The Water Contractors have finally exhausted the considerable patience of the large environmental organizations that have been at the table with them for the last three years.
American Rivers, The Bay Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council expressed their reservations about the BDCP in a letter to John Laird and Jerry Meral of the California Natural Resources Agency and David Hayes of the Department of the Interior.
The letter asserts that
- On its current trajectory, it is unlikely that the BDCP will contribute to the recovery of species or conserve the Delta ecosystem.
- BDCP’s analysis inappropriately focuses on a limited set of conservation measures rather than achieving the plan’s legally mandated ecological goals.
- The state and federal governments must decide who owns the BDCP. “Since its inception,” they note, “export contractors have had a remarkable degree of control over the decision-making regarding the design and analysis of the Plan and special access to and influence over materials developed for the process.” But the state and federal agencies that operate the water projects are ultimately accountable for the BDCP process.
(We can expect the Water Contractors to point out, yet again, that they are the ones paying for the process. And then we can talk about where that money really comes from: taxpayers and ratepayers.)
The big enviros told the state and the feds, “Absent your immediate attention to the issues raised . . . , we will have little choice but to oppose the BDCP process in its current form.”
Restore the Delta congratulates these larger environmental organizations for speaking the truth. To read a copy of their letter, click here.
