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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";
color:black'>From: </span></b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>Dan
Bacher <<a href="mailto:danielbacher@fishsniffer.com">danielbacher@fishsniffer.com</a>></span><span
style='color:#0070C0'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";
color:black'>Date: </span></b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>July
1, 2009 11:24:17 AM PDT</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";
color:black'>Subject: </span></b><b><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:
"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>Peripheral Canal: Panama Canal North?<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span></span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span class=apple-style-span><span style='font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'>The peripheral canal proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
and corporate agribusiness will appoximate the width and length of the Panama
Canal, according to Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo). </span></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>Photo of Panama Canal from <a
href="http://www.gijontour.com/"><span style='color:#17345C'>http://www.gijontour.com/</span></a>
2009/04/panama-canal.html </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<img border=0 width=640 height=466 id="_x0000_i1025"
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>panama_canal_03.jpg</span></b><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>Peripheral Canal: Panama
Canal North? </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>Proposed Government
Boondoggle Would Be Width of 100 Lane Freeway! </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>by Dan Bacher </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein, corporate agribusiness and other
supporters of the peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta have carefully avoided discussing what an actual canal would look like,
as well as its enormous environmental impacts and budget-busting cost to the taxpayers. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>However, in width and length
the peripheral canal would be very similar to the Panama Canal, according to
recent comments by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan on the floor on the floor when
she and other legislators were asked to vote on a bill to fund a committee to
develop a plan to implement the Delta Vision recommendations. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>The recommendations call for
a "conveyance" that will transport 15,000 cubic feet of water per
second (cfs) from the Sacramento River around the Delta, according to Buchanan.
This is smaller than the proposed 1982 peripheral canal that was intended to
transport 22,000 cfs. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>During drought years, the
Sacramento River does not have 15,000 cfs. flow for over half the year. In
2007, the flow exceeded 15,000 cfs. in three months with the highest month at
22,500 cfs. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>"Based on an engineering
report completed in 2006, a conveyance to transport 15,000 cfs. would be
between 500 and 700 feet wide requiring a 1300 foot right-of-way," said
Buchanan. "That's the width of a 100 lane freeway! The length of the
conveyance would be 48 miles. By comparison the Panama Canal is between 500 and
1000 feet wide and is 50 miles long." </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>"I'm not going to vote
for a plan that builds a Panama Canal down the middle of the 15th Assembly
District!" concluded Buchanan. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>The Governor's Delta Vision
Task Force and Bay Delta Conservation Plan both recommend the construction of a
"peripheral canal" and more reservoirs designed to export more water
from senior water rights holders in the Delta and Sacramento Valley to junior
water rights holders that irrigate drainage-impaired, selenium-filled land on
the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Although the Delta Vision Task Force's
report recommended that less water be exported out of the Delta to help the
estuary's collapsing ecosystem, canal opponents note that the construction of a
canal with increased water export capacity would inevitably be used to export
more water out of the system. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>I have repeatedly asked canal
advocates to give me one example, in U.S. or world history, where the
construction of a big diversion canal has resulted in less water being taken
out of a river system. I have also asked them to give me one example, in U.S.
or world history, where the construction of a big diversion canal has resulted
in a restored or improved ecosystem. None of the canal backers have been able
to answer either one of these two questions. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>The push to build a
peripheral canal occurs as Central Valley and Delta fish populations are in
their greatest-ever crisis. Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Delta smelt,
longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish populations have declined to
record low population levels in recent years, due to increased water exports
and declining water quality. A broad coalition of Delta family farmers,
recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, grassroots environmentalists and
California Indian Tribes are opposing the peripheral canal because it is
expected to push imperiled fish species over the abyss of extinction. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>Schwarzenegger has cynically
tried to link a deal to remove four aging dams on the Klamath River, owned by
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Corporation, to a water bond including a
peripheral canal and more dams. However, the Klamath Riverkeeper and other
Klamath Basin stakeholders oppose tying the dam removal project to the
construction of new dams in the Central Valley and a peripheral canal as a
proposed general obligation water bond would do. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>"California must support
Klamath dam removal on its own merits," said Georgiana Myers, Klamath
Riverkeeper Community Organizer and Yurok Tribal Member. The Klamath dam
removal deal has received support from Oregon with Senate Bill 76, and now we
need Governor Schwarzenegger to step up." </span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>Meanwhile, the word from the
California State Capitol last week was that a combined hearing by the Assembly
Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee and the Senate Natural Resources Committee
regarding a host of water bills would take place on July 7, in Room 4202 at 9
a.m. However, now there is talk of the committee meeting being rescheduled for
July 9. "Neither date has been finalized, making the date a 'moving
target,' intentionally making it difficult for the public to plan to attend the
hearing," said John Beuttler, conservation director of the California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>"These committees plan
to establish a 'Delta Water Package' that would lay the groundwork for a Dual
Conveyance Facility to move water both through and around the Delta," said
Beuttler. "Unfortunately, as of now, we havent been told exactly what
bills will make the final package. However, it is understood that the bill or
bills will contain a $15-20 billion dollar water bond to pay for infrastructure
improvements that are likely to include the peripheral canal and at least two
dams." </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";
color:#111111'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;
font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#111111'>A big turnout of people
opposed to the canal and more dams is needed at the upcoming hearing. For the
latest action alerts on the movement to stop the peripheral canal and more
dams, go to the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) website
at <a href="http://www.calsport.org">www.calsport.org</a>.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
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