By Burt Wilson
Public Water News Service
“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than
the man who reads nothing but newspapers.”
--Thomas Jefferson
I don’t think Thomas Jefferson was thinking of the Sacramento Bee when he wrote
this, but if he were alive today it would be a perfect fit.
The Sacramento Bee leads a long list of metropolitan and small town newspapers
that never saw a pair of tunnels they didn’t like. While major newspapers like the San
Diego Union and the Santa Barbara Press and the Chico Enterprise go to great lengths
to expose the illogic of the proposed Delta tunnels, the fallacy of the “co-equal goals”
and the convoluted funding process that bypasses California voters, the stories the Bee
prints about the Delta read more like a Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) media
hand-out.
In a number of editorials and articles, Bee editorialists and reporters have refused to
address the real issues facing the $16-billion sinking of two 35-miles long, 40-ft. wide
tunnels 150 ft. below the surface of the Delta. When the tradition of newspapering calls
for a crusade against the skullduggery going on in the Delta, the Bee refuses to print
anything controversial. Hello?
It’s a given that the water agencies in California have a vast network of closely-
allied propaganda outlets such as the Association of California Water Agencies
(AQUA) and the Water Education Foundation (WEF). They exist to bolster the party
line. These outlets churn out reams of propaganda about what they want the people
of California to believe about the Delta, always backing significant water projects.
They like to mask themselves with the appearance of independence and legitimacy,
nevertheless they go to great lengths to unflinchingly lie about the issues and cover-up
or ignore anything that is questionable.
Aquafornia, is a news outlet funded by the Water Education Foundation which
recently has taken to banning water blogs and articles that are critical of the BDCP.
Does this remind you of similar conditions in a foreign country a long time ago? Isn’t
there a story there?
But back to the Bee. Reporters seldom go to relevant meetings on the BDCP. They
sit at their desks and conjure up Delta stories based on information they receive from
the water agencies. They refuse to write about northern California water being sent
south to frack oil wells. Had they been in attendance at a Delta Stewardship Council
(DSC) meeting they would have heard this writer lay out the scenario where this could
happen and hear DSC chairman Phil Isenberg comment, “It’s possible.”
Maybe the Bee is afraid of offending the California Chamber of Commerce and
the politically hefty California Business Roundtable –the powers behind commerce in
California. They want more water sent to the southland to fuel new development in the
high desert areas east of Los Angeles. Is there a threat from them to deny advertising to
the Bee if they don’t go along with the BDCP program? Withholding of advertising is a
powerful tool of the Captains of Industry to influence public opinion and the Bee, after
all, has had a turbulent financial history. Would the oil companies withhold ads if the
Bee printed anti-fracking articles like the San Diego Union?
The bottom line here is that the water agency media outlets do not want the true
purposes of the twin tunnels to get out to the public. There would be an outcry from
all over California if they did. So they use benign phrases like “a more reliable water
supply for California”—which, because Northern California already has a reliable
water supply really means southern California. They tell us “the Delta is aging and
needs to be fixed” and “we must protect the people from earthquakes and climate
change.”
These are all cover stories aimed at convincing people that it’s in their own best
interests to support the twin tunnels. To sound even more sincere, the water agencies
have thrown in “habitat restoration” when all the Delta fish and wildlife habitats need is
for less water to be diverted south so there’s more water left in the Delta!
The water agency’s propaganda machine is taking the people of California to the
cleaners, doing their best to strip our consciousnesses of all logic, hoping we’ll ignore
reality and buy into the BDCP’s “pig in a poke” twin tunnels. So far, the Sacramento
Bee—and much of the state’s newspapers—have been in support of this foolishness.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
March 31, 2013 Delta Water and News Links
Happy Easter!!
Delta Related and Water News
Maven's Notebook
Introducing the Road Map to the BDCP
http://mavensnotebook.com/2013/03/31/introducing-the-road-map-to-the-bay-delta-conservation-plan/
BDCP Road Map
http://mavensnotebook.com/the-bdcp-road-map/
Delta Tunne Plan Process Moving Forward
http://www.orland-press-register.com/news/plan-10966-delta-elicited.html
(What's to stop them from developing an inclination?)A concern shared by many in the North State is the impact this plan could have on northern California water rights holders."We will not affect upstream water rights," Vogel said. "We don't have the authority or the inclination."
Delta Related Private/Public Propaganda News
Agenda 21/Sustainable Development
Common American Journal
http://commonamericanjournal.com
Pagan America
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/54168#When:21:50:37Z
2nd Amendment News
Ancient History and Modern Constitutional Powers of American Sheriffs (Part 2/2)
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/54176#When:11:36:31Z
(Excellent reading.)
Agriculture/Science News
Levee/Infrastructure News
Fisheries/Wildlife/Habitat News
h/t Nature Watch
Salmon Are a Sign of Hope in a Long-dry Stretch of the San Joaquin
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-san-joaquin-20130329-dto,0,7862113.htmlstory
Environmental News
Economic/Tourism News
High Speed Rail/BDCP Conveyance News
California HSR Gets Thumbs Up From U.S. Watchdog
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/30/california-high-speed-rail-thumbs-up_n_2985541.html
(Well actually, not really..."Substantially" meeting criteria is not good enough for a project such as this and sets a horrible precedent for the tunnels, which we are witnessing in the BDCP process now.)
National Political NewsIt also said the authority's cost estimates for the project "substantially met the criteria" for accuracy, but noted additional information should have been provided to make the numbers more credible, comprehensive and well documented."By not following all best practices (for cost estimates), there is increased risk of such things as cost overruns, missed deadlines, and unmet performance targets," the GAO said.
California Political News
Survey: New York and California Last in Personal Freedoms
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/31/survey-new-york-california-last-in-personal-freedoms/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29
Why CA is So Screwed Up, in a Nutshell
http://www.calwatchdog.com/2013/03/31/why-ca-is-so-screwed-up-in-a-nutshell/
Litigation News
Tribal News
B.C. Indian Chiefs: Wild Salmon is the First and Foremost Priority
By Dan Bacher
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/30/1198082/-B-C-Indian-Chiefs-Wild-salmon-is-the-first-and-foremost-priority
Calendar
Written Comment Opportunities
Because It's Cool!
The Daily Kos: More Bay Delta Conservation Plan Documents Released
ORIGINALLY POSTED TO DAN BACHER ON THU MAR 28, 2013 AT 04:26 PM PDT.
ALSO REPUBLISHED BY DK GREENROOTS.
The Fish Sniffer: Resources Secretary Uses Snow Survey
RESOURCES SECRETARY USES SNOW SURVEY TO PROMOTE CORPORATE WATER GRAB
Written By: Dan Bacher, March 28, 2013
Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird cynically used the release of the latest Sierra Nevada snow survey on March 28 to campaign for the construction of the peripheral tunnels through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, just as he has done every spring since being appointed by Governor Jerry Brown.
Snow surveyors reported Thursday that water content in California’s snowpack is only 52 percent of normal, with the spring melt season already under way, according to the Department of Water Resources. After a record dry January and February in much of the state, DWR has decreased its water delivery estimate from 40 to 35 percent of requested amounts from the State Water Project (SWP). (http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/032813snowservey.pdf)
“With today’s snow survey, the table has been set for yet another very dry year,” gushed Laird, who presided over record water exports and a record fish kill at the Delta pumps in 2011. “Add to that pumping restrictions imposed this winter because of vulnerable smelt and salmon populations, and it is clear that the security of California’s water supply is threatened.”
“The realities of nature point to the urgent need to continue work on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the Brown administration’s effort to secure the water supply for 25 million Californians and reverse over a century of environmental degradation in the Delta,” Laird claimed. “Advancing this large-scale public investment will provide long-term security for our economy and environment.”
Without a hint of irony, Laird said, “We also ask that every Californian do their part by conserving water every day. Take a shorter shower, be mindful of how long your sprinklers run, and fix that leaky faucet!”
While asking Californians to “fix that leaky faucet,” Laird failed to acknowledge the millions of acre feet of water that the peripheral tunnels will waste on irrigating drainage-impaired corporate agribusiness operations on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and on fracking for oil and natural gas in Kern County and coastal areas.
Laird and Governor Jerry Brown are fast tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to drain the Delta in spite of massive opposition by fishermen, family farmers, tribal leaders, grassroots enviromentalists, elected officials and the vast majority of Californians. The peripheral tunnel plan is proceeding forward without any approval by the voters because the Brown administration knows that the project would be overwhelming defeated by the voters just like the peripheral canal was in 1982.
The tunnel plan is simply a corporate water grab by agribusiness, oil companies and Southern California water agencies. The "habitat restoration" in the plan is added as an afterthought by state officials to green wash the destruction of the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.
The construction of the North Delta intakes for the tunnels will spread the carnage of Central Valley Chinook salmon, steelhead and other fish species north to the Sacramento River while the massive fish kills at the state and federal water pumping facilities will continue.
How can we trust the state and federal governments to construct state-of-the-art fish screens on the new intakes, as they have claimed they will do, when they have failed to install them, as required under the CalFed process, at the existing pumps in the South Delta?
And how can we possibly trust an administration that presided over record exports and massive fish kills at the Delta pumps to suddenly transform itself into a "green" administration that cares about fish, the Delta and the public trust?
Between 2000 and 2011, more than 130,000,000 fish were "salvaged" in the massive state and federal pumps diverting water south, according to a white paper written by Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA). Considering that recent studies point out that 5 to 10 times more fish are lost than salvaged, the actual number of fish lost could be 1.3 billion or higher. (http://www.restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/CSPA-BDCP-Fish-Screens-Revised.pdf)
Record water amounts of water were exported from the Delta under the Brown administration in 2011 – 6,520,000 acre-feet, 217,000 acre feet more than the previous record of 6,303,000 acre feet set in 2005 under the Schwarzenegger administration. The massive diversion of water resulted in the record "salvage" of nearly 9 million splittail, a fish formerly listed under the Endangered Species Act and delisted during a political scandal under the Bush administration, and over 2 million other fish. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/07/carnage-in-the-pumps)
As Laird advises us to “take a shorter shower, be mindful of how long your sprinklers run, and fix that leaky faucet,” he and Governor Jerry Brown are fast-tracking a pork barrel boondoggle that will deliver millions of acre feet of water to corporate agribusiness, southern California water agencies and oil and gas companies while pushing Central Valley chinook salmon, steelhead and Delta fish populations over the abyss of extinction.
While Laird and other state officials are promoting the threat of "drought" as justification to build the peripheral tunnels just as Schwarzenegger administration officials did every spring from 2008 to 2010, most key storage reservoirs are above or near historic levels for the date despite the dwindling snowpack.
"Thanks to November and December storms, Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal storage reservoir, is at 108 percent of its average level for the date (83 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity)," according to DWR. "Shasta Lake north of Redding, the federal Central Valley Project’s largest reservoir with a capacity of 4.5 million acre-feet, is at 102 percent of its normal storage level for the date (82 percent of capacity)."
It must be understood that the peripheral canal or twin tunnels won't create any new water - they will only take more water from senior water rights holders on the Delta, Sacramento Valley and Trinity River, at a tremendous cost to fish, fishermen, Indian Tribes and family farmers.
"If I took a cup of snow from Washington, DC back home with me and dumped it in the Delta, it would create more new water than the peripheral canal," Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) recently quipped on his facebook page.
Rather than promoting a tunnel project that could cost Californians up $60 billion while driving salmon and other fish to extinction, Laird should take a hard look at the "Reduced Exports Plan," an alternative plan to the tunnels developed by the Environmental Water Caucus. This plan demonstrates how water supply reliability can be improved while reducing exports from the Bay Delta Estuary. This plan includes a unique combination of actions that will open the discussion for alternatives to the currently failed policies that continuously attempt to use water as though it were a limitless resource. (http://www.ewccalifornia.org/reports/REDUCEDEXPORTSPLAN.pdf)
Snow surveyors reported Thursday that water content in California’s snowpack is only 52 percent of normal, with the spring melt season already under way, according to the Department of Water Resources. After a record dry January and February in much of the state, DWR has decreased its water delivery estimate from 40 to 35 percent of requested amounts from the State Water Project (SWP). (http://www.water.ca.gov/news/newsreleases/2013/032813snowservey.pdf)
“With today’s snow survey, the table has been set for yet another very dry year,” gushed Laird, who presided over record water exports and a record fish kill at the Delta pumps in 2011. “Add to that pumping restrictions imposed this winter because of vulnerable smelt and salmon populations, and it is clear that the security of California’s water supply is threatened.”
“The realities of nature point to the urgent need to continue work on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the Brown administration’s effort to secure the water supply for 25 million Californians and reverse over a century of environmental degradation in the Delta,” Laird claimed. “Advancing this large-scale public investment will provide long-term security for our economy and environment.”
Without a hint of irony, Laird said, “We also ask that every Californian do their part by conserving water every day. Take a shorter shower, be mindful of how long your sprinklers run, and fix that leaky faucet!”
While asking Californians to “fix that leaky faucet,” Laird failed to acknowledge the millions of acre feet of water that the peripheral tunnels will waste on irrigating drainage-impaired corporate agribusiness operations on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and on fracking for oil and natural gas in Kern County and coastal areas.
Laird and Governor Jerry Brown are fast tracking the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to drain the Delta in spite of massive opposition by fishermen, family farmers, tribal leaders, grassroots enviromentalists, elected officials and the vast majority of Californians. The peripheral tunnel plan is proceeding forward without any approval by the voters because the Brown administration knows that the project would be overwhelming defeated by the voters just like the peripheral canal was in 1982.
The tunnel plan is simply a corporate water grab by agribusiness, oil companies and Southern California water agencies. The "habitat restoration" in the plan is added as an afterthought by state officials to green wash the destruction of the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.
The construction of the North Delta intakes for the tunnels will spread the carnage of Central Valley Chinook salmon, steelhead and other fish species north to the Sacramento River while the massive fish kills at the state and federal water pumping facilities will continue.
How can we trust the state and federal governments to construct state-of-the-art fish screens on the new intakes, as they have claimed they will do, when they have failed to install them, as required under the CalFed process, at the existing pumps in the South Delta?
And how can we possibly trust an administration that presided over record exports and massive fish kills at the Delta pumps to suddenly transform itself into a "green" administration that cares about fish, the Delta and the public trust?
Between 2000 and 2011, more than 130,000,000 fish were "salvaged" in the massive state and federal pumps diverting water south, according to a white paper written by Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA). Considering that recent studies point out that 5 to 10 times more fish are lost than salvaged, the actual number of fish lost could be 1.3 billion or higher. (http://www.restorethedelta.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/CSPA-BDCP-Fish-Screens-Revised.pdf)
Record water amounts of water were exported from the Delta under the Brown administration in 2011 – 6,520,000 acre-feet, 217,000 acre feet more than the previous record of 6,303,000 acre feet set in 2005 under the Schwarzenegger administration. The massive diversion of water resulted in the record "salvage" of nearly 9 million splittail, a fish formerly listed under the Endangered Species Act and delisted during a political scandal under the Bush administration, and over 2 million other fish. (http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/07/carnage-in-the-pumps)
As Laird advises us to “take a shorter shower, be mindful of how long your sprinklers run, and fix that leaky faucet,” he and Governor Jerry Brown are fast-tracking a pork barrel boondoggle that will deliver millions of acre feet of water to corporate agribusiness, southern California water agencies and oil and gas companies while pushing Central Valley chinook salmon, steelhead and Delta fish populations over the abyss of extinction.
While Laird and other state officials are promoting the threat of "drought" as justification to build the peripheral tunnels just as Schwarzenegger administration officials did every spring from 2008 to 2010, most key storage reservoirs are above or near historic levels for the date despite the dwindling snowpack.
"Thanks to November and December storms, Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal storage reservoir, is at 108 percent of its average level for the date (83 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity)," according to DWR. "Shasta Lake north of Redding, the federal Central Valley Project’s largest reservoir with a capacity of 4.5 million acre-feet, is at 102 percent of its normal storage level for the date (82 percent of capacity)."
It must be understood that the peripheral canal or twin tunnels won't create any new water - they will only take more water from senior water rights holders on the Delta, Sacramento Valley and Trinity River, at a tremendous cost to fish, fishermen, Indian Tribes and family farmers.
"If I took a cup of snow from Washington, DC back home with me and dumped it in the Delta, it would create more new water than the peripheral canal," Congressman John Garamendi (D-Walnut Grove) recently quipped on his facebook page.
Rather than promoting a tunnel project that could cost Californians up $60 billion while driving salmon and other fish to extinction, Laird should take a hard look at the "Reduced Exports Plan," an alternative plan to the tunnels developed by the Environmental Water Caucus. This plan demonstrates how water supply reliability can be improved while reducing exports from the Bay Delta Estuary. This plan includes a unique combination of actions that will open the discussion for alternatives to the currently failed policies that continuously attempt to use water as though it were a limitless resource. (http://www.ewccalifornia.org/reports/REDUCEDEXPORTSPLAN.pdf)
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