Restore the Delta News & Action Alert: Make Calls to Stop the Canal!

Since i'm a proponant of converting agribusiness practices to growing drought tolerant crops, thought that i'ld share this letter with everyone. Feel free to copy or rewrite anything and add any other reasons that we forgot..


Ms. Nancy Sutley
Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500


Dear Ms. Sutley,

Currently, the governor of California and a handful of Congressional Representatives from the Central Valley are trying to side-step the Endangered Species Act to construct, at a cost of $12-25 billion, a huge new water diversion called the peripheral canal. The peripheral canal could have a devastating negative environmental impact on the Sacramento Delta and the wildlife (including the Federally Endangered smelt) that call it home. Can we count on you to stand up for the Endangered Species Act again and block this horrible plan, which would benefit a handful of large agribusiness firms, and would hurt, not only fish and animals, but a multi-billion dollar annual economy that includes fisherman and Delta family farmers who depend on clean Delta water?

Some concerns about the peripheral canal include structural similarities to the MR-GO petroleum transport canal near New Orleans that contributed to the flooding of New Orleans during Katrina from allowing storm surge to place additional pressure on levees. In the Bay Area of CA, risks of storm surge from winter storms could increase salinity of the estuary and cause salt water intrusion via the canal itself. In addition the expected sea level rise from climate change would further inundate sensitive delta wetlands with saline intrusions, and the peripheral canal could function as a funnel for rising ocean waters moving into the interior of the delta.

There are other more reasonable options to solving CA's water crisis without building peripheral canals. One suggestion is to lower demand for irrigation of San Joaquin crops by converting to drought tolerant species like tepary beans, jojoba and nopales edible cactus. Tepary beans are especially drought tolerant and contain high levels of protein. These sorts of crops would allow for additional water storage into the aquifers and enough water in the rivers so that salmon, smelt and sturgeon are not at risk of extinction from decades of overextraction by agribusiness growing crops not appropriate for this regularly drought prone region.

Another consequence of overirrigation of San Joaquin farmlands is selenium buildup. Growing drought tolerants or restoring the land for grazing of native grassland ungulates like tule elk and pronghorn would counterbalance the excessive selenium buildup by adding carbon based plant matter.

Thanks for your concerns, please prevent future tragedy and do not allow this peripheral canal to be constructed.

Signed,

Sam Sturgeon (sample name)

Other ideas include drip irrigation systems, more aquifer recharge sites (ie., porous pavement), rainwater catchment for household rooftops, etc... the list is endless into ways of how urban residents, corporations (includes agribusiness) and small farmers can conserve water instead of transporting water already over demanded via peripheral canals..

Since the CA agribusiness interests are vested in Sacramento under Arnold's reign of water heist terrorism, and we've got Alan "Bubba Skinner" Autry down in Fresno dishing out the negative public media spinning webs of B.S. thick and heavy, some intervention from Obama's White House may be needed in this case;

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/ceq/chair/

Best wishes on saving the delta!!