<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><a href="http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121201/A_NEWS/212010329">http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121201/A_NEWS/212010329</a> </div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; background-image: url(http://static.djlmgdigital.com/tsr/recordnet/graphics/bdyBg.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(4, 61, 99); font-family: Tahoma, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 10px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); width: 700px; position: static; z-index: auto; background-position: 50% 0%; background-repeat: no-repeat repeat; "><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 5px; font-size: 1em; width: 660px; "><h1 style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.7em; color: rgb(4, 61, 99); font-weight: bold; text-align: center; ">News</h1><h1 class="brkTitle" style="font-family: Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.3em; color: rgb(4, 61, 99); font-weight: bold; text-align: center; text-transform: uppercase; ">DELTA PLAN TO GET COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS</h1><br><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; width: auto; "><span class="by">By </span><span class="byline" style="font-size: 1.2em; font-style: italic; font-family: georgia; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(34, 34, 34) !important; "><a href="mailto:ssmith@recordnet.com" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; ">Scott Smith</a></span></div><div style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1em; width: auto; ">December 01, 2012</div><span class="bylineExtra">Record Staff Writer</span><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">State water officials announced this week that they intend to undertake a cost-benefit study of a controversial, multibillion-dollar plan to transport water from Sierra Nevada snowmelt around the Delta and send it south.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">This appears to be an about-face for state officials, who have long opposed the study. A spokesman for California's Natural Resources Agency on Friday downplayed the shifting position as an effort to be responsive to the project's critics.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">"I wish I could say this is a huge step," agency spokesman Richard Stapler said. "This is a step in the process."</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">In January, the state expects to lay out the scope of the analysis, which might be completed at the earliest in the spring.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">Gov. Jerry Brown backs the proposed $14 billion project - called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan - which would siphon water past the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and down to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California residents.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">Communities that abut the Delta, such as Stockton, have staunchly opposed the project, fearing that less water coming into the estuary would cause a backwash of ocean saltwater, destroying rich farmland.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">These Delta advocates have pushed - so far with no success - for a full analysis of the social, environmental and financial costs of the project.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, in October proposed a bill in Congress to force the study after a similar bill by state Assemblyman Bill Berryhill, R-Stockton, failed to pass earlier this year.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">Jerry Meral, deputy secretary for the state's Natural Resources Agency, announced the cost-benefit analysis in a finance committee meeting Thursday. David Sunding, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, will lead the study.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">University of the Pacific economist Jeff Michael said he was cautiously optimistic that the state would properly execute it. A cost-benefit analysis such as this often produces the result the authors desire, he said.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">"They gave an indication that they were very open and interested in feedback to make sure they covered everything," Michael said of state officials. "It's a reversal for an agency denying they need to do this for a long time."</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">The Delta estuary supports dozens of species inland, and the ecosystem extends to fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Stockton-based Restore the Delta and an outspoke critic of the proposed water conveyances.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">Responding to comments from the Natural Resources Agency spokesman Stapler, Barrigan-Parrilla said she feared that officials were not committed to a thorough analysis.</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">"That indicates they are not planning on doing it fully and adequately," she said. "They're not committed to do an analysis with the deep thinking and science it deserves."</p><p class="articleGraf" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.35em; ">Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or <a href="mailto:ssmith@recordnet.com">ssmith@recordnet.com</a>. Visit his blog at <a href="http://recordnet.com/smithblog">recordnet.com/smithblog</a>.</p></div></div></div></body></html>