[env-trinity] Jerry Brown admits Delta Tunnels is "unpopular" as legislators slam projec

[Dan Bacher]

Photo meme courtesy of Restore the Delta.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/6/1578495/-Jerry-Brown-admits-Delta-Tunnels-is-unpopular-as-legislators-slam-project

Jerry Brown admits Delta Tunnels is "unpopular" as legislators slam  
project

by Dan Bacher

On the same day that Governor Jerry Brown jokingly praised former  
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for saddling him with the Delta Tunnels  
and other “unpopular policies,” four Northern California Congress  
Members and twelve state legislators issued letters strongly opposing  
the tunnels project.


Brown lauded Schwarzenegger for focusing on environmental issues at  
the tenth anniversary celebration of the passage of  Assembly Bill 32,  
the legislation that established the state’s greenhouse emissions  
reductions, in the California Museum in Sacramento on Wednesday,  
October 5.

“Arnold, thanks for being for climate change, cap and trade, the  
tunnels project, high speed rail and all the other unpopular policies  
that I’m saddled with,” quipped Brown.

You can listen to Brown’s comments here 1:01:24: bit.ly/...

Restore the Delta (RTD) responded to Brown’s quote, noting that “  
Jerry Brown thanked former Governor Schwarzenegger for saddling him  
with unpopular issues such as the Delta Tunnels -- even though, since  
he was first elected, he's been pursuing the tunnels like Captain Ahab  
pursuing Moby Dick!”

As an acknowledgement of the growing resistance by Californians to the  
WaterFix, Brown for the first time recognized the Delta Tunnels as  
"unpopular, according to RTD.

Of course, neither Schwarzenegger nor Brown mentioned the many other  
controversial  neo-liberal environmental policies that they are  
responsible for.

These include authorizing record water exports out of the Delta;  
driving Delta and longfin smelt, winter run Chinook salmon, Central  
Valley steelhead, green sturgeon and other fish species closer and  
closer to extinction; overseeing the creation of faux “marine  
protected areas” under the oil industry-lobbyist overseen Marine Life  
Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative; appointing Big Oil executives, Big  
Ag lobbyists, and other corporate officials with numerous conflicts of  
interest to state agencies and regulatory bodies; and doing everything  
they can to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and  
other environmental laws.

Nor did Schwarzenegger and Brown mention one of the least discussed  
issues in California environmental politics – and one of the most  
crucial to understanding the Delta Tunnels Plan -  the clear  
connection between the Marine Life Protection Act Initiative and the  
California WaterFix, formerly called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan  
(BDCP). In spite of some superficial differences, the two processes  
are united by their leadership, funding, greenwashing goals, racism  
and denial of tribal rights, junk science and numerous conflicts of  
interest.

To read my report, Deep Regulatory Capture Exposed: The Links Between  
Delta Tunnels Plan & MLPA Initiative, go to: www.dailykos.com/...

Congress Members ask for responses to Dr. Jeffrey Michael’s cost- 
benefit analyis

As Brown, Schwarzenegger and other state officials were delivering  
their comments at the AB 32 anniversary commemoration, Representatives  
John Garamendi, Jerry McNerney, Mike Thompson and Doris Matsui (D-CA)  
sent a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation and the California  
Department of Water Resources (DWR) calling for responses to a recent  
cost-benefit analysis of the California WaterFix Tunnels project  
conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Michael at the University of the Pacific (UOP).

Michael’s analysis raises “key questions” about the plan, according to  
a joint news release from the Representatives.  The letter also raises  
a number of questions based upon another recent and unofficially  
released cost-benefit analysis prepared by David Sunding for the  
California Natural Resources Agency.

“Both reports confirm what we’ve long suspected –WaterFix doesn’t make  
good financial sense for California,” said Rep. Thompson. “Under these  
analyses, water users and even federal taxpayers would be on the hook  
for investments in a project that can’t promise better water  
deliveries. State and federal water agencies must not be allowed to  
squander taxpayer dollars on infrastructure that would devastate the  
Delta without any guaranteed benefit.”

“The analysis done by Dr. Michael shows that the advertised benefits  
of the Twin Tunnels simply don’t hold water,” said Congressman  
Garamendi. “Both cost-benefit breakdowns of the WaterFix that have  
been released to the public raise major questions about the viability  
of the project, and its funding sources.”

“The numbers don’t pencil out for farmers south of the Delta,” said  
Congressman McNerney. “Delta farming operations could be severely  
disrupted, and endangered species are at risk of not surviving the  
consequences of this massive project. The WaterFix plan’s costs do not  
outweigh the alleged benefits and would require a large federal  
subsidy, while causing irreparable harm to Delta and Northern  
California communities who have not been adequately included in  
project negotiations.”

McNerney urged the state to “move away” from Governor Brown’s flawed  
WaterFix tunnels plan and “implement the cost-effective policy  
solutions already outlined in the California Water Action Plan – like  
conservation, recycling, increased efficiency, and storage – that will  
ensure sustainable water supplies for a healthy Delta ecosystem and  
California’s farmers and communities statewide.”

You can view the letter here

12 Delta/Bay Area legislators slam proposed California Water Fix  
diversions

Also on Wednesday, twelve state legislators representing the Delta and  
Bay Area regions urged the State Water Resources Control Board to  
reject a petition to change water rights that would reduce fresh water  
flows to the Delta as part of the controversial WaterFix proposal, a  
move the lawmakers say will “cause catastrophic damage to the  
environment and economies of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San  
Francisco Bay region.”

The letter by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) and 11 other legislators  
denounced the proposed water diversions, citing evidence that doing so  
will cause “serious and potentially irreparable harm to hundreds of  
plant and wildlife species, and also significantly damage the  
agricultural, fishing, tourism and recreation industries that rely  
upon the Delta.”

“Contrary to its name, the WaterFix fixes nothing," said Wolk, who  
represents four of the five counties in the Delta, in a press release.  
“The project won’t provide any additional water supply or increase  
water deliveries, and will only exacerbate conditions in the Delta.  
Further reducing fresh water flows to the Delta will cause serious and  
potentially irreparable harm to the Delta’s fragile ecosystem, as well  
as its communities and economy. That includes the Delta’s $5.2 billion  
agricultural economy, as well as the iconic Delta and Coastal fishing  
industries, which are worth billions annually.”

The Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation,  
the principal backers of the California WaterFix Project, submitted  
the petition to the Water Board to add three new points of diversion  
from the Sacramento River.

Wolk, a long-time opponent of the Tunnels project, was the lead author  
of the letter to the Water Board. The letter’s other authors include  
Senators Mark Leno, Loni Hancock, Jerry Hill, Cathleen Galgiani, Steve  
Glazer, Dr. Richard Pan, and Bob Wieckowski, and Assembly Members Bill  
Dodd, Susan Eggman, Catharine Baker, Ken Cooley, and Phil Ting.

Wolk and the other legislators urged the Water Board to consider the  
effects of diverting up to two-thirds of the Sacramento River from the  
Delta, including increased salinity that would contribute to further  
declines in species including the critically endangered Delta Smelt,  
the endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, and the  
Greater Sandhill Crane.

Wolk said the letter notes the “widespread concern from scientific  
bodies including the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the  
Delta Independent Science Board that flawed science is being used to  
advocate for the WaterFix’s proposed benefits to the Delta environment  
and water quality.”

“Current water diversions are already overtaxing the Delta ecosystem.  
Reducing stress on the Delta by reducing reliance on fresh water  
exports is a fundamental and necessary step to ensure the sustainable  
and resilient water supplies needed by the economies, communities and  
ecosystems in the Delta and throughout the state. It’s time for a Plan  
B that can succeed where the WaterFix has failed, a plan that help us  
achieve the coequal goals established by The Delta Reform Act, while  
protecting the Delta as a place,” Wolk stated.

Winnemem Wintu: Shasta Dam Raise, Sites Reservoir and Delta Tunnels  
are one project

While the state and federal governments and mainstream media try to  
portray the Shasta Dam raise plan, Sites Reservoir proposal, and Delta  
Tunnels as “separate” projects,  Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual  
Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, believes they “need to be  
considered as one project.”

“Without one, you can’t have the others," Chief Sisk told me during  
the historic Run4Salmon prayer journey from Vallejo to the McCloud  
River from September 17 to October 1. “If the tunnels are built, there  
will be no water to put in them. You need Sites Reservoir to provide  
the water for the tunnels and the Shasta Dam raise to provide water  
for Sites.”

“Although the state and federal governments are saying they are  
separate projects, they are all really one project,” noted Sisk. “Why  
do you think Westlands Water District, the Resnicks, Metropolitan  
Water District and other water districts are all pushing for the  
Shasta Dam Raise, Sites Dam and the Delta Tunnels?”

“We consider Shasta Dam a weapon of mass destruction,” said Chief  
Sisk.  “It has already taken our homes, sacred sites, burial sites,  
and stopped the salmon from returning to their historical spawning  
grounds. If these tunnels are built, Governor Brown’s so called  
‘California WaterFix’, they will not only cause more death and  
destruction to the already endangered salmon, but they will encourage  
and motivate plans to enlarge Shasta Dam. An enlarged Shasta Dam will  
flood what remaining sacred sites, and cultural sites that we still  
use today.”

In written testimony submitted to the State Water Resources Control  
Board for the ongoing hearings regarding Reclamation and DWR’s water  
diversion change petition required to build the California WaterFix,  
Winnemem Wintu Governmental Liaison Gary Mulcahy asks:

“Drowned cultures, dead and extinct fish, broken promises, stolen  
lands, environmental destruction, water grabs, and years and years of  
litigation – is it truly worth it?” 
   
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