By Dan Bacher | May 18, 2013 |
In
spite of overwhelming opposition from environmentalists, fishermen,
family farmers, elected officials and the majority of Californians, the
Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) on Thursday, May 16 unanimously adopted
what it described as a "comprehensive management plan" for the Delta.
The
Council also certified the final Programmatic Environmental Impact
Report (PEIR), despite opposition to the report from every single person
who spoke during the public comment period, ranging from Delta farmers
to a representative of the Metropolitan Water District. In addition, the
Council adopted regulations that will implement the policies of the
Delta Plan.
“State
law told us to develop a legally enforceable Delta Plan that will guide
state and local agency actions on water use and the Delta environment,”
said Delta Stewardship Council Chair Phil Isenberg, who previously
served as Chair of the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act
(MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Force to create so-called "marine
protected areas" on the Central Coast, as well as Chair of Arnold
Schwarzenegger's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, which recommended
the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnels.
 |
| Wendy
Stokes, Chair of Restore the Delta, speaking at the protest at the
Delta Stewardship Council meeting in West Sacramento on May 16. Photo by
Dan Bacher. | |
“We
will now be able to focus on implementing the policies and
recommendations that will help achieve the State’s coequal goals of
providing a more reliable water supply for California and protecting,
restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem while protecting the unique
values of the Delta as an evolving place," Isenberg claimed.
A
press release from the DSC revealed how the Delta Plan is intimately
tied to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan to build the peripheral tunnels.
“The
Delta Plan is California’s plan for the Delta and is intended to be a
single enforceable blueprint that requires and encourages sustainable
actions now, and lays a strong foundation for future projects and
programs that will improve statewide water supply reliability, provide a
vibrant and healthy ecosystem, and preserve, protect and enhance the
rural, agricultural and recreational characteristics of the Delta. The
Plan will eventually include the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) when
the BDCP is completed and successfully permitted,” the release stated.
Delta
advocates, who held a protest featuring the "Death of the Delta" coffin
at the Radisson Hotel in West Sacramento before the meeting, disagreed
strongly with Isenberg's contention that the plan would protect, restore
and enhancing the Delta ecosystem "while protecting the unique values
of the Delta as an evolving place." They said the flawed plan would
"drain the Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries."
Delta plan perpetuates unsustainable status quo
Bill
Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance, began his presentation at both the rally and in the public
comment period at the meeting by stating, "Good morning, welcome to the
resumption of California's water wars."
"The
Delta Plan fails to comply with the law, and perpetuates an
unsustainable status quo that enriches a few powerful water brokers at
the expense of reliable water supplies and healthy fisheries," said
Jennings. "It is a classic shell game to benefit special interests and,
if implemented, would represent a death sentence for one of the world's
great estuaries."
"The
Council has squandered a marvelous and unique opportunity," emphasized
Jennings. "Because the Council failed to identify and analyze the root
causes of California’s water crisis – over-appropriation, unreasonable
use, failure to balance the public trust – the Delta Plan and EIR
largely recommends that agencies should continue to do the same things
that created the crisis in the first place. The Plan and EIR ignore
history and are predicated on an artificial reality. They’re little more
than omelets of half-truth and distortion to justify predetermined
conclusions."
Referring
to the failed Cal-Fed process designed to meet the "co-equal goals" of
water supply and ecosystem restoration, Jennings said, "Instead of
vision, we have a warmed over CalFed Lite!"
"Instead
of perpetuating the destructive water export policies, the Delta Plan
should be focused on developing regional water solutions that reduce
reliance on the Delta," said Wendy Stokes, a Delta farmer and chair of
Restore the Delta. "The Delta Stewardship Council has abandoned the path
of sustainable water policies to help endorse the Peripheral Tunnels.
Agriculture will not be able to afford this expensive water. The
majority of the $60 billion cost will be paid by the families of
Southern California through their higher water bills."
Water “reliability” – code for more water
"The
stated purpose of the Delta Plan is to provide water ‘reliability’ for
Southern California users. ‘Reliability,’ in this case, is code for more
water," said Nick Di Croce, co-facilitator of the California
Environmental Water Caucus, and board member of the California Water
Impact Network. "The delta cannot be saved, and its ecological crisis
cannot be addressed, by taking out more water. The real crisis for the
delta is that state and federal agencies have committed to deliver five
times more water than is available; these unrealistic commitments need
to be revised."
Stockton
City Councilmember Kathy Miller, representing the Delta Coalition,
blasted the Delta Stewardship Council and the Brown Administration for
failing to conduct an analysis to determine how much water is available
for export.
"Until
this water availability analysis is done, there is no way to know how
much water is available for export," she said. "The Delta Plan
nevertheless endorses building huge Peripheral Tunnels. This places the
cart before the horse."
She
also criticized the Council for not addressing the dire economic
impacts of the tunnels on the city of Stockton, a community where the
population of people living in poverty has risen 56 percent in the past
decade. "We need an open hand, not a closed fist," she said. "We need
policies that enhance jobs creation and capital investment."
The Delta plan’s true purpose: get around biological opinions
The
tunnel opponents said the true purpose of the Delta Plan is to get
around the court "biological opinions" that restrict water exports in
order to protect Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley
steelhead, Delta smelt, green sturgeon and the southern resident
population of killer whales (orcas), which forage on Sacramento River
Chinook salmon, from extinction.
"The
courts have found that water exporters have threatened the very
survival of several fish species. Now, instead of reducing water
exports, the Delta Plan endorses simply moving the point of export to a
different spot in the Delta," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive
director of Restore the Delta.
Independent
scientists have found that the removal of more Delta flows through the
Peripheral Tunnels would hasten the extinction of Sacramento River
winter Chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt and other fish
species. "Yet, that is what the Delta Plan endorses," said Jennings.
Jennings
concluded, "We have urged the Council to analyze and incorporate the
findings of the legislatively mandated flow reports by the Water Board
and Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Delta Protection
Commission’s Economic Sustainability Plan. Following an extensive
proceeding involving agencies, academia and non-governmental
organizations, the Water Board concluded that a substantial increase in
Delta outflow and a return to a more natural hydrograph were necessary
to protect public trust resources. The Delta Plan EIR didn’t even
consider that report as a major source of information."
Dick
Pool, Secretary of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, criticized the
failure of the plan to address the recovery needs of Central Valley
salmon.
"The
salmon cannot be restored with only habitat changes in the Delta," said
Pool. "There is a large body of science including the state and federal
agencies that recognize that only a combination of both upriver habitat
and Delta actions can restore the salmon populations. Delta operations,
specifically the pumps in the South Delta, with their strong impact on
upstream water movements and reservoir operations, severely impact the
survival of juvenile salmon above the Delta. The Delta Plan fails to
address these issues."
Salad Bowl Science
Nicky
Suard, owner of Snug Harbor Resorts in Walnut Grove on the Delta,
summed up the lack of credible science in the Delta Plan and the EIR
when she described it as "Salad Bowl Science," where the plan officials
"pick and choose" the science to justify their pre-determined goals.
"Don't pass this plan," Suard urged the Council. "It will destroy the Delta and everything in it."
In
her written comments to the Council, Carolee Krieger, President of the
California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), shredded the Final Delta Plan.
"We
find the Final Delta Plan utterly deficient," said Krieger. "It is
nothing more than a continuation of the policy that has destroyed the
largest estuary on the west coast of the continental United States and
instigated the state's water wars. As such, it is not a solution to our
water crisis, but a disastrous adherence to the status quo."
"It
speaks to special interests, not the public interest," she stated. "It
has been an unconscionable waste of taxpayer money, in that it
sedulously avoids any course of action that would lead to the pragmatic
and equitable distribution of our water while simultaneously protecting
the Delta."
The pleas of Suard, Krieger and everybody who spoke against the plan and EIR’s adoption fell on deaf ears.
As
was the case in the parallel Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA)
Initiative, Delta Vision and Bay Delta Conservation Plan “collaborative”
processes, the goal was to present a façade of an open and transparent
process where the “input” of the “stakeholders” was considered when the
outcome of the process, the privatization of the public trust, was
predetermined by state officials and corporate interests.
Council refused to conduct necessary analyses:
Restore
the Delta, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the
Environmental Water Caucus and the Delta Coalition said they had
implored the Council to undertake a series of necessary analyses because
the responsible agencies have refused to conduct them. These include:
•
A water availability analysis essential for addressing over
appropriation and separating real water from paper water and the legal
rights to it.
• A benefit/cost analysis indispensable for maximizing the use of limited resources for the greatest good for all Californians.
•
A public trust analysis crucial for ensuring that the common property
rights of all Californian’s are protected and balanced against those of
special interests.
• A beneficial use assessment addressing the extent that consumptive water is wasted and unreasonably used.
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