[env-trinity] Breaking News: Groups Ask Water Board to Dismiss Delta Tunnels Petition

[Dan Bacher]

  http://fishsniffer.com/index.php/2016/03/29/groups-ask-water-board-to-dismiss-delta-tunnels-petition/


Groups Ask Water Board to Dismiss Delta Tunnels Petition

by Dan Bacher

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and U.S. Department  
of Interior yesterday called for a delay in a scheduled hearing on  
their petition to divert water under the California Water Fix - the  
second time they have asked that the proceedings be delayed because  
they aren't ready to present their case.


Today, representatives of 9 environmental, farming and fishing groups  
sent a letter to Tam Doduc and Felicia Marcus of the State Water  
Resources Control Board requesting them to dismiss the petition.

Those signing the letter include Jonas Minton, Planning and  
Conservation League; Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection  
Alliance; Colin Bailey, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water;  
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta; Conner Everts,  
Environmental Water Caucus; Osha Meserve, Local Agencies of the North  
Delta; Tim Stroshane, Restore the Delta; E. Robert Wright, Friends of  
the River; Carolee Krieger, California Water Impact Network; and Kyle  
Jones, Sierra Club California.

"Each time the Hearing Officers accommodate the Petitioners delay  
requests with more time, more Board staff and protestant time and  
financial resources are taken, and hundreds of people’s schedules are  
impacted," the letter states. "We believe there are much better uses  
of everyone’s time, such as spending the necessary time to update the  
Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan to adequately protect current  
beneficial uses."

"Among other deficiencies, the Change Petition: (1) does not  
adequately describe the changes sought; (2) fails to attempt to  
demonstrate a reasonable likelihood that the change will not injure  
any other legal user of water; and (3) fails to describe the extent of  
impacts to fish and wildlife. As a result of these and other  
deficiencies, the full nature and extent of injuries to legal users of  
water and significant adverse impacts to fish and wildlife uses have  
not been identified and analyzed," according to the letter.

The group representatives concluded the letter by requesting that the  
Hearing Officers dismiss the Petition until a "complete petition" is  
submitted pursuant to Water Code section 1701.2 and Title 23 of the  
California Code of Regulations section 794, among other requirements.

Governor Jerry Brown’s California Water Fix to Build the Delta  
Tunnels, a controversial plan to divert Sacramento River water to  
corporate agribusiness interests, Southern California water agencies,  
and oil companies conducting fracking and extreme oil extraction  
methods, is “broken” and in “chaos.”

That’s the assessment of a coalition of fishing, environmental and  
farming groups, including Restore the Delta, the Planning and  
Conservation League, the Local Agencies of the North Delta and the  
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA), as pointed out in  
a joint news release on March 28. (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/29/1507594/-Jerry-Brown-s-Delta-Tunnels-Plan-Is-Collapsing 
)

Besides the difficulty the petitioners face in obtaining their permit  
to divert water from the Sacramento River before reaching the Delta  
under the California Water Fix, the rapidly collapsing Delta Tunnels  
scheme faces another major hurdle when the terminally flawed “science”  
of the California Water Fix will face independent review by a  
scientific panel convened at the request of NOAA Fisheries on April 5-6.

It is very likely that the independent review panel will give a  
failing grade to the “science” concocted to justify the Delta Tunnels  
Plan, just like US EPA scientists did last year — and just as every  
panel of state, federal and independent scientists has done  
previously. For more information, go to:  http://deltastewardshipcouncil.cmail20.com/t/r-l-eilhktl-ffpjrf-d/

The California Water Fix is based on the untenable concept that  
diverting more water from the Sacramento River before it reaches the  
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will “restore” the San Francisco  
Bay-Delta Estuary.

“The California WaterFix cannot be fixed,” summed up Bill Jennings,  
executive director of California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.  
“The idea that you can divert millions of acre feet of water under an  
estuary that is already suffering from lack of flow without grievously  
harming existing water users, communities and already degraded  
fisheries and water quality is fundamentally absurd.”
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