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Obama Administration Releases Report Backing Peripheral Canal
The Obama administration has definitely signed on to "change" - change for the worse. Six federal agencies on Wednesday affirmed their support for new canal/tunnel to export more water to San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and southern California.
Obama Administration Releases Report Backing Peripheral Canal
by Dan Bacher
On December 15, the Obama administration officially announced its support for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal/tunnel, a project opposed by fishermen, Indian Tribes, environmentalists, family farmers and Delta residents.
A coordinated report issued by six federal agencies calls for the construction of a "new water conveyance system" - the peripheral canal/tunnel - to move water from north of the California Bay-Delta to corporate agribusiness on the side of the San Joaquin Valley and to Southern California water agencies.
The federal report, which complements a related report issued Wednesday by the Schwarzenegger administration, urges "continued progress toward completion of the California Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and supports major elements of the plan as a promising means of addressing the critical needs of both the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the state’s water delivery structure," according a news release from the Department of Interior.
"After years of drought, growing stress on water supplies, and with the Bay-Delta in full environmental collapse, it has become clear to everyone that the status quo for California's water infrastructure is no longer an option," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Salazar went on to praise Governor Schwarzenegger for developing "forward-thing solutions," in spite of the fact the Schwarzenegger administration has presided over the collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and young striped bass populations by exporting record amounts of Delta water from 2004 to 2006.
"Governor Schwarzenegger and the State of California have worked tirelessly and in partnership with us to develop responsible, forward-thinking solutions that can help us break the cycle of shortages and water conflicts," Salazar gushed. "This is the moment to push forward with solutions, apply the best science available, and build a water future for California that is good for our economy, guards against the impacts of catastrophic earthquakes and other natural disasters, and helps restore California's Bay-Delta to health.”
Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke also lauded the release of the "coordinated report," repeating the "co-equal goals" rhetoric that defined the failed CalFed process and now defines the BDCP.
“Through the Interim Federal Action Plan for the Bay Delta, the Obama Administration has made significant progress working with California to address the State’s complex and long-standing water issues," stated Sutley. "However, there is still much more work to do. Finalizing a Bay Delta Conservation Plan is a key part of establishing a long-term sustainable future for California’s water system. Any solution must address the dual goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem health, be science-based, and be developed with the full engagement of stakeholders. We look forward to working with Governor-Elect Brown to continue and accelerate our progress.”
“Over the long-term, rebuilding the ecology of the Delta and securing the reliability of California's water delivery systems carries huge promise for growing jobs across California, from the salmon-dependent fishing communities of coastal California to the farming communities of the Central Valley to Los Angeles basin,” said Locke. “We will continue to focus on critical next steps, including applying the best scientific research available to inform sound decisions and long-term planning."
Locke failed to indicate how two mutually exclusive goals - restoring salmon populations and the jobs that depend on them and providing increased, more "reliable" supplies of water for unsustainable corporate agribusiness on drainage impaired land and land developers in southern California - can possibly achieved at the same time.
“The progress we’ve made together is historic,” gushed California Secretary for Natural Resources Lester A. Snow, the man who has prosecuted Schwarzenegger's "scorched earth" policy towards fish and the environment, welcoming the federal support. “No group of federal, state and local interests, diverse stakeholders and committed individuals has ever come this far with a strategy to restore the Delta ecosystem and develop a more modern way to deliver our water. This is another important step we take together, but there is more to be done.”
Inexplicably in light of the collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, the federal agencies are completely abdicating their mandate to protect the public trust by supporting this peripheral canal/tunnel plan. They are doing this even though the best available science, including the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt, point to the key roles that water exports and declining water quality play in fish declines.
The release also claims that "Preliminary modeling results summarized in the state's BDCP Highlights suggest that a new north-south water conveyance facility could be operated in a manner that would generate average annual water exports over the long term that are more reliable, and greater, than the average annual exports that would be achievable under current constraints. For context, this modeling also suggests that these quantities may be comparable to the average annual Delta exports that have occurred since the Bay-Delta Accord, 15 years ago."
The key word here is "greater." As environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes and scientists have pointed out for many years, what the Delta needs is less water exported out of it, not more.
The Obama and Schwarzenegger administrations have instead committed themselves to increasing Delta exports, while calling for the "restoration" of tens of thousands of acres of marshes, wetlands, and habitat to greenwash the destruction of the Delta ecosystem. The building of the canal and this "restoration" farce will result in kicking many family farmers and Delta residents off their land in order to deliver water to rich water privateers like Stewart Resnick of Paramount Farms, who has made millions of dollars in selling subsidized water back to the public for an enormous profit.
The peripheral canal/tunnel will cost an estimated $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to an economic analysis conducted by Steven Kasower and Associates in 2009. Fishermen, Tribes and grassroots environmentalists fear that increased exports of water from the Delta will lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other collapsing populations of fish.
As Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, told me at a rally against the peripheral canal at the State Capitol in Sacramento in July 2009, “The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn’t make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective. Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand– it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die.”
The Obama administration has definitely signed on to "change" - change for the worse. Fishermen, Indian Tribal members, conservationists, family farmers and Delta residents must rise up and organize to stop this abdication of the public trust to serve the interests of agribusiness, southern California land developers and corporate water privateers.
The DOI press release is available at: http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Obama-Administration-Announces-Support-for-Essential-Elements-of-the-California-Bay-Delta-Conservation-Plan.cfm.
by Dan Bacher
On December 15, the Obama administration officially announced its support for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build a peripheral canal/tunnel, a project opposed by fishermen, Indian Tribes, environmentalists, family farmers and Delta residents.
A coordinated report issued by six federal agencies calls for the construction of a "new water conveyance system" - the peripheral canal/tunnel - to move water from north of the California Bay-Delta to corporate agribusiness on the side of the San Joaquin Valley and to Southern California water agencies.
The federal report, which complements a related report issued Wednesday by the Schwarzenegger administration, urges "continued progress toward completion of the California Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and supports major elements of the plan as a promising means of addressing the critical needs of both the Bay-Delta ecosystem and the state’s water delivery structure," according a news release from the Department of Interior.
"After years of drought, growing stress on water supplies, and with the Bay-Delta in full environmental collapse, it has become clear to everyone that the status quo for California's water infrastructure is no longer an option," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.
Salazar went on to praise Governor Schwarzenegger for developing "forward-thing solutions," in spite of the fact the Schwarzenegger administration has presided over the collapse of Central Valley chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and young striped bass populations by exporting record amounts of Delta water from 2004 to 2006.
"Governor Schwarzenegger and the State of California have worked tirelessly and in partnership with us to develop responsible, forward-thinking solutions that can help us break the cycle of shortages and water conflicts," Salazar gushed. "This is the moment to push forward with solutions, apply the best science available, and build a water future for California that is good for our economy, guards against the impacts of catastrophic earthquakes and other natural disasters, and helps restore California's Bay-Delta to health.”
Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke also lauded the release of the "coordinated report," repeating the "co-equal goals" rhetoric that defined the failed CalFed process and now defines the BDCP.
“Through the Interim Federal Action Plan for the Bay Delta, the Obama Administration has made significant progress working with California to address the State’s complex and long-standing water issues," stated Sutley. "However, there is still much more work to do. Finalizing a Bay Delta Conservation Plan is a key part of establishing a long-term sustainable future for California’s water system. Any solution must address the dual goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem health, be science-based, and be developed with the full engagement of stakeholders. We look forward to working with Governor-Elect Brown to continue and accelerate our progress.”
“Over the long-term, rebuilding the ecology of the Delta and securing the reliability of California's water delivery systems carries huge promise for growing jobs across California, from the salmon-dependent fishing communities of coastal California to the farming communities of the Central Valley to Los Angeles basin,” said Locke. “We will continue to focus on critical next steps, including applying the best scientific research available to inform sound decisions and long-term planning."
Locke failed to indicate how two mutually exclusive goals - restoring salmon populations and the jobs that depend on them and providing increased, more "reliable" supplies of water for unsustainable corporate agribusiness on drainage impaired land and land developers in southern California - can possibly achieved at the same time.
“The progress we’ve made together is historic,” gushed California Secretary for Natural Resources Lester A. Snow, the man who has prosecuted Schwarzenegger's "scorched earth" policy towards fish and the environment, welcoming the federal support. “No group of federal, state and local interests, diverse stakeholders and committed individuals has ever come this far with a strategy to restore the Delta ecosystem and develop a more modern way to deliver our water. This is another important step we take together, but there is more to be done.”
Inexplicably in light of the collapse of Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations, the federal agencies are completely abdicating their mandate to protect the public trust by supporting this peripheral canal/tunnel plan. They are doing this even though the best available science, including the federal biological opinions protecting Central Valley salmon and Delta smelt, point to the key roles that water exports and declining water quality play in fish declines.
The release also claims that "Preliminary modeling results summarized in the state's BDCP Highlights suggest that a new north-south water conveyance facility could be operated in a manner that would generate average annual water exports over the long term that are more reliable, and greater, than the average annual exports that would be achievable under current constraints. For context, this modeling also suggests that these quantities may be comparable to the average annual Delta exports that have occurred since the Bay-Delta Accord, 15 years ago."
The key word here is "greater." As environmentalists, fishermen, Indian Tribes and scientists have pointed out for many years, what the Delta needs is less water exported out of it, not more.
The Obama and Schwarzenegger administrations have instead committed themselves to increasing Delta exports, while calling for the "restoration" of tens of thousands of acres of marshes, wetlands, and habitat to greenwash the destruction of the Delta ecosystem. The building of the canal and this "restoration" farce will result in kicking many family farmers and Delta residents off their land in order to deliver water to rich water privateers like Stewart Resnick of Paramount Farms, who has made millions of dollars in selling subsidized water back to the public for an enormous profit.
The peripheral canal/tunnel will cost an estimated $23 billion to $53.8 billion, according to an economic analysis conducted by Steven Kasower and Associates in 2009. Fishermen, Tribes and grassroots environmentalists fear that increased exports of water from the Delta will lead to the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail and other collapsing populations of fish.
As Mark Franco, headman of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, told me at a rally against the peripheral canal at the State Capitol in Sacramento in July 2009, “The peripheral canal is a big, stupid idea that doesn’t make any sense from a tribal environmental perspective. Building a canal to save the Delta is like a doctor inserting an arterial bypass from your shoulder to your hand– it will cause your elbow to die just like taking water out of the Delta through a peripheral canal will cause the Delta to die.”
The Obama administration has definitely signed on to "change" - change for the worse. Fishermen, Indian Tribal members, conservationists, family farmers and Delta residents must rise up and organize to stop this abdication of the public trust to serve the interests of agribusiness, southern California land developers and corporate water privateers.
The DOI press release is available at: http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/Obama-Administration-Announces-Support-for-Essential-Elements-of-the-California-Bay-Delta-Conservation-Plan.cfm.
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North America Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA) designed in the '60's by Parson's engineering in So. Cal.-when we were too prosperous to pay attention-is bigger than TVA, 3 Gorges Dam, Grand Coulee Dam and the 50 year rebuilding of Holland's dikes put together. NAWAPA makes the Obama support for Peripheral Canal in California appear lacking in meeting the needs of our nation for a tax base composed of 4 million newly employed, productive workers to supply water for agriculture, industry and energy production from the Yukon to the Rio Grande. As water aquifers are drained down and our economy collapses we must think big and in terms of bioengineering to meet our national needs now and those of an increasing population density in future. Watch the video at http://www.larouchepac.com/node/15992 to think profoundly about our opportunities or as Roger Canfield said, "We can harness gerbils up to exercise wheels to provide a few of us with energy." God help the rest. I say, "NAWAPA OR BUST"
The good science this writer and others hold up as the underpinnings of the biological opinions was ordered rewritten by a federal judge who termed it "sloppy science." These same critics of water delivered to San Joaquin Valley farms and 25 million Californians refuse to accept recent studies that point to other factors such as waste water discharge, non-native species, predators and ocean conditions as causing greater damage than the pumps to fish populations. They ignore the benefits of a proposed tunnel conveyance, designed for greater fish protection and paid for by water users. Their objections only delay and increase costs for a Delta solution that will benefit all of California.
Mike Wade
California Farm Water Coalition
Mike Wade
California Farm Water Coalition
For more information:
http://www.farmwater.org
Well, thankfully, California has the Mono Lake case, where the California Supreme Court recognized the principle that a water diversion project violates the public trust if it impairs or harms a navigable lake or stream. Now, to see if California courts have the backbone to apply it.
It always seems like we are supposed to believe that a resource belongs to business. They have some personal funds at stake so everybody should bow to the Gods of commerial interest for their benefit. They have already taken much of the life out of the Sacramento River and now they want a clean sweep of the rest of it. They see salmon as a competitor and competitors will be ground down into nothingnous.
If you ask , Whose water is it? It belongs to the Great Spirit. Our original instructions said we were supposed to share it in balance with other beings on the planet. The folks with money are playing the Greco-Roman paradigm over again and again and less and less is left. Business can and has destroyed entire species. Not being satisfied with killing 98% of the original salmon population, they want that last 2% dead also. Man was designed to have contact with living things on this planet. It's getting very lonely.
If you ask , Whose water is it? It belongs to the Great Spirit. Our original instructions said we were supposed to share it in balance with other beings on the planet. The folks with money are playing the Greco-Roman paradigm over again and again and less and less is left. Business can and has destroyed entire species. Not being satisfied with killing 98% of the original salmon population, they want that last 2% dead also. Man was designed to have contact with living things on this planet. It's getting very lonely.
The Obama regime turns out to be not much better than the prior GW Bush regime when it comes to protecting the ecosystem. If the Democrats are the "party that protects the environment", then what options remain?
This is another example why our two party system doesn't work, as BOTH parties are beholden to influence of corporate lobbyists or they won't get any air time. Either way, we the people lose!!
The peripheral canal is another taxpayer subsidized high maintenance water conveyance project designed to benefit the WESTLANDS district agribusinesses, nothing else!
WE also know that WESTLANDS district was always subsidized with taxpayer money, otherwise their plantation style corporate farms would never have survived in the truly free market. Talk about hypocrisy, these welfare agribusinesses now demand even more tax money to further irrigate their land and contaminate the soil with selenium!
WE the people subsidized the destruction of the western San Joaquin Valley AND the destruction of many of CA's riparian ecosystems just for the sole benefit of WESTLANDS agribusinesses!!
Federal Bill will continue California’s Water Rip Off
January 25, 2010
by Jane Nielson
"California’s major water projects were built largely by the Federal Government to supply water for small farmers. Instead, those projects have been captured by huge corporate farmers, who pay very low prices for the water. In 2009 the very rich corporate farmers in California’s Central Valley, still subsidized by taxpayers have proposed another Federal water bill (SB 1759) that will continue degrading farmland at taxpayer expense.
National, state and local officials, including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Congressman George Miller, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, and many state legislators are already campaigning for passage of the bill.
All these elected officials, along with national and state media — prominently including Fox News, 60 Minutes, and the Sacramento Bee — have repeatedly made the false claim that San Joaquin Valley agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley’s Westlands Water District is suffering from a man made drought, and that cuts to its taxpayer-subsidized water supplies will prevent those growers from “feeding the nation.”
US Department of Agriculture statistics demonstrate to the contrary that agricultural production from Westlands Water District is far from significant, and may actually be negative when the level of taxpayer subsidies to those farmers is subtracted from their net profits. In fact, USDA statistics show that Westlands’ contribution to the nation’s food supply (and food exports) is only about a quarter of a percent in gross income. The true net value may be only $30 million to $40 million, once government subsides are taken out.
We, the U.S. taxpayers, paid for the projects that supply Westlands farmers with water, and for the drains that made it possible for them to continue farming in an area that traps highly polluted irrigation water in the soils. Those drains created Kesterson Reservoir, an ostensible wildlife refuge receiving poisoned agricultural water. Taxpayers eventually had to pay to fill in Kesterson’s collection ponds to stop the deforming of bird chicks and outright wildlife kills due to the high concentration of selenium in the drain water.
Recent tests of alternative drainwater disposal projects have shown that all have the same potential to poison and kill wildlife as did Kesterson. This also means that Westlands drain waters should never reach the San Joaquin River.
It’s time to get real about the level of taxpayer subsidies that allow Westlands agribusiness to thrive, when those farms continue to create environmental havoc, which taxpayers then have to pay to clean up. Why should taxpayers continue supporting agriculture that has to be bailed out of its self-made problems?
It’s time to wean Westlands farmers off the public purse, and make them prove that they can prosper in a free market.
Westland demands for taxpayer support — and the environmental destruction — both come from irrigating the land. It’s high time to cut out the irrigation and take Westlands Water District lands out of production.
How the proposed bill will privatize water supplies from the state’s large water projects, built with taxpayer dollars, while further undermining natural food chains."
article here;
http://theamericanwestatrisk.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/water-bond-will-continue-california%E2%80%99s-water-rip-off/
Some logical alternatives;
Once again, the simplest logical solution to these problems is for San Joaquin growers to switch crops to drought tolerants such as tepary bean, jojoba and nopales (cactus). These are three simple cash crops that do not require very much water, so regardless of whether it is a drought year or not, the extra water not used by drought tolerants is then free to remain in the rivers and help in recovery of salmon, smelt, sturgeon and others adversely effected by lower water levels.
Further benefit of drought tolerants will be in the lack of irrigation water contributing to selenium and salt build-up in the soils. Since many lands in San Joaquin are contaminated as a result of years of over irrigation, the most rational way to prevent further selenium and salt build-up would be to STOP IRRIGATING!!
Of course that is far too rational in the long term outlook to actually be heeded by Westlands growers, who really are more interested in milking taxpayers for as long as they can, and once their over irrigated lands are contaminated beyond repair by salt & selenium build-up, they will simply be abandoned and left as another superfund site for taxpayers to pay for clean up.
So much for change, EH?
This is another example why our two party system doesn't work, as BOTH parties are beholden to influence of corporate lobbyists or they won't get any air time. Either way, we the people lose!!
The peripheral canal is another taxpayer subsidized high maintenance water conveyance project designed to benefit the WESTLANDS district agribusinesses, nothing else!
WE also know that WESTLANDS district was always subsidized with taxpayer money, otherwise their plantation style corporate farms would never have survived in the truly free market. Talk about hypocrisy, these welfare agribusinesses now demand even more tax money to further irrigate their land and contaminate the soil with selenium!
WE the people subsidized the destruction of the western San Joaquin Valley AND the destruction of many of CA's riparian ecosystems just for the sole benefit of WESTLANDS agribusinesses!!
Federal Bill will continue California’s Water Rip Off
January 25, 2010
by Jane Nielson
"California’s major water projects were built largely by the Federal Government to supply water for small farmers. Instead, those projects have been captured by huge corporate farmers, who pay very low prices for the water. In 2009 the very rich corporate farmers in California’s Central Valley, still subsidized by taxpayers have proposed another Federal water bill (SB 1759) that will continue degrading farmland at taxpayer expense.
National, state and local officials, including Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Congressman George Miller, Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger, and many state legislators are already campaigning for passage of the bill.
All these elected officials, along with national and state media — prominently including Fox News, 60 Minutes, and the Sacramento Bee — have repeatedly made the false claim that San Joaquin Valley agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley’s Westlands Water District is suffering from a man made drought, and that cuts to its taxpayer-subsidized water supplies will prevent those growers from “feeding the nation.”
US Department of Agriculture statistics demonstrate to the contrary that agricultural production from Westlands Water District is far from significant, and may actually be negative when the level of taxpayer subsidies to those farmers is subtracted from their net profits. In fact, USDA statistics show that Westlands’ contribution to the nation’s food supply (and food exports) is only about a quarter of a percent in gross income. The true net value may be only $30 million to $40 million, once government subsides are taken out.
We, the U.S. taxpayers, paid for the projects that supply Westlands farmers with water, and for the drains that made it possible for them to continue farming in an area that traps highly polluted irrigation water in the soils. Those drains created Kesterson Reservoir, an ostensible wildlife refuge receiving poisoned agricultural water. Taxpayers eventually had to pay to fill in Kesterson’s collection ponds to stop the deforming of bird chicks and outright wildlife kills due to the high concentration of selenium in the drain water.
Recent tests of alternative drainwater disposal projects have shown that all have the same potential to poison and kill wildlife as did Kesterson. This also means that Westlands drain waters should never reach the San Joaquin River.
It’s time to get real about the level of taxpayer subsidies that allow Westlands agribusiness to thrive, when those farms continue to create environmental havoc, which taxpayers then have to pay to clean up. Why should taxpayers continue supporting agriculture that has to be bailed out of its self-made problems?
It’s time to wean Westlands farmers off the public purse, and make them prove that they can prosper in a free market.
Westland demands for taxpayer support — and the environmental destruction — both come from irrigating the land. It’s high time to cut out the irrigation and take Westlands Water District lands out of production.
How the proposed bill will privatize water supplies from the state’s large water projects, built with taxpayer dollars, while further undermining natural food chains."
article here;
http://theamericanwestatrisk.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/water-bond-will-continue-california%E2%80%99s-water-rip-off/
Some logical alternatives;
Once again, the simplest logical solution to these problems is for San Joaquin growers to switch crops to drought tolerants such as tepary bean, jojoba and nopales (cactus). These are three simple cash crops that do not require very much water, so regardless of whether it is a drought year or not, the extra water not used by drought tolerants is then free to remain in the rivers and help in recovery of salmon, smelt, sturgeon and others adversely effected by lower water levels.
Further benefit of drought tolerants will be in the lack of irrigation water contributing to selenium and salt build-up in the soils. Since many lands in San Joaquin are contaminated as a result of years of over irrigation, the most rational way to prevent further selenium and salt build-up would be to STOP IRRIGATING!!
Of course that is far too rational in the long term outlook to actually be heeded by Westlands growers, who really are more interested in milking taxpayers for as long as they can, and once their over irrigated lands are contaminated beyond repair by salt & selenium build-up, they will simply be abandoned and left as another superfund site for taxpayers to pay for clean up.
So much for change, EH?
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