For Release: 8/13/2015
Contact:
Brian Smith, 415-320-9384, brian@bpspr.com
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, 209-479-2053, Barbara@restorethedelta.org, Twitter @RestoreTheDelta
Restore the Delta Sends Public Comments to
President Obama and Secretary Jewell
Sacramento – Today, Restore the Delta sent public comments in the form of two DVD videos to President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
Watch the Video
On July 28, 2015 the agencies boosting the Delta Tunnels Plan/CA Water Fix (formerly, Bay Delta Conservation Plan) presented their new plan to the public at a hotel in Sacramento.
Booster agencies were determined to avoid a traditional public hearing where public statements are made before listening to decision-makers. Instead, the agencies and their consultants presented the Delta Tunnels plan as an “open house” science-fair-like setting. The public was invited to walk from display to display and ask questions of experts who were fully briefed with talking points. It was a sales pitch any conventioneer would recognize.
Restore the Delta (a grassroots organization based in Stockton, CA with 25,000 supporters) decided to put the “public” back into the process. Outside the sham public hearing a video crew recorded comments directly from the 300 people who came to express their concerns. Their concern centered on the proposed 40-foot tunnels to be dug beneath the Delta that will suck freshwater from the Sacramento River that every farmer, resident, and vanishing species in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary needs for survival.
The letter to Jewell and Obama makes 4 major points.
The California Water Fix does not address the environmental, public health or economic impacts of the proposed Delta tunnels project. The plan also ignores alternatives that would save California tax and ratepayers billions of dollars, while investing in the jobs and local water sources that build sustainability.
Additionally, the letter points out that the new version of the plan still violates Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act which prohibits federal agency actions that are likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or that “result in the destruction or adverse modification of [critical] habitat of [listed] species.”
Comment Period Now Open
The Revised BDCP EIR/EIS at 48,000 pages of appendices, footnotes, tables, and renumbered alternatives is now open for public comment. The original 45-day comment period was met with outrage by community groups and agencies. The comment period has now been extended until October 30, 2015.
Written comments are due by close of business Friday, Oct. 30. Comments should be mailed to BDCP/WaterFix Comments, P.O. Box 1919, Sacramento, CA 95812 or emailed to BDCPComments@icfi.com.