[env-trinity] Fwd: Delta Tunnels news: Fed Omnibus Bill Funds Tunnels Plan

[Tom Stokely]

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> From: Restore the Delta, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla <barbara at restorethedelta.org>
> Date: December 16, 2015 at 12:25:46 PM PST
> To: tgstoked at gmail.com <tgstoked at gmail.com>
> Subject: Delta Tunnels news: Fed Omnibus Bill Funds Tunnels Plan
> Reply-To: Restore the Delta, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla <barbara at restorethedelta.org>
> 
> 
> For immediate release
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> December 16, 2015
>  
> Contact:
> Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta, 209-479-2053
>  
> DELTA TUNNELS
> Federal Omnibus Spending Bill Includes More U.S. Taxpayer Funding
> for Massive Water Export Tunnels  
> Water users, not U.S. Taxpayers, were supposed to fund the project
> 
> STOCKTON, Calif. – Deep within the 2009 page Omnibus Spending Bill up for a vote in Congress on Friday, is a provision called the CALIFORNIA BAY-DELTA RESTORATION starting on page 401 and referenced again on page 409 that would once again, allow some $37 million in federal tax dollars to help plan and build massive export tunnels that would take essential freshwater and export it to irrigators south of the Delta. Funding for the tunnels export project was to be paid for by water users, (i.e. the water districts that support industrial-scale crops for foreign export and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.)
>  
> More than $257M spent so far on the delta water export tunnels, more than $73M has been funded by the federal taxpayers with the most recent federal grant of $17M received under false presences—for a habitat conservation plan that was dropped months before and now is a tunnels only project. 
> CA Obtains Fed Fish and Wildlife Funds for Delta Tunnels Under False Pretenses 
>  
> “Archaic, outdated projects that will not serve ratepayers and taxpayers shrouded in 'restoration' language is meant to deceive, not to fund real solutions,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta. "The President and Congress need to invest in sustainable, strategic and cost effective water strategies to effectively deal with the drought instead of continuing to invest in outdated projects that produce little water and lubricate water exports to a few rich industrial irrigators on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley.”
>  
> These riders that will have the U.S. taxpayers foot the bill to fund the water export tunnels, contained deep within federal omnibus spending bills flaunt California state law Water Code Section 85089 which requires beneficiaries to pay for the project, not taxpayers.
>  
> Among the beneficiaries of this taxpayer-funded boondoggle are Stewart and Lynda Resnick.
> “The Resnicks are already looking to secure additional water sources. The couple could score big if a $15 billion water tunnels export project championed by Governor Jerry Brown is officially approved in the next few years.”
> Amid Drought, Stewart And Lynda Resnick Are Richer Than Ever  Forbes November 23, 2015
>  
> Opponents point out that the Delta Tunnels would grab more than 1/2 of the flow of the Sacramento River watershed, one of the last remaining sources of freshwater essential to the health of Delta estuary. Much of the freshwater is taken for export by industrial irrigators and delivered south to the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. About 70 percent of Delta estuary water is exported to these irrigating giants, some of the largest in the Nation where the water is, used to grow water intensive almonds and pistachios on unsustainable desert soils for lucrative overseas exports. 
> 
> Take action on federal drought bill HR 2898.
> Last update: 12/14/15.
> 
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