Restore the Delta responds
to new proposed location of tunnels
Failed attempt to show sensitivity to Delta communities
Sacramento, CA – Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today responded to the latest proposal released by the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and BDCP are proposing to move the tunnels farther east, away from the delta communities of Courtland and Walnut Grove.
“This is a failed attempt by Jerry Meral to show that he and the other architects of the BDCP are sensitive to Delta communities. It does not change the fact that 48 significant and unavoidable impacts that are identified in the BDCP will be inflicted on Delta communities, fisheries, farms, and boaters. This new proposal does not even consider the significant harm that would come to Sandhill Cranes that winter Staten Island. These magnificent birds will do even worse than Delta residents with around the clock construction noise, traffic, and tunnel muck, disrupting their foraging and roosting areas,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director Restore the Delta. “Jerry Meral refuses to acknowledge these 48 significant and unavoidable impacts publicly; he directed Dr. David Sunding to ignore these impacts in the incomplete economic analysis released last week; and this latest attempt to sell the plan as improved points to new disasters in the making. Meral thinks we are supposed to be satisfied that he has lessened some of the impacts on a few of our neighbors while continuing to sacrifice the entire region. It is like the Owens Valley all over again.”