The PCL Insider: News From The Capitol

FEDS PUMMEL DELTA PUMPING PLAN, SEND DANGEROUS PROPOSAL BACK TO SQUARE ONE

In a letter dated January 11th, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that it has suspended its formal review of the so-called South Delta Improvements Program, citing "areas of significant concern" with the plan's environmental analysis.

As a practical matter, this should stop the project, which is very good news for the environment. "The federal government confirmed what we have been repeating for the last two years, that the proponents of this increased pumping plan failed to provide the public and decision makers with an accurate representation of the impacts of this project," stated PCL's Executive Director Gary Patton.

The California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had pursued the plan in an effort to sell additional water to Central Valley agribusinesses and urban water suppliers in Southern California and meet water quality standards without reducing current levels of pumping.

Currently, state and federal pumps draw such high quantities of water from the Delta that they pull ocean water deep into the freshwater estuary. High levels of pumping also damage the Delta's aquatic ecosystem through direct mortality at the pumps and disruptions of foodwebs and reproductive cycles.

Instead of reducing pumping to levels that could sustain a healthy environment and meet the needs of Delta residents, the "Improvements Program" would have allowed construction of massive mechanized barriers within several Delta channels to repel ocean water while pumping increased.

The project proponents had applied to federal and state regulatory agencies for permits protecting endangered species.

By suspending their review of the flawed application, the National Marine Fisheries Service has stood up for sound science and environmental protection. It would be both embarrassing and imprudent for other public agencies to deny that the problems identified by the Fisheries Service do not exist," notes PCL's Matt Vander Sluis.

The increased pumping plan has been pushed forward at a time when the Delta is experiencing an unprecedented ecological collapse. Government scientists have identified water management as a central factor in the recent population declines of key aquatic species. Since the beginning of the crash in six years ago, water exports from the Delta have increased to their highest levels on record.

WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT PURCHASES TRIBAL LANDS TO INUNDATE VILLAGES, SACRED SITES; TRIBAL MEMBERS OBJECT

Earlier this month, Westlands Water District, the nation's most powerful agricultural water supplier, purchased 3,000 acres of land on the McCloud River to smooth the way for a multi-billion dollar expansion of Shasta Dam.

The heightened dam would boost the district's supply of water and drown the last villages and sacred sites used by the Winnemem Wintu, a Native American tribe whose presence in the area dates back centuries. The rest of the Tribe's lands are underwater, inundated when the dam was completed in 1945.

Tom Birmingham, general manager and general counsel for Westlands, explained the intent behind the purchase in a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. "Our purpose in buying the property was only to ensure there would be no additional impediments if the (federal) Bureau of Reclamation concludes it's feasible to raise the dam."

Federal legislation signed by President Bush in 2004 provided funding for the Bureau of Reclamation to study a possible dam raise, likely at the behest of their largest Central Valley water purchasers.

The Bureau's report is scheduled for release in late 2008.

Westlands Water District has developed a tarnished reputation for its political clout and business practices. Created in 1952, the public agency sells highly subsidized water to approximately 600 agribusinesses on 60,000 acres of farmland in western Fresno and Kings Counties. Some of those agribusinesses are subsidiaries of the county's largest corporations and Westlands representatives have close ties with decision makers in California and Washington D.C.

Much of the land that is irrigated by the Westlands Water district suffers from poor drainage as well as high levels of naturally occurring selenium. This combination has resulted in a deadly mix of toxic water that runs off farmland and into local waterways.

When the Bureau of Reclamation attempted to dispose of these tainted waters at the Kesterson Reservoir in the early 1980s, news footage of poisoned and disfigured waterfowl shocked the nation. The drainage project was halted but the toxic problems persist.

Westlands is currently negotiating with the Bureau for a new drainage solution and a water delivery contract for the next twenty-five years. The district is also attempting to increase its supplies of water through development of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.

Prior to Westland's purchase of the 3,000 acres, the Winnemem Wintu had been in negotiations with the property owners to secure ownership of some of the most important cultural sites.

The purchase came to light early last week and has sparked a flurry of activity among a coalition of tribal members, environmentalists, and tribal-rights groups opposed to the dam raising proposal.

Tribal members have also been fighting to reestablish their right to lands granted to the tribe by President Grover Cleveland in 1893 and retaken by the federal government in 1937 to make way for Lake Shasta.

We'll keep you updated as the story develops!

EPA'S RULES FOR COASTAL COOLING STRUCK DOWN - OCEANWATER DESALINATION PROPOSALS MUST BE ABANDONED OR REDESIGNED

Last Thursday, the US Court of Appeals sided with the Surfrider Foundation and others in striking down rules drafted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to guide the agency's enforcement of the Clean Water Act, claiming that the rules did not adequately protect marine species and ocean ecosystem health.

The decision ends a history of delays and loopholes for the phase-out of antiquated "once-through cooling" technology used by older electrical generators and industrial facilities. These plants draw in ocean water through industrial intakes, pump the water through their facilities, and dump the heated water back into the ocean.

Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act requires electrical generating and industrial facilities to employ the "best technology available [BTA] to minimize adverse environmental impacts." With the EPA's consent, utility and industry facilities have been circumventing the regulation, in some cases, implementing restoration projects rather than upgrading to more fish friendly technologies.

According to the Appeal Court's ruling, the EPA must rewrite its rules regarding Section 316(b) to prohibit alternatives such as fish restocking as substitutes for better cooling practices.

The decision has profound implications for the future of ocean water desalination plants planned for California's coast.

Currently, more than 20 ocean water desalination plants are in some stage of planning in California. Most of the projects would rely on nearby coastal power plants' once-through cooling system for their water supply and would draw heavily on the power plants' energy.

Surfrider Foundation's Joe Geever explains how these proposals could be affected. "Given the rationale of this federal court decision, any open ocean intake that kills marine life should be prohibited under existing law. It would be unsound public policy to compel the energy industry to avoid this unnecessary marine life destruction only to then allow other industries to step in and continue the practice."

The once-through-cooling process withdraws a national average of more than 100 trillion gallons of water per day. In the state of California, twenty-one power plants use once-through-cooling systems which in total use about 17 billion gallons of seawater per day.

The impacts of once-through-cooling on marine life are tremendous. Larger animals are impinged against the intake screens while smaller organisms are entrained into the facility and destroyed. The superheated discharge also affects habitat, creating highly altered coastal habitat.

In the United States, roughly 52% of the power plants use once-through cooling technology and kill billions of fish, shellfish, plankton and other species at all life stages in the process.

And what does the Court consider to be the best available technology for minimizing marine mortality? In its decision, the Appeals Court specifically pointed to closed-cycle cooling, a widely-adopted process that uses at least 95 percent less water than once-through systems. The closed-cycle operates much like a car radiator, requiring only small amounts of new water to replace what is lost to evaporation.

As closed-cycle systems are implemented in facilities along California's coasts, desalination plant proponents will have to re-think their designs.

PCL has been working very hard, and particularly in the Central Coast region, to demand that any proposed desalination plant use technologies that protect marine life. We applaud the Appeals Court decision and hope to work with desalination plant proponents to identify environmentally beneficial and cost-effective alternatives.