Last week, Mike Taugher reported in the Contra Costa Times that key people – including some of those institutional enviros – have been meeting behind closed doors to work out a deal for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The Governor really wants that canal, and he prefers to do water policy closeted with a...Read More
The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a group of Kern County growers and irrigators whose idea of a sustainable Delta is one from which they can get a large and uninterrupted supply of water, is suing the Department of Fish and Game for having game fish protection on striped bass, a non-native predator. There’s plenty...Read More
Last week the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) adopted an interim plan for the Delta as required by last year’s Comprehensive Water Package. This is the plan that the DSC will use to guide its actions until the Delta Plan is adopted and implemented, by January 1, 2012. There were problems with the legislation that created...Read More
Remember that joint powers authority (JPA) that made its way into the water bond section on operational improvement (mainly dams and reservoirs)? Remember how the Legislature decided, on second thought, that this JPA was a really bad idea? It was such a bad idea that they introduced a bill – AB 2775 – to...Read More
Back in April, Restore the Delta reported that Delta Stewardship Council Staff recommended that CH2MHill provide the primary support for developing the Delta Plan, as mandated by the legislature. CH2MHill was already heavily involved in the historic Cal-Fed process and developing the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, which the Delta Stewardship Council is set to either...Read More
After its impressive show of backbone in adopting the report on flow criteria, the SWRCB reverted to its usual equivocation when it was time to talk to the BDCP Steering Committee on July 29. According to the DSC staff report, the Water Board representative told the Steering Committee that they would weigh other factors,...Read More
The Delta Stewardship Council wants “to hear from a variety of Californians about how best to communicate with them.” They’ve got a survey. Question #4 asks “In your opinion, what are the three most important water issues to address?” There are plenty of boxes to choose from, but none for “conservation,” “regional water self-sufficiency,” or...Read More
Restore the Delta has been asked by several supporters whether it was worth their time to participate in the dialogues on California Water and the Delta being held in the five Delta counties. RTD did not jump on covering these events as we have been stretched a bit over the last several months. Debbie Davis...Read More
Five years ago at the end of August, Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc on lives and property along the Gulf Coast. Almost immediately, the members of California’s Reclamation Board voted to review all urban development plans proposed for Central Valley flood plains. This was a rarely-used power given the Reclamation Board by state law. At the...Read More
We owe today’s opening quote to Brigadier General Scott F. “Rock” Donahue, commander of the South Pacific (Pacific Southwest) Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), who was in San Joaquin County this week to be briefed on county emergency services, flood protection, and integrated regional water management. Since two-thirds of the Delta...Read More
