[env-trinity] Sacramento Bee Editorial- "Prepare for a deluge as Delta begins boiling over"/

[Dan Bacher]

Good Morning

In case you've missed it, here's Dan Morain's editorial on the twin  
tunnels.

Thanks
Dan

http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article20605575.html
Prepare for a deluge as Delta begins boiling over

	
Dan Morain
Editorial page editor, political affairs columnist and editorial writer

Gov. Jerry Brown, speaking at the Association of California Water  
Agencies conference last week, made clear that in his fourth and final  
term, he intends to build twin tunnels through the Sacramento-San  
Joaquin Delta. | Rich Pedroncelli The Associated Press
By Dan Moraindmorain at sacbee.com
JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Why should the plan to build twin tunnels to  
transfer water from the Sacramento River to south of the Delta be put  
to a popular vote? Submit a letter or comment on our Facebook page.

Jerry Brown was sounding a little like an eccentric uncle-governor the  
other day as he muttered about Spaceship Earth, how he got the  
Moonbeam moniker, and, yes, the need to recycle human waste into water.

Wearing a sweater and no tie, the governor was at ease among the 1,000  
or so Association of California Water Agencies conventioneers at the  
Sheraton last week as he gave one of his most direct pitches yet for  
his Delta plan. That’s the one that includes two 40-foot-wide, 35-mile- 
long tunnels, which will cost $17 billion, give or take.

Citing the research and engineering that has gone into the plan, the  
governor, his unscripted tongue in his cheek, sort of, said: “Until  
you put a million hours into it, shut up.” The comment elicited laughs  
and huzzahs from the audience, though his critics used the opportunity  
to issue huffy statements expressing their dismay.

Coming in a week when his appointees on the State Water Resources  
Control Board ordered deep cuts in residential water usage, Brown made  
clear that in his fourth and final term, he intends to get stuff done,  
specifically, the tunnel project. He believes it’s the only reliable  
way of moving water around the Delta to the farms and cities to the  
south.

“You have to build some things. We have got to get water to people,”  
Brown said.

It was no coincidence that a well-financed political group  
calledCalifornians for Water Security unveiled a slick ad and lobbying  
campaign last week. Californians for Water Security includes organized  
labor, the building trades, business groups including the California  
Chamber of Commerce, and the state’s largest farming interests.

“We must act urgently to protect the water supply for California’s  
homes, farms and businesses, while restoring the environment of the  
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,” the group said in a letter signed by  
representatives of nearly 50 unions, business groups and water agencies.

Its spokespeople won’t say how much is being spent in the first ad  
buy. “We’re certainly not done yet,” Democratic consultant Robin  
Swanson said. Assume the well is deep. They’ll need it.

Wealthy Stockton-area farmer Dean Cortopassi, who like Brown is a  
septuagenarian, and his wife, Joan, have spent $2 million to qualify  
an initiative for the 2016 ballot that would require a statewide vote  
on any state projects costing $2 billion or more that rely on revenue  
bonds. Read: Delta tunnels and high-speed rail.

“This measure puts the brakes on our state’s public debt crisis by  
giving the voters a say in all major state bond debt proposals that  
must be repaid through specific revenue streams or charges imposed  
directly on Californians like taxes, fees, rates, tolls or rents,”  
says the initiative, which was written by attorneys at the political  
law firm Nielsen Merksamer.

To run the campaign, Cortopassi has retained Democratic consultant  
Andrew Acosta and Meridian Pacific, a Republican consulting firm whose  
founder, Matt Rexroad, is a Yolo County supervisor.

“It doesn’t stop the tunnels,” said Meridian Pacific partner Tom Ross.  
“It would require a vote on projects of $2 billion or more. It  
requires a public discussion on the tunnels. We would have a  
discussion on high-speed rail.”

Although Cortopassi will have allies, the vast majority of the power  
and money will be on the other side. The anti-tunnel group, Restore  
the Delta, released emails showing that Paramount Farms, one of the  
largest land holders and growers in the state, is a driving force  
behind Californians for Water Security.

As he often does, Brown in his speech to the water association looked  
to history. Gov. Goodwin Knight was working on a trans-Delta  
conveyance back in the 1950s. Brown’s father did the same in 1960s.  
Brown tried too when he was governor 40 years ago.

“If these problems aren’t handled, they get worse and don’t go away,”  
Brown said last week.

Brown has surrounded himself with lifelong environmentalists. Like  
Brown, the governor’s aides would never think to drive the Delta to  
ruin or cause the extinction of species so cattle ranchers, almond  
growers and land speculators could make more money.

But there’s also an incongruity between Brown’s advocacy of the  
tunnels and his governing philosophy. He talks about subsidiarity, the  
notion that issues and problems ought to be handled locally if at all  
possible. If he were to apply that to water, local water districts  
would focus more on recycling, conservation and underground storage.

He advocates alternatives to a centralized system of energy delivery  
and wants to wean commuters off gasoline-powered cars. The state uses  
huge amounts of energy to move water over the Tehachapi Mountains.

He’s certain that climate change is disrupting weather patterns. Why,  
then, depend on massive new tunnels to move what could be an uncertain  
supply of water?

He talks about frugality and the need to pay off California’s  
accumulated debt, but remains intent on building the $17 billion  
tunnels to move water around the Delta.


Perhaps the tunnels are the best solution for the Delta and  
California’s 39 million residents. I haven’t spent a million hours  
studying the situation. But in the coming months, as our lawns turn  
brown, our showers get shorter and our water bills rise, we all will  
become steeped in the Delta, and likely be called upon to vote on its  
future.

Follow Dan Morain on Twitter @danielmorain.



2. Report on North Coast film night






800_image2.jpg
original image ( 2448x3264)


Photo of people listening to Chief Caleen Sisk's presentation in  
Arcata on May 8 by Allie Hostler.

Tribal water activists organize to stop the California Water Heist

North Coast event highlights drought related threats to rivers

by Dan Bacher

Tribal water activists presented short films about threats to Northern  
California’s rivers from Governor Jerry Brown’s drought plans at  
Arcata’s D Street Community Center on the evening of Friday, May 8.

The films included the Yurok Youth Fish Kill video, Sovereigns Water  
and the Shasta Dam raise video, according to event organizer Regina  
Chichizola.

The speakers explained to a crowd of 40 people that Northwestern  
California water from the Trinity River and Shasta reservoirs are  
shipped hundreds of miles to benefit California’s agriculture  
industry, which continues to use 80 percent of California’s water on  
water intensive crops during the record drought.

“Even though average Californians are being asked to cut their water  
use, corporate agriculture interests are expanding their acreage in  
the driest areas of California,” said Chichizola, "and they are  
planning to destroy Northern California’s rivers and flood sacred  
sites to keep up their unsustainable water.”

Chichizola noted that almond acreage alone has gone up over 150,000  
acres since the drought began, yet Governor Jerry Brown on May 6 told  
environmentalists to "Shut Up" in response to criticism over his twin  
tunnel plans. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/05/06/18771989.php)

The film night focused on impacts to Northern California’s rivers from  
water diversions and how politicians and corporate agribusiness  
interests are using the drought to push through new harmful water  
policy and projects, such as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP),  
the Shasta dam raise, and drought legislation, while allowing the  
state’s aquifers to be drained.

Native American speakers highlighted how the proposed Shasta dam  
raise, which threatens over 40 actively used sacred sites of the  
Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and how the continued water exports to the  
Central Valley threaten the Trinity and Klamath River salmon and  
Tribes. They also shared efforts by Tribal activists and other river  
and salmon activists to stop what they called the "biggest planned  
water heist in decades."

The speakers included Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the  
Winnemem Wintu Tribe; Jene McCovey, Yurok Tribe Member; Allie Hostler,  
Hoopa Valley Tribe Member; Dania Rose Colegrove, Hoopa Valley Tribe  
Member; and Will Doolittle, Filmmaker.

Chief Caleen Sisk said the water bond, peripheral tunnels, Shasta Dam  
raise and other water projects now being planned by the state and  
federal governments are in in reality "one Big Project" that will  
destroy salmon, rivers and groundwater supplies.

“It does not make sense that people are separating the water puzzle  
into individual pieces, such as: the raising of Shasta Dam,  
Proposition 1, the Delta tunnels, BDCP, Sites Reservoir, Temperance  
Flat, CALFED, Delta Vision, BDCP, OCAP, the Bay Delta, Trinity/Klamath  
Rivers, the Sacramento River, the San Joaquin River, and water  
rights," said Chief Sisk. "It is all one BIG Project."

She emphasized, "These are not separate projects; they are all the  
same thing that the State is asking us to fund - California water  
being manipulated for the enrichment of some and the devastation of  
cultures, environments, and species all in the name of higher profits.”

On May 6, Governor Brown told the crowd at the Association of  
California Water Agencies (ACWA) Conference, “I asked my water man  
sitting over there how many man and woman hours have gone into the  
Delta Project? Would you tell them? One million!"

"Until you've put a million hours into it, Shut Up!" said Brown,  
referring to critics of his tunnels and Delta policies.

In response, Chief Sisk said, "A million hours is not enough obviously  
to know what's good for the Delta because those million hours must not  
have included the path to extinction of the Delta smelt and salmon.  
These fish are so necesssary to the Delta - there won't be a Delta  
without the smelt and salmon. The smelt and salmon have been here for  
over six thousand years.

"If people want to survive, they can't trust the Governor and staff,  
who have only spent a million hours on this project," Chief Sisk said.  
"The Delta has been dying since they've been doing what they've been  
doing - and they don't even know that it's dying."

For more information about this and future events, call Regina  
Chichizola: (541) 951-0126
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/05/09/18772117.php
http://www.calitics.com/diary/15730/tribal-water-activists-organize-to-stop-the-california-water-heist
http://www.fishsniffer.com/blogs/details/north-coast-organizes-to-fight-drought-related-threats-to-rivers/


Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/dan-morain/article20605575.html#storylink 
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