Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Paul Rockwell, Contra
Costa Times
Like the Florida Everglades, the
Bay Delta watershed is a national treasure. Every Californian has a stake in
the outcome of the fierce controversy over the re-engineering of our unique and
precious estuary.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan
is 40,000 pages long. To keep it simple, the $25 billion water-transfer project
is based on a single assumption: that California's water-ecosystem crisis is
caused by a lack -- a lack -- of engineering projects in the Delta watershed.
As if the Delta needs more steel, more pumps, more cement (and more farmers
dispossessed through eminent domain). The peripheral tunnels, the industrial
heart of the project, do not replace, they actually augment hundreds of dams,
aqueducts and pumps that already send water to corporate farms and cities south
of the Delta.
Coalition response... The situation in the Delta isn't working for anyone - not farmers, not
urban water users and certainly not for fish. The legislature recognized this
and passed the Delta Reform Act in 2009. A comprehensive solution that
addresses water supply reliability and ecosystem benefits is the goal of the
Bay Delta Conservation Plan and is the result of the legislature's action four
years ago. It's time to take a realistic approach to fixing the degraded
ecosystem that makes the Delta useless for two-thirds of California's
population and millions of acres of farmland.
Water Bond
From: Jerry Meral, Fresno Bee
In the ongoing debate over water
bonds for California, San Joaquin Valley legislators have a lot of leverage.
But if they and their colleagues fail to reach agreement when the Legislature
goes back to work in August, the Valley won't benefit and the entire state
could suffer the consequences. Voters expect a positive legislative response to
the drought, and a good water bond would be the best response.
California has many critical
water needs - some related to immediate drought relief but others that will
continue producing benefits for the state for many years to come. The governor
has proposed a $6 billion bond issue for the November ballot that would help
finance a full spectrum of much-needed projects for water quality, water supply
reliability, increased water storage, conservation and recycling, storm-water
capture and environmental enhancement.
From: Doug Obegi, NRDC Blogs
This November, California voters
will almost certainly vote on whether to authorize billions of dollars of
taxpayer spending for a water bond. But crucially, the next few weeks will
determine what water bond will be on the ballot in November - how much borrowing
it authorizes, what it spends that money on - and whether it is a good
investment in California's water future.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Anna Bitong, Camarillo
Acorn
Local lawmakers, agencies and
cities have backed a $25-billion plan to build two 35-mile tunnels to move
water more efficiently from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to water
purveyors serving 25 million people in the state, including more than 600,000
Ventura County residents.
From: Bill Wells, Tracy Press
Mark Cowin, in his recent piece in the Tracy Press, was correct
about one thing: "There has been considerable misinformation promulgated
about the BDCP (Bay Delta Conservation Plan), which has confused the
public." Much of the misinformation has come from Cowin's Department of
Water Resources and the Natural Resource Agency.
Groundwater
From: S. Bernstein; J.
Chaussee, Reuters
Underground stores of water in
the southwestern United States have receded dramatically amid ongoing drought
that has parched states from Oklahoma to the Pacific Coast and is costing
California billions in lost crops and jobs, a new study shows.
The study released Thursday by
the University of California, Irvine, shows that groundwater in the Colorado
River basin has dropped by 40 million acre-feet over the past five years, the
equivalent of two of the nation's largest reservoirs.
Drought
From: Staff, Associated
Press
Low warm water conditions from
the drought are starting to kill salmon in Northern California's Klamath Basin
- the site of a massive fish kill in 2002.
A recent survey of 90 miles of
the Salmon River on found 55 dead adult salmon and more dead juveniles than
would be expected this time of year, Sara Borok, an environmental scientist for
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Thursday. About 700 live
fish were counted in cool pools fed by springs.
From: S. Garcia; P. Tice,
Modesto Bee
I recently returned from a family
camping spot at New Melones Lake, which we have visited in the past and is one
of our area's largest water reserves. I was speechless when I saw the water
level of this once majestic lake. I have heard much about the current drought,
but have not felt affected by it at a personal level. When I turn on a faucet
in my house, water comes out as normal.
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