http://www.rivernewsherald.org/articles2013/tunnel_12-18-2013.html
By Galen Kusic, Editor
Californians for a Fair Water Policy protested the beginning of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) Environmental Impact Report/Statement 120-day public comment review period for the second time in a week at the State Capitol on Friday.
Only this time, even more speakers were present to denounce Gov. Jerry Brown’s $24.7 billion twin tunnel proposal. Hundreds gathered with signs and plenty of anger that the project that has been described as a “boondoggle” continues to push forward with no public vote on the project.
Other major reasons for the protest include that there has been no real cost-benefit analysis study conducted, funding for the project is not certain and biological opinions from several federal agencies have produced scathing comments – citing that the so-called habitat conservation plan would indeed harm the Delta ecosystem and endangered fish and terrestrial species.
On top of that, opponents to the plan are focused on new, alternative ways to create more water without damaging the environment and preserving the State’s most precious and coveted resource – Delta water.
“I came up from Los Angeles early on this chilly morning to say why we don’t need or want the big dumb canal project,” said Conner Everts, Executive Director, Southern California Watershed Alliance. “With this project, Southern California will pay more and get less.”
Everts spoke about the need for southern California to rely on its own alternative water sources, and clean up its aquifers from pollution. He illuminated the fact that in the driest year on record, there have been no restrictions on water usage in the southern half of the Golden State.
“We can do better,” he said. “We don’t have a water crisis – we have a water management problem in this state.”
Everts attended a water energy tour in Australia in May, and found out that those “down under” use less than 1/3 of the water we use daily in California. Australians use as little as 30-50 gallons per day, while in Long Beach the average usage is 107 gallons. Sacramento is a whopping 224.
“We have a long way to go,” said Everts to a resounding applause. “We can’t ignore the need for safe, clean and affordable drinking water.”
Restore the Delta Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla noted that proponents of the plan discount opponents to BDCP because they are “anti-intellectual”, and are not thinking in correct terms.
“Let’s make this clear today – creating a 37,000-page fantasy project that is void of science and is mathematically incomplete is anti-intellectual. The BDCP is a failure of imagination.”
Alex Aliferies of the Contra Costa County Taxpayers Association discussed the enormous burden that would be placed on taxpayers to cover the cost of the BDCP, and that it doesn’t matter whether it is Contra Costa County or LA County, all ratepayers will equally have to share the cost for the massive infrastructure.
Zeke Grader, Executive Director with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations conveyed that by steamrolling BDCP through, it would ultimately decimate the estuary and the salmon population that used to be so abundant throughout California’s rivers, creeks and tributaries.
“The BDCP is going to destroy our salmon fishery and the SF Bay estuary,” he said.
The major flaw that opponents point out with the plan is that water being pumped from further north on the Sacramento would in fact decrease flow through the estuary to San Francisco Bay – thus leading to saltwater intrusion and lack of water quality.
While there are water quality requirements in place at 3-Mile Slough on the Sacramento River that must adhere to the North Delta Water Agency contract – by complying with this contract would mean that the tunnel diversion would stay empty more often than not, especially during drought years.
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Executive Director Bill Jennings emphatically explained that Delta water outflow to the San Francisco Bay has declined by more than 40 percent since the State and Federal Water Projects were implemented in the late ‘60’s. Water quality standards protecting the Delta have been violated hundreds of times without a single enforcement action taken, while watershed protection statutes have been ignored.
“The BDCP EIR/EIS is a 30,000-plus page omelet of distortion, junk science, half-truths and outright lies designed to create an artificial reality that you can restore an estuary hemorrhaging from a lack of freshwater flow by stealing more water from it,” he said. “BDCP is not a path to restoration; it’s a death sentence for one of the world’s great estuaries.”
Jennings predicts that water will simply become too expensive for farmers to farm the region, and the possible $50 billion “scheme” will ultimately not only destroy the Delta itself, but the surrounding region and state as a whole.
“We will fight this abominable scheme through the administrative laws, court rooms and the ballot box,” he said. “If necessary we’ll fight on the channels and sloughs and levees and fields to the very gates of hell. We will not surrender this Delta.”
“Delta agriculture will be devastated by this big, dumb, crummy project – BDCP,” he said. “The North Delta will be turned into a construction war zone. People will be forced from their homes for disruption of drinking water. The 1,000’s of trucks per day will make agriculture impossible.”After a deafening applause, Russell van Loben Sels of the Five Delta Counties Farm Bureau Caucus spoke out against BDCP, stating that it would destroy generations of farming communities up and down the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.
He alluded that if constructed and eventually permitted, the western, central and southern Delta will become saltier, and will destroy crops throughout the region due to poor water quality. He states that over 1/3 of agricultural lands will be obliterated for habitat restoration projects.
“We need to get this project where it belongs – in a bullpen,” he said.
The Winnemmen Wintu Tribe has strongly opposed the BDCP process since the beginning, especially since they have been left out of discussion on salmon restoration and other projects. The tribe depends on salmon for its survival at the base of Mt. Shasta, and believes that BDCP will ultimately decimate the entire Sacramento River system from its origin in the north state.
Aside from concerns about the proposed raising of Shasta Dam by 18 feet to accommodate filling various reservoirs, there has been no discussion by BDCP officials of the Native American burial sites that would be dug up in the Delta if BDCP were to be constructed.
“This Brown water plan, it will be brown water when it is done. This is not a sustainable way to redevelop our fisheries,” said Caleen Sisk, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu.
Cisk informed the crowd that in 1910 salmon were taken from the McCloud River and transported to New Zealand. Now, New Zealand is number one in salmon production in the world – an $84 billion industry per year.
“We are the state with the biggest estuary in the western hemisphere,” she said. “We have the capability to do that again by restoring the salmon.”
Cisk warned against the epidemic for the oil company’s need for hydraulic fracturing. While BDCP or the Brown Administration has never alluded to the fact that big oil needs more water to successfully complete the process – it has been pointed out by experts in the field that fracking is indeed another need for the conveyance of more Delta water south.
Sacramento Supervisor Don Nottoli spoke about the Delta and all of its environmental wonders and the need for the economic production that comes from the region. He spoke that alternative solutions must be found to come up with a better plan than the current BDCP.
“This project makes no new water, it will have massive lasting negative impacts to the Delta, it’s people, the economy and the state of California,” he said. “To sacrifice the Delta for the benefit of other regions is not and never will be the answer.”
Nick di Croce of the Environmental Water Caucus highlighted that the state and BDCP’s focus should be on strengthening the levees and protecting the land and people that already live there – not worrying about constructing two 30-mile long tunnels 150-feet below the surface. The Department of Water Resources has limited knowledge about what is actually below the surface because Delta landowners have not allowed the state to come on to the land and do the proper testing thus far.
“BDCP is an ill-conceived project, being driven by exporters who want more water from the Delta despite all the science that says we should be reducing exports in order to protect the Delta. And the more we look at BDCP costs, the more it becomes apparent that the tunnels are a bad investment, especially in view of less costly and more sustainable solutions that don’t need tunnels,” he said.
Osha Meserve, attorney with Local Agencies of the North Delta and Stone Lakes Wildlife Refuge Association explained that regardless of the seven years of documents and studies and science – there is still not even close to enough information of the impacts and threats that this project will propose to go ahead with it.
“It’s very scary,” she said. “It hasn’t been a clear and transparent process. It will cost taxpayers 10’s of billions of dollars, destroy sustainable Delta farms, and potentially imperil at least seven of the species it is supposed to protect, including the greater Sandhill Crane.” It is fundamentally flawed because it was never intended to be a plan about restoring the Delta. It was agreed that they would need new conveyance. There is nothing in the BDCP about improving conditions in the south Delta pumps. Send the BDCP back to the drawing board.”
Bob Wright, Attorney for Friends of the River spoke about clearing up a mistake and the deception that has taken place. He conveyed that this not just a war on the Delta, but on all rivers in northern California.
“It’s true that the people in the Delta are at ground zero,” he said. “Our rivers in northern California and the San Francisco Bay are in the radioactive fallout zone. That’s the mistake we need to clear up. We need to do what it takes to get the word out to communities in the state.”
Wright spoke of the deception that has taken place within the Brown Administration in an attempt to get the plan permitted and eventually constructed. He warned to not be fooled and to fight against the brilliant, yet deceptive plan, which, in essence is striving to get a peripheral canal built 30 years after it failed on the ballot during Gov. Brown’s last term in office.
Executive Director for the California Delta Chambers & Visitors Bureau Bill Wells spoke about representing over 300 small mom and pop businesses within the Delta and the importance of keeping the region alive.
“Trying to hide the peripheral canal 150-feet underground still makes it a peripheral canal and it will devastate the Delta. The BDCP sets standards for how much water will be diverted from the Sacramento River but it does not determine how much water can be removed without destroying fish populations. We have the cart way before the horse here,” he said.
Delta recreation alone generates $350 million to the local economy and provides 5,300 jobs to the region. There are approximately 10,000 covered boats in the Delta used for weekend trips or excursions. Wells warned that the constant tunnel muck dumping, pile driving and construction will disrupt the Delta’s beauty and serenity, while at the same time decimating the economy.
“It will be a huge deterrent to the enjoyment of the Delta,” said Wells. “Citizens of California need to work together to reduce dependence on the Delta, not increase it. The Delta is a treasure for all citizens, not just a public feature to be exploited by the water cartels,” said Wells.
“Jerry Brown said this week that he would do anything humanly possible to build these peripheral tunnels. Well I’m going to say we will do anything humanly and legally possible to stop him, and I’m confident we’ll win.”
To learn more about Californians for a Fair Water Policy, visit www.stopthetunnels.org.