FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; steve@hopcraft.com; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 barbara@restorethedelta.org; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta
No Financing Plan, No Water, Won’t Restore Delta
Tens of Thousands Comment “No Tunnels”
Sacramento, CA- Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, and salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today hailed the delay and redrafting of its Draft Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS), and a new public comment period. The opponents said the delay and redrafting of the governor’s water tunnels plan shows it is fatally flawed, does not meet state or federal standards, and lacks a financing plan.
“The delay in the BDCP shows that it is fatally flawed. There is no financing plan. They cannot finance it because the water is not there,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of RTD. “Delaying the BDCP will not change the fundamental flaws underlying it: it doesn’t pencil out, there is no surplus water for export, and you can’t restore the San Francisco-San Joaquin Delta estuary by draining water from it. The delay shows the power of public engagement. Thousands of pages of comments were turned in, everything from simple statements from citizens to complex analyses by experts.”
The EIR/EIS is fatally flawed due to its failure to include a viable funding plan, exclusion of any true no-tunnels alternatives, failure to comply with the Endangered Species Act as evidenced by numerous scientists’ red flags, misrepresenting taking water to be a “conservation” plan, secret BDCP planning with the exporters and their consultants, and lack of public outreach to non-English speakers.