<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
<META content=text/html;charset=UTF-8 http-equiv=Content-Type>
<STYLE type=text/css>BODY {
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 11px
}
A {
FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: #ff6600; FONT-SIZE: 11px; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
A:visited {
COLOR: #666666
}
A:hover {
TEXT-DECORATION: underline
}
P {
FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: #666666; FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
H1 {
FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: #666666; FONT-SIZE: 14px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
H2 {
FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: #666666; FONT-SIZE: 13px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
H3 {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: #666666; FONT-SIZE: 12px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
H4 {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-STYLE: normal; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: #666666; FONT-SIZE: 11px; FONT-WEIGHT: bold; TEXT-DECORATION: none; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
HR {
WIDTH: 100%; HEIGHT: 1px; COLOR: #ff9900; size: 1px
}
.forwardform {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
.forwardinput {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
.forwardsubmit {
PADDING-BOTTOM: 0px; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 0px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-TOP: 0px
}
DIV.emailfooter {
FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 11px
}
DIV.emailfooter A {
FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: verdana, sans-serif; COLOR: #ff6600; FONT-SIZE: 11px; TEXT-DECORATION: none
}
</STYLE>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18904"></HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=3 face=Arial></FONT><BR></DIV>
<P align=center>Having trouble viewing this email? <A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFWBksECEQAAFU%3D">Click
here</A></P>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0px auto; WIDTH: 630px"><A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFWCUsECEQAAFU%3D"
target=_blank><IMG border=0 alt="C-Win Header"
src="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/filestore/c-win/cwin6-3-2010header.jpg"
width=600 height=120> </A>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"> <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: small"><STRONG>For
Immediate Release, June 3, 2010</STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: small"><STRONG>Contacts:</STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P>Carolee Krieger, President California Water Impact Network (805)
969‐9565<BR>Bill Jennings, Executive Director CA Sportfishing Protection
Alliance (209) 464-5067<BR>Adam Keats, Senior Council, CBD: (415) 436-9682
x304</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><STRONG>Ratepayers, Farmers, &
Conservationists File Suit to Block Southern Ag Water Grab</STRONG></P>
<P>SANTA BARBARA, Calif.– Today groups are seeking to block a secret backroom
deal signed by five water contractors along with the Department of Water
Resources to undo water contracts underlying voter approved bonds four decades
earlier. Absent court action, contract changes that largely benefit southern
central valley corporate irrigators at the expense of urban ratepayers will
trade away ratepayer funded projects and allow massive diversions of water from
the Delta charging only pumping costs.</P>
<P>“These contract changes break promises made to bond holders and ratepayers,”
said Carolee Krieger, President and Executive Director of the California Water
Impact Network [C-WIN], one of the groups seeking to block the contract changes.
“These changes undo decades of urban ratepayer protections for the benefit of a
few agribusiness corporations and real estate developments at the expense of
ratepayers and bondholders.”</P>
<P>The back room deal, known as the “Monterey Amendments” signed in 1995 without
public input was challenged in court. The courts ruled the contract changes,
deeding of portions of the State Water Project known as the Kern Water Bank, and
removal of protections for southern California ratepayers would not be valid
until a new analysis of the impacts had public review and was certified as
complete.</P>
<P>“The State Water Project and the Kern Water Bank were developed by the state,
at ratepayer expense, to benefit all of California—our cities, our farms, and
our fish,” said Adam Keats, lead attorney with the Center for Biological
Diversity. “But with the Monterey Plus Amendments it has been hijacked by
private interests who are using it for their own ends, including stockpiling
water to enable destructive speculative development. Meanwhile the state’s
entire water system gets closer and closer to collapse and multiple fish
species—salmon, Delta smelt, even Sacramento splittail—are brought closer to the
brink of extinction so that subsidized growers can make profits off of water
sales and new sprawl development can be built in the last of our wild
places.”</P>
<P>The suit, filed today in Sacramento Superior Court, was brought by C-WIN, the
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the Center for Biological
Diversity, and the Central Delta Water Agency and the South Delta Water Agency
agencies that deliver water to Delta-area farmers. The suit challenges the
legality of the following:</P>
<P>• Institutionalizing the concept of “paper water” – water promised by
contract that can never realistically be delivered.<BR>• Eliminating the “urban
preference,” which prioritized water deliveries to municipal customers during
drought. This change resulted in water shortages and higher utility rates for
southern California ratepayers.<BR>• Illegally transferring state property known
as the Kern Water Bank to private entities and undermining the California Water
Code by masking the purpose and place of water use.<BR>• Increasing water
exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, thus worsening water quality
problems and triggering the collapse of the Delta’s ecosystem and fisheries.</P>
<P>The lawsuit seeks to reinstate the urban water preference during drought in
State Water Project contracts, reduce the pumping of Delta water that has
resulted in the collapse of fisheries, and return the Kern Water Bank to public
ownership.</P>
<P>“This was a poorly negotiated backdoor deal that put the wealthy growers of
subsidized crops ahead of fisheries and the need for a sustainable and reliable
supply of clean drinking water for California's cities,” said Bill Jennings,
chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance in Stockton. “The
Metropolitan Water District gambled it could raid the Delta for ‘surplus’ water.
It not only lost that bet, but the Monterey Plus Amendments triggered the
collapse of Delta ecosystems and our once-great salmon fisheries.”</P>
<P>More Reading:<BR><A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFWCEsECEQAAFU%3D">Monterey
Plus Amendments Background Information</A> (PDF)<BR><A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFRAUsECEQAAFU%3D">Monterey
Plus Amendments Chronology</A> (PDF)</P>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"># # #</P>
<P><BR>For more information on the Monterey Plus Amendments, see <A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFRAEsECEQAAFU%3D">http://www.c-win.org/monterey-plus-agreement.html</A>.
The California Water Impact Network promotes the equitable and environmental use
of California's water, including instream uses, through research, planning,
public education, and litigation. <A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFWCUsECEQAAFU%3D">www.c-win.org</A></P>
<P>CSPA is a non-profit conservation and research organization established in
1983 for the purpose of conserving, restoring, and enhancing the state's water
quality and fishery resources and their aquatic and riparian ecosystems. <A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFRA0sECEQAAFU%3D">www.calsport.org</A></P>
<P>The Center for Biological Diversity is a nonprofit conservation organization
with more than 200,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection
of endangered species and wild places. <A
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFRAksECEQAAFU%3D">www.biologicaldiversity.org</A></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>