Emergency Meeting to Stop the Peripheral Canal

An emergency meeting to stop the peripheral canal will be held tonight at the Sierra 2 Community Center in Sacramento at 6:30 p.m.

Emergency Meeting to Stop the Peripheral Canal Oct. 28

by Dan Bacher

Organic Sacramento and Save the Delta are holding a special emergency meeting to strategize on how to stop plans to build a peripheral canal and to defeat the current Delta/water package being fast-tracked through the Legislature. The meeting is set for October 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the Sierra 2 Community Center, 2791 - 24th Street (near 4th Ave.), in Room 10 in Sacramento.

"We are at a critical juncture regarding the pending legislation on California's water and the Delta, according to Kim Glazzard of Organic Sacramento. "There is a strong push in the California legislature to pass the current water bill, SB 1, either this week or next week during their special session."

The Senate Natural Resources & Water Committee and Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee will convene for a joint hearing on the 2009 Delta/Water Legislation today at 1 p.m. in Room 4203 of the Capitol. The hearing will concentrate on bond bills and water financing language.

"The bill presented during this special session is as bad if not worse than the bill(s) presented in the regular session - and creates the road map to the construction of a peripheral canal," said Glazzard. "One of the most onorous parts of this bill is the attempt to create a Delta Stewardship Council composed of 4 of the Governor's appointees, 2 legislative appointees, and one representative from the Delta."

This council will have a great deal of control over the Delta's resources, including land as well as water. Since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will appoint 4 out of 7 the members of this council, he will undoubtedly appoint people that support the building of a peripheral canal and care nothing about the Delta, its people and its fish populations.

Schwarzenegger has waged a relentless campaign for the past 2-1/2 years to build a peripheral canal and more dams to increase water exports to corporate agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley and southern California. He has done this in spite of the fact that Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, green sturgeon and other populations have crashed to record low levels in recent years, due to massive water exports and declining water quality. These fish desperately need more, not less, water in the estuary to stop them from becoming extinct.

Going to Restore the Delta's website at http://www.restorethedelta.org will give you additional information regarding the legislative status and the next meeting. We need as many people to attend these legislative hearings and to call Senator Steinberg's office to voice opposition to this bill.

The language for the water package circulated at the State Capitol last week, but Delta representatives were barred from preview by Steinberg and Schwarzenegger.

"Please plan on attending and spread the word about the meeting," added Glazzard. "Without our water, Northern California will not be able to survive."