Delta Flows - Weekly Highlights from Restore the Delta
For the Week of March 19, 2007
Joint Assembly Senate Hearing on the State of the Delta -
Testimony from the authors of the PPIC Report, Envisioning Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, gives new meaning to Delta residents being or becoming the salt of the earth.
In a presentation before a joint Senate and Assembly Committee on the state of the Delta, their theory of historical fluctuating salinity has become an important point in the debate of future water exports and water conveyance models.
While other sources of pollution and contamination are also of extreme importance to Restore the Delta staff, we are first pushing back on loosening the current salinity standards for the Delta because we see it as a smoke screen for increasing water exports. In fact, when questioned, one of the report’s authors said that with a peripheral canal he believed that the Delta could actually withstand greater water exports.
If the Delta can withstand more frequent salinity intrusion from the Bay (which it can’t), then more fresh water can be exported out of the region. Helping to make our point, conflicting reports have been released by the scientific community showing that fresh water may actually be the key to restoring the fisheries. Moreover, we also understand that Delta farmers cannot irrigate with water that is more saline without experiencing reductions in crop yields, and, thus, profits.
After the author’s presentation and again the next day at the Delta Vision Workshop, representatives from the Delta Community, Environmental Groups, the Contra Costa Water Agency, and Restore the Delta questioned the historical accuracy of their findings regarding salinity and called for a full analysis to answer how much fresh water must pass through the Delta to restore its water ways. We succeeded in getting our concerns about the report’s incompleteness on the public record. And Restore the Delta supporter Dan Bacher also expressed concern that recreational fishing groups and Native American Tribes were initially left off the Delta Vision Stakeholders Panel, as the decisions that will be made in the Delta Vision process will have a direct impact on fishing and waters ways for both these groups.
Restore the Delta will continue advocating for local fisheries and farmers. Restoring the Delta is not an either/or campaign. We maintain that what is good for the environment is also good for our local economy.
Restore the Delta Community Event
-- The Healthy Delta Communities PlanOn May 2nd, Restore the Delta will be holding an evening of discussion, panels and directed activities looking at threats to the Delta and solutions. The event will run from 6 to 9 p.m. Location and registration details will be out in the next few days.
