[env-trinity] Governor Brown’s budget DOES include $3.6 million for Delta Tunnels

[Dan Bacher]

  http://fishsniffer.com/index.php/2016/01/08/governor-browns-budget-does-include-3-6-million-for-delta-tunnels/



Governor Brown’s budget DOES include $3.6 million for Delta Tunnels
  by Dan Bacher |  posted in: Spotlight |  0
In a media teleconference on January 7, three Brown administration  
officials claimed that no money in the $122.6 billion General Fund  
budget for 2016-17 unveiled by Governor Jerry Brown would be used to  
implement the Delta Tunnels under the “California Water Fix.”

In response to a reporter’s question about whether any budget money  
would be used for the Delta Tunnels, John Laird, California Natural  
Resources Secretary said, “California Eco Restore has been separated  
from the California Water Fix,” the conveyance plan.

Likewise, Mark Cowin, Director of the California Department of Water  
Resources (DWR), affirmed, “There’s no money in the budget to advance  
the study of the California Water Fix or tunnels as you call it. Those  
activities are funded entirely by the state and federal water project  
contractors that benefit from the project.”

Chuck Bonham, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)  
Director, noted that money allocated from the state’s cap-and-trade  
(carbon trading) program would be used restore wetlands through the  
California Eco Restore program. “This program has nothing to do with  
the proposal to modernize conveyance infrastructure,” said Bonham.

However, Restore the Delta (RTD) disagreed strongly with  
administration officials’ contentions that no budget money would be  
used to fund the controversial conveyance project, pointing out the  
budget released today does include $3.6 million for the Delta Tunnels  
(California Water Fix).

“The money would come out of the General Fund to the Delta Stewardship  
Council and is intended to incorporate the Delta Water Tunnels  
conveyance project into the Delta Plan,” said Barbara Barrigan- 
Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD)

“The Delta Plan was originally written for incorporation of the Bay  
Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) a plan that failed to meet Federal  
guidelines for water quality and fishery standards. The new plan for  
the Delta Tunnels (WaterFix) has already received a failing grade from  
the Federal EPA. The separated out and reduced conservation effort is  
now called ‘EcoRestore,’” she said.

She said the language at issue is located on page 107 in the budget  
summary pdf:

“Update of the Delta Plan—An increase of $3.6 million General Fund for  
the Delta Stewardship Council to implement the Delta Science Plan and  
incorporate the WaterFix Delta conveyance project into the Delta  
Plan.” (http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/FullBudgetSummary.pdf)

Laird, Cowin and Bonham apparently failed to read this language —  
which very clearly states that the $3.6 million will be used  
“incorporate the WaterFix Delta conveyance project into the Delta Plan.”

Barrigan-Parrilla emphasized that the “WaterFix” has not received any  
of the state or federal permits required to begin construction.

“The Governor is rushing the permitting process at the California  
State Water Resources Control Board despite the fact that the best  
available science needed to evaluate these permits is now more than 20  
years old. The Bay-Delta Water Quality control plan is now 7535 days  
overdue,” she stated.

Barrigan-Parrilla reminded Californians that the Governor promised  
Californians that no money from Proposition 1, the Governor’s  
controversial water bond passed in November 2014, would be used for  
the tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

“Now the Governor’s budget is calling for $3.6 million for the Delta  
Stewardship Council to include the tunnels into the Delta Plan from  
these same bond funds that have been put into the General Fund. He has  
broken his promise to taxpayers,” she said.

It’s easy to see why the Governor broke his promise to the taxpayers  
when you consider the $21.8 million that Big Money interests,  
including corporate agribusiness groups, billionaires, timber barons,  
Big Oil, the tobacco industry, and the California Chamber of Commerce,  
dumped into the Proposition 1 campaign. There is no doubt that these  
wealthy corporate interests are expecting a big return for their  
“investment,” including the construction of the tunnels, in  
California’s play-to-pay politic system. For more information, read my  
article on the East Bay Express website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/04/29/why-governor-brown-broke-his-prop-1-promise-big-money-interests-dumped-218-million-into-the-prop-1-campaign

“Governor Brown wants to waste more taxpayer money to prop up a hugely  
controversial project that was supposed to be paid for by the water  
exporters,” she said. “It’s time for the madness to end. Let’s  
redirect available funding to projects that will make California water  
more resilient to climate change and extended droughts.”

“Water recycling, urban water conservation, groundwater recharging,  
and storm water capture are all projects that are desperately needed,  
as we see by the massive flooding in Southern California today. The  
tunnels fail to address those opportunities. The Delta Tunnels are a  
20th Century fix to a 21st Century problem,” Barrigan-Parrilla  
concluded.

The tunnels would divert massive quantities of Sacramento River water  
for export to corporate agribusiness interests irrigating drainage- 
impaired land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, Southern  
California water agencies and oil companies conducting environmentally  
destructive fracking and other extreme oil extraction methods in Kern  
County.

The tunnels would hasten the extinction of imperiled Sacramento River  
Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt,  
green sturgeon and other fish species, as well as imperil the salmon  
and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

Unfortunately, some species may become extinct even before Brown has a  
chance to build his “legacy” project, the Delta Tunnels, due to  
abysmal state and federal government water management policies.

Fish species ranging from endangered Delta smelt to striped bass  
continued to plummet to record low population levels in 2015,  
according to the annual fall midwater trawl survey results released by  
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) on December 18.

Only 6 Delta smelt, an endangered species that once numbered in the  
millions and was the most abundant fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin  
River Delta, were collected at the index stations in the estuary this  
fall. The 2015 index (7), a relative number of abundance, “is the  
lowest in history,” said Sara Finstad, an environmental scientist for  
the CDFW’s Bay Delta Region.

Likewise, longfin smelt, a cousin of the Delta smelt, declined to the  
lowest abundance index (4) in the history of the survey. Only 3  
longfin smelt were collected at the index stations throughout the  
three-month period. For more information, go to: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/4/1466156/-Delta-Smelt-and-other-fish-species-plummet-to-record-low-levels
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