<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/14/1469954/-Governor-Claims-Tunnels-Are-Absolutely-Necessary-At-California-Water-Agency-Event">http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/14/1469954/-Governor-Claims-Tunnels-Are-Absolutely-Necessary-At-California-Water-Agency-Event</a></div><div><img height="622" width="804" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:D987CB25-3AAB-46D8-8B21-1DFFFE3566F9"></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; ">Photo Credit: Joe McHugh, California Highway Patrol</span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6">Governor Claims Tunnels Are Absolutely Necessary at California Water Agency Event</font></div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4">by Dan Bacher </font></div><div><br></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; ">In comments after his address at the “CA Water 2.0 event” sponsored </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); line-height: 24px; "><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; ">by the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today in Sacramento, Governor Jerry Brown described the controversial Delta Tunnels plan as “absolutely necessary” for California’s future and dismissed the growing number of project critics as a “small group of people who absolutely hate it.” </span><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">On his way out of the Sacramento Convention Center after he made his presentation, Brown dismissed the notion that the project is being built as part of his “legacy” as Governor.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Some of the people, particularly some of the press, think this is some kind of legacy or pet project. It has nothing to do with that,” Brown said.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“The only reason I'm working on this is I believe — and the scientists and engineers that I've spoken to say — it's absolutely necessary for California's future. And that's why I'm working on it,” said Brown.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“And although there are a small group of people who absolutely hate it, I know they're not right. We'll keep going forward and we'll get it done,” the Governor concluded. </p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">During his address, Governor Jerry Brown promoted “conveyance” — building the twin water tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Water Delta — as one of the key actions needed under the California Water Action Plan to “solve” the state's water and ecosystem problems as the population grows. </p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">“</span></span>Our climate is rapidly changing, our population is growing and more extreme weather looms on the horizon. Now is not the time to shirk from responsibility,<span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">”</span></span> said Governor Brown. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">“</span></span>Storage or conveyance alone will not solve all of our problems. Recycling, groundwater management and conservation, individually, won't get us there either. It will take all of the above. We must think differently and act boldly -- and that's exactly what California is doing.<span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">”</span></span></span> </span></p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">”California now has 39 million people,” he emphasized. “That’s a fraction of the people that were here for 10,000 years. Not only are there 39 million people, but they own 32 million cars that use 18 billion gallons of gasoline and 4 billion gallons of diesel that create greenhouse gases and pollution.”</span></p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">To further the co-equal goals of ecosystem restoration and water supply for this growing population, Brown said the current water infrastructure is “outdated” and needs to be modernized. “We have to build things and make them work,” he said. </span></p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">He and his staff touted the 10 "primary actions" that the administration has taken and is continuing to take to address the “challenges” of </span> uncertain water supplies, drought, water quality, habitat loss, flooding and climate change, and to deliver a “more reliable water supply.”</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Developing “a more reliable and sustainable” water supply in the Delta” is primary action #3.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“In April, state and federal officials announced <a href="http://cert1.mail-west.com/m6Ty6G/anmc7r/yuzj/6Tgtm/4sjbrud31/xa79f6/86Tkev" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(234, 113, 6); text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">California WaterFix and California EcoRestore</a> to meet the goals of water supply reliability and habitat restoration in the Delta. The purpose of California WaterFix is to end the current pattern of reversed water flows in the Delta caused by water pumps. EcoRestore is the state’s plan for restoring at least 30,000 acres of habitat,” according to the Governors Office.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">The other actions include “making water conservation a way of life in California; increasing self-reliance and integrating water management across levels of government; protecting habitat for fish and wildlife; preparing for more frequent and severe droughts; delivering safe water for everyone; increasing flood protection; efficiently operating the State Water and Central Valley projects; and seeking new water resources funding sources.”</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">For the complete list of actions, go to: <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=19276" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(234, 113, 6); text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">www.gov.ca.gov/</a>… </p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><em style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Delta opponents: Californians don't like project and Governor knows it </em></p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta (RTD), challenged the Governor’s comment that the tunnels opponents are a “small group of people.”</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“There were over 30,000 comments against the California Water Fix submitted to the state and federal water agencies challenging the tunnels project’s EIR by the end of October,” she said. “While 30,000 people is a small number in terms of California’s total population, it is a huge amount for opposition to a project that with no public meetings or transparency. The numbers of people opposing the Delta Tunnels are growing daily. Californians don’t like the project and the Governor knows it,” she said.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">The coalition opposing the tunnels includes a diverse group of family farmers, Delta residents, Indian Tribe leaders, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, businesspeople and elected officials, including Members of Congress.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“There is not one credible environmental group that supports the project; the only one that backs the tunnels is Jerry Meral’s Natural Heritage Institute,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">She also criticized the Governor’s claim that $100 million has already been spent on the Delta Tunnels, “as if that is an accomplishment.” </p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Spending a lot of money isn’t much of an accomplishment if you are re-proposing a project that still cannot meet the standards required under the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act,” she said. “Federal and state agencies will still be required to approve it before any construction begins, and the EPA has already given the latest version of the Tunnels a thumbs down.”</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Barrigan-Parrilla also addressed comments by Mark Cowin, Director of the California Department of Water Resources, who claimed the Tunnels could be used on a day like today, even though outflows have been less in the past few weeks than during the drought due to so much pumping.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“How will the Delta ever recover if freshwaters are never allowed to flow through it, even in rainy seasons?” she asked.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Clean water standards would not ever be met for the 4 million people who live, work, farm, recreate and drink water from the Delta. In addition, CA Water Fix documents show that the new pumps would decimate salmon smolts, so what the Governor is proposing is to save smelt while decimating our iconic salmon runs,” Barrigan-Parrilla concluded.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"><i>Congressmembers ask Brown for detailed accounting of how $3.6 million for tunnels would be used</i></font></span></p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">As the Governor was speaking at the conference, six Northern California Congressmembers released a letter they sent to Brown asking for a detailed accounting of the $3.6 million allocated for incorporation of the California Water Fix into the Delta Plan. Congressmembers Jerry McNerney, Jared Huffman, Mark DeSaulnier, John Garamendi, Mike Thompson, and Doris Matsui signed the letter.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“We would like to know how the $3.6 million will be used and would appreciate a more detailed discussion with your administration as to why budgetary funding was deemed necessary for the regulatory review of the WaterFix tunnels at this time,” they wrote.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Because the WaterFix tunnels has not received the state or federal permits to begin construction and there remains serious concerns about the design, efficacy, and cost of the tunnels, we believe assigning resources is premature and inappropriate,” they said.</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">The letter also stated that the funding could be “better spent on other solutions,” noting that if the tunnels are constructed “not a single drop of new water will be added to California’s Water Supply.”</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">You can read the full letter at: <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7-4NnqTy1iNWVlJWUNQMi05b0E/view" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(234, 113, 6); text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">drive.google.com/...</a> </p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">The language at issue in Brown's proposed budget is located on page 107 in the pdf:</p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><em style="box-sizing: border-box; ">"Update of the Delta Plan—An increase of $3.6 million General Fund for the Delta Stewardship Council to implement the Delta Science Plan and incorporate the WaterFix Delta conveyance project into the Delta Plan.</em>" (<a href="http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(234, 113, 6); text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">www.ebudget.ca.gov</a>) </p><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="5"> <em style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Tunnels threaten salmon, Delta smelt and other fish species</em></font></p><div style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; "><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Tunnels opponents say the project would hasten the extinction of imperiled Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish species, as well as imperil the salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Delta advocates point out that some species may become extinct even before Brown has a chance to build his “legacy” project, the Delta Tunnels, due to abysmal state and federal government water management policies.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Fish species ranging from endangered Delta smelt to striped bass continued to plummet to record low population levels in 2015, according to the annual fall midwater trawl survey results released by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) on December 18. </span></p></div><div style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; "><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Only 6 Delta smelt, an endangered species that once numbered in the millions and was the most abundant fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, were collected at the index stations in the estuary this fall. The 2015 index (7), a relative number of abundance, “is the lowest in history,” said Sara Finstad, an environmental scientist for the CDFW’s Bay Delta Region. </span></p></div><p style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Likewise, longfin smelt, a cousin of the Delta smelt, declined to the lowest abundance index (4) in the history of the survey. Only 3 longfin smelt were collected at the index stations throughout the three-month period. For more information, go to: <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/4/1466156/-Delta-Smelt-and-other-fish-species-plummet-to-record-low-levels" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(234, 113, 6); text-decoration: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">www.dailykos.com/...</a></span></p><div class="table-wrapper" style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; box-sizing: border-box; overflow-x: auto; "><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-collapse: collapse; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; background-color: transparent; width: auto; min-width: 50%; position: static; z-index: auto; "><tbody style="box-sizing: border-box; "><tr style="box-sizing: border-box; "><td align="center" valign="top" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 5px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; border-right-width: 0px; border-right-style: initial; border-right-color: initial; min-width: 50px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; width: 803px; "></td></tr></tbody></table></div></span><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#3c3736" face="'Open Sans'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><br></span></font><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#3c3736" face="'Open Sans'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><br></span></font><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#3c3736" face="'Open Sans'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><br></span></font></div></div></div></body></html>