[env-trinity] Links on House Speaker touts drought emergency bill at Bakersfield event

[Tom Stokely]

Restore the Delta's statement is at the bottom of these links and and can be found at http://www.restorethedelta.org/tunnels-critics-blast-congressional-move-to-suspend-endangered-species-act-to-favor-westlands-kern-mega-growers-during-drought/ 


Boehner backs GOP bill to send water from delta to farms
Carolyn Lochhead, San Francisco Chronicle
Amid the worst drought in California's recorded history, House Speaker John Boehner stood in a bare dirt field near Bakersfield to declare his support for taking more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and sending it to the parched farms of the Central Valley.

Congressional bill would give water for fish to farmers
Associated Press
House Speaker John Boehner visited a dusty California field on Wednesday, joining Central Valley Republicans to announce an emergency drought-relief bill to help farmers through what is certain to be a devastating year.
 
California Congressmen Propose Drought Relief Legislation
Amy Quinton, Capital Public Radio
After declaring a drought last week, California Governor Jerry Brown only briefly mentioned the drought during his state of the state speech. But several Central Valley Congressmen are calling for more action through federal legislation.
 
Congressmen push to ship more Delta water
Alex Breitler, Stockton Record
In a sign of increasing political pressure to address California's drought, south San Joaquin Valley congressmen on Wednesday said they will introduce legislation to ship more water out of the Delta and temporarily block plans to restore the San Joaquin River.
 
House Speaker touts drought emergency bill at Bakersfield event
John Ellis, Fresno Bee
House Speaker John Boehner and three San Joaquin Valley Republican congressmen on Wednesday called on their Senate colleagues to approve emergency drought legislation they say would bring more water to the region.
 Boehner supports California drought plan that puts people before fish
Bartholomew Sullivan, Ventura County Star
Temporarily suspending efforts to restore the flow of the San Joaquin River to mitigate the effects of the ongoing drought would place people before fish or would be environmentally harmful while producing little water for growers, the two sides in the water war said Wednesday.

http://www.capitalpress.com/article/20140122/ARTICLE/140129967/1006?utm_source=Capital+Press+Newsletters&utm_campaign=29d98c4739-California_Weekly_Update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4b7e61b049-29d98c4739-69628337

http://www.restorethedelta.org/tunnels-critics-blast-congressional-move-to-suspend-endangered-species-act-to-favor-westlands-kern-mega-growers-during-drought/ 

Tunnels critics blast Congressional move to suspend Endangered Species Act to favor Westlands, Kern mega-growers during drought
by STINA on JANUARY 22, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; steve at hopcraft.com; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 barbara at restorethedelta.org; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta
Tunnels critics blast Congressional move to suspend Endangered Species Act to favor Westlands, Kern mega-growers during drought
The move to push forward legislation by Congressman Devin Nunes, Congressman Kevin McCarthy, and Congressman David Valadao, with the support of House Speaker John Boehner, to allow the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps to operate “as long as water is available” in a drought is nothing more than a blatant, short-sighted water grab, fueled by years of political contributions from huge growers in the Westlands Water District and the Kern County Water Agency to these Central Valley Congressional Representatives.
Furthermore, we find it ironic that these Congressional representatives, who claim to be in favor of reduced Federal government intervention into state affairs, are looking for a way to bypass State and Federal water quality and quantity regulations, which will be violated if pumping restrictions are removed in the Delta. They are playing the anti-regulation card to dictate economic winners and losers among California’s farm and fishing communities.
By declaring a drought emergency, Governor Brown has set up opponents of the Endangered Species Act to be able to strip away water quality protections for Bay-Delta fisheries, Delta family farms, and Delta urban communities. The Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Water Resources allowed the overpumping of the Delta by 800,000 acre feet last year in order to appease the leaders of the Westlands Water District and the Kern County Water Agency. The mega-growers in those two water districts have used more exported water combined than the Metropolitan Water District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District over the last ten years. While water conservation is of the upmost importance for California, which experiences drought a third of the time, Metropolitan Water District officials have made recent statements that they have enough water in storage for the next three years. Taking more water away from the Delta and California’s rivers during a
 drought, one made worse by State and Federal water resource mismanagement, proves that even more of the same would happen if Governor Brown’s plan to build the peripheral tunnels comes to pass.
What does it say that Governor Brown and Speaker Boehner are on the same side of championing the decimation of the Bay-Delta estuary, all to appease a few hundred growers who contribute less than .3% to the State’s economy? It indicates to the people on the ground in the Delta that our political leaders are poised to squander the most important and largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas for an unsustainable future that will further enrich a few big political contributors to Central Valley Congressional races, and recent California ballot initiatives.
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