A coalition of recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen, Delta farmers, Indian Tribes, conservationists and others concerned about the future of the California Delta is opposing a $9.3 billion water bond proposal that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein and Assemblyman Dave Cogdill are trying to ram through the California Legislature.

The water bond would result in the design and construction of a peripheral canal that would exacerbate the collapse of salmon and other fish populations on the California Delta, the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast. Over the next two weeks, the California State Assembly will still be deciding whether or not to place a water bond on the November ballot.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, is asking everybody concerned about the preservation and restoration of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to call the members of the Assembly Special Water Committee to let them know that you oppose the bond for the following reasons:

1) The peripheral canal will not solve the crisis in the Delta or make more water for California.
2) The Department of Water Resources, while working on projects on behalf of the State Water Contractors, fails to answer for the people of the Delta "How much fresh water is required for the health of the Delta estuary?"
3) The peripheral canal will not restore fish populations, but in fact result in their demise.
4) The peripheral canal will destroy the $ 2 billion Delta agricultural economy.

For Schwarzenegger and Feinstein to attempt to strong arm the Legislature to pass this water bond in a time of dramatically declining fisheries is simply insane. Salmon fishing in ocean waters off California and Oregon and in Central Valley rivers is closed, due to the collapse of the Central Valley fall chinook populations. At the same time, delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, threadfin shad have reached record low population levels.

The collapse of Central Valley chinooks and other Delta fish is caused by increasing exports of Delta water by the state and federal governments in recent years. The construction of a peripheral canal will create the infrastructure to export more water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta when in fact there is an urgent need to export less water to protect chinook salmon, steelhead, delta smelt and other imperiled fish species.

Even more bizarre, the contruction of a canal would result in the condemnation of some of the best, most productive farmland on the planet in order to ship subsidized water to west side San Joaquin water contractors that are irrigating toxic soil that should have never been put into agricultural production. Why should Delta farmland be sacrificed to keep the Westlands Water District in business? Wouldn't it make much more economic and environmental sense to do everything we can to keep Delta farming alive and vibrant - and to finally take drainage impaired land in Westlands out of production?

I strongly urge everybody who cares about the California Delta and West Coast fisheries to call their Assemblymember today. We must stop Schwarzenegger and Feinstein from building a canal that will result in the destruction of West Coast fisheries and Delta farmland!

Photo: Governor Arnold "Fish Terminator" Schwarzenegger gushes about his environmentally destructive water bond in a recent rally at the State Capitol in the Sacramento. After speaking at the rally, Schwarzenegger jetted off to "Building Green" Forum at the Border Governors Conference in Los Angeles. Photo courtesy of the Governor's Office.

governator.jpg