Salmon Water Now: Myth or Fact? Westlands & Reality

Salmon Water Now: Myth or Fact? Westlands & Reality

Pinocchio at the BDCP hearing?

by Dan Bacher

Bruce Tokars of Salmon Water Now has released the latest video, "Myth or Fact? Westlands & Reality" (3:01), covering the bizarre reality of the California Water Wars - and the deceptive campaign by corporate agribusiness, southern California water agencies and the Brown and Obama administrations to build the peripheral canal.

This video, as have many of Tokars' productions, focuses on Westlands Water District, considered the "Darth Vader" of water politics by Delta advocates. Westlands has waged a relentless legal and political campaign over the years to strip protections for endangered Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt and other species. The district irrigates land laced with selenium and other toxic salts and minerals that should have never been put into agricultural production.

This video features Jason Peltier, General Manager of Westlands Water District, speaking at the hearing on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan hearing convened by Senator Fran Pavley on March 13. Tokars captures revealing footage of Senator Lois Wolk asking Peltier if Westlands would accept a stipulation that water delivered under the BDCP would go only to continued agricultural production - and Peltier's response.

"In California’s epic struggle to pull salmon from the edge of extinction, nothing is more important than shining light on absurdities presented as facts," explained Tokars. "So once again, that light is aimed at the Westlands Water District."

"It’s funny how sometimes the 'truth' is something that just sort of pops up," according to Tokars. "And when facts become uncomfortable, they become a little window on the truth."

"Westlands lust for a peripheral canal drove them to raise $50-million in tax-free bonds," noted Tokars. "For security, they pledged water that is actually owned by the public. Then, they promised in writing that they would sell the water to California’s cities and towns to repay the loan."

"Westlands seems to think it’s OK to sidestep the truth, even when asked in a Senate hearing," Tokars included. "Truth and honesty: Two traits that Westlands seem to have in short supply."

Tokars exposes the gap between what Westlands Water District claims - and the inescapable reality that they have already borrowed money using the water they receive as collateral!

Watch the video yourself and discover whether you can see somebody's nose growing!

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgWFyhPtJTs&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/38798199

Pavley, Chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, is currently holding hearings on the progress of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) and the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Plan.

Pavley, a strong supporter of the BDCP and Arnold Schwarzenegger's corrupt Marine Life Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative to create so-called "marine protected areas," invited Peltier to speak as one of the panelists in the hearing. Of course, the panels included only one person representing Delta interests, Delta Stewardship Council member and Delta Protection Commission Chair Don Nottoli.

During the hearing, Peltier also promoted the federal plan to raise Shasta Dam, a project that would flood cultural sites on the McCloud River that are sacred to the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, supposedly in order to create more room for storage and a cold water pool for salmon. "Pursuing the raising of Shasta Dam is kind of a no-brainer," Peltier claimed.

After Peltier and other panelists spoke, Pavley opened the hearing to public comment. One Delta resident after another, including elected officials, slammed plans to build the peripheral canal, showing the growing unity of Delta communities, fishermen and environmental justice advocates against the BDCP.

Stockton Mayor Ann Johnson blasted the Delta Stewardship Council for being like the "Coastal Commission on steroids," claiming it will override local land use authority. "Our concerns have been ignored and dismissed even though Stockton is a center of business for 300,000 people," she said.

For more information, go to: Salmon Water Now.org.

Peripheral Canal Facts:

Delta advocates oppose the peripheral canal or tunnel because it is designed to facilitate the export of more Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta water to Southern California and corporate agribusiness. Since healthy fish populations depend on substantial freshwater flows through the Delta, canal opponents believe the facility's construction will lead to the extinction of imperiled Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River chinook salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail, striped bass and other species.

The fast-tracking of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan by the Brown and Obama administrations is opposed by a broad coalition of Delta residents, recreational and commercial fishermen, family farmers, Indian Tribes, consumer advocates, grassroots environmentalists, business owners and elected officials.