Restore the Delta Unveils 2009 Platform

Restore the Delta's 2009 Platform

by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Campaign Director, of Restore the Delta

Over the last six months, Restore the Delta staff, board members, and advisors have worked to create a campaign platform that expresses our vision for restoration of the Delta. Below are the principles of this work. The campaign platform will be used as a tool to make our vision known to legislators and for organizing volunteers throughout the year.

To create in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta a world-class region in which productive agriculture and habitat protection are successfully interwoven, Restore the Delta advocates the following principles:

Restore the flow of fresh water by immediately reducing exports to a level compatible with protecting Delta communities. All proposals for long-term Delta management must be based on a firm understanding of Delta freshwater needs and must include strong protection of sufficient flows of water necessary for public health, agriculture, and habitat for native and desirable species. We advocate restoring enough Delta outflow pattern to return the mixing zone of salt water and fresh water to the western part of the Delta near Suisun Bay. We also advocate restoring freshwater flows to the San Joaquin River by retiring drainage-impaired lands loaded with selenium and salt in the Central Valley. Appropriate and sustainable water export reductions must be made before any proposals for alternative export conveyance or diversion are considered.

Protect the Delta from unrealistic water planning strategies and uses. The Delta is a common resource that should provide the same quality freshwater supply to all Delta users. The State Water Project will never develop all the water supplies outside the Delta on which the export program was based. We call on the State to recognize natural limitations on water supply and to enforce Water Code provisions that restrict exports to water not needed in the Delta itself.

Restore proper governance of the Delta. The State Water Resources Control Board must be empowered to enforce existing water codes regarding water quality and quantity. A fully-funded SWRCB enforcement staff must operate independently of board members charged with creating regulations and water rights decisions.

Encourage regional self-sufficiency. We encourage statewide conservation, recycling, reuse, and regional self-sufficiency to generate up to 7 million acre feet annually in areas of need outside the Delta, using as a model measures instituted by the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California urban agencies such as the Metropolitan Water District. We advocate replacing reduced exports and addressing potential flooding with flood plain recapture, ground water replenishment, and demand management initiatives, and we advocate use of recycled urban and agricultural water, ground water desalination, water use efficiency, and urban run-off management.

Ensure emergency readiness to protect the people, property, and infrastructure of the Delta and to provide for a healthy ecosystem. In consultation with Delta experts, the State must immediately prepare and fully fund a comprehensive flood plan and emergency readiness plan.

Restore the Delta is a grassroots campaign of residents and organizations committed to restoring the California Delta so that its waters are fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable.



Here is the rest of the newsletter:

"I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks." --- William Shakespeare

Welcome to the new Delta Flows, Restore the Delta's, once again, weekly newsletter on Delta news.

Many Thanks to Senator Feinstein, Representative Cardoza, and Representative Radanovich


Although Congress did not pass legislation for San Joaquin River Restoration during this lame duck session, Restore the Delta understands that this needed legislation is poised to move forward in 2009. Environmental partners who work with Restore the Delta have praised Senator Diane Feinstein, Representative Dennis Cardoza, and Representative George Radanovich for their leadership and support for moving this legislation into the near future.

Restore the Delta wishes to expresses our gratitude to Senator Feinstein, Representative Cardoza, and Representative Radanovich for leading the movement toward an agreement that will help to restore historical salmon runs to the Delta and that will help to return some San Joaquin River flows to our estuary. Restoration of the San Joaquin River is one of many pieces of work that need to be done to restore appropriate fresh water flows to the Delta.


CSPA/CWIN Lawsuit

Restore the Delta applauds the lawsuit filed by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and California Water Impact Network on behalf of Delta fisheries and Delta communities. The principle arguments within their suit mirror Restore the Delta's Campaign Platform Principles including the retirement of drainage impaired lands in the Central Valley. Below is a press release put out yesterday by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

December 1, 2008 -- Calling it "the biggest lawsuit about the biggest ecological and legal catastrophe in California today," the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and the California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) filed suit in Sacramento Superior Court Monday, December 1, 2008, to protect Delta public trust resources-including endangered migratory fisheries of salmon and open water fish species-and to end wasteful and unreasonable diversions of water from the Delta by big state and federal water projects.

The suit also asks the court to halt irrigation of several hundred thousand acres of selenium contaminated lands on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, the drainage from which pollutes wetlands, the San Joaquin River, and the Delta.

"California has regulated its waters like the feds have regulated Wall Street and the result has been a collapse of fisheries and aquatic ecosystems," said CSPA Chairman and Director Bill Jennings. "Given bureaucratic paralysis, we have little alternative but to turn to the courts to prevent the extinction of our historic fisheries."

The suit names as defendants the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the United States Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB).

Specifically, the seven-count lawsuit charges that the huge export pumps near Tracy in the south Delta kill thousands upon thousands of smelt and small salmon fry every year, at different times of year, and are the main threats to public trust resources in the Delta. DWR and USBR, operators of the two largest water storage, pumping, and canal systems in California, violate numerous federal and state water quality and fish protection laws, the state's public trust responsibility, water rights orders, and the terms of their appropriative water rights permits through excessive pumping-all illegally allowed by the SWRCB, the state's water regulator, and the third defendant charged in the suit.

"The State Water Board hasn't applied one significant measure to protect fisheries in over a decade and the Governor's Delta Vision and Bay-Delta Conversation Program processes are little more than smokescreens to justify the status quo," added Jennings. "It took lots of people all over California to protect the public trust resources and protect the rivers of northern California as it did at Mono Lake," said Carolee Krieger, executive director and board president of C-WIN. "We must stop the carnage in the Delta now."

After construction and operation of the federal Central Valley Project and the California State Water Project, runs of migratory salmon went extinct below Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River near Fresno in the early 1950s. The Delta smelt, an open water fish native to the Delta estuary, has almost gone extinct, and desperate biologists may try to cultivate an artificial smelt refuge.

"Our state government has utterly failed to enforce the public trust and obey the constitution," said Krieger. "In our suit, we petition the court to force the State Water Resources Control Board to enforce the letter and spirit of the water laws and the State constitution."

"A lot of people don't realize that the voters of California passed a constitutional amendment in 1928 to ban wasteful water use and harmful diversions from streams," said attorney Michael Jackson who represents both C-WIN and CSPA in this case. "Even the federal government must adhere to state water law and the constitution, and we intend to show the court how they haven't time and again, and to persuade the court to end the lawlessness of water exports from the Delta."

Wasteful water use harms the Delta, argues the suit, when water exported by the Central Valley Project is used to irrigate western San Joaquin Valley lands that are naturally contaminated with selenium, boron, arsenic, and even mercury in some areas. These lands then drain to the San Joaquin River, the Delta, and Suisun Marsh. Settling in sediments where clams and other aquatic organisms feed, the toxins concentrate through the food chain, resulting in embryonic deformities and dead offspring for many fish, bird, and mammal species in the Valley.

"These two projects pump water from the Delta to irrigate impaired lands and recycle contaminated drainage back via the San Joaquin River to an increasingly polluted estuary thereby accelerating the decline of fisheries," adds Jennings of CSPA. "Enough is enough!"

"We're getting our slingshots ready," said attorney Jackson with a smile. "And we know who won the last meeting between David and Goliath."


An Important CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) Workshop

The Planning and Conservation League Foundation is holding a CEQA workshop in Stockton on December 6, 2008. (See below for details).

Remember when reading PCLF's announcement that learning to evaluate the environmental impacts of proposed projects can include evaluating plans to build new water conveyance facilities.

Saturday December 6th, 2008 PCLF will be in town to show you how to participate in the environmental review process. There is still time and room to register, but our workshops fill quickly! This workshop is just days away! You can register here.


Restore the Delta is working everyday through public education and citizen activism to ensure the restoration and future sustainability of the California Delta. Your general contribution can help us sponsor outreach events, enable us to educate Californians on what makes the Delta so special, and assist us in building a coalition that will be recognized by government water agencies as they make water management decisions. Restore the Delta is a charitable 501(c)3 organization. Donations are tax deductible. To make a donation or for more information, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org.