[env-trinity] Redding.com: Delta conservation plan meeting Thursday in Redding

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.redding.com/news/2014/jan/21/delta-conservation-plan-meeting-thursday-in/ 

Delta conservation plan meeting Thursday in Redding
By Damon Arthur
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
State officials will be in Redding Thursday to provide information and take public comment on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
The controversial plan attempts to improve the health of the delta where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet and improve the way water is moved out of the delta.
The meeting is from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Red Lion Hotel in Redding.
The state is taking public comment on environmental reports assessing the effects of the proposed plan and wants to provide information about it at the meeting, said Nancy Vogel, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Water Resources.
“The point of all this is so folks can share with us the most informed comments possible,” Vogel said.
The meeting is one of a dozen throughout the state and is set up in an open house format. People who wrote the plan and the environmental documents will be at the meeting to answer questions.
There will be informational exhibits set up, but there will be no formal presentations or panel to receive public comments. The state is accepting written public comment on the plan until April 14.
Visitors also can write out comments and submit them at the meeting. There will also be a court reporter at the meeting to record comments, Vogel said.
The plan and all of the environmental reports total about 33,000 pages, and the state estimates it will cost about $25 billion to implement.
At the heart of the plan is a proposal to build two tunnels to divert water around the delta to deliver water to San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California cities.
Tom Stokely, a water policy analyst for the California Water Impact Network, said his organization has made it a top priority to defeat the plan because it lays the groundwork to move more Northern California to the south.
“It’s a conveyance system to move water south of the delta,” he said. The cost of the plan is likely to be more than $70 billion, he said.
Vogel said the tunnels would move the location where water is pumped out of the delta from a location in the south delta to a point closer to Sacramento. The move is intended to improve the survival rate of Chinook salmon migrating to the ocean.
Under the plan, the amount of water diverted from the delta would not vary more than 5 percent more or less from the 20-year average, Vogel said.
About the Bay Delta Conservation Plan
An informational open house on the plan is from 3 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Red Lion Hotel, 1830 Hilltop Drive in Redding.
To read the Bay Delta Conservation Plan online, go to http://bit.ly/1aHKVcJ
To read the environmental reports on the plan online, go to http://bit.ly/1fXHDGD
Comments on the plan and environmental reports may be emailed to BDCP.Comments at noaa.gov
Comments also may be submitted by mail to BDCP Comments, Ryan Wulff, NMFS, 650 Capitol Mall, Suite 5-100, Sacramento, CA 95814
The documents also are available at the Redding Library, 1100 Parkview Ave.; Trinity County Library, 351 Main St. in Weaverville; Tehama County Library, 645 Madison St. in Red Bluff; and in Siskiyou County at the Yreka Branch Library, 719 4th St.
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