For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 3, 2015  Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft;  Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta Tunnels Opponents: Water Export Pumps Have Run Every Single Day During Drought Salmon & Other Fisheries Near Extinction, Federal Hearing Shuts Out Delta Farmers Sacramento, CA- Restore the Delta (RTD), the leading opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build massive underground water tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today responded to testimony given by San Joaquin Valley farm advocates at the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the status of drought conditions throughout the western United States, and also at the Drought Update given to the California State [...]

Dear Restore the Delta friends,  For an update on the federal drought legislation, click here. No Delta representatives or fishery experts were invited to the panel hearing scheduled for June 2, 2015. It's back! We've been keeping track on federal drought legislation that will have horrible impacts on the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary, the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas. We need to act fast. We do not have bill numbers/titles yet for the House or Senate versions of the two bills, but we do know that the most recent House draft will harm west coast salmon, override key environmental laws like the Endangered Species Act, and will ruin Delta water quality for all Bay-Delta users (farmers, drinking [...]

For Immediate Release: Friday, May 29, 2015  Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft;  Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta • Media Release #1: Tunnels Opponents Respond to Gov. Brown • Media Release #2: Tunnels Opponents Criticize Drought Barriers Tunnels Opponents Respond to Gov. Brown Sacramento, CA- Restore the Delta (RTD) and other opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build massive underground water tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today responded to Gov. Brown’s continued advocacy of his tunnels. “In addressing Sacramento business leaders yesterday, Governor Brown said that he is now going to call the Delta tunnels, pipes, because pipes are more popular. His reference here to pipes, and his [...]

We released a short video on You Tube to make our drought concerns accessible to the public, calling for favoritism to end in the Brown Administration’s handling of drought measures and efforts to move forward with the Delta tunnels. Watch the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k8LFfpfQhs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, May 20, 2015 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta Tunnels Opponents: Gov. Brown Trampling Laws, Water Quality & Habitat Under Cover of Drought Emergency No Permit to Build Barrier; No Water Quality Protection; Ineffective Effort to Protect Endangered Garter Snake Stockton, CA- Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build massive underground water tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, salmon and other Pacific fisheries, along with its partners today made the following statement to the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) regarding drought impacts, the installation of a drought barrier in the Delta, and violations of Delta water quality standards since the [...]

For Immediate Release: Friday, May 15, 2015 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta; Karen-Cunningham 925/354-2599 Stockton, CA – Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build water export Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today responded to California Fish and Wildlife’s celebration of the 10th National Endangered Species Day by pointing out the department’s failure to protect the giant garter snake in the Delta. “The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) states that the purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend to prevent extinction,’” said executive director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla. [...]

“First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. And then you win.” ― Ghandi Articles • Halftime Score. Delta 7. Tunnel Proponents 0. • Getting Ready for the Second Half. • Game plan Halftime Score. Delta 7. Tunnel Proponents 0. The Bay Delta Conservation Plan is dead. Long live the Delta! That puts the people who love the Delta and who want to see REAL restoration of the estuary in the lead at halftime. When we consider that the Brown Administration and tunnel proponents threw at us 40,000 pages of convoluted and misleading documents, a quarter of a billion dollar administrative effort, and eight years of public messaging and lobbying by the deep pockets at [...]

Dear friends,  Watch our federal legislation alert. A pro-tunnels drought bill in Washington D.C. will lay the groundwork for water transfers regardless of conditions in the Delta. If this bill is allowed to pass, it will rid all the necessary obstacles to build the tunnels and expedite the project.  However, this drought legislation was made to be folded into other federal legislation, so it's important for you to call Senator Feinstein (202-224-3841) and your congressional representative and tell them you are opposed to over pumping the Delta and/or weakening protections of fisheries, in any Federal legislation under the disguise of drought. Take action today.  An easy tool to find your representative's and Senator's phone number can be done by going to https://www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup — all you [...]

Bloomberg Save California Farmers From Themselves APR 27, 2015 9:00 AM EDT By Daniel P. Beard You would hope the worsening drought in California would bring out the best in the state’s politicians, particularly those who profess to care about the waste of taxpayers' money. Alas, this isn’t the case when it comes to several important members of California's congressional delegation. Take Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, who is using the dire conditions to call for projects to channel water to a select number of politically well-connected farmers. "I'm from the Central Valley," the Republican congressman said, "and we know that we cannot conserve or ration our way out of this drought."  In fact, we don't know this because California hasn't seriously tried [...]