Delta Flows - Weekly Highlights from Restore the Delta for the Week of July 14, 2008
" The best of thieves; who, with an easy key, dost open life, and unperceived by us, even steal us from ourselves... "
----John Dryden
The New and Improved Restore the Delta Website
We encourage all our supporters to revisit the newly revised Restore the Delta website. Our website now includes: information on the proposed peripheral canal and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, an updated calendar, new templates for letters to send to newspaper editors, information on local Delta governing bodies, an overview of Delta agriculture, and position updates from Restore the Delta. We also recommend visiting the website regularly for new information, as updates will be available on a regular basis.
Special Report on the Delta Vision Strategic Plan Draft, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, and the Governor's New Water Bond
During the last days of June, attendees at the California Resource Agency Town Hall Meetings in Walnut Grove and Stockton were extremely disappointed by the various government agencies' responses to the questions and comments regarding the Delta Vision Strategic Plan Draft and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
At the meetings, the Delta Vision Strategic Draft Plan, which calls for the retirement of 100,000 acres of farmland and the construction of new through-Delta peripheral pipe to reroute Sacramento River water to Southern California, proved to be especially troublesome for Delta growers whose farms and homes are in areas designated as part of the newly planned Delta Conservancy. Yet, to date, nobody from the Delta has been contacted directly to see how they feel about selling their land into a conservancy or supporting such an effort. The involved state agencies have also failed to do an economic analysis on the impacts to Delta communities (and California as a whole) if these agricultural lands were to be taken out of production.
Moreover, those in attendance also found the tone of these Town Hall Meetings disturbing. As has been the case with the Delta Vision process, when Delta locals are invited to participate in discussions or planning, leaders with state agencies do not listen and then act upon the concerns of Delta locals. Rather state agency representatives, either incorporate local Delta recommendations into their predetermined plans, thereby giving the appearance of responding to local needs, or they "engage" in dialogue without taking any action on behalf of local Delta concerns. Such Town Hall Meetings, thus, feel like an effort by the Resource Agency to "steal us from ourselves."
While Restore the Delta in principle supports the creation and operation of a Delta Conservancy, the Delta Vision Strategic Plan Draft has prematurely determined which areas should be "converted" from farming. What is even more disturbing is that their plan calls for governing such an entity under the auspices of a California Delta Ecosystem and Water Council - a group consisting of "five to seven individuals appointed by the Governor to five-year staggered terms, subject to Senate confirmation..." Although the Draft Plan does indicate that the conservancy itself would be governed by local Delta representation, the "local" members would be appointed by the abovementioned Water Council, and, thus, would not be a truly locally driven entity. Restore the Delta maintains that the Delta Conservancy should operate as an independent agency governed primarily by local Delta expertise and founded by local Delta landowners. The Delta Conservancy should not be driven solely by outsiders.
Additionally, the proposed California Delta Ecosystem and Water Council would contain an operations team that would make decisions regarding Delta water flows on a day-to-day basis. Could water exports and flows into the Delta be politicized in a manner any more unfavorable to Delta communities?
The current and future governors would be able to appoint all the members of the Water Council governing the Delta, which in turn would hire those who would determine how much fresh water should be allowed to pass through and remain in the Delta. To date, however, all state agencies and Delta planning processes have failed to obtain an answer to the most fundamental question regarding the health of the estuary: How much fresh water is needed to maintain and restore the Delta's ecosystem health? Without that key piece of information, a new Delta operations team would be making decisions regarding the estuary in a solely political manner.
The Governor's Water Bond Further Complicates Matters...
As was the case in 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger made what appears on the surface to be another move to short-circuit his own mandated Delta planning process, Delta Vision, by calling for a bipartisan $9.3 billion water bond. The joint statement sent out by the Governor and Senator Diane Feinstein calls for (in nebulous language) "improved conveyance" that will take the pressure of the Delta. Click here to read the press release
Restore the Delta staff is very suspicious of the lack of details regarding Delta conveyance included in their joint statement as well as the timing of this proposed bond. Could it be that this initial bond is somehow supposed to finance the proposed Delta Vision Strategic Draft Plan? While the $3 billion figure for improved state water conveyance would not cover the entire cost of a new through Delta pipeline, could money for a new facility be forthcoming from other sources? And, why is the Governor calling for such a bond when California has an $18 billion deficit and we are in our third week of operating without a state budget?
Congressional Concerns Regarding the Bay Delta Conservation Plan
At the end of June, Delta area Congressional Representatives sent a very thoughtful letter to NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expressing concern that these agencies are only tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and not questioning how this process is unfolding. Additionally, the letter made it clear that our Delta Congressional Representatives understand the many flaws in the current Bay Delta Conservation Plan. We thank Congress Members George Miller, Mike Thompson, Ellen Tauscher, Doris Matsui, and Jerry McNerney for their effort on behalf of the Delta. To read the pdf letter click here.
