[env-trinity] Delta advocates blast Governor Brown for pushing tunnels in State of the State/Three groups 'vehemently oppose" agribusiness-backed San Luis Drainage Resolution Act

[Dan Bacher]

Good Evening

Please check out my two latest posts, the first an article on the  
Governor's State of the State and the second a news release from C- 
WIN, CSPA and AquaAlliance "vehemently opposing" the San Luis Drainage  
Resolution Act

Thanks
Dan

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/21/1472991/-Delta-advocates-blast-Governor-Brown-for-pushing-tunnels-plan-in-State-of-the-State



Photo of Governor Jerry Brown at the ACWA "Water 2.0" event in  
Sacramento by Dan Bacher.


Delta advocates blast Governor Brown for pushing tunnels in State of  
the State

by Dan Bacher

In his State of the State Address at the State Capitol in Sacramento  
today, Governor Jerry Brown promoted building “reliable conveyance” —  
the controversial Delta Tunnels Plan proposed under the California  
Water Fix and California Water Action Plan — and building “storage” to  
supposedly achieve the goal of providing a reliable water supply for  
the state's residents.

“One of the bright spots in our contentious politics is the joining  
together of both parties and the people themselves to secure passage  
of Proposition 1, the Water Bond,” said Brown. “That, together with  
our California Water Action Plan, establishes a solid program to deal  
with the drought and the longer-term challenge of using our water  
wisely.”

“Our goal must be to preserve California’s natural beauty and ensure a  
vibrant economy – on our farms, in our cities and for all the people  
who live here. There is no magic bullet but a series of actions must  
be taken. We have to recharge our aquifers, manage the groundwater,  
recycle, capture stormwater, build storage and reliable conveyance,  
improve efficiency everywhere, invest in new technologies – including  
desalination – and all the while recognize that there are some  
limits,” he stated.

He also uttered some of the “achieving balance between conflicting  
parties” rhetoric that he has become known for, all while he continues  
to serve the interests of the corporate agribusiness, Big Oil, Big  
Timber and other corporate interests through his anti-environmental  
water policies that have brought Central Valley steelhead and salmon,  
Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and  
other fish species to the brink of extinction under his administration.

“Achieving balance between all the conflicting interests is not easy  
but I pledge to you that I will listen and work patiently to achieve  
results that will stand the test of time," Brown claimed. “Water goes  
to the heart of what California is and what it has been over  
centuries. Pitting fish against farmer misses the point and grossly  
distorts reality. Every one of us and every creature that dwells here  
form a complex system which must be understood and respected.”

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta,  
immediately responded to the State of theState by saying, “We are  
thrilled to hear Governor Brown’s commitment to protecting ecological  
systems. And we are glad he has committed to solving today's problems  
without making them worse.”

However, she then blasted Brown for moving ahead with the Delta  
Tunnels project, considered by many to be potentially the most  
environmentally destructive project in California history.

“Unfortunately, Governor Brown insists on moving forward with the  
Delta tunnels project despite serious environmental concerns raised by  
numerous organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency  
which found the plan ‘incomplete’ with required analysis ‘not yet  
done,’” Barrigan-Parrilla said.

“The tunnels will destroy the sole source of drinking water for one  
million Delta residents, the physical environment and the state's most  
magnificent fisheries and breathtaking habitat for birds on the  
Pacific flyway, not to mention the agricultural and related economies  
for an additional three million Delta area residents,” she stated.

“The Delta tunnels will cost $17 billion before cost overruns and  
interest, and will not make any new water for California. Perhaps the  
Governor should take his own advice and drop his bad Delta Tunnels  
plan,” Barrigan-Parrilla concluded.

She also described a new video promoting the tunnels released by the  
Governor’s Office today as “mockworthy.” The “California WaterFix  
Video”  is hyperlinked to the words "reliable conveyance" in the on  
line transcript of Brown’s speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAFaQ9D_joI


Californians for Water Security, a group describing itself as a  
“coalition supporting the plan to fix California’s aging water  
infrastructure, including business leaders, labor, family farmers,  
local governments, water experts and others,” also responded to the  
address in a statement. The group applauded Governor Brown’s comments  
in the State of the State address “discussing the importance of fixing  
our state’s water infrastructure.”

“There is a strong political will to get this done now,” said Michael  
Quigley, Executive Director of the Alliance for Jobs. “We desperately  
need to replenish groundwater basins, fill up reservoirs, and recharge  
our existing water supplies – but without a reliable conveyance we  
cannot get water where it’s needed and too much water will be wasted  
out to sea that should be captured.”

Delta Tunnels are one of Brown’s many anti-environmental policies.

While Brown has posed as a “climate leader” and “green governor” at  
conferences and photo opportunities around the globe, he has overseen  
water policies that have brought Sacramento River winter-run Chinook  
salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and a host of other  
species to the edge of extinction, in addition to promoting the Delta  
Tunnels Plan, a project that will only cause further ecological and  
economic damage.

His administration in 2011 presided over record water exports out the  
Sacramento-San Joaquin River  Delta — and the killing of millions of  
Sacramento splittail, an imperiled native minnow, and other species at  
the Delta pumps. (www.truth-out.org/...)

More recently, fish species ranging from endangered Delta Smelt to  
Striped Bass plummeted to record low population levels in 2015,  
according to the annual fall survey report released on December 18 by  
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). (www.dailykos.com/...)

Only 6 Delta Smelt, an endangered species that once numbered in the  
millions and was the most abundant fish in the 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.

Meanwhile, Brown promotes the expansion of fracking and other extreme  
oil drilling techniques in California and backs potentially genocidal  
carbon trading policies and REDD (Reducing Emissions from  
Deforestation and forest Degradation), according to indigenous  
leaders. (www.dailykos.com/...)

In addition, Brown oversaw the “completion”  of “marine protected  
areas,” created under the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act  
(MLPA) Initiative, that don’t protect the ocean from fracking,  
offshore oil drilling, pollution, corporate aquaculture, military  
testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable  
fishing and gathering.

And it was only after months of intense pressure from  
environmentalists, public health advocates and Porter Ranch residents  
that Governor Brown declared a state of emergency in the Aliso Canyon  
Gas Leak disaster that began on October 23. Meanwhile, Brown’s sister,  
Kathleen, plays a significant role at Sempra Energy, the corporation  
that owns SoCalGas, the company responsible for the gas blowout. She  
earned $188,380 in her position as a board member in 2014 and $267,865  
in 2013. (www.dailykos.com/...)

Conflicts of interest like this one abound in a state where the  
regulatory apparatus has been captured by the regulated, including Big  
Oil, corporate agribusiness, the timber industry and other corporate  
interests.



2. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/21/1472982/-Three-groups-vehemently-oppose-agribusiness-backed-San-Luis-Drainage-Resolution-Act

Three groups 'vehemently oppose" agribusiness-backed San Luis Drainage  
Resolution Act

In a press release issued today, three environmental groups — the  
California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), California Sportfishing  
Protection Alliance (CSPA) and AquAlliance — announced they  
“vehemently” oppose HR 4366, the San Luis Drainage Resolution Act  
sponsored by Rep. David G. Valadao (CA-21).

The text of the press release is below:

C-WIN, CSPA and AquAlliance vehemently oppose HR 4366, the San Luis  
Drainage Resolution Act sponsored by Rep. David G. Valadao (CA-21).

This proposed legislation would approve the drainage litigation  
settlement between Westlands Water District and the federal  
government. The agreement will increase the federal deficit and lock  
in annual water subsidies forever. It also converts the district’s  
current two-year water contracts to a permanent contract for up to  
890,000 acre-feet of water annually. For the sake of comparison, the  
City of Los Angeles uses only 587,000 acre feet in a typical year.

For decades, the district – which consists of fewer than 600 corporate  
farms -- has irrigated its holdings with taxpayer-subsidized water  
delivered by the federal Central Valley Project. The district’s  
croplands contain large amounts of selenium, a toxic element that  
leaches from the soil when farmers flush their lands with CVP water to  
remove excess salt. The district then discharges this tainted runoff  
to Central Valley waterways and aquifers.

The high (or rather, low) points of the agreement include:

- Forgiveness of $375 million owed by Westlands to the federal  
government for capital repayment of Central Valley Project debt,  
thereby increasing the federal deficit.

- No additional land retirement. The amount of land Westlands already  
has retired will be credited to this final figure.  The U.S. Fish and  
Wildlife Service previously recommended the retirement of more than  
300,000 acres of this poisoned land.

- A permanent CVP contract for up to 890,000 acre-feet of water a year  
(subject to the availability of water)

- An exemption from the existing acreage limitations that were drafted  
to prevent oversized farms from receiving subsidized water.

- No public input on the settlement other than urging Congress to  
change or reject it.

- Gifting of federal facilities to Westlands, including buildings,  
canals, pipelines, pumps, headworks and related facilities.

“This deal can be equated with the bank bailout of 2008,” said C-WIN  
spokesman Tom Stokely.  “The wealthy and powerful corporate interests  
that caused the crisis are allowed to exit the burning aircraft with  
golden parachutes. It locks in the destructive practices of the  
district, it continues to subsidize south-of-Delta Big Agriculture  
with taxpayer money, and it poses a long-term threat to both  
California’s environment and the state’s water supply. It is crony  
capitalism at its worse, and it demonstrates once again the corrosive  
power of money and corporate influence in Washington.”

Bill Jennings, the chairman and executive director of the California  
Sportfishing Protection Alliance, observed the deal is not only bad  
for fisheries, water quality and the environment, its also bad for  
many water contractors.

“It would give Westlands a permanent water contract before all  
Endangered Species Act litigation is completed,” said Jennings. “In  
effect, this gives Westlands an advantage over other south-of-Delta  
contractors.”

Summing up the case against the pact, AquAlliance executive director  
Barbara Vlamis said congressional approval of the deal “will create a  
permanent demand for northern California water that will be used to  
create devastating pollution from land that never should have been  
irrigated in the first place. It assures continuation of a policy that  
is destructive, beneficial only to the few and powerful, and  
ultimately unsustainable.”

The three groups are promoting a better, cheaper, and more equitable  
alternative. Areport by EcoNorthwest, an independent economic analysis  
firm, confirms that 300,000 acres of selenium-tainted land in the  
Westlands Water District and three adjacent water districts could be  
retired at a cost of $580 million to $1 billion. The U.S. Fish and  
Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey have reached similar  
conclusions. Retiring this land and curbing the water contracts  
associated with it would result in a savings to California of up to  
455,000 acre-feet of water, or enough for 2,600,000 urban water users.

The Environmental Working Group estimated that annual subsidies to  
Westlands range from $24 million to $110 million a year. Further, land  
retirement is significantly less expensive than Governor Jerry Brown’s  
plan to build a massive tunnel system to divert water from the  
Sacramento River for the express benefit of western San Joaquin Valley  
agribusiness.

Agriculture consumes 80 percent of California’s developed water while  
accounting for only 2% of the state’s economic output. Our water  
supplies are limited in the best of times, and drought and climate  
change are only exacerbating the crisis. Subsidizing corporate  
agriculture on impaired and toxic lands is hardly a wise and  
reasonable use of our water. Congress must not approve this  
catastrophically flawed agreement before it is implemented.  
Californians need to tell our federal legislators that we don’t want  
another egregious and inequitable corporate bailout.

Contact information:

Tom Stokely, C-WIN 530-926-9727 cell 530-524-0315 www.c-win.org

Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance  
209-464-5067 cell 938-9053www.calsport.org

Barbara Vlamis, AquAlliance 530-895-9420 cell 530-519-7468 www.aqualliance.net



  
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