[env-trinity] Action Alert: Sign Online Petition to Stop Give Away of Water to Westlands!

[Dan Bacher]

I urge everybody to sign this petition protesting the give away of  
water to Westlands Water District, the Darth Vader of California  
water politics.

Dan

PLEASE sign on to the online petition (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/ 
1/no-more-secret-deals) to California Legislators urging them to  
reject the proposal to give away California water resources.

As you all may already know, the Bureau of Reclamation is negotiating  
a deal with Westlands & other San Luis Unit Contractors for  
settlement of Westlands’ drainage lawsuit. Rather than deal with the  
drainage problem directly, the proposed settlement provides Westlands  
and other San Luis Unit Contractors with 60 year contracts for Delta  
water-complete with special provisions. Unfortunately, the details of  
these negotiations are not public, but this is what we have heard is  
currently in the proposal:

Assurance that Westlands will receive a certain amount of water even  
in dry years (other settlement agreements assure 75% of deliveries:  
for Westlands, that would be about 800,000 acre feet)
In addition to the above delivery assurance, the contract would  
guarantee that CVP contractors south of the Delta will not be cutback  
for any reason other than D-1641 or the Biopsy- that means cutbacks  
for CESA, CEQA, NEPA, refuge water, Trinity needs, climate change,  
and other public interests must be absorbed- or paid for by the  
public, other water users and the environment.
San Luis Unit Contractors would no longer have to comply with the  
acreage limitations of Reclamation Law – no more 960 acre limit, so  
much for the small family farm
San Luis Unit Contractors would be forgiven its $400 million+ debt  
for construction of the CVP
San Luis Unit Contractors would no longer have to pay for O & M cost  
of CVP facilities above the Delta - that means taxpayers get the bill

The Bureau of Reclamation is reportedly preparing a draft contract  
and legislation based on this proposal. It is important to let CA  
legislators know that if implemented, this proposal would be a  
disaster for California given the already serious ecosystem and water  
supply reliability problems faced in the Delta. California needs more  
flexibility, not a binding contract allocating millions of acre feet  
of water for the next 60 years to a small, influential group.

You can sign onto the online petition here: http:// 
www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-more-secret-deals. Our goal is to have  
5,000 signatures on our online petition by the end of next week.  
Please sign on, and send this link to anyone else interested in  
protecting California’s water.

Please contact me or Lisa Coffman (lisa at c-win.org) with any question  
about the petition or the proposal.

Mindy


Mindy McIntyre
Water Program Manager
Planning & Conservation League/PCLF
1107 9th Street Suite 360
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 313-4518 (office)
(916) 541-8825 (mobile)
(916) 448-1789 (fax)
mmcintyre at pcl.org
www.pcl.org
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