California approves Delta tunnel project, pitting water agencies against environmentalists – Sacramento Bee – 12/21/23California’s leading water agency approved a controversial water infrastructure project to build a tunnel underneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Thursday, marking a significant step in a decades-long effort to advance it. Governor Gavin Newsom has long advocated for the tunnel, called...Read More
Tunnel Vision: Gov. Newsom’s Ambitious Water Plan Divides Californians – AP 12/13/23Jon Rosenfield, science director for San Francisco Baykeeper, said California already diverts more than half of the water flowing through Central Valley rivers for farms and big cities, which threaten native species of fish. “The science clearly demonstrates that fish need increased river flows to...Read More
Delta Tunnel EIR Released, Restore the Delta Reax – Restore the Delta 12/8/23 SACRAMENTO – Today, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released a final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed Delta Conveyance Project (Delta Tunnel).Newsom administration advances Delta Tunnel project despite environmental opposition – Los Angeles Times 12/9/23Newsom’s tunnel proposal, as outlined in the state’s final...Read More
Alliance of Sportfishing and Environmental Groups Petition California and Feds to Protect SF Bay White Sturgeon – San Francisco Baykeeper 11/29/30Today, San Francisco Baykeeper, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the Bay Institute, and Restore the Delta petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to list the California white sturgeon as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. Separately, these...Read More
‘Deep disappointment’: Global climate envoy Newsom is alienating environmentalists at home – The Sacramento Bee 11/29/23 Gov. Gavin Newsom has been positioning himself as a global climate leader this year, evangelizing California environmentalism in China and at the United Nations. But at home, he is increasingly at loggerheads with leading environmentalists. Environmental groups and tribes say...Read More
Column: This water project is expensive, wasteful and ecologically damaging. Why is it being fast-tracked? – Los Angeles Times 11/21/23Newsom and other Sites advocates have tried to justify the project with flagrantly misleading statistics. As Newsom said when announcing his certification, the reservoir would hold “up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water, enough for 3 million households’...Read More
Where’s our water? A look at California’s storage problem– BakersfieldNow 11/15/23In 2014, California voters passed a proposition using $7.5 billion dollars in state funds to expand water storage capacity. Nearly 10 years later, people say not much has come from the vote. The main focus on their minds is the failure to expand Shasta Dam.…So what’s the problem...Read More
New poll finds that California voters disapprove of Newsom’s performance as governor– LA Times 11/7/23A new Los Angeles Times/UC Berkeley poll found Newsom’s approval rating sinking to the lowest point of his nearly five years in office, with 44% of respondents having a favorable view of his job performance and 49% disapproving. There may be several explanations; like barnacles...Read More
Governor Newsom Subverts CEQA to Jam Through Environmentally Destructive Sites Reservoir Project – Sierra Club California 11/6/23 Governor Newsom certified the environmentally destructive Sites Reservoir project for judicial streamlining under Senate Bill 149. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee will have 30 days to concur in the Governor’s recommendation, or prevent this project from being inappropriately streamlined.Sites...Read More
The Delta Residents Survey Results are in! –Delta Stewardship Council & other research partners 10/2023 What is the Delta Residents Survey?“The 2023 Delta Residents Survey was a first effort of its kind in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to develop a rigorous survey research methodology to begin to assess important social indicators affecting Delta residents’ well-being.” For...Read More
