<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#111111" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><b><a href="http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2012/02/15/rep-mcnerney-delta-advocates-denounce-nunes-bill-as-water-grab/">http://blogs.alternet.org/danbacher/2012/02/15/rep-mcnerney-delta-advocates-denounce-nunes-bill-as-water-grab/</a><br></b></span></font><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">“Congressman Nunes’ HR 1837 is specifically designed for a full on water grab from the Delta," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">Photo of Representative Devin Nunes courtesy of Nunes' office.</font></div> <br><img src="cid:677E5E12-26D8-4224-B80C-2F8645D62EAC@local"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-align: center; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111"><b>img1.png</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px;"><br></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 24px;">Rep. McNerney, Delta advocates denounce Nunes bill as water grab </span></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">by Dan Bacher </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">The water wars ramped up on Tuesday, February 14 with the announcement of the markup of federal legislation designed to divert more Delta water to corporate agribusiness and to sabotage the historic San Joaquin River Restoration Agreement. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">Representative Devin Nunes (CA-21) said the House Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a markup for H.R. 1837, the "Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act," a bill that Representative Jerry McNerney and Delta advocates denounced as a "water grab" conceived behind closed doors. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">"I am pleased that after four years of inaction by Democratic super-majorities in Congress, we are now – under Republican leadership - able to move forward with a solution to California’s government-imposed drought,” claimed Nunes. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">"This legislation is a comprehensive regional solution to water shortages that have been caused by failed government policies, not actual shortages of water. We have crafted a good bill that not only restores the flow of water but will ultimately make unnecessary the construction of a $12 billion canal to bypass the Bay-Delta," he concluded. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">The markup for HR 1837 will take place on Thursday, February 16, 2012 and consideration by the full House is expected in the coming weeks. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">Representative Jerry McNerney (D-11) reacted to the pending committee markup of H.R. 1837 by blasting the bill for being "yet another example of a water scheme created behind closed doors and without the input of the Delta communities." </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">"Any legislation that will forever affect the Delta must include the input of the people who reside there and rely on a healthy Delta for their livelihoods," said McNerney. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">"This bill is deeply-flawed, and it will rob the Delta of clean water and reduce the quality of the water that remains. To steal water from one community to benefit another is unconscionable and would have disastrous consequences for the Delta communities," he noted. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">"This is yet another example of how greedy water exporters and their allies will stop at nothing to achieve their goals with total disregard for the disastrous consequences for the Delta," said McNerney. "I will continue to call for fair solutions that include the input of all stakeholders, and to stand with the families, farmers, and small business owners who rely on the Delta for their economic security." </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">Restore the Delta also denounced the bill. “Congressman Nunes’ HR 1837 is specifically designed for a full on water grab from the Delta," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta. "It not only over rides the public trust as defined in the California Constitution and state water laws, it seeks to promote a large corporate agribusiness economy, all at the expense of Delta family farmers." </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">"If you want any striped bass in the Bay/Delta or anywhere else in California, or any other anadromous fisheries for that matter, you had get in touch with your Congressional Representative because H.R. Bill 1837 is out to kill the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) and its fisheries restoration objectives, as well as sucking Northern California dry," according to Mike McKenzie of the Allied Fishing Groups. "This is a classic example of self-serving greed by Southern San Joaquin Valley corporate agribusiness." </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">You can read the bill at: <a href="http://thomas.gov/home/gpoxmlc112/h1837_ih.xml"><font color="#0c2e5a" style="color: #0c2e5a"><u>http://thomas.gov/home/gpoxmlc112/h1837_ih.xml</u></font></a>. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">Nunes announced the legislation's mark-up as the Obama and Brown administrations are fast-tracking the construction of the peripheral canal or tunnel to export more water to southern California and corporate agribusiness interests on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The construction of the peripheral canal would likely result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and southern resident killer whales (that feed on salmon). </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">On the same day, the S.F. Chronicle published an article entitled "Bay Delta Conservation Plan is best option" by Natural Resources Secretary John Laird. Laird claimed,"This robust public stakeholder process was developed to hear all sides and understand issues." (<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/15/EDTP1N81IT.DTL"><font color="#0c2e5a" style="color: #0c2e5a"><u>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/15/EDTP1N81IT.DTL</u></font></a>) </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">In fact, officials in the water contractor-dominated process have gone out of their way to exclude Delta residents, recreational and commercial fishermen, California Indian Tribes, family farmers, grassroots conservationists and environmental justice communities from the BDCP "Management Committee" and to marginalize opposition to plans to build the peripheral canal. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">Between the assault on the Delta and fish populations by the Brown and Obama administrations through the BDCP process, on one hand, and by Devin Nunes and Congressional Republicans through HR 1837, on the other hand, advocates of the Delta and fish restoration really got their work cut out for them in 2012! </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">Below are excerpts from the language of HR 1837: </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">SEC. 108. COMPLIANCE WITH ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT OF 1973. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">(a) Compliance- </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">(1) IN GENERAL- All requirements of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) shall be considered to be fully met for the protection and conservation of the species listed pursuant to the Act for the operations of the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project, if the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project are operated in a manner consistent with the `Principles for Agreement on the Bay-Delta Standards Between the State of California and the Federal Government' dated December 15, 1994. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">(2) BIOLOGICAL OPINIONS AND MODIFICATION- The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall issue biological opinions for coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project that are no more restrictive than provisions of the `Principles for Agreement on the Bay-Delta Standards Between the State of California and the Federal Government' dated December 15, 1994. Such biological opinions may be modified only with the consent of the signatories to the `Principles for Agreement on the Bay-Delta Standards Between the State of California and the Federal Government' dated December 15, 1994. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">(b) Preemption of State Law- </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">(1) STATE LAW PREEMPTION- Neither the State of California, an agency of the State, nor any political subdivision of the State shall adopt or enforce any requirement for the protection or conservation of any species listed under the Endangered Species Act for the operations of the Central Valley Project or the California State Water Project that is more restrictive than the requirements of this section. Any provision of California State law that authorizes the imposition of conditions or restrictions on the operations of the Central Valley Project or the California State Water Project for the protection or conservation of a species that is more restrictive than this section is preempted. </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); min-height: 15px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="4" color="#111111" style="font: 13.0px Arial; color: #111111">(2) NATIVE SPECIES PROTECTION- Any restriction imposed under California law on the take or harvest of any nonnative or introduced aquatic or terrestrial species that preys upon a native fish species that occupies the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their tributaries or the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Delta shall be void and is preempted. </font></div></body></html>