Delta landowners have won a victory in the State Water Resources Control Board’s (SWRCB’s) systematic challenge to the reparian/pre-1914 water rights in the Delta. The SWRCB had issued several Cease and Desist Orders (CDOs) challenging the existence of riparian and/or pre-1914 water rights of property owners on several Delta islands.  As a result of hearings...Read More

The North Delta’s Peter Stone is the only Delta resident currently participating in the BDCP Public Finance Work Group. He reports that the vast majority of the participants are water contractors, NGOs and various governmental agencies. Stone is participating in order to influence how BDCP is financed should it actually be approved. Participants in the...Read More

The California Water Commission had scheduled two days last week to deal with resolutions of necessity for eminent domain so that the Department of Water Resources (DWR) can go forward with geotechnical investigations in the Delta. But the Water Commission dispensed with matters in one day, having debated the most important issues at their September...Read More

Also on November 16, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) folks had a public meeting, and Stockton attorney George Hartmann, who represents Delta reclamation districts, told Resources Secretary Jerry Meral that it was hard to see how converting 133,000 acres of prime Delta farmland to habitat was going to be good for the people of...Read More

The Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) met on November 17 and 18 and spent its first meeting day on matters related to the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Delta Plan. In releasing the EIR, they have “officially initiated a legal process”, according to DSC counsel Chris Stevens. The Council discussed how best to incorporate public...Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court – not a group that most of us would describe as liberal or “green”  – has refused to limit Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for Delta smelt, leaving in place a ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit had upheld the ESA as a valid use...Read More

This week, the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) will release the draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Delta Plan.  A 60-day review and comment period is required, so the DSC will not meet its deadline for completing the Delta Plan by January of 2012. Many people think that 60 days is an unreasonably short comment...Read More

Second Chance to R.S.V.P and attend! *TIME CHANGE & LOCATION DETAILS*   Eminent Domain Workshop December 5, 2011 from 3:00-4:30 pm  at Raul’s Striper Café 210 Main St, Rio Vista, CA 9457 ______________ Back by popular demand, Tom Keeling of Freeman, D’Aito, Pierce, Keeling & Wolf will hold another workshop for Delta landowners on eminent...Read More

During October, Ron Baldwin, the recently-retired director of emergency services for San Joaquin County, has been holding meetings around the Delta region to get feedback on a new project he is facilitating for coordinating flood response in the Delta. The project is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Regional Flood Response Project.  Its purpose is to improve...Read More

This past week, Restore the Delta learned that Laura King Moon, Assistant General Manager of the State Water Contractors, is on loan to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to assist with communications regarding the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). Said Natural Resources Secretary John Laird in a letter to Jared Huffman, Chair of the...Read More