FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; steve@hopcraft.com; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 barbara@restorethedelta.org; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta
What about $700 million for flows, habitat?
Call for Governor to Release Bond Language
Sacramento, CA- Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, and salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today questioned Governor Brown’s assertion that his new water bond is “tunnels neutral,” and called upon the governor to release his specific proposed language.
“Governor Brown is using the bully pulpit of his office to insist that his bond proposal is tunnel neutral. However, with $700 million marked for statewide water related habitat, flows, and water quality in watersheds, Restore the Delta questions if these funds will be used to create the water fund account needed to make the Delta tunnels project operational,” said RTD Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, “We are calling on Governor Brown to release the specific proposed language of the bond to prove that it is truly Delta tunnels neutral. According to documents from a Freedom of Information Act Request filled by the Kern County Water Agency, BDCP water exporters are expecting the State to fund a water flows account for over $1 billion so that they can receive full export levels from the project. This documented assurance reveals that the water exporters thirst will not be quenched by a tunnel project that simply promotes reliability, but rather by one that produces more and more from Northern California groundwater supplies, rivers, and the SF Bay-Delta estuary.” Here is a link to documents showing that the water exporters are counting on money from a state water bond to help finance the project and mitigate its damage to fisheries, river flows and the Delta.