CEQA

New Analysis Finds Harm in Gov. Brown’s Drought Order: Suspends CEQA, Abandons Public Rulemaking

For Immediate Release: Friday, April 3, 2015 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta New Analysis Finds Harm in Gov. Brown’s Drought Order: Suspends CEQA, Abandons Public Rulemaking Drought Barriers for up to 10 Years, Decimate Fisheries, But No Restrictions on Mega-Farms 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 Gov. Brown’s executive order. “While urban water conservation measures are desperately needed, Governor Brown is not calling for shared sacrifice,” said RTD Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla. “What he is enacting is sacrifice by 98% of Californians, and the [...]

Delta Flows: March 16, 2015

Articles • Temporary urgency, permanent extinction? • While Westlands Drives the Regulatory Process… • Would Delta Barriers Really be a Last Resort? • Curtailing water use during drought? Temporary urgency, permanent extinction? By: Tim Stroshane and Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla Releasing his latest Delta water quality order late on March 5th, Tom Howard, executive director of the State Water Resources Control Board, added a loophole allowing state and federal water contractors reliant on Delta exports to tell the state and federal water project operators they need more health and safety water supplies. State and federal operators must merely inform the State Water Board they will export more from the Delta to meet those claims for water. This is a loophole you can [...]

Delta Flows: February 16, 2015

“We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.” — Derrick Jensen Articles • Navigate or Confront • How drought management plays out in the Delta • Chipping away at all watershed protections Navigate or Confront By: Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla This week, Tim Stroshane finished preparing Restore the Delta’s first Protest response to the State Water Resources Control Board, specifically the Board’s January 27, 2015 Notice of Temporary Urgency Change Petition (TUCP). The TUCP is the Board’s decision to modify D-1641 for the months of February and March, weakening Delta outflow standards, [...]

Delta Flows: January 30, 2014

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” – Milan Kundera Taking advantage of a crisis Most people except some overwrought San Joaquin Valley congressmen and the Speaker of the US House of Representatives realize by now that there’s no water for farming right now because THERE’S NO WATER. Even if we had twin tunnels today, there would be no water to put in them. Reservoirs serving agricultural users were in good shape earlier this year (and those serving Southern California urban users still are). But the Department of Water Resources and the Bureau of Reclamation pumped a lot of water out of reservoirs north of the Tehachapis this past summer, gambling that we would [...]

State and Federal Agencies Suppress Public Comment on Peripheral Tunnels: Brown Administration Decides What the Public Can and Can’t Know

CONTACTS:Bob Wright, Senior Counsel, Friends of the River [email protected] 916- 442-3155 X207Osha Meserve, Local Agencies of the North Delta [email protected] 916-455-7300Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta [email protected] 209-479-2053Nick Di Croce, Environmental Water Caucus [email protected] 805-350-8898FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 28, 2014STATE AND FEDERAL AGENCIES SUPPRESS PUBLIC COMMENT ON PERIPHERAL TUNNELS: BROWN ADMINISTRATION DECIDES WHAT THE PUBLIC CAN AND CAN’T KNOW Tunnels Opponents Accuse Brown Administration of “Fraud and Deceit”; File “Demand” Letter to Halt SuppressionSacramento, CA – Conservation, community and fishing organizations today called on the Brown Administration to stop the suppression of opposing viewpoints on the proposed peripheral tunnels project. Friends of the River, the Environmental Water Caucus, and Restore the Delta submitted a formal Demand letter to the State [...]