MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Contact: Steve Hopcraft 916/457-5546; steve@hopcraft.com; Twitter: @shopcraft; @MrSandHillCrane; Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla 209/479-2053 barbara@restorethedelta.org; Twitter: @RestoretheDelta
Farmers & Businesses:
Slam Congressional Committee for Harmful Rhetoric
Fresno, CA – Restore the Delta (RTD), opponents of Gov. Brown’s plan to build Peripheral Tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today announced that they will call on the federal government to provide drought relief to Delta farmers and business owners, and to stop focusing solely on aiding Westlands Water District and other west San Joaquin Valley mega-growers. RTD Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla will tell a House Natural Resources Committee field hearing “we are on the verge of losing Delta farms and our salmon and other fisheries. Where is the drought aid for Delta businesses being harmed: marinas that won’t have business; cattle farmers who won’t have water for their cattle; recreation businesses that won’t have visitors?”
Barrigan-Parrilla will tell the Committee that their framing the issue as a “3-inch fish over people” is “inaccurate, and harmful to solving California’s challenges.” “This committee is blinded by its desire to serve a few huge industrial agribusinesses and can’t see that the decline of our fisheries is a warning that water mismanagement threatens all of us: farmers, fishermen and urban residents. Taking more water out of the Delta is not going to solve our problems. It’s the drought, not the Delta, that’s affecting the water supply this year.”
WHO: Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Executive Director, Restore the Delta
WHAT: House Natural Resources Committee Field Hearing
WHEN: Wednesday, March 19, 9:30 am
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla will be available to media prior to 10am hearing start
WHERE: Fresno City Council Chambers, 2600 Fresno Street