Administration draws back from Schwarzenegger's Delta tunnel proposal

Administration draws back from Schwarzenegger's Delta tunnel proposal

Delta advocates say conveyance schemes endanger the estuary

by Dan Bacher

A Brown administration official said a proposal to build a pair of huge tunnels is no longer the top option in a state plan to facilitate the export of water from the California Delta to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California water agencies

Jerry Meral, Deputy Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency, announced during a Assembly Committee Hearing on May 10 that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), a controversial program based on the co-equal goals of "water supply reliability" and "ecosystem restoration," will consider multiple alternatives for Delta "conveyance." These alternatives will include a plan for a smaller conveyance facility with 3,000 cfs capacity proposed by the Planning and Conservation League.

The tunnel proposal was the option favored by the Schwarzenegger administration through the BDCP to build new "conveyance" - a peripheral canal - around or through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The previous administration proposed the study of two tunnels capable of diverting 15,000 cfs in the latest incarnation of the peripheral canal, a project that California voters overwhelmingly rejected in the election of 1982.

"If you pre-commit to a project, you're going to fail in the process, and we're not going to do that," Meral stated, referring to the California Environmental Water Quality Act (CEQA), as quoted in the Sacramento Bee on May 10. (http://www.aquafornia.com/archives/48990)

Meral’s testimony took place during the Assembly Committee on Water Parks and Wildlife’s oversight hearing on Delta Governance and the Delta Plan, chaired by Assemblyman Jared Huffman. Other speakers included John Laird, Natural Resources Secretary, Phil Isenberg, Chair of the Delta Stewardship Council, Caren Trgovchi, Chief Deputy Director of the State Water Resources Control Board, Mike Machado, Executive Director of the Delta Protection Commission and Campbell Ingram, Executive Officer of the Delta Conservancy.

Some Delta advocates were encouraged by Meral’s announcement, but reiterated their opposition to any conveyance scheme to divert more water from the Delta – and take some of the most productive agricultural land on the face of the planet out of production. Fishermen, Indian Tribal leaders, Delta farmers and most environmentalists oppose the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel because they believe that it will likely lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other species.

"I'm glad to see them back off the large tunnel, but I will oppose any tunnel scheme that the 'environmental' groups or anyone proposes," said Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. "Tunnels, chunnels or any movement of water from or around the Delta are wrong! They will destroy the Delta for the fish and the people who live there and those of us who still care!"

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, emphasized that no new conveyance alternatives of any size should be considered without a "full scientific analysis" of what the impacts would be on the Delta. She also said Meral's statement has been misinterpreted.

"The media has latched incorrectly onto yesterday's statement by Jerry Meral," said Barrigan-Parrillla. "He said that the BDCP will consider the 3000 CFS pipe, no conveyance, and all the alternatives. It's nothing more than a shell game to keep the public confused. A 3000 cfs pipe with pumps operational at Tracy would do as much damage the Delta as a 15,000 cfs tunnel."

"In addition, a smaller pipe could be fitted in the future with larger pumps and easements could be secured for enlarging the project at a later date," she stated. "A small pipe is still expensive, once you look at all the processes associated with mitigation. Will a small pipe be cost effective for water users in the rest of the state? My guess is no."

Mark Wilson, a Delta farmer who owns Wilson Vineyards in Clarksburg, said rather than going forward with what he described as the “Orwellian” idea of a peripheral canal, the state should start dredging Delta river channels. This would provide material for rebuilding levees, along with restoring the capacity of the Delta channels to move water, Wilson stated during the recent Farms and Salmon Summit in Antioch. His Delta dredging proposal is similar to the one proposed by Dino Cortopassi, a San Joaquin County farmer, in his recent full page ads in the Sacramento Bee.

Meral’s announcement comes several days after the prestigious National Research Council (NRC) released a report slamming the BDCP for "lacking critical missing components," including clearly defined goals and a scientific analysis of the proposed project's potential impacts on Delta fish and other species. (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/05/06/18679033.php)

The panel of scientists also blasted the scientific information for being "being fragmented and presented in an unconnected manner, making its meaning difficult to understand."

In their most pointed criticism, the scientists emphasized that the "entire effort is little more than a post-hoc rationalization of a previously selected group of facilities, including a (canal or tunnel)."

Mike Fitzgerald, Stockton Record columnist, quipped in reaction to the above statement by the NRC: “Translation: The plan is largely a justification for a (peripheral) canal or tunnel. Saving the Delta is an afterthought, the greenwashing of a water grab. My words, not theirs.” (http://www.recordnet.com)

I think Fitzgerald in his May 11 column superbly sums up the Bay Delta Conservation Plan when he describes it as “the greenwashing of a water grab.” There is no doubt in my mind that the “ecosystem restoration” language of the BDCP is nothing other than an attempt by the Natural Resources Agency to greenwash plans by corporate agribusiness and southern California water agencies to divert more water from the California Delta, the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.