Posted by red on 10/19/2009, 1:36 pm
4.246.220.111
Legislature Will Hold Hearing On Delta/Water Legislation
by Dan Bacher
Published on Indybay.org. Click here to read on-line.
The water wars are again heating up as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to push for the adoption of a water package in a special session of the California Legislature that would result in the construction of a peripheral canal and new dams.
As part of the special session, the Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee and the Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee will convene for an informational hearing on issues related to the 2009 Delta/Water Legislation Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 10 a.m. in Room 4202 of the State Capitol.
Representatives of fishing groups, conservation organizations, Indian Tribes, Delta farming groups and environmental justice organizations will be mobilizing to stop any water package that supports a road map to the peripheral canal and excludes Delta communities from the process.
Schwarzenegger proclaimed the special session to "address California's water crisis" last Sunday night after he backed down from his threat to veto all 704 bills on his desk until he and the legislative leadership agreed on a water bill package. In spite of no agreement being reached, he started signing and vetoing the backlog of legislation.
Ironically, as Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein and California legislators are pushing for a budget-busting peripheral canal/water bond boondoggle, Bloomberg News Service reported that a $2.1 billion tax deficit for October, 2009 threatens to unravel California's three-month-old budget.
"But that doesn't fluster Governor Schwarzenegger and top legislative leaders who, according to Governor Schwarzenegger's statement Sunday, are close to a deal on a water package," said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta. "Never mind that the public has no idea at this point what is in the proposed legislation or how much it will cost - that this deal in its latest incarnation has not been seen in print - or that all Delta legislators have been left out of the negotiations process."
Instead, Governor Schwarzenegger declared in his statement regarding a special session on water that he is ready to: "To consider and act upon legislation to place a general obligation bond and, as necessary, a lease revenue bond on the ballot."
The peripheral canal project is getting bigger and more unbelievable by the minute, according to Mike Fitzgerald in his column in the Stockton Record (http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091011/A_NEWS0803/910110301#STS=g0vm4laf.1uhm).
"The canal may go underground. Big time," Fitzgerald said. "One design envisions the canal diving underground by Stockton and flowing through four giant tunnels totaling two miles long. Another design envisions a 17-mile subterranean stretch. A third 'all-tunnel conveyance' design hides the whole shebang underground all 36 miles from Freeport to Tracy through two 33-foot pipes."
Barrigan-Parrilla also took aim at the increasingly insane and surrealistic canal plans by the Governor and Department of Water Resources
"Yes, it's getting bigger and more fantastical in the minds of canal proponents; never mind the pesky deficit is growing in size at the same time," she quipped. "After all, it's so easy to govern say if one ignores reality and manages the Capitol like a movie set."
She noted that while the Governor and DWR Chief Lester Snow continue pushing forward the BDCP (also known as the Big Detrimental Canal Project), water exported from the Delta is for resale for massive profit by corporate agribusiness.
For example, the Hanford Sentinel reported on August 27, 2009 that a Westside farmer plans to sell his 14,000 acre-feet of water a year to the Mojave Water Agency in San Bernardino County for $5,500 per acre-foot water. The unnamed landowner - a member of Sandridge Partners based in Sunnyvale, California - would make $77 million off California Water Aqueduct Water from the Sacramento River (http://www.topix.com/city/orange-cove-ca/2009/08/west-side-water-for-sale-77-million-buck).
Barrilla-Parrilla pointed out the hypocrisy of Schwarzegger pushing for the canal and increased water exports from the Delta after he vetoed AB 1242, a bill affirming the human right to clean and affordable drinking water, Sunday night.
"As all this water theater plays out in Sacramento with the Governor in his starring role, thousands of people in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, many in the farmworker communities that the Governor likes to make references to in his speeches, do not have clean drinking water, despite numerous legislative efforts, and the passage of previous water bonds," she stated. "But that doesn't disturb the Governor. Clearly, in the Governor's mind, California's water, part of the public trust, is not to be managed for equitable human use including the poor, or for protecting Delta fisheries and family farming communities, the middle class. It's a commodity for the profit of a few well off landowners on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley."
For more information, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org.
Meanwhile, the Department of Water Resources has begun drilling into river bottoms of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta this month to obtain information for proposed intake structures and tunnels for the peripheral canal. The Department has been drilling over the past week in the Sacramento River in the North Delta near Clarksburg.
While the Schwarzenegger administration claims the drilling is necessary for the state to "evaluate" different conveyance options under the controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), fishermen, farmers and environmentalists see the drilling as preparatory work for the construction of the peripheral canal even though the project hasn't been authorized or funded yet.
"I think it is very scary that DWR is going ahead with the drilling under the BDCP," said Barbara Daly, a Delta farmland owner and organizer for Save the Delta. "This is all about laying the groundwork to build the peripheral canal before the canal and the funding for it are authorized by the Legislature. I'm also worried about contamination that may occur to the water when the drilling crews stir up sediments from the river bottom."
Congressman Devin Nunes Attacks Salmon Fishermen
On October 15, 2009, Congressman Devin Nunes made claims on the floor of the House of Representatives that salmon fishermen aren't suffering from the fishery closure or "really out of work", that salmon aren't affected by the pumps in the Delta, and that the only reason salmon fishermen can't fish is because the federal government told them they couldn't. Over the last few months, Restore the Delta staff has interviewed numerous salmon fishermen whose boats are out of production, and hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost in the salmon industry over the last two years due to the closing of the fishery.
It is astonishing to Restore the Delta staff, who have always expressed compassion and care for Central Valley farm workers, that the Congressman could attack salmon fishermen, who work hard and pay taxes, for State and Federal water policies that have led to the collapse of California's salmon fishery. This exemplifies what we have seen in public discourse and media coverage throughout the last year -- a movement to blame the victims, the Delta farming and fishing communities, and the coastal fishing communities, instead of water exporters who are actually responsible for the Delta's decline.
To see the video featuring Congressman Nunes click here. His comments start around the 2:57:00 mark. Representative Blumenauer speaks eloquently in defense of salmon fishermen just before Congressman Nunes.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread