Restore the Delta’s just-released documentary, Over Troubled Waters, has touched a nerve with its assertion that some interests maneuvering to get Delta water want to sell it at a profit. The State Water Contractors are accusing us of “fact-free discourse” in a new publication they’re calling “Delta Doozy.” To support their case, they point to...Read More
Fishing and conservation groups have won the first round in their attempt to get state and federal officials to follow water quality laws and comply with the Clean Water Act. Selenium in agricultural water discharges from the west side of the San Joaquin Valley has been a problem since 1985, when cow deaths and migratory...Read More
At the BDCP public meeting on August 29, Resources deputy secretary Jerry Meral provided an updated project description consistent with the one announced by the Governor and federal officials on July 26. Still unresolved are upstream effects such as reservoir operation and temperature issues; the exact location of the three proposed intakes; and how the...Read More
This summer marks the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy and Governor Edmund G. “Pat” Brown (father of the present Governor) going to Los Banos to break ground for the San Luis Dam. Congressman Jim Costa compares the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and Governor Jerry Brown’s twin-peripheral tunnel vision to the San Luis project....Read More
Research by Deirdre Des Jardins of California Water Research Associates reveals that B. F. Sisk Dam has clay soils underneath it. They were bone dry when Bureau of Reclamation engineers tested the soils, and the dam was engineered based on the properties of the dry clay soils. But clay expands and gets slippery when it...Read More
Most recent discussion of earthquake risk in the Delta have been based on the Delta Risk Management Strategy (DRMS). DRMS was prepared by consultants (URS Corporation) for the Department of Water Resources. Experts disagree about many of the findings in DRMS, which assumes five Delta fault systems. For example, new modeling of the “Montezuma Hills...Read More
Food and Water Watch has released a study on the cost of the peripheral tunnels to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) ratepayers. The study finds that homes and businesses in LAWPD will pay between $4 a month and $19 a month for the tunnels, averaged out over 40 years. That is in...Read More
In a recent blog post, NRDC’s Tina Swanson reports that the San Francisco Bay is in a “persistent, manmade drought” characterized by inadequate flows of fresh water. She notes that estuaries need fresh water, just as people do. And the Bay-Delta Estuary hasn’t been getting enough fresh water for decades. Says Swanson, “For the first...Read More
To the Winnemem Wintu, water is life and water is sacred. The Winnemem Wintu people are among the leaders advocating for California to pass a human right to water bill.?? Says Chief Caleen Sisk, “Please support AB 685 ‘Human Right to Water.’ Let’s have California lead the nation in ‘water is life!’ Call your representative...Read More
