Delta 'Vision' doesn't include Delta residents, Tribes or fishermen

Delta 'Vision' doesn't include Delta residents, Tribes or fishermen

by Dan Bacher

The Delta Vision Foundation will release the 2011 Delta Vision Report Card, styled as an "evaluation of efforts to implement the Delta Vision Strategic Plan," at a public meeting this Thursday, July 14 from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm at the CalEPA-Sierra Hearing Room at the Corner of 10th and I Streets in Sacramento.

The Foundation, formerly the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force chaired by Phil Isenberg, will release its second Report Card evaluation of "the State’s progress and effectiveness in restoring the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta and ensuring a reliable water supply for California," according to a Foundation announcement.

Unfortunately, the Delta Vision Foundation, just like Governor Arnold Schwarzegger's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force that preceded it, appears to be doing everything it can to exclude Delta residents, fishermen and California Indian Tribes from the discussion of Delta water and fish. It was only because of intense political pressure in 2005 that Schwarzenegger finally appointed one Tribal representative, Gary Mulcahy of the Winnemen Wintu Tribe, and one recreational fishing representative, John Beuttler from the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, to the task force filled with water agency officials, political hacks, corporate agribusiness operatives and environmental NGO representatives.

Who is scheduled to appear at the meeting? Of course, the members of the Delta Vision Foundation, including Sunne Wright McPeak, President, Mike Chrisman, A.G. Kawamura, Linda Adams, Richard Frank, Thomas McKernan, William Reilly, Raymond Seed, Ph.D., Charles Gardiner, Executive Director, and "Associated agency leaders and stakeholders," will be there.

The Foundation will also host two "panel discussions" about the report: a panel of state and federal agencies from 10:00 to 11:00 am and a "stakeholder" panel from 11:00 am to noon.

The "Agency Panel Participants" will include representatives of the Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Protection Commission, Delta Conservancy, State Water Resources Control Board, Department of Fish and Game and Department of the Interior.

The "Stakeholder Panel Participants" will include representatives of the The Bay Institute, Association of California Water Agencies, Northern California Water Association, Environmental Defense Fund, California Chamber of Commerce, State and Federal Contractors Water Agency and "Other Invited Organizations."

As usual, I don't see any recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, Delta farming groups, California Indian Tribes or environmental justice organizations listed as "stakeholders." And also as usual, I don't see any "stakeholders' opposed to the construction of the peripheral canal invited to speak on the panel!

The public will have an opportunity to comment on the "Report Card" after the "stakeholders" speak.

According to the foundation, "The 2011 Delta Vision Report Card evaluates progress by State agencies (Governor’s Administration), Legislature, and federal agencies to adopt and implement key recommendations and strategies identified in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan."

One of the key recommendations of the plan was the construction of "dual conveyance" - a combination of a peripheral canal or tunnel and "through Delta" conveyance - to facilitate the export of Delta water to corporate agribusiness on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California water agencies.

"The Delta Vision Foundation conducted a comprehensive survey among stakeholders to solicit input on progress and effectiveness, and their feedback is also incorporated into the evaluation. The Delta Vision Strategic Plan, released in October 2008, was a two-year project designed to ensure long-term sustainable management of the Delta," the Foundation stated.

The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force was organized in a manner very similar to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative Blue Ribbon Task Forces, panels designed to create a network of "marine protected areas" on the California coast. However, the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Forces reached new levels of corruption with the appointment of a big oil lobbyist, real estate executive, marina developer and other corporate operatives with numerous conflicts of interest.

Phil Isenberg was the chair not only of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, but of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the Central Coast. In one of the most egregious examples of corporate greenwashing in California history, Schwarzenegger appointed Catherine Reheis-Boyd, the president of the Western States Petroleum Association, to chair the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast.

Meanwhile, Sacramento River spring and winter-run Chinook populations, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon and other Bay-Delta Estuary fish populations continue to decline, due to massive water exports out of the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast of the Americas and declining water quality. In one of the largest fish kills in California history, state and federal personnel have "salvaged" more than 6 million Sacramento splittail in the past six weeks and more than 51,000 imperiled spring-run chinook this year at the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) pumps in the Delta.

The peripheral canal or tunnel proposed under the Delta Vision and BDCP processes is likely to lead to the extinction of Central Valley and Delta fish populations.

"This is not a VISION this is a NIGHTMARE," said Caleen Sisk Franco, Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. "It is terrible that most of California's people are not paying attention to the mass killing of the fish, which indicate that there will be mass killings of people because the water will be 'no good' for drinking soon. So many interconnected, horrible problems are repeated time after time."

In turn, the MLPA Initiative, rather than creating real marine protected areas that address water pollution and the industrialization and privatization of ocean public trust resources, serves only to greenwash the abysmal legacy of the worst Governor for fish and the environment in California history, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

For more information on the Delta Vision Foundation, go to: http://www.deltavisionfoundation.org. For more information on the battle to stop the peripheral canal, go to: http://www.restorethedelta.org. For more information on the MLPA Initiative, go to: http://noyonews.net.