Delta Conveyance Project approved by the Department of Water Resources while salmon fishermen prepare for the second consecutive year without a season– Western Outdoor News 1/4/24
SACRAMENTO – While Bay/Delta species continue to decline, leading to the 2023 closure of the ocean and river commercial and recreational salmon season along with emergency regulation changes for white sturgeon, the Delta Conveyance Project, aka ‘The Tunnel’ was approved by Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration when the project’s Notice of Determination was published on December 21. This came after the lead agency, the Department of Water Resources (DWR), released the Final Environmental Impact (EIR) report on December 8, leaving only 30 days for the public to file litigation against the project and its EIR under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
…Although the project is touted as a savior for California’s water infrastructure and supply, fishery and environmental organizations along with tribes strongly oppose the project as the final gasp for salmon and other fish species in addition to burdening domestic water users with unmanageable costs.
…The words delivered ten years ago by the late Bill Jennings of the California Sport Fishing Protection Alliance are particularly prescient today. An excerpt from his December 2013 speech regarding the then Bay Delta Conservation Plan is as follows, “They proposed to build the tunnels now and decide how to operate ‘em later. That’s not restoration. That’s a death sentence for one of the world’s greatest estuaries. Well, you won’t find any ideas or answers as to how much water the Delta needs, how much water will be exported. Nor will you find responses to the federal agencies and independent scientists who have scathingly criticized the draft versions as the scheme as biased, flawed, unsupported, and highly speculative. That it will lead to species extinction….”
Delta Levees Investment Strategy becomes California state law – Contra Costa Herald 1/4/24
SACRAMENTO – The new year has brought new flood protections for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta Stewardship Council has successfully amended the Delta Levees Investment Strategy (DLIS), a tool the state uses to prioritize investments in Delta levee operations, maintenance and improvements, thus reducing the likelihood and consequences of levee failures.
The amendment assigns very high, high, or other priority to islands or tracts within the Delta and Suisun Marsh and directs the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to fund levee improvement projects by order of priority. Additionally, it requires the DWR to submit an annual report to the Council describing Delta levee investments relative to the established priorities. The amended regulation took effect on January 1, 2024.
“Delta flood risk is one of the most urgent threats to California and will continue to worsen in the future with changes in sea levels and storm patterns,” says the Council’s Executive Officer Jessica R. Pearson. “Limited funding to address that risk demands clear priorities. The product of nearly a decade of public input and collaboration, the strategy represents one of the Council’s greatest milestone achievements.”
Is flood control losing priority in the state’s climate change agenda? Money matters – Sacramento Bee 1/3/24
…As the price tag of flood protection goes up, it is anything but clear just how high this is in the agenda of the Newsom administration or the California Legislature. Flood protection’s share of a proposed climate change bond, for example, is about half the slice that it has gotten in bonds approved earlier this century.
Why? Climate change means more than preparing for the occasional massive flood. Climate change is also threatening watersheds and water supplies. There is a small army of water interests fighting over supplies. The much smaller flood control community runs the risk of being the financial orphan in California’s climate change priorities.
…Both Stork and Mount worry about Central Valley communities like Stockton and Lathrop with huge flood exposure that remains unaddressed. Also in the cross-hairs of climate change is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the 1,100 square-mile estuary where the rivers merge before heading to San Francisco Bay, with 1,100 miles of levees.