NOTE: To watch/listen to hearings live, click here. We live tweeting the hearing @RestoretheDelta.
SWRCB WQCP Stockton 12-16 – Curated tweets by RestoretheDelta
Join us at these hearing dates below to make your comments:
* Note: The Hearing will go on for as long as people have public comments. It could stretch into the evening, so please plan to drop by throughout the day if you can’t make the morning time.
Earlier this year, thousands of Restore the Delta supporters signed a petition urging the State Water Resources Control Board to update outdated water quality standards for the Bay-Delta region. Now we need your action in person!
This outdated 20-year-old Water Quality Control Plan allows more than half the water needed for the delta’s ecological health to be diverted away for unsustainable Big Agriculture on the west and south San Joaquin Valley.
The State Water Resources Control Board is currently in Phase I of updating the plan. We need to make sure that the State Water Board gets it right and is not influenced by special interests. New water quality standards that truly protect communities and species is a proactive step that helps ensure reliable water supplies for all water users of the Bay-Delta. Learn more about water quality here.
We need you to make your comments! The public comment process ends January 17, 2017, and all hearings conclude January 3, 2017. Please limit your oral public comment to 3 minutes in length.
Here are some important points to make:
1) A permanent reduction of exports must happen to protect the Delta. What is the true efficacy of this update to SJ flow standards if water exports from the Delta are not going to be dealt with? The San Joaquin River must reach Chipps Island in order to restore, protect, and preserve the entire estuary. If unsustainable water exports are not dealt with, we worry that water quality and quantity objectives for the Delta will never be met.
2) We do not want to see a weakening of salinity standards in the South Delta. Water quality standards must be protected for agriculture, drinking water, municipal discharge, fisheries, and ground water recharge.
3) The State Water Board must consider environmental justice communities in terms of drinking water and domestic use. Phase 1 Recirculated Draft SED fails to consider environmental justice communities in chapters 5 and 9 (hydrology/water quality and groundwater).
For other dates and locations, click here to see the State Water Board’s notice.
If you cannot make any of the dates, you can make a written comment by following these instructions:
SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS
The State Water Board will accept both written and oral comments on the proposed Plan Amendment and the SED. Written comments must be received no later than 12:00 noon on January 17, 2017, and addressed and submitted to:
Jeanine Townsend, Clerk to the Board
State Water Resources Control Board
1001 I Street, 24th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814-0100
Comment letters may be submitted electronically, in pdf text format (if less than 15 megabytes in total size) to the Clerk to the Board via e-mail at comment[email protected]. Please indicate in the subject line: “Comment Letter – 2016 Bay-Delta Plan Amendment & SED.” You may also submit your comments by fax at (916) 341-5620. Electronic submission is preferred, but not required.
Couriers delivering comment letters must check in with lobby security personnel, who can contact Jeanine Townsend at (916) 341-5600.
This plan is simply a sellout to corporate America and the need for a personal legacy. It doesn’t make sense environmentally, financially, or for the good of the people. It avoids the hard task of dealing with the issues of population distribution through sound public policy. In the long run such catastrophic environmental manipulations are not sustainable and primarily in the self interest of the promoters. Governor Brown knows better. Shame on him! Get the true facts out!
So far, all I have read and reviewed, shows a land and water grab by So. Cal water agencies. Why should we send more water to So. Cal users so who use the water to fill swimming pools. And, the tunnels will draw water from above where Delta water users extract their water resulting in further degradation of the water available to users in the Sacramento areas.
People in So.Cal. have to be much more responsible for the amount of water they use and build their own reservoirs and other infrastructure to cleanup their aquifers and develop new processes for capturing and reusing water sent out to the ocean!
Gov. Brown added rock barriers in 2015 to begin reducing the flow of Delta waterways in anticipation of his twin tunnel fantasy. Since 2015, my home in Discovery Bay has experienced toxic algae in our waterways. For the past several months, Contra Costa County Health Department has forbid use of the San Joaquin River water flowing in our backyards due to this terrible problem. If the current Administration continues with this ludicrous idea of tunnels, the future of the Delta is in serious jeapordy. Our water problem in Discovery Bay is directly a cause of the reduced flow of Delta waters by the Governor. I, and all my neighbors in Discovery Bay, have been unable to enjoy the lifestyle we chose when we all moved here. The scope of the adverse effects of the tunnels will have on humans, animals, fish, and water quality has not been considered. Without allowing the people to voice their opinions via a vote on the tunnels, the Governor has taken a dictatorial approach to this issue. For which he has absolutely no business and no legal basis to do so.
I recently visited the Lodi Crane Festival and saw what lands that wildlife depend on for survival. The Tunnel Proposal is going through areas wildlife depend on and I do not hear anyone commenting on that issue. What has been proposed to restore the devastation building the tunnel would create? How much of the proposed budget is for restoration and is it enough?
Secondly, the Tunnels will impact San Franciso Bay as the rivers empty into the Bay.
It seems the Tunnels will benefit folks south of the Bay and the cost does not substantiate the
environmental risks. Go back to the drawing board.
Painful as it is, our water is limited and must be valued and conserved along with life sustained by it. Water is life. Not jobs, life itself. If we allow the past trends to continue, based on jobs, profit margins, and unsustainable practices, we will destroy species, contaminate our soil and water and drain our aquifers. This is not about jobs. Not even about generations of farmers. This is about sustainability and life. We need to rethink our practices and understand that nature, in order to sustain humankind, is what is important here. Mankind has not been able to create or recreate nature. We need to plan how to preserve nature, our natural resources, and other species so that we (our species) may survive. We have been oblivious, ignorant, or deceiving ourselves that mankind is “in control.” If we continue to abuse the planet, waste water, and do as we please (as opposed to what is required), we are condemning future generations, perhaps endangering their very existence. The Dodo is long gone. The society that depended upon it…? We cannot continue disrupting natural ecology thinking that we know better and expect it to still be there for future generations. Some speak of building a dome on Mars. We can’t even take care of the “dome” we already have here on earth and we continue to waste our resources as if they were limitless. We have reached limits. Some areas have depleted aquifers. Some areas have contaminated soil. Why? Profit. Jobs. Think life. Think future generations. Perhaps we cannot have it all and expect to survive. Draining one area to support an unsustainable area makes no sense. Eventually, all areas will collapse.
Thank you for this comment, it is necessary.
WRCB Representative,
I live in the Bay Area and am under the opinion that the first priority is the health of the Delta and the Bay. The complex SF Bay and wetlands is an important resource and it’s up to us to protect it. Water sent to the ever-broadening orchards in the South should be secondary, only when the amount of water available permits it.
Thank you….
Lawrence Danos
. If unsustainable water exports are not dealt with, the water quality and quantity objectives for the Delta will never be met. The Delta needs to be sustained for a healthy ecosystem.
The Delta must be managed for the good of all the people.
Hi, I am concerned about the Delta and its delicate eco-system being harmed or destroyed by diverting the water to Southern California farmers by tunneling. Please reconsider this idea as it is harmful to our environment in Northern California. Thank you. Sincerely, Lynda Tatrai (2016 Bay Delta Plan Ammendment & SED)
Our natural environment is designed to work as a system. If we send our water out of the Delta, we will be damaging an already stressed system. Save the rivers of Northern California . Save the Delta.
Each time we listen to Governor Brown, he tells us how he is so concerned about the environment. My question to Governor Brown is this: why in the world would you support a project that will destroy the eco-system of the Bay Estuary without adding one drop of water? Please don’t just talk – act like someone concerned about the environment and stop the Tunnels before the unnecessary destruction of the San Francisco Bay eco system. Do you really want to leave behind your legacy as being the person who helped destroy the San Francisco estuary and taking away the living of many, especially the fishermen? Think environmentally: de-salination, conservation and an increase in appropriate water storage facilities throughout California to capture the rain for future dryer periods.