FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, May 7, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta Restore the Delta Blasts LA Office Of Public Accountability BDCP Cost Analysis: Incomplete, Asks Wrong Question Failed to Consider Alternatives, Excluded Many Costs, Do LA Water Ratepayers want to Subsidize Mega-Ag? Sacramento, CA – Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s plan to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today criticized the Los Angeles Office of Public Accountability’s (OPA) analysis of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan’s (BDCP) cost to Los Angeles ratepayers as a “biased and piecemeal” analysis. “The Office of Public Accountability (OPA) performed a disservice to the [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, May 6, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta Gov. Brown’s Tunnel Lacks Implementation Agreement: Who will pay? Users Claim to Pay, But No Commitment Yet Made on Finances or Operations 39 Days Left but Governor Brown’s peripheral tunnels project still lacks operating plan & required species recovery assurances SACRAMENTO, CA – With just 39 days remaining for public examination and comment, the parties involved in the creation, planning and implementation of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) have failed to reveal a binding Implementation Agreement (IA) showing how the Delta tunnels project will be financed, built or operated. The continuing failure to file the agreement with specificity [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta Restore the Delta, Delta Water Agencies, Environmental Groups Respond to Water Bond Proposals, Suggest Amendments STOCKTON, CA – Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Governor Brown’s rush to build Peripheral Tunnels (a.k.a. the Bay Delta Conservation Plan) that would drain the Delta of fresh water and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries, has released joint letters along with Delta water agencies, and environmental groups containing their collective response to water bond proposals, and suggesting amendments. These comments will be considered at an upcoming Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife hearing where several versions of a statewide water bond will be [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta In case you missed it … San Francisco Chronicle Insight: Billionaires’ influence felt in state’s water policy Barbara Barrigan Parrilla Sunday, April 27, 2014 To track the outsized influence of Stewart and Lynda Resnick is tough because they have so many subsidiaries and so much money. There are Paramount Farms, Westside Mutual Water Company, a subsidiary of Roll International called Roll Global, which exports almonds – the list goes on and on. The influence of the Resnicks and their cohorts in the Westlands and Kern water districts has been brought to bear so heavily on the governor’s office during the past three administrations [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 24, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta Restore the Delta Responds to MWD’s Secret Campaign to Keep its Water Monopoly and Destroy Delta Farms & Fisheries: MWD will stop at nothing; Westlands planning $1 million blitz Restore the Delta Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla responded to news reports detailing a secret campaign by MWD to attack its critics: “Metropolitan Water District’s (MWD) participation in a secret underground media campaign to influence the thinking of Southern California water rate payers reveals that they will stop at nothing to protect their position as the largest wholesaler of water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta. MWD has proven that [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 22, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta In case you missed it… San Jose Mercury News editorial: Feinstein bill risks further damage to Delta April 22, 2014 California Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s willingness to do Big Ag’s bidding at the expense of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is increasingly alarming. Last week she released a revised drought bill that has environmentalists up and down the state fuming — with good reason. House Republicans are demanding that any drought legislation roll back crucial environmental protections and end the San Joaquin River restoration project. They act as if these rules are all about helping fish, but keeping the river system [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 17, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta In case you missed it… Sacramento Bee Editorial: Dianne Feinstein’s water bill is an overreach By the Editorial Board Published: Thursday, Apr. 17, 2014 – 12:00 am Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s drought bill, introduced in February, was an improvement over the water grab bill that passed in the House. A big plus in her original bill was $300 million for conservation and efficiency measures, aid to low-income farmworkers harmed by the drought, technological tools to help farmers get through this dry year and emergency projects to address drinking-water quality problems. That $300 million, however, has been stripped out in order [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, April 15, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta Gov. Brown’s Tunnel Implementation Plan Lacks Answers: Who will pay? Users Claim to Pay, But No Commitment Yet Made on Finances or Operations 60 Days Left but Governor Brown’s peripheral tunnels project still lacks operating plan & required species recovery assurances SACRAMENTO, CA – With just 60 days remaining for public examination and comment, the parties involved in the creation, planning and implementation of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) have failed to reveal a binding Implementation Agreement (IA) showing how the Delta tunnels project will be financed, built or operated. The continuing failure to file the agreement without [...]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, April 14, 2014 Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; [email protected]; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 [email protected]; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta In case you missed it… KPCC Southern California Public Radio and The Center for Responsive Politics The politics of drought: California water interest prime the pump in Washington Kitty Felde and Viveca Novak April 10, 2014 Last year, as California endured one of its driest years on record, the Westlands Water District made it rain 3,000 miles away — on Capitol Hill. The nation’s largest agricultural water district, located in the Central Valley, spent $600,000 on lobbying efforts, according to an analysis by KPCC in partnership with the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. That’s by far Westlands’ biggest annual [...]