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May 27, 2010
"Judges rule on the basis
of law, not public opinion, and they should be totally indifferent to pressures
of the times."
- Retired
Chief Justice, Warren E. Burger
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Who's in whose pocket?
In our last issue, we mentioned that Governor
Schwarzenegger has appointed The Nature Conservancy's Anthony Saracino to the
Water Commission. In addition to overseeing Water System Operational
Improvements - dams - if the water bond passes, the Water Commission is the
governmental body authorized to condemn land for the State Water Project. DWR itself can't do that.
TNC has a history of doing land deals in the Delta. You could call Saracino's appointment
"working closely with state and federal resources agencies and local
partners."
Or you could call it a conflict of interest |
TNC pragmatism Part 2: Nestlé
Not only is TNC tied up with BP (see our last edition). It has been tied up with Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) for at
least five years.
Back in 2005,
Nestlé Waters North America donated $1 million dollars to The Nature
Conservancy "to protect important freshwater ecosystems across the
United States." Although that donation focused on two projects in Texas and
Virginia, TNC announced that "The funds will also go toward Conservancy
projects to find new approaches for storing and using water to serve human
needs, including drinking water and electricity, while preserving the health of
the nation's critical rivers and lakes."
NWNA was already in a battle with Michigan citizens about
pumping water from a stressed stream and lake for its Ice Mountain bottled
water in Mecosta, Michigan. It was in 2005 that the Michigan Court of Appeals
affirmed a 2003 trial court ruling that Nestlé's pumping violated Michigan
water law. That's how much Nestle cared
about preserving the health of rivers and lakes.
This is about the same time that NWNA was trying to persuade
the people of McCloud, California to let Nestlé contribute to the local economy
by bottling water from a plant near Mt. Shasta. McCloud eventually said "No," but Sacramento recently said "Yes" to
allowing NWNA to bottle and sell municipal water. You see, it creates jobs.
(For a great piece on Nestlé's shenanigans in Maine, google
Jim Wilfong's "Who Owns Maine's Water - Nestlé or the People?")
TNC is proud of its alliance with NWNA. From where we sit, it just looks like trading
public resources for land.
We wouldn't call this pragmatism. We'd call it privatization.
In a nutshell, TNC supports Delta water exports to water
contractors who will profit from water sales through new conveyance, with an
expanded Delta conservancy not controlled by Delta local landowners. This seems to fit TNC's pattern of trading
public resources for land.
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Wanger leads us
all in a big, costly circle
Remember when U. S. District Judge Oliver Wanger found the
Biological Opinions were inadequate to protect fish in the Delta? He ordered export reductions while fishery
agencies went back to redo the BiOps, and exporters had a long, noisy fit.
The new BiOps require nearly the same export restrictions to
protect fish. Now Wanger doesn't find
enough science there to support decreased exports.
Last week, Wanger decided that water officials must consider
humans along with fish in limiting use of the Delta for irrigation. The
arguments of urban and agricultural water users convinced him that the federal
government's science didn't prove increased pumping from the Delta imperiled
salmon.
Wanger followed that decision with another this week that lifted pumping restrictions designed to help
endangered salmon. Urban and
agricultural water users argued that these restriction could be lifted without
harming the fish. The order will be in
place until June 15.
As of this writing, pumping
restrictions to protect smelt remain in place. According to John Ellis,
reporting in the Fresno Bee, users have focused on the salmon
restrictions because they are less onerous than those for smelt. But Tom Birmingham, general manager of
Westlands Water District, admits that continued smelt restrictions could cancel
any water delivery gains resulting from lifting the salmon restrictions.
Writes Ellis, "Wanger also ordered federal officials to
monitor the increased pumping. If more endangered spring-run Chinook salmon or
Central Valley steelhead are found around the pumps or being killed by them,
the federal government or environmental groups can ask Wanger to reverse his
ruling." But at this point, "most of
the endangered spring-run Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead had
already passed through the Delta and out to the Pacific Ocean."
To some, this looks like the same plan for operation
that Wanger invalidated in the previous salmon management plan because it
jeopardized the species.
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And what will they do with
that water?
Wanger's decisions means that Westlands water users will get
about 10% more irrigation water for the next 20 days.
Cropping decisions were made last fall. So some of the water available now will be
stored at San Luis Reservoir for future use.
KFSN in Fresno interviewed Kerman almond and cotton grower Paul Betancourt. Said Betancourt, "The immediate change
won't be in acres planted but it will be in groundwater pumped. The quality of
surface water is much higher than groundwater so we can use the surface water.
Get some of these salts flushed out of the soils."
Wait! You mean you
have salts in your soil?
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Tackling selenium, or not
Today, the Central
Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board is considering a "time extension
for compliance" to allow the continued direct discharge of selenium-laced
agricultural water into Mud Slough, a tributary to the San Joaquin River and
about 50 miles as the crow flies to the Southern California drinking water
pumps. This toxic water has caused reproductive failure and death in
aquatic life, migratory birds, and salmon.
One source of toxic
selenium pollution is Westlands, where irrigating 300,000 acres of toxic lands
mobilizes selenium into the waters of the state and thousands of acres outside
of the Grasslands area where drainage is discharged or seeps into the federal
San Luis Drain and the San Joaquin River.
Recent reports
estimate up to a 50% mortality in Chinook Salmon exposed to these high toxic
discharges. Meanwhile, export interests focus on urban sewage discharges
as the main cause of fish deaths.
The only way to deal
with selenium-laced water is to dilute it, in this case with water from the San
Joaquin and Merced Rivers. RTD keeps saying that we can't solve any of
these problems without plenty of fresh water flowing through the whole system.
Flushing compromised
Westlands soil with Delta water certainly doesn't help.
The expectation is
that the Central Valley RWQCB will continue not to enforce selenium
standards.
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Donate Now
Restore the Delta is working everyday through public education and
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Restore the Delta is a grassroots campaign committed to making the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fishable, swimmable, drinkable, and farmable to benefit all of California. Restore the Delta - a coalition of Delta residents, business leaders, civic organizations, community groups, faith-based communities, union locals, farmers, fishermen, and environmentalists - seeks to strengthen the health of the estuary and the well-being of Delta communities. Restore the Delta works to improve water quality so that fisheries and farming can thrive together again in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Sincerely,
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla
Restore the Delta
Email: barbara@restorethedelta.org
Web: http://www.restorethedelta.org
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