, should face an appeal. After a great deal of discussion, Isenberg assured folks that this was legal and even typical. He pointed out that the Coastal Commission and Delta Protection Commission both review appeals on their own work. He held firm to that view despite arguments that a "de novo" process ("a new trial by a different tribunal") should be followed instead.
The newly-appointed Executive Director of the DPC, Mike Machado, was warmly received, congratulated on his appointment, and thanked by the Council. Machado reported on the ongoing Economic Sustainability planning. He also reported that a draft primary zone study should be out in October and adopted by December. In addition, he reported that the DPC is moving forward with their National Heritage Area (NHA) feasibility plan.
Gary Bardini, DWR's new Chief of Hydrology and Flood Operations, gave a rundown on Delta levee maintenance activities. The DRMS study was heavily referenced, and once again the Delta was characterized as one giant seismically vulnerable subsiding peat marsh.
Randy Fiorini asked Bardini if DWR's current efforts would result in an overall Delta levee plan. Isenberg stepped in to explain that it wouldn't. The state does not have an overarching Delta-wide plan for non-project levees, and the subventions program that is in place for cost sharing with the local agencies hasn't been working for the past couple of years.
Fiorini and especially Hank Nodoff seemed astounded that we lack a comprehensive levee plan. Isenberg went on to explain that the reason the state avoided dealing with local agencies was to avoid liability in the event of a failure. The looks on the faces of the DSC members was priceless: the entire council (except Isenberg, who had a devilish grin on his face) was clearly shocked.
Council members, thank you for having the grace to be appalled by this preposterous state of affairs.
While the state is drowning in debt, the General Fund is being drained by the government-created toxic drainage crisis in the San Joaquin Valley. Please read this outstanding article by Patrick Porgan of Planetary Solutionaries, one in a series entitled "Doubts about the Drought."
General Fund Being Drained by Budget Crisis and Government-Induced Drainage Crisis
by Patrick Porgan, Planetary Solutionaries
While Californians are being held captive waiting for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to adopt a budget, already more than 80 days late, costing "We the People" $52 million a day; more than $4 billion to date, they are also throwing $100s of millions down the drain and compounding California's government-induced water crisis.
Within the past decade California has been besieged by a water supply crisis, a budget crisis, a credit-rating crisis, a jobs crisis, an education crisis, a health care crises and a water quality crisis. The water quality crisis was identified as a potential crisis in the 1950s, and has contributed to the pollution of a significant length of the 330 mile San Joaquin River. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 215.4 miles of the river are on the 303(d) list, (the latest EPA approved list is from 2006), adding to demise of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The primary sources of the water quality crisis is from toxic salt discharge from lands irrigated by subsidized water delivered by the federal Central Valley Project to contractors "farming" on the arid west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Millions of acre-feet of water are exported from the project's Delta pumping plants which transport salt to and from those lands. All of this is being done as the government declares its intent to "save the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary" while sanctioning its demise. Common sense dictates that it is not possible to continue sanctioning the dumping of hundreds of tons of toxic salts into the San Joaquin River and the Bay-Delta Estuary annually and expect it to survive.
Toxic salt loading is not only taking its toll on the river and Bay-Delta Estuary, it is draining the State General Fund, as a myriad of publicly funded programs for drainage, water quality improvement, fisheries restoration and others continue to be financed with borrowed money from the deficit-ridden General Fund.
Water officials have wasted more than $10 billion and 35 years in extended delays in their failed attempt to carry out their legal mandates to protect the waters of the state and restore the Bay-Delta Estuary. In addition, the Bay-Delta Estuary was touted as the "ground-zero poster child" pitched by water officials in support of the so-called historical 2009 "Water Package" - $11 billion bond act, approved by the Legislature and signed by the governor. Even the mainstream media acknowledged this "package" as a "backroom-pork-barrel deal". The "package" is once again being sold to "improve" the Estuary. The bond measure has been rescheduled for the 2012 ballot.
The fact remains that for decades the "responsible" government officials and political appointees on both the State Water Resources Control Board and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (boards) have been sanctioning the discharge of trainloads of toxic substances into the San Joaquin River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay Estuary. The discharges have been reported to exceed the state's toxic threshold limits. The question as to whether this train wreck in the making will be allowed to continue dumping and pumping in excess of 3.4 million pounds of toxic salts per day into the waters of the state will be the subject of a meeting scheduled before the State Board on 5 Oct. 2010.
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/...
A significant portion of the San Joaquin River has been declared to be water quality impaired-polluted (unfit to swim in, eat certain species of fish and so forth). On a map published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 1999, entitled, Index of Watershed Indicators, it shows that the valley is the single largest "more serious water quality problem - high vulnerability" area in the nation. This dubious
distinction is the direct result of the boards' failure to take action to stop the discharge of these toxic substances into the waters of the state, which exceed both state and federal water quality standards.
Source: Environmental Protection Agency - Index of Watershed Indicators
The Obama administration decided on October 5 to deny protection for Sacramento splittail under the Endangered Species Act, even though this native species has declined to record low population levels in recent years.
The Sacramento splittail, a hardy native minnow, once swam in huge numbers in lakes and rivers throughout the Central Valley and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, but massive water diversions and alteration of important spawning and rearing habitat have driven this formerly abundant species to near extinction.
A press release from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that the splittail "does not warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA)."
"The best available scientific information demonstrates no recent decline in the overall abundance of the splittail nor threats that rise to the level of being significant to the splittail at the population level," the federal agency claimed.
The service said the finding, to be published in the Federal Register on Oct. 7, 2010, is based on a "thorough evaluation of the current status and level of threat to the species. While habitat loss has occurred over the years, the existing data fail to show a significant long-term decline of the splittail. Available population data do not show an overall decline, but rather natural fluctuations demonstrating a pattern of successful spawning during wet years followed by reduced spawning during dry years."
"During flood years, Sacramento splittail can be one of the more abundant fish in the Delta," claimed Dan Castleberry, Field Supervisor of the Bay-Delta Fish and Wildlife Office. "Similarly, as you would expect, during drying periods, spawning is reduced, and the abundance of splittail, especially young splittail, can be low."
The Service also echoed corporate agribusiness and Schwarzenegger administration claims that the collapse of Sacramento splittail and other Delta species including Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt has not been caused by massive exports of water out of the California Delta in recent years.
"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 Service contended. "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 determination was the result of a Center for Biological Diversity lawsuit and settlement agreement to revisit a tainted Bush-era decision to strip Endangered Species Act protection for the Sacramento splittail. In a statement reacting to the decision, the environmental group described the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's determination as "inexplicable."
"The Service's decision is indefensible, since the splittail population has dramatically declined in numbers since 2002 and collapsed to barely detectable numbers in the past few years. The Bush administration improperly stripped Endangered Species Act protections for the splittail in 2003, which was formerly protected as a federally threatened species," according to m the Center.
"It's a pretty outrageous decision, given that the splittail population has crashed in recent years along with almost every other native fish species in the Bay-Delta and the Central Valley, and numbers of splittail found in annual surveys are at record low numbers," said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Sacramento splittail is nearing extinction and the Service's decision was certainly not based on good science or common sense and did not take into account the severe threats to the splittail and its habitat in the Delta and Sacramento River floodplains. We will definitely challenge this decision."
Miller cited a recent independent analysis of splittail population trends by the Bay Institute, using updated data from five sampling programs that collect splittail in the estuary, shows that there has been a significant decline in the abundance of splittail in the estuary during the past several decades.
The estimated numbers of splittail have fallen to consistently low levels since 2002, and the estimated abundance from 2007 to 2009 has been the lowest recorded since surveys began in 1967. The Bay Institute's analysis of survey data shows that the splittail is declining in abundance and at risk of becoming endangered, and that its geographic range and habitat have been curtailed and its resilience has been reduced. The institute concluded that existing regulatory mechanisms are inadequate to protect the species and it habitat and without Endangered Species Act protections for key habitats, conditions for splittail are likely to get worse.
For the first time ever, the Department of Fish and Game fall midwater trawl survey in the Delta in 2008 found not one single splittail! The index, a relative measure of abundance, for the splittail was only 1, the next lowest number of fish ever recorded, in both 2007 and 2009. Conservationists and fishermen, in the face of this overwhelming data showing the alarming decline of this species, are wondering how the Service could have possibly concluded that the splittail doesn't warrant listing under the ESA.
"President Obama promised that under his watch environmental decisions would be made based on sound science, but the Fish and Wildlife Service under Ken Salazar doesn't seem to have gotten that memo yet," Miller quipped.
Conservation groups first petitioned for federal ESA protection for the splittail in 1992, after the population crashed, and the Service proposed listing the species in 1994. But the agency delayed listing until a Center lawsuit and court order forced it to take action. In 1999 the splittail was listed as a threatened species.
After litigation by water agencies and agribusiness challenging the listing, a court ordered the Service to review the status of the splittail. In 2003 the Service, in a major Bush administration scandal, improperly removed the splittail from the threatened list despite strong consensus by agency scientists and fisheries experts that it should retain its protected status.
Bush administration official Julie MacDonald, former Interior deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks, was found to have improperly tampered with the decision to remove the splittail from protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Although MacDonald was not involved in the initial 2003 decision by Fish and Wildlife Service officials to delist the species, she was "involved extensively and intimately" in the editing of the final decision. Her edits were "voluminous," including changes to the statistical analysis of splittail population data, the Interior Department Inspector General wrote in a investigation report on her activities released November 27, 2007.
MacDonald, who owned an 80-acre farm in the Yolo Bypass - a floodplain that is key habitat for the splittail - edited the splittail decision in a manner that appeared to benefit her financial interests rather than the fish, according to Jeff Miller.
In 2009 the Center filed a lawsuit against the Service challenging this action, part of a larger campaign to undo Bush-era decisions that weakened protections for dozens of endangered species. The Service agreed earlier this year to make a new finding on whether listing the splittail is warranted.
In reality, it appears that the "Change" that Obama promised to the voters often amounts to either continuing Bush administration fish and water policies, or actually proceeding to the right of Bush, as in the case of "catch shares" and genetically engineered salmon.
The complete finding can be found at http://www.fws.gov/sfbaydelta/. For more information, call Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 499-9185.
Secret Meeting Participants Flee From Delta Residents, Fishermen
The 50 participants in a secret meeting deciding the fate of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta on Thursday morning decided to leave rather than to allow four Delta advocates to listen to the proceedings.
Bill Jennings, chairman/executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA); Jim Crenshaw, president of CSPA; Bret Baker, a Delta pear farmer, biologist and Restore the Delta board member; and I disrupted the meeting of Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to protest the closed process.
We arrived at the meeting of "principals" of the BDCP at the Farm Bureau office in Sacramento just as the meeting was getting started. You could feel the tension and sense the surprise by the federal and state agency officials, water agency leaders, corporate agribusiness officials and others gathered there as we walked into the back of the room.
The Department of Water Resources has told legislators that they're not welcome at meetings of signatories to the BDCP, the plan that state water exporters have undertaken to secure their water supplies. Many advocates view the BCDP as a thinly-veiled attempt by the Governor to put in place the plans for a peripheral canal/tunnel before he leaves office.
The meeting facilitator, Betsy, announced our unexpected arrival. "We have guests in the room. Would you please identify yourselves?"
We all introduced ourselves and then the meeting stopped. The facilitator talked to us about the process and why they had to meet in secret so there would be no "attribution" of comments by participants.
"We have had to say no to other people who wanted to come to the meetings," she stated. "This is not a definite plan we're coming up with. This is a temporary process to give advice to the permanent process.
We were asked not to report the names of any of the participants or attribute quotes to them. We refused.
She emphasized, "The policy of non-attribution governs everything said in this room. We don't let anybody from the press come to these meetings since in the past the newspaper has served as the vehicle of negotiations - and we don't want that to happen."
Jennings responded that "the state and federal agencies are sending the wrong message here. I have worked on protecting the estuary for 3 decades, but I have no representatives here. The representatives from two Senate offices weren't allowed here either."
Baker and Crenshaw agreed with Jennings and myself that we had the right to stay in the meeting. Betsy went back to the group and they said they wanted to take a break to decide how to deal with our presence.
After a long delay, Betsy came back and stated, "The group as a whole has asked you to leave."
Jennings, after asking under whose authority or jurisdiction we were being asked to leave, said, "Are you prepared to have us arrested?"
Betsy received word from Natural Resources Secretary Lester Snow that rather than having us arrested, they would not continue meeting in that room unless we left. The participants then began leaving from the room, disbanding the meeting.
After the meeting was disrupted, Jennings said, "I'm astounded that four people involved in Delta issues for decades walked into a room and had everybody walk out from continuing the discussion about the future of the Delta."
"What I'm really disturbed by is the corruption of this public process and how the participants are deciding the fate of the Delta behind closed doors."
Jim Crenshaw noted, "I find it incredulous that these meetings are not open to public."
Bret Baker added, "Today I feel like a proud American. I understand the meaning of Margaret Mead's statement that 'Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.'"
These meetings have been going forward behind closed doors since August in what Resources Secretary Lester Snow told lawmakers was "a key procedural component of the public BDCP Steering Committee process." Speaking seats at the meeting had been reserved for "principals," representatives of the entities who have financed the planning process.
In an interview last week, Jonas Minton of the Planning and Conservation League told the Central Valley Business Times that exporters had withdrawn from the public BDCP process when confronted with overwhelming scientific evidence that exports from the Bay-Delta would have to be reduced to save the Estuary.
Said Minton, "They've been frantically trying to come up with some kind of agreement that could be signed before this Governor leaves office."
For more information and for action alerts, go to: www.restorethedelta.org.
September 30, 2010
Delta and Fishing Activists Disrupt Secret Delta Meetings
For Immediate Release -- September 30, 2010
Bill Jennings - 209-464-5067
Dan Bacher - 916-685-2245, ext. 224
Brett Baker - 916-719-6586
A Thursday morning meeting of Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) principals was disrupted by a fisherman, two environmentalists, and a Delta farmer protesting the closed process.
The Department of Water Resources has told legislators that they're not welcome at meetings of signatories to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the plan that state water exporters have undertaken to secure their water supplies.
The meetings have been going forward behind closed doors since August in what Resources Secretary Lester Snow told lawmakers was "a key procedural component of the public BDCP Steering Committee process."
Showing up this morning at the meeting convened at the California Farm Bureau Federation in Sacramento were Dan Bacher, fisheries activist, researcher, and editor of The Fish Sniffer; Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA); Jim Crenshaw, President/Treasurer of CSPA; and Brett Baker, sixth generation pear farmer from Sutter Island in the Northern Delta.
Speaking seats at the meeting had been reserved for "principals," representatives of the entities who have financed the planning process. Bacher, Jennings, Crenshaw, and Baker were asked not to report the names of any of the participants or attribute quotes to them. They refused.
When asked to leave, the four asked whether they would be arrested if they refused. In response, Secretary Lester Snow disbanded the meeting.
In an interview last week, Jonas Minton of the Planning and Conservation League told the Central Valley Business Times that exporters had withdrawn from the public BDCP process when confronted with overwhelming scientific evidence that exports from the Bay-Delta would have to be reduced to save the Estuary.
Said Minton, "They've been frantically trying to come up with some kind of agreement that could be signed before this Governor leaves office."
A similar push by the Governor has driven the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) process going forward in coastal Northern California.
The MLPA process, like the BDCP process, has been characterized by attempts to bypass open meeting laws. In that case, MLPA officials have limited media coverage of their "work sessions," which they distinguish from public meetings. One independent journalist was arrested for trying to film "work session" proceedings.
Newspaper industry and civil liberties attorneys say the process violated the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act and the 1st Amendment.
The Delta and fishing activists involved in disrupting today's meeting are available for interviews.
Delta advocates view the BCDP as a thinly-veiled attempt by the Governor to put in place the plans for a peripheral canal/tunnel before he leaves office.
In response to news of closed-door meetings to discuss the future of the imperiled California Delta, Members of Congress and the California legislature on September 16 sent a letter urging California Resources Secretary Lester Snow and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to open the talks to the public and include Delta representation.
State Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis), who represents four of the five counties in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, pressed for transparency and openness in the meetings on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) being convened by the offices of the California Natural Resources Agency and the Department of the Interior.
Many Delta advocates view the BDCP as a thinly veiled plan by the Schwarzenegger administration to build a peripheral canal or tunnel and new dams to facilitate water exports from the Delta to southern corporate agribusness and southern California. They fear that the canal would likely lead to the extinction of collapsing populations of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley salmon, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other species devastated by massive water exports in recent years.
Wolk, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and Congressional Representatives John Garamendi, Doris Matsui, Jerry McNerney, George Miller and Mike Thompson officially requested that the meetings be more inclusive and transparent. State Senator Mark DeSaulnier and State Assembly Members Bill Berryhill, Joan Buchanan, Alyson Huber, Tom Torlakson and Mariko Yamada also signed the letter.
"This most recent exclusion only serves to further frustrate and anger those within the Delta community who are genuinely interested in working constructively with the state and federal agencies and the newly formed Delta Stewardship Council," the letter states. "In short, this new Delta Principals Group process represents a return to the closed-door deal-making that has historically resulted in further degradation of the Delta."
"The meetings show a lack of commitment to achieving the coequal goals established by the 2009 legislative package on water," commented Wolk. "As defined by that package, the state's goals are to provide a more reliable water supply for California and protect, restore, and enhance the Delta ecosystem 'in a manner that protects and enhances the unique cultural, recreational, natural resource, and agricultural values of the Delta as an evolving place.' Without Delta representatives at the table, this group cannot credibly ensure that negotiations live up to these goals."
The letter includes a series of questions of Snow and Salazar, including:
• What is the role and objectives of the Delta Principals Group? Is this a new group or a separate new process?
• Who are the principals?
• How were the principals identified and what criteria used in determining which groups/representatives would be allowed to participate?
• Are the proposals being discussed based on the best available science?
Mike Wade of the California Farm Water Coalition supports these closed-door meetings, claiming that that they "may lead to significant understandings between various groups that might move California closer to a reliable water future and an environmentally restored Delta."
"The result would be a benefit to all Californians," he stated. "Yet, those who continue to hold fast to a 'me-first' attitude at the expense of others throw temper tantrums because they are not included. It is this type of (re)action that prevents California from moving forward."
However, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, said that the closed-door meetings now taking place among top water agency officials, regulatory agencies and three environmental groups "threaten every bit of progress made in the past year to curtail pumping from the California Delta and give imperiled fish populations a chance to recover."
Lester Snow is now taking a 'non-public' proposal to the group, according to Barrigan-Parrilla. It includes a proposal for Delta operations and governance that allows flexibility but requires only a 'best effort' from agencies to avoid additional water impacts.
Barrigan-Parrilla also said the proposal also allows DWR and the Bureau of Reclamation to veto any changes to the range of operations.
"This could effectively prevent adaptive management intended to protect fish," said Barrigan-Parrilla. "In fact, it appears that the proposal would allow the feds to gut the biological opinions."
The proposal would also require only token funding from water users for habitat restoration, as well as exclude an analysis of the Water Board's new flow criteria.
Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, emphasized that these latest meetings take place in the context of how the state of California has made its decisions regarding natural resources since the 1800s.
"As tribal people, we have seen the results of these closed door meetings," said Franco, "and what has happened has never been good for the state or its people. As tribal people, we stand together to demand a just and open process so that the bad decisions over water and natural resources made in the past don't continue on into the future."
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has gone out of his way since assuming office in 2003 to exclude California Indian Tribes, Delta residents, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, environmental justice communities and grassroots conservation groups from all of the talks and meetings deciding the fate of the Delta and the California's water plans. These latest closed door meetings are only in one in a series of secret sessions that Schwarzenegger has used, such as the back room negotiations last year to craft the water policy-water bond package in the Legislature, to push through his plans to build a peripheral canal and new dams.
Ironically, at the same time that these secret sessions were being held, Schwarzenegger had the gall to spout off about the need for "transparent" government in his weekly radio address on September 4. "Ever since I became Governor, I have pushed to make California government more transparent," Schwarzenegger claimed.
This is coming from the guy who has demonstrated more of a penchant for secrecy than any other Governor in California history, a corporate-controlled political hack who was a keynote speaker on July 30, 2010 at the highly secretive Bohemian Grove near Monte Rio on the Russian River (http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2010/09/06/arnold-bohemian-grove-schwarzenegger-calls-for-transparent-government).
It is appalling that the Obama administration, in the foot steps of the Bush administration, is collaborating with Schwarzenegger's plans to build his "Big Ditch" to benefit big corporate agribusiness magnates like Stewart Resnick, owner of the 120,000 acre Paramount Farms in Kern County, so these water privateers can sell water back to the public at an enormous profit. What type of "Change" is this?
As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger road a high-speed rail train with high ranking Japanese officials on September 14 during his whirlwind tour of Asia, Schwarzenegger administration officials continued to railroad Delta advocates by excluding them from secret meetings planning the fate of the California Delta.
Closed-door meetings now taking place among top water agency officials, regulatory agencies and three corporate environmental groups threaten every bit of progress made in the past year to curtail pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and give imperiled fish populations a chance to recover.
State Resources Secretary Lester Snow is co-leading these secret sessions to negotiate an agreement regarding the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) before Governor Schwarzenegger leaves office, as disclosed in Mike Taugher's article in the Contra Costa Times on September 7 (http://www.contracostatimes.com/top-stories/ci_16014714).
"Supporters say the closed-door talks, which began in late August without notice to committee members, are needed to try to break a logjam," according to Taugher. "Critics see another example of a long practice of secretly settling high-stakes California water issues in ways that end up favoring powerful water contractors while harming the Delta."
Delta advocates view the BDCP as a thinly veiled plan to build a peripheral canal and new dams to facilitate water exports from the Delta to corporate agribusiness giants including Stewart Resnick, the owner of the 120,000-acre Paramount Farms in Kern County, and southern California water agencies. They fear that the canal would likely lead to the extinction of collapsing populations of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley salmon, Sacramento splittail, young striped bass and other species devastated by massive water exports in recent years.
"The Governor really wants that canal, and he prefers to do water policy closeted with a few of his best friends," explained Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta.
Of course, Snow, Schwarzenegger and their collaborators have made sure that recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Tribal members, conservationists, environmental justice communities, Delta farmers and Delta residents, the people most impacted by Delta water decisions, are completely excluded from these back door sessions.
"No one from the Delta is part of these meetings," Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla said. "Restore the Delta has learned that Snow is now taking a 'non-public' proposal to the group. It includes a proposal for Delta operations and governance that allows flexibility but requires only a 'best effort' from agencies to avoid additional water impacts."
Barrigan-Parilla also said the proposal also allows the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Bureau of Reclamation to veto any changes to the range of operations.
"This could effectively prevent adaptive management intended to protect fish," Barrigan-Parrilla said. "In fact, it appears that the proposal would allow the feds to gut the biological opinions."
Schwarzenegger has continually attacked the federal biological opinions designed to stop the extinction of Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River winter run and spring run chinook salmon, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales (orcas) while the Governor's Office continually issues press releases touting Schwarzenegger as the "Green Governor."
The proposal would require only token funding from water users for habitat restoration. It also would exclude an analysis of the Water Board's new flow criteria.
This penchant for secrecy by the Governor at the same time that he hypocritically calls for greater "transparency" in government is the hallmark of the Schwarzenegger administration, the worst in California history for fish and the environment. This is the same Governor that gave the keynote address on an "undisclosed topic" before global oligarchs at the highly secretive Bohemian Grove near Monte Rio on July 30 of this year (http://www.fishsniffer.com/content/arnold-bohemian-grove-schwarzenegger-calls-transparent-government-484/.)
Have you had enough of the secrecy by the Schwarzenegger administration and its collaborators? Call the Resources Agency at (916) 653-5656 today and tell Lester Snow to stop this closed-door negotiating process and bring to the table all affected parties.
Or email Snow directly at secretary [at] resources.ca.gov and let him know what you think of him presiding over this destruction of the state's public trust resources!
Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations * Water4Fish
For Immediate Release: August 3, 2010
Contact:
Zeke Grader, PCFFA, 415-606-5140
Dick Pool, Water4Fish, 925-963-6350
Fishing Families Ask State Board to Adopt Science-Based Flow Standards for Bay-Delta
Sacramento, CA - Today commercial and sport salmon fishing representatives traveled to Sacramento to call on the State Water Control Resources Board (SWRCB) to approve a science-based report identifying the amount of water needed to keep Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta wildlife and ecosystems alive.
The report, released in late July by SWRCB staff, calls for more water to be left in the Delta instead of diverting it through giant pumps to farms and cities south of the Delta. The report's findings mirror calls for more water made by fish biologists, other scientists, and state and federal wildlife officials who have studied the problem.
The staff report also supports the findings of two federal biological opinions that call for more water to prevent the extinction of federally protected fish species and bolster fall-run chinook salmon that support an important coastal fishery. The report comes as fishermen face a third year of closed or heavily-restricted salmon seasons due to the collapse of the once-mighty Sacramento River fall-run chinook salmon, a commercially valuable species heavily dependent on a healthy Delta flows to allow the survival of migrating baby salmon.
"It's good to see state water officials finally recognizing that it's in the state's interest to allow water to flow west through the estuary because of all the jobs related to the salmon fishing industry, both commercial and recreational, that depend on rebuilding our salmon runs," said Zeke Grader, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations Executive Director.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta/San Francisco Bay estuary is the most important estuary on the West Coast of the Americas and considered California's single most important ecosystem. Diversions of more than 50 percent of the estuary's freshwater inflow during much of the past decade have decimated the ecosystem and left many of its fisheries and the industries they support teetering on extinction.
The fishing representatives attended a public meeting where the state board considered adoption of the staff report. If the science-based report is adopted, it could be used to inform various state processes with the potential to greatly improve the way the state manages water in the Delta. It also has great potential to help rebuild the Sacramento's once massive chinook salmon run, which supports thousands of fishing jobs and fishing families throughout the state.
"Sport fishermen and business are really hoping the state will adopt a science-based approach and approve this report as the standard, "said Dick Pool, administrator for Water4Fish, a fishing-based organization with over 78,000 supporters. "We've seen what happens when we don't follow science in the Delta: collapsing fish populations and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity from fishing. Our state economy has lost 23,000 salmon-related jobs already. It's time to adopt the science-based approach and bring our fishing jobs back."
The report's recommendations are the first to ever clearly identify the amount of water needed to keep the West Coast's most important estuary healthy. It quickly drew attack from the agricultural and development interests that have engineered recent increases in water withdrawals that have significantly contributed to the Delta's collapse.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on June 3 signed legislation by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to extend a cost-sharing program that helps many local levee agencies afford necessary maintenance and improvements to levees that protect lives, farmland, and drinking water in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, according to a news release from Wolk's office.
"At a time when funding is hard to come by, this measure extends a successful program that helps to safeguard the Delta's continuing role as the heart of the state's water system, as fertile farmland, and a rich estuary ecosystem," said Wolk, who also authored legislation in 2005 that extended the 75 percent cost-sharing formula until 2010.
Wolk's current legislation, Senate Bill 808, extends the state's authorization to reimburse local agencies for up to 75 percent of levee maintenance and improvement costs. Without the bill, the state could not provide more than 50 percent reimbursement after July 1 of this year.
Under the measure, the program's authorization is extended until July 1, 2013, coinciding with the state's deadline to reassess its plans and priorities for protecting the Delta and its outdated system of levees.
"This legislation will help sustain Delta maintenance programs during this time of transition," Wolk concluded. "Until the state develops and begins to implement its plans for the Delta, the Delta Levee Program must remain in place to help provide necessary levee maintenance and improvements that protect Delta levees and the communities living and working behind them."
SB 808 is supported by the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, Central Valley Flood Control Association, North Delta Water Agency, Central Delta Water Agency, South Delta Water Agency, Regional Council of Rural Counties, Department of Water Resources, Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), California State Association of Counties (CSAC), Valley Ag Water Coalition, Contra Costa County Supervisors, Contra Costa Water District, County of Sacramento, and East Bay Municipal Utility District.
The bill was signed at a time that Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies are pushing to build a peripheral canal/canal around the Delta. Wolk, a strong defender of the Delta and its fish and people, is one of the most fervent opponents of the peripheral canal.
Canal critics contend that the canal would seal the doom of collapsing populations of Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, striped bass and southern resident killer whales. The canal/tunnel is expected to cost an estimated $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to Steven Kasower and Associates.
Every time that you think that corporate agribusiness can't stoop any lower than they have already in their campaign to destroy imperiled fish populations and fishing jobs, they always manage to reach a new low in their race to the bottom.
In the latest surrealistic episode in the California water wars, Westlands Water District, the "Darth Vader" of California water politics, is now seeking a permit to pollute the drinking water supply for millions of Californians, according to a coalition of environmental, fishing and tribal groups.
"Westlands has proposed a project to discharge up to 100,000 acre feet of groundwater into the State Water Project California Aqueduct, a drinking water supply for approximately 20 million people," revealed Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
The CSPA and other organizations on March 2 submitted comments regarding Westlands' proposed discharge and conveyance of polluted groundwater into and through the California Aqueduct of the State Water Project. The organizations submitting the comments include the California Water Impact Network, Sierra Club, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations (PCFFA), AquAlliance, Restore the Delta, Planning and Conservation League, Friends of the River, Southern California Watershed Alliance, Salmon Water Now, Crab Board Owners Association, Winnemen Wintu Tribe, Save the American River Association, Southern California Watershed Alliance and North Coast Rivers Alliance.
"Westland's groundwater is highly contaminated with selenium, boron, and salts," said Jennings. "The California Aqueduct is a water of the nation and supplies drinking water to more than 20 million people in Southern California. The aqueduct also has identified recreation and wildlife habitat beneficial uses and its waters supply reservoirs and streams that support significant fisheries habitat."
Jennings accused Westlands of "essentially attempting to dilute polluted wastes, created by irrigating impaired soils, with relatively good quality aqueduct water."
The coalition letter raises numerous issues, including the fact that the project would require Clean Water Act discharge permits and that the Department of Water Resources and not Westlands is the proper lead agency to prepare the EIR under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The groups said the EIR (Environmental Impact Report) for the project should include evaluation of the proposed action's impact on the following:
1. The SWP water supplies caused by the introduction of degraded groundwater into the California Aqueduct.
2. The variability over time and among wells in the quality of ground water, and changing impacts on the California Aqueduct over time.
3. The quantitative assessment on California's water supply, including increased treatment costs and public health costs, due to increases in selenium, salts, boron and other contaminants that will persist during the twenty five year term of the proposed action.
4. Subsidence impacts to the aqueduct from pumping up to 100,000 acre feet annually.
5. The bioaccumulation of contaminants in the sediments of the aqueduct.
6. The precedent-setting significance of degrading the quality of water in the California Aqueduct.
"This proposed action of allowing up to 100,000 acre feet of groundwater to be discharged into the California Aqueduct annually will export pollution costs from Westlands to other water districts or drinking-water suppliers and result in a direct public health risk," according to the groups. "Assurances that the groundwater quality does not exceed drinking water standards will not adequately protect public health because many contaminants, such as the most commonly used pesticides in the area, do not have drinking water standards. Nor are many of the pesticide contaminants even monitored. These risks and a full environmental impact analysis need to be included in this environmental analysis."
This underhanded attempt by Westlands to discharge tainted water into the aqueduct takes place as Westlands, agribusiness tycoons Stewart and Lynda Resnick of Paramount Farms, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein have launched an unprecedented war against salmon fishermen, Delta farmers, California Indian Tribes and Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations.
The most recent battle in this war took place over the past few weeks when Feinstein, the "Patron Saint" of corporate agribusiness, sponsored an amendment to bypass Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Delta smelt, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and the southern resident population of killer whales in order to increase Delta water pumping. Fortunately, a successful campaign by environmentalists, tribes, fishermen and Delta residents - and a better water supply outlook - forced Feinstein to withdraw her amendment for the time being.
"We are deeply grateful to Senator Dianne Feinstein and to Congressmen Jim Costa and Dennis Cardoza for their diligent and persistent efforts to secure this relief for our communities," said Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, after the Bureau of Reclamation issued its press release on Central Valley Project water supplies on February 26. "Their continued attention to these critical issues will be required in the days and months ahead to ensure that everything that can be done is being done."
As Feinstein was launching her attack on salmon and salmon fishermen, the North Coast Rivers Alliance, Friends of the River, Save the American River and Winnemem Wintu Tribe filed a suit in Fresno Superior Court on February 8 demanding "full public disclosure" of the impacts of backroom contract renewals that are being quietly negotiated between Westlands and the Bureau of Reclamation. The groups want a full environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) of the pollution and potential harm that "locking in" such massive water exports from the Delta estuary would cause to waterfowl and shorebirds along the Pacific Flyway and collapsing Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations
Feinstein, Schwarzenegger, agribusiness and their "environmental" collaborators such as the Nature Conservancy are also sabotaging efforts to restore the Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, by pushing plans to build a peripheral canal and new dams. The canal/tunnel fiasco would cost the state $23 billion to $53.8 billion, indebting generations of future Californians. The peripheral canal, if constructed, is also likely to result in the extinction of Sacramento River salmon and Delta fish populations, as well as the destruction of thousands of jobs in the recreational and commercial fishing industries.
As Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, said, "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."
For an excellent analysis of how Westlands Water District profits off institutionalized poverty on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, read Lloyd Carter's Reaping Riches in a Wretched Region, Subsidized Industrial Farming and Its Link to Perpetual Poverty: http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary/...
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and corporate agribusiness have falsely portrayed the movement to restore Central Valley salmon populations and the California Delta as a conflict of "fish versus jobs" or "a minnow versus people" when it is in fact a conflict between people and corporate agribusiness.
Corrupt politicians and corporate agribusiness "Astroturf" organizations have waged a campaign of constantly repeating "Big Lies" about San Joaquin Valley job loss to promote the gutting of Endangered Species Act protections for Delta smelt, Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River Chinook salmon, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales. They use the same "Big Lies" to campaign for the construction of a peripheral canal, more dams and an $11.1 billion water bond that the voters will decide on in November 2010.
To combat corporate media and "Astroturf" group disinformation, here is a summary of the myths and facts about San Joaquin Valley job loss:
Dan
Contacts:
Zeke Grader, PCFFA, [415] 561-5080 x 224
Steve Evans, Friends of the River, [916] 442-3155 x 221
Jim Metropulos, Sierra Club, [916] 557-1100 x109
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta, [209] 479-2053
Myths and Facts about San Joaquin Valley Job Loss
Myth: The high rate of joblessness in the San Joaquin Valley is due to agricultural unemployment.
Fact: The subprime mortgage crisis and housing implosion caused most of the job loss in the San Joaquin Valley. UOP studies have estimated that 47,000 construction jobs were lost in San Joaquin Valley, as opposed to 8,500 jobs in agriculture.1
Myth: All of the agricultural jobs lost in the San Joaquin Valley were due to Endangered Species Act related cutbacks of pumping from the Delta.
Fact: The UOP study estimated that 8,500 agricultural jobs were lost in the Valley due to cutbacks in water deliveries, but of those jobs, 6,500 were lost due to the drought, and 2,000 were lost due to the ESA related cutbacks. Many of the 6,500 jobs lost due to the drought are likely to return this year.1
Myth: The Endangered Species Act is preventing storage of spring runoff.
Fact: As of February 10, the Federal share of the San Luis reservoir, one of the main reservoirs supplying the Central Valley, has gone from very low to 81% of the 15 year average. The rest of the Central Valley Project reservoirs are also filling up, and are at 78% of the 15 year average. The reservoirs were at abnormally low levels due to the drought and increased demand, so it takes a while for them to fill.2
Myth: Westside San Joaquin agricultural water deliveries are expected to be 5% of contract amounts in 2010.
Fact: The Bureau of Reclamation has not yet made a determination of water deliveries for 2010. If this turns out to be a wet year, the projected allocations could be 25% to 40% of contract amounts.
Myth: Westside San Joaquin agricultural water deliveries are typical of the entire San Joaquin Valley.
Fact: Many agricultural contractors with more senior water rights have gotten significantly better deliveries. The San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors got 100% of their water allocation in 2009, for a total of 881,000 acre feet. The Class I Friant contractors also got 100% of their water allocation, another 800,000 acre feet.3
Myth: Westside San Joaquin agricultural contractors normally get 100% of their contracted water.
Fact: This happened in 2006, due to an extraordinarily wet year and an administration that allowed so much pumping that it caused the complete collapse of the Delta ecosystem. Normal deliveries to the West side of the San Joaquin Valley averaged approximately 64% of contracted amounts in the 1990s, and 61.5% in the 2000s.
Myth: Environmental protections for the Delta cost jobs.
Fact: The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the most important estuary on the West Coast. It is the nursery for many fish species of commercial importance. A study commissioned by Southwick Associates showed that the 2008-2009 salmon fishing closure has cost an estimated 23,000 jobs and $1.4 billion annually to the California economy. California has over 2,000 businesses that derive most or all of their income from the recreational and commercial salmon industry.4
Myth: A large number of almond orchards in the Central Valley have been cut down.
Fact: The California almond industry had record shipments of 1.39 billion pounds in 2008-2009, up 10% over 2007-2008.5 Farmers in Westlands Water District went from 48,325 acres of almonds in 2005 to 70,252 in 2008. They planted 4,042 acres of almond trees between 2007 and 2008. Westlands Water District reported excess water in 2008 enough to export 50,000 acre feet6. In 2009 they stopped irrigating 2,389 acres of almonds.7
Myth: "The San Joaquin Valley is experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis. The unemployment rate is 40 percent in some Valley towns, and people are standing in bread lines. (Feinstein press release, 2-11-10)
Fact: Unemployment is chronically high among San Joaquin Valley agriculture's seasonal labor-pool communities. The figure below shows that Mendota, the community used for staging appearances by Governor Schwarzenegger, Fox News' Sean Hannity, and, most recently, '60 Minutes' suffers high double-digit unemployment in both drought and wet years.8
1 Unemployment in the Central Valley, Fish or Foreclosure, http://forecast.pacific.edu/ar... and Employment Impacts of Reduced Water Supplies to San Joaquin Valley Agriculture
http://forecast.pacific.edu/wa... A UC Davis study had a somewhat higher estimate, 21,000 agricultural jobs lost in the San Joaquin Valley, 16,000 due to the drought, and 5,000 due to restrictions on Delta pumping. The UOP study was based on a review of the data, and the UC Davis study was based on an economic simulation.
6 Jul 2, 2008 ...DWR announces up to 50000 acre-feet of groundwater will be pumped from wells within the Westlands Water District into the California Aqueduct for transfer to Semitropic WSD...http://www.acwa.com/eNewsletter/index.asp?issue=7/2/2008
7 Westlands Water District, 2005-2009 crop reports.
8 From the July, 2009 issue of 'Rural Migration News, a project of the University of California at Davis :
California is in the third year of drought. Reducing water deliveries and shifting water available from lower to higher value crops tends to be more labor intensive. Agriculture around Mendota (labor force 4,700 in May 2009) in western Fresno County was more affected by reduced water deliveries than Parlier (6,200) in eastern Fresno County. Mendota's unemployment rate averaged four percent higher than in Parlier between 2003 and 2007, but was five percent higher in 2009, suggesting an extra 50 unemployed workers in Mendota. Local area unemployment rates use 2000 Census data to distribute the unemployed to cities such as Mendota and Parlier.
(Fresno) Federal Judge Oliver Wanger on Friday afternoon put a temporary hold on a federal plan (biological opinion) protecting salmon from the fish-killing California Delta pumps that deliver water to corporate agribusiness and southern California.
The ruling, in place for 14 days, allows for unlimited pumping, at least unless the projects hit "take" limits for salmon killed at the pumps or until Delta smelt protections are triggered in the Delta. The ruling can be extended by the judge for 14 more days.
Westlands Water District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and other water districts requested the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) so that water exports from the Delta could be increased. The pumping restrictions are designed to protect migrating juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon from being killed in the massive federal and state project pumps.
Endangered winter run Chinook salmon are unique to the Sacramento River system. After migrating for thousands of years to spawn in the McCloud River every year, the run was blocked from migrating to its spawning grounds after the construction of Shasta Dam. Since then, the fish has been forced to spawn in the Sacramento below Keswick Dam and has declined dramatically due to increased Delta water exports, declining water quality, unscreened or poorly screened diversions and other factors.
The positive news is that Wanger ruled for the federal fishery agencies, Earthjustice and NRDC on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) claim. "He ruled that plaintiffs have NOT shown they are likely to succeed on the merits of their claim that the Biological Opinion violates the Endangered Species Act (ESA)," said Barry Nelson, senior water policy analyst from NRDC.
Unfortunately, the judge also ruled that Westlands and the other plaintiffs are likely to succeed on their claim that the NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act) applies to implementation of the federal biological opinon as he ruled in the delta smelt case.
"The judge made an erroneous finding of fact that the agencies didn't consider any alternatives or the impacts on the environment," said Nelson. "The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) actually went through the factors, including estimated water supply costs and phased in parts of the RPA (Reasonable and Prudent Alternative).
"The judge also found that blocking ESA protections won't cause jeopardy because there aren't 'too many' fish being killed at the pumps - wholly ignoring critical habitat, indirect effects, and the fact that the BO requires all of the components of the RPA to be implemented to avoid jeopardy," said Nelson.
Following the above "reasoning," Wanger issued the TRO blocking the salmon biological opinion limitation on Old and Middle River reverse flows below from minus-2,500 cfs to minus-5,000 cfs. So there are currently no Old and Middle River flow restrictions in place, according to Nelson.
NMFS can come back in to show "more harm" to get the TRO dissolved. Meanwhile, NRDC and EarthJustice are considering their legal options.
"This ruling has enormous implications for the Delta and the fishing industry," said Nelson. "It also has dramatic implications for the SWP, as my colleague Kate explains here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/bl...
The state's position is in conflict with other state laws, including regarding salmon protection, as Nelson explains here: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/bl...
The ruling also has major implications for The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), a plan that many fishing and environmental groups criticize as leading to the construction of a peripheral canal and more dams. "By the way, the judge specifically was comforted by the state's 'non-opposition' to the TRO request," Nelson observed.
Fishing groups are outraged about the court's ruling in favor of Westlands at a time that Central Valley salmon populations are in an unprecedented state of collapse. "Fishing families along one thousand miles of U.S. coastline rely on healthy runs of Sacramento River salmon to make a living; they depend on keeping the current salmon protection plan in place," said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations. "Too much water is being taken from the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary - salmon, fishing families, coastal communities and seafood consumers have paid a heavy price as a result."
"The shutdown of the California recreational and commercial salmon fishing industry for the last two years has already erased $2.8 billion dollars and 23,000 jobs from our state's economy," said Dick Pool, program manager of Water4Fish. "The 2009 adult salmon returns to the Sacramento are almost assured to reach another all-time record low. The past water export practices have been the root cause of this decline. This federal fish restoration plan is the absolute minimum we need to begin a turn around of this decline."
The Pacific Legal Foundation, a law firm that advocates on behalf of agribusiness and other corporate interests, praised the ruling. "Water is desperately needed in these parts of California, but even though the Golden State has received a substantial amount of precipitation over the past month, the salmon biological opinion has prevented water from getting to where it's needed most," the group said on its "Liberty" blog.
"Under today's decision, however, federal agencies will not be able to implement a significant component of the biological opinion for at least the next 14 days, meaning that much more water will be able to be pumped to California water projects," the group stated. "Although the harm from the federal government's 'fish before people' policy has been clear to many, some have contended that environmental restrictions aren't that big of a deal. Today's decision, however, should put to rest the notion that the man-made, regulatory drought is anything but real."
The TRO was issued as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and corporate agribusiness are pushing for the construction of the peripheral canal and the passage of a $11.1 billion water bond.
Delta and fish advocates believe that the water bond, combined with the water policy package passed by the California Legislature in November, creates a clear path to the construction of the peripheral canal and Temperance Flats and Sites reservoirs. The canal will cost $23 billion to $53.8 billion to build at a time when California is in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression - and the budgets for teachers, game wardens, health care for children and state parks have been slashed.
