[env-trinity] Groups Demand More Time for Review of Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels Plan

[Dan Bacher]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/07/17/18775054.php

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/07/17/1403018/-Public-Demands-More-Time-for-Review-of-Jerry-Brown-s-Delta-Tunnels-Plan
The letter concluded, "In sum, the current comment period is  
inadequate because it fails to provide members of the public with  
adequate time for review. The proposed project is the most  
controversial public works project in California history. It is  
extremely complicated and the subject of voluminous analysis in the  
form of project justification and advocacy."

7_16_15_comment_time_ext_req.pdf
download PDF (395.2 KB)

Groups Demand More Time for Review of Jerry Brown's Delta Tunnels Plan

by Dan Bacher

In their zeal to rush the controversial Delta tunnels plan through,  
the Brown and Obama administrations are doing everything they can to  
limit and suppress public comment on the revised EIS/EIS for the plan,  
one that is potentially the most environmentally destructive public  
works project in California history.

The California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of  
Reclamation imposed a public comment period of only 45 business days  
last Thursday when they announced the release of the revised  
documents. Comments are due by close of business Monday, August 31,  
2015.

On July 16, a broad coalition of environmental and community  
organizations and California Indian Tribes demanded more time for the  
public to consider the controversial - and widely-criticized - public  
works project.

In a letter sent to the Department of the Interior, U.S. Bureau of  
Reclamation, California Natural Resources Agency, and the California  
Department of Water Resources, the groups and Tribes decried the  
accelerated 45-day public comment period and seeks an extension to a  
standard 120-day comment period that will close on November 14, 2015.

The signees to the letter are Conner Everts, the Co-Facilitator for  
the Environmental Water Caucus (EWC); Robert Wright, Senior Counsel  
for Friends of the River (FOR); Carolee Krieger, Executive Director of  
the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN); Bill Jennings, Executive  
Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA);  
and Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta  
(RTD).

“The short public comment period looks like a deliberate effort to  
make it virtually impossible for members of the public to be able to  
comprehend and respond with meaningful comments on the new NEPA and  
CEQP document," the groups said in the letter. "The BDCP agencies took  
almost one year to prepare the new documents and there is no public  
need for haste in providing too short a comment period.”

The groups emphasized that despite more than 18,000 public comments on  
the original draft EIR/EIS, and despite repeated requests since  
December 2013, officials have refused to post any of the detailed  
comments by organizations or public agencies on the BDCP website.

“This deliberate concealment of independent and contrary views and  
information from the public also now makes it more difficult for the  
public to prepare meaningful comments on the new NEPA and CEQA  
documents. Moreover, comments such as those from the EPA and Army  
Corps constitute critical new information that would be the foundation  
for many informed comments at this time," the letter explained.

The letter also noted that the Department of Water Resources has  
declared it will not produce technical documents requested by public  
interest groups until August 28, 2015, just three days before the 45- 
day comment period ends.

The letter concluded, "In sum, the current comment period is  
inadequate because it fails to provide members of the public with  
adequate time for review. The proposed project is the most  
controversial public works project in California history. It is  
extremely complicated and the subject of voluminous analysis in the  
form of project justification and advocacy. The subject is critically  
important to every Californian. We therefore request the additional  
time necessary to attempt to carefully scrutinize the subject NEPA and  
CEQA documents and then provide meaningful input by way of public  
comment."

You can read the letter here: http://www.friendsoftheriver.org/site/DocServer/7_16_15_comment_time_ext_req.pdf?docID=10261

The agencies recently divided the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP)  
to build the twin tunnels into two new components - California Water  
Fix, the conveyance part of the project and California Eco Restore,  
the habitat "restoration" component. However, tunnels critics note  
that the "revised" project is essentially the same water grab for  
corporate agribusiness, developers and Southern California water  
agencies as the old one.

The tunnels will hasten the extinction of Central Valley steelhead,  
Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, green  
sturgeon and other fish species, as well as imperil the salmon and  
steelhead populations of the Trinity and Klamath rivers, yet they will  
not provide any new water, according to Delta advocates.

"Virtually every promulgated statute and regulatory standard  
protecting the Delta has been routinely ignored and violated over the  
last three decades and, consequently, any assurances and promises by  
Delta tunnel proponents are worthless," said Bill Jennings, CSPA  
Executive Director. "California has been in a drought cycle more than  
forty percent of the time over the last hundred years and the tunnels  
will not provide a single additional drop of water. They will,  
however, further degrade Delta water quality and exacerbate conditions  
that have brought fisheries to the brink of extinction.”

The reason for the state and federal governments' continued  
cheerleading for the Delta tunnels plan, in spite of the project  
having no basis whatsoever in science, logic or economics, is due to  
the biggest issue we face in water and other environmental politics in  
California and the nation today - the capture of the regulatory  
apparatus by the regulated. Corporate agribusiness, developers,  
Southern California water agencies, and other corporate interests are  
working hand in hand with the agencies to build the tunnels.

This capture of the regulatory apparatus by the regulated was  
highlighted in April when Delta advocates slammed Brown for breaking  
his campaign promise that bond money wouldn't be used to mitigate the  
environmental damage caused by the tunnels — a $25 billion project  
designed to export Sacramento River water to agribusiness interests,  
Southern California water agencies, and oil companies conducting  
fracking and steam injection operations.

The admission by the Brown administration that it could use money from  
Proposition 1, the water bond, to pay for "habitat mitigation" linked  
to the construction and operation of the massive delta tunnels is no  
surprise, especially when you consider the Big Money interests that  
dumped $21,820,691 into the campaign. (http://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2015/04/29/why-governor-brown-broke-his-prop-1-promise-big-money-interests-dumped-218-million-into-the-prop-1-campaign 
)

The contributors are a who’s who of Big Money interests in California,  
including corporate agribusiness groups, billionaires, timber barons,  
Big Oil, the tobacco industry, and the California Chamber of Commerce.  
There is no doubt that these wealthy corporate interests are expecting  
a big return for their "investment" in California’s play-to-pay  
politic system, including the construction of the twin tunnels and new  
dams.

The Winnemem Wintu Tribe, other tribal representatives and their  
allies also challenged the capture of the regulatory apparatus by  
corporate interests on June 29 and 30 when they rallied, chanted, sang  
and waved signs on the sidewalk in front of Westin Hotel outside the  
Second California Water Summit in Sacramento.

They convened to protest Governor Jerry Brown’s efforts to exclude  
California Tribes, environmentalists, fishermen and other key  
stakeholders in this public meeting about massive state water  
infrastructure projects proposed under Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion  
water bond.

“This is a summit that is meant to help these people peddle Brown’s  
projects that will benefit his buddies: agribusiness and water sellers  
in Southern California,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader  
of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. “They are not interested in what’s best  
for the people of California and their children.”

Members of the Concow Maidu, Miwok, Hoopa Valley, Pomo, Wailaki and  
other tribes and Native Hawaiian groups joined with local activists as  
they shouted, “Water is sacred, water is life, protect the salmon,  
protect water rights.”

For more information, go to: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/07/04/18774455.php
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