Lester Snow Announces Release of Delta Plan Reports

Resources Secretary Announces Release of Delta Plan Reports

by Dan Bacher

Natural Resources Secretary Lester Snow on November 16 announced that two major reports on the Bay controversial Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), developed after 4 years of meetings and $140 million spent, will be released in the next few weeks.

He made the announcement during his testimony at an oversight hearing held by the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife at the State Capitol in Sacramento.

Snow described the BDCP as "a comprehensive conservation plan to protect species/habitat protection and improve the reliability of water supplies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta."

However, many fishing groups, Indian Tribes, environmental organizations and family farmers say the plan is a thinly veiled plan to build a peripheral canal/tunnel to export more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California.

“While the Delta has become the most politically contentious water management issue in California,” Snow said, “our progress in developing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan speaks to a growing consensus that we must achieve a Delta ecosystem that is more resilient and improve the state’s water supply reliability.”

Snow said that the BDCP Steering Committee plans to finalize its "working draft plan" at its meeting on Thursday, November 18.

Snow lauded the draft as "a product of a collaborative process that has included the California Department of Water Resources, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, federal and state fisheries agencies, water contractors, environmental organizations and other stakeholders. It will reflect substantial progress towards a completed Bay Delta Conservation Plan, and identify remaining elements where scientific work and other analysis is needed."

The 1,500 page draft report won't be available to the public until Monday, November 21.

Snow said a separate "status report and issues summary" on the BDCP will be released the week of December 6, 2010. This document will include the State of California’s assessment of the issues, but will reflect the work of both state and federal agencies, water users, and the environmental community.

"It will also identify issues that require further resolution, including additional scientific analysis to improve upon water operations for Delta fisheries, ecological metrics to measure progress, and ongoing development of an adaptive management plan," according to Snow.

Snow stated that a draft habitat conservation plan/environmental impact report will be released in mid-2011 and the final report will be released in 2012. He said the current plan could lead to the construction of the peripheral canal/tunnel by 2013.

Snow said the process has come to six major conclusions, including the "need" for a peripheral canal/tunnel:
1. Large scale habitat restoration is necessary.
2. Dual conveyance - a combination of a peripheral canal/tunnel and in-Delta conveyance - is necessary.
3. An economic plan must be developed
4. The BDCP must develop a resilent ecosystem.
5. California needs an increasingly diversified water supply.
6. Water management in California has suffered from a "lack of of truly integrated resource management."

BDCP "stakeholders" who testified included Jason Peltier, Chief Deputy General Manager, Westlands Water District; Laura King-Moon, California Water Contractors Association; Cynthia Koehler, California Water Legislative Director, Environmental Defense Fund; Jonathan Rosenfield, Ph.D., Conservation Biologist, The Bay Institute; Melinda Terry, Manager, North Delta Water Agency; and Don Nottoli, Delta Stewardship Council Member, Delta Protection Commission Chair, and Sacramento County Board of Supervisors.

Westlands Water District: political appointees, Not biologists, should decide Delta flows

Jason Peltier, during his testimony and while responding to questions by Senator Jared Huffman, criticized environmental groups for "nasty rhetoric" and spreading a "mythology." Peltier voiced frustration about the "never-ending stream of letters" from environmental organizations both on and off the BDCP steering committee who ignore economic realities.

"They seem to envision a perfect world," claimed Peltier. "We can't find perfection in this process. If that is their demand, that rock doesn't exist, and we ought not continue spending money to try and find this perfect world."

Peltier also said the water contractors have heard from federal agencies that the BDCP is on track to produce a document that the federal government does not consider permittable. He blamed this on the work of "mid-level biologists" and boldly recommended that political appointees, rather than scientists, make the decisions over how much water must flow through the estuary.

At the same time, he blasted a report by unnamed federal biologists that said that at least one species of fish would be threatened with extinction if the BDCP went forward. The biologists conclude that "overall habitat conditions under the proposed project are likely to be worse than present day conditions or future conditions (if the project is not built),"

"Yes, I would ask political appointees to weigh in to make a decision based on informed views - not a little paper with no names," he emphasized. "The world is bigger than the word of a few biologists."

"It is important that agencies get the best available science," Peltier stated. "It's unfair to ask biologists to choose the flows for fish."

He also claimed there is "scientific uncertainty" on the flows needed for fish, noting the "complex tidal swing" in Delta channels of 30,000 cfs on every tide change. "We have to listen to debate and to make the best decisions we can," said Peltier.

Jonathan Rosenfield responded to Peltier by stating that federal, state and independent biologists have all identified, in a number of reports, the flows needed to maintain healthy salmon and Delta fish populations.

"I don't know of any scientist who disagrees with the need for flows out of the Delta," he emphasized.

The Legislature failed to ask members of California Indian Tribes, recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, or environmental justice groups to speak on the panels, even though they will be impacted dramatically by the construction of a peripheral canal or tunnel. However, Dick Pool, administrator of Water 4 Fish, spoke in the public comment period about the urgent need for immediate action to save collapsing runs of Sacramento River chinook salmon.

"I have a major concern about the rapid decline in fall-run chinook salmon from 800,000 fish in 2002 to only 39,500 fish in 2009," said Pool. "We don't have a lot of time left - there won't be any fish around if we rely on the BDCP schedule. We need to implement early projects to recover fish populations."

Delta advocates who attended the hearing were very critical of the BDCP's failure to address how it can possibly provide both the water and habitat that imperiled fish populations need and the water that the exporters desire.

"After 4 years and $140 million, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan is going to release some kind of document this week, but it won't answer the central question of the exercise: how do exporters plan to get the amount of water they want while giving fish and habitat the water they need?," said Jane Wagner-Tyack, a policy consultant for Restore the Delta.

Wagner-Tyack also criticized the BDCP for its failure to address how it will come up with the money for canal/tunnel construction and habitat "restoration" at a time when the state of California is besieged with an unprecedented budget crisis.

"And no one knows how this will all be paid for," she concluded. "However, one thing that seems clear is that exporters are unlikely to continue to pay for a plan that will not give them the amount and reliability of water that they thought they were getting with their investment in the BDCP."

For more information about Restore the Delta, go to: http://www.restorethedelta.org. BDCP ocuments will be available at http://www.resources.ca.gov and http://www.baydeltaconservationplan.com.