Tag Archive for 'Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta'

California council adopts delta management plan

Published on 05/17/2013 in management and policy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: News10

“A California agency on Thursday unanimously adopted a broad, long-range plan to manage the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

After several hours of public comments and protests by opponents, the Delta Stewardship Council voted 7-0 to approve the final version of the Delta Plan, a blueprint for restoring the delta’s ecosystem and improving water supply reliability.

The plan does not call for specific construction projects but contains policies and recommendations. The $14 billion twin tunnel project, which is being developed through a separate federal and state initiative, will be incorporated into the plan if the tunnels are approved and permitted.

Critics say the Delta Plan doesn’t do enough when it comes to restoring and protecting the delta or its threatened fish species – and could negatively impact delta communities.

The plan comes after years of concerns over an increase in water demand and the degradation of habitat in the delta, which supplies drinking water for two-thirds of California residents and irrigates about 4 million acres of crops.

The ecosystem’s rapid deterioration has spurred regulations that limit delta pumping. Farmers and water users whose water was curtailed have clamored for a stable water supply. In 2009, the Legislature created the seven-member council to come up with a plan to manage the estuary.”

“The plan tells us how to get through the next 100 years,” said Phil Isenberg, the council’s chairman and a former Sacramento mayor. “Everybody has to conserve water all the time, everyone has to decrease reliance on the delta, and everyone has to help with the environmental needs of the delta. We’re running out of easy solutions, so everybody has to kick in.”

Read more: Fresno Bee
sammykayed

Delta, accustomed to water wars, prepares for battle

Published on 10/04/2012 in management and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Retrieved from: Aquadoc

“As a child, Brett Baker learned farming fundamentals from his grandfather, who taught him to drive a tractor and gave him some advice about water.

“There may come a time,” his grandfather said, “when you have to grab a shotgun and sit on the pump.”

“The vast delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers east of San Francisco, where Baker’s family has lived and farmed since the 1850s, has long been the center of the state’s chronic water conflicts.

“It is the switchyard of California water, the place where the north’s liquid riches are shipped to the irrigation ditches of the San Joaquin Valley and the sinks of Southland suburbs.

“Now, as if heeding Baker’s grandfather, the delta has become the defiant seat of rebellion against the most ambitious water supply project proposed in California in decades, a multibillion-dollar plan that has the backing of the administrations of Gov. Jerry Brown and President Obama, as well as the state’s most powerful irrigation and urban water districts.

“Our secret plan is to fight them to build it,” said Baker. “If it’s built, fight them to operate it. And then fight them to tear it down. We’re not going anywhere.”

“Delta landowners have refused to grant access to state crews doing preliminary soil testing for the project. They have demonstrated against the proposal in Sacramento, pitchforks in hand. They have organized a vocal coalition that has produced a documentary film — airing at public forums around the state — to drum up support for their cause.”

Read more: LA times

sammykayed

An Army Corps of contradictions

Published on 04/19/2012 in displacement of people, levees and management. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Sacbee

“Even as it clings to a policy requiring state and local agencies to clear trees from levees, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has granted one of its own districts a variance to plant 30,000 trees along the levee-lined Sacramento River.

Huh?

“The Corps has always been an agency of internal contradictions, but this one suggests a higher level of Dilbert-like bureaucratic incongruity. How can the top leadership of the Corps reasonably expect flood agencies to strip trees from riverbanks – putting themselves in conflict with environmental laws, and possibly undermining the structural integrity of levees – when the Corps is letting one of its own act like Johnny Appleseed?

“Ever since New Orleans was inundated during Hurricane Katrina, the national Corps office has aggressively enforced vegetation removal on levees, attempting to make trees a culprit for other institutional failings that led to the flooding of the Big Easy.

“Here in California, flood agencies and environmental groups have objected.

“Friends of the River has sued, and the California Department of Fish and Game has filed notice of intent to sue.

“Such lawsuits stand a good chance of success, partly because the Corps’ own research has shown that trees planted at the toe of levees can actually benefit public safety. Their roots help reinforce the levees’ integrity.

“The stakes are particularly large here because, as The Bee’s Matt Weiser noted in a story Saturday, early 20th century engineers built California’s levees close together to scour out old mining sediment. That has left us with little riparian forest – essential for fish and wildlife. The Corps, if its national office were to have its way, would mow down that remaining forest.

Read more here: Sacbee
sammykayed

Brash SJV congressman shifts California water wars

Published on 03/07/2012 in dams, policy, rivers, tap water and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.allamericanpatriots.com

“After 20 years under CVPIA (Central Valley Project Improvement Act), Congress can conclude one thing: flushing fresh water into the San Francisco Bay is not helping to recover species and people are suffering needlessly.”

“That’s how Republican Nunes introduced H.R 1837, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act. It passed in the House with a bipartisan vote of 246/175.

H.R. 1837 is no hip-pocket, showboat legislation. It is a thorough and thoughtful attempt to turn the boat in the right direction in the ongoing California water crisis. Among other things, it lengthens the 25-year federal water contracts to 40 years; preempts strict state environmental laws and directs more water to farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta without threatening Sacramento Valley water supplies.

It also would throttle back an overly ambitious and dubious attempt to restore salmon to the San Joaquin River. Nunes’ bill will restore the river below Friant Dam using less water for less fragile fish species.”

Read more: Western Farm Press

 

lily victoria

Viewpoints: $11 billion water bond should be repealed

Published on 02/19/2012 in greenwashing, management and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Sac bee

“The Bee’s Feb. 5 editorial, “Water bond will sink if it stays bloated,” was accurate when it described the $11.14 billion water bond as an albatross that voters need to put out of its misery. But there’s an even more efficient and practical course of action that would save taxpayers money and legislators embarrassment when the initiative fails miserably: legislative repeal of the bond before November.

“If you are a shipbuilder and you know your boat will sink as soon as it disembarks, would you let it set sail? Of course not. But instead of admitting that the water bond has been built to fail, Gov. Jerry Brown and some legislators would prefer to delay it instead of scrapping it once and for all and going back to the drawing board to develop sound state water policy.

“We’ve been led to believe that the water bond will provide the funding necessary to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and to ensure water supply reliability for Southern California, but the truth is that two of the nation’s biggest and most powerful agriculture operations stand to benefit most.Wetlkands Water District and Paramount Farms, both in the arid southwest corner of the Central Valley , were key players in drafting and lobbying for this water bond that would cost taxpayers $22 billion with interest over time. Combined, they hold more than 800,000 acres of land and seek the delivery of more than 1 million acre-feet of water from the Delta which, for perspective, is more water than San Fransisco and Los Angeles combined use each year.”

Read more: Sac bee

sammykayed

California water projects circling the drain

Published on 01/29/2012 in greenwashing, management and solutions and outreach. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Calif Aqueduct

“California’s efforts to deal with its chronic water crisis are again in upheaval as lawmakers prepare to pull an $11 billion water bond off the November ballot even as Governor Jerry Brown revives the controversial idea of a canal to route Northern California water to the state’s arid south.

“The water bond, which would fund a variety of projects around the state ranging from dams to watershed protection, was painstakingly crafted under former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to balance the needs of agricultural and residential water users and address environmental concerns.

“The bond measure calls for selling general obligation bonds backed by the state’s general fund, which is already facing a $9.2 billion shortfall. If it doesn’t go forward, local water agencies will have to find their own ways of funding critical projects while delaying many others.

“John Coleman, president of the board of East Bay Municipal Utility District, said the state’s leaders can’t delay in rallying behind the measure. He said it is crucial for upgrading the state’s aging water infrastructure and would provide jobs.

“Water equals jobs equals taxable money to the state,” said Coleman. “That’s how the voters need to look at it and that’s how the elected officials need to look at it.”

Read more: Reuters

sammykayed

Looking At A New Strategy To Save The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Published on 01/24/2012 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, policy, rivers, tap water and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Retrieved from: www.allamericanpatriots.com

“Water supply, flood control, and environmental management are fundamental challenges for the western United States. California’s unique development patterns, with nearly 20 million of its residents living in water starved southern California, has resulted in a system of water transfers and aqueduct systems that rely on water being pumped, collected and transferred from Northern California through an extensive and damaging pumping and aqueduct system.

The Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta (the Delta) is the heart of California’s water source and the center of the transfer system. The Delta is an 837,594 acres area where the Sacramento and San Joaquin River join before entering the San Francisco Bay and then the Pacific Ocean. Water is pumped from the Delta through a system of aqueducts to agricultural users in the San Joaquin Valley and urban centers of the San Francisco Bay, Los Angeles and other communities throughout southern California. Unsustainable pumping of vast amounts of water yearly from the Delta has caused the collapse of several fish populations and has forced a rethinking of the federal and state water policies.

United States federal and state river and water policies for the past 150 years have relied on maximizing conversions of wetlands for agricultural uses while placing a high priority on flood control on major rivers like the Mississippi, Missouri and Sacramento. As we move well into the 21st century the historic water policies of flood control and water exports have left the Delta facing an imminent collapse that threatens the massive California water transfers and the delta fisheries if immediate action is not taken. The effect of the collapse is potentially the loss of water to the 20 million California residences and the agricultural economy of the California San Joaquin Valley.”

Read more: Aquafornia

 

lily victoria

Delta plan faces water problems in a more comprehensive way

Published on 12/13/2011 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, oceans, policy, rivers, tap water, wastewater, water conservation and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Retrieved from: www.ucdavis.edu

“For the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, one common point of agreement is that the estuary – which is critical for water delivery to nearly two-thirds of California – is facing serious challenges that must be addressed.

In 2006, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan was created to establish a process that would bring stakeholders together to forge an agreement on a path forward. This was not simply meant to be a path that led from bureaucratic process to bureaucratic process. It was meant to find a final, long-term solution to our water issues.

The Delta faces numerous stressors, including municipal wastewater and industrial discharges, invasive species, predation, power plant diversions, urban and agricultural runoff, diversions and in-Delta pumping, and ocean conditions, among others. The BDCP is an effort to address these in a more comprehensive way. It is one of the largest habitat conservation and restoration projects of its kind ever undertaken in the United States. In conjunction with ecological restoration, BDCP will also provide a more reliable supply of water to nearly 25 million Californians, as well as millions of acres of highly productive farmland in the San Joaquin Valley.”

Read more: Sacramento Bee

 

lily victoria

Environmental poison in San Francisco Bay could increase with Delta water plan

Published on 09/16/2011 in aquatic ecosystems, contaminated water, management and water diversions. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Retrieved from: USGS

A naturally occurring poison responsible for one of the nation’s worst wildlife disasters a quarter-century ago is a looming problem in San Francisco Bay — one that could worsen if aqueducts are built around the Delta, new research suggests.

The aqueducts could channel more selenium at higher concentrations into the bay, a possibility that has been largely overlooked in lengthy debates about Delta water, a top scientist said.

“It’s clearly a serious problem and it could get worse,” said Sam Luoma, a former lead scientist for the state’s bay-Delta water and environment programs who sits on a national panel reviewing Delta water plans. “I don’t know why it hasn’t gotten traction.”

Highly concentrated selenium from farm runoff killed or injured thousands of birds in the 1980s at the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge near Interstate 5 west of Merced.

After photographs of dead and deformed birds appeared in newspapers and on television screens across the country, the wildlife refuge was declared a toxic dump and closed in 1987.

Today, selenium from the Bay Area’s oil refineries and the San Joaquin Valley’s farms is diluted enough in the bay and Delta that it might not be a severe problem, except that it is concentrating in the flesh of invasive clams that infest the waterways’ northern reaches, especially parts of San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez Strait and Suisun Bay.

Read more: Mercury news

sammykayed

Water war heats up; farmers sue over move to save salmon

Published on 06/11/2011 in agriculture, aquatic ecosystems and management. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Retrieved from: Examiner

“After a drought-busting winter that was good news for fishers and farmers, tens of thousands of salmon have been caught or killed at the powerful Delta pumps in the past few months. In addition, more than 6 million Sacramento splittail, a large minnow that environmentalists say should be protected by endangered species laws, were also collected or killed at the pumps.

“Government biologists contend that the large number of fish killed in recent weeks and months is a product of their bouncing back because of the big winter. It stands to reason that with more fish in the estuary, more will be found at the pumps, they say.

“Still, to reduce the toll on California’s salmon run, which collapsed three years ago, regulators this week ordered pumps that serve farms along Interstate 5 to slow down by about one-third for two weeks.

“For farmers, the effect is slight — just a percentage point or two off what they would otherwise receive this year. And it appears possible that loss of water could be made up later in the year, though the head of the organization that filed the lawsuit denied that.

“We think it’s an illegal restriction on our pumping,” said Dan Nelson, general manager of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which mostly represents west San Joaquin Valley farms. “The fishery action costs 35,000 acre-feet. “… There is no way of making that up.”

“The move to slow pumping rates was made possible by a 1992 law, co-authored by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, that shifted 800,000 acre-feet of water from San Joaquin Valley farms to the Bay-Delta environment, largely with the intent of doubling salmon populations. The law was in response to concerns that excessive diversions of Delta water to farms was degrading the estuary.

“The lawsuit, filed late Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Fresno, contends the decision to let 35,000 acre-feet of water flow into San Francisco Bay rather than be pumped to farms is illegal because it violates a 1985 agreement between state and federal water managers to maximize pumping in wet periods.”

Read more: mercury news

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