Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 2, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People -
Tahoe advocate turns his attention to Delta
By
In the mid-1980s,
"We had to have police protection in our office at night," said Martens, who led the league for six years. "People slashed my tires. It was really a tense period."
But development rules were put in place, and the Keep Tahoe Blue campaign lives to this day.
Now, Martens - fundraiser, consultant and frequent fisherman - sails into a new storm: the fight over the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Martens, the 61-year-old director of nonprofit group Discover the Delta, is charged with helping give the estuary a public identity as its fish decline, its levees erode and competing factions clamor for its water.
A recent survey showed many Stocktonians do not know the location of the Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast. And if that is true for the rest of
"People have to know there's a problem if they're going to approve money to solve the problem," he said.
Discover the Delta is largely a business-oriented group of Delta restaurant and marina owners, but organizers hope it becomes widely representative of agricultural, ecological and recreational interests.
The group is hoisting 16 road signs reminding drivers that they are, indeed, entering the Delta. And it is purchasing land for a $2 million educational center at the intersection of Highways 12 and 160 near Rio Vista.
Tahoe had one thing going for it, Martens said: It was already a
"Saying Tahoe wasn't going to be blue anymore - that was a strong statement," he said.
The Delta, largely hidden behind levees, has no such hook. But the education center, when finished, may include models of the Delta, a wine-tasting area and tours of the rarely-seen islands. It could open as soon as 2009.
Martens, who lives in
"He knows his way around and knows how to bring recognition in a positive way."
But the Delta itself is familiar for Martens. He has explored much of it in his "yacht" - a 16-foot aluminum fishing boat.
And he covered the same old Delta issues as a reporter. He says that in the late 1970s, he was cussed out by then-Gov. Jerry Brown during a press conference.
The topic? The peripheral canal.
Some things don't change, and indeed, Martens says the Delta has been "studied to death." That can be discouraging.
"I think what people do is, well, give up," he said. "But the Delta is there. You've got what you've got, and you've got to work with it."#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070702/A_NEWS/707020325
DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of
No comments:
Post a Comment