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July 1, 2010
"Never buy what you do not
want, because it is cheap; it will be dear [costly] to you."
--Thomas Jefferson
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Dealing with the Devil
(Be careful what you ask
for)
by Brett Baker
In the June 15 edition of the Restore the Delta newsletter,
we reported that Senator Feinstein was introducing federal legislation to
create a National Heritage Area (NHA) in the Delta.
Early this year, the Delta Counties Coalition (representing
the five Delta counties) sent a group of representatives to Washington,
D.C. They went to request $2.5 million
in technical assistance to keep track of the planning processes in the Delta
and to provide increased local input. Counties need to closely monitor and provide feedback on the BDCP, the
DSC, and the DPC, and that takes a lot of staff and resources.
While in D.C., the coalition representatives visited Dianne
Feinstein's office and requested some help from their Senator.
This NHA bill being drafted by Feinstein is the result of
that request. National Heritage Area
Designation was not specifically requested.
Delta people question Senator Feinstein's actions. We've seen her efforts to suspend the ESA and
to facilitate water transfers for export contractors. That is why we don't have
much confidence that she has the Delta's best interests in mind when she
proposes a NHA for the Delta.
If Senator Feinstein wanted to build local support for her
Legislative proposal, she should have engaged the local interests and started
this process months ago with the public workshops and outreach that I am told
are a prerequisite for National Heritage Area designation. She should have found out what locals hoped
to get in the way of assurances and protection. That should have happened before she released bill language.
Instead she has gone ahead with her legislative agenda,
understanding there are procedural deadlines to be met and four months left in
the current legislative session. This legislative timeline, however, should not
be the driving force behind completing and/or pursuing terms of agreement.
The legislation has been brought up at several County Board
of Supervisors meetings lately and has received the nod on for staff to pursue
talks with Federal staff and give input as the proposal moves forward. It was obvious from talking with staff that
the Counties are conceptually in favor of this legislation; however, when asked
about designation, oversight and management of a National Heritage Area, the
staffers seemed to have little understanding of what exactly the designation
meant for local landowners. The typical response was that local statutory
control would be maintained through the Delta Protection Commission.
County staff members
view a NHA as an opportunity to establish a much-needed "conduit for federal
funding." The fiscal pressures on local
government are intense, and counties eager for funding assistance may be open
to some compromises that people in the Delta wouldn't like. For this reason alone it is important to
engage, and maintain clear lines of communication with our local representation
on this matter and many others, as they will be doing the negotiating on our
behalf. We need to let our Supervisors know where we stand on the concept of a
NHA and what we consider an acceptable amount of local oversight.
Conceptually, I too support the idea of a National Heritage
Area Designation, one of the main purposes for such a designation being
economic development. There are many
examples of how a NHD has protected regions and communities in a way that
benefited and protected local interests. But it must be done slowly and carefully to ensure that the NHA
designation does not result in "legacy towns" protected by ring levees - a
ghost of their former selves surrounded by a vast expanse of federally owned or
operated habitat that provides no income to county coffers and further reduces
their effectiveness in representing the
interests of their constituencies.
Does the Delta warrant recognition as a national treasure?
Is a NHA the way to get us there? Is this how the process should take place?
Can a NHA provide the protection and assurances the Delta
needs and its people deserve?
I urge you to contact you local supervisor's office and your
federal representatives as well, and speak with someone regarding this effort and
your concerns. After all, we will be the ones living this on the ground
day-to-day.
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Editor's Note: What exactly
is an NHA?
According to a 2007 report by the Congressional Research
Service, Congress has designated NHAs to:
"recognize and assist efforts to protect, commemorate, and
promote natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources that form
distinctive landscapes...[and has] established heritage areas for lands that
are regarded as distinctive because of their resources, their built environment,
and the culture and history associated with these areas and their residents.
A principal distinction of these areas is an emphasis on the interaction of
people and their environment. Heritage areas seek to tell the story of the
people, over time, where the landscape helped shaped the traditions of the
residents. In a majority of cases, NHAs now have, or have had, a fundamental
economic activity as their foundation, such as agriculture, water transportation,
or industrial development."
NHA proposals are
usually initiated at the local level.
In the case of the NHA Senator Feinstein is proposing, Delta
representatives didn't ask for another process to participate in. They asked for resources to participate in
the processes already underway. Could
funding for technical assistance be held hostage to Delta support for a NHA?
Other concerns are being raised by people in the Delta. Is a NHA a way of generating public awareness
and stimulating tourism, or is it a backdoor attack on property rights? Possibly both.
The entity managing the NHA is not supposed to regulate land
use or buy property using federal dollars. But critics say that infringements of property rights do occur. NHAs can't use eminent domain to acquire
property, but they can use restrictive zoning, controlling land use for
aesthetic and other purposes.
And we always have to wonder: Is this NHA designation a
backdoor way for non-government entities from outside the Delta to profit from
the situation in the Delta?
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CSPA,
AquAlliance and CWIN Sue U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
Today, AquAlliance, California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) and California Water Impact
Network
(CWIN) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). The
action, filed in federal District Court, alleges the USBR failed to
comply with
the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for the transfer and export
of
almost 400,000 acre-feet of Sacramento Valley water to subsidize urban
sprawl
and irrigate crops in the desert. The USBR issued a Finding of No
Significant Impact (FONSI) and refused to conduct the required analysis
under
NEPA that would have analyzed and identified impacts and alternatives.
The proposed new water transfers come at a time when the fisheries and
aquatic
ecosystems of northern California rivers and the Delta estuary are in a
state
of collapse.
"The Bureau's fallacious claim that massive serial water transfers from
the Sacramento Valley to irrigate the southern desert have no
significant
impact on the farms, communities, fish and wildlife of the Sacramento
Valley
and the Delta Estuary evidences either a breathtaking incompetence or a
flagrant contempt for the law, the environment and the people of the
Sacramento
Valley and Delta," said CSPA executive director Bill Jennings. "We sue
to
compel compliance with that most basic of all environmental laws; i.e.,
the
requirement to adequately analyze and disclose the impacts of a
project," he
said.
For more
information contact Bill Jennings at the California Sportfishing
Protection
Alliance , 209-464-5067 |
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Donate Now
Restore the Delta is working everyday through public education and
citizen activism to ensure the restoration and future sustainability of
the California Delta. Your general contribution can help us sponsor
outreach events, enable us to educate Californians on what makes the
Delta so special, and assist us in building a coalition that will be
recognized by government water agencies as they make water management
decisions.
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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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