[env-trinity] Congressman George Miller's OpEd SF Chron 2 26 10

[Byron Leydecker]

Picture (Device Independent Bitmap)

Feinstein amendment is a water grab

George Miller

Friday, February 26, 2010

Beware of the latest attempt at an old-fashioned water grab - the last gasp
of an outdated approach to California's complex water problems.

Faced with a changing climate and an increasing number of competing demands
on our water, most Californians now recognize that we cannot unilaterally
change allocations of our scarce freshwater resources for one group or
another without knowing first what the science says about the effects on the
rest of the state. But the Westlands Water District of Fresno is old school.
It crafted a backroom plan with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco, and
Rep. Jim Costa, D-Hanford (Kings County), and Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Atwater
(Merced County), to accelerate water withdrawals from the Sacramento River
and San Francisco Bay-Delta ecosystem to guarantee themselves an increased
water supply.

Its plan is overreaching, unjustified and unfair. It could wipe out the
remaining Sacramento River salmon runs, permanently eliminating the Pacific
Coast fishing industry jobs that were already under assault from drought and
the mismanagement of our river systems during the Bush administration. 

Its plan would harm Northern California water supplies and water rights. And
it would undercut and paralyze recent significant statewide collaborative
water efforts.

Members of Congress from across California, Oregon and Washington oppose
this plan, as do California state legislators and county supervisors.
Newspapers from Los Angeles to Sacramento to Oregon oppose it.

What we all understand is that times have changed. There has been a gradual
but important shift toward the understanding that without a healthier
bay-delta system, neither fisheries, cities nor farmers will ever see their
water-supply situation improve.

That's why the Governor's Delta Vision Task Force argued that state policy
must restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta ecosystem and create a
more reliable water supply for California.

That's why state lawmakers wrote a package of water bills last year, and
that's why water agencies, environmental groups and others have worked
together on a comprehensive Bay-Delta Conservation Plan. That's why I have
pushed through bills in Congress for Republicans and Democrats across our
state to establish innovative water-recycling programs that free up
freshwater and help industry, agriculture and municipalities.

That's also why I convened a series of meetings last summer with Sen.
Feinstein and Reps. Costa and Cardoza, the Obama administration and others
to work together to accomplish our shared goals of an improved Bay-Delta
estuary and an improved California economy. Out of those meetings, we
collaborated on several efforts, including getting $100 million into the
House jobs bill in December to fund the Obama administration's action plan
for California water needs, including significant ecosystem restoration,
drought relief, water quality improvements, and enhancements to the
federal-state partnership. 

It is regrettable that some of the people who had joined in this
collaborative, fresh thinking have now turned against the state's better
interests. The Westlands Water District plan is a major step backward. And
so is the fact that Westlands resigned this month from the Association of
California Water Agencies to focus instead on lawsuits to get what they
want.

We know that fixing the bay-delta estuary's problems will not be easy. The
heart of our state's water system suffers from many ailments and requires a
wide-ranging cure. One approach that will not fly, however, is the outdated
idea of unilaterally changing water policy without the basis of sound
scientific analysis.

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, is the former chairman of the House Natural
Resources Committee.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/26/EDVM1C78C3.DTL

 

 

Byron Leydecker, JcT

Chair, Friends of Trinity River

PO Box 2327

Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327

415 383 4810 land/fax (call first to fax)

415 519 4810 mobile

 <mailto:bwl3 at comcast.net> bwl3 at comcast.net

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

 <http://fotr.org/> http://www.fotr.org 

 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20100226/a3b6e5da/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 4801 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://www2.dcn.org/pipermail/env-trinity/attachments/20100226/a3b6e5da/attachment.png>