Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Mark Wilson, Sacramento
Bee
Re "One shot to save Delta's
ecology" (Forum, Dec. 1): The Delta ecosystem is imperiled. The Bay Delta
Conservation Plan's proposal to take more freshwater from the Delta will not
help. The BDCP's environmental report says the very fish the plan purports to
protect are jeopardized by the constriction and operation of the project. The
BDCP is clearly a water grab, and California cannot afford it financially or
environmentally. Unscreened south Delta pumps are fish killers, and BDCP won't
do anything to fix them. Those pumps would still be used half the time. Before
we consider new BDCP pumping from the Delta, we need to know how much water can
be safely taken out while still improving the fishery and protecting our
existing, sustainable Delta farms.
Coalition response... Mr. Wilson repeats oft-disproved myths about the BDCP. The
importance of having a reasoned, factual discussion of the merits of the plan's
key elements of restoring thousands of acres of ecosystem and improve water
supply reliability can not be overstated. These myths are repeated so
often that the BDCP administrators have compiled them into a section of their
website - "Correcting Stubborn Myths" available at:
From: Sally Oliver, Sacramento
Bee
Re "One shot to save the
Delta" (Forum, Dec. 1): Dennis McEwan needs to accept that the twin
tunnels project (officially known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan) is about
transferring additional water from Northern California to the Central Valley
and Southern California, with no thought to the environmental and economic
devastation that will be created in the northern half of the state. The project
has proposals for additional dams, which makes clear the true intention of the
plan. Stewart Resnick and a few others took over the publicly developed Kern
County Water Bank for private sale, with the blessing of the State Water
Control Board and State Water Resources Department. Such action is a perfect
example of what the citizens of California can expect in the future from our
government. Gov. Jerry Brown is not protecting the general welfare of the
people of California by supporting this project but rather using us to pay his
political debts.
Coalition response... Claiming that the BDCP is an effort to take more water, or to
inappropriately acquire additional water from North State water users is a
myth. The BDCP is in fact an effort to improve the stability of supplies and
improve the Delta ecosystem. These myths and other distractions from the facts
of BDCP are refuted so often that the BDCP administrators have made them the
focus of a recent website, "Correcting Stubborn Myths." Learn more
about the myths at:
From: Bill Allen, Ed Casey,
L.A. Daily News
Californians build great things.
Our people build new ways for the world to connect at companies like Apple,
build new ways to combat deadly disease through work at companies like Amgen,
and build new ways to explore our universe at places like SpaceX. For a state
that has led the way in building so many things for our future, why would we
neglect the infrastructure that is absolutely critical to our entire state's
jobs base, economy, and quality of life?
Nowhere has this lack of
infrastructure investment been more blatant than in our efforts to-date to
ensure a secure, reliable and affordable water supply. In fact, the American
Society of Civil Engineers gives California a near-failing grade for our
levees, which are critical to our supply of fresh water.
From: Molly Peterson, Southern
California Public Radio
The California Department of
Water Resources begins taking public comments Friday on plans for its most
ambitious water project ever.
It wants to restore the ecosystem
of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, commonly known as the Bay Delta,
while re-plumbing how Southern California gets much of its water. And
ratepayers here could foot much of the project's $25 billion dollar tab.
From: Jerry Meral, Sacramento
Bee
Re "Capital area left high
and dry by Delta water tunnel scheme" (Viewpoints, Dec. 5): Councilman
Darrell Fong's concerns about the Bay Delta Conservation Plan are
understandable, but facts mitigate those concerns. None of the water needed by
Sacramento would be exported from the Delta. Nothing will be done to impair
Sacramento's water rights, among the oldest in California. The Bay Delta
Conservation Plan will not cause Folsom Reservoir to reach the "dead-pool
effect." That threat is caused by climate change and increasing upstream
use of water. The California Water Action Plan identifies these climate change
challenges and the local and state partnerships required to solve them. The
proposed tunnels would restore a more natural flow in the Delta, just as
Councilman Fong calls for. The earthquake threat to Delta levees is real and
helps justify the investment by the state of hundreds of millions of dollars in
levee improvements in the last few years.
From: Dan Walters, Ventura
County Star
Gov. Jerry Brown's administration
released two massive documents Monday, detailing its plans to build twin
tunnels beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and complete the last link of
the water system his father began more than a half-century ago.
Water Supply
From: Staff, Merced Sun-Star; Modesto Bee
There's been a lot of news about
water lately, just not enough talk about it falling from the sky.
Basically, we're in the midst of
record-breaking dry year, and we've got to take steps now to make sure we don't
run out of water when we really need it.
To that end, many of our state's
politicians are requesting that Gov. Jerry Brown declare a state of drought
emergency. The first letter arrived Monday when Sen. Dianne Feinstein joined
with Rep. Jim Costa to implore the governor to act. The following day, state
senators Tom Berryhill, Anthony Cannella and Andy Vidak joined with five
members of the Assembly, including Adam Gray, in a similar letter.
From: Mark Christian, ABC23- Bakersfield
Republican and Democratic
lawmakers across the state are urging Governor Brown and President Obama to
take steps to alleviate California's water woes. After an unusually dry start
to the rainy season, two California lawmakers are urging Govenor Brown to
declare a drought emergency.
Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein
and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, sent a letter to the governor's office this week,
saying the state is facing its third consecutive year of scant rainfall that
could deplete state reservoirs and leave farmers without enough water to grow
their crops.
From: David Silva, Merced
Sun-Star
I am a retired dairy farmer. I
read recently that despite the drought, the game refuges in Los Banos and other
parts of the state have been receiving their full allotments of water. In 1992,
the Bureau of Reclamation decreed that California game refuges do not have to
pay for water. What most people don't know, is that the duck clubs are in that
category. There are well over 100,000 acres devoted to duck hunting in
California and the owners are pretty much guaranteed three acre-feet of water.
Water Storage
From: AP Staff, CBS8.com; Modesto Bee
Federal officials are proposing a
$360 million expansion of one of California's largest reservoirs and a key
water source for Central Valley farmers.
The Modesto Bee reports that the
expansion proposal would increase the height of the 305-foot-high earthen dam
at the San Luis Reservoir by 20 feet, creating another 130,000 acre feet of
storage capacity.
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