Restore The San Francisco Bay Area Delta

Dear Friends,

Here is a more detailed update as to why we are asking you all to join us in advocating for a completed Bay-Delta Plan with the State Water Resources Control Board on 3/27 from 1 to 7 pm.  (More details about the mechanics of the event at the end of this email.)

If you have been following our work with petition filing with the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and US EPA, you will note that we have been asking for the following:

1.Updated, protective Bay-Delta water quality standards because the Board has not updated standards for over two decades. The entire process has been delayed by the voluntary agreements, which will further short-change the Delta of protective water quality flows and will serve as the basis for operating the Delta tunnel.

2. For the SWRCB to finish drafting and implementing the entire Bay-Delta Plan, before moving ahead with any processes for permitting the Delta tunnel.

3. For the SWRCB to stop prioritizing the Newsom Administration’s voluntary agreements, a closed-door, back-room deal between the Governor’s Office, the Secretary of Natural Resources, and powerful water interests that excludes impacted disadvantaged communities, and tribes (as noted in our petitions), as well as all Delta communities, local water districts, local government entities, and the commercial fishing community facing another closed salmon season. Why should decisions regarding management of the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas leave out the most impacted parties and be made in a private process in the Natural Resources Building without public input every step of the way, which is part of a robust Bay-Delta process?

4. For the SWRCB to set protective flow standards to save our collapsing fisheries (remember commercial salmon fishing is closed down again impacting the lives of thousands due to years of mismanagement during the drought) and that a HABs standard that addresses all beneficial uses of Delta waters (not just drinking water) must be set now – not eight years from now. Toxic algae is dangerous to ingest, toxic in fish consumed, a source of air pollution, and an airborne health threat to all who live adjacent to HABs infested waters.

If you read our work carefully, we have heavily critiqued the faux-science report behind the voluntary agreements. Today, our petition coalition (Stanford Law Clinic, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, and Save California Salmon) sent the following letter indicating what we expect from a robust Bay-Delta process and that we expect decision makers from the Natural Resources Agency and the Governor’s Office to be present when we receive updates from the Board regarding voluntary agreements, as they are the true decision makers on how the SWRCB conducts its work that will directly impact the quality of our lives, environmentally and economically. Meetings and consultation without having the decision makers present are a waste of the public’s time.

This is not to say that we consent to or agree with the voluntary agreements, or that we want to negotiate a settlement. We have maintained with the Board for 8 years now that a robust Bay-Delta Plan with targets and measurable standards is the minimum of what is required to restore the health of the Bay-Delta estuary. However, if those who are deciding our fate are not present to hear our reactions to vague updates about the Bay-Delta Plan that continuously elongate the process or the on-the-ground impacts that we are documenting and living with (dying fisheries, degraded water quality, proliferation of HABs), then our work and observations are not being considered with the expertise and gravitas that they deserve. We conduct ourselves with respect, and we expect respect in return from decision makers.

We understand that water districts pushing the inadequate voluntary agreements will be showing up to the Delta’s listening session on Monday to push their agenda. We need your help to stop the nonsense of how gravel alone will save fish instead of flows, while they propose reduced flows into and out of the Delta, leaving us with stagnant waters and toxic algae.

The event on 3/27 can be attended through Zoom – so you can leave it on, listen, and go about your lives in your offices or homes, and be prepared to comment when it is our turn. We understand that the presentation will be repeated at 5 pm for those who can only attend in the evening, so they can watch and have a chance to comment. We, however, believe when possible that we should try to participate earlier so that our message is made clear from the start of the event.

Here are the specifics for registering with the Water Board event:

When: Monday 3/27/23 from 1-7:00 PM
Where: Zoom, register here

If you have questions, please let our team know. 

Yours in service,

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla

 
Region 9 of US EPA comments on the Delta Tunnel (DEIS) – 3/16/23
From the comments:
“… the Delta is already experiencing degraded conditions due to insufficient inflow, increased surface water temperatures, invasive animal and plant species, harmful algal blooms, and sea level rise. As described in the Draft EIS and Draft EIR, the proposed project will not ameliorate any of these stressors and is likely to exacerbate many of them.” 
“The operation of the Proposed Project has potential to increase the extent of ecological impacts already impacting the Delta and Sacramento River, including salinity, temperature, nutrients, and chemical contaminants.”
“Given that the status of many Delta fish species is threatened, endangered, or other description of imperilment, further diversion of Sacramento River water under the Project could very well lead to greater impairment or extinction.”
 
Lessons from Pajaro: How to Better Support Vulnerable Communities as Climate Change Intensifies – KQED Forum 3/20/23
During last week’s atmospheric river storm, a levee broke on the Pajaro River, turning the town of Pajaro – inhabited mostly by Latino farmworkers – into a lake. As the LA Times reported, officials knew for decades that the levee was unstable, but delayed fixing it because of “benefit-cost ratios.” We’ll talk with community representatives and water management experts about what Pajaro residents are facing now, and how decisions are made that determine which communities are protected. As climate change brings more extreme weather events and flooding, we discuss what changes need to be made to protect vulnerable communities through the coming decades.
Guests: Luis Alejo, Monterey County Supervisor, Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director, Restore the Delta, Mark Strudley, executive director, Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency

FLOODING
Restore the Delta is paying it forward with a donation to the flooded residents of Allensworth. They need our help now, our region may need help from flooding soon. Please join us and donate here.

‘We need to stop the water’: A California town’s frantic fight to save itself – LA Times 3/18/23
Mitchell said he believes the levee breach was caused by someone intentionally cutting through the earthen barrier with machinery.
“They did it with a backhoe with a big skip-loader. We tracked it down,” Mitchell said. “We know who’s done it.”
Mitchell said he hopes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or other authorities will come in to “take charge” and help the area “start getting rid of this floodwater.”
“We need some help from higher up because out of another creek, the water is just getting there, and it’s going to hit us hard,” he said.
Some landowners have been trying to keep floodwaters off their acreage, Mitchell said, including one that used a large piece of equipment to block a channel.
“They just don’t want to give up any ground, but they’d rather flood everywhere except where it’s supposed to go,” Mitchell said.
 
Threats of arrest force hard decisions on Poso Creek, which could swamp two towns– SJV Water 3/20/23
But the caller early Monday wasn’t asking for a dozer. Instead, the person issued a warning: “We have papers drawn up and if you move the land plane or cut into the Homeland, you’ll immediately be arrested and thrown in jail,” Mitchell recalled.
The “land plane” is a piece of heavy equipment that was dragged onto the banks of the Homeland Canal, owned by the J.G. Boswell company, at the southern edge of Tulare Lake to prevent a cut into the canal to drain flood water from Poso Creek.
 
State Water Board Listening Session on Bay-Delta planning and VAs
Monday, March 27, 2023, from 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM
The State Water Resources Control Board staff will hold a public listening session intended to receive input from environmental interests, representatives of economically disadvantaged communities, and black, indigenous, and people of color organizations on the Board’s current efforts to update and implement the Bay-Delta Plan, including consideration of possible Voluntary Agreements to those update and implementation efforts. 
The listening session will open with remarks from Chair Esquivel and a presentation by staff from the State Water Board on its Bay-Delta planning and implementation, with additional information on proposed Voluntary Agreements from staff with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California Department of Water Resources. Participants will then have the opportunity to provide input and ask questions. 
 If you wish to speak during the listening session, please register for and join the listening session via the Zoom online platform. You may register for the Zoom meeting here. 
 If you wish to view the listening session only, a webcast will be available at here. 
The listening session will be recorded and posted to the Bay-Delta Program webpage.
Questions regarding the listening session please email to State Water Board staff.

by Artie Valencia, Community Organizer & Government Liaison, Restore the Delta

To understand flood risks from the recent Atmospheric River storms, Restore the Delta is analyzing River Stages in Feet and SWE (snow water equivalent) levels recorded from the latest storms. The ongoing monitoring of River stages in the San Joaquin River at Brandt Bridge is being done by the California Department of Water Resources, while surface water elevations are tracked by UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain.

ABOUT THE DATA

On March 4th, 2023, the river stage in the San Joaquin River at Brandt Bridge was 6.75 and increased up to 10.63 feet between the weekend and March 14th. The River Stage that induced localized and river flooding in Stockton was 15.7 feet during the last storm in January. As of now, we still have rain projected to fall through the week coupled with melting snowpack below about 4,000 ft. The recent “warm” atmospheric river storm increased net watershed SWE substantially due in part to snow occurring still at high elevations, while snowpack at lower elevations absorbed rainwater. There SWE in the Southern/Central Sierra watersheds is record-breaking right now. This snow will melt in late March and into April/May. California has never experienced a snowpack melt this large in our warmer climate. It will be new territory for everyone involved.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Our current threat is directly tied to the effects of heavy rainfall, saturated soils and high river levels from very wet antecedent conditions. There could still be additional snowmelt contributing to severe flooding for larger mainstem rivers in the weeks to come. 

With that said, the San Joaquin River at Brandt Bridge is currently 5 feet away from reaching levels that lead to localized flooding in Stockton and had ports (Mormon Slough in particular) a few feet from overtopping. But as UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain explains, we cannot predict how severe flooding on Sacramento, San Joaquin systems, tributaries and eastern Sierra watersheds will be weeks in advance. However, due to the enormous amount of SWE in the snowpack that will melt, flood risk will increase severely by April. 

STOCKTON – The Next Katrina?

For Stockton, this flood risk raises concerns for environmental justice communities redlined into housing on floodplain zones. Currently, environmental justice communities like the residents of Conway homes live across the street from the levee at the previously known Van Buskirk Park. At Mormon Slough, the unhoused reside along the edges of the slough. Back in January, the unhoused community was only a couple of feet from being inundated and there was no action to relocate them on the housing authority, office of emergency services, or Sherriff’s end. 

Due to decades of disinvestment, the city’s only defense against flood are decades-old, leak-prone levees. Federal studies found that the levees could burst as mountain runoff flows into the San Joaquin River. Flooding of this magnitude would inundate the city with 10 to 24 feet of water. According to the Delta Stewardship Council’s Climate Vulnerability Assessment, 17 thousand homes will be affected by flooding and $28 billion dollars (closer to $48 billion now due to inflation) in damages for critical buildings will ensue for the city of Stockton. This flood risk only increases with climate change and sea level rise due to increased rainfall and runoff in the San Joaquin watershed compared to the Sacramento watershed. 

Historically, Stockton has always been disastrously underfunded and leaders along the San Joaquin River have prioritized securing water for irrigation over flood risk management. Besides funding floodplain projects and upgrading our levees to at least 200-year conditions, we also need upgrades to municipal systems to deal with runoff into the street. Data from Daniel Swain reveals that “the coming superstorm is a rapid procession of atmospheric rivers and will be the ultimate test of the current dams, levees and bypasses in place.” It is known that levee failures can also damage key features of the Delta ecosystem existing on the heavily altered landscape, including managed wetlands. Additionally, levee failure could degrade Delta water quality if waters from the ocean rush into a heavily subsided Delta Island, pulling higher-salinity water.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Stockton faces flood risk from all sides: both the San Joaquin and Calaveras rivers flood during rain events and high tides from the Pacific can exacerbate flooding. Delta levee improvements and wetland restoration can counteract sea level rise.

Floodplain restoration from Merced to Van Buskirk is essential to take pressure off levees. Restoration offers a multi-benefits solution by recharging groundwater, providing recreation and natural areas, and protecting the neighborhoods where we live. 

State water agency rescinds controversial Delta order that put fish at risk – Alastar Bland, CalMaters – 3/10/23
As storms swell California’s reservoirs, state water officials have rescinded a controversial order that allowed more water storage in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while putting salmon and other endangered fish at risk. Ten environmental groups had petitioned the board to rescind its order, calling it “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law, and…not supported by substantial evidence.” 
…Jon Rosenfield, science director with San Francisco Baykeeper, said the water board is “acknowledging what we knew all along — that there is no drought emergency & eliminating minimum flow requirements that protect water quality, fish, and wildlife is not in the public interest.” But Rosenfield added that rescinding the waiver is a hollow gesture because salmon, Delta smelt and other fish already suffered for more than two weeks.

Derechos de Agua e Intereses Especiales. Además, Ahorro y Gestión del Agua (download show) – Línea Abierta, Radio Bilingüe 3/6/23
Restore the Delta’s Cintia Cortez spoke on national Spanish language radio this week.
Los productores agrícolas de California todavía son 90 por ciento blancos y esta realidad en el sistema de derechos de agua de California afecta los flujos de agua de la Bahía de San Francisco-Delta. Según observadores, estos intereses especiales están determinando el proyecto del túnel del Delta, y dejando a las tribus y comunidades de color fuera del plan.Invitados: Abraham Mendoza, Asesor Principal, Community Water Center, Sacramento, CA; Cintia Cortez, geóloga, analista asistente de políticas, Restore the Delta, Stockton, CA.

Comments filed on Draft Climate Resiliency and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2024 – 3/10/23
On Friday, Restore the Delta and partners submitted comments to State Senator Susan Eggman on the Draft Climate Resiliency and Flood Protection Bond Act of 2024 
As it stands, the Flood Protection Bond Act of 2024 draft is deficient in these two aspects: 
1. The Department of Water Resources must meaningfully include Delta communities in the Flood Bond Protection Act of 2024 by holding a public meeting in the Delta to evaluate the solicitation and evaluation guidelines. 
2. The Department of Water Resources must make a deliberate effort to fund environmental justice groups to work on restoration projects locally. 
We ask Senator Eggman to urge the Department of Water Resources to address the issues outlined above to ensure that the Flood Protection Bond Act of 2024 reflects the best interests of Delta environmental justice communities and comply with the Board’s obligation to include them in the guideline process. 


 

 
‘A foundation of racism’: California’s antiquated water rights system faces new scrutiny – LA Times 3/6/23
It’s an arcane system of water law that dates back to the birth of California — an era when 49ers used sluice boxes and water cannons to scour gold from Sierra Nevada foothills and when the state government promoted the extermination of Native people to make way for white settlers. 
Today, this antiquated system of water rights still governs the use of the state’s supplies, but it is now drawing scrutiny like never before…
“We’re confronting 21st century climate change, drought and water supply problems with a 20th century system of California water infrastructure and a 19th century system of water rights, and that’s a problem,” said Frank, director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center.
 
TUCP Petition for Reconsideration filed Monday – 3/6/23
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club California, San Francisco Baykeeper, Golden State Salmon Association, Save California Salmon, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Defenders of Wildlife, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the Bay Institute, and Restore the Delta have filed a petition the State Water Board to reconsider the Temporary Urgency Change Petition filed by the U.S. BuRec and CA DWR to waive requirements that the Central Valley Project and State Water Project Delta meet certain Delta water quality objectives.
The  2023 TUCP should be rescinded because: “…the Order will reduce the survival of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon, Longfin Smelt, Delta Smelt, and reduce the viability of other aquatic organisms and productivity of the estuarine food web, causing irreparable environmental harm and loss of fish and wildlife beneficial uses…”
 
Restore the Delta files Comments on Delta Conveyance Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) – 3/6/23
A stated purpose of the Tunnel Project is to invest billions of dollars to maintain a status quo ante of water deliveries from the State Water Project and Central Valley Project. It does little to address climate adaptation in the Delta and fails to preserve through-Delta conveyance which both systems will continue needing if they are to operate as they do at present…
…we are deeply disappointed that the Army Corps dismissed and minimized the environmental, environmental justice, and quality of life impacts the DCP would impose on the communities in the Legal Delta and of the Delta Region as a whole….Even prior to experiencing operational impacts, Delta environmental justice communities would face over a decade of construction impacts to their health and quality of life. 
 
California Tribes Submit Comments on Proposed Water Quality Standards Regulatory Revisions to Protect Tribal Reserved Rights – 3/6/23
We write in strong support of EPA’s recognition that tribal reserved rights may be impaired by water quality standards that fail to, for instance, ensure sufficient instream flows to protect native fisheries and other riparian resources. And we write in strong support of EPA’s efforts through the Proposed Rule to clarify its position that water quality standards must account for and protect tribal reserved rights, and to create a consistent process for effecting such protections. At the same time, as California tribes, and advocates for California tribes, that were cheated by the state and federal governments out of treaty reservations, we have significant concerns about the shortcomings of the Proposed Rule for many California tribes. We therefore also write to urge EPA to take a more expansive approach to protecting and promoting tribes’ beneficial uses and stewardship of water and riparian resources. 

A California tunnel could save stormwater for millions. Why is it so divisive? – Washington Post 3/1/23 
Barrigan-Parrilla said opponents are eyeing potential regulatory and legal challenges to the project as the Army Corps and the State Water Resources Control Board review it, and in December joined with Indigenous groups in filing a civil rights complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The complaint asks the EPA to update water-quality standards for the delta and require increased river flows into the estuary, keeping water and salinity levels at safe and healthy levels for aquatic life and farming communities. It argues that reducing water levels in the delta violates the civil rights of groups including the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, harming their ability to carry on cultural traditions that center on the estuary and its wildlife.
Barrigan-Parrilla said the tunnel would only exacerbate problems related to high salinity and low water levels in the delta, reducing the Sacramento River’s flow into the estuary.

Editorial: Gov. Newsom takes page out of Trump’s water playbook – San Jose Mercury 3/1/23
On Feb. 15, the governor signed an executive order allowing the State Water Resources Control Board to ignore the state requirement of how much water needs to flow through the Delta to protect its health.
It’s an outrageous move right out of Donald Trump’s playbook. Big Ag and its wealthy landowners, including some of Newsom’s political financial backers, will reap the benefits while the Delta suffers.
The move is especially outrageous given the January storms that filled California’s reservoirs and created a massive Sierra snowpack. If the governor won’t adhere to the state regulations in what is clearly a wet year, when will he?

Newsom cares more about almond growers than California’s salmon fishery – George Skelton, Los Angeles Times 2/27/23
Gov. Gavin Newsom bills himself as a protector of wildlife, so you wouldn’t think he’d take water from baby salmon and give it to almonds.
Or to pistachios, or cotton or alfalfa.
Especially when California was just drenched with the wettest three-week series of storms on record and was headed into another powerful soaking of snow and rain.
But Newsom and his water officials still contend we’re suffering a drought — apparently it’s a never-ending drought. So, they used that as a reason last week to drastically cut river flows needed by migrating little salmon in case the water is needed to irrigate San Joaquin Valley crops in summer….
What Newsom and government officials are really talking about is a long-term water shortage. It’s caused by California having more agriculture and people than can be sustained with what nature provides us. And it’s made more problematic by the uncertain prospects of climate change.
 
Analysis reveals that CA water rights are 90% white, current water management protects status quo– Daily Kos 2/27/23
Restore the Delta (RTD) today released the results of a California water rights analysis by race, completed by employees with the Department of Water Resources, but deleted from the agency’s website soon after posting.
“This analysis of public records shows that the majority of water rights in California are held still by white landowners and white officials who manage special-interest water districts,” according to a press statement from Restore the Delta.
The analysis was released to inform the “Adapting Water Rights to our 21st Century Climate” hearing at the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife on Tuesday 2/28/23.
 
Testimony: Adapting California’s Water Rights System to the 21st Century Climate – Public Policy Institute of California 2/28/23
The current contracts with senior water users under both the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project promise water deliveries that can no longer be supported in many drier years. These contracts were written when the hydrology of the basin was quite different, and the volume of Delta outflow needed for salinity control was woefully underestimated…. 
…Given the events of the past decade—along with projections of future climate change—it is appropriate for the legislature to update the Water Code to reflect these new conditions. In this testimony we offer suggestions for Water Code amendments, along with recommendations to revisit senior water right contracts. Although these policy reforms are modest, they are an important next step in matching water rights administration to current and future needs.

Current water management protects status quo

For Release: Monday, Feb. 27 2023 8:30 am
For more information: Brian Smith brian@bpspr.com

Stockton, CA – To inform the “Adapting Water Rights to our 21st Century Climate” hearing at the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife on Tuesday 2/28/23, Restore the Delta today is releasing the results of a California water rights analysis by race, completed by employees with the Department of Water Resources, but deleted from the agency’s website soon after posting. 

This analysis of public records shows that the majority of water rights in California are held still by white landowners and white officials who manage special-interest water districts. (Detailed data is available to reporters.)

ABOUT THE DATA

For the third annual California Water Data Challenge contest, two DWR employees chose to study control of water by race and ethnicity during the summer of 2022.

They concluded from their study that of 1500 local and state officials that 86 percent were white, and 79 percent were male. This data came from local district agency websites and the California State Workforce Analysis. 

Their profile of representation among some 14,000 individual water right holders showed that 91 percent were white, with Asians, Blacks and Hispanic categories accounted for the rest. This database was obtained from the State Water Board’s eWRIMS database of all water right holders, not just the Central Valley Watershed.

“The results of this study echo findings I’ve made from the 2017 Census of Agriculture where it is reported that 90 percent of California farm operators report as white and that they control 95 percent of all California land in farms in 2017,” said Tim Stroshane, policy analyst for Restore the Delta. 

WHY THIS MATTERS
Despite accepted science that the SF Bay-Delta needs increased water flows to protect endangered species and public health in Delta communities, the special interests who hold water rights continue to get waivers for unreasonable diversions from public trust resources in the Delta.

Many of these interests are also driving the Delta tunnel project and have kept tribes and communities of color out of California’s water planning process.

Governor Newsom’s “voluntary agreements” are the continuation of the racism built into the California water rights system, which stripped tribes of their water access and prevented communities of color from acquiring water rights.

BACKGROUND
The history of racism in California Water rights was outlined by a coalition of California Tribes and Delta environmental justice groups in 2022. The May 24 petition included an extensive description of California’s racist history that formally granted water rights only to white men. Indigenous Peoples and communities of color in the Delta were not given the opportunity to acquire water rights under state law. And the water rights system continues to fail to recognize that Indigenous communities, who used and stewarded the waterways since time immemorial, have prior rights to the water. Today, so-called “senior” water rights holders still have a tight grip on river flows as they wield enormous political power.

Rebuffed by the State Water Board, in December 2022, the same coalition filed a Title VI complaint and petition for rulemaking with the federal EPA concerning the Bay-Delta Plan. Tribes accuse California water board of discrimination and urge EPA oversight of Bay-Delta – LA Times 12/7/22

Statements on these findings

Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians
The water rights data is not surprising. In fact, the findings are aligned with the history of this state which displaced tribes from our ancestral homelands through colonization and state sponsored genocide. Although the State of California’s current water rights system excluded us and continues to do so to this day, we know that tribes have inherent and sovereign water rights that we will continue to fight for. We have a responsibility to protect our water, our culture, and our traditions. We are still here.  And we refuse to be the afterthought of a state system that has denied us for too long.

Gary Mulcahy, Government Liaison, Winnemem Wintu Tribe
Crystal clear, or blood red: How do you see your tap water? Think about who holds those water rights and how and where they got them.  Maybe you will see your water differently.

Cintia Cortez, Assistant Policy Analyst, Restore the Delta
In our fieldwork, we have taken many community testimonies about residents exposed to Harmful Algal Blooms when recreating in Delta waters. HABs can make people sick and even kill pets. HABs also add to regional air pollution in counties already out of compliance with Clean Air Act standards.

Environmental Justice communities in the Delta are at the mercy of the decisions made by the Water Board and water rights holders, who we now know are mostly white males who are protecting their own personal interests. They are not seeing the impacts on our communities caused by lack of flows through the Delta. Why would they? It is not their communities that are being impacted by their actions. Nobody would knowingly expose their families to the environment in which Delta EJ communities live.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director, Restore the Delta
The majority white water rights holders in California are driving the Voluntary Agreements, and stopping the completion of the Bay-Delta Plan to create water quality standards that can save Delta species and communities racially excluded for most of California’s history from even owning water rights.

For Immediate Release: 2/22/23

For more information contact: Tim Stroshane, 510-847-7556, tim@restorethedelta.org


SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Today, Restore the Delta filed a formal opposition letter regarding the new Temporary Use Change Permit for SF Bay-Delta operation announced last  by the Newsom Administration.

The RTD letter details opposition to the plan for four main reasons.

• The TUCP would have unreasonable significant environmental impacts. 
• The proposed TUCP is contrary to law because Petitioners failed to perform due diligence prior to submitting their petition.
• The TUCP is not in the public interest.
• The TUCP is contrary to law. 

Public comment deadline issued, then ignored

The initial issue notice of the proposed TUCP (2/13/23) gave the public until 2/23/23 to protest and object, but reserved right to approve the TUCP prior to that deadline. The State Water Board then approved the TUCP on 2/21/23.  Restore the Delta filed opposition anyway on 2/22/23 to preserve standing to petition for reconsideration. 

The letter concludes:
For these reasons we urge the Water Board to reject this TUCP as representing unreasonable diversions from public trust resources in the Delta, diversions which are not in the public interest, do not reflect due diligence by Petitioners, and which would cause unreasonable (because irreversible) environmental impacts to estuarine species and food webs—especially when it is likely that snowmelt will come at a better time this year than it has the last two.

For Immediate Release: 2/9/23

Contact: Brian Smith, 415-320-9384 brian@bpspr.com


Stanford, CA – A coalition of California Tribes and Bay-Delta Environmental Justice groups submitted comments on 2/8/23 regarding the Draft Scientific Basis Report for proposed Voluntary Agreements (VAs) for the Sacramento River, Delta, and Tributaries Update to the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Water Quality Control Plan. 

The comments were filed with the State Water Board in Sacramento by Stanford Environmental Law Clinic, acting in the role of attorneys for Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, Restore the Delta, and Save California Salmon. This same coalition filed a civil rights complaint with the federal EPA against the State Water Board in December 2022.

The VA comments begin by establishing the coalition’s standing and rights in California water negotiations:
“For tribes in the Bay Delta and its headwaters, this means protecting culture, religion, and ways of life that depend on healthy populations of native fish species and the ability to interact with clean, free-flowing waterways. Meanwhile, for members of Delta communities, it means having a healthy place to live, including one that provides safe, accessible recreation. These interests would be compromised by the Voluntary Agreement proposal.”

Among the concerns outlined in the comments letter

• The Board failed to meaningfully consult tribes (who were already excluded from negotiation of the VAs) in the process of evaluating the VA proposal. 
• The Report fails to incorporate the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of communities that sustainably stewarded Bay-Delta waterways for millennia, and fails to consider the impacts of the VA proposal on tribes’ cultural resources, religion, and ways of life that are connected to the unique beneficial uses tribes make of Bay-Delta waterways. 
• The Supplemental Report understates the importance of instream flows to Delta fisheries, despite scientific consensus and the Board’s own conclusions that instream flows – and not physical habitat – are the limiting factor in their recovery. 
• The value of the Scientific Basis report is undercut due to the Board’s omission of considerations like temperature and climate change. 
• The Supplemental Report does not explore how the VA measures will help reduce Harmful Algal Blooms, which create inhospitable conditions for fish and wildlife, as well as for Delta environmental justice communities and tribes. 
   

Statements by Coalition Members

Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians
Our ancestral homelands span Sacramento, El Dorado, Amador, Sutter, Yolo, Placer, and Yuba counties. Since the beginning of time, we have taken care of the land, the rivers, the streams, the plants, animals, and our traditional resources. The Sacramento Bay Delta is the heart of my tribal community and holds vital resources that have sustained the many indigenous communities that are touched by its influence. Poor water quality now affects the plant and animal resources of the Delta region as well as the Tribe’s cultural practices, and ability to carry on our cultural traditions.

Gary Mulcahy, Government Liaison, Winnemem Wintu Tribe
(On the coalition’s EPA civil rights filing.)
It’s pretty bad when California Indians have to file a complaint with the Federal Government so that the State doesn’t violate our civil rights. 

Dillon Delvo, Executive Director, Little Manila
As long as the state upholds historic water rights, that we all know to be racist and unfair, we will continue to have first- and second-class California communities.

Artie Valencia, Community Organizer, Restore the Delta
Recreational users and fishermen who depend on the fish here are particularly affected by harmful algal blooms. A friend who got rashes from water skiing in the Delta this past summer will never go into the waterways again after learning about the Delta’s harmful algal blooms. I see Stockton residents, mostly immigrants and people of color, fishing in Stockton waterways often for sustenance. For fishermen, the fish that once thrived in the Delta become fewer and fewer in number every year.

Morning Star Gali, Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe in Northeastern California, Save California Salmon
The State Water Board, which is tasked with protecting our water, has neglected its responsibilities to Tribes, communities of color, and environmental justice communities for too long. Moving forward with protecting California’s clean water and designating Tribal Beneficial Uses would greatly help our salmon relatives who are vital to the culture, traditions, and health of my Tribe, along with the millions of Californians in cities that rely on the Delta watershed for their drinking water

VIDEO – Hell or High Water: How Stockton Can Prepare for the Risk of Flood Disaster? – River Partners/Restore the Delta 1/26/23
Panelists included local and state government entities, community leaders, flood experts and esteemed researchers. Topics included: Stockton’s Growing Flood Risk, Flood Risk from the Community Perspective, The View from the Capitol, and Planning and Building Solutions.

Storms dumped snow on California. Will it bring a reprieve from the drought? – Guardian 1/27/23
But as most Californians relish a sunny reprieve from stormy skies this week, officials and scientists are hoping for more snowstorms in the forecast before spring. Strong starts don’t always guarantee strong finishes, especially as spikes in early-onset warm weather become more common.
“It is definitely good news – but good news that needs to be met with cautious optimism,” said Dr Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist and manager of UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory….
“We are in a really good spot right now and that is very exciting, but as we learned last year, a lot can happen over the course of several months,” he added, noting the letdown of a dry winter in 2022 that followed the previous December’s dump of snow. “The season is definitely not over.”Fighting a Flood of Misinformation about CA Water – Doug Obegi, NRDC 1/26/23
For more than a decade, the science has been clear that we need to reduce diversions from the Bay-Delta in average and drier years, leading the Legislature in 2009 to adopt State policy to reduce reliance on the Delta by investing in water recycling and other sustainable local and regional water projects (which are cost-effective and also generate other benefits, like good paying jobs developing these drought resilient water supplies). 

Whiplash weather: What we can learn from California’s deadly storms – Earth Matters, Stanford 1/25/23
Rosemary Knight, a professor of geophysics at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, noted that we could be taking advantage of the vast natural infrastructure just below ground.
There are roughly 140 million acre-feet of available space in California’s groundwater aquifers – roughly equal to the capacity of 30 Lake Shastas. Surface water reservoir capacity is modest by comparison, with a combined available capacity of about nine Lake Shastas, Knight said. Agricultural fields and orchards with sandy channels could be strategically flooded during rainfall events to allow water to trickle through an intricate subsurface network, refilling the aquifers below.

 
California’s next flood could destroy one of its most diverse cities. Will lawmakers try to save it? – GRIST, 1/19/23
Climate change could submerge Stockton beneath 10 feet of water. The city’s aging levees aren’t prepared.

“Thanks to decades of disinvestment, the city’s only flood protection comes from decades-old, leak-prone levees. If a major rain event caused enough runoff to surge down the mountains and northward along the San Joaquin, it could burst through those levees, inundating the city and flooding tens of thousands of homes. One federal study found that much of Stockton would vanish beneath 10 to 12 feet of water, and floods in the lowest-lying areas could be twice as deep. The result would be a humanitarian disaster just as costly and as deadly as Hurricane Katrina…

Even as Stockton’s infrastructure decays, the city’s flood risk is only increasing thanks to climate change, which will cause more severe rains in the San Joaquin Valley and further stress the city’s levees. The city has grown at a rapid pace over the past two decades, but state and local officials have been more focused on protecting local agricultural irrigators from drought than on protecting the city’s residents from flooding. When the next big storm hits, it is Stockton’s communities of color, which make up more than 80 percent of the city’s population, that will see the worst of the damage.

“We are at the bottom of the bowl,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, the executive director of Restore the Delta, a Stockton-based environmental nonprofit. “We’re the drain. And they don’t value us.”…

As it has grown, Stockton has become one of the most diverse cities in the country, with substantial Mexican, Filipino, Chinese, Cambodian, and African American communities. Many of these have poverty rates that are much higher than the state average, and they also face severe environmental justice risks…

“Because of redlining and historical discrimination, we have a lot of people of color, and people are at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale, right behind these levees,” said Barrigan-Parrilla.
 
Read the full article here

Wednesday, Jan 18, 12-2 p.m.
EIS Army Corps hearing 
The public draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Delta Conveyance project is available for public review and comment from December 16, 2022 through March 16, 2023.
Draft EIS Public Meeting
Webinar Link Passcode: 026045
Provide your comments here DLL-DCP-EIS@usace.army.mil 
Comments due by March 16, 2023
Some talking points from Restore the Delta here.

Wednesday, Jan 18, 6-7 p.m.
Josh Harder Town Hall on Water 
Health Plan of San Joaquin Meeting
The congressman and panelists including Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta will also give a brief overview and then we will head to Q&A and a Call-to-Action.
RSVP online here

Thursday, Jan 19, 10 a.m.
State Water Board Voluntary Agreements Science Report Workshop
Date: January 19, 2023, 10:00 a.m.
Location: CalEPA Building
1001 I Street, Sacramento 
Watch VA Workshop Virtually  
Link to register for Public Comment

Thursday, Jan 26, 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Hell or High Water: How Stockton Can Prepare for the Risk of Flood Disaster
This symposium will be led by panelists from local and state government entities, community leaders, flood experts and esteemed researchers who will provide insight on flood management issues, their solutions and will inform the public on what to expect from the capitol regarding investments in flood protection. This event will cover various topics that will explore Stockton’s Growing Flood Risk, Flood Risk from the Community Perspective, The View from the Capitol, and Planning and Building Solutions.
Panelists include Congressman Josh Harder, Stockton City Council Womxn Kimberly Warmsley, UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency, Restore the Delta, River Partners, Little Manilla Rising and Public Health Advocates.
This will be a one-day virtual event and will take place on January 26th from 5:30
PM to 7:30 PM. We hope to see you there!
Register for Zoom Here

For Immediate Release: 1/10/23

Contact:
Artie Valencia, Restore the Delta, (209) 345-5880, artie@restorethedelta.org

Stockton, Calif. – After initially being left off the list of California counties eligible for FEMA disaster funding, San Joaquin County and other counties have now been added to the list. San Joaquin County will now be eligible for FEMA Category B measures, which include flood fighting; evacuation and sheltering; medical care and transportation; use and lease of temporary power generators; elimination of threats on public or private property; construction of temporary structures; emergency repairs to prevent further damage; or extracting and clearing water, mud, and other forms of debris.

San Joaquin County added to federal storm relief after being left off Monday – Stockton Record 1/10/23
 
Statement by Artie Valencia, Community Organizer & Government Liaison for Restore the Delta:
We appreciate the fast work of Rep. Josh Harder to get San Joaquin County included in the FEMA disaster county list. We need help now. San Joaquin County has trees down, power out, neighborhoods flooding, and schools closed by storm damage. Stockton is one of the most vulnerable flood points in America. Being initially excluded from FEMA funding is an illustration of how Stockton and other EJ communities are too often an afterthought. We need better communication, more access to flood fighting materials/flood preparedness, better outreach about evacuation sites, warming zones, and shelters.

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director, Restore the Delta:
The State of California knows where the vulnerable points in California’s flood control system are. The state knows that the Delta communities most impacted are largely an underfunded EJ community especially when compared to flood infrastructure spending in Sacramento County. The San Joaquin County should not have to make a special request to get federal FEMA flood relief.

This symposium will be led by panelists from local and state government entities, community leaders, flood experts and esteemed researchers who will provide insight on flood management issues, their solutions and will inform the public on what to expect from the capitol regarding investments in flood protection. This event will cover various topics that will explore Stockton’s Growing Flood Risk, Flood Risk from the Community Perspective, The View from the Capitol, and Planning and Building Solutions. 

With atmospheric storms on the rise, it is imperative that we talk through potential and projected risks, have transparency on flood infrastructure improvement challenges, and discuss the solutions on the local and state level. 

Speakers include Congressman Josh Harder, Stockton City Council Womxn Kimberly Warmsley, UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency, Restore the Delta, River Partners, Little Manilla Rising and Public Health Advocates.

The symposium will be a one day virtual event and will take place on January 26th from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. We hope to see you there!

Delta Flood Ready (Resources for all 5 counties)
Check your Contra Costa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano, or Yolo County Office of Emergency Services to learn what alert systems, evacuation plans, and other resources are available in the event of a flood emergency.

San Joaquin County Emergency Services

SJ Ready
https://sjready.org/disasters/flooding.html

Sign up here for San Joaquin emergency alerts 
https://member.everbridge.net/397890065268824/login

City of Stockton – Emergency Preparedness
http://www.stocktonca.gov/government/departments/fire/emeStorm.html

National Weather Service Stockton forecast
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=37.9537&lon=-121.2905

Evacuation maps
https://www.sjmap.org/evacmaps/

Sacramento County Emergency Services

Prepare your home
https://sacramentoready.saccounty.gov/Emergencies/Pages/Floods-and-Rain.aspx

Storm updates
https://www.saccounty.gov/news/latest-news/Pages/Stay-Safe-During-Storms.aspx

Evacuation maps
https://waterresources.saccounty.gov/stormready/Pages/Maps—Flood-Scenarios-and-Evacuation-Routes.aspx

Sandbag locations
https://waterresources.saccounty.gov/stormready/Pages/Sandbag-Information.aspx

NOAA
Current California watches, warnings, and advisories
https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/ca.php?x=1

Emergency Management Radio Stations
San Joaquin County – KVIN 920 AM
Sacramento – KFBK 1530 AM 
Bay Area – KQED 89.3 FM

National Weather Service
Flood Safety flyer
https://www.weather.gov/media/owlie/FloodSafety-OnePager-11-29-2018.pdf

“We are deeply saddened to share that California Sportfishing Protection Alliance has released a statement that activist and legendary water leader Bill Jennings, died on December 27, 2022. Bill was a co-founder of Restore the Delta, Board Member Emeritus of our organization, mentor and friend. Bill will be deeply missed.”
– Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director, Restore the Delta

Read the announcement and story of this amazing life, from The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

Contributions in Bill’s memory can be made to the Stockton-based organization he directed, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, whose mailing address is P.O. Box 1061, Groveland, CA 95321. Donations can also be made on the CSPA website (https://calsport.org/news/).

For Immediate Release: 12/16/2022

Contact: Brian Smith, 415-320-9384 brian@bpspr.com
 
WASHINGTON, D.C./SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, Restore the Delta, and Save California Salmon filed a Title VI (Civil Rights) Complaint and a Petition for Rulemaking with the US Environmental Protection Agency. The coalition is represented by the Stanford Environmental Law Clinic.
 
The complaint and petition seek relief for California Tribal nations and disadvantaged Delta communities. In May 2022, this same coalition of groups petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to update water quality standards for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (the “Bay-Delta”) to improve instream flows to save fish species and address harmful algal blooms (HABs) that plague their communities. The State Board refused to act on these requests.
 
The actions taken today urge the US EPA to: 

1. Initiate a Title VI (Civil Rights) investigation into the State Water Board’s discriminatory water management policies and practices in the Bay-Delta, and

2. Initiate a rulemaking to adopt federal Clean Water Act-compliant, water quality standards for the Bay-Delta, including designating tribal beneficial uses and adopting flow-based, temperature, and HABs criteria that protect beneficial uses and tribal reserved rights.

“The State Water Board is required by law to review water quality standards every three years. But the Board has not done so for the Bay-Delta in over a decade, and it has not made updates since the nineties,” explains Stanford Environmental Law Clinic student attorney Raul Quintana.
 
“The Board is failing to uphold both the Clean Water Act and federal civil rights law,” adds Stanford Environmental Law Clinic student attorney Mark Raftrey. “It is allowing the Bay-Delta to descend into an ecological crisis that harms Native tribes and disadvantaged communities the most. The EPA has the authority to correct these violations, and we call on it to do so here.”
 
Statements by the Parties:

Malissa Tayaba, Vice Chair, Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians
Our ancestral homelands span Sacramento, El Dorado, Amador, Sutter, Yolo, Placer, and Yuba counties. Since the beginning of time, we have taken care of the land, the rivers, the streams, the plants, animals, and our traditional resources. The Sacramento Bay-Delta is the heart of my tribal community and holds vital resources that have sustained the many indigenous communities that are touched by its influence. Poor water quality now affects the plant and animal resources of the Delta region as well as the Tribe’s cultural practices, and ability to carry on our cultural traditions.

Gary Mulcahy, Government Liaison, Winnemem Wintu Tribe
It’s pretty bad when California Indians have to file a complaint with the Federal Government so that the State doesn’t violate our civil rights.

Dillon Delvo, Executive Director, Little Manila
As long as the state upholds historic water rights, that we all know to be racist and unfair, we will continue to have first- and second-class California communities.

Artie Valencia, Community Organizer, Restore the Delta
Recreational users and fishermen who depend on the fish here are particularly affected by harmful algal blooms. A friend who got rashes from water skiing in the Delta this past summer will never go into the waterways again after learning about the Delta’s harmful algal blooms. I see Stockton residents, mostly immigrants and people of color, fishing in Stockton waterways often for sustenance. For fishermen, the fish that once thrived in the Delta become fewer and fewer in number every year.

Morning Star Gali, Ajumawi band of the Pit River Tribe in Northeastern California, Save California Salmon
The State Water Board, which is tasked with protecting our water, has neglected its responsibilities to Tribes, communities of color, and environmental justice communities for too long. Moving forward with protecting California’s clean water and designating Tribal Beneficial Uses would greatly help our salmon relatives who are vital to the culture, traditions, and health of my Tribe, along with the millions of Californians in cities that rely on the Delta watershed for their drinking water.
 
BACKGROUND
For well over a decade, the California State Water Resources Control Board has failed to uphold its statutory duty to review water quality standards in the Bay-Delta and ensure compliance with the federal Clean Water Act’s objectives. Inadequate standards have allowed Bay-Delta waterways to descend into ecological crisis, with the resulting environmental burdens falling most heavily on Native tribes and other communities of color.  
 
The waterways of the Bay-Delta are plagued by dangerously low flows, native fish die-offs, high water temperatures and encroaching salinity, and overgrowths of toxic algae or cyanobacteria known as harmful algal blooms (“HABs”). The State Water Board could restore the estuary by providing for water from the surrounding mountains to flow unimpeded into and through Bay-Delta waterways, but instead it allows more than half of that water to be diverted or exported elsewhere every year.
 
The ecological crisis in the Bay-Delta, like California’s water rights regime, is rooted in white supremacy. Ignoring millennia of tribal use and stewardship, the State accorded rights to non-Natives to divert water from its natural course under the doctrine of prior appropriation, based on the colonial mantra of “first in time, first in right.” At the same time, California law barred people of color from owning land, and accompanying water rights, well into the 20th century. The result was a system that favors the diversion and export of Bay-Delta waters for use in far flung locales over ecological health and human welfare in the Bay-Delta itself.
 
The impacts of these failures have fallen disproportionately on Native tribes and communities of color. For instance, the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians cannot perform cultural, religious, and subsistence practices in the Bay-Delta’s HABs-contaminated waters, nor can it access riparian resources essential to tribal identity. The collapse of the Delta’s native fisheries impairs Winnemem Wintu’s ability to exercise its religion and way of life, which depend on the once bountiful presence of Chinook salmon in the Delta’s headwaters. Communities of color in South Stockton, where Little Manila Rising is based, cannot use and enjoy the longest river in the state because of HABs and chronically low flows. The health risks of HABs-related air pollution add to the environmental burdens already borne by these communities.
 
The State Water Board’s violations of laws intended to restore the integrity of the waterways perpetuate this history of dispossession and environmental racism. The Clean Water Act requires the Board to review water quality standards every three years through a public process. It requires that water quality criteria protect beneficial uses of water bodies and tribal reserved rights. And it requires that standards to be grounded in sound scientific rationale.  The Board last initiated comprehensive review of Bay-Delta water quality standards in the late 2000s. It has delayed review while the State engages in private negotiations over export allowances with powerful water rights claimants (Voluntary Agreements) which excluded tribes and communities of color that would be impacted by resulting standards from the decision-making process. Outdated water quality standards – last updated in 1995 – fail to protect beneficial uses in Bay-Delta waterways or account for tribes’ reserved rights and interests.
 
A coalition of Stockton, California environmental, social, and economic justice groups have sent the EPA a letter urging it to act on the complaint and the petition.

For Immediate Release: December 14, 2022

Contact: 
Tim Stroshane, Restore the Delta, 510-847-7556, tim@restorethedelta.org

Stockton, CA – Today, Restore the Delta submitted detailed comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report on the Delta Conveyance Project (Delta Tunnel) to the California Department of Water Resources. 

Read the comment letter and attachments by Restore the Delta. 

The Delta Conveyance Project (Delta Tunnel)
The proposed project would construct new water intake facilities on the Sacramento River in the north Delta to fill a single tunnel with diverted freshwater flows. That water would be shipped to large farming operations and water wholesalers south of the Delta. The Delta Conveyance project would divert up to 6,000 cubic feet of water per second. The project is estimated to cost between $16-40 billion and won’t be completed until at least 2040.

Tim Stroshane, Policy Analyst, Restore the Delta:
“The California Department of Water Resources should be embarrassed by the lack of climate change planning in the DEIR for the proposed Delta Tunnel. The DEIR was out of date for climate change science when it was released in July 2022. If completed in 2040 it will be obsolete then. Meanwhile, California will have spent big money on a project the state will be unable to use as Delta water levels rise. Instead, we should invest in the resilience of Delta environmental justice communities and the rest of the state for flood and water supplies, reducing the big projects’ reliance on the Delta for future water needs, using water use efficiency and water recycling, and increasing local and regional water supply self-sufficiency to ward off drought and megafloods.”

Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director, Restore the Delta:
“DWR has learned nothing since California WaterFix. Their sales pitch, that the tunnel is a climate project, is built on incomplete data and faulty analysis. They have continued their pattern of erasing how the project will impact Delta urban environmental justice communities. And they are minimizing how construction will ruin small Delta farming towns, and the natural resources essential to the cultural and spiritual practices of historic Delta tribes. The tunnel is a failed idea that nobody supports, except for the Department of Water Resources.”

Highlights from the Comments

Environmental impact of Tunnel:
“Reviewing the Executive Summary, we count 17 significant and unavoidable impacts of the proposed Tunnel project on the environment. Among these impacts will be loss of prime agricultural farmland, loss of local non-tribal cultural resources, transportation and air quality impacts, and painful loss of tribal cultural resources. There are other impacts omitted, belittled, or greenwashed by the Tunnel DEIR.”

Flow and salinity impacts when Tunnel in operation:
“The Tunnel Project has region-scale impacts on the Delta, should it be built. The Tunnel DEIRacknowledges that a major operational impact will be, reducing Sacramento River flows (and hence flows to its distributaries in north and central Delta channels) and reducing the estuary’s ability to repel tidal salt waters which are ever-present (see Attachment 9 to this letter). Such operational impacts will have economic and ecological impact on the Delta region, and a Community Benefits Program must be developed to mitigate the economic and ecological effects of Tunnel operations on Delta communities, especially environmental justice communities.”

Failure to consider alternatives:

“DWR in particular is hide-bound in its loyalty to a Delta conveyance approach eclipsed by the emerging and growing effects of extreme heat and extreme storms.

“A huge failure of imagination by DWR is on display in this DEIR. Each of these alternatives is vulnerable to the slings and arrows of expected climate change effects, which we will go into further below when commenting on project modeling methods and results. But what we see displayed in the Tunnel DEIR is a complete failure of state water officials to imagine alternative approaches these last few years since the demise of California WaterFix in early 2019.”

Faulty consideration of Delta Environmental Justice impacts:
“We are deeply disappointed that DWR resorted to ignoring its ‘Your Delta, Your Voice’ Survey as a basis for informing how and what kind of environmental, environmental justice, and community impacts the Delta Tunnel Project would impose on the Delta EJ community both of the direct Legal Delta and of the Delta Region as a whole. It is plainly obvious that 1) the Legal Delta as well as the Delta Region are bona fideenvironmental justice communities, with relatively small proportions of white and wealthy populations; 2) Delta residents AND Delta region community members rely substantially on the Delta directly, and the north Delta in particular, for subsistence fishing, and it is thus an environmental impact to have both fishing spots taken away from anglers and fish removed from the vicinity for North Delta Intakes construction activities; and 3) in the operational phase, lost flows in the Delta will increase salinity in the Delta as it reduces flows in north and central Delta channels, and thereby contributing to the spread of harmful algal blooms which will disproportionately injure Delta people who rely on fishing and broad outdoor activities to enjoy the Delta. In sum, the Delta Tunnel Project will harm such beneficial users of water as fish, outdoor water-contact recreation, and environmental justice communities.”

About Restore the Delta
Restore the Delta (RTD) is a grassroots campaign of residents and organizations committed to restoring the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so that fisheries, communities, and family farming can thrive there together again; so that water quality is protected for all communities, particularly environmental justice communities; and so that Delta environmental justice communities are protected from flood and drought impacts resulting from climate change while gaining improved public access to clean waterways. Ultimately our goal is to connect communities to our area rivers and to empower communities to become the guardians of the estuary through participation in government planning and waterway monitoring. RTD advocates for local Delta stakeholders to ensure that they have a direct impact on water management decisions affecting the well-being of their communities, and water sustainability policies for all Californians.

Keep Restore the Delta working for you in 2023! 

This has been action packed year at Restore the Delta. In fact, we feel as if we have completed two years of work this year, and there is plenty more coming our way. Help us continue our fight with an end-of-year donation. You can donate here.

Delta residents gather to protest Delta tunnel proposal – ABC10 12/7/22

The new plan calls for a 40-foot wide concrete tunnel to draw water from the Hood and Courtland areas approximately 45 miles south to Bethany Reservoir. The current estimates are that it would cost $16 billion dollars and take 13 years to complete.

The tunnel would draw 3,000 cubic feet of water per second and would account for approximately 13% to 15% of the overall water supply.

However, not everyone believes the estimates proposed in the Environmental Impact Report. 

“Why would you buy the equivalent of a Maserati and only drive it 10 miles per hour?” said Attorney Osha Meserve, when referencing the water supply numbers.

As state preps, residents make their case that the Delta Tunnel is an environmental crime story in full-view – Sacramento News & Review 12/9/22

During the meeting, some young adults from Stockton spoke about the toxic algal blooms that formed on McLeod Lake along their city’s downtown waterfront in the summer of 2020, which wafted unhealthy, potentially hazardous fumes into the air throughout the well-tread business district (the blooms have also been linked to the deaths of area sea otters). California environmental groups have cited research indicating that these toxic algal blooms are connected to lack of cool, fresh water flowing through the North Delta. That’s why conservationists – the ranks of which include groups like the Sierra Club and Restore the Delta – have argued that the Delta Tunnel will accelerate the region’s toxic algal bloom problem, with the worst impacts hitting marginalized communities in San Joaquin County that already have consistently poor air quality. 

“The proposed tunnel will exasperate current and very real issues in the Delta and Delta communities,” said Stockton resident Cintia Cortez, “issues that are felt in the environmental justice community and in my community – in communities of minority and low-income families that are discouraged from drinking the water going into their homes and who cannot step outside of their homes to take a breath of fresh air.”

Greenhouse gaslighting and California’s water crisis – Jon Rosenfeld 12/6/22

The instinct to link natural disasters to climate change is understandable. Rising air temperature will increase water temperatures and dramatically alter global patterns of precipitation and evaporation. But political leaders, captains of industry, and regulatory agencies increasingly invoke climate change as a way of dodging responsibility for disasters that they could prevent. I call this “greenhouse gaslighting.”  

Delta Flows HABs in Stockton: Perspective from a resident scientist – Spencer Fern 12/5/22

With blooms present at several testing sites, it was concerning to see people fishing, walking, having picnics, etc. Toxins from HABs not only affect humans but pets and wildlife as well. Fish in HABs-infested waters tend to have guts filled with toxins, which can be a method of exposure in subsistence fishers. Unsupervised pets and strays that ingest the water with toxins die from even licking the water off themselves. Communities living near Stockton’s waterways are also harmed when toxins from HABs attach to particulate matter in the air, compounding the air quality problem in Stockton.