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Dan Bacher: Schwarzenegger still pimping peripheral canal as he declares “fiscal emergency”

Posted by: Maven on December 19, 2008 at 6:09 am

From Dan Bacher:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, after being given the “Outdoor Villain of the Year” award by Field and Stream magazine, continues to pimp the outdated concept of a enormously expensive and environmentally devastating peripheral canal as he declares a “fiscal emergency” because of the state’s $11.2 billion revenue shortfall.

“Playing the rake is not new for Gov. Schwarzenegger, whose first turn as the Terminator saw him working to destroy the world instead of saving it,” the magazine editorial said in September. “And the governor’s win will not come as any surprise to fishermen in the Golden State, where funding for salmon and steelhead restoration has been dramatically cut despite sharply declining populations for years. During the governor’s tenure, the Chinook salmon fishery in California collapsed, and on May 1, 2008, commercial and recreational salmon fishing were both banned along the West Coast in California and much of Oregon.”

The latest installment in Schwarzenegger’s role as the “Fish Terminator” villain was when his hand-picked Blue Ribbon Delta Vision Task Force, against the advice of many of the members of its stakeholders group, announced its support for the construction of a peripheral canal around the Delta in its final meeting Tuesay. The peripheral canal would create the infrastructure to export more water out of the Delta to subsidized agribusiness and southern California, even though the report the task force unveiled in November called for less exports and water conservation to save imperiled fish populations.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director Restore the Delta, pointed out this contradiction out today in the organization’s newsletter, “Delta Flows.”

“Restore the Delta staff members are once again amazed that Governor Schwarzenegger and his advisors can be confronted with facts regarding the reduction of water exports and then move toward implementing a contrary strategy in a poorly executed attempt to manage California’s water supply,” said Parrilla. “Yesterday, the Governor released a statement with his advisors that the state needs a new water strategy with a new canal.”

“As in the past, his statement dresses the canal as the answer to the Delta’s environmental crisis. But as reported by friends close to Restore the Delta, representatives associated with agricultural water agencies in the Central Valley have stated in public that they are willing to pay for a canal, but are not willing to take less water in exchange for a reliable supply. In other words, as we have asserted for the last two years, the peripheral canal is seen by corporate agricultural interests in the southern part of the state as the efficient means to ship fresh water from north to south, all at the expense of Delta fisheries, Delta communities, and farmers in the northern part of the state,” she stated.

She emphasized that with a $45 billion deficit looming over the state – which the Governor has yet to solve — “it is unbelievable” that the Governor and his advisors could be out touting a $12 to $24 billion water plan in order to benefit irrigating selenium loaded agricultural lands that do not drain properly. “All of this is to grow cotton in the desert,” she said.

However, Schwarzenegger today, with no sense of irony whatsoever, called the New Legislature into a special session to discuss the state budget deficit while he continues to promote a water plan estimated to cost $12 to $24 billion!

“Without immediate action our state is headed for a fiscal disaster and that is why with more than two dozen new legislators sworn in today – I am wasting no time in calling a fiscal emergency special session,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “We must act now to address the current year revenue shortfall of $11.2 billion and we must implement an economic stimulus package to help retain and create jobs, keep Californians in their homes and fix the state’s Unemployment Insurance Fund.”

The Governor is Consistent – in His War on Fish and the Environment!

According to Michael Gardner of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Sacramento Bureau, Schwarzenegger is expected to “lay out his priorities,” including the water bond and peripheral canal, as part of his annual State of the State address in early January.

“We’ve been consistent,” said Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, panel chairman. “Now we’re putting the meat on the bones. Our sense is we’re on track with what he’s recommending.”

This is one of the few times that I’ve agreed with Chrisman. He’s absolutely right that the Governor’s office has been “consistent” – “consistent” in pursuing its war on the fish and the environment! While Chrisman and Schwarzenegger have been promoting their water bond to build more dams and the peripheral canal, salmon fishing has been closed in ocean waters off California and Oregon due to the collapse of the Sacramento River fall chinook salmon population. Meanwhile, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, American shad, juvenile striped bass and other species have declined to record low levels.

Record water exports out of the California Delta and decling water water quality are the primary factors in the collapse of these fish populations, although invasive species and other factors also play a role. Yet Schwarzenegger and Chrisman persist in their campaign to build the infrastructure to export more water, resulting in the further degradation of water quality.

The “scientific” justification for the Governor’s canal includes the controversial PPIC report that recommended the building of a peripheral canal, in spite of all of the facts to the contrary – and the inclusion of fabricated economic data. Fortunately, Dr. Jeffrey A. Michael, Associate Professor and Director of the Business Forecasting Center at the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific, has expanded and revised his earlier paper, “The Economics of Ending Delta Water Exports Versus the Peripheral Canal: Checking the Data of the PPIC,” that blasts the supposedly “scientific” report for its many innaccuracies. In this new version, Dr. Michael addresses the inaccuracies found in the limited rebuttal provided by the authors of the PPIC report.

“It is worth noting that the authors of the PPIC report will not publish, or allow Dr. Michael to publish, their rebuttal in full,” said Barrigan-Parrilla. “Moreover, the authors of the PPIC report do not address the low value that they place on protecting the Delta’s environment, including Delta fisheries.”

The Delta Vision “plan” will be submitted to the Legislature this coming year – and you can be sure that Schwarzenegger, Chrisman and the Governor’s staff will be doing everything they can to build “Arnold’s Big Ditch” and more dams in order to bail out corporate agribusiness – in spite of the enormous cost to the taxpayer and our fisheries as the California economy collapses.

To read Dr. Jeffrey A. Michael’s report, go to http://forecast.pacific.edu/articles/peripheral%20canal%20PPIC%20review.pdf. For more information about Restore the Delta, go to http://www.restorethedelta.org

December 19, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues

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