PCL Insider: News from the Capitol
STATE PROPOSES TO GIVE AWAY WATER RESOURCES:
MONTEREY AMENDMENTS DRAFT EIR RELEASED
Despite the recent crisis in the Delta and the
Governor's push for new dams, last week the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) proposed to give away the largest water storage
facility in the state and to eliminate drought safeguards for
urban areas in California.
DWR's draft decision, revealed in the Monterey
Plus Environmental Impact Report (EIR), would require the
State to adopt amendments to the State
Water Project (SWP) contract, called the "the Monterey
Amendments," negotiated in secret by DWR in 1994. The original
behind-closed-doors deal was successfully challenged in a
lawsuit by the Planning and Conservation League, the Citizens
Planning Association of Santa Barbara, and Plumas County Flood
Control and Water Conservation District (Planning and
Conservation League v. Department of Water Resources (2000)
83 Cal.App.3d). While DWR has been allowed to operate under the
Monterey Amendments provisionally since 1995, the PCL lawsuit
forced DWR to analyze the impacts of the amendments and to
decide whether or not permanently to adopt the Monterey
Amendments based on that analysis.
If permanently adopted, the Monterey Amendments
would fundamentally change how the State Water Project operates.
Specifically, the Monterey Amendments would:
-
Eliminate contract provisions that provide
drought safeguards for urban areas. DWR's own analysis shows
that in dry years like 2001, water supplies for homes and
businesses in urban areas will be reduced by over 400,000
acre-feet (a reduction of 26% of total urban water deliveries
from the SWP), if the Monterey Amendments are adopted.
-
Eliminate the common-sense provision in the
original contract which required DWR to determine the realistic
yield of the SWP. Without knowing the actual capacity of the
SWP, DWR will continue to promise to deliver "paper water,"
water which actually does not exist in the real world. Already,
the promise of paper water has lead to over-reliance on the
water from the fragile Bay-Delta, over-pumping, inevitable
cutbacks in water supplies, and ultimately decreased water
supply reliability.
-
Encourage the over-pumping of Delta water in the
winter and spring months, which has already, under the
provisional use of the Monterey Amendments, contributed to the
massive decline of the Delta smelt and other Bay-Delta fish
populations.
PCL has long held that DWR's provisional
operations under the Monterey Amendments are directly related to
the declines in the health of the Delta and decreases in water
supply reliability throughout California. If permanently
adopted, the Monterey Amendments would strip urban areas,
including homes and businesses, of their drought safeguards,
forcing those areas to depend on delivery of "surplus" water
from the Delta in wetter years. (The recent fish declines in the
Delta and the resulting
ruling from Judge Oliver W. Wanger of the U.S. District
Court in Fresno, demonstrate that the "surplus" water urban
areas now dependent on is actually just "paper water" that
cannot be delivered in the future.)
"PCL is outraged that despite the obvious impacts
on California, DWR is proposing to adopt the Monterey Amendments
on a permanent basis, stripping urban areas of their drought
safeguards and giving away the State's largest storage
facility," said Mindy McIntyre, Water Program Director at the
Planning and Conservation League. "This is a terrible decision
for California that will exacerbate the water problems we are
already facing today."
COMEBACK KIDS FAIL TO COME BACK: DISMAL
SALMON RUN ON YUBA RIVER
In their initial fish counts this season, the
California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has recorded alarmingly
low returns of fall-run Chinook salmon to Northern California's
Yuba River. In fact, DFG counted only 54 fall-run
Chinook salmon on the lower Yuba River in September, compared
with 909 during the same period last year, 1,671 two years ago
and 3,842 in 2003.
State biologists were encouraged by high salmon
numbers throughout California from 2000 to 2003 but have since
faced a steady decline of populations across Northern
California. This worrisome trend indicates that the effects of
the state's reengineered waterways, global warming, and Pacific
Ocean conditions still impede the recovery of California's
intrepid salmon populations.
DFG's findings are also eerily similar to the news
we brought you in March, when state
counts of Delta Smelt were one-tenth of their previous record
low levels. The state's salmon populations rely on the
California Delta as their principal migratory highway to and
from the ocean. And management of the ecologically-fragile Delta
impacts the health of upstream watersheds that this iconic
species depends on for survival. As the Governor develops a
solution to protect utility and natural gas transmission
corridors in the Delta, he should also consider the "transit
service" this estuary provides for these declining salmon
runs.
South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL), a PCL
organizational board member, is heading an ambitious campaign to restore the
wild salmon runs to the Yuba River. On Wednesday
night, in response to the recent fish counts, SYRCL rallied
individuals from the surrounding community, fisheries agencies,
conservation groups, water managers, and local tribes to develop
strategies to protect the Yuba River salmon from extinction. To
support their efforts and sign on to their letter urging the
National Marine Fisheries Service to take immediate action to
protect the salmon, contact Katrina Schneider at katrina@syrcl.org or visit
www.saveyubasalmon.org.
FARM BILL BULLETIN – TIME TO CALL YOUR
U.S. SENATORS
If properly drafted, the federal Farm Bill could
be a boon for conservation in California. That's why the
National Wildlife Federation, PCL, and over 30 other
conservation groups requested that the U.S. Senate Agriculture
Committee dedicate an additional $6 billion to the bill's
conservation programs.
Unfortunately, the Committee completed its
"markup" of the Farm Bill Thursday and that $6 billion dollar
target was not reached!
Committee leaders hope to debate the bill in the
full Senate as early as next week, so now would be a great time
to call California's U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara
Boxer to tell them that you want the Senate version of the Farm
Bill to make a major commitment to conservation.
Here are two simple messages to convey to our
Senators:
1.The Farm Bill conservation
title (in which the federal government makes a commitment to
programs that assist conservation) needs to include more than
the $4.8 billion increase that the Senate Agricultural Committee
bill provides. Please add significant new funding for
conservation in the Farm Bill!
2.Reasonable reforms in the Farm Bill's commodity
programs could save enough to allow more money to go into the
conservation programs. The conservation programs serve all
farmers, not just farmers who grow any of five specific
subsidized crops (such as cotton and
corn).
Senator Feinstein's offices:
San Francisco - 415-393-0707
Los Angeles –
310-914-7300
San Diego – 619-231-9712
Fresno –
559-485-7430
Senator Boxer's offices:
San
Francisco - 415-403-0100
Los Angeles –
213-894-5000
San Diego – 619-239-3884
Fresno –
559-497-5109
Thanks again for your
calls!
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