[env-trinity] Article Submission: Tunnel critics respond to secret settlement as Delta smelt nears extinction

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.fishsniffer.com/blogs/details/tunnel-critics-respond-to-secret-settlement-as-delta-smelt-nears-extinction/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/12/1357321/-Tunnel-Opponents-Respond-to-Westlands-Secret-Settlement-Delta-Smelt-Record-Low-Numbers
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/01/12/18766805.php
http://www.calitics.com/diary/15672/tunnel-critics-respond-to-secret-settlement-as-delta-smelt-nears-extinction



delta_smelt.jpg

Tunnel critics respond to secret settlement as Delta smelt nears  
extinction

by Dan Bacher

When you think that things can't get worse in the toxic nightmare that  
is California water politics, be assured - "Yes, They Can!"

Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Governor Jerry Brown's rush to  
build massive Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom  
sustainable farms, salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today responded  
to the prospect of a secret settlement of the debt Westlands Water  
District owes to US taxpayers and the near extinction presently of  
Delta smelt.

Restore the Delta Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla stated,  
“The idea that the Westlands Water District can secretly negotiate a  
settlement with the Federal Government that secures Westlands’ water  
rights, by circumventing state water rights, and that lets Westlands  
walk away from hundreds of millions of dollars of debt that they owe  
to U.S. taxpayers is incomprehensible. Worse, Westlands is not being  
required to document how they will continue to farm without belching  
polluted discharge water back into the watershed, or how their farmers  
will pay for the approximate $2 billion that it will cost to fix their  
drainage issues."

"American taxpayers should not be on the hook to subsidize water  
profits for 600 rich farming corporations. Westlands should not be  
given Federal entitlements to water right seniority over California  
farmers who were in production decades before Westlands farmers,  
especially during times of water scarcity, as during this drought. It  
seems that Westland’s extensive lobbying and media efforts are buying  
the best government available in Washington," she said.

Barrrigan-Parrilla emphasized that this deal is "especially  
disturbing" considering the recent numbers from the California  
Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Fall Midwater Trawl Survey that  
show that the Delta Smelt population has reached a new record low. (https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentId=92840(

"The smelt, which was once the most abundant fish in the Bay-Delta  
Estuary, is an indicator species, meaning that it demonstrates the  
health of the Bay-Delta estuary," continued Barrigan-Parrilla. "The  
species is nearly extinct; other Bay-Delta fisheries are in rapid  
decline, and nobody is thinking about the economic damage that will be  
inflicted on commercial fisheries and their connected economies  
resulting from the over pumping of the Delta."

The survey also revealed the continuing collapse of striped bass,  
longfin smelt, threadfin shad and American shad in the Delta, the  
largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. The population  
index for striped bass is the third lowest in history, while the index  
for longfin smelt is the second lowest ever recorded. The population  
index for threadfin shad is the sixth lowest, while the index for  
American shad is the second lowest. (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/09/1356714/-Delta-smelt-reaches-new-record-low-in-fall-survey 
)

Barrigan-Parrilla said, “While Westlands continues to push Federal  
legislation for increased water exports at the pumps during the  
drought, enhanced water rights through secret negotiations, an  
unrestricted license to pollute, and their bills paid by American  
taxpayers, the Delta ecosystem is unraveling.

Westlands leaders will never be satisfied until they have all the  
water they want, when they want, without any restrictions, despite the  
economic and environmental consequences for the rest of California.  
They want the Delta tunnels so they can take as much water from  
Northern California as quickly as possible, and without the tunnels  
they want laws passed that simply let them muscle their way to the  
front of the line, even before the fish, to take all the water they  
want.

They talk about feeding the world and their economic importance to the  
nation – which in reality is 0.3% of California’s GDP. The truth is  
that their free hand of the marketplace is in our back pockets  
grabbing our tax dollars and the future sustainability of the Bay- 
Delta estuary for California’s children."

She concluded, "We call on the Bureau of Reclamation and the Obama  
Administration to make public the details of these secret  
negotiations, and to bring all impacted parties to the table to work  
on California’s water challenges "in a manner that supports the  
enforcement of existing laws."

For more information about the secret settlement, go to: http://bit.ly/1C0aSyW

Again, please remember that when you think it can't get any worse, the  
state and federal governments have an uncanny ability to find a new,  
unprecedented low in their mad race to the bottom.
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