<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4">Good Evening</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4">Please check out my two latest posts, the first an article on the Governor's State of the State and the second a news release from C-WIN, CSPA and AquaAlliance "vehemently opposing" the San Luis Drainage Resolution Act</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4">Thanks</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4">Dan </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; "><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/21/1472991/-Delta-advocates-blast-Governor-Brown-for-pushing-tunnels-plan-in-State-of-the-State">http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/21/1472991/-Delta-advocates-blast-Governor-Brown-for-pushing-tunnels-plan-in-State-of-the-State</a></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;"><img height="538" width="806" src="cid:A171FA5B-83A3-4C99-9372-67D7C81E3865"></span></font></div><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><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans Condensed'; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; ">Photo of Governor Jerry Brown at the ACWA "Water 2.0" event in Sacramento by Dan Bacher.</span></div><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><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); line-height: 24px; "><div style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "><br></span></div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6">Delta advocates blast Governor Brown for pushing tunnels in State of the State</font></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; ">by Dan Bacher</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "><br></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; ">In his State of the State Address at the State Capitol in Sacramento today, Governor Jerry Brown promoted building “reliable conveyance” — the controversial Delta Tunnels Plan proposed under the California Water Fix and California Water Action Plan — and building “storage” to supposedly achieve the goal of providing a reliable water supply for the state's residents. </span><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#3c3736" face="'Open Sans'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"> </span></font></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; ">“One of the bright spots in our contentious politics is the joining together of both parties and the people themselves to secure passage of Proposition 1, the Water Bond,” said Brown. “That, together with our California Water Action Plan, establishes a solid program to deal with the drought and the longer-term challenge of using our water wisely.”</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; ">“Our goal must be to preserve California’s natural beauty and ensure a vibrant economy – on our farms, in our cities and for all the people who live here. There is no magic bullet but a series of actions must be taken. We have to recharge our aquifers, manage the groundwater, recycle, capture stormwater, build storage and <a data-cke-saved-href="http://cert1.mail-west.com/IyrV/anmc7rme/gtmyuzj/eI/e31/ad2/33tm7/ce3p/2eIjql" href="http://cert1.mail-west.com/IyrV/anmc7rme/gtmyuzj/eI/e31/ad2/33tm7/ce3p/2eIjql" 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; ">reliable conveyance</a>, improve efficiency everywhere, invest in new technologies – including desalination – and all the while recognize that there are some limits,” he stated. </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; ">He also uttered some of the “achieving balance between conflicting parties” rhetoric that he has become known for, all while he continues to serve the interests of the corporate agribusiness, Big Oil, Big Timber and other corporate interests through his anti-environmental water policies that have brought Central Valley steelhead and salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other fish species to the brink of extinction under his administration.</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; ">“Achieving balance between all the conflicting interests is not easy but I pledge to you that I will listen and work patiently to achieve results that will stand the test of time," Brown claimed. “Water goes to the heart of what California is and what it has been over centuries. Pitting fish against farmer misses the point and grossly distorts reality. Every one of us and every creature that dwells here form a complex system which must be understood and respected.” </span></p><p style="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, immediately responded to the State of theState by saying, “We are thrilled to hear Governor Brown’s commitment to protecting ecological systems. And we are glad he has committed to solving today's problems without making them worse.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">However, she then blasted Brown for moving ahead with the Delta Tunnels project, considered by many to be potentially the most environmentally destructive project in California history.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Unfortunately, Governor Brown insists on moving forward with the Delta tunnels project despite serious environmental concerns raised by numerous organizations including the Environmental Protection Agency which found the plan ‘incomplete’ with required analysis ‘not yet done,’” Barrigan-Parrilla said.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“The tunnels will destroy the sole source of drinking water for one million Delta residents, the physical environment and the state's most magnificent fisheries and breathtaking habitat for birds on the Pacific flyway, not to mention the agricultural and related economies for an additional three million Delta area residents,” she stated.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“The Delta tunnels will cost $17 billion before cost overruns and interest, and will not make any new water for California. Perhaps the Governor should take his own advice and drop his bad Delta Tunnels plan,” Barrigan-Parrilla concluded.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">She also described a new video promoting the tunnels released by the Governor’s Office today as “mockworthy.” The “California WaterFix Video” is hyperlinked to the words "reliable conveyance" in the on line transcript of Brown’s speech: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAFaQ9D_joI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAFaQ9D_joI</a> </p><div tabindex="-1" contenteditable="false" data-cke-widget-wrapper="1" data-cke-filter="off" class="cke_widget_wrapper cke_widget_block cke_widget_selected" data-cke-display-name="div" data-cke-widget-id="0" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; clear: both; z-index: 10; "><span class="cke_reset cke_widget_drag_handler_container" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; background-image: url(http://www.dailykos.com/assets/ckeditor/plugins/widget/images/handle.png); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgba(220, 220, 220, 0.496094); text-decoration: none; width: 15px; height: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; position: absolute; -webkit-transition-property: none; -webkit-transition-duration: initial; -webkit-transition-timing-function: initial; -webkit-transition-delay: initial; left: -9999px; opacity: 0.75; line-height: 0; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "><img class="cke_reset cke_widget_drag_handler" data-cke-widget-drag-handler="1" width="15" title="Click and drag to move" height="15" style="box-sizing: content-box; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; vertical-align: baseline; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; text-decoration: none; width: 15px; height: 15px; position: static; -webkit-transition-property: none; -webkit-transition-duration: initial; -webkit-transition-timing-function: initial; -webkit-transition-delay: initial; opacity: 0.5; cursor: move; display: inline-block; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; " src="cid:9B17BA4C-D0AE-43C7-89B5-5FD325D7B3C2"></span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Californians for Water Security, a group describing itself as a “coalition supporting the plan to fix California’s aging water infrastructure, including business leaders, labor, family farmers, local governments, water experts and others,” also responded to the address in a statement. The group applauded Governor Brown’s comments in the State of the State address “discussing the importance of fixing our state’s water infrastructure.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“There is a strong political will to get this done now,” said Michael Quigley, Executive Director of the Alliance for Jobs. “We desperately need to replenish groundwater basins, fill up reservoirs, and recharge our existing water supplies – but without a reliable conveyance we cannot get water where it’s needed and too much water will be wasted out to sea that should be captured.” </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><em style="box-sizing: border-box; ">Delta Tunnels are one of Brown’s many anti-environmental policies.</em></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">While Brown has posed as a “climate leader” and “green governor” at conferences and photo opportunities around the globe, he has overseen water policies that have brought Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon and a host of other species to the edge of extinction, in addition to promoting the Delta Tunnels Plan, a project that will only cause further ecological and economic damage.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">His administration in 2011 presided over record water exports out the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — and the killing of millions of Sacramento splittail, an imperiled native minnow, and other species at the Delta pumps. (<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/30452-the-extinction-governor-rips-the-green-mask-off-his-tunnels-plan" href="http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/30452-the-extinction-governor-rips-the-green-mask-off-his-tunnels-plan" 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.truth-out.org/...</a>)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">More recently, fish species ranging from endangered Delta Smelt to Striped Bass plummeted to record low population levels in 2015, according to the annual fall survey report released on December 18 by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). (<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/05/1466156/-Delta-Smelt-and-other-fish-species-plummet-to-record-low-levels" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/05/1466156/-Delta-Smelt-and-other-fish-species-plummet-to-record-low-levels" 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.dailykos.com/...</a>) </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Only 6 Delta Smelt, an endangered species that once numbered in the millions and was the most abundant fish in the 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. </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Meanwhile, Brown promotes the expansion of fracking and other extreme oil drilling techniques in California and backs potentially genocidal carbon trading policies and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation), according to indigenous leaders. (<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/9/1458504/-Indigenous-activists-challenge-Governor-Brown-for-backing-genocidal-carbon-trading-program" href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/9/1458504/-Indigenous-activists-challenge-Governor-Brown-for-backing-genocidal-carbon-trading-program" 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.dailykos.com/...</a>)</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">In addition, Brown oversaw the “completion” of “marine protected areas,” created under the privately-funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, that don’t protect the ocean from fracking, offshore oil drilling, pollution, corporate aquaculture, military testing and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">And it was only after months of intense pressure from environmentalists, public health advocates and Porter Ranch residents that Governor Brown declared a state of emergency in the Aliso Canyon Gas Leak disaster that began on October 23. Meanwhile, Brown’s sister, Kathleen, plays a significant role at Sempra Energy, the corporation that owns SoCalGas, the company responsible for the gas blowout. She earned $188,380 in her position as a board member in <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1032208/000119312515106479/d877069ddef14a.htm" href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1032208/000119312515106479/d877069ddef14a.htm" 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; ">2014</a> and $267,865 in <a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1032208/000119312514106712/d685917ddef14a.htm" href="http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1032208/000119312514106712/d685917ddef14a.htm" 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; ">2013</a>. (<a data-cke-saved-href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/19/1462031/-Jerry-Brown-s-ties-to-the-oil-and-gas-industry-highlight-regulatory-capture-in-CA" href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/19/1462031/-Jerry-Brown-s-ties-to-the-oil-and-gas-industry-highlight-regulatory-capture-in-CA" target="_blank" data-original-title="" title="" 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>)</p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; "><div style="box-sizing: border-box; "><div style="box-sizing: border-box; "><div style="box-sizing: border-box; "><div style="box-sizing: border-box; "><a 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; "></a><div style="box-sizing: border-box; "></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Conflicts of interest like this one abound in a state where the regulatory apparatus has been captured by the regulated, including Big Oil, corporate agribusiness, the timber industry and other corporate interests.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></p></div></div></div></div></div></span><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#3c3736" face="'Open Sans'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">2. <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/21/1472982/-Three-groups-vehemently-oppose-agribusiness-backed-San-Luis-Drainage-Resolution-Act">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/21/1472982/-Three-groups-vehemently-oppose-agribusiness-backed-San-Luis-Drainage-Resolution-Act</a></span></font></p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="6">Three groups 'vehemently oppose" agribusiness-backed San Luis Drainage Resolution Act</font></p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><i>In a press release issued today, three environmental groups — the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN), California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and AquAlliance — announced they “vehemently” oppose <a title="" 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; ">HR 4366, the San Luis Drainage Resolution Act</a> sponsored by Rep. David G. Valadao (CA-21). </i></span></p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">The text of the press release is below:</span></p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">
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<!--StartFragment--><p class="Body" style="border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; ">C-WIN, CSPA and AquAlliance vehemently oppose </strong></span><a data-cke-saved-href="file:///bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4366/text" href="file:///bill/114th-congress/house-bill/4366/text" data-original-title="" title="" 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; "><span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; ">HR 4366, the San Luis Drainage Resolution Act</strong></span></a><span style="box-sizing: border-box; "><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold; "> sponsored by Rep. David G. Valadao (CA-21).</strong></span></span></p>
<!--EndFragment--></p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">This proposed legislation would approve the <a href="http://www.usbr.gov/mp/docs/Notice-of-Filing-Settlement-Agreement-AS-FILED-with-attachment-091615.pdf" title="" 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; ">drainage litigation settlement</a> between Westlands Water District and the federal government. The agreement will increase the federal deficit and lock in annual water subsidies forever. It also converts the district’s current two-year water contracts to a permanent contract for up to 890,000 acre-feet of water annually. For the sake of comparison, the City of Los Angeles uses only 587,000 acre feet in a typical year. </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">For decades, the district – which consists of fewer than 600 corporate farms -- has irrigated its holdings with taxpayer-subsidized water delivered by the federal Central Valley Project. The district’s croplands contain large amounts of selenium, a toxic element that leaches from the soil when farmers flush their lands with CVP water to remove excess salt. The district then discharges this tainted runoff to Central Valley waterways and aquifers.</p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">The high (or rather, low) points of the agreement include:</p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">- Forgiveness of $375 million owed by Westlands to the federal government for capital repayment of Central Valley Project debt, thereby increasing the federal deficit.</p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">- No additional land retirement. The amount of land Westlands already has retired will be credited to this final figure. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service previously recommended the retirement of more than 300,000 acres of this poisoned land.</p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">- A permanent CVP contract for up to 890,000 acre-feet of water a year (subject to the availability of water)</p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">- An exemption from the existing acreage limitations that were drafted to prevent oversized farms from receiving subsidized water.</p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">- No public input on the settlement other than urging Congress to change or reject it.</p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">- Gifting of federal facilities to Westlands, including buildings, canals, pipelines, pumps, headworks and related facilities. </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“This deal can be equated with the bank bailout of 2008,” said C-WIN spokesman Tom Stokely. “The wealthy and powerful corporate interests that caused the crisis are allowed to exit the burning aircraft with golden parachutes. It locks in the destructive practices of the district, it continues to subsidize south-of-Delta Big Agriculture with taxpayer money, and it poses a long-term threat to both California’s environment and the state’s water supply. It is crony capitalism at its worse, and it demonstrates once again the corrosive power of money and corporate influence in Washington.” </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Bill Jennings, the chairman and executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, observed the deal is not only bad for fisheries, water quality and the environment, its also bad for many water contractors. </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">“It would give Westlands a permanent water contract before all Endangered Species Act litigation is completed,” said Jennings. “In effect, this gives Westlands an advantage over other south-of-Delta contractors.” </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Summing up the case against the pact, AquAlliance executive director Barbara Vlamis said congressional approval of the deal “will create a permanent demand for northern California water that will be used to create devastating pollution from land that never should have been irrigated in the first place. It assures continuation of a policy that is destructive, beneficial only to the few and powerful, and ultimately unsustainable.” </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">The three groups are promoting a better, cheaper, and more equitable alternative. A<a href="http://www.econw.com/media/ap_files/San_Luis_Unit_Land_Retirement_Final_Report_071415.pdf" title="" 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; ">report by EcoNorthwest</a>, an independent economic analysis firm, confirms that 300,000 acres of selenium-tainted land in the Westlands Water District and three adjacent water districts could be retired at a cost of $580 million to $1 billion. The <a href="http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/documentShow.cfm?Doc_ID=2262" title="" 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; ">U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service</a> and the <a href="http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1210/" title="" 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; ">U.S. Geological Survey</a> have reached similar conclusions. Retiring this land and curbing the water contracts associated with it would result in a savings to California of up to 455,000 acre-feet of water, or enough for 2,600,000 urban water users. </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">The Environmental Working Group estimated that annual <a href="http://www.ewg.org/research/california-water-subsidies" title="" 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; ">subsidies to Westlands range from $24 million to $110</a> million a year. Further, land retirement is significantly less expensive than Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to build a massive tunnel system to divert water from the Sacramento River for the express benefit of western San Joaquin Valley agribusiness. </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Agriculture consumes 80 percent of California’s developed water while accounting for only <a href="http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_show.asp?i=1108" title="" 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; ">2% of the state’s economic output</a><a name="_GoBack" title="" 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; padding-top: 50px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; "></a>. Our water supplies are limited in the best of times, and drought and climate change are only exacerbating the crisis. Subsidizing corporate agriculture on impaired and toxic lands is hardly a wise and reasonable use of our water. Congress must not approve this catastrophically flawed agreement before it is implemented. Californians need to tell our federal legislators that we don’t want another egregious and inequitable corporate bailout. </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Contact information: </p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tom Stokely, C-WIN 530-926-9727 cell 530-524-0315 <a href="http://www.c-win.org/" title="" 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.c-win.org</a></p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance 209-464-5067 cell 938-9053<a href="http://www.calsport.org/" title="" 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.calsport.org</a></p><p style="color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; ">Barbara Vlamis, AquAlliance 530-895-9420 cell 530-519-7468 <a href="http://www.aqualliance.net/" title="" 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.aqualliance.net</a></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "><br></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; "> </p></div></div></div></body></html>