[env-trinity] Mercury News editorial: Delta's health should take priority over pumping

[Kier Associates]

I think the Mercury-News is downright heroic, editorializing on behalf of
protecting the SF Bay-Delta estuary when you consider that their readership
is served by the Santa Clara Valley Water District, a Delta water-drawing,
Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program (DHCCP is the consortium
of water districts promoting construction of the Twin Delta Chunnels)
dues-paying ally (at least in the DHCCP sense) of Westlands and Met. 

 

Let's hear it for the Merc-News!

 

Bill Kier

From: env-trinity [mailto:env-trinity-bounces at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us] On
Behalf Of Tom Stokely
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 9:59 AM
To: Env-trinity
Subject: [env-trinity] Mercury News editorial: Delta's health should take
priority over pumping

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_27590905/mercury-news-editorial-deltas
-health-should-take-priority 


Mercury News editorial: Delta's health should take priority over pumping


Mercury News Editorial

POSTED:   02/24/2015 02:46:10 PM PST
<http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_27590905/mercury-news-editorial-delta
s-health-should-take-priority#disqus_thread> 5 COMMENTS| UPDATED:   ABOUT 18
HOURS AGO

California needs to get serious about protecting the health of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, one of Silicon Valley's most valuable
water sources. The short-term needs of Central Valley farmers are
significant. But they pale in comparison with preserving the long-term water
quality of the estuary that provides water for two-thirds of the state's
residents.

California took a significant risk when it waived some environmental
protections last year for the Delta in order to pump additional water south
to save acres of almond orchards. The results were not pretty. Tom Howard,
the executive director of the State Water Resources Control Board, admitted
last week that he had erred in calculating how damaging the impact would be.

The Delta smelt count dropped to the lowest level in recorded history. The
impact on salmon was equally horrendous. The state reported that 95 percent
of the juvenile Chinook salmon that spawned in the upper Sacramento River
died because of the poor water conditions. Rising water temperatures and
lower river levels also resulted in the growth of invasive plants that
damage water quality.

California can't let this degradation of the largest estuary west of the
Mississippi continue. The state will determine in March how much water can
be pumped from the Delta in the months ahead. Gov. Jerry Brown needs to
demonstrate that he has his priorities straight when it comes to the Delta's
delicate ecosystem.

Advertisement

 

Big Ag critics contend that limiting pumping of additional water from the
Delta constitutes putting fish before people. It's a misleading argument.
The Delta smelt is merely the canary in the coal mine when it comes to
preserving the estuary's health. Further degradation to the Delta will
ultimately threaten the quality of the drinking water for Northern
California residents.

Central Valley farmers, who suck up 80 percent of the water used in
California, have proved that they have an unquenchable thirst for additional
water to irrigate their crops. They've already sucked dry their own aquifers
and irresponsibly planted thousands of acres of almond orchards without
sufficient guarantees that water would be available during California's
inevitable drought years.

The public policy makers who will make the crucial decision on Delta pumping
in March are the same ones who are also asking state residents to trust them
to the care of the Delta with their plan to build two massive $25 billion
tunnels to pump even more water south from the Delta.

California's drought shows no signs of abating as the final weeks of the
rainy season approaches. 

Central Valley farmers need to come up with an alternate plan that does not
do further damage to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

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