[env-trinity] Associated Press October 14

[Byron]

More implications of CalFed and other initiatives (OCAP, SDIP, Napa, and
Contract Renewals) to ship water south.  This DOES relate to the Trinity
River.

 

 

DELTA

State risks lawsuits, infighting over Delta, environmentalists warn

Associated Press - 10/14/04

By Don Thompson, staff writer

SACRAMENTO - California is at risk of returning to the days when lawsuits
and constant infighting stalled water policy and efforts to restore the
fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, 21 environmental groups warned
Wednesday. 

Congress just last week sent President Bush a bill authorizing the
California Federal Bay-Delta Program, better known as CalFed, after a decade
of dispute. 

But the environmental groups are upset state and federal water agencies are
proceeding unilaterally with approving dozens of water contracts that would
send more water flowing from Northern California through the Delta to Los
Angeles and San Diego. 

The agreement was hammered out in a series of closed-door sessions in Napa
in July 2003, while the environmental groups said it should have been
negotiated in public through CalFed. 

"The back room deals have turned the CalFed process into a sham," said Barry
Nelson of the National Resources Defense Council. "The program's falling
apart." 

His was one of the 21 groups appealing to the authority at its meeting
Wednesday to pressure the federal Bureau of Reclamation and state Department
of Water Resources to start over and work through CalFed. 

The alternative is a return to the pre-CalFed years marked by protracted
battles between farmers, fishermen, environmentalists and residential users
over scarce water, the critics said. 

"This is the reason CalFed was created, was to prevent this kind of dumb
mistake from happening," Nelson said. 

The environmental groups, which include commercial and sport fishermen,
contend the agreements would harm Northern California rivers and wildlife,
along with water quality and quantity in the Delta. Water regulators say
that's not the case. 

"We understand their concerns, many of which apply to decisions that have
yet to be made," responded CalFed spokesman Keith Coolidge. The public - and
the interest groups - will have plenty of opportunity to weigh in, he said. 

"It would be unfortunate if we could not reach a collaborative agreement and
would revert to lawsuits," Coolidge said. "We're trying not to get there."  

 
<http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/pen
insula/9911167.htm?1c>
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/peni
nsula/9911167.htm?1c

 

 

Byron Leydecker

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

Consultant, California Trout, Inc.

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 ph

415 519 4810 ce

415 383 9562 fx

bwl3 at comcast.net

 <mailto:bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org> bleydecker at stanfordalumni.org
(secondary)

http://www.fotr.org

http://www.caltrout.org

 

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