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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 19px; "><b><span style="font-size:26.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:#083970">Meral retires but Delta plan endures<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 19px; "><b><span style="font-size:20.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:#646464"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 19px; "><span style="font-family:Arial">Published: Thursday, Dec.
26, 2013 - 1:10 pm<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 15pt; "><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:Georgia;
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">Re "Top water official linked to tunnel
plans to retire" (Page A4, Dec 15): I am the California Water Impact
Network analyst who reported Jerry Meral's comment that the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan was never about saving the Delta. The comment by the state's
top water official was rumored to have triggered his retirement as a deputy
resources secretary. I do believe his candid comments about the BDCP had much
to do with his retirement. Unfortunately, the fiscally irresponsible and
environmentally disastrous project he promoted as the twin tunnels endures. The
<a href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Westlands+Water+District/"><span style="color:#083970;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Westlands Water
District</span></a> recently learned that it will cost contractors an extra
$1.2 billion to complete design work on the tunnels. This extraordinary cost
inflation should be taken as a harbinger for the entire project. And who will
pay? Ratepayers, which means almost everyone who receives a municipal water
bill in California. We don't need this boondoggle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 19px; margin-bottom: 15pt; "><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:Georgia;
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">-- Tom Stokely, Mt. Shasta, water policy analyst,
California Water Impact Network<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/15/6001660/top-water-official-linked-to-tunnel.html" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(40, 98, 197); outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; ">http://www.sacbee.com/2013/12/15/6001660/top-water-official-linked-to-tunnel.html</a> </span><br></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 20px; font-family: Georgia; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; "><span style="font-size:15.0pt;font-family:Georgia;
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 19px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; "><span class="yiv1012711768Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(2, 74, 130); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 26px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; ">Top water official linked to tunnel plans to retire</span><span class="yiv1012711768Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; "><div id="yiv1012711768story_header"><h2 id="yiv1012711768story_subheadline" style="margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; font-weight: bold; font-size: 20px; font-family:
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); line-height: 1em; "></h2><div class="yiv1012711768byline" style="font-size: 11px; margin-top: 8px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; ">By <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.sacbee.com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=David%20Siders&link_location=top" title="Read more articles by David Siders" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; "><span>David Siders</span></a><br><a rel="nofollow" class="yiv1012711768email" ymailto="mailto:dsiders@sacbee.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:dsiders@sacbee.com" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; ">dsiders@sacbee.com</a></div><div class="yiv1012711768pubdates" style="padding-bottom: 1.5em; "><div class="yiv1012711768published"
title="2013-12-15T00:00:00-0800" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Published: Sunday, Dec. 15, 2013 - 12:00 am</div></div></div><div id="yiv1012711768articlebody" class="yiv1012711768lingo_region yiv1012711768entry-content" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; "><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">Jerry Meral, Gov. Jerry Brown’s top water official and a major figure in the controversial, $25 billion water project proposed by the governor, will retire at the end of the month, the Brown administration confirmed Saturday.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">Meral, deputy secretary of the state’s Natural Resources Agency, told Brown of his retirement in a letter Monday – the same day the Brown administration released its latest environmental analysis of a plan to build two tunnels to divert water around the Delta to the
south.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">“While additional permits will be required,” Meral said in the letter, “it is virtually certain that the plan will be implemented.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">Meral, who is widely regarded as one of California’s most accomplished preservationists, worked for Brown as a water adviser when Brown was governor before, from 1975 to 1983.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">He was one of several high-profile advisers brought back by the Democratic governor when Brown took office in 2011.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">Meral became a source of controversy when, earlier this year, five members of Congress called for his resignation after Tom Stokely, a water policy analyst with the California Water Impact Network, and Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, said Meral told Stokely the Bay Delta Conservation Plan “is not about, and has never been about
saving the Delta. The Delta cannot be saved.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">The Brown administration defended Meral at the time and said his remarks were taken out of context.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">Meral did not give a reason for his retirement in his letter.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; ">Richard Stapler, a Natural Resources Agency spokesman, said in an email Saturday that “while we’ve reluctantly accepted Dr. Meral’s decision to retire for a second time, his contribution to achieving the state’s dual goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem restoration is incalculable.”</div><hr><div class="yiv1012711768storybug" style="margin-bottom: 15px; "><i>Call David Siders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1215. Follow him on Twitter @davidsiders.</i></div><div><i><br></i></div></div></span></div></span></span></div>
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