Groups Expose The Big Lie: "There's No Plan B to Delta Tunnels"

Yes, there is a Plan B

On June 27, a coalition of conservation, fishing and environmental justice organizations submitted a letter to the Santa Clara Valley Water District exposing the “Big Lie” that there is no Plan B to Governor Jerry Brown’s Delta Tunnels, now renamed the California WaterFix.

In their letter, Restore the Delta, AquAlliance, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Environmental Water Caucus, Friends of the River, Planning and Conservation League, and Sierra Club California revealed that there is indeed a Plan B — a comprehensive, well-researched alternative plan to fulfill the dual goals of ecosystem restoration and water supply reliability.

“Our public interest organizations write out of concern that once again, the Big Lie has been repeated that there is no Plan B to the California Water Fix Delta Water Tunnels,” the groups wrote. “In fact, there is an outstanding Plan B, and for that matter, other alternative plans as well to the Water Tunnels. The self-serving refusal of the proponents of the Water Tunnels to listen to or consider alternative plans does not mean there is no Plan B.”

“We presume that in many cases such as at your meeting on June 21, 2016, when Mr. Matt Maltbie of Californians for Water Security said there is no Plan B, the mistake is innocent and is caused by the continuing efforts of proponent government agencies to ignore and conceal alternatives to the Water Tunnels,” they said.

The groups describe Governor Brown's WaterFix as “the most damaging and controversial water project proposal in California history," as well as “the most expensive water project proposal in California history.”

They also pointed out that the 1970’s version of the Water Tunnels, then known as the peripheral canal, was voted down in a statewide referendum in June 1982 by a 2 to 1 margin.

“The Tunnels would divert enormous quantities of water from the Sacramento River upstream from the Delta near Clarksburg," the letter said. “As a result of this massive diversion, the freshwater that presently flows through the Sacramento River and sloughs to and through the Bay-Delta before being diverted for export at the south Delta, would no longer reach the Delta. The benefits of those freshwater flows for Delta water flows and water quality, agriculture, industry, residents, and fish and fish habitat would be lost, with the impacts to humans falling particularly heavily on low-income people of color and California Indian Tribes.”

The groups said they presented a Sustainable Water Plan for California (Environmental Water Caucus, May 2015) as a "reasonable alternative" to the Water Tunnels over a year ago. The plan is available at: http://ewccalifornia.org/reports/ewcwaterplan9-1-2015.pdf

The actions called for by this alternative include:

• reducing exports to no more than 3,000,000 acre-feet in all years in keeping with State Water Board Delta flow criteria (for inflow as well as outflow);

• water efficiency and demand reduction programs including urban and agricultural water conservation, recycling, storm water recapture and reuse;

• reinforced levees above PL 84-99 standards;

• installation of improved fish screens at existing Delta pumps;

• elimination of irrigation water applied on up to 1.3 million acres of drainage-impaired farmlands south of the Bay-Delta;

• return the Kern Water Bank to State control;

• restore Article 18 urban preference;

• restore the original intent of Article 21 surplus water in SWP contracts;

• conduct feasibility study for Tulare Basin water storage;

• provide fish passage above and below Central Valley rim dams for species of concern; and

• retain cold water for fish in reservoirs.

“We also requested that the range of reasonable alternatives include reducing exports both more and less than the 3,000,000 acre feet limit called for by this alternative," the groups wrote. “A Sustainable Water Plan for California is a carefully conceived modern, 21st-century Plan B. It should be Plan A.”

You can read the entire letter here: http://restorethedelta.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/6-27-16-ltr-to-SCVWD-final-for-pdf.pdf

The letter was sent at a time when the Delta Tunnels Plan is a state of chaos, disarray and apparent collapse.

In a major defeat for the California WaterFix, Judge Michael Kenny of the Sacramento Superior Court on June 23 ruled that the Delta Stewardship Council's Delta Plan is "invalid" after a successful legal challenge by multiple Delta parties who argued that the controversial plan doesn't protect water quality or the many fish species that depend on fresh water flows for their survival.

“The decision throws a large monkey wrench into the administration’s ‘California WaterFix,’ a massive water conveyance scheme that would shunt most of the water from the Sacramento River to Southern California via two gigantic subterranean tunnels,” according to a press release from the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN). (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/6/24/1542185/-C-WIN-Senator-Lois-Wolk-Praise-Judge-s-Decision-To-Toss-Delta-Plan)

Background: Jerry Brown's Terrible Environmental Legacy

The Governor's Delta Tunnels/California WaterFix "legacy project" poses a huge threat to the ecosystems of the Sacramento, San Joaquin, Klamath and Trinity River systems, but it’s not the only environmentally devastating policy promoted by Governor Jerry Brown. Brown is promoting the expansion of fracking and extreme oil extraction methods in California and is overseeing water policies that are driving winter run-Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt and other species closer and closer to extinction.

Jerry Brown also oversaw the "completion" of so-called “marine protected areas” under the privately funded Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative, overseen by a Big Oil lobbyist and other corporate interests, in December 2012. These faux “Yosemites of the Sea” fail to protect the ocean from oil drilling, fracking, pollution, corporate aquaculture and all human impacts on the ocean other than sustainable fishing and gathering.

As if those examples of Brown’s tainted environmental legacy weren’t enough, Brown has promoted carbon trading and REDD policies that pose an enormous threat to Indigenous Peoples around the globe; has done nothing to stop clearcutting of forests by Sierra-Pacific and other timber companies; presided over record water exports from the Delta in 2011; and oversaw massive fish kills of Sacramento splittail and other species in 2011.

Brown spouts "green" rhetoric when he flies off to climate conferences and issues proclamations about John Muir Day and Earth Day, but his actions and policies regarding fish, water and the environment are among the worst of any Governor in recent California history.

For more information about the real environmental record of Governor JerryBrown, go to: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/25/1506146/-Govenor-Jerry-Brown-Celebrates-World-Water-Day-As-He-Promotes-Salmon-Killing-Delta-Tunnels