Environmental Review for Bay Delta Conservation Plan Released

12.9.13: Opposition is Strong, Financing Weak – AquAlliance and colleagues around California oppose Governor Jerry Brown’s attempts to construct two Peripheral Tunnels, which are housed in the long-awaited draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) released today for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The proposed Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) is intended to serve as the basis for a 50-year permit under the federal Endangered Species Act and California’s Natural Communities Conservation Planning Act for water export pumping projects. The EIS/EIR comment period runs into April 2014.

The centerpiece of BDCP and the analysis in the EIS/EIR is the new water conveyance system: two, 35-mile long, 40 feet in diameter tunnels buried deep underground. The purpose of the tunnels is to circumvent the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta by exporting water directly from the Sacramento River to urban centers (20 percent) and agricultural users (80 percent). Both Governors Schwarzenegger and Brown made the tunnels a priority. “To understand this bipartisan support for BDCP, AquAlliance can show you what drives this project and what it could do to California’s largest watershed (see video), There is little doubt that the massive tunnels will drain the Sacramento River and North State aquifers, diminish vital flows into the already devastated Delta, further stress native salmon runs, and destroy 150-year-old family farms to benefit unsustainable corporate agribusiness in the southern San Joaquin Valley,” stated Barbara Vlamis, executive director of AquAlliance. “In addition to the economic and environmental threats to the Sacramento River Watershed, is the state’s empty promise that it will locate the source water and funding for the Peripheral Tunnels later,” she concluded.

View the BDCP web site here.

AquAlliance warns not to follow in dry footsteps of the San Joaquin Valley

11.17.13 – By Heather Hacking – As California struggles to provide water to a growing state, increased pressure is being made on the rich water supply of Northern California, said Barbara Vlamis, director of AquAlliance, during a groundwater forum Thursday night.

In 2009, state legislators passed several water bills, and now several large-scale plans are being written for statewide water management.

“I believe most of them don’t want to harm our area. But the pressures are great. The demands are great from outside our region,” Vlamis said.

One goal is to build twin tunnels that would bring water under the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta.

“The costs are astronomical, and what it could do to the Sacramento River watershed is horrendous,” she said.

“The majority of water that leaves our region goes to industrial agriculture on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. It’s not lawns and swimming pools.”

AquAlliance works to “defend Northern California waters and to challenge threats to the hydrologic health of the northern Sacramento River watershed,” the group’s website states (AquAlliance.net).

Jim Brobeck, of AquAlliance, told those at the forum that before the 1880s, groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley was shallow, and at times bubbled up from the ground on its own.

Droughts occurred and people began pumping deeper wells, he said. As technology improved, so did the number of wells.

Land subsidence is now a major problem in the San Joaquin Valley, Brobeck said. This occurs when soil compacts in the absence of water, and water no longer is stored in soils such as sand and gravel.

In addition to not being available for pumping, lack of shallow groundwater harms plants and wildlife, he said.

“Valley oak groves need access to perennial groundwater,” ideally at about 33 feet below the surface and a maximum of 70 feet, Brobeck said.

He said he talked with a tree expert in Visalia recently who said oak trees in that area now need to be irrigated, as the water levels are 100 feet below the surface.

“This is what could happen in our area,” Brobeck said.

Tulare Lake, in the extreme south of the San Joaquin Valley, was once a hotspot for wildlife, Brobeck said. In just 100 years, the lake has gone from the largest fresh-water lake west of the Mississippi to an agricultural area now facing water shortages, he said.

“We have the opportunity up here to preserve rather than attempting to restore something after we lose it.”

A recent news article in the Merced Sun-Star talks about groundwater overdraft, http://goo.gl/o67oen, and a forum on groundwater overdraft will be held next week in Tulare, (http://goo.gl/RmdCsV).

Groundwater levels falling at alarming rate while lawmakers decide what to do

11.9.13 – San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater is being depleted at an alarming rate and something needs to be done before it’s too late, state officials were warned last week.

Here’s a scary statistic: Groundwater reserves are shrinking by 800billion gallons per year in the Central Valley.

“At 100 gallons per day, that is enough water to supply the needs of nearly 22million people each year,” calculated Jay Famiglietti, director of the University of California Center for Hydrologic Modeling. Read more here.

Merced County is sinking; researchers blame over-pumping of groundwater

11.21.13 – So much groundwater is being pumped from the San Joaquin Valley that it’s causing a massive swath of Merced County’s surface to sink at an alarming rate, U.S. Geological Survey researchers revealed Thursday.

Parts of Merced south of El Nido dropped more than 21 inches in just two years. That area – often called Red Top by locals – appears to be continuing to sink at a rate of nearly 1 foot per year. Read more here.

Lawsuits filed against emergency ordinance on Palo Robles Basin

11.26.13 – Two lawsuits were filed in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court November 25, 2013 challenging a county emergency ordinance that limits pumping from the Paso Robles groundwater basin. The lawsuits could be the first step in putting the basin into adjudication, a lengthy and expensive process that puts the courts in charge of managing the basin. Read more here.

California’s water problem discussed in Chico

August 21, 2013 – The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (Peripheral Twin Tunnels debacle) was presented at a forum in Chico on August 21. A packed room greeted Governor Brown’s emissary, Gerald Meral, as well as three other guests: U.S. Congressional Representative John Garamendi, Jonas Minton from the Planning and Conservation League, and Ara Azhderian from San Luis & Delta‐Mendota Water Authority.

Click image to view AquAlliance Troupers skit

AquAlliance brought its visual display that tells the geographic story.

View the video at the KRCR-TV News website.
Read the Chico News & Review article: “Delta project’s pros and cons”
Read the Colusa County Sun-Herald article: “Garamendi wants to defend Sacramento River”

Environmental Water Caucus (EWC) Reduced Exports Plan

There are other real world solutions to California’s water woes that are much more cost-effective and environmentally friendly and can be produced more quickly than the Peripheral Tunnels and all its accoutrements. The Environmental Water Caucus produced the Responsible Exports Plan to provide a comprehensive picture of the alternative possibilities. Click here to view the Responsible Exports Plan (May 2013)

AquAlliance was a major contributor to the sections dealing with Northstate ground water.

Statewide Campaign Launched to Defeat Governor Brown’s $54.1 Billion Water Tunnels Project

by Dan Bacher
Calitics.com
June 12, 2013

San Francisco – While Governor Brown plots to build massive twin tunnels to send the Sacramento River to corporate agribusiness and oil interests, a group of over 30 organizations from across the political spectrum have formed Californians for a Fair Water Policy, a statewide coalition working to defeat the tunnels project that will unfairly and unnecessarily burden California’s taxpayers, ratepayers, and the environment.”The tunnels would impose billions of dollars of tax and water rate increases on Californians to enrich a few large and powerful agribusinesses and oil companies,” said Adam Scow, California Campaigns Director for Food & Water Watch. “This project was a bad idea in 1982 and it’s a worse idea today.”Governor Brown failed to build the Peripheral Canal, a nearly identical project, after California voters rejected it in a historic referendum in 1982. The tunnels project is now called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. But the Plan is strongly opposed by environmental and community organizations based in the Delta.”This is a water project based on greed not need,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta. “Family farmers and fishermen in the Delta would see their livelihoods destroyed in order to send more water to a few corporate interests.”While the Governor claims the tunnels project will cost $14-$25 billion, Restore the Delta estimates that the true cost of the tunnels is over $54.1 billion when including interest, mitigation, operations and maintenance, and administrative costs.The State has a history of underestimating the costs of major water projects. In 1991 Santa Barbara County voters approved the Coastal Aqueduct at an estimated cost of $270 million. Thus far the aqueduct has cost nearly $1.7 billion and has proven to be unnecessary to meet the County’s water needs.”California ratepayers and taxpayers should expect the same bad deal with the twin-tunnels,” said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the California Water Impact Network. “Just like the aqueduct, these tunnels will cost much more than promised, drown local water agencies with massive amounts of debt, and will not secure our water supply.”In Los Angeles yesterday, the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) Board of Directors took the first step toward raising property taxes to pay for the project. Local organizations protested the vote noting that southern California does not need more water from the Delta and needs to invest in repairing and diversifying its local water supply.

A study conducted by EcoNorthwest, an independent economic analysis firm, found that the tunnels project could cost over $50 billion and that Los Angeles ratepayers alone would be forced to shoulder rate hikes of up to $16 more per month for the next 40 years.

“Contrary to popular belief, Southern California does not need more water from the Delta,” added Scow. “It’s time to invest in smart water projects that diversify the water supply and prevent water pollution. We simply don’t have money to waste on $50 billion tunnels for corporate interests.”

Californians for a Fair Water Policy supports investing in smart, efficiency-centric projects to improve California’s water security and maintaining responsible levels of water exports from the Delta. Such projects include rebuilding our crumbling local water and sewer infrastructure, cleaning groundwater aquifers, expanding rainwater catchment systems, recycling water and improving water efficiency in the residential, commercial and agricultural sectors. Not only would these measures secure California’s water supply, they would improve water quality, prevent pollution and create long-term jobs.

Californians for a Fair Water Policy is a statewide coalition of businesses, consumers, environmentalists, fishermen, farmers, Native Americans and community-based organizations who oppose spending more than $50 billion of taxpayer and ratepayer funds for the construction, financing, operation and environmental mitigation of new tunnels to export more water from the San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary.

Learn more at http://www.stopthetunnels.org

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Contact: Eric Anderson, Food & Water Watch, 415-293-9831
Steve Hopcraft, Restore the Delta, 916-457-5546

View article online at Calitics.com