[env-trinity] Fishing and environmental groups ask agencies to dump Delta Tunnels or start over

[Dan Bacher]

http://fishsniffer.com/index.php/2016/10/03/fishing-and-environmental-groups-ask-agencies-to-dump-delta-tunnels-or-start-over/


Fishing and environmental groups ask agencies to dump Delta Tunnels or  
start over
  by Dan Bacher |  posted in: Spotlight |  0
One day after Governor Jerry Brown once again posed as a “green  
governor” and “climate leader” while delivering the opening remarks at  
the 26th Annual Conference of the Society of Environmental  
Journalists, a coalition of fishing, conservation and public interest  
groups sent a letter to the state and federal agencies overseeing the  
proposed Delta Tunnels urging them to either drop the plan, or develop  
a new Draft EIR/EIS for the project that includes newly released  
information.

The letter concludes that approving the project as proposed threatens  
to tarnish President Obama’s environmental legacy.

Groups signing the letter include AquAlliance, California Sportfishing  
Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network, Center for  
Biological Diversity, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water,  
Environmental Water Caucus, Friends of the River, Planning and  
Conservation League, Restore the Delta, and Sierra Club California.

Delta advocates consider the two 35-mile long Delta Tunnels – Governor  
Jerry Brown’s California WaterFix – to be the most destructive public  
works project proposed in California history. The tunnels will hasten  
the extinction of Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Central  
Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other  
fish species, as well as imperiling the salmon and steelhead  
populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

The letter, written by Robert Wright, senior counsel at Friends of the  
River (FOR), is addressed to the California Natural Resources Agency,  
the U.S. Departments of the Interior & Commerce, the U.S.  
Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and  
the Council on Environmental Quality at the White House.

“The letter focuses on new information discovered by Restore the Delta  
through the California Public Records Act that revealed an unreleased  
economic analysis showing the Tunnels would require taxpayer subsidies  
and would export far more water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta than  
has been disclosed to the public. Without a full accounting of the  
projects costs, who will pay, and impacts to the environment, federal  
and state agencies have no legal way to move forward,” according to a  
news release from Restore the Delta.

The main points in the letter are:

1. Rather than water districts covering the entire cost of the Delta  
Tunnels, the proposal simply doesn’t pencil out without taxpayer  
subsidies.

“…in November of 2015, the economic consultant for the project, David  
Sunding of The Brattle Group, prepared a draft CalWater Fix Economic  
Analysis for the California Natural Resources Agency. That Economic  
Analysis, purporting to justify the economic feasibility of the  
project, assumed that the federal government or some other entity  
would need to provide a subsidy of $6.5 billion to make the Water  
Tunnels a breakeven proposition for agricultural users of the water.”

2. The amount of water that must be exported from the San Francisco  
Bay-Delta to make the Tunnels viable is far larger than proponents  
have claimed in the draft environmental documents.

“As explained by Dr. Jeffrey Michael, Director of the Center for  
Business and Policy Research at the University of the Pacific the  
subject Analysis “assumes water yields (the difference in export water  
delivery with and without the tunnels) are 4 times higher than in  
official Water Fix documents including its RDEIR/SDEIS and petition to  
the State Water Resources Control Board.”

3. Groups promoting the Delta Tunnels have not been truthful with the  
public or federal oversight agencies.

“This project reeks of misrepresentation by the proponent agencies.  
The public is told the beneficiary users will pay all costs of the  
project. In secret, the proponent public agencies have received  
information from their own economic consultant that a substantial  
public subsidy would be necessary for the project. The public is told  
one thing in public about water yields and corresponding impacts on  
the Delta and fisheries. In secret, the proponent public agencies base  
financial feasibility decision-making on assuming far higher water  
yields than disclosed to the public.”

4. Because of this new information the project in on shaky legal ground.

“That new Draft EIR/EIS must include disclosure of whether taxpayers  
as well as ratepayers will be paying for the project and disclosure of  
the true quantities of freshwater flows that will actually be diverted  
for the Water Tunnels. The truth needs to start. The lying needs to  
stop. If instead, you allow Reclamation and DWR to issue a Final EIR/ 
EIS for this project, that will constitute failure to proceed in the  
manner required by law. We are confident that you will decide to honor  
President Obama’s legacy and our laws by proceeding in the manner  
required by law.”

5. President Obama’s environmental legacy is on the line.

“President Obama has established a legacy of honesty, scientific  
integrity, and commitment to conservation and protection of our  
precious natural resources. There is no acceptable reason for you to  
allow the California Water Fix Project to go forward at this time  
staining that legacy in the process of contributing to the destruction  
of the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary. You must either require  
Reclamation and DWR to drop the Water Fix project or require their  
issuance of a new accurate and honest Draft EIR/EIS for public review  
and comment.”



  California Water Fix, Central Valley steelhead, Delta smelt, Delta  
Tunnels, fishing, Governor Jerry Brown,Sacramento River chinook  
salmon, striped bass


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