In case you missed it…
Sierra Club Special to the Bee: Time to stop the tunnel vision
5/9/2015
"….In making his announcement about this new approach, Brown told the gathered media that the reduction in restoration to accelerate efforts to save the fish was essential. “If anyone has a better alternative, certainly we’ll hear it.”
Here’s the better alternative: Restore the Delta and drop the tunnels proposal. Instead, turn more attention, and money, to the rest of the California Water Action Plan to make every region’s water system more resilient and self-reliant."
Read the full op-ed here by Sierra Club
Vacaville Reporter editorial: Governor’s water policy needs a rewrite
5/9/15
“…The Governor talks about saving water, but then continues to push for massive tunnels to send water south…The Governor apparently learned a lesson from [the 1982 Peripheral Canal referendum] – with Prop. 1 he just pretended it would pay for storage and groundwater cleanup and then once the funding was approved, revived his plans to spend it on the tunnels plan. If the Governor really wants to wint he hearts and minds of state water users, perhaps he should consider rewriting his water policy to make a fair plan [that] lives up to his promises instead of simply masking a massive water grab by southern California interests.”
Read the entire editorial.
LA Times columnist George Skelton: A million hours and still not shovel-ready
5/11/15
“…only a government could spend that much time on a project and not turn a shovel. …
“…Brown should be thankful so many people have criticized his proposed fix of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Because they prodded him into recently improving the project, at least making it less intrusive and ugly…
“I haven't spent 1 million hours studying Brown's plan. That's 114 years, 24-7.
But, guaranteed, I've spent a lot more time than Brown in the delta, on and off the 1,000 miles of navigable, winding waterways….
“…"It's still a water grab," insists [Restore the Delta’s Barbara] Barrigan-Parrilla. "People don't want this project. We will litigate every step of the way.".”
Read the full column here.