Weblinks for tomorrow’s Delta Vision Task Force Meeting
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 16, 2008 at 9:00 am
Once again, it’s Delta Vision time!
The Delta Vision Task Force will be meeting in West Sacramento tomorrow, Thursday July 17th, and Friday July 18th from 10 am until 5 pm.
They will be working on the second draft of the strategic plan, receiving updates and holding various panel discussions. Meeting materials and weblinks can be found by clicking here.
Weblinks for today’s Delta Vision Task Force meeting; first draft of strategic implementation plan to be discussed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2008 at 8:26 am
It’s Delta Vision time again!
The Delta Vision Task Force will be meeting today (Thurs. 6/26) & tomorrow (Friday 6/27) to discuss the first draft of their strategic implementation plan for their vision, which includes creating a new entity to govern the Delta that would also, among other things, assume control of SWP operations, rather than the Department of Water Resources.
As always, the meeting will be webcast. The links for the webcast, the draft report and the meeting agenda can be found by clicking here.
Delta Vision releases Strategic Plan first draft: Calls for strong governance, ecosystem, a National Heritage Area and options for storage and conveyance
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2008 at 10:34 pm
From the State of California Resources Agency and the Delta Vision Task Force website, this press release:
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force next week (June 26-27) will review initial recommendations to improve water management and conveyance in the Delta as well as a proposal for a new governing structure over Delta ecosystem health and water supply reliability. The recommendations are included in the first staff draft of a Strategic Plan that will be revised through a series of public meetings over the next four months.
Consistent with the vision adopted by the Governor’s Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force in 2007, the staff draft also recommends special protection for the Delta itself, and strong actions to restore the Delta’s physical habitat and actions to safeguard water supplies in wet and dry times through regional self-sufficiency and system enhancements.
The staff draft strategic plan recommends a new governance structure with the creation of the California Delta Ecosystem and Water Council, which would have fiscal and regulatory authority over a wide variety of projects with the legal Delta. It also calls for a strengthened Delta Protection Commission, a new Delta Conservancy, and a new Delta Science and Engineering Board.
Read the rest of this press release by clicking here.
Read the draft of the Strategic Plan by clicking here. Note this is the first draft and is considered non-attributable because it has not been discussed by the task force yet.
The task force meets this Thursday and Friday (June 26-27) to discuss the strategic plan. Click here for the agenda. Note agenda item #7, “Discussion of Draft Recommendation on Conveyance and Storage”, which includes this attachment of DWR’s assessment of dual Delta water conveyance options.
To visit the Delta Vision Website: http://deltavision.ca.gov
Coverage continues with the next story.
Draft of strategic report for Delta vision recommends creating a new entity that would decide how and when water would be exported to farmers and cities, among other things
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2008 at 10:16 pm
The strategic plan from the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force is posted online (see above), and will be the focus of next week’s Delta Vision meetings. More from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Overhauling how California uses, moves and stores water while protecting its environment will come at a steep cost, according to a report released Friday.
Meeting the long-term water needs of a growing population — now at nearly 38 million — while balancing protections for water quality and wildlife could cost between $12 billion and $24 billion over the next 10 to 15 years. The cost could be as high as $80 billion, according to a draft plan sent to a task force formed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
At the heart of the state’s massive water storage and delivery system is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the region targeted by Schwarzenegger’s task force. The staff report outlines recommendations for improving the delta’s ecosystem, building a canal or pipeline to move drinking and irrigation water around the delta, and strengthening the region’s levees.
“A delta fix is going to be very expensive — it’s just that simple,” said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
The report also recommends creating another government entity to oversee the delta, an idea that drew skepticism from Quinn. He said water contractors were concerned they might have less say over how much water they receive, even though they will be paying for most of the delta’s improvements. The new entity would decide how and when water would be exported to farmers and cities in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area.
The idea of taking water-export decisions away from the state Department of Water Resources was supported by the grassroots group Restore the Delta, which includes delta residents, business leaders, farmers, fishermen and environmentalists. The department is more concerned with moving water to farmers and Southern California than environmental protection, said the group’s executive director, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla.
Read the rest of this article from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here. Brief coverage from Mike Taugher and the Contra Costa County Times by clicking here.
The Metropolitan Water District issued this statement via Business Wire:
“Delta Vision’s emerging strategy is the kind of innovative and dramatic blueprint that can lay the groundwork for historic change. The estuary deserves the kind of comprehensive approach to restoring the ecosystem and altering the water system that Delta Vision is calling for. The co-equal objectives of protecting the Delta and providing reliable, safe water supplies for the state economy require the kind of balanced approach that Delta Vision has in mind. Delta Vision provides a valuable road map to success for legislators, water districts and the many Delta stakeholders. Environmental studies now under way must identify the specific balance of ecosystem and water system conveyance improvements. Deliberations in the Legislature must ultimately resolve the correct governing structures for restoration and other Delta activities. Metropolitan looks forward to engaging in all these discussions with the kind of balanced, yet bold, mindset that is emerging through Delta Vision.”
Delta Vision: North State will ‘take a hit’ to save the estuary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 7, 2008 at 5:44 amFrom the Chico News & Review:
More of Northern California’s water is going south. Before you get angry about lawns in Torrance and swimming pools in Beverly Hills, you should know that the increase is meant to help save the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which is in danger of dying.
That was the principal message of a water forum held last Friday (May 30) at the Chico Masonic Family Center. Its purpose was to examine a proposed “Delta Vision” developed by a blue-ribbon task force convened by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.
California has the most elaborate and complex water-transfer system in human history, one that conveys hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the rivers and streams of Northern California more than 500 miles—and up and over a mountain range—to the population centers of Southern California. It’s a marvel of technology and construction—with one glaring weakness.
It passes through the Delta.
The Delta, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meet and flow into San Francisco Bay, is one of North America’s greatest and most important estuaries. It is home to more than 500 species, and its ecological health is critical to an incalculable number of fish, animals and birds.
Unfortunately, it is also the hub of the state’s two principal water distribution systems, the federal Central Valley Project, which includes Shasta Dam, and the State Water Project, which includes Oroville Dam. Water enters the northern part of the Delta via the Sacramento River and is pulled out of it by huge pumps at the southern part, near Tracy.
The process wreaks all kinds of damage on the Delta’s ecology, especially when water inflows are low, as they have been in recent years. The pumps not only suck in saline water from San Francisco Bay, upsetting the freshwater ecology of the Delta, but they also kill fish by the millions, especially the endangered Delta smelt.
On the other hand, there are at least 7,000 permitted diverters who use the water that is transferred south, including the water agencies that provide household water to some 23 million people and farmers who irrigate 7 million acres of productive agricultural lands.
The forum discussed the Delta Vision process, which is tackling such issues as climate change, earthquake risks, levees and conservation in the quest to solve the Delta’s problems:
A number of remedies have been proposed, but all include the notion that more inflow will be needed if the Delta is to remain healthy. And that water can come from only one place: Northern California. Naturally, that was much on the minds of the 70 people who attended the Northern Sacramento Valley Water Forum Friday. But North Staters aren’t the only ones who will have to sacrifice, speakers said.
Every Californian will “take a hit,” as Thad Bettner, general manager of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, put it. Delta Vision could be applied throughout the state, so it would spell conservation and possibly even higher water prices for all Californians—even those in the north who have the water.
“This is not just a Southern California problem,” Bettner said. Part of GCID’s vision is to provide additional water to the Delta. “There is no way to say no,” so Northern Californians, farmers (who tap more than 80 percent of California’s water supply) in particular, will have to “change the way we do business and better manage our water.”
Read the full text of this article from the Chico News & Review by clicking here.
Reminder: Delta Vision today and tomorrow
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 28, 2008 at 6:35 amJust a reminder for those interested:
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force will once again be meeting on Wednesday & Thursday to continue discussions on developing a strategic plan for implementing the Delta Vision. The meeting will be webcast. You can find links to the webcast, plus a meeting agenda with links to materials by clicking here.
Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force to meet tomorrow & Thursday
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 27, 2008 at 6:23 am
It’s Delta Vision time again!
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force will once again be meeting on Wednesday & Thursday to continue discussions on developing a strategic plan for implementing the Delta Vision.
The meeting will be webcast. You can find links to the webcast, plus a meeting agenda with links to materials by clicking here.
Delta Vision Task Force meets tomorrow & Friday; Bay Delta Conservation Plan begins public scoping meetings next week
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 23, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Important meetings regarding the Delta coming up this week & the next:
The Delta Vision Task Force will once again be meeting to discuss the preliminary recommendations for the Strategic Implementation Plan from four stakeholder workgroups. The workgroups are addressing issues on water supply reliability, governance and strategic finance, Delta-as-place and the estuarine ecosystem. Meeting information, including staff reports, agenda, and weblinks can be found by clicking here.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan will begin public scoping meetings at various locations statewide. To find a location near you, click here. Per the DWR website, “The BDCP’s purpose is to provide for the conservation of at-risk species in the Delta and improve the reliability of the water supply system within a stable regulatory framework. The process is being conducted consistent with state and federal laws that encourage the development of broad habitat conservation plans that protect natural communities in exchange for regulatory assurances.” The purpose of the meetings is to discuss the EIR/EIS for the plan. More information on the Bay Delta Plan by clicking here.
Delta panel tries to prepare for sea-level rise; it could be much higher than previously estimated
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 20, 2008 at 7:12 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Global warming could put the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under much deeper water than previously estimated.
A panel appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging him to prepare for a sea level rise of 55 inches in the Delta by the end of this century. That’s a lot more water than any estimates currently in use by the state.
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, in fact, found during its research that many state agencies still have no target number at all to plan for sea level rise. That includes Caltrans, which is planning to widen Highway 12, a cross-Delta route between Lodi and Fairfield that already lies 20 feet below sea level in places.
A sea level increase of 55 inches, or about 1.4 meters, would probably overwhelm most levees in the Delta. It would also likely flood thousands of acres of low-lying urban land surrounding the Delta, including some neighborhoods, urban water intakes, sewage treatment outfalls, highways and other utilities.
“The problem is, this is a high-risk area,” said Phil Isenberg, Delta Vision chairman and a former Sacramento mayor and state assemblyman. We ought to have a common planning assumption for state agencies. Because the more rise you predict, well, the more complicated life becomes in the future.”
Read the full text of the story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Delta Vision Task Force to meet Thursday and Friday
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 19, 2008 at 3:50 pmThe Delta Vision Task Force meets tomorrow (Thursday, 3/20) and Friday (3/21).
Webcast links and meeting agenda can be found by clicking here.
San Joaquin County supervisor Ornellas is concerned Southern California will take all the water and ruin the Delta, and that someday Northern California will lose control of its water supply
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 19, 2008 at 12:56 pmWhew, am I glad that I am not limited on the length of titles! From the Lodi Sentinel:
A San Joaquin County supervisor said he is concerned that Southern California will ruin the Delta by taking its water south, and that a state bureaucracy has plans to take over control of the lands that comprise the Delta.
Supervisor Leroy Ornellas, of Tracy, said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting that someday Northern California will lose control of the water supply and quality in its backyard. He fears that a planning body with similar control to the Coastal Commission will surface and exert its authority over local governments on the Delta’s future. “I think L.A. is going to get the water (through the proposed Peripheral Canal), and the commission will get the planning,” Ornellas said, referring to a possible Delta version of the Coastal Commission.
“It will start out rather benign and grow into a monster,” he added.
He is also concerned about the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force’s call for a commission to oversee land use and planning issues in the Delta:
Ornellas said he was most alarmed about one of the task force’s 12 goals, which call for an independent body with authority over land-use planning and water export levels. “A big portion of the county would be taken out of our hands,” Ornellas said later Tuesday. “I envision a farmer in the Delta who is replacing a pump to having to go through a commission.”
It could then take a few months to get approval for that pump if it has to go through that commission, Ornellas said, and it could require environmental studies for something relatively simple if it goes through a regulatory commission other than the county.
Ornellas is not the only county commissioner concerned:
After Tuesday’s meeting, Supervisor Ken Vogel said that all supervisors concur with Ornellas about the Delta. “We all agree essentially, whether it be the Peripheral Canal or taking the authority away from the counties,” Vogel said.
Read the rest of this article from the Lodi Sentinel by clicking here.
Webcast links for today’s Delta Vision Meeting
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 6:58 am
The Delta Vision Task Force will meet today to continue working on their strategic plan for implementing the vision. They will continue their meeting tomorrow.
Here are the weblinks:
Meeting Agenda: click here.
Link for the webcast for today’s meeting: click here.
Webcast for tomorrow’s meeting: click here.
You can visit the Delta Vision Task Force website by clicking here.
Also today: DWR’s snow survey. I’ll post the results once they’re in!
Delta photo by flickr photographer crumj.
“It’s our water”: Delta Vision report ignites old North-South animosity for some
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 4, 2008 at 2:02 pmFrom the Vacaville Reporter, this commentary regarding the Delta Vision Task Force’s report:
… Southern California’s population continues to grow, and so do its needs.
Needless to say when the Tracy pumps were shut down, the governor decided the Delta Vision team need to look into the matter.
The task force’s report said California needs to collect more water during wet years and hold onto it down in Southern California. It also talks about building a better “linkage” between the source (the Delta) and the storage (some place down south). It sure sounds like a concept that almost split this state in half a few years back: The Peripheral Canal.
The task force did everything to avoid calling it that.
Solano County residents always get a little skittish when someone mentions “Peripheral Canal.” In the late ’70s, when Northern California was in the middle of a major drought, Solano County residents were told to ration their water, while Southern California residents didn’t have to. In fact, Southern California called on its political influence to keep the Tracy pumps shipping fresh water south because it said farmers and residents in the south needed their water, too. As a result, ocean water began seeping deeper into the Delta, and area farmers found salt water leaching into their water supplies.
The relationship between the north and south soured when Northern California residents, using water restrictors in their showers, putting bricks in their toilet tanks to reduce water and watching their landscaped yards die because for lack of water, would turn on their televisions and see a Malibu resident hosing down his driveway with the very water denied to Northern California residents.
The battle became so heated, there was even talk about splitting the state in half.
The writer of this commentary, a long-time resident of Solano County, sees many issues and concerns of local residents that the Delta Vision fails to address. To read the the rest of this commentary from the Vacaville Reporter, click here.
Delta Vision Task Force meets tomorrow and Friday (Jan 31st - Feb 1st)
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 5:34 pmThe Delta Vision Task Force will be meeting tomorrow and Friday in Sacramento. The meeting will be webcast. Agendas, meeting materials and links for the webcast can be found by clicking here.
Stakeholders weigh in on Delta Vision report with mixed reaction
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 25, 2008 at 5:58 pmFrom the California Farm Bureau Federation, written by Ching Lee:
Debate on how to fix the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and California’s water supply problems will intensify this year as stakeholders from around the state weigh in on the best approach to protect the delta ecosystem while ensuring reliable water deliveries to the 25 million Californians and 7 million acres of irrigated farmland that depand on delta water.
To help guide the debate is a 70-page report released last month by the governor-appointed, seven-member panel known as the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. This committee developed 12 recommendations and several near-term actions that are intended to serve as a framework for a more detailed plan due in October.
While the report’s sweeping proposals attempt to address the needs and concerns of a variety of interests, stakeholders in different parts of the state remain divided over key issues that pit those who receive water directly from the Sacramento River and delta and those that depend on state and federal pumping facilities in the south delta and the state’s extensive, man-made water distribution system to the south.
The panel agreed that repairing the estuary’s health and maintaining a reliable water supply are equally important. To achieve these goals, it recommends that more water conservation is needed, as well as possible reductions in the amount of water taken out of the delta, or at least changes to when that water is exported. Read more
Delta Vision report the focus of the Southern California Water Dialog meeting
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 25, 2008 at 10:32 amOn Wednesday, I attended the Southern California Water Dialogue, which is a monthly meeting hosted by Metropolitan Water District and open to anyone with an interest in water issues. The meetings feature a guest speaker who gives a presentation on a relevant water issue. This month’s speaker was Leo Winternitz, Deputy Director of CalFed, and staff member of Delta Vision Task Force.
Leo’s presentation was on the Delta Vision report. I found out more than a few interesting things I’ve not seen elsewhere. Read on for a recap of what was discussed, plus some rare Aqua Blog Maven commentary.
Task force’s Delta Vision report not so visionary, says Delta farmer/engineer
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 16, 2008 at 7:16 amFrom the Tracy Press, this commentary written by a Delta farmer & engineer:
The November report to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by the Delta Vision Task Force contains a wealth of information and an extensive analysis of Delta protection needs and water supply issues. It correctly states that the present method of exporting Sacramento water through Delta channels is not acceptable either for protection of the Delta or for reliability of water supply for much of California. Unfortunately, however, some of the report’s basic conclusions and tentative recommendations are based on assumptions that are not physically feasible.
Prior to the vision process, the task force members and Schwarzenegger apparently decided that a peripheral canal of some sort was necessary for water supply and that the Delta could be protected better than it is while operating an isolated conveyance canal. These assumptions are wrong, but the task force did not discover this, because it ignored the reasons why a canal is not necessary for water supply and the reasons why the Delta would be trashed if Sacramento River water were exported through a canal.
The plan also fails to explain that the basic problem is that the state’s population has already outgrown the developed water supply. It ignores a plan that was submitted and could meet objectives without a canal.
The report seems to build on the preconception that exporting water through an isolated conveyance facility (aka a peripheral canal) is necessary for water supply reliability and that it can also be compatible with protection of the Delta. This apparent pro-peripheral canal bias led to a failure to address either the impacts of a canal or alternatives that would meet the vision’s goals.
It is acknowledged that “there is not sufficient information” to ensure that a canal is a viable solution. Then the report refers to “an assessment of a dual conveyance system as the preferred direction.” The report does not call for analysis of the effect that any isolated conveyance would have on salinity in Delta channels, including in the south and central Delta during months and years when the river flow is low. A technical analysis will soon be available that demonstrates the inevitable rise in salinity. This rise would be a disaster.
To read the rest of this commentary from the Tracy Press, click here.
“After nearly twenty years of broken promises that our fisheries would be restored, we need to muster our political strength and insist that our government fulfill its legal and moral obligations”, says CSPA of the Delta Vision report
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 8, 2008 at 7:37 amFrom IndyBay.org, this article written by California Sportfishing Protection Alliance member John Buettler, who served on a committee that advised the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force while they were writing the Delta Vision report. Writes John:
While a number of our recommendations were included in the final vision, at this point we have absolutely no assurance that the vision proposed by the BRTF will be what is submitted to the Legislature or if it will include realistic measures to recover and restore the aquatic ecosystem of the Delta and its fisheries. The BRTF vision document was intentionally short on how the goals of the vision would be realized. This has generated significant uncertainty that is compounded by other elements of the vision including the proposed re-plumbing of the State Water Project’s Delta export facilities.
The alternatives will have huge impacts on the Delta. The “Peripheral Canal” and a “Dual Facility” (a Peripheral Canal connected to Delta water export system modified to keep fish out of it) are to be analyzed (as are reductions in Delta exports). Once new infrastructure of this magnitude is built, the associated costs will preclude significant changes down the road to help the fish and the ecology of the Bay-Delta. While implementation of any alternative is supposed to be based on scientific adaptive management, to date what we’ve seen in the estuary is mostly adaptive miss-management guided by political objectives.
The future of the Delta and its fisheries depending on how well the strategic planning analysis is accomplished. Will the conservation measures we and the environmental groups requested be provided the political support, financial resources and governmental implementation necessary to save and restore the Delta ecosystem? After nearly twenty years of broken promises that our fisheries would be restored, we need to muster our political strength and insist that our government fulfill its legal and moral obligations.
Due to this, CSPA, in concert with the Allied Fishing Groups, believes it is now absolutely essential to support the Water For Fish petition as this is the only organizing tool we have with which to make our nonpartisan political stand. Should we fail to effectively make such a stand, then we firmly believe it will mark the beginning of the end of fishing for the salmon, striped bass, steelhead, American shad, sturgeon and largemouth bass that depend upon the Delta and its Central Valley tributaries.
To read the rest of this article from IndyBay.org, which includes information about the Water For Fish petition, click here.
All of the taskforce’s recommendations must be given a fair hearing, editorial says
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 6, 2008 at 7:44 amFrom the Modesto Bee, this editorial regarding the Delta Vision taskforce’s plan:
The battles over the delta are heating up, and it has nothing to do with climate change. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the heart of California’s water world. Through it, flows water to 23 million residents and thousands of acres of ag land in the Southern San Joaquin Valley.
Unfortunately, our watery heart is quite sick. The delta smelt are said to be near extinction. The salmon that once migrated through the delta into the Tuolumne, Merced and Stanislaus rivers are disappearing. Urban encroachment as near as Manteca and Lathrop is adding to the historic loss of wetlands. Exotic species are driving out native ones. Polluted urban runoff is poisoning fragile ecosystems. Many scientists agree, the delta is on the verge of collapse.
There are conflicting explanations for every crisis, but there are few solutions. While everyone wants to fix the delta, no one wants to admit they are part of the problem. Judges have stepped in, ordering reductions in pumping from the delta this year.
Last year, Gov. Schwarzenegger appointed a Blue Ribbon Task Force to investigate what bedevils the delta and to suggest how to remedy its ills. Headed by former legislator Phil Isenberg, the panel included former Livingston resident Sunne Wright McPeak. The task force released its report in early December, outlining 12 recommendations or goals. The most important was making the restoration of the delta’s ecology “co-equal” in importance to providing reliable water supplies. That would reverse decades of treating the delta like a plumbing fixture or a real estate venture.
The task force notes that revitalizing the delta “will require reduced diversions, or changes in patterns and timing of those diversions … at critical times.” The task force also said that two things were essential tools for fixing the delta: more water storage and a more reliable “conveyance facility” for moving water out of the delta.
Now you can see why the water is getting warmer. Farmers can’t tolerate talk of reduced pumping while environmentalists deplore the idea of new dams. And those who live around the delta abhor even the hint of a canal.
The problem is that these solutions must work together, or they won’t work at all.
To read the rest of this editorial from the Modesto Bee, click here.
Delta photo by flickr photographer dsearls. Click on the picture to see it enlarged and to visit the flickr website where you can see more great photos from dsearls & other flickr photographers.
Delta Vision report: a new healthy future envisioned for the Delta, but will the Governor lead the course of action?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 30, 2007 at 11:05 amFrom the Sacramento Bee, this editorial:
The multiple perils that threaten the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta look much like those that endanger the Everglades, the Chesapeake Bay and other estuaries around the world. Fisheries are declining. Urban encroachment is adding to the historic loss of wetlands. Exotic species are forcing out native ones. Polluted runoff is contributing to the meltdown of fragile ecosystems.
Yet California’s Delta faces some stresses that set it apart from other estuaries. Unlike its counterparts in Maryland or Florida, the Delta is a direct source of drinking water for 25 million people. Farms in the San Joaquin Valley also are highly dependent on this water. Those demands add to the challenge – and the urgency – of restoring the Delta, which many scientists say is on the verge of collapse.
Is California ready to grant the Delta the recognition and protection it deserves? It might be, especially if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders heed the final report of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force.
To read the rest of this editorial from the Sacramento Bee, click here.
Picture of the Delta by flickr photographer Brother Grimm. Click on the picture to see it enlarged, and as an added bonus, if you go to the flickr website, there are comments inserted on it that point out various parts of the Delta shown in the photograph. You can also see other great photos from Brother Grimm & other flickr photographers.