[env-trinity] SAC New & Review Opinions: "Water Grab, Part II -- The Fix is In on the Delta Water Plan"

[Mark Dowdle - TCRCD]

N&R 	This article was printed from the Opinions
section of the /Sacramento News & Review/, originally published December 
1, 2011.
This article may be read online at:
	http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=4545794
	Copyright ©2011 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
	Printed on 2011-12-01.



  Water grab, part II


    The fix is in on the Delta Water Plan


By Burt Wilson 
<http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/archive?author=oid%3A939437>
Burt Wilson a member of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan's Conveyance 
Committee and the Forum Sub-Committee of the 2013 State Water Plan

*"One state, one water!"*

I heard a Department of Water Resources employee blurt that out at a 
recent Delta Water Plan hearing. It's the latest DWR propaganda to get 
us to believe that Northern California water also belongs to Southern 
California. It has about as much credibility as compassionate conservatism.

Still, it ranks second to the so-called "co-equal goals" of the Delta 
Water Plan. They're described in the California Water Code as 1. 
"providing a more reliable water supply for the state of California," 
and 2. "protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem."

In my view, these dual goals actually constitute a logical fallacy---a 
statement that may appear logical on the surface but is contradictory in 
fact. Ask any teacher of rhetoric; the dual goals are not co-equal, but 
mutually exclusive because they falsely propose that the Delta ecosystem 
can be saved by taking even more water from it!

Hey! The Delta ecosystem was ruined years ago by huge water diversions 
to the south.

Allow me to also decode these dual goals for you: 1. a "more reliable 
water supply for the state of California" means sending more Delta water 
south and, 2. "enhancing the Delta ecosystem" means they need a "cover 
story" to make their water grab appear to be an environmental benefit to 
the Delta.

You ask, "How can the Delta Stewardship Council get away with proposing 
billions of dollars be spent under the aegis of such spurious goals?" 
The answer lies with the state Legislature. This is the body that wrote 
the co-equal goals into state law. So no matter how dubious and 
deceptive the Delta Water Plan may be, the DSC will be able to declare 
"We're only doing what is mandated to fulfill the law," as they continue 
to plot the ruination of the Delta.

How will the plan be financed? The latest hair-brained scheme to come 
out of the DSC is that instead of raising taxes they will "make the 
beneficiaries pay." This sounds good until you figure out that it means 
raising your water rates with impunity. In fact, this is already 
happening around the state.

In my 46 years of political and consumer activism (I worked on the 
campaign against the Peripheral Canal in 1982, which we won by a 
two-thirds vote statewide), I have never seen a state water project 
where the "fix" has been more "in" on so many cross-party levels. The 
fact that everything possible is being done to keep the Delta Water Plan 
from being voted upon by California citizens is indicative that 
something nefarious is going on.

In past writings I have said that the California Business Roundtable and 
the construction industries in the southland need water to develop the 
high desert areas east of Los Angeles. Well, on October 27, the Obama 
administration unveiled its plans for solar-energy development in desert 
lands in the western United States. Thus "solar energy zones"---many in 
the Mojave Desert---will eventually open land for development. But they 
can't build if they can't certify there is enough water to sustain 
development. Can you guess where they're expecting the new water to come 
from?

Do you think the feds are so dumb they will invest billions in solar 
energy in the desert before the water for development is secure? Or do 
you think someone in government knows something we don't and isn't 
telling us?


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