Delta Flows – Weekly Highlights from Restore the Delta
For the Week of June 18, 2007
On Being Ignored and the Needed Death of Stale Ideas for the Delta
“First they ignore you; then they laugh at you; then they fight you; and then you win.” -- Mahatma Ghandi
A
s mentioned in the last Delta Flows, Restore the Delta staff attended a meeting last week with Governor Schwarzenegger to represent the Delta region in a discussion of the Delta crisis. While other representatives attending the meeting, and even an environmental representative who missed the meeting, have received letters from the Governor explaining his position in favor of building a peripheral canal to divert fresh water from the Sacramento River around the Delta, Restore the Delta staff have not received any type of follow up communications from the Governor’s office.This small administrative error on the part of the Governor’s office is the perfect metaphor for the Governor’s stance toward restoring the California Delta.
In the Governor’s follow up letter to other meeting attendees, he states that he is in favor of building “a conveyance system, as envisioned a half a century ago.” Where is the bold and visionary thinking that the Governor promised when he called for the Delta Vision process to solve the problems of the Delta? Why is he recycling what California’s voters decided was a bad idea in 1982, rather than pushing programs to recycle, reclaim, and conserve water throughout the state?
As Restore the Delta advisor Barry Nelson (Natural Resource Defense Council) points out, “This position – and the suggestion that we do not need more study – appears to prejudge and undermine the Delta Vision process.”
Perhaps what is even more alarming is that the Governor does not call for in his letter or public announcement one item that Restore the Delta staff and supporters have requested from him over the last month including:
1) A permanent reduction in fresh water exports from the Delta.
2) Comprehensive and ongoing levee repairs, coupled with a flood management plan so as to protect lives, infrastructure and property within the Delta.
3) Enforcement of existing laws and regulations by agencies in order to ensure that Delta water meets Clean Water Act standards.
While these three items by no means make up a complete Delta restoration plan, they are the three legs of the stool that need to be significantly strengthened in order for real Delta restoration to begin.
To further clarify our position, Restore the Delta is against the idea of a peripheral canal, particularly as it was envisioned fifty years ago. By diverting a significant portion of the Sacramento River around the Delta for direct water export to Southern California, the last major fresh water source that currently flows into and through the Delta will be greatly reduced, resulting in the following problems:
1) Water quality will deteriorate even further leading to the death of the Delta’s ecosystem – the largest estuary on the Pacific Coast of both North and South America
2) The local water supply will become so saline that Delta agriculture can no longer be sustained, thereby undoing our region’s economy, culture, history, and way of life.
3) Delta water quality will never meet Clean Water Act standards.
4) The Delta recreation industry will cease to exist as we know it. Sports fishing will be a thing of the past, and other water sporting activities will be cease to be pleasurable in such polluted waters.
5) There will be no incentive to fix Delta levees or to create a flood management plan that will protect Delta people, Delta property, and Delta infrastructure, such as railways and gas lines. In the event of a natural disaster, the Delta will be written off in the same way that New Orleans was abandoned after Hurricane Katrina.
So where do we go from here?
We all need to get busy. If Governor Schwarzenegger is not going to listen to us, then we all need to participate in telling our story – why we love the Delta and what we need to protect the Delta – to our neighbors throughout California. Restore the Delta staff cannot accomplish this task alone.
Most Delta residents have friends, family, business associates, old college roommates, lost loves, and childhood chums living in other parts of the state. We are asking each and every one of you to forward this email to someone you know who lives in California outside of the Delta. They need to hear our story, our fears, our needs, and our concerns. Let people know what is happening here and ask them to become part of the Restore the Delta effort. Let them know that they can become supporters and receive this weekly newsletter by simply signing up on our website – www.restorethedelta.org.
Restore the Delta staff is looking forward to hearing from your friends throughout the state in the weeks to come. We know that as our story is told, our neighbors throughout California will not ignore us.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Campaign Director
Restore the Delta
