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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://lists.sunnydayonline.com/lt.php?id=eh8GCwFWCUsECEQAAFU%3D"
target="_blank"><span style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=600
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<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>For Immediate
Release, June 3, 2010<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Contact: Carolee
Krieger, Executive Director, C-WIN: 805-969-0824<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> Bill
Jennings, Executive Director, CSPA: 209-464-5067<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'> Adam
Keats, Senior Counsel, CBD: 415-436-9682 x304<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='color:#0070C0'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=freeform align=center style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center'><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Ratepayers, Farmers,
& Conservationists File Suit to <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Block Southern Ag
Water Grab<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>SANTA
BARBARA, <i>Calif</i>.– Today groups are seeking to block a secret
backroom deal signed by five water contractors along with the Department of
Water Resources [DWR] 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.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“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.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>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 <ns0:State><ns0:place>California</ns0:place></ns0:State>
ratepayers would not be valid until a new analysis of the impacts had public
review and was certified as complete. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“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 <ns0:City><ns0:place>Sacramento</ns0:place></ns0:City>
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.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>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 charged with protecting
the in-channel water supply for Delta-area farmers. The suit challenges the
legality of the following:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNoSpacing style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.25in'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>• Institutionalizing the concept of
“paper water” – water promised by contract that can never
realistically be delivered.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.25in'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>• 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 <ns0:State><ns0:place>California</ns0:place></ns0:State>
ratepayers.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.25in'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>• 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.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-right:.25in'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>• 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.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:.25in;margin-bottom:
0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=body style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=body style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=body style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>“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 <ns0:State>California</ns0:State>'s cities,”
said Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
in <ns0:City><ns0:place>Stockton</ns0:place></ns0:City>. “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.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=freeform align=center style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>#
# #</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=freeform align=center style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;
text-align:center'><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><i><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>For more
information on the <ns0:City><ns0:place>Monterey</ns0:place></ns0:City> Plus
Amendments, see</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Helvetica","sans-serif"'> </span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><span
style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.c-win.org/press-room-monterey-plus-amendments-and-environmental-impact-report-lawsuit.html"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'>http://www.c-win.org/press-room-monterey-plus-amendments-and-environmental-impact-report-lawsuit.html</span></a></span></b><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'> and </span></b><b><a
href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/monterey_plus_amendments/index.html"
title="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/monterey_plus_amendments/index.html"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/monterey_plus_amendments/index.html</span></a></b><b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>.</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><i><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>The <ns0:State>California</ns0:State>
Water Impact Network promotes the equitable and environmental use of <ns0:State><ns0:place>California</ns0:place></ns0:State>'s
water</span></i></b><b><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>,
including instream uses, through research, planning, public education, and
litigation.</span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>
</span><a href="http://www.c-win.org/" title="http://www.c-win.org/"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>www.c-win.org</span></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><i><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>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.</span></i></b><b><i><span
style='font-size:10.0pt'> </span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'> </span></b><b><span style='font-size:
10.0pt'><a href="http://www.calsport.org/"><span style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>www.calspo</span><span
style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>rt.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class=freeform style='margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><b><i><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>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. </span></i></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'> </span><a
href="http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"'>www.biologicaldiversity.org</span></a><o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Tom
Stokely<br>
Water Policy Analyst/Media Contact<br>
California Water Impact Network<br>
V/FAX 530-926-9727<br>
Cell 530-524-0315<br>
</span><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="mailto:tstokely@att.net"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>tstokely@att.net</span></a><br>
<a href="http://www.c-win.org/"><span style='font-size:10.0pt'>http://www.c-win.org/</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
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