[env-trinity] RTD Press release from today

[Tom Stokely]

For Immediate
Release: Friday, January 31, 2014 
Contact:
Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; steve at hopcraft.com; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara
Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 barbara at restorethedelta.org; 
Twitter:
@RestoretheDelta
 
Gov. Brown Sings from Mega-Growers’
Hymnal,
Tries to Bully Federal Scientists into
Approving Tunnels
State Mismanagement of Water helped cause
shortage
 
Sacramento,
CA- Restore the Delta (RTD),
opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the
Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today responded to Gov.
Brown’s statement Thursday that he urged President Obama to get federal
scientists to suspend their expert judgment and approve his tunnels. 
 
“It is
outrageous that Governor Brown is using the drought to push the president to
override federal biologists who think the water tunnels are too risky,” said Barbara
Barrigan-Parrilla.  “The federal scientists are the only ones willing to
stand up to special interests that want to violate the Public Trust, and
transfer wealth from this region to mega irrigators with toxic soils on the
west side that are last in the water bucket line.”
 
“The governor has
bullied the state scientists into going along with him, but he has not yet
cowed the federal experts into disregarding their conclusions and agreeing that
Gov. Brown’s tunnels are a solution to our water challenges,” said Barbara
Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of RTD. “What’s remarkable is that Gov.
Brown is using nearly the exact same language as the Westlands Water District.
Clearly, he is carrying their water at the expense of the rest of us.”
 
We have had three dry
years in a row and the governor admits the tunnels won’t add one drop of water
to our drought-plagued state. We need solutions more appropriate to our future
water challenges, not this $60 billion mega-project that would misspend the
billions needed for sustainable water solutions.”
 
“The better approach would be to invest wisely in projects that
actually produce new water and local jobs.  California needs more water
recycling projects, such as Orange County's that is producing enough water for
600,000 residents each year.  By cleaning up groundwater, we will create
another new supply and room to store water when it is truly available,"
said Barrigan-Parrilla.
 
Instead of operating
in a manner that plans for regular droughts, the State Water Projects deplete
storage under the theory that they should 'take it while it's there,' and they
thereby make the dry year shortages even worse.  This past year the State
pumped over 800 thousand acre-feet (TAF) more than it had promised, making the
water shortage worse, and compliance with water quality and fishery standards
impossible."
 
The
language used by the Governor is right from the Westlands Water District
script.  Excerpts below are from a recent Westlands Board meeting.  
Westlands
General Manager Tom Birmingham, Harris Ranch, Westlands Water District Board
Meeting 1-15-2014. 
 
@ 43:03
Transcript Pg
4:  Tom Birmingham “They [the state] say this is going to work just fine.
And yet, you’ve got biologists in the federal agencies—not people in political
positions or even management positions—we’ve got biologists who are saying ‘we
still don’t know if this is going to work. There’s too much risk associated
with it’.”
 [44:25]
“So
it’s very exasperating. But again, if these issues are not resolved, we’re
done. That message is being sent very clearly to the federal agencies.” Pg
4.
 
….The
basic problem is that every time you complete a stage, the federal agencies—the
biologists in those federal agencies—say, ‘We need more analysis. We need more
analysis.’ They don’t want an agency decision.” @pg 4
 
KCRA-TV (Sacramento, NBC) report (1/30/2014; 6:05
pm) 
Gov. Jerry Brown "lower level [Federal]
officials" aren't being helpful …. in fact, quite the opposite.”
 
Bill
Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance, said, "The present crisis could have been avoided, and is a
direct result of egregious mismanagement of the state’s water supply
system by the state and federal water projects.  Excessive water exports
and the failure to prepare for inevitable drought have created a decades-long
disaster for fisheries, and placed the people and economic prosperity of
northern California at grave risk. The State's obsession with tunneling under
the Delta does nothing to address drought, or put us on a path to correct the
misuse of limited water supplies."
 
John
Herrick, Restore the Delta board member and Counsel and Manager of the South
Delta Water Agency, said, “The failure of the State Water Projects to plan
ahead contributed to the current water shortage.  Last winter and spring
the projects were concerned about not having enough water to meet fishery or
agricultural standards, and so sought changes in their permits to allow for the
relaxation of those standards.  At the same time, they projected the
amount of water available for export.  As soon as the projections were
released, they began to pump MORE water than they projected; thus taking the
water needed for fish and endangering future allocations for all
purposes.   If this had not been allowed, the reservoirs would have
800+ TAF more storage in them than they currently do.”
 
“The
Urgency Petition process is for actual, unforeseeable emergencies,” said
Herrick.  “The State has known since at least September that we might be
facing a horrible water supply year due to the lack of precipitation during the
first 9 months of 2013.  Knowing that reservoir levels were getting very
low, and that the prior year had insufficient water for fish and water quality
standards, the projects simply waited to see what would happen.  Not until
the very last minute did they file their Urgency Petition.  Urgency
Petitions require no public notice or input, but must be based on a finding
that the petitioner exercised due diligence in getting the permit change under
the normal petition process if possible.  Since the projects have known
for months that this scenario was facing them, they should have made their
petition months ago. But that would have resulted in public notice, public
hearing and input by the interests who depend on the current standards being
met. It appears that, as in the past, the projects manipulated the process
to make sure there was no official opposition to their requests to violate the water
quality standards.  Worse, it appears the regulators (SWRCB staff) were
working with the regulated projects outside of the public purview to make sure
the petition remained unknown. Therefore, there was no contrary data submitted
to contradict the pre-agreed to order granting the petition. What would
have been the findings of the SWRCB Board if the information of the
projects taking too much water last season were in the record?”
-- 
Steve Hopcraft
Hopcraft Communications
Government and Media Relations; Campaign Management
Phone: 916.457.5546; FAX: 916.457.5548
http://www.hopcraft.com
Follow me on Twitter @shopcraft
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