Delta Vision taskforce wraps up meeting with list of recommendations

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A state advisory panel called Friday for a new system of delivering water to urban users from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, but stopped short of backing an updated version of the peripheral canal proposed in 1982. The much-anticipated report from the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed in February, said the current system for providing delta water to cities in the East Bay, the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California is no longer sustainable.

The panel, which will undertake the job now of trying to put their plan into motion, asked state and federal water officials to assess the options for a new water-delivery system and report back to them by June. But the panel said any new facilities aimed at fixing delivery issues must be built in concert with measures that restore the delta’s ecosystem. “The two are co-equals,” said Phil Isenberg, chairman of the task force. “You cannot address the water supply issues without also addressing the restoration issues.”

To read the rest of this article from the San Francisco Chronicle, click here.

The panel did not endorse or reject the peripheral canal idea, but did make twelve specific recommendations, some of which are recapped in this story from the San Jose Mercury News:

— Government agencies must better support native species, recreational fishing and natural flood flows in the delta ecosystem. Invasive species must also be reduced.

— Require communities from Sacramento to Bakersfield to take less water from the rivers that flow into the delta during certain times of the year. Also reduce exports to the Bay Area and southern California.

— New dams and facilities should be built to channel water to the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

To read the rest of this article from the San Jose Mercury News, click here.

Comments

Admin

• Log in

Credits

Powered by Vertigo & WordPress
WordPress Themes by Brian Gardner