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Delta Flows - Restore the Delta Responds to Schwarzenegger & Feinstein's Special Summit
Restore the Delta, a grassroots organization of fishermen, boaters, farmers, conservationists and other residents of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, responds to the so-called "Delta Summit" convened by Governor Arnold Scharzenegger and Senator Diane Feinstein in Los Angeles on Tuesday, August 21. Missing among the "stakeholders" invited to the "Delta Summit" were those most impacted by the Governor's plan for a peripheral canal - the Winnemem Wintu and other California Indian Tribes, recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Delta farmers, conservationists and Delta residents.
Delta Flows – Weekly Highlights from Restore the Delta for the Week of August 20, 2007
“Living within the biological constraints of the earth may be the most civilized activity a person can pursue, because it enables our successors to to do the same.”
Paul Hawken
The Hermeneutics (study of interpretation) of Delta Water Management – A Lesson for Beginners
On Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein convened a special summit to hear presentations by California’s top water experts on how to fix the California Delta. Or so, says the press release sent out by the Governor’s Office on the same day.
Restore the Delta staff, however, heard something quite different from the webcast of this event. Again, the questionable theory – that the Delta historically fluctuated between a fresh water and saline water system on a seasonal basis – was offered up as the silver bullet for fixing our imperiled ecosystem. Advocates of this theory, the authors of the Public Policy Institute Report Envisioning Futures for the Delta insist that creating a water management system to mimic this “historical” Delta will bring back threatened fish species while providing the needed water exports for other regions in California. These same advocates then went on to say to Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein that strong leadership would be needed because there would be some who would not be happy with the consequences of managing the Delta in this new manner. In addition, these advocates added that we cannot all get better together by managing the Delta as we are currently; a point that we actually agree with in the Restore the Delta Campaign, but that unfortunately has been misconstrued as the “reason” behind the current revival of the idea of a peripheral canal or pipe.
Over the last year, Restore the Delta staff members have learned how to decode such statements about those who would be unhappy with changes to how the Delta is managed, and the “historical” fluctuating Delta. First, “those who would be unhappy with changes to how the Delta is managed” are the people of the Delta: the recreation community, fishermen, Delta farmers and landowners, urban Delta water agencies, boaters, and Delta business owners. Such phrases are code for the idea that the people, culture, and history of the Delta must change and live with a “new” environment. Such ideas completely ignore and undermine the ways in which the environment and the community are linked together – that they are two-sides of the same coin. Such statements indicate that the people, history, culture, and commerce of the Delta are being set up to lose to more powerful corporate interests in other parts of the state.
What is equally disturbing is that what we are being asked to alter to is based on an inaccurate historical ecology of the Delta. Yes, in the driest of years, after successive years of drought, in the driest months, the Delta was saline. But, as reported in the Contra Costa Water District’s Trends in Hydrology and Salinity in Suisun Bay and the Western Delta, “On average, the Delta is not significantly fresher today. Paleosalinity and evidence from the early 1900s both suggest that the Delta is actually saltier today than in the early 1900s.”
What is never discussed in such summits as the one held earlier this week are the impact on the Delta of upstream fresh water diversions and water pumping to other parts of the state. What is never asked is, why did fishing and farming thrive together in the Delta before the implementation of the Central Valley and State Water Projects? And how can fisheries and Delta farming thrive in the Delta again? How did the most productive farming in the history of California happen in the Delta if the Delta was historically saline? How can we increase fresh water flows to the Delta to heal its ecosystem and to protect its communities, culture, and history while meeting water needs in other parts of the state?
Instead, what we heard from our political leaders via the webcast was a push toward the experts to declare the peripheral canal as the solution for the Delta’s water quality problems. To their credit, the experts did finally say that a peripheral conveyance system would need more study, rather than calling it a definitive solution.
Nonetheless, Restore the Delta staff does wonder how much honest inquiry is actually happening through such events involving our elected officials, versus the creation of a type of public theater that is being played out in order to persuade the general public to support water policies that will enrich specific corporate interests within California. It is a question that we recommend for investigation and contemplation by all California citizens.
So What Exactly Is An Alternative Conveyance Water System?
Seats are filling fast for the Restore the Delta “So What Is a Peripheral Pipe?” on September 19, 2007. This event will feature a community update on Restore the Delta activities, a talk on the effects of a peripheral pipe on the Delta by the Delta’s famous water rights attorney Dante Nomellini, and several other noteworthy environmental speakers.
The event will be held at the Sunset Bar and Grill at Tower Park Resort 14900 W. Highway 12, Lodi. A wonderful dinner buffet will be available at 6:00 p.m. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. and last until 8:15 p.m. Dinner costs $20 per person, including tax and gratuities, and is payable at the door. Restore the Delta will provide coffee and desert.
In addition, Restore the Delta will be asking for a free will donation to cover the program and to help with general fundraising. Please RSVP to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at your earliest convenience (Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org) in order to confirm your attendance at dinner and the event.
Both dinner and the program are open to the community, and because Restore the Delta is a community organization, we have secured several scholarships so that interested students, or community members living on a limited income, can attend dinner and the event free of charge. To arrange for a scholarship, please contact Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org. Scholarship awards will remain confidential.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Campaign Director
Restore the Delta
Making the Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable by 2010!
Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org
http://www.restorethedelta.org
ph: 209-479-2053
PO Box 691088
Stockton, CA 95269
“Living within the biological constraints of the earth may be the most civilized activity a person can pursue, because it enables our successors to to do the same.”
Paul Hawken
The Hermeneutics (study of interpretation) of Delta Water Management – A Lesson for Beginners
On Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein convened a special summit to hear presentations by California’s top water experts on how to fix the California Delta. Or so, says the press release sent out by the Governor’s Office on the same day.
Restore the Delta staff, however, heard something quite different from the webcast of this event. Again, the questionable theory – that the Delta historically fluctuated between a fresh water and saline water system on a seasonal basis – was offered up as the silver bullet for fixing our imperiled ecosystem. Advocates of this theory, the authors of the Public Policy Institute Report Envisioning Futures for the Delta insist that creating a water management system to mimic this “historical” Delta will bring back threatened fish species while providing the needed water exports for other regions in California. These same advocates then went on to say to Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein that strong leadership would be needed because there would be some who would not be happy with the consequences of managing the Delta in this new manner. In addition, these advocates added that we cannot all get better together by managing the Delta as we are currently; a point that we actually agree with in the Restore the Delta Campaign, but that unfortunately has been misconstrued as the “reason” behind the current revival of the idea of a peripheral canal or pipe.
Over the last year, Restore the Delta staff members have learned how to decode such statements about those who would be unhappy with changes to how the Delta is managed, and the “historical” fluctuating Delta. First, “those who would be unhappy with changes to how the Delta is managed” are the people of the Delta: the recreation community, fishermen, Delta farmers and landowners, urban Delta water agencies, boaters, and Delta business owners. Such phrases are code for the idea that the people, culture, and history of the Delta must change and live with a “new” environment. Such ideas completely ignore and undermine the ways in which the environment and the community are linked together – that they are two-sides of the same coin. Such statements indicate that the people, history, culture, and commerce of the Delta are being set up to lose to more powerful corporate interests in other parts of the state.
What is equally disturbing is that what we are being asked to alter to is based on an inaccurate historical ecology of the Delta. Yes, in the driest of years, after successive years of drought, in the driest months, the Delta was saline. But, as reported in the Contra Costa Water District’s Trends in Hydrology and Salinity in Suisun Bay and the Western Delta, “On average, the Delta is not significantly fresher today. Paleosalinity and evidence from the early 1900s both suggest that the Delta is actually saltier today than in the early 1900s.”
What is never discussed in such summits as the one held earlier this week are the impact on the Delta of upstream fresh water diversions and water pumping to other parts of the state. What is never asked is, why did fishing and farming thrive together in the Delta before the implementation of the Central Valley and State Water Projects? And how can fisheries and Delta farming thrive in the Delta again? How did the most productive farming in the history of California happen in the Delta if the Delta was historically saline? How can we increase fresh water flows to the Delta to heal its ecosystem and to protect its communities, culture, and history while meeting water needs in other parts of the state?
Instead, what we heard from our political leaders via the webcast was a push toward the experts to declare the peripheral canal as the solution for the Delta’s water quality problems. To their credit, the experts did finally say that a peripheral conveyance system would need more study, rather than calling it a definitive solution.
Nonetheless, Restore the Delta staff does wonder how much honest inquiry is actually happening through such events involving our elected officials, versus the creation of a type of public theater that is being played out in order to persuade the general public to support water policies that will enrich specific corporate interests within California. It is a question that we recommend for investigation and contemplation by all California citizens.
So What Exactly Is An Alternative Conveyance Water System?
Seats are filling fast for the Restore the Delta “So What Is a Peripheral Pipe?” on September 19, 2007. This event will feature a community update on Restore the Delta activities, a talk on the effects of a peripheral pipe on the Delta by the Delta’s famous water rights attorney Dante Nomellini, and several other noteworthy environmental speakers.
The event will be held at the Sunset Bar and Grill at Tower Park Resort 14900 W. Highway 12, Lodi. A wonderful dinner buffet will be available at 6:00 p.m. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. and last until 8:15 p.m. Dinner costs $20 per person, including tax and gratuities, and is payable at the door. Restore the Delta will provide coffee and desert.
In addition, Restore the Delta will be asking for a free will donation to cover the program and to help with general fundraising. Please RSVP to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at your earliest convenience (Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org) in order to confirm your attendance at dinner and the event.
Both dinner and the program are open to the community, and because Restore the Delta is a community organization, we have secured several scholarships so that interested students, or community members living on a limited income, can attend dinner and the event free of charge. To arrange for a scholarship, please contact Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla at Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org. Scholarship awards will remain confidential.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Campaign Director
Restore the Delta
Making the Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable by 2010!
Barbara [at] restorethedelta.org
http://www.restorethedelta.org
ph: 209-479-2053
PO Box 691088
Stockton, CA 95269
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