[env-trinity] Delta Legislators and Advocates Respond to 'Alarming' Oroville Dam Fiasco

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/2/13/1633388/-Delta-Legislators-Respond-to-Alarming-Oroville-Dam-Fiasco



CDFW staff at the Feather River Fish Hatchery below Oroville Dam  
during the evacuation of salmon at the facility on February 10. CDFW  
photo.


Delta Legislators and Advocates Respond to 'Alarming' Oroville Dam  
Fiasco

by Dan Bacher

A day after state officials ordered the evacuation of over 188,000  
people from Butte, Yuba and Sutter Counties,  members of the newly- 
formed Delta Caucus of the California Legislature on February 13  
issued a statement regarding the “hazardous situation” at Oroville Dam  
after The Mercury News reported that previous concerns about the  
safety of the Dam’s current infrastructure were ignored.


They said they have a “duty to ensure California’s existing  
infrastructure is maintained and upgraded, and not sacrificed in favor  
of conveyance projects,” referring to Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to  
build two massive water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River  
Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.

The following bipartisan group of legislators said they wished to be  
part of this  statement: Senator Bill Dodd (Co-Chair), D-Napa; Senator  
Richard Pan, D-Sacramento; Assemblymember Jim Frazier (Co-Chair), D- 
Oakley; Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton;  
Assemblymember Catharine Baker, R-Dublin; Assemblymember Jim Cooper, D- 
Elk Grove; Assemblymember Tim Grayson, D-Concord:

“We are concerned that a clear alarm raised 12 years ago about the  
state of the Oroville Dam’s emergency spillway was discounted. There  
has been more than enough time since then for upgrades and maintenance  
to the structure. Instead, nearly 185,000 people have been displaced,  
and there are still people in harm’s way.

A catastrophic failure at Oroville would result in uncontrolled  
releases that do considerably more harm to the surrounding  
communities, and threaten those further downstream, including levee- 
protected communities in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. For now, we  
have a collective responsibility to ensure that people are safe and  
that necessary steps are taken to prevent further compromise of the  
entire Oroville facility.

When the immediate threats have subsided, we need to clearly assess  
this disaster and its causes.  We have a duty to ensure California’s  
existing infrastructure is maintained and upgraded, and not sacrificed  
in favor of conveyance projects.”

The legislators released their statement just prior to Governor Jerry  
Brown’s meeting with emergency response officials at the State  
Operations Center in Mather regarding the ongoing response to the  
situation at the Oroville Dam's emergency spillway and subsequent  
local evacuations.

On February 12, Brown declared a state of emergency to help mobilize  
disaster response resources and support the local evacuations. “The  
Governor's Office of Emergency Services has activated the State  
Operations Center in Mather, California to its highest level and is  
coordinating with personnel at the Incident Command Post in Oroville,  
California and with other local, state and federal emergency response  
officials to address all emergency management, evacuation and mutual  
aid needs,” according to a statement from the Governor’s Office.

Two organizations opposed to Governor Brown’s Delta Tunnels also  
responded  to the  breach in the Oroville auxiliary spillway and the  
evacuation of  over 188,000 people from Butte, Yuba and Sutter Counties.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta  
(RTD), commented on the current situation, Oroville Dam, how the  
crisis was preventable, what should be done next, and the California  
WaterFix.

On the current situation, Barrigan-Parrilla  said, “We are hopeful  
that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) can continue to keep the  
situation at Oroville under control.”

“We are grateful for all the courageous and hardworking people working  
day and night to keep the region safe – from DWR employees to public  
safety officials. The evacuations seem to have been successfully  
executed,” explained Barrigan-Parrilla.

On Oroville Dam:  “This dam is the primary reservoir for the State  
Water Project. One-third of Southern California’s water is State Water  
Project water. Oroville Dam also is the source for a portion of Bay  
Area water deliveries. Making Oroville safe is essential and must take  
priority over any other water project in the state,” she said.

Barrigan-Parrilla also emphasized that the crisis was preventable.  
“The Mercury News is reporting that Federal and State officials  
ignored warnings 12 years ago. Three environmental groups — the  
Friends of the River, the Sierra Club and the South Yuba Citizens  
League — filed a motion with the federal government on Oct. 17, 2005,  
as part of Oroville Dam’s relicensing process, urging federal  
officials to require that the dam’s emergency spillway be armored with  
concrete, rather than remain as an earthen hillside. They warned that  
the spillway could erode during heavy winter rains and cause a  
catastrophe.”

“FERC rejected that request, however, after the state Department of  
Water Resources, and the State Water Contractors argued that they  
would likely have had to pay the bill for the upgrades. They said the  
upgrades were unnecessary. The State Water Contractors & Metropolitan  
Water District of Southern California’s outsized influenced on DWR to  
NOT upgrade the emergency spillway is a story that must be thoroughly  
investigated once the emergency has passed,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.

“Because of this penny pinching, residents of these water districts  
will lose a significant portion of their water supply for this year.  
And almost 200,000 lives in the region downstream from the Oroville  
Dam have been disrupted, physically and economically (with no clear  
date set for when they can return home). Another series of storms are  
expected from Thursday through Tuesday of next week,” she stated.

“Millions of Chinook salmon have had to be relocated from the  
hatchery, with outcomes of disruption to their life cycle to be seen.  
Swollen rivers filled with debris can have negative impacts on public  
safety downstream and on wildlife, as levees will experience extreme  
pressure from emergency flows,” she added.

What Should Be Done? “Safety comes first. Before spending a dime on  
any gold-plated, taxpayer-backed, water delivery service to  
agricultural interests, we need to upgrade our 678 high hazard dams in  
California. Making those facilities safe is now the priority over  
projects such as the Delta Tunnels that will largely serve industrial  
agricultural interests in the southern San Joaquin Valley.  We need to  
remind our state water resources agency that they really work for the  
people of California, not the water districts,” she said.

What about the Delta Tunnels? “The Delta Tunnels are only 10%  
designed, with no seismic analysis, and no full soil samples, yet DWR  
is leading the charge for state and federal permits for the project.  
Are they going to repeat history with the Delta Tunnels and ignore the  
warnings that the design is flawed, and the impacts to health and  
human safety, and the environment are serious?” concluded Barrigan- 
Parrilla.

Food & Water Watch’s California Director Adam Scow said the current  
crisis should be a “wake up call” to state officials.

“The crisis at the Oroville Dam should be a wake up call to State  
leaders that we should fix existing water infrastructure before  
spending billions on questionable projects like the proposed Delta  
tunnels and Sites Reservoir,” he stated. “Repairing Oroville Dam will  
likely cost between $100 and $200 million and could force higher water  
rates throughout California.”

“California has more than one thousand dams, many of which are older  
than the Oroville Dam. Rising temperatures mean more rain and less  
snow, increasing the likelihood of future spillovers and similar  
crises. It is time for Governor Brown to stop wasting taxpayer dollars  
on new projects that will benefit California’s largest corporate  
agribusiness and for him to fix California’s crumbling water systems,”  
said Scow.

Governor Jerry Brown and administration officials, now under scrutiny  
by local, state, national and international media for their handling  
of the Oroville Dam crisis, have continually portrayed their  
environmental policies as “green.” However, twelve public interest  
groups, led by Consumer Watchdog and Food & Water Watch, challenged  
Governor Brown’s “green” credentials at a press conference in Santa  
Monica on February 4.

The groups unveiled a comprehensive report card on Jerry Brown  
Administration’s environmental record showing he falls short in six  
out of seven key areas, including fossil fuel generated electricity,  
oil drilling, and coastal protection.

The report calls for a moratorium on the building of natural gas  
powered electricity plants, given what they described as “the glut of  
electric capacity” and calls for an outside audit of state’s energy  
needs. The groups showed how California can improve its environmental  
protections to meet standards set in other states.

The report, noting that Brown’s infrastructure projects, led by the  
California WaterFix, “deplete water resources and threaten wildlife,”  
also urges the Governor to abandon the Twin Tunnels project.

The public interest groups concurring in the report’s analysis,  
assessments, and recommendations include:  Food & Water Watch,  
Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, Restore The Delta,  
Rootskeeper, Powers Engineering, Basin and Range Watch, Aguirre &  
Severson LLP, Public Watchdogs, Southern California Watershed  
Alliance, The Desal Response Group, Committee to Bridge the Gap, and  
Consumer Watchdog.

  “Far from the environmentalist that Brown claims to be, Brown has  
expanded the burning of heat-trapping natural gas and nurtured oil  
drilling and hydraulic fracturing while stifling efforts to protect  
the public from harm,” the report says. “The Public Utilities  
Commission has approved a slew of unnecessary new fossil-fuel power  
plants when the state's three major investor-owned utilities have  
overbuilt their generating capacity by nearly triple the minimum extra  
capacity that the state requires. Under Brown, the number of active  
onshore oil and gas wells jumped by 23 percent since the year before  
he was elected Governor in a bid to produce more oil.”

Read the report “How Green Is Jerry Brown?” at  
www.consumerwatchdog.org/...


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