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<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/opinionshop/index"><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;color:blue;text-decoration:none'><img border=0
width=627 height=84 id="Picture_x0020_1"
src="cid:image001.gif@01CAB159.1D65D8A0"
alt="http://imgs.sfgate.com/templates/types/blogs/pages/sfgate/opinionshop/graphics/header.gif"></span></a><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black;display:none'>By
Bill Kier U.S Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will try to remake the
Endangered Species Act in her own image early next week to reve up the federal
pumps in the San Francisco Bay Delta. Federal Judge...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black;display:none'>Open
Forum: Feinstein is wrong about precedent for water rules change<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<h4><span style='color:black'>Thursday, February 18, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<h2><a name="entry_id_57529"></a><span style='color:black'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/opinionshop/detail?blogid=42&entry_id=57529">Open
Forum: Feinstein is wrong about precedent for water rules change</a><o:p></o:p></span></h2>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>By Bill Kier<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>U.S Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will
try to remake the Endangered Species Act in her own image early next week to
rev up the federal pumps in the San Francisco Bay Delta.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Federal Judge Oliver Wanger ordered the
pumping diminished earlier this month to protect endangered fish, including
Sacramento River salmon.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Feinstein reportedly intends to attach a
pump-restarting rider to next week's "must pass" Senate jobs bill.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>The day after last week's court decision,
Feinstein issued a press release threatening to force an "Emergency
Temporary Water Supply amendment." This would deliver San Joaquin Valley
water users, including her Beverley Hills billionaire contributor <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/06/MNVU1AM0HO.DTL"
target="_blank">Stewart Resnick</a>, what they want -- Trinity and Sacramento
rivers water -- salmon be damned.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Resnick controls the <a
href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/Water_Heist_lo-res.pdf" target="_blank">Kern
Water Bank</a>, a vast underground water storage facility developed at huge
State Water Project expense but placed in Resnick's hands 15 years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Feinstein says there's precedent for the
havoc she will wreak on Central Valley salmon and the communities along a
thousand miles of coast that these fish have supported for 150 years. In her <a
href="http://aquafornia.com/archives/20259" target="_blank">statement</a>
Feinstein claims, "There is precedent for the solution I am pursuing: in
2003 Congress unanimously approved legislation that provided water supply
certainty with regard to restrictions imposed to protect the Silvery Minnow in
New Mexico."<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>What former New Mexico Sen. Pete Domenici
offered in 2003 was an amendment making clear that while Rio Grande flows had
to be maintained for the silvery minnow, the water Albuquerque imports from the
Colorado River (which runs down to the Rio Grande), need not be used as well
for minnow protection.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Feinstein has taken the New Mexico
situation and turned it on its head -- she would pump water from the Trinity
and Sacramento rivers, without regard for their salmon stocks, to deliver the
current runoff to the Kern Water Bank rather that allow it to provide baby
salmon safe passage through the Delta.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Feinstein's statement oozes compassion for
the "tens of thousands of people unemployed" in the San Joaquin
Valley. <a href="http://swap.ucdavis.edu/" target="_blank">University studies </a>show
most unemployment in the San Joaquin Valley resulted from the collapse of the
sub-prime mortgage housing construction boom, not the drought. About 8,500 jobs
have been lost to the drought, and about 2,000 of those to fish protection at
the delta pumps.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Meanwhile California has 23,000 workers
idled by the two-year shutdown of salmon fishing -- a $1.5 billion a year hit
to the state's economy.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Feinstein is supposed to be representing
all Californians, not just a handful of her largest contributors.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><i><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>Bill Kier is a Humboldt County-based
consulting fisheries scientist who has been involved with San Francisco
Bay-Delta fish conservation efforts for more than 50 years.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.5pt;color:black'><br>
<br>
Read more: <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/opinionshop/index#ixzz0g0r6k9Nq">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/opinionshop/index#ixzz0g0r6k9Nq</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Byron
Leydecker, JcT</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Chair, Friends
of Trinity River</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>PO Box 2327</span></i><span
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<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>Mill Valley, CA
94942-2327</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:gray'>415 383 4810
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