The National Heritage Area processes now going forward in the Delta differ from the usual NHA process.  Where are the opportunities?  What should we be concerned about? Think tanks concerned about private property issues have noted that NHAs are usually proposed by national and local Green groups working with the National Park Service as a...Read More

A NHA can be viewed as a problem-solver from an in-Delta perspective.  It could allow the Delta to be maintained as a whole, filling in gaps that result from having many reclamation districts and other local authorities with responsibility for protecting and improving Delta levee systems.  It would justify government funding for economic development, such...Read More

The RTD campaign has three questions regarding a NHA: 1.  Will a NHA protect water quality and water quantity for fisheries and Delta farms?” Answer:  No.  A NHA will have no direct impact on water quality.  That is why RTD sees the NHA designation as a secondary Delta issue. 2.  Will a NHA help or...Read More

In-Delta interests fought successfully to have the conservancy references removed from Feinstein’s NHA legislation.  Restore the Delta staff made it clear that we would not support the legislation if it had included references to the conservancy. Now we wonder, without the conservancy language, why is this bill still attractive to the Metropolitan Water District and...Read More

We tried to get a meeting schedule for the California Water Commission by clicking on the link provided at the CWC website.   Back came this response: “Your message wasn’t delivered because of security policies. Microsoft Exchange will not try to redeliver this message for you.  Please provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator.”...Read More

In her latest post on California Spigot, journalist/anthropologist/blogger Patricia McBroom tells the story of how Delta residents saved a levee hit by a freighter last August.  They did it swiftly, efficiently, and at a fraction of what it would have cost for the state to do it.  These are some of the people that BDCP...Read More

By Brett Baker Over the past several weeks, the media has reported on “secret meetings” being held behind closed doors to set the course for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.  Resources Agency Director Lester Snow went before the DSC last week to refute the reports of “secret meetings” saying they were due to insufficient fact...Read More

Lester Snow may have been kicked upstairs from DWR Director to Resources Agency Secretary partly to ensure delivery of the Bay Delta Consesrvation Plan.  The Administration may have been thinking that potentially regulated entities (PREs) around the BDCP table were losing focus and Snow would be the one to get folks back on track and...Read More

DSC independent consultant ARCADIS released a report that bashed BDCP’s progress and lack of significant findings, and the lack of willingness and/or ability to ask the right questions. A notable weakness is the vagueness surrounding proposed operational criteria and conservation measures.  RTD reported on this last month (August 25) in our “Haste makes waste, again”...Read More

There was a good bit of discussion regarding the DSC’s adoption of a Delta Plan, the folding in of BDCP, and how an appeal should be handled if someone takes issue with the Plan. Greg Zlotnik (State Water Contractors) requested some clarification from the Council on the necessity of BDCP in a Delta Plan. Isenberg...Read More