[env-trinity] Davis Enterprise on "Reps pick fight with Brown over delta tunnels"

[Ara Azhderian]

Thanks Moira,

Interesting.  And there was this OpEd in the San Jose Merc:

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_23363402/bay-delta-conservation-plan-system-tunnels-levee-reconstruction
Bay Delta Conservation Plan: System of tunnels, levee reconstruction best approach to protecting state, Silicon Valley water supply
By Andy Ball
Special to the Mercury News
Posted:   05/31/2013 12:01:00 PM PDT
Updated:   05/31/2013 01:05:53 PM PDT
Our state water system is broken and needs to be fixed.
There is no question that significant investments are needed to address the scale of the challenge we face. The real issue is what to do, particularly about the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and how we pay for it.
The Delta supplies some 23 million Californians with water and helps irrigate millions of acres of farmland. Its ecosystem is in decline, its fisheries are collapsing and we know that an earthquake could dissolve the 150-year-old network of fragile levees, allowing saltwater from San Francisco Bay to contaminate the water supply for much of the state. The issue is important to Silicon Valley, since we rely on the Delta to meet about half our water needs. Our reliance on the Delta is something we have in common with Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley.
Solutions have been mired in political stalemate for too long. Republican and Democratic administrations here and in Washington have been working together for seven years to analyze the merits of various proposed solutions. With a strong federal and state partnership and with strong leadership from Gov. Jerry Brown in place, all we need is a viable plan backed by robust data.
Thankfully, we have one.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan has been developed through extensive scientific and economic research and hundreds of public meetings. It proposes to construct tunnels to channel water under the Delta, while at the same time restoring its ecology.
The scale of the plan is impressive, if only because the problem is so big. Once completed, the tunnels would run under the Delta for some 37 miles, transporting water through a seismically active region. In addition, tens of thousands of acres of tidal marsh and other habitat would be restored. Environmentalists, economists, engineers and a host of agencies have been working to address these coequal goals.
State Resources Secretary John Laird released the remaining administrative draft chapters of the plan last week. Such an ambitious plan is important because piecemeal approaches like simply shoring up the Delta levees just won't work. As the recently completed Delta Risk Management Study concludes, upgrading the levees provides no reduction in the seismic risk of failure and flooding.
The Delta plan also won't guarantee access to more water at the expense of the Delta's health. In fact, the amount of water Silicon Valley and other parts of the state will receive should not be much different from what is available today. However, the proposed project will stabilize the Delta and help guarantee supplies.
With anything this big, there are aspects that deserve close scrutiny and adjustment. Accordingly, the plan incorporates changes that have been made in response to concerns. For example, the size of the tunnels and the number of system intakes has decreased 40 percent to help better support the coequal goals. That is exactly how a deliberative process should work.
As currently outlined, the Delta plan will cost $24.5 billion over 50 years. Water users would be responsible for the larger cost of constructing the tunnels, while the public would help pay to restore the ecosystem. While this is considerable, we know that the cost of doing nothing would be far higher.
The members of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group support the Delta plan process because we believe there is a strong business case for the kind of economic and environmental stability the plan would provide.
Andy Ball is president of Suffolk Construction's west region, a member of the California Water Commission and a member of the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. He wrote this for this newspaper.


From: env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] On Behalf Of Moira Burke
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 3:30 PM
To: env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us
Subject: [env-trinity] Davis Enterprise on "Reps pick fight with Brown over delta tunnels"

Friday, May 31, 2013
YOLO COUNTY NEWS
99 CENTS
Reps pick fight with Brown over delta tunnels
[Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, has sharp words for the authors of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan at a news conference Wednesday morning in front of the Tower Bridge in Sacramento. With him are Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, obscured at left, and Rep. Ami Bera, D-Rancho Cordova, second from right. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo]<http://www.davisenterprise.com/media-post/bay-delta-plan-photos/attachment/baydelta1w/>

By Cory Golden<http://www.davisenterprise.com/author/cgolden/>
>From page A1<http://www.davisenterprise.com/print?edition=2013-05-31&ptitle=A1> | May 31, 2013 | Leave Comment<http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/u-s-congress/reps-pick-fight-with-brown-over-delta-tunnels/#commentBox>


SACRAMENTO - Rep. John Garamendi and four of his House colleagues on Thursday ripped the governor's plan for building twin tunnels to send water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California.

They said that the $24.54 billion project, called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, has ignored regional concerns about the harm it could cause the environment and agriculture.

Under the plan, "the richest lands in this state become an industrial zone of concrete, pumps, reservoirs, tunnels - miles upon miles destroyed so that somebody can steal that water and take it south," said Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove.

"If there be a fight, then let it be this fight - let it be about maintaining the extraordinary agriculture and economic viability of Northern California," he added.

The project calls for two 40-foot-wide tunnels that would run 35 miles from Clarksburg to existing state and federal canals near Tracy. It also would restore habitat on 100 square miles of farmland.

Brown contends that the state must act to protect the supply of water for 23 million Californians and millions of acres of farmland. An earthquake, a 100-year storm or rising sea levels could be disastrous for the state, he has said, with losses of $100 billion and 40,000 jobs.

Richard Stapler, spokesman for the California Natural Resources Agency, said Thursday that state officials have been in contact with congressional representatives.

"We appreciate their concern," he said, "but keep in mind that in the past year we've dramatically reduced the size, from 15,000 to 9,000 cubic feet per second. We continue to focus on ways to make the project more efficient, both from a monetary standpoint and in the impact to the local communities.

"Keep in mind that this would also be one of the largest habitat restoration plans ever put into place in the U.S."

Garamendi said the project "will not happen."

"Let me be very clear: Gov. Jerry Brown, you tried in 1982 to ram a peripheral canal down the throats of Californians and you lost (when voters rejected the Peripheral Canal Act)," Garamendi said. "(If) you continue on this path, you will lose this fight for a very simple reason: You will lead to the destruction of the most important estuarial system on the West Coast of the Western Hemisphere."

Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, noted that 9,000 cfs amounted to three-quarters of the Sacramento River water flowing past the city on Thursday. She called the plan "a disaster for Northern California," which would receive "no benefits, only massive impacts."

"Consider that there will be 10 years of construction, 24 hours a day; hundreds of excavated tunnel muck that will be deposited above ground; loss of county transportation route; impacts to drinking water and flood protection; the enormous toll that it would take on the county's air quality," she said.

Flanked by local elected officials - including Yolo County Supervisors Jim Provenza and Don Saylor of Davis and Mike McGowan of West Sacramento; and Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena; Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton; and Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove - also voiced opposition to the project.

"Under this plan, the water contractors hold all the cards," Matsui said. "The state's plan for the delta not only left us out of the planning process but also the governance process. A project in our own back yard ought to have some representation from the people who have to live with it."

Garamendi repeated his call for a "comprehensive" plan focused on water conservation, recycling and storage, along with a smaller Delta facility - rather than a project that "simply steals water from the north and delivers it to the south."

Southern California water districts and Central Valley corporate farms would pay $14.5 billion for tunnel construction, $1.5 billion for their operation and $1 billion in environmental mitigation costs.

"No way can they afford it," Garamendi said. "The burden is going to be on the taxpayers of California."

The state and federal governments would pay for nearly $8 billion for habitat restoration and environmental measures. That includes a water bond proposal approved by the Legislature in 2010 that was postponed because of the recession.

McNerney said Brown had "hijacked" the planning process, dismissing alternatives. He added that he believes the courts ultimately will rule that the project does not meet the standards of the federal Endangered Species Act or Clean Water Act.

Having spent $200 million over seven years on the plan, the water contractors feel confident the plan will pass muster in the courts, said Stapler, the state spokesman.

- Reach Cory Golden at cgolden at davisenterprise.net<mailto:cgolden at davisenterprise.net> or 530-747-8046. Follow him on Twitter at @cory_golden
[The proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan would impact Yolo County, so local representatives were on hand at Thursday's news conference. From left are Yolo County Supervisors Jim Provenza and Don Saylor, both from Davis, and Mark Pruner of Clarksburg, a representative of North Delta Cares. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo]<http://www.davisenterprise.com/media-post/bay-delta-plan-photos/attachment/baydelta2w/>
The proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan would impact Yolo County, so local representatives were on hand at Thursday's news conference. From left are Yolo County Supervisors Jim Provenza and Don Saylor, both from Davis, and Mark Pruner of Clarksburg, a representative of North Delta Cares. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo
[Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, has sharp words for the authors of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan at a news conference Wednesday morning in front of the Tower Bridge in Sacramento. With him are Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, obscured at left, and Rep. Ami Bera, D-Rancho Cordova, second from right. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo]<http://www.davisenterprise.com/media-post/bay-delta-plan-photos/attachment/baydelta1w/>
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, has sharp words for the authors of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan at a news conference Wednesday morning in front of the Tower Bridge in Sacramento. With him are Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, obscured at left, and Rep. Ami Bera, D-Rancho Cordova, second from right. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo
[Reps. John Garamendi, left, and Mike Thompson look at maps of the proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan plumbing infrastructure. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo]<http://www.davisenterprise.com/media-post/bay-delta-plan-photos/attachment/baydelta3w/>
Reps. John Garamendi, left, and Mike Thompson look at maps of the proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan plumbing infrastructure. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo




[Cory Golden]

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