A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 24, 2007
3. Watersheds
LAKE DAVIS PIKE:
Town would like a stake through the pike; Officials will again pour poison into Lake Davis in an effort to wipe out a nonnative predator fish - Los Angeles Times
RED BLUFF DIVERSION DAM:
Pumping station would have "severe impact" on salmon runs -
Secret lives of fish - Eureka Reporter
DELTA ISSUES:
Water 'rights' wrong way to regard Delta -
Water crisis grips California; Leaders make pitch for delta fix - Capital Press
Guest Opinion: Do not be fooled by 'new' canal - Contra Costa Times
LAKE DAVIS PIKE:
Town would like a stake through the pike; Officials will again pour poison into
By Eric Bailey, staff writer
PORTOLA,
Folks came out of the hills, more than 200 strong, to enjoy bubbling beans, barbecued tri-tip and beer. Then, as the late-afternoon light crept up the conifers and dusk descended, they gathered on a gravel parking lot and ceremoniously torched a lath-sided wooden effigy of the saw-toothed fish that killed their beloved lake.
Death to the pike!
"We built it. We burned it," declared Sara Bensinger, the Grizzly's hale and hearty proprietor. "It was kind of like feeding the fish gods. Pleeeeease get rid of the pike."
State wildlife authorities are trying to do just that.
On Tuesday, for the second time in a decade, state Fish and Game Department crews will pour poison into the scenic Sierra reservoir in a bid to finish off the northern pike. The invader from the Midwest has established itself at the top of
Pike have turned the reservoir into what locals call a dead lake, undermining Portola's economy in the process. They pose an even bigger threat to fisheries throughout
If they ever escaped, the finned marauders could severely dent the state's fragile salmon and steelhead populations and even venture down into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, imperiling water exports to
In an attempt to prevent such a disaster, state wildlife officials plan to pour more than 16,000 gallons of the fish poison Rotenone into Lake Davis and the web of creeks, springs and seeps that feed its watershed.
The last time Fish and Game tried this extreme tactic was in 1997. It was an unfettered failure -- and a public relations disaster. Locals outraged by what they viewed as an environmentally incautious and bureaucratically imperious effort by the state won $9.2 million in damages. And the pike reappeared 18 months after the poisoning.
This time, Fish and Game officials have mounted a campaign heavy on ecological sensitivity, diplomacy and public education. Ed Pert, who heads the agency's pike-eradication push, said this effort is "a moon shot," far more sophisticated in style and substance than the previous one.
Bill Powers, Portola's mayor in 1997, remembers it like a bad dream.
Pike first appeared in nearby Frenchman Reservoir in 1988, probably dumped by an unthinking backwoods angler intent on introducing a hard-fighting game fish to the
On an overcast day 10 years ago, state officials first set out to poison the lake. More than
Locals were outraged by the treatment.
"Our attitude was, hell, you can't put stuff in our water and refuse to tell us what's in it," Powers recalled. "That's what set a shock wave off in this community."
Powers pulled on a wetsuit, swam into
His civil disobedience established his folk hero bona fides, and voters elected him a
As is it were a remake of "Jaws," the department sent out commercial fishing boats to capture the pike. The fish easily evaded the purse seine nets.
In 2005, authorities held a pyrotechnic media event, firing exploding detonation cord a few feet below the lake surface. The bombing run yielded good news footage but few dead pike.
The most successful tactic over the years has been electro-fishing, in which pike are shocked by high-voltage paddles and then netted. Workers have harvested 65,000, but pike numbers have continued to soar. Meanwhile, the trout population has plummeted, despite tens of thousands of hatchery fish planted over the years.
As the state has tried repeatedly to eradicate the pike, locals have softened their stance toward Fish and Game officials. They have come to accept that another massive dose of poison might be the last hope.
"The hostility isn't there anymore, the anger isn't there," said Jim Murphy, Portola's city manager. "I'm not saying people like it, but they understand why it's necessary."
Ivan Paulsen, the senior state biologist who has staffed the department's Portola office the last seven years, has seen a difference.
"They wave at me with all five fingers now," Paulsen said, only half in jest.
Paulsen put off retirement for months to see the pike eradication project through. His last day on the job is Friday, and folks hope he goes out a winner, with
To accomplish that mission, Fish and Game is tapping a big slice of its workforce and its best equipment.
Nearly two dozen boats will take to the water, including an Everglades-style airboat that can tote drums of Rotenone into the weedy shallows where pike like to lurk.
A crew of 250 will be in action this week. They've already ventured far up the watershed, treating even the smallest nooks that could provide refuge to the toothy invader.
Using aerial photos and GPS technology, the agency has mapped every imaginable "wet spot" in the region -- tributaries, spring-fed pools, even a few cattle troughs. Last week, workers discovered healthy pike that had wiggled their way last winter into what are now foot-deep puddles a quarter-mile from the nearest brook.
Even the poison is better, officials say. The new and improved Rotenone doesn't contain the petrochemical dispersants that hung around for five months in 1997, raising fears about toxic risk. This time the dispersants are a soapy formula designed to break down within days. An independent lab analysis eased lingering concerns, and state authorities have promised to continue a rigorous testing program. They vow that the waters of
Fish and Game authorities are also keeping an eye out for "credible threats" -- potential eco-saboteurs who might try to pluck a few pike from the lake, hold them in ponds out of harm's way and then reintroduce them after the wardens head home and the Rotenone dissipates.
Although genetic testing determined that the current generation is descended from the original Lake Davis pike, biologists still aren't sure if the fish reappeared in 1999 because a few survived the poisoning or someone threw some back in.
Years ago, Fish and Game wardens tracked down a local mountain man they claimed had called a
Since then, penalties have been toughened: Violators face a $50,000 fine and up to a year in jail.
To keep people away during Tuesday's poisoning, authorities have temporarily sealed off the woods surrounding
At the Grizzly Store, Sara Bensinger sees good coming after a whole lot of bad.
She bought the Grizzly in 1999 -- and the pike reappeared 10 days after she closed escrow. After a couple of decent fishing years, the trout began to disappear. It has been downhill ever since.
Bensinger put the Grizzly up for sale, "but who's going to buy at a lake that has issues?" she said. "Reality is, c'mon, the pike took over."
The walls of her store are still covered with glistening lures and other fishing tackle left over from a long season. Snacks in plastic packages vie for shelf space with firewood. An 1820 potbelly stove sits amid it all.
Bensinger is set to shut down for the winter in a few weeks. The store will be buried under snow, the lake frozen.
She said she'll reopen come spring's "ice-out" -- and she hopes no pike will be around to greet her.
If they're gone, Bensinger just might throw another party. Only this time she might make a chubby female figure out of papier-mâché.
It'll be a fat lady putting a fatal squeeze on a northern pike. And singing. #
RED BLUFF DIVERSION DAM:
Pumping station would have "severe impact" on salmon runs
By Cliff Larimer, staff writer
RED BLUFF -- Forces are gearing up to bring pressure and possible legal action against the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation if the two agencies pursue plans to raise the gates at Red Bluff Diversion Dam year-round.
Last week, the Red Bluff City Council heard a presentation from Dave Vogel of Natural Resource Scientists Inc., who has been hired by the city as a consultant to evaluate fish passage issues associated with the dam.
Vogel, a senior scientist with the firm, has researched and written extensively on nearly every aspect of fish passage difficulties — both real and perceived — at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam.
Presently, with a strong push from Jeff Sutton of the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority, the authority and the bureau are recirculating the 2002 Draft Environmental Impact State/Environmental Impact Report with Sutton pushing hard to halt use of the dam and to eventually install a huge pumping facility on the Sacramento River above the dam at the Diamond Mill site in Red Bluff.
The authority wants year-round access to river water for its irrigation canals that serve portions of Tehama, Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties. Currently, gates are lowered only during summer months.
Sutton wants them raised forever, and while the 2002 draft EIS/EIR had Bureau of Reclamation officials suggesting a free flowing river 10 months a year, the bureau reportedly now may be ready to pitch for removal of the dam and installation of the pumps at the Diamond Mill site.
It's all about fish, the runs of both salmon and green sturgeon, and their ability to get past the dam.
Vogel told the City Council the plans for the facility were flawed and could conceivably do major harm to salmon runs.
The mill site was never studied by the bureau or the canal authority, he said, so no relevant information is included on such as moving the river flow to the proposed pumping, the "large-scale dredging" that will be necessary at the site, nor the potential damage to the fishery.
"The document says there will be no impacts," he said. "I don't believe that. I think they could be severe."
"The problem is, it's a bad site," he said later.
Vogel and City Manager Martin Nichols both expressed concerns over the way the project was revived, with Vogel saying his extensive documentation of concerns were not included in the comments section until he protested. Then they were added online, but are nearly illegible.
Nichols said the city needs additional time to respond to the document and have contacted Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, to ask for an additional 90 days. Additionally, Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, has been asked to intercede. LaMalfa had a representative at last week's meeting.
Vogel has been hired by the city as a consultant to "provide analysis of the Fish Passage Improvement environmental documents, expert testimony and/or written comments and public presentations that may be required. Total cost is $15,000, but that could end up being a small part of costs if the canal authority and the bureau are challenged in court.
Nichols has said repeatedly the city hopes it doesn't get that far and that all involved can work together to keep the dam and solve any fish passage problems. But he said the city and the Chamber of Commerce have agreed to share costs of pursuing the matter through the courts.
One member of the public spoke at the meeting. Jack Williams, a retired city employee and a frequent attendee at City Council and Board of Supervisors meetings, said the dam needs to stay. He said the taxpayers paid for it more than 40 years ago.
He said the changes, the "dredging, pumping ... is going to cost farmers and taxpayers millions of dollars." #
http://www.chicoer.com//ci_6980499?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
Secret lives of fish
By Nathan Rushton, staff writer
A federal fisheries biologist has recently wrapped up a study hunting juvenile salmon fitted with sophisticated electronic tracking devices that promises to significantly boost scientists’ knowledge of an important, federally protected fish.
Coho salmon, which live the majority of their lives in the ocean and spawn in freshwater rivers and streams on the Pacific West Coast — including Freshwater Creek, which empties into
A high-tech study to determine what young fish do after they leave the stream where they were born began in mid-April, and the results are expected to be published at the end of this month.
Bill Pinnix, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Arcata office, is project supervisor and primary investigator for the study.
The coho study was hatched from a previous “fish community” study launched by the USFWS two years ago to look at which fish are using the bay’s different habitats.
While the previous study — which was primarily funded through the
“If we want to answer those questions, this is the type of study we have to do,” Pinnix said.
The $70,000 coho study was collaboratively funded by the USFWS, California Department of Fish and Game, the Harbor District and the oyster-rearing business Coast Seafoods, which farms several hundred acres of tidal lands in the bay.
Beginning in April, researchers began placing small acoustic transmitters into dozens of 6-inch-long, 1-year-old juvenile salmon migrating out of Freshwater Creek.
The acoustic tag transmitters send out a signal of six slightly varying pulses, or chirps, each minute that act like a bar code, which allows the researchers to track individual fish, Pinnix explained.
Rather than trying to just get lucky and catch fish where people think they might be, Pinnix said the tagging study allows scientists to accurately find and follow the fish.
A radio receiver unit attached to the front of the USFWS’ aluminum boat allows Pinnix to track — in real time — the movements of the fish to see where they go and better understand what they do.
Approximately 24 stationary radio receivers are also spread out through Freshwater slough and the bay to allow the scientists to listen for fish 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The data is stored in the receivers and retrieved later.
“Since one of the main objectives was (to track) residence time in the bay, we really wanted to know when they left,” Pinnix said.
To accomplish that, a higher-density swatch of receivers was placed inside the bay’s entrance.
Assisting Pinnix was Peter Nelson, the marine fisheries adviser for the
Nelson was tasked with surgically inserting the acoustic tags into the small fish.
Nelson said there was next to no information previously about how juvenile coho salmon were utilizing
Although there were anecdotal reports from anglers who said they caught young coho in some areas of the bay while jigging for anchovies to use as bait, Nelson said this is the first time researchers have nailed down solid data on the fish.
Because the bay has such a diverse number of uses — including oyster culture, recreational boating, large vessel shipping, commercial fishing hub and maritime industrial uses — Nelson said it is important that managers and scientists know how the fish use the bay.
And the study is already dispelling assumptions.
“The dogma is that the fish just boogie on through,” Nelson said. “Clearly that is not the case.”
Pinnix’s preliminary data suggest the fish are spending weeks in the bay, not the hours or days some have speculated.
Although there is considerable variation, Pinnix said his data show that the time the fish leave the fresh water to the time they exit the bay is about 30 days — half of that is spent in Freshwater Slough and the other half in the bay.
While in the bay, Pinnix said, the fish he tracked spent the majority of their time in the deepest part of the channel near the Samoa-area industrial frontage.
Nelson said more research is necessary to determine how coho use some of the other coastal streams, which he said has to vary from one system to the next.
Ron Fritzsche, a retired
At that time, resource management agencies were interested in knowing if Coast Seafoods’ oyster operations in and around the eel grass beds were impacting coho salmon.
Fritzsche said there has been what he called “faith-based” ideas of where the fish were, despite the fact that there was no record of juvenile coho salmon caught in eel grass beds.
Besides the main bay areas, the study is also shedding light on what the fish are doing in the estuaries and sloughs before they enter the bay.
Estuaries are a transition zone where fish are adapting from freshwater to saltwater life — a critical time in the life cycle of the salmon, Pinnix said.
Pinnix said many people consider Humboldt Bay, which is the second largest bay in
That’s not exactly true, Pinnix said, although he said it is tidally influenced and has some estuarine characteristics.
“The real estuary — the interface between the fresh and saltwater — occurs in the sloughs like Freshwater and
The coho study’s acoustic receivers also helped fill the data gap of when the fish used those slough environments, where Pinnix said scientists speculated the fish mostly stayed before leaving for the open ocean.
“Personally, I was surprised that they spent more time in the bay than I had initially thought,” Pinnix said.
Pinnix said Fish and Game’s effort to tag salmon with PIT — or passive integrated transponder tags — in Freshwater Creek has provided solid data on how long the fish stay in the upper streams.
Bob Pagliuco, a former fisheries biologist with
Pagliuco said it wasn’t until after four years of tagging and monitoring the salmon that scientists realized the fish were migrating to the lower portions of Freshwater Creek and spending a significant amount of time during their early lives in the tidally influenced estuary areas.
Pagliuco said monitoring revealed there is a small outgoing migration of roughly 7-month-old coho in the fall, as well as a larger migration of 1-year-old fish in the spring.
Given how important the estuaries are to the watershed and the salmon’s early development, Pagliuco said, that is where restoration efforts need to be directed.
“They grow incredibly faster there than they do in the tributaries,” he said.
Although they are not exactly sure why, Pagliuco said scientists speculate it is the abundance of space and food that allow the fish to grow more quickly.
But it is a two-sided coin for the fish.
Unlike the relative safety of the deeper water in the bay, it isn’t as easy going in the sloughs where pelicans, terns, cormorants and other diving birds congregate.
Near the U.S. Highway 101 bridge over Freshwater Slough, Pinnix said, it is common to see thousands of birds form a sort of avian gauntlet that fish must negotiate to make it into the relative safety of the deeper water.
INTERESTING BYCATCH
While it seems reasonable that small juvenile coho could slip in and out of the bay undetected for years, it is another story for the many larger, finned visitors to the bay.
Acoustic signals from green sturgeon, which can reach lengths of 7 feet and, like coho salmon, are federally protected anadromous fish, were also picked up by Pinnix’s equipment last summer.
Some were tracked leaving in the fall and others re-entering in April.
Fisheries biologist Steven T. Lindley with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s
Lindley is wrapping up an ambitious acoustic tag project that tagged 350 green sturgeon in
“We were hoping to detect them moving from their spawning rivers (to) where they aggregate during the summer,” Lindley said.
Although scientists don’t know why, Lindley said, green sturgeon tend to spend their summers in bays along the Pacific Northwest coast and winter off
During their stopover in
WHAT COMES NEXT
The USFWS is already planning a follow-up study for next year, which Pinnix said the agency hopes can be expanded to include monitoring the
“We spent two years doing pilot studies and really testing the technology before tagging the fish. By laying that groundwork, this project came off really well,” Pinnix said.
Following this year’s success, Pinnix is hopeful for subsequent research, but as of now, the necessary funding has not been secured.
Pinnix said other agencies, including HSU, have expressed interested in teaming up to use the receivers to monitor halibut, sharks and rays for their own research.
In addition, Pinnix said the Wiyot Tribe is interested in collaborating, as well as some community groups that do restoration and conservation work around the bay.
Half the overall cost for the $70,000 study was for equipment, including the 12 receivers that cost $1,200 each.
But those costs won’t be incurred next time.
Because the stationary receivers are already in place and paid for, other researchers would only have to provide tags.
“Every subsequent year, the relative cost goes down because of the initial capital investment,” Pinnix said.
The acoustic tag technology is fairly new, appearing only in the past decade, with significant advances in the past three years that have produced miniaturized versions that allow the study.
Pinnix said local agencies like the Harbor District will benefit most from the new data, along with state and federal fisheries management agencies.
David Hull, chief executive officer for the Harbor District, said the district’s $17,000 contribution goes toward a program he calls a critical element needed for bay management.
>From the district’s perspective, Hull said knowing better how and when juvenile coho use the bay will help with making decisions about projects in and around the bay.
“That is going to make our job a lot easier,”
Because the study has been so successful,
Pinnix said he is planning to present his final report to the funding agencies at the end of the month, and will also be publishing his data in a peer-reviewed science publication.
http://www.eurekareporter.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?ArticleID=28717
DELTA ISSUES:
Water 'rights' wrong way to regard Delta
By Michael Fitzgerald, staff writer
One of the fundamental aspects of life in the northern
Stocktonians look at this travesty through their cultural lenses: politically, legally and environmentally. The perspective, for instance, of Dante Nomellini, a water attorney, who gave a good talk Wednesday night on the peripheral canal.
The other speaker on the program was a surprise: Mark Franco, an American Indian, a leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe of the lower
The Winnemem are locked in a long-running fight with the state of
Franco's fresh take on the peripheral canal, on the dams proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and on water in general arises from a world view radically different from the European. But his spiritual view meshed with Nomellini's legal analysis.
"They look at water as a commodity to be bought and sold - water 'rights,' not water responsibility," Franco said of big Delta water users, "with no regard for the place that may be left dry."
That is certainly true. Only Thursday, a publication called Voice of San Diego said the Delta, 450 miles away, is "far enough away that it can seem like little more than a notion, a foreign place."
This followed a piece Wednesday by journalist Dan Bacher, who nailed the governor's mind-set: "In Schwarzenegger's mind, the Delta is not an ecosystem that provides water supply, but a water supply that happens to include an ecosystem."
The way Franco sees it, humans are not disconnected from the natural world, they are the natural world. They must respect it as they respect themselves.
"We have a responsibility to the water," he said. "It is a living being; ... it runs through the Delta like it flows through your body."
On dams: "If I was to build a dam in your body, which part of your body would you be willing to give up? A dam is like a tourniquet."
And a peripheral canal is like a "cardiac bypass." "How's that going to help your heart?" Franco asked - or help the Delta, the heart of
"You hear that the Delta can't be fixed," Franco said. "That may be true. It may be that the water systems of the world may be tired of us ... because we're not respecting them."
The Winnemem declared war on the state in 2004, nominally if nonviolently, landing Franco, their war chief, on the Department of Homeland Security watch list.
Some of this probably sounds wacky - until it is remembered that
And in a mere 160 years, our "rational" culture has managed to degrade the
Franco's talk suggests a different aspect of bad water. It suggests a reason why youths are angry, adults sullen or disaffected, the city stigmatized: the natural environment is degraded, water discounted as a commodity, as mere fuel for growth and industry.
Ugliness reigns.
Such a crazy state of affairs - seeing the Delta as little more than a rudimentary canal, an earthen ditch to be improved upon by a better engineered conveyance - is, unfortunately, a base-line Valley experience. Degradation 101, attendance mandatory.
The proper response is to join Franco in the fight.
Nomellini, a savvy veteran of water wars, drew the battle lines at the peripheral canal, or any "conveyance" that isolates southbound water from the Delta at large.
State history shows any promises of environmental protection or NorCal water rights will be broken. The governor's emergency powers will preclude any legal remedy, Nomellini warned.
If exporters can take water without regard for the Delta, they will leave the waterways to crumble into a choppy, brackish afterthought of a lake. Tying them to the "common pool" cements their responsibilities as well as rights, Nomellini argued.
He's on the warpath, too. "It is," he said, "the purest form of a water grab that I've seen since I've been in the practice of law." #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070921/A_NEWS0803/709210322/0/A_ENTERTAIN03
Water crisis grips
Capital Press – 9/22/07
By Bob Krauter, staff writer
Reacting to the Aug. 31 decision by federal District Judge Oliver Wanger to curb water exports in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by one-third or more next year, Lester Snow, California's chief of water resources, said the ruling has put an exclamation point on the crisis in the delta.
"We have further evidence that the delta is in crisis if there was any doubt about it. Clearly, the judge has focused in on a specific stressor in the delta and the export facilities in the south delta, but there are so many other stressors in the delta system that we still have to address," Snow said at a state Capitol news conference . "Whether it is seismic risk, invasive species or water quality issues, urban encroachment and loss of habitat areas - all of those areas still exist no matter what the judge has said or has not said. We need to move forward on a comprehensive fix."
Snow, joined by members of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's cabinet and several water leaders, urged support for Senate Bill 59, which embodies the governor's $6 billion bond package to improve water system reliability and the delta ecosystem.
The bond deal would help protect the delta smelt, a tiny threatened species that caused a temporary shutdown of state water project pumps this summer, Snow said.
Wanger's ruling could reduce delta water exports by up to 37 percent to protect smelt from being sucked into pumps near
The federal ruling on a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice against the U.S. Department of the Interior and several water agencies will tighten the delta's tap.
"What that indicates is in an average water year, where we would normally deliver almost 6 million acre feet, we expect under this order to be as much as a third less than that - about 2 million acre feet less than that," Snow said. "How much of this depends on precisely where the fish are in any given year, so obviously this introduces a great deal of uncertainty into the water supply. It does so while addressing one stressor. It does not guarantee that we are fixing the bay-delta system."
Schwarzenegger's plan includes two new reservoirs, conservation and improved delta conveyance. Snow said options include both a dual conveyance system and an isolated facility to move water around the delta, ensuring protections for smelt and other fish species.
"We have to move forward with a comprehensive solution. This won't be that last court case. It won't be the last disaster in the delta unless we proceed in a very, very comprehensive fashion, dealing with conservation, storage, conveyance, wastewater recycling - the entire package," Snow told reporters. "There are no silver bullets for fixing this problem."
Already, drought conditions this year have cut water deliveries from both the state and federal water systems to farmers in the
"This decision just creates more of a crisis, more of a problem for farmers," Kawamura said.
Steve Patricio, president of Westside Produce and chairman of Western Growers, said farmers are troubled by the water supply reductions ordered by Wanger.
"
Patricio said Western Growers, a major fruit and vegetable grower-shipper organization, has commissioned a study of water cutbacks that will be completed soon. Preliminary data show severe impacts to the economy.
"If 2008 is an average rainfall year, the study concludes that between 82,000 and 236,000 additional acres will be fallowed. Ag production will decrease between $68 million and $294 million, and that's if we have average rainfall," Patricio said.
Up to 4,000 jobs could be lost on farms that depend on delta water, resulting in a loss of personal income of between $57 million and $246 million, he said. Total regional economic loss could total between $110 million and $475 million.
"When farmers stop farming, when land stops being planted, and when orchards and vineyards die, farmworkers don't go to work," Patricio said. "When farmworkers don't go to work, the entire farm economy feels it. For every ag job, six other jobs are created."
Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, said the pain from reduced water exports from the delta will be felt far and wide from the federal court decision.
"There is no way that that can't do anything but hurt and hurt a lot," Quinn said. "We are not only losing our delta supply, we are losing our water management toolbox."
Roger Patterson, representing the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, told reporters that his agency, which serves 17 million people, is preparing mandatory conservation measures in the event that restricted water use is needed.
"Until we can come to grips with a comprehensive solution that serves all of the purposes in
State Water Resources Director Lester Snow is the key playmaker to push Schwarzenegger's plan in SB59, which stalled in committee earlier this year in
"We're optimistic about that (Perata's plan). The governor has indicated that he is not going to stop on his quest for a water bond, whether it is the end of the session, special session or beginning of next session - it is not an issue that is going to go away just because we got rejected by one committee on the legislation on one day earlier this year," Snow said. "It's not over and these issues that we are facing now highlight how there should have been more debate on SB59 before they voted to not move it out."
Schwarzenegger's plan in SB59 authorizes the sale of nearly $4 billion in bonds, with $2 billion allocated for surface water storage projects, $500 million for groundwater and $1 billion to be spent on delta sustainability. This week, Schwarzenegger called for a special session of the state Legislature to act on his water bond package and also to deal with health care reforms. #
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=792&ArticleID=35334&TM=9231.934
Guest Opinion: Do not be fooled by 'new' canal
Contra Costa Times – 9/22/07
By Joe Canciamilla, of Pittsburg and former chair of the state Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee
WHEN IT comes to water politics in
For those of us who were around 25 years ago, we witnessed what was then an epic battle in the
The culmination of the battle was a statewide vote in 1982 that soundly rejected this idea of a "peripheral canal" that many thought would end any thought of a canal forever.
Not so fast. For several years now there have been rumblings that the canal would return in one form or another. Many of us knew that the wealthy Central Valley farming interests combined with Southern California water interests were quietly acquiring the rights to surplus
Then we began to hear about the possibility of a new environmentally friendly "conveyance" system that could help not only Delta water quality but ensure safe drinking water for all.
Sounding much too good to be true, this new project began to sound more and more like the old canal discarded years ago. Then Gov. Schwarzenegger in a June speech to
Now, don't get me wrong, as a former chair of the Assembly Water Committee I agree that we need more storage and that there are water issues that have been ignored for many years.
While in the state Assembly, I authored a true water bond that would have provided money for storage - only to see it killed in its first hearing. I held hearings on levee maintenance and safety more than two years ago, when we couldn't get anyone to pay attention to these critical issues.
So now the governor and some legislative leaders are talking again about diverting water from the Delta as part of an "overall fix."
I, for one, don't believe it for a second. A real fix means taking political risks and challenging political interests that will oppose losing their long-standing supplies of plentiful and cheap
In this political environment, that's never going to happen. What will happen is that a deal will be cut in the dead of night, voted on by legislators who either have no clue what they're voting for or who are following the requests of their leaders, resulting in a measure on the ballot that will not build the canal, but will begin to pay for the studies, reports and engineering that will ultimately take us there.
Diverting high-quality Sierra water from the Delta will leave us with more salt water moving further up into a fresh water ecosystem. It will affect our drinking water, our fish populations, local jobs and industry, and ultimately, the long-term future of the entire Delta system.
We cannot simply let this happen by default. That is why I have formed StoptheCanal.org as a means of organizing, informing and, ultimately, using the power of public information to prevent a secret late-night deal from reversing more than 25 years of history.
Residents are encouraged to sign up at http://www.StoptheCanal.org and we will keep those interested informed on where the state is headed with a possible new canal deal.
It also will allow us to connect with other groups.
We need to be able to send a strong and clear message that we won't tolerate any last-minute, late night, secret deals to trade away our water. #
http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_6970306?nclick_check=1
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