At a recent BDCP meeting, economist Dr. David Sunding estimated that during its seven year construction period, the spending to build a tunnel under the Delta will create between 74,000 and 130,000 jobs, depending on the size of the tunnel.  He estimated that each million dollars spent on construction would create 10 jobs, and each...Read More

We were going to include a link to the webcast of the September 27 BDCP meeting so that you could listen to Sunding yourself (at about the 1 hour, 30 minute mark), as well as Restore the Delta’s Brett Baker in an interesting exchange with Jerry Meral (at about 3 hours, 46 minutes). However, getting...Read More

Tom McClintock, Chairman of the House Committee on Water and Power, has announced an oversight hearing on “Questionable Fish Science and Environmental Lawsuits: Jobs and Water Supplies At Risk in The Inland Empire.”  The hearing will be held on October 18 in Highland, CA.   “Witnesses,” says the announcement, “will be by invitation only.”   McClintock...Read More

One of Judge Oliver Wanger’s first appearances since retiring from the bench will be as the keynote speaker at the annual dinner of the Southern California Water Committee on November 17. Of course, he might come and address us, too, if we invited him.  We wonder if the Southern California Water Committee has a budget...Read More

Coordinating Flood Response Delta flood response in the past has often been hampered by a lack of coordination among jurisdictions. Now the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Regional Flood Response Project is proposing a series of projects to improve coordination and information sharing among agencies and to improve Delta-wide resource management and flood fight support. Grant funds...Read More

Last week we reported on some of the interactions between Delta landowners and the Department of Water Resources as it tries to collect the geotechnical data needed for preliminary engineering studies for a tunnel. DWR has been somewhat insensitive, to put the matter kindly. We’ve heard from another Delta landowner. She reports that she and...Read More

Restore the Delta is one of over 200 organizations that have signed a letter to the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) criticizing the Delta Plan that the Council has spent over a year developing. The signers include environmental, environmental justice, tribal, and commercial and recreational fishing organizations from all over California – the most diverse group...Read More

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...Read More

Yesterday, Congressman Jerry McNerney (CA-11), joined by Congressional Representatives George Miller, John Garamendi, Mike Thompson, and Doris Matsui met with Deputy Secretary Jerry Meral of the BDCP to express their “grave concern” that the project as planned will bring great harm to the Delta region. To read more about this meeting, click here to read...Read More

Federal Judge Oliver Wanger, on whose every word we have hung, fired one last salvo before stepping down from the bench of the Eastern District of California this week.  The occasion was a hearing on the federal government’s request that Wanger hold off on a ruling he made involving efforts to push encroaching salt water...Read More