Sunday’s top of the scroll is the Sacramento Bee’s Conversation: Delta legislation package – our best hope? or lacking enough protection for the Delta?

This Sunday’s Sacramento Bee Conversation topic is the Delta legislation package, and features Barry Nelson of the NRDC arguing in favor of the package saying it is our best hope, and Steve Evans of Friends of the River arguing against it saying it falls short of protecting the Delta.

First up, from Barry Nelson:

“On Nov. 4, the Legislature passed the most important water reform legislation in a quarter century. California has never been more in need of this historic change of direction.

The solutions in this package can best be evaluated in the context of the serious water- related challenges facing the state.

The Delta alone presents a Gordian knot of interconnected problems. Record diversions in recent years have pushed the most important estuary on the West Coast over the brink. Salmon populations have plummeted and forced the closure of the state’s salmon fishery for two years running. Without prompt action, this quarter-billion-dollar industry could be lost forever. Agrowing list of Delta fish species are in danger of vanishing.

Without adequate fresh water and restored habitat, the damage could soon be irreversible. …”

Read more of Barry Nelson’s commentary by clicking here.

Next, from Steve Evans of Friends of the River:

“Legislative supporters and some environmental groups hail the controversial package of Delta water policy bills and budget-busting $11 billion bond as “ambitious water reform” and a “huge winner for the environment.” Other environmental groups and those who opposed the complex water policy legislation challenge the reforms as being too weak to be effective and say that the bills are rife with environmental loopholes and pork-barrel funding.

Supporters claimed that the package that passed earlier this month wasn’t about building the costly and destructive peripheral canal, a controversial facility originally rejected by voters in 1982. Apparently, someone forgot to tell that to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The day after the package passed, he vowed “to build a canal around the Delta.”

Friends of the River, the Sacramento- based statewide river conservation organization, believes that approval and construction of a large canal will all but dry up the Delta by diverting freshwater flows from the Sacramento River around the estuary for export south to Central Valley agribusiness and Southern California urban developers. We’re concerned about the health of the estuary, and Delta farmers and communities are concerned that they will lose fresh water that supports a farm economy worth $2 billion annually. …”

Read the rest of Steve Evans commentary by clicking here.

Got something to say about it? Say it in the Sacramento Bee’s forum by clicking here.

Comments

Admin

• Log in

Credits

Powered by Vertigo & WordPress
WordPress Themes by Brian Gardner