California Water Forum Excludes Delta Communities

California Water Forum Excludes Delta Communities

by Dan Bacher

In a classic case of elitism and environmental injustice, a so-called "California Water Forum" conducted by the state and federal governments in Sacramento August 12 excluded Delta farmers, fishermen, boaters and residents from its list of panels and speakers.

California Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow invited Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes to participate in the tightly controlled forum along with the Department of Fish and Game, the Department of Water Resources, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, and the Bureau of Reclamation. "However, Delta fisherman, farmers, boaters and informed opponents of the proposed Peripheral Canal were noticeably been left out and we want to know why?” asked Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta.

“Those that live, work, and play in the Delta are a vital group with strong concerns about the future of California’s largest estuary,” Barrigan-Parrilla emphasized. “While we strongly support the need to address our State’s critical water needs at forums such as these, they should be addressed with a more comprehensive approach that safeguards the Bay, the Delta, the environment and with cost effective and environmentally sound programs and projects."

She added, "To have a California Water Issues Forum and to not include representatives from the Delta as participants is beyond the pale. They can keep us off the panel, but rest assured that the fishing, environmental, Delta farming and boating communities will make their voices heard as we turn out to remind the Schwarzenegger administration and other proponents of a new Peripheral Canal that their scheme is not yet a done deal.”

The speakers included representatives from the same state and federal agencies that have presided over the collapse of Central Valley salmon, longfin smelt, Delta smelt, Sacramento splittail, green sturgeon, striped bass and other fish populations. On the main panel were Mike Chrisman, Resources Secretary, Don Glaser, Bureau of Reclamation, Don Koch, director of the Department of Fish and Game, Ren Lohoefener, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Russ Strach, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Fran Spivy Weber, State Water Resources Control Board.

The speakers on the topic of the "Bay Delta System" were all backers of the peripheral canal. These included Dr. Jeffrey Mount, the University of Davis professor who was funded by the Packard Foundation and Stephen Bechtel Jr. to produce a report for the Public Policy Institute of California advocating the construction of Arnold's "Big Ditch.

Mount made a stunningly absurd statement that the current ecosystem in the Bay/Delta now looks like "a lake in Arkansas" with all of the non-native plants, fish and wildlife. However, I don't know of any lakes in Arkansas containing Delta smelt, longfin smelt, chinook salmon, steelhead, Sacramento splittail, Sacramento blackfish and green sturgeon. Nor do I know of any Arkansas lakes that have incoming and outgoing tides that the lives of fish, both native and introduced, revolve around.

Veteran politician Phil Isenberg, another canal backer, gushed about his experiences chairing the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, a tainted Schwarzenegger regime process that backs "dual conveyance" - a peripheral canal combined with through-Delta conveyance. "Never in my entire career has anybody asked for my independent judgment like the Governor did when he asked my to chair the task force," claimed Isenberg.

Karla Nemeth from the Natural Resources Agency discussed the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, another "collaborative" process that talks incongruously about "ecosystem restoration" while pushing Schwarzenegger's canal proposal. In fact, the Department of Water Resources this month will begin drilling the river bottoms at 16 locations on the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Mokelumne Rivers to explored potential intakes for the peripheral canal. Gwen Buchholz, DWR consultant, talked about the Status of the delta EIR/EIS.

Wendy H. Martin of DWR and Ron Milligan of the Bureau of Reclamation spoke about "current water conditions, planning for long term drought and climate change." Dan Castleberry of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Carl Wilcox of the DFG and Mike Tucker of the National Marine Fisheries Service discussed current ecosystem conditions on the Delta. This was the most valuable part of the forum, other than the public comments at the end, since they gave the latest updates on the collapse of the Delta's pelagic (open water) species including Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, juvenile striped bass and plankton.

The "Delta Issues Panel" featured Sacramento County Supervisor Don Nottoli, Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan, Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, Gary Bobker, the Bay Institute, Kim Delfino, Defenders of Wildlife, and Roger Patterson, Metropolitan Water District. Again, not one of these people was from the Delta fishing, boating and farming communities most impacted by plans to build the canal and divert more water from senior water rights holders on the Delta to junior water rights holders in the Westlands Water District, although Notoli and McGowan spoke out against against local governments and residents being left out of the "collaborative" BDCP process.

"The Delta Issues Panel was predictable except for the two supervisors from Sacramento and Yolo counties (on behalf of the five Delta counties) who complained of being excluded from the BDCP process," commented Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "Tom Birmingham and Roger Patterson talked about the urgent need for a peripheral canal. Gary Bobker and Kim Delfino, who are participating within and supportive of the BDCP process, related some of their concerns about the developing habitat conservation plan."

McGowan, who opposes the peripheral canal, agreed with Parrilla, Jennings and others that the Delta's people have not been listened to by the state and federal governments. "We still do not feel as though we've had our issues heard," said McGowan, as quoted by Sacramento Bee reporter Matt Weiser in his August 13 article, "Feds seek solutions in Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta." "The Delta is not a blank slate. It is our home."

Although the Governor's staff tried to eliminate the scheduled public comment period, they decided to allow the public to comment after the presentations were finished. This only took place after Restore the Delta sent out a press release slamming the Natural Resources Agency for not allowing public comment at the forum and after Dick Pool, administrator for Water for Fish, and Jennings took Lester Snow to task for deciding at the last minute to eliminate public comment.

The standing room only crowd at the meeting was filled with hundreds of opponents of the peripheral canal. "Dozens of speakers, from the fishing, environmental and Delta farming communities ripped the peripheral canal, the BDCP and their exclusion from the process," stated Jennings. "No one spoke in favor of BDCP and a peripheral canal."

In his comments, Jennings blasted the BDCP process. "Why should we trust the same individuals and agencies that caused and acquiesced in the crisis to now solve it?," he said. "Especially, when they continue to exclude the victims - the fishing and farming communities of the Delta - from the process."

"We have constitutional provisions, a water code, state and federal endangered species act, water quality acts, environmental review acts and a Fish and Game Code that - while imperfect - are sufficient to equitably distribute available water and protect pelagic and salmonid fisheries," he stated. "They would have prevented the present crisis and they're sufficient to fix it. However, BDCP, in its present form, is simply another torturous effort to delay and evade compliance with those laws."

On a positive note, Jennings observed that David Hayes' remarks about the Delta being a resource of national importance, the pledge of active federal involvement and funding, acknowledgment that affected communities must be involved and his observation that relaxing protection for endangered species would not solve the state's water woes was "welcome news and received good press."

After the meeting John McManus, longtime salmon fisherman and media director of Earthjustice, told Lester Snow that there are at least nine coastal counties that should be considered stakeholders because of the economic value of salmon and its relationship to the delta.

"He pivoted to instead ask me if I were aware of the Alaska governor's emergency proclamation regarding king salmon shortages there," said McManus."I took this to mean he was telling me ocean conditions are the cause of salmon declines, not anything having to do with the delta, as evidenced by salmon shortages as far away as Alaska. I started to explain to him, that having been a commercial salmon fisherman for ten years in Alaska, I knew a bit about the chinook runs currently in trouble and that these runs were depressed due to excessive bycatch in the Bering Sea pollack fishery, not ocean conditions. The runs most often cited in recent news reports about chinook shortages in Alaska are those from the Kuskokwim and Yukon Rivers, both of which terminate in the Bering Sea. Recent annual bycatch of chinook by 300 foot factory trawlers has exceeded 120,000 kings."

"I reminded Snow of a slide show presented to the entire panel earlier that day showing that fish native to the delta that only live there and aren't affected by ocean conditions were severely depressed during the same years the salmon numbers have decline which, not surprisingly, are the same years of the record water withdrawals from the Delta," added McManus. "Snow pretended to be unclear on what I was communicating to him. At this point I gave up on him and reminded him again that coastal counties should be considered stakeholders."

The exclusion of Delta farmers, fishermen and residents from the panels at the forum is not surprising for those who have followed the Governor's campaign to build a peripheral canal by using the Delta Vision and BDCP processes. Not only were Delta communities completely excluded from the forum's speakers and panels, but no representatives of California Indian Tribes, farmworker organizations or other environmental justice communities were invited to the forum as speakers and panelists.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, his staff and his "environmental collaborators" such as the Nature Conservancy are clearly trying to ram the canal down the throats of the people of California with no respect for the communities that will be most impacted by this environmentally destructive and enormously expensive government pork barrel project.