The Bay Delta Conservation Plan Forges Ahead

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan Forges Ahead

by Dan Bacher

If anybody thought the tremendous opposition to Jerry Brown's plan to build two giant tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by fishermen, Indian Tribe leaders, family farmers, environmentalists and an array of scientific panels was enough to get the state and federal governments to ease their way out of the boondoggle, think again!

The Brown administration may have divided into two components - the California "Water Fix" (tunnels) component and the California "Eco Restore" component (habitat "restoration) - but the essence of the project remains the same. Whether you call the project a peripheral canal, pipes, Delta tunnels or some other term, the plan continues to be a shameless water grab by corporate agribusiness, Southern California water agencies and oil companies conducting fracking and steam injection operations.

The commitment of the state and federal governments to push the plan forward was revealed on Friday, June 12, when the Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources filed notice in the federal register of their intent to prepare a partially "Recirculated Draft Environmental Impact Report/Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (RDEIR/SDEIS) on the Draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan and Natural Community Conservation Plan."

"The RDEIR/SDEIS will describe and analyze refinement of the resource area analyses, alternatives, and actions, including additional alternatives that describe conveyance alternatives that do not contain all the elements of a Habitat Conservation Plan/Natural Communities Conservation Plan that are described in the previously circulated Draft Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS)," according to a joint announcement from the two agencies.

"Specifically, three new alternatives for conveyance facilities will be evaluated: Alternative 4A with three intakes, Alternative 2D with five intakes, and Alternative 5A with one intake. Should one of these new alternatives be chosen, they would be analyzed through the interagency consultation process as described under Section 7 of the Federal Endangered Species Act and the California Endangered Species Act through Section 2081(b) of the California Fish & Game Code," according to the agencies.

"Further, the recirculated documents will evaluate alternatives to support a determination of the Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," the announcement added.

Of course, the document doesn't include any alternatives that might actually address California's water supply and ecosystem needs, most notably the Environmental Water Caucus Responsible Exports Plan that sets an annual cap on Delta water exports of 3 million acre feet. (http://www.ewccalifornia.org/reports/responsibleexportsplanmay2013.pdf)

The construction of the twin tunnels would result in the extinction of Central Valley steelhead, Sacramento River Chinook salmon, Delta and longfin smelt, green sturgeon, Sacramento splittail and a host of other fish species, as well as imperil salmon and steelhead populations on the Trinity and Klamath rivers.

You can read the full notice online here: http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/06/15/2015-14649/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-recirculated-draft-environmental-impact-reportsupplemental-draft

Or in the actual federal register here: http://mavensnotebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2015-14649-BDCP-NOI-printed-15Jun15.pdf