We were puzzled by some statements in the press release from Congressman Devin Nunes’ office announcing proposed funding cuts affecting the biological opinions and San Joaquin River Restoration. The press release calls these cuts the first step “to replace the flawed billion dollar salmon run…”  In place of the existing restoration plan, Nunes and House...Read More

Dear Friends, On Friday, the U.S. House of Representative passed the 2011 Continuing Resolution, a must pass spending bill, to keep the Federal Government funded.  Language included in this base bill, however, would defund the implementation of biological decisions made for reduced Delta pumping, thereby allowing record level of water exports from the Delta to...Read More

The Delta Stewardship Council held its January meeting on the 27th and the 28th, before comments from two weeks of January scoping meetings could be compiled, condensed and processed for consumption.  They have a Delta Plan to complete by January 2012. On the first day of the DSC meeting, Independent Science Board Lead Scientist Cliff...Read More

On Day 2 of the DSC meeting, Dr. Richard Norgaard, chair of the Delta Independent Science Board, reported to the DSC about the ISB’s work on stressors.  Norgaard told the council that there is no scientifically objective, agreed upon method for ranking stressors.  Said Norgaard, “We’re giving you a report on addressing multiple stressors to...Read More

This week Governor Brown compared a proposed ballot measure relating to the state budget to the peripheral canal; make it bigger and you get support from those down stream, but increase the opposition at the same time – and vice versa. “The genius is in determining the size of the pipe,” he said. So far,...Read More

Senator Dianne Feinstein has been named chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. The subcommittee’s jurisdiction includes the Department of Energy, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of the Interior water programs. Feinstein said that she is honored to chair a subcommittee “tasked with funding and oversight for some of...Read More

At scoping meetings in January, the Delta Stewardship Council heard from seven California regions that will be affected by the Delta Plan, either because they are in Delta watershed areas or because they get water from the Delta.  The Proposed Planning Area for the Delta Plan Environmental Impact Report covers half the state. At the...Read More

The California Water Commission is hard at work coming up with various regulations for SBx7-7 – statewide water conservation required by the 2009 Comprehensive Water Package.  At least, DWR staff is hard at work.  At its January meeting, the CWC was briefed on Emergency Regulations for Process Water and for Agricultural Water Measurement. Stakeholder meetings...Read More

The CWC received a briefing on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan from Jerry (Dr. Gerald) Meral and Karla Nemeth.  On the day of the briefing, Meral was sworn in as the Deputy Secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency in charge of the Bay Delta Conservation Planning program. Meral, who retired as the Executive Director...Read More

The most unexpected part of the meeting was the information briefing on the State Water Project Current Issues and Challenges, delivered by Ralph Torres, Deputy Director for the State Water Project.   (To view the PowerPoint presentation, go here and click on Attachment 1: Presentation under Agenda Item 10.) Turns out that from an operations and...Read More