Group knocks Delta steps; Advisory committee regroups to push for more action on water issues

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2009 at 6:07 am

From the Capital Press:

Six months after publishing their final report, former members of the governor’s delta advisory group have graded the state “incomplete” on its progress on Delta issues.

The Delta Vision Foundation, formed this year by members of the dissolved Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, announced its assessment at a public meeting Monday, June 1, in Sacramento.

“What we fear is that, by the necessity of our policy leaders having to focus on our budget crisis… that there may be a tendency to drift away from following through on the actions that we recommended,” said board member Sunne Wright McPeak. “And the economic and budget issues are only going to get worse if the water problems aren’t solved.”

Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.

June 5, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Tuesday’s top of the scroll: Delta progress glacially slow, governor lacks an integrated water policy, task force says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 2, 2009 at 8:08 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A panel tapped two years ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to revive the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta issued the administration an “incomplete” grade Monday on the progress made in completing the group’s list of recommendations. The seven-member Delta Vision Foundation argued that, despite increasing pressures on the state’s water system, the state has failed to start new water facilities, restore battered ecosystems or improve the 1,100 miles of earthen levees that protect scores of islands within the confluence of California’s two largest rivers.

At Monday’s meeting in Sacramento, the foundation said the state must move aggressively to solve the system’s myriad problems. “The economy and environment are on the brink of collapse,” said Sunne Wright McPeak, a member of the panel and president of the California Emerging Technology Fund. “This crisis is so great it requires immediate action.”

More from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

From Stockton’s Record:

Little or no progress has been made on four of the task force’s seven broad goals for the Delta, the foundation charged.

The governor has never directly responded to those goals and lacks an integrated water policy, while there seems little chance of developing “coherent” legislation to advance the goals, according to Monday’s report.

“The problem is the choices are tough, painful and political,” said Phil Isenberg, former Sacramento mayor and chairman of the task force. “If this were easy to solve, it would have been solved in the last 30 to 40 years.” But, he said, the urgency of the state’s water woes call for a more aggressive approach.

You can read the full text of this article from The Record by clicking here.

A spokesperson for the Governor says things are happening, but just not in the public’s view, according to this article from the Bakersfield Californian:

The governor isn’t ignoring them, said Joe Grindstaff, the state’s deputy director for water policy and director of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program. “There’s a lot happening, but it’s not always the kinds of things that everybody on the outside would see,” Grindstaff said. “But (the delta) is something that the governor has been committed to for a long time.”

The strategic plan called for investment in infrastructure and better planning to balance the needs of competing interests such as farmers already parched by a drought and environmentalists anxious to protect the delta smelt and other threatened species in the region.

There are at least 16 major bills working their way through the state Legislature that address components of the water system.

Isenberg said he’s worried there will be a “30-hour frenzy at the end of the session to hammer out consensus and work out inconsistencies.”

Click here to read the full text of this article from the Bakersfield Californian.

You can read the press release from the Delta Vision Foundation by clicking here.

June 2, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Monday afternoon update: Delta Vision Foundation says state efforts to fix Delta don’t make the grade

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2009 at 3:46 pm

From the Delta Vision Foundation:

Sacramento – Today, members of the Delta Vision Foundation (formerly the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force) released a mid-term “Report Card” to determine the State’s progress in shaping policy to restore the beleaguered Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta and ensure a reliable water supply for California.

“The urgency of our water supply problems and the crisis of the Delta ecosystem dictate a more aggressive, cohesive, and integrated approach by the Governor and the Legislature,” said Phil Isenberg, former Chair of the Delta Vision Task Force. “We need the Administration to issue a clear position on the Strategic Plan’s recommendations, and state lawmakers to take immediate action to adopt the comprehensive package.”

The Delta Vision Foundation analysis charges that in the six months since its release, the Governor has not responded to the recommendations and strategies documented in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan, which his Cabinet Committee reviewed and largely supported. In addition, although the Foundation gave the State Legislature credit for devoting an impressive amount of time and thought to state water policy, they say the current roster of water bills is inconsistent.

According to William K. Reilly, a member of the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force and former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Time is running out both on prospects for a sustainable Delta ecosystem and on legislative opportunities to act to protect it this session. I very much hope that the Governor, who signaled his priority by establishing and appointing the Delta Vision Task Force, gets the chance to act on its recommendations as part of his legacy.”

Stakeholders’ testimony at today’s public meeting confirmed that time is running out on the Delta, and that the State must act soon.

The Delta Vision Strategic Plan was released in October 2008. The plan included a set of integrated recommendations by which the fundamental and co-equal goals of water supply reliability and Delta ecosystem restoration could be met by adopting the package in full.

“The State Legislature and Governor made a major investment in and helped facilitate the Delta Vision, but so far have failed to take action on our recommendations,” said Isenberg. “The Report Card we issued today gave lawmakers a grade of incomplete.”

The recommendations as stated in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan are:
• Make the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and ecosystem restoration the legal foundation of Delta and water policy
• Recognize and enhance the unique cultural, recreational and agricultural values of the California Delta as an evolving place
• Restore the Delta ecosystem as the heart of a healthy estuary
• Promote statewide water conservation, efficiency and sustainable use
• Build facilities to improve the existing water conveyance system and expand statewide storage; operate both to achieve the co-equal goals
• Reduce risks to people, property and state interests in the Delta by effective emergency preparedness, appropriate land uses and strategic levee investments
• Establish a new governance structure with the authority, responsibility, accountability, science support and secure funding to achieve these goals

View the full Report Card at http://www.deltavisionfoundation.org/reports.php

June 1, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Monday’s top of the scroll: Delta vision ‘report card’ to be issued at today’s meeting; Delta panel to give California an “incomplete”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2009 at 8:05 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

A panel of officials appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to solve the Delta’s water and environmental problems plans to give the state an “incomplete” grade for its progress so far. The rating, to be presented in a “report card,” will be finalized after testimony Monday from environmentalists, water groups and state officials at a meeting in Sacramento.

The seven-member Delta Vision Task Force, led by former Sacramento mayor Phil Isenberg, officially doesn’t exist anymore. But after releasing its December recommendations, it decided to stay alive as a private group to press for action.

Results in the draft report card don’t look good: The group finds that the state has made little to no progress on most of its recommendations.

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here. The meeting is today from 10am to 3pm at the California State Association of Counties (CSAC) Conference Center, 1020 11th Street, 2nd Floor, in Sacramento. More information: http://www.deltavisionfoundation.org/

June 1, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Barry Nelson on Bill Reilly’s call for leadership from Governor Schwarzenegger

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 31, 2009 at 7:21 am

From Barry Nelson, director of the Western Water Project, and the NRDC Switchboard Blog:

On Wednesday, Bill Reilly, the former Administrator of the EPA under President George H. W. Bush wrote an opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, urging the Governor to lead an effort to reform the agencies that manage (or don’t) the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.

Mr. Reilly’s piece is remarkably well timed. For the past two months, bipartisan working groups composed of members of the California legislature have been involved in an intensive, quiet process of education and discussion on Bay-Delta issues. The Delta Vision Task Force, on which Mr. Reilly served as a member, seems to have been successful in shaping the legislature’s initial thinking. Agency reform - referred to as “governance” in water-speak — is a central part of these discussions.

In the next few weeks, legislators including Assemblyman Jared Huffman, Senator Fran Pavley, Senator Lois Wolk and Senator Joe Simitian will take the results of those internal discussions and amend - probably dramatically - their current governance bills, which have already begun moving through the legislature. At the top of Mr. Reilly’s priority list is the creation of a new Council and a plan to oversee Delta management. The Delta is a critical, complex, changing, and vulnerable ecosystem - yet today there is no state plan and no single state agency charged with ensuring its future. The Delta Vision Task Force has several other critical governance recommendations, such as stronger rules governing land use, particularly on below-sea-level Delta islands.

Read more from Barry Nelson’s blog by clicking here.

May 31, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Saturday’s top of the scroll: Draft Delta Vision Foundation report card for governor, Legislature mixed; Final ‘report card’ to be announced at Monday meeting

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 30, 2009 at 8:40 am

From the Contra Costa Times:

Six months after recommending sweeping changes to address California’s water problems and an ecosystem crisis in the Delta, a task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says the governor has not responded to their report and lacks a comprehensive policy to address the problems.

The draft “report card” released by Delta Vision gives state leaders, including the governor and Legislature, mixed grades saying they have made only modest progress in following through on the task force’s recommendations.

And it notes that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan being pursued aggressively by the governor and many of the state’s biggest water agencies “would not satisfy a single one of the seven goals recommended in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan.”

More from Mike Taugher at the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

The final report card is set to be announced at a meeting on Monday. Here’s the announcement from the Delta Vision Foundation:

The Delta Vision Foundation (formerly the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force) will hold a public meeting in downtown Sacramento to release a mid-term Report Card on the state’s performance in shaping policy to restore the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta and ensure a reliable water supply for California. The Report Card assesses the progress of the Governor, the California Legislature, and specific policy proposals to adopt and implement key recommendations and strategies identified in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan, released November 2008, is designed to ensure long-term sustainable management of the Delta.

WHEN: Monday, June 1, from 10am to 3pm

WHERE: California State Association of Counties (CSAC) Conference Center
1020 11th Street, 2nd Floor, Sacramento, CA 95814

WHO: Members of the Delta Vision Foundation, including:

Phil Isenberg, Chair

Monica Florian

Richard Frank

Thomas McKernan

Sunne Wright McPeak

William Reilly

Raymond Seed, Ph.D.

John Kirlin, Executive Director

Associated stakeholders

Directions to the CSAC Conference Center:

The CSAC Conference Center is located at 1020 11th Street, 2nd Floor between K Street & J Street. The entrance to the center is located between the Pyramid Restaurant patio and Smith Gallery across from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament main entrance on 11th Street. The building has a black awning with gold diamonds.

For more information about the Delta Vision Foundation, visit www.deltavisionfoundation.org.

May 30, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Events

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Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Time for the governor to wade into the delta, says commentary: “Governance is the one issue everybody tries to ignore. Achieving it requires brave leadership and heavy lifting. It requires leadership by the governor.”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2009 at 7:54 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by William K. Reilly, member of the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force:

Clean, abundant water is something most people take for granted. Yet, with California in its third year of drought, that nonchalance is no longer justified. Across the state, there is a growing consensus that we cannot go on as before, and that we need serious change in the way in which we view and use water. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken on some of the fearsome challenges California faces on his watch. But he has yet to meet the water challenge.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is ground zero in the water debates currently taking place at the state Capitol. The delta provides water for more than 25 million Californians and 3 million acres of agriculture, supporting a $400 billion economy. But the delta’s ecosystem is crashing, portending a water crisis for the entire state.

Schwarzenegger has called for a 20 percent reduction in statewide water use, a notably bold recognition that excessive water use and population increase are doubly threatening to our water future. But he and legislative leaders have not acknowledged that the critical missing ingredient in water management in the delta is governance.

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

May 27, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Other Delta Issues

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Thomas Elias: Sensible water ideas are bubbling up

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 12, 2009 at 8:39 am

From Redding’s Searchlight Record, columnist Thomas Elias says our water problems could potentially be worse than our budget process, but sees hope on the horizon with the Delta Vision process - and a lawsuit:

How to revive the delta environment and still meet urban and farm water needs from Oakland to San Diego is the focus of the independent, governor-appointed Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force, which has now developed what looks like the best plan yet for solving the water crisis:

Increase use of recycled water for lawns and industry, the task force suggests, while building more desalination plants to make ocean waters drinkable. Add infrastructure like new reservoirs and possibly a peripheral canal bringing water around the delta in a concrete channel that would allow control of runoff to the sea. And police water rights permits more tightly, making sure farmers do not use more than they’re entitled to take.

There also may be some merit to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento near the end of last year. This action demands the long-term fallowing of many thousands of acres in the western San Joaquin Valley that are so tainted with toxic selenium, mercury and boron that farming them causes the chemicals to drain back into the San Joaquin River and then into the delta.

The lawsuit contends that since 80 percent of California’s surface water is used by agriculture, all urban shortages could quickly be resolved by holding the polluted farmland out of production until it can be cleaned up - something that’s not in the immediate offing.

Read the full text of Thomas Elias’ column in the Record Searchlight by clicking here.

May 12, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Newly formed Delta Vision Foundation to advocate for water solutions, and that’s a good thing, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 16, 2009 at 7:36 am

From the Inland Daily Bulletin, an editorial which begins by praising the announcement that the Delta Vision Task Force has reconstituted itself in the form of a foundation, from which they will advance and promote the ideas developed in task force’s plan:

The task force spent two years developing a holistic approach to managing the Delta that emphasizes protecting both the state’s water supply and the Delta’s ecosystem. The task force’s recommended a “dual conveyance” approach, which is a variation on the old peripheral canal pushed by local state Sen. Ruben Ayala of Chino in the 1980s, only to be spurned by voters in a state referendum. Some water would be diverted into the State Water Project before it reaches the Delta, with the rest flowing into the Delta and a lesser amount of water being pumped from the Delta into the water system.

Managed properly, dual conveyance would sustain the estuary while protecting the water supply from a potential disaster - like an earthquake that causes saltwater to breach the earthen levees and ruin the Delta’s fresh water. That would drop the state’s economy into a recession that makes the current one look like a cakewalk.

Researchers with the Public Policy Institute of California concluded last summer that a peripheral canal alone, rather than dual conveyance, would be best for the water supply and the Delta; that some water should be diverted to supply lines and the remaining water that flows into the Delta should not be pumped.

In either case, some form of peripheral canal is necessary to protect the water supply, the economy and the Delta. We’re glad the members of the task force have stuck together to advocate for their multifaceted solution that includes increasing water conservation and storage facilities.

Now, if only elected leaders would listen to them.

Read the full text of this editorial in the Inland Daily Bulletin by clicking here.

March 16, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Independent Delta Vision Task Force reorganizes to advance sustainable Delta plan

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 11, 2009 at 9:31 pm

From the new Delta Vision Foundation, this press release:

Today, members of the concluded Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force announced they have reorganized under a new name and with non-governmental support. The newly formed Delta Vision Foundation has assembled to advance the set of recommendations and strategies proposed in their Delta Vision Strategic Plan, released in November 2008. Governor Schwarzenegger appointed the Task Force in 2006, to create an independent blueprint for a sustainable Delta, and a reliable water supply for California.

“Although our official duties concluded at the end of the year, we remain committed to meeting the challenge of securing a reliable water supply for California while protecting the Delta’s extraordinary environmental resources,” said Phil Isenberg, former Chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force. “We’re entering the worst drought in twenty years, the iconic salmon fishery was closed last year, and finding a durable solution for the Delta has never been more important.”

Under the new designation, former Task Force members will seek to maintain the visibility and viability of their final recommendations, and encourage the public policy process to utilize the full package of their Strategic Plan recommendations. The Foundation will issue reports and participate in policy processes. The newly constituted body will take no formal position on legislation.

According to Delta Vision Foundation and former task force member Sunne Wright McPeak, president and chief executive officer of the California Emerging Technology Fund, “The Delta’s problems cannot be fully addressed by any single action. Each recommendation in the final Plan is an important element of the over-arching strategy. These recommendations are linked just as the Delta’s challenges are linked.”

Thomas McKernan, also a Delta Vision Foundation member and chief executive officer of the Automobile Club of Southern California, added “California has fought for over 30 years in an effort by one side or other to achieve their preferred goals, and that attempt has lead to stalemate. It is time to move forward in a broad framework, and to act simultaneously on all of the important issues.”

A critical component of the recommendations package is the establishment of a single governance structure with the authority, responsibility, accountability, science support and secure funding to achieve the Strategic Plan’s goals. Currently, more than 200 federal, state and local government agencies have some jurisdiction in the Delta.

“Everyone is involved but no one is in charge,” said Foundation member Richard Frank, executive director of the California Center for Environmental Law and Policy. “Without a designated policy making, planning and oversight body, it will be impossible to implement any substantial change to provide water for Californians or protect the Delta from further deterioration.”

“The Blue Ribbon Task Force was appointed as an independent body by the Governor,” said Isenberg. “He asked us to develop independent recommendations and not once did he or staff attempt to push or prod us in any particular policy direction. That made our process unique and allowed us to articulate a comprehensive set of recommendations. We remain committed to an autonomous consensus that reflects the best available knowledge and the input of the hundreds of stakeholders and experts who helped shape the final Strategic Plan, and although the terms have changed, our goals remain the same - to advance balanced solutions that restore the Delta ecosystem and create a reliable water supply for California.”

Check out the Delta Vision Foundation website by clicking here.

March 11, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Guest commentary: Dam equivalents and Delta Vision’s plan for uncompensated takings

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 2, 2009 at 8:00 am

Aquafornia is pleased to run this guest commentary by Susan A. Sutton, of SAS Strategies and Perspectives, regarding water rights issues and the current water planning processes underway:

DAM EQUIVALENTS

The Pacific Institute stated in a recent report, More with Less: Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California, September 2008, that conservation will be comparable to “dam equivalents.” The report stated that “water savings achieved through conservation and efficiency improvements are just as effective as new, centralized water storage and are often less expensive.”

Conservation will assuredly come from farmers, and may include mandatory conservation, without compensation. Area of Origin protections prevent that taking of water, conservation gives our water away for nothing! Northern California will be forced to conserve so that the conserved water can be used elsewhere.

Conservation does not address the currently unrealized increase in the California population and its future demand on water. Long term vision is definitely required by our governing bodies. It will take foresight and courage to move all of California as one unit to the future. Water will set the stage for a reallocation of wealth.

After millions of dollars spent on water bonds, no new water, and drought, I guess we should be relying on those “dam equivalents” to help all of us who received water cut-backs.

There are always unintended consequences for actions and inactions.

UNCOMPENSATED TAKINGS

Californians are experiencing their own form of tsunamis. Each incoming wave is compounding not only the State’s economic viability but individual citizens’ as well.

The first wave was the economic down turn; the implosion of Wall Street. The second wave, the drought, impacted both the urban community with water cut backs and rationing and the agricultural community resulting in land fallowing, increased costs, and massive job losses. The third wave was the regulatory drought, a decision that was a direct impact from the collapse of the Delta. Judge Wagner severely reduced water deliveries to save the Delta Smelt using the Endangered Species Act, an act supported by Congress, to “halt and reverse the trend toward species’ extinction, whatever the cost….” Now the next wave about to hit California is the implementation of the Delta Vision Strategic Plan.

The purpose of the Delta Vision Strategic Plan is to establish a long term, multi-generational, management plan that will address natural resources, infrastructure, land use, governance, and asserts co-equal goals of Delta ecosystem protection with reliable water supplies. Many of the tasks identified require water.

Of concern is the Delta’s Vision’s Flow Requirements. The plan adopted numerous recommendations to increase instream flows and Delta out flows. Specifically the plan calls for:

increased spring outflows, implement by 2015 (Action 3.4.3);

increased fall outflows, no later than 2015 (Action 3.4.4);

increased San Joaquin River spring outflow and fall pulse flows, no later than 2012 and 2015 respectively (Actions 3.4.5 & 3.4.6); and

increased flows and inundation, timing, and duration of flows in the Yolo Bypass (Action 3.1.1).

The amount of water and where it will come from was not addressed in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan. The plan directs the State Water Resources Control Board to revise the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan to include the new objectives. The plan (Action 3.4.1) charges the Department of Fish and Game with completing recommendations for in-stream flows for the Delta and high priority rivers and streams in the Delta watershed by 2012 and all major rivers and streams by 2018.

How will the State Water Resources Control Board and the Department of Fish and Game determine the quantity of water required for instream flows? What scientific evidence is there that increased flows or pulse flows actually benefit endangered or threatened species? No scientific evidence was presented in the Delta Vision Strategic Plan. How will all the various flow plans meld together and what impact will they have on the species in the Delta?

Two questions surface that are alarming from an agricultural perspective. Where will the water come from and who pays for it? Currently, there is not enough water to accomplish these goals.

The Delta Vision Strategic Plan, requests “the State Board to use its authority to determine reasonable use of water over the coming decades to evolve away from the generally accepted practices of diverting surface water for irrigated agriculture” (Action 4.1.3). It further states that the plan “Creates no expectation of public payment for any water required for ecosystem revitalization” (Action 7.3.1). The net result is an uncompensated reallocation of water.

Conservation appears to be the solution to meet the water demands. One goal is to achieve a 20% reduction in urban per capita water use by year 2020 (Strategy 4.1). The Plan admits that “Even if this target is achieved, current trends indicate that population growth will overtake these conservation gains by 2030.”

What is the equivalent water percentage reduction for agriculture? A state wide agricultural water conservation target is to be established by 2010. The conservation starting point for agricultural water is 800,000 acre feet (Action 4.1.3). Remember farmers already relinquished under the CVPIA (signed into law October 30, 1992) 800,000 acre-feet of water annually to fish and wildlife.

The intended outcome of this plan will be to reallocate water based on a redefined beneficial use, reduce water diversions to include changes in pattern and timing, retire marginal land, and land fallowing.

What is certain is that this far reaching wave will get all our feet wet and could drown out agricultural vitality in California. What then?

Note: Bold added for emphasis [and was added by Susan Sutton].

March 2, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Northern California, Water Rights

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Final Delta Vision Implementation Report unanimously endorsed by Metropolitan board

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 13, 2009 at 4:46 pm

From Business Wire, this press release from the Metropolitan Water District:

A final report from a committee of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cabinet-level advisors that recognizes the urgency of the state’s supply crisis and that immediate action must be taken to address long-standing problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was unanimously supported today by Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors.

Based on recommendations detailed in a strategic plan by the governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, the Delta Vision Committee’s report advocated a comprehensive solution that would ensure California’s supply future by calling for habitat improvements; a state-wide commitment to water-use reductions and local resource development; additional groundwater storage; completion of surface storage investigations; and construction of a dual conveyance system in the Delta, beginning in 2011.

“The committee’s final report serves as a road map to implement lasting Delta solutions for habitat restoration, water conservation and system improvements,” said Metropolitan board Chairman Timothy F. Brick.

“Even more importantly, we wholeheartedly endorse the committee’s decision to embrace the primary conclusion that the Delta must be managed to restore the ecosystem and create a more reliable water supply for California. These two fundamental concepts must be recognized as co-equal goals that should be incorporated into state law and act as the key litmus test for proposals in the Delta for years to come,” Brick said.

Formed where the rivers of the Sierra Nevada merge before heading toward San Francisco Bay, the Delta is a critical component of the state’s water supply, helping sustain two-thirds of California’s residents and grow about half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables. About 30 percent of Southern California’s total supplies in a year moves across the Delta to state-operated pumps and aqueduct.

Along with the committee’s report, Metropolitan General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said the district supports Gov. Schwarzenegger’s call for a 20 percent reduction in per-capita water use in California by the year 2020.

“The completion of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan by the end of 2010 also is absolutely essential because it will serve as the framework for pairing the necessary ecosystem improvements with changes to the water conveyance system,” said Kightlinger, who was appointed by the governor to serve on the Stakeholders Committee of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force.

“In addition, the new biological opinion and regulations for Delta smelt and longfin smelt reflect the inability to meet the co-equal goals of Delta Vision with the existing water system,” he added.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 19 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.

January 13, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Metropolitan Water District

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Restore the Delta commentary: Delta Vision Committee carries water for Central Valley agribusiness

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 6, 2009 at 7:05 am

From IndyBay, this article from Restore the Delta:

At the expense of Delta fisheries and Delta communities, the Delta Vision Committee, made up of five state Cabinet Secretaries appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger, called for the construction of the peripheral canal without legislative or voter approval.

In a report released late last Friday, the Committee, which was mandated to work with local stakeholders and a blue ribbon committee of public policy experts, asserted in its report that the state has authority to begin construction of the canal under existing laws and that construction should begin as early as 2011.

Restore the Delta staff cannot help but wonder if the Delta Vision Committee has paid any attention to the recently rewritten federal management plan to protect the Delta smelt and the entire Delta estuary from complete collapse. The December, 2008 report released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service calls for the dramatic reduction of Delta exports.

Instead of examining these science-based findings, the Delta Vision Committee is continuing to promote the supposed “co-equal goals” of estuary protection and water supply enhancement for California. Never mind that over 80% of the water exported from the Delta is used by large agri-business throughout the San Joaquin Valley - such as, corporate farms in the Westlands Water District, which drain tons of selenium into the wetlands at Kesterson.

The Delta smelt are near extinction; the salmon fisheries were closed in 2008 and will be probably closed again in 2009; and family farmers in the South Delta are seeing salt damage on their crops earlier and earlier each summer. But California’s limited water supply must be moved from north to south, not to meet the basic life needs of our brothers and sisters in the southern part of the state, but to insure the prosperity of corporate farmers growing government subsidized cotton.

Clearly, the Delta Vision Committee, Governor Schwarzenegger, and the Department of Water Resources, all of whom have ignored or co-opted the comments, questions, and facts presented by in-Delta interests throughout the various Delta Vision stakeholder and community meetings, have made it clear that they first and foremost represent the interests of San Joaquin Valley agri-business.

Read more from IndyBay by clicking here.

January 6, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Peripheral Canal

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Coverage wrap-up: Delta Vision report submitted to the Governor; recommends peripheral canal, new levees, but not new governance structure, yet

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 3, 2009 at 8:53 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

An influential Cabinet-level group Friday released its prescription for the sickly Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, including a 2011 goal to break ground on a new canal system - without the approval of the California Legislature.

The panel backed away from creating a new governing body to oversee the delta or altering the California Constitution to say that the delta’s health is as important as supplying water to 25 million Californians. That differed from another governor-appointed task force that contended that new leadership and a constitutional amendment were needed to fix a fragile ecosystem that also serves as the hub of the state’s water supply.

On Friday, two days after it was officially due, an implementation plan for the delta was released by the Delta Vision Committee, charged with advising Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature on future management of the delta. Many of its recommendations hewed to those made by the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, such as reducing per capita water use 20 percent by 2020.

One of the most critical questions that arose from the report rested on whether the administration holds the power to start building a so-called dual conveyance system in 2011 without the approval of the Legislature. The system would include a peripheral canal that would channel water from the Sacramento River to huge pumps in the southern delta, as well as strengthened levees that would route water through a central section of the delta. A plan to build a peripheral canal was rejected by voters statewide in 1982.

“The attorney general’s opinion said the governor has the executive authority to go through (the Department of Water Resources) to authorize construction of a canal,” Keith Coolidge, spokesman for CalFed, one of the agencies currently overseeing the delta, said in a late afternoon media conference call. “Some legislative counsel disagree, but that issue hasn’t been resolved.”

From the Contra Costa Times:

Still, the advisers generally endorsed the recommendations of the Delta Vision Task force, which found that the needs of water users frequently trump environmental considerations, and that as a result of that and other forces, the Delta is no longer sustainable as an ecosystem nor reliable as a key part of the state’s water delivery system.

The recommendations generally endorsed by the committee included giving special status to the Delta as a unique place deserving protection for the people who live, work and play there; restoring the ecosystem; promoting water conservation and efficiency; building new water storage and conveyance; and improving preparedness for floods and earthquakes.

The most controversial of those recommendations involve whether to build dams and whether to build a canal around the Delta. Such a canal could improve water supplies from the East Bay to Southern California and prevent fish from being sucked into pump stations.

But it also could reduce the flow of water into the Delta, which could cause the concentration of pollutants to rise.

The committee, like the task force before it, recommended completing studies on proposed dam projects and building a “dual conveyance” system that relies on pumps near Tracy and a canal around the Delta.

From the Sacramento Bee, reaction from Phil Isenberg:

Phil Isenberg, a former Sacramento mayor and legislator who chaired the task force, said the state would be “performing a miracle” to start building a Delta canal by 2011.

Isenberg had not seen the committee’s final report. But it adopted every proposal from his task force except one.

The task force recommended a new policymaking council to bring cohesion to the more than 200 agencies that manage the 740,000-acre estuary in a haphazard fashion. It viewed this as a key initial step before starting major waterworks and habitat projects.

But the committee opted to delay the governance question while starting work in other areas, including canal planning.

“I think it’s too bad they didn’t make a recommendation on that,” Isenberg said. “I’m not shocked, but it’s too bad because everyone in the puzzle knows you can’t fit the pieces together without a governance solution.”

The committee delegates a governance decision to a proposed Delta Policy Group, consisting of state Cabinet secretaries and one representative for the five Delta counties.

This group would spend another year developing a final plan to govern the Delta. Chrisman said this would likely not result in a new governing entity as proposed by the task force, but instead would modify powers vested in existing state agencies.

From Stockton’s Record, reaction to the 2011 timeline for beginning construction of the peripheral canal:

“I think that is awfully ambitious,” said Terry Dermody, a former San Joaquin County counsel who is acting as a water attorney for the county. “I would be surprised. I would be very surprised if that is the case.”

Legal challenges are sure to come, he said, and questions remain about how to pay for a canal, which has been estimated by the state Department of Water Resources to cost $4.2 billion to $7.2 billion.

San Joaquin County and many Delta advocates oppose a canal, saying that it would siphon away fresh water and turn the Delta into a stagnant swamp or, once levees fail, a vast inland sea.

California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said the 2011 goal is realistic if environmental reviews can be completed. He said close coordination with state legislators will be necessary and acknowledged there is resistance.

“We’re going to be working hard to meet these deadlines,” Chrisman said.

You can read the report submitted to the Governor by clicking here.

January 3, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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California panel misses deadline for Delta Vision report

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 1, 2009 at 7:39 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

State officials skipped a Wednesday deadline to release a plan to improve the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The Delta Vision Committee, chaired by Natural Resources Agency Secretary Mike Chrisman, blamed the workload required to release the governor’s budget plan.

“We felt it was important to focus on that and then move to release the Delta Vision report as soon as possible,” agency spokesman Sandy Cooney said. “It’s likely that will be next week. It’s all but done.”

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

January 1, 2009 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Delta issues hold key to future water supply reliability

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 23, 2008 at 1:04 pm

From the California Farm Bureau Federation:

Three key developments involving the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the past week set environmental parameters for protecting delta species and laid the foundation for addressing the region’s environmental problems and the future reliability of the state’s water supply. Experts say drought conditions, court decisions and a collapsing ecosystem have turned up the heat on finding solutions to these problems, elevating the importance of solid planning and prompt action.

A Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force forwarded its final recommendations last week to state agency heads, who in turn sent them on to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. An implementation plan comes in January.

A few days later, a completed draft conservation strategy for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan was presented to stakeholders, tentatively identifying a plan for water conveyance through and around the delta.

Added to that, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delivered its biological opinion on the effect of pumping water from the delta. The opinion found that operation of the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project jeopardizes the continued existence of a protected fish, the delta smelt, and adversely modifies its critical habitat. The opinion outlines what the FWS calls “reasonable and prudent alternatives” intended to protect each life stage and critical habitat of the delta smelt.

For the State Water Project, deliveries throughout California could be permanently reduced by up to 50 percent under the biological opinion. Water deliveries to cities, farms and businesses throughout much of the state will be reduced about 20 percent to 30 percent on average, but cuts could be even greater under certain hydrologic conditions, analysts said.

“Recent headlines about the interruption of export water pumping operations in the delta to protect fish species underscore for all Californians what farmers and ranchers have been acutely aware of for years–the water supply for much of the state is in jeopardy,” said Chris Scheuring, managing counsel of the California Farm Bureau Federation Natural Resources and Environmental Division. “Without workable solutions for a reliable water supply, agriculture and the entire state economy are in peril.”

December 23, 2008 · Filed Under Bay Delta Conservation Plan, Delta Vision Task Force, Judge Wanger delta smelt ruling

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Big trouble for state water users in coming years, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 18, 2008 at 2:07 pm

From the Woodland Daily Democrat, this editorial:

It may not get much attention from the region’s residents. After all, when we want water, most of us go to the nearest tap, turn it the handle — or push it. We may get excited about the cold, snowfall, whether we’re getting enough rain (hint: It’s never enough), or the pain of trying to find a parking space in downtown Woodland.

But when it comes to matters which concern us most, it always comes back to water. And now a panel of the governor’s top advisers is backing a sweeping plan for water use in California, including taking a look at building a canal to pipe water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The Delta Vision Committee endorsed a draft plan that asks California lawmakers to revisit the canal idea that voters rejected decades past. It also promotes building dams, which Democrats oppose, and restoring 100,000 acres of habitat in the delta, where some native fish are struggling to survive.

Tuesday was the final public hearing in a two-year process to come up with ways to restore the ailing delta while shoring up California’s water supplies. What happens as a result of those hearings will touch the lives of every single person in the state.

Read more from the Woodland Daily Democrat by clicking here.

December 18, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, General Water Issues

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Governor’s aides OK water strategy; North-south canal, conservation parts of proposal

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 17, 2008 at 9:02 am

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

A team of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top advisers settled on a new water strategy yesterday, promoting a contentious mix of dams and a new canal to keep supplies flowing to Southern California while at the same time restoring the health of the fragile Sacramento delta.

The price tag, according to some estimates, could be between $12 billion and $24 billion over the next 15 years.

Their proposal, outlined yesterday, does not stray far from Schwarzenegger’s preferred approaches to attacking California’s water problems. Schwarzenegger is expected to lay out his priorities as part of his annual State of the State address in early January.

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

Read the full text of this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.

December 17, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Governor’s panel says California must fix water system

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 17, 2008 at 6:11 am

From the Associated Press:

A panel of the governor’s top advisers on Monday backed sweeping changes to California’s water system, including the building of dams and a canal to pipe water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The Delta Vision Committee endorsed a plan that asks California lawmakers to revisit the canal idea that voters rejected long ago. It also promotes building dams, which Democrats oppose, and restoring 100,000 acres of habitat in the delta, where some native fish are struggling to survive.

Tuesday was the final public hearing in a two-year process to come up with ways to restore the ailing delta while shoring up California’s water supplies. The committee will present Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger with recommendations by the end of the year.

The panel’s meeting came a day after the Bush administration ordered state and federal officials to drastically reduce the amount of water pumped from the delta in order to save a California native fish from extinction. That decision has left many farmers in the Central Valley and cities in Southern California with the prospect of water shortages next year.

Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.

December 17, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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The very last Delta Vision Committee meeting is tomorrow

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 15, 2008 at 6:01 am

Your last chance to comment on the Delta Vision Strategic Plan:

The Delta Vision Committee will meet for the very last time tomorrow, Tuesday December 16th, at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1220 N Street, Auditorium, Sacramento, CA 95814, from 10am to 2pm. The meeting will be webcast - click here for webcast link.

The committee’s recommendations are due to the Governor by December 31st.

For more information, visit the Delta Vision webpage at www.deltavision.ca.gov

December 15, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Loads of Delta resources & twitter available on the Sacramento Bee’s new Delta webpage

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 14, 2008 at 8:34 am

The Sacramento Bee has launched a new webpage dedicated to coverage of the Delta, with loads of resources and links for information on the Delta - like this photo gallery of aerial shots.

Check it out and bookmark this page: http://www.sacbee.com/delta/

There’s also a twitter: http://twitter.com/sacbee_delta (Not one to be left out, Aquafornia has a twitter, too: http://twitter.com/aquafornia)

Today’s Sacramento Bee Delta coverage is in a special section, and includes a pull-out map of the Delta. Out of the area readers can order a copy by calling Membership Services at 916-650-2847 and requesting a Delta reprint. Rates are $2 apiece mailed.

December 14, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Delta Vision Task Force, Other Delta Issues, Peripheral Canal

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Trickle Down: Delta vision could be Solano nightmare, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 14, 2008 at 8:24 am

From the Vacaville Reporter, this commentary:

The statewide debate over water supplies and environmental preservation is familiar, but for the first time, decision makers are contemplating actions that could harm both water quality and the communities within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Solano County has argued that preserving the Delta as a vibrant, economically secure place is just as important as ecosystem and water export concerns. The recommendations now being considered by state leaders, however, seem to emphasize other interests and could put around 50,000 acres of Solano County under water, changing our ability to sustain our agricultural industry and jeopardizing our ability to make local decisions affecting our quality of life.

On Tuesday, the Delta Vision Committee — comprised of the head of the Public Utilities Commission and four cabinet secretaries (Resources, Environmental Protection, Agriculture, and Business, Transportation and Housing) — will finalize its recommendations for the governor its long-term vision and plans for the Delta. These proposals are expected to make their way into a bond measure this summer and ultimately become state law.

The committee is likely to recommend the co-equal goals of ecosystem restoration and water supply reliability, since environmental concerns have hindered the state’s ability to divert Sacramento River and Delta water to much of California. Under the Delta Vision plan, state water needs would be met and environmental needs addressed, but the Delta and its communities would be altered forever.

Read more from the Vacaville Reporter by clicking here.

December 14, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Q&A on Delta ecosystem challenge

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 10, 2008 at 6:41 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

By New Year’s Eve, a panel of state Cabinet secretaries called the Delta Vision Committee will send the governor and Legislature a plan to replumb and restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of California’s freshwater delivery system.

It will be one of the most ambitious infrastructure and habitat restoration projects ever proposed in America.

The Delta provides drinking water to 25 million Californians and irrigates 3 million acres of farmland via diversion pumps near Tracy. But these diversions have contributed to a broad ecosystem collapse in the Delta, including nine fish species in steep decline. As a result, water deliveries to the Bay Area and Southern California have been curtailed.

California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman, who chairs the Delta Vision Committee, and Karla Nemeth, his liaison to the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, describe how their planning efforts likely will converge, probably in 2010, in a big decision for California voters.

Read more of this Q&A with Mike Chrisman & Karla Nemeth in the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

December 10, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Other Delta Issues

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Tomorrow’s Delta Vision Committee Meeting will be webcast

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 4, 2008 at 7:52 am

Sorry, I posted yesterday that Friday’s Delta Vision Committee Meeting would not be webcast, based on the fact that it was not mentioned anywhere on their website, and their meeting summary did not include a link or note that one would be available. Silly me!

So, thanks to the California Water Plan newsletter, here is the link to tomorrow’s meeting: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=53674

December 4, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Delta Vision Committee meets in Sacramento on Friday

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 3, 2008 at 7:40 am

Your last chance to comment on the Delta Vision Strategic Plan is coming up this Friday in Sacramento. The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Bay-Delta Room of the John E. Moss Federal Building, 650 Capitol Mall. From the Sacramento Bee:

The Delta Vision Committee is charged with recommending projects and policy to the governor and Legislature to improve the environment and water supply in the estuary between Sacramento and Tracy.

Committee members are four state Cabinet secretaries and the president of the Public Utilities Commission. They’re reviewing two years of work by the Delta Vision Task Force, a seven-member panel appointed by the governor.

This meeting will not be webcast. For the full text of the brief article from the Sacramento Bee, click here. For the meeting notice, click here. For more information on the Delta Vision Committee, click here.

December 3, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Who will be Delta’s keeper?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 30, 2008 at 8:24 am

From Stockton’s Record:

It’s a classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen. More than 200 agencies have some say on what happens in the vast Delta, and the product of their labors doesn’t seem to satisfy anyone, as fish die and the water supply shrinks.

Among all other impending Delta decisions, such as whether to build a peripheral canal, a key question yet to be answered is how the Delta will be governed in the future. Who will be in charge?

During a series of recent meetings with California Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman and his staff, San Joaquin County leaders have jockeyed for representation on whatever governance agency is created in the future.

Chrisman chairs a five-member Cabinet committee that will submit a strategic Delta plan, already approved by a blue-ribbon task force, to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by Dec. 31. The committee may expand on the task force’s recommendations; a meeting to gather public comments is scheduled for Friday in Sacramento.

There are signs that at least some local representation will be part of the new governance structure, said Terry Dermody, former San Joaquin County counsel now acting as a water attorney for the county. Dermody said Chrisman’s staff revealed in meetings that it may restructure the Delta Protection Commission to consist of elected officials from five Delta counties, three cities including Stockton, and representatives of three major water agencies for Delta farmers.

Read more from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.

November 30, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Delta Vision Task Force

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Pass law to cut delta water use, Delta Vision Task Force says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 27, 2008 at 10:39 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Over the next two years, California should pass laws cutting water consumption by 20 percent, shore up strategic levees, study new reservoirs and pass Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s $9 billion-plus water bond, according to a set of preliminary recommendations released Wednesday by a Cabinet-level panel.

The Delta Vision Committee, charged with advising policy makers on the future of the failing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, said the proposals are aimed at spurring discussions among committee members and stakeholders who will gather Dec. 5 in Sacramento.

In addition to authorizing additional funding and bolstering infrastructure, the committee proposed designating the delta a National Heritage Area, increasing the state’s supply of recycled and desalinated water and cracking down on water permits violators. Water rights permits ostensibly set the amount of water that may be diverted from any water source.

November 27, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Delta plan completed: Time to take it seriously, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 26, 2008 at 6:11 am

From the Vacaville Reporter, an editorial on the recently finalized Delta Vision Strategic Plan, which includes 6 goals and 73 recommendations:

The devil is in the details, of course, and certainly there is something in the report to displease everyone involved. And there are hundreds of agencies involved. Which is, of course, one reason every other attempt to coordinate a response to the Delta’s problems has failed.

Californians can’t afford to keep squabbling. The courts are already imposing solutions that aren’t palatable. And Mother Nature isn’t waiting around either.

The climate is changing. The rain and snow that used to come with some regularity are no longer arriving on a predictable schedule, if at all. And if sea levels rise, as predicted, there will be more salt water and flooding in the Delta.

A cabinet-level committee is taking comments about the Delta Vision Task Force’s recommendations — the next hearing begins at 9 a.m. Dec. 5 at the CalFed headquarters, 650 Capitol Mall, in Sacramento. It will then make its own recommendations to the governor.

Delta policy must change, and that means everyone will have to give a little or even a lot. The status quo simply cannot continue.

Read the full text of this editorial by clicking here.

November 26, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Plan calls for overhaul of Delta policies

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 23, 2008 at 7:01 am

From the Monterey County Herald:

The “Delta Vision Strategic Plan” released in October calls for a complete overhaul of the way the Delta — the West Coast’s largest estuary and a source of water for 25 million Californians — is managed.

Developed by a panel appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the proposal addresses water deliveries, the environment, the local economy, state water policies and overall management.

Recognizing that any fix will take many years, and perhaps decades, the plan calls for a series of short-term actions that, while offering no permanent solution, are meant to improve water supplies and the environment at relatively little cost.

Those actions include information gathering, installing a new fish protection screen at the forebay that serves state pumps and stockpiling rock and other emergency response materials around the Delta to be ready in case of a levee break.

The recommendations are not binding and the plan is under review by a committee of cabinet members and state Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey.

Read more from the Monterey County Herald by clicking here.

November 23, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Final Delta Vision Report is now posted online

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 3, 2008 at 4:45 pm

The final Delta Vision Strategic Plan of the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force has been completed and is now posted to the Delta Vision website at http://deltavision.ca.gov/StrategicPlanningDocumentsandComments.shtml.

The report is the result of a 20-month-long process to develop a new plan for the Delta. The plan has been sent to committee and is scheduled to be presented to Governor by years end.

November 3, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Spreck Rosekrans commentary: The delta’s wake-up call

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 3, 2008 at 7:24 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by Spreck Rosekrans of the Environmental Defense Fund:

Wake up, California. Do not hit the snooze button again!

It’s been clear for decades that the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary is in peril. The largest estuary on the West Coast is suffering - from ever-increasing water diversions, pollution and invasive species - to the point where scientists talk openly about the extinction of entire fish species. It is clear that potential failure of the delta’s fragile levee system threatens delta communities and could disrupt the water system that supplies part of the drinking water to 23 million Californians and much of California’s agricultural lands as well.

Last Friday, the governor’s Delta Vision Task Force released its strategic plan addressing the bay-delta’s ecosystem and water-supply problems. The plan represents a clear-eyed break with the past. The task force recognizes that protecting the environment of the delta is just as important as providing reliable water supplies to cities and farms. The task force urges California to base its water future in the reality that water is a limited resource, that enormous water diversions have adverse consequences, and that ecosystem collapse is not an acceptable option.

The Delta Vision report offered by the task force emphasizes the urgent need for expanded habitat and freshwater flows to restore salmon and other decimated fisheries. Its recommendations for improving water-use efficiency, eliminating disincentives for sustainable groundwater management and encouraging sales of water between willing buyers and sellers, so long as local communities are not harmed, are long overdue.

Read more of Spreck Rosekrans’ commentary in the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

November 3, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Dan Walters: Delta Vision not likely to succeed

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 26, 2008 at 6:28 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the Pacific Coast’s largest estuary and a critical habitat for wildlife, as well as the state’s major source of water – but it’s in crisis with deteriorating levees, threats from global warming and earthquakes, and court-ordered restrictions on pumping due to water quality problems.

How often have we been given that dark picture? Countless times, and twice more this month, once in a report from the Delta Vision Task Force, appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to lay the basis for new water policy, and again in a state-sponsored scientific study of Delta issues.

Delta Vision recommends compromises among the countless competing ideological and economic stakeholders, better conveyance facilities and a unified system of governing water use, land use and other Delta issues, replacing dozens of agencies that have pieces of the authority.

How often have we heard that prescription for the Delta? Just about as often as we have heard the list of its ills. So does Delta Vision’s vision have any greater chance of succeeding than past efforts, including one called Cal-Fed that spent about $5 billion only to fail? It would be nothing short of a miracle for two very salient reasons.

Find out what those two reasons are by reading the rest of Dan Walter’s column in the Sacramento Bee: click here.

October 26, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Shasta Dam’s place in water plans uncertain; State task force recommends increasing reservoir capacity to feed Southern California channels

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 25, 2008 at 6:35 am

From Redding’s Record Searchlight:

Building channels to funnel water from Northern to Southern California won’t be enough to remedy growing shortages unless the state changes its storage habits, says a governor-appointed task force.

There needs to be a shift in how and when reservoirs are filled, said Keith Coolidge, spokesman for the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. “We need to take more water out when it is plentiful and leave more in when it’s not,” he said. By adding and expanding reservoirs, Coolidge said, the state will be able to hold more of the water that currently goes downstream during wet years.

A report issued last week by the seven-member task force calls for expanded statewide water storage to supply a proposed two-channel system that will funnel water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from Northern California to parts of the state south of San Francisco. But that report didn’t specify what new reservoirs should be built or which existing reservoirs should be expanded. “It’s largely because there are a lot of technical issues at each individual site,” said John Kirlin, executive director for the task force.

So it’s unclear whether the task force wants to see Shasta Dam raised to feed the proposed new water channels. “The task force never discussed whether Shasta Dam should be increased,” he said.

Read more from Redding’s Record Searchlight by clicking here.

October 25, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force, Water Storage

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Capital Ag Press on Delta Vision report: Farmers in the central Delta may be out of luck

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 24, 2008 at 9:59 am

From the Capital Ag Press, Hank Shaw reports on the Delta Vision Task Force report and it’s possible implications for farming in the Delta:

The report released Friday does say that “Delta agriculture is the heart of the regional economy and central to the delta’s culture and sense of place.” Preserving agriculture in the delta will be a priority, even with the canal. But not everywhere in the estuary.

Farmers with land outside proposed floodplains and who aren’t in the center of the delta would fare the best. The report specifically says farming should be promoted on Twitchell, Sherman and Jersey islands.

What farming might look like under the new regime is unclear. The report talks about farming for carbon sequestration or for wildlife - which in practical terms means letting the land return to the tules that once covered the estuary’s network of islands. Under the proposal, farmers who plant tules or other crops that lock in greenhouse gases would get credit under the cap-and-trade program the state is developing to fight global climate change. The farmers could then sell that credit for cash.

Farmers in the center of the delta may be out of luck. UC-Davis scientist Jay Lund, who helped develop a Public Policy Institute of California study that influenced the task force’s decisions, likened those farmers to miners who have played out a mine. “For some of those farmers, (who are) farming on islands that will be flooded, they will be in a different business,” Lund said at a forum on the Peripheral Canal held last week. “Essentially we’ve mined those islands.”

Read the full text of this article from the Capital Ag Press by clicking here.

October 24, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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Commentary: Delta Vision report points to need for comprehensive water solution

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 22, 2008 at 5:53 am

From the California Farm Bureau Federation, this commentary:

It could be the most complicated, difficult policy decision facing California today: Figure out what to do in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Recommendations on how to attack the delta’s environmental problems will have everything to do with the water supplies for thousands of family farmers and ranchers and for millions of California residents.

So it’s no wonder that the recommendations of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force made such a splash when they were released last Friday. The task force worked for nearly two years and wrote a detailed, comprehensive plan that can be boiled down to its essence in a few words:

There’s no “silver bullet” that will solve all the delta’s problems; we have to consider anything and everything.

Farm Bureau has devoted significant resources to the public process that informed the task force’s deliberations. I represented Farm Bureau on a “Stakeholder Coordination Group” that advised the task force. We’ve read each draft of its report carefully and provided lengthy comments. We feel as though the task force gave us a fair hearing, and we know it was listening to hundreds of other people and interests with often-contradictory points of view.

Find out more about the CFBF’s take on the Delta Vision report by clicking Read more

October 22, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Vision Task Force

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