FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Contact:  Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546  [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft;

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta

Thirty-Six Organizations Call for “Policy before Plumbing”

Ask U.S. Government to Answer 7 Questions on Peripheral Canal/Tunnel

Sacramento, CA – Thirty-six California environmental, fishing and consumer advocacy groups, including the Sierra Club, Environmental Water Caucus, the Planning and Conservation League and Restore the Delta (RTD), today called upon the Secretaries of Interior and Commerce to delay the imminent announcement of a peripheral canal or tunnel until “fundamental details” are made available. “The Departments of Interior and Commerce are poised to join with the State of California to recommend the construction of a multi-billion dollar plumbing project before defining how much it will cost, how it will be operated, or how much water it will produce without environmental damage,” the groups wrote.

The groups wrote that the “world-record-size tunnels capable of taking nearly all of the average freshwater flow of the Sacramento River” The proposed double tunnel project is designed to give a federal assurance of water to south of the Delta irrigators. As proposed the plan will give a federal guarantee of increased water to be taken from the San Francisco Bay Delta estuary. This proposed higher diversion will create chronic drought conditions and environmental devastation in the estuary.”

The complete text of the letter is available here.