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| The Sacramento Delta |
Jerry Brown Rapes the Sacramento Delta
"I'm not willing to sacrifice my land for somebody growing cotton in the desert." - - - Chuck Baker, Delta Farmer
EDITOR - Without a vote of the people Democrat Jerry Brown wants to send millions of gallons of water from the beautiful Sacramento Delta to Central and Southern California to grow cotton, build new homes and water golf courses.
(Mercury News) - Seven years into Jerry Brown’s final tour as governor, his promise to create a reliable water delivery system that protects the health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is in shambles. His twin-tunnel fixation was ill-conceived and, for Northern California at least, unacceptable, and he is not giving up.
His administration is expected to announce a new strategy soon that should alarm South Bay and East Bay residents, businesses and water system operators.
The Associated Press reports that the governor is considering removing control of design, construction and operation of any Delta project from the state Department of Water Resources and giving it to the water agencies that pay for it. This means any Delta water conveyance project would be largely driven by Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District.
Metropolitan is the largest supplier of treated water in the United States, serving 19 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. Its thirst is unquenchable. Doug Obegi, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, warns that “we’ve seen Metropolitan promote junk science before. Ceding control to them is a recipe for problems.”
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| Burt Wilson, of Sacramento, who worked to oppose the 1982 peripheral canal plan, joined others in a protest against a plan announced by Gov. Jerry Brown to build a giant twin tunnel system to move water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmland and cities. (stamfordadvocate.com) |
It would indicate that the state is not managing its water resources on behalf of all Californians but only of water districts buying into his twin-tunnel plan.
Intensifying concerns is Brown’s choice this month of Karla Nemeth to run the state Department of Water Resources, which manages the California State Water Project and is supposed to manage and protect the state’s waterways.
Nemeth is married to Tom Philp, a Metropolitan senior strategist, but that’s just part of the conflict. The bigger concern is Nemeth’s own connections to Metropolitan, which paid her salary for two years when when she worked for the California Resources Agency.
This could solidify Met’s ability to speed water south from the Delta.
The governor also is likely to announce that the $17 billion plan for two massive tunnels under the Delta will be scaled back initially to a single tunnel at around half the price. But it will be framed as a project in phases, leaving the prospect of a second tunnel still very much alive. Metropolitan, with its support from the state water resources department, can declare victory.
Six years ago Sen. Dianne Feinstein called on the National Academy of Sciences to study the Delta because the agency “is the only body whose views will be respected by all the relevant parties as a truly independent voice.”
The Academy concluded that the best approach to reduce demand for Delta water was pursuing more efficient water use. It said pouring more water, not less, through the Delta to San Francisco Bay was the best way to preserve its health.
Brown’s interests are clear: Send water south. We’ll be looking carefully at his would-be successors to see who will stand up for the Delta — and for Northern California’s economy and water supply.
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| Owens "Lake" Today Los Angeles drained the Eastern Sierra Nevada lake dry and created a dust bowl environmental disaster as part the city's endless quest to suck down every drop of water. Now the political hacks are leering at the beautiful Sacramento River Delta. |
