<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:garamond, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_2997" dir="ltr"><a href="http://oaklandtribune.ca.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=1e5b5a5a0" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3136">http://oaklandtribune.ca.newsmemory.com/publink.php?shareid=1e5b5a5a0</a><br></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3107"><span area="189,1347,732,1220" id="1" style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Brown considers removing guarantee to restore Delta </span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3120"><span class="" area="189,1211,328,1161" style="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3119">Project’s future at risk if governor alters 50-year ecological commitment</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3118"><span area="242,1157,296,1146" style="font-weight: bold;" class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3181">By Paul Rogers</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3117"><span area="226,1147,312,1138" style="font-style: italic;" class="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3196"><a href="mailto:progers@mercurynews.com" class="" style="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3195">progers@mercurynews.com</a></span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3115"><span class="" area="189,1137,350,1026" style="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3116">Gov. Jerry Brown has billed his $25 billion plan to build two massive tunnels under the Delta as a way to not just make it easier to move water from north to south, but also increase the reliability of water supplies and bring back salmon and other endangered species.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3113"><span class="" area="189,1137,350,1026" style="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3114">But now the Brown administration is proposing a major and politically risky change: dropping a 50-year guarantee to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin</span><span class="" area="359,1207,519,1046" style="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3112">River Delta’s environment. A centerpiece of the project, the environmental plan included $8 billion to preserve 100,000 acres of wetlands and dozens of other restoration efforts.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3109"><span class="" area="359,1207,519,1046" style="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3108">The dramatic course correction, whose details have not yet been made public, comes after biologists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal agencies told the state they won’t issue permits for the environmental plan. The reasons, the biologists say, is that the state cannot prove it will restore salmon, smelt, sturgeon and other wildlife struggling for survival in the Delta.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3198"><span class="" area="359,1207,519,1046" style="" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_3197">Losing the guarantee of 50 years of</span><span area="402,1038,416,1026" style="font-style: italic;" class="">See</span><span area="417,1038,448,1026" style="font-weight: bold;" class="">DELTA,</span><span area="450,1038,476,1026" style="font-style: italic;" class=""> Page 9</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span area="549,1104,736,1090" style="font-weight: bold;" class="">MAJOR CHANGE TO DELTA RESTORATION PLAN?</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span area="549,1089,604,1078" style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Original plan:</span><span class="" area="549,1089,753,1058" style=""> $25 billion proposal to build two massive tunnels under the Delta to move water, increase reliability and bring back endangered species</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span area="549,1056,608,1045" style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Risky revision:</span><span class="" area="549,1056,756,1025" style=""> May drop 50-year guarantee to preserve Delta environment after biologists say state can’t prove it will restore salmon (above), smelt, wildlife</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="676,1117,756,1110" style="">SACRAMENTO BEE ARCHIVES</span></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_2997" dir="ltr" class="" style=""><img src="http://oaklandtribune.ca.newsmemory.com/newsmemvol2/california/oaklandtribune/20150412/0412501xa001.pdf.0/img/Image_5.jpg" width="207" height="90" style="margin: 1.75px 20px; padding: 0px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" class="" data-id="445778c4-e931-0a51-c080-8971b8cfd03c"></div><hr style="margin: 20px 20px 20px 8px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;" class=""><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span area="36,503,88,475" id="0" style="font-weight: bold;" class="">Delta </span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span area="36,470,124,458" style="font-style: italic;" class="">Continued from Page 1</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="36,447,149,66" style="">environmental restoration would create a substantial political problem for one of Brown’s signature projects.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="36,447,149,66" style="">First, it would be easier for environmentalists and other opponents to describe the twin-tunnel plan as little more than a water grab by Southern California, a perception that could make it untenable to Northern Californians.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="36,447,149,66" style="">At the same time, it would alsobehardertogainsupport from water districts around the state — whom Brown is counting on to pick up the $17 billion cost to build and operate the tunnels. That’s because the 50-year “habitat conservation plan” was supposed to guarantee them reliability from endangered species lawsuits and decisions by the federal government that have limited Delta pumping in recent years to protect endangered fish.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="36,447,149,66" style="">Richard Stapler, a spokesman for the California Natural Resources Agency, confirmed Friday that the state in the next few months will release an addendum to the project’s environmental impact report that reflects the proposed</span><span class="" area="62,67,93,56" style="">change.</span><span class="" area="48,57,148,46" style="">Stapler insisted that efforts</span><span class="" area="157,497,270,46" style=""> to restore endangered salmon and other species in the Delta will still be part of the project. “We will be taking a broader look and more thoughtful approach to habitat restoration,” he said.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="157,497,270,46" style="">But asked if that means the roughly $8 billion in the plan now earmarked for environmental restoration will still be guaranteed up front, he acknowledged: “We still don’t have a determination as to that piece of it.”</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="157,497,270,46" style="">The governor on Saturday downplayed the issue. “I think it’s kind of a technical point,” Brown told reporters at a Colusa County cook-off. “Somehow it satisfies the federal fish and other authorities, so that’s good with me.”</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="157,497,270,46" style="">The two tunnels each would be 40 feet wide and 35 miles long. They would take water from the Sacramento River north of Sacramento and move it under the Delta to state and federal pumps in Tracy.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="157,497,270,46" style="">The pumps send water down the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project to 25 million Californians from Silicon Valley to San Diego — and to 3 million acres of Central Valley farmland.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="157,497,270,46" style="">The Brown administration says the tunnels will not provide more water than California now takes from the Delta. But by moving</span><span class="" area="279,207,392,46" style="">the intake structures north, supporters say, the plan will make the water more reliable by reducing reliance on the huge pumps, which grind up and kill fish and make parts of the Delta run backward.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="279,207,392,46" style="">Environmentalists say that without the 50-year environmental guarantee up front in a legally binding document, promises that the Delta will be restored after the tunnels are built mean little.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="279,207,392,46" style="">“I’m reminded of what</span><span class="" area="401,207,513,46" style="">Wimpy in the old Popeye cartoons used to say: ‘I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,’” said Jonas Minton, water policy adviser for the Planning and Conservation League.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="401,207,513,46" style="">Environmentalists say the solution to the Delta’s collapsing wildlife, water quality and fisheries is for cities and large Central Valley farms to take less water from the Delta. Water supplies can be boosted, they say, by more conservation, more water</span><span class="" area="522,497,635,46" style="">recycling, drip irrigation and other ways. “Why are they wasting more of the public’s money pursuing the worst half of a failed project?” Minton asked.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="522,497,635,46" style="">Over the past eight years, California’s major water districts have paid $240 million to fund studies of the tunnels plan. Among them: the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and Westlands Water District in Fresno.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="522,497,635,46" style="">This year, water districts are being asked to kick in more money for planning. But questions are growing.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="522,497,635,46" style="">“I think that it would be a concern for the public if the twin tunnels project would move ahead without the long-term environmental protections in place,” said Barbara Keegan, a board member of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “The project has been defined as having two co-equal goals — improving water supply reliability and restoring the environment. And if we are proceeding with one goal and not the other, obviously that’s going to be an issue.”</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="522,497,635,46" style="">The state’s largest water agency, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to 19 million people from Los Angeles to San Diego, was hoping the 50-year plan would fly, said General</span><span class="" area="644,497,756,76" style="">Manager Jeff Kightlinger.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="644,497,756,76" style="">Although he still supports the project, it will now be harder to fund, Kightlinger said, because rather than having a 50-year guarantee that districts could take water from the Delta more reliably, water agencies could be essentially back to a year-toyear situation in which the pumps can be turned down any time by federal agencies and courts if endangered fish are harmed.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="644,497,756,76" style="">“The goal was to do something better than what we are doing today,” he said. “This would not meet that goal. So that’s something I know our board is going to have to take a hard look at. We’re going to have to really scrub that and say does it really make sense to reinvest this kind of money in a system and not really know what you are getting?”</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="644,497,756,76" style="">Farm water groups also are increasingly perturbed.</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span class="" area="644,497,756,76" style="">“The construct of using a 50-year habitat conservation plan is done. It’s off the table,” said Jason Peltier, Westlands’ deputy general manager. “The simple fact is that we don’t have a viable project. We have never seen the state develop a plan that’s affordable and improves water reliability and supply.”</span></div><div class="" style="margin: 10px 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><span area="644,68,735,46" style="font-style: italic;" class="">Contact Paul Rogers at 408-920-5045.</span></div><div class="" tabindex="1000" style="margin-left: 20px; font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"><a class="" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=xa-4bfbf95e715dcaab" style="cursor: pointer;"><img src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" width="125" height="16" alt="Bookmark and Share" style="border-width: 0px; margin: 1.75px 20px; padding: 0px;" class="" data-id="c41db793-aa4c-ca7a-7ffa-0374a3384d0b"></a></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428865955445_2997" dir="ltr" class="" style=""><br class="" style=""></div></div></body></html>