Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Tom Barnidge, Contra
Costa Times
Too bad more people didn't attend
Saturday's "People's Equity Summit" at Holy Rosary Church in Antioch
-- most of the 400 chairs sat empty -- if for no other reason than to hear
Contra Costa County Supervisor Mary Nejedly Piepho share her concerns over the
Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
"We are at risk of losing a
major resource and suffering a devastating effect on our environment with
another water grab from the Delta," she said of the water conveyance
project backed by Gov. Jerry Brown. She fears reduced water flow into the
estuary will inevitably result in damage to the ecosystem.
Coalition response...Federal ESA regulations cut deliveries of water this year to San Joaquin
Valley farmers by 80 percent. No documented proof exists to show that taking
this water to protect endangered fish has benefited the species. Almost 4,000
farmers and 25 million Californians are seeking to restore the reliable
delivery of water they already have a right to receive. Supervisor Mary Piepho
wrongly describes it as "another water grab."
In his speech near Los Banos on
August 18, 1962, President John F. Kennedy praised Californians when he said,
"...one part of your state has been willing to help another." He was,
of course, speaking at the groundbreaking of San Luis Reservoir, part of the
Central Valley Project (CVP). According to the Bureau of Reclamation's website,
the CVP was originally conceived, "...to protect the Central Valley from
crippling water shortages and devastating floods." Ironically, the
first element constructed as part of the CVP was the Contra Costa Canal, which
serves Piepho's district.
Piepho compares the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan and its proposed tunnels to the peripheral canal of 1982. The
water capacity of the tunnels is only 9,000 cubic feet per second, compared to
21,800 cfs proposed by the peripheral canal. The Plan also calls for dual
conveyance of water through the Delta that will assist in maintaining in-Delta
water quality. The peripheral canal would have been operated as an isolated
facility with no in-Delta water benefits. Learn more about this comparison at www.farmwater.org/p-canalcomparison.pdf.
Sadly, attitudes are different
today. Politicians willingly twist the facts about projects like the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan to suit their own political needs. They ignore history and
the intent of Congress to provide water for farmers who grow food for the
nation.
Farming
From: T.A. Frank, Becca
MacLaren and Sarah Rothbard, Zócalo/Occidental College
Water has always been a
contentious issue in local communities. But now we're on the cusp of a global
water crisis. What can be done around California and the world-by individuals,
by governments, and by markets-to encourage us to consume less, conserve more,
and avert shortages and other disasters? That's what scientists, journalists,
and water managers came together to discuss at a Zócalo/Occidental College
conference at the Pacific Design Center.
The final panel of the day asked
what Californians, and the institutions that govern us, can do to decrease our
consumption and usage of water.
Reason science correspondent
Ronald Bailey said that our water crisis "is a crisis of governance."
The solution, he said, is twofold: to eliminate all water subsidies and all
farmer subsidies, and to allocate water rights to individuals rather than
governments. "There's no reason to subsidize any crops at all," he
said. "We have plenty of food." And when it comes to any natural
resource, when it's left in the hands of the government-or the people, in the
case of California-it gets abused and polluted. "You need granular owners
who own the water that goes through their land, and they're able to control
it," he said.
Coalition response...California farmers grow more than 400 different crops and contrary to
the information presented at the conference, most of the crops are not
subsidized. These farmers provide a healthy and affordable supply of food items
that stock local grocery store shelves and feeds people around the world.
People need to understand that
the only subsidy applied to California's water supply is the interest fees on
the construction of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) over 60 years ago.
When Congress authorized the construction costs for Shasta Dam and the other
reservoirs and miles of canals to deliver water to where it could be used
beneficially, the decision was made that the water users would repay all the
costs except the interest charges. This has proven to be a wise decision with
billions of dollars in crops produced from the lands that receive CVP water.
The California State Water
Project (SWP) was built later and state officials decided to include the
interest costs. The decision was also made to require those receiving water to
pay the full contract costs each year regardless of how much water is
delivered. In 1990, farmers received zero percent of their SWP water supply.
That means they paid 100 percent of their contract costs but received no water.
California farmers are striving
to provide a food supply that stretches around the world. Increasing their
costs could jeopardize that supply.
Water Supply
From: Bettina Boxall, LA Times
Water managers Monday urged
Californians to step up their conservation efforts, warning that many parts of
the state could face water shortages next year if this winter proves to be
another dry one.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Ian James, Desert Sun
Southern California water
agencies are joining the state government in promoting a plan to build massive
tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to carry water southward
to farms and cities.
The Coachella Valley's largest
water agencies hosted a workshop on Monday to tout the plan, with speakers who
included Jerry Meral, deputy secretary of the California Natural Resources
Agency.
Groundwater
From: William Frost, Cal Coast
News
An apparent consensus reached
over the past several months is that a special water district is required to
deal with the water crisis in San Luis Obispo's North County. The day-to-day
actions of this district would be defined and administered by a board of directors,
and it is essential that the election procedure for this board be designed to
provide a fair and equitable representation to all water users in the district.
From: Garth Stapley, Modesto
Bee
Questions about a potential
groundwater crisis were as plentiful as the 200 people who gave up their Monday
evening to attend a community meeting. Answers were much more scarce.
Experts painted a dire picture of
what could happen because wealthy nut investors have planted millions of almond
trees and sunk hundreds of gigantic wells to water them, saying groundwater
could vanish under that land and suck neighbors dry as well.
Water Quality
From: Press Release, Central
Coast Groundwater Coalition
The State Water Board on
September 24 extended the deadline to join a groundwater cooperative program
and opened the opportunity for additional programs to be created or expanded.
The newly created Central Coast Groundwater Cooperative (CCGC) is taking
the steps necessary to expand membership to landowners/growers in San Luis
Obispo, Santa Barbara and northern Ventura counties, the entire area
encompassed by the Region 3 Water Board.
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