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OPINION: Newsom Is Shrinking Brown’s Pet Projects

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Dan Walters

When Jerry Brown began his first governorship in 1975, he quickly set himself apart from his father, former Gov. Pat Brown. The elder Brown’s legacy had been an immense expansion of the state’s public-works infrastructure—new colleges and universities, a web of freeways and, most of all, a massive project to carry water from Northern California to the fast-growing cities of Southern California. The younger Brown echoed economist E.F. Schumacher’s aphorism that “small is beautiful,” suggested that California’s high population growth was a thing of the past and virtually shut down highway and freeway construction.

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OPINION: Newsom Offers A New Approach To California’s Water Issues

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Don Nottoli and Bill Dodd

By rejecting the twin tunnels proposal, Gov. Gavin Newsom has sent an important message that new thinking is required to address California’s complex water issues. The Delta Counties Coalition is committed to supporting a more thoughtful process. The Delta Counties Coalition represents more than 4 million residents whose livelihoods and way of life are grounded in a healthy Delta economy. The coalition serves to protect the largest estuary on the west coast of the Americas from unwarranted intrusion that could destroy the precious Delta ecosystem and hurt our region’s economy.

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OPINION: California Can’t Save Fish By Diverting More Water From Rivers

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by John McManus

Recent decades have brought the slow collapse of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its salmon runs. A half dozen species face extinction. Lacking natural flushing, the Delta now suffers outbreaks of toxic algae. The salmon fishing industry suffered a shutdown in 2008 and 2009 which cost thousands of jobs. Science points to a clear cause: inadequate flows caused by excessive diversions. In some years, 90 percent of the Tuolumne River is diverted, leaving only 10 percent for salmon and the Bay-Delta. Every Central Valley salmon river also suffers from over diversion in many years. Recent proposals from water users fall far short of what is needed by salmon and required by the law.

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OPINION: New Path On California Water Must Include Delta Communities

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla

Delta advocates agree about the need to break out of our silos. And we all agree, the Delta is an amazing estuary, and a vital water supply source for the state. But any new path on California water must bring Delta community and fishing interests to the table. We have solutions to offer. We live with the impacts of state water management decisions from loss of recreation to degradation of water quality to collapsing fisheries.

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OPINION: Finally, A New Path Toward Managing Water, Rivers And The Delta

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Jennifer Pierre

For people who closely follow California water, here are headlines in the paper or tweets in your feed that you never see about water operations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta: “Pumping curtailed during next storm due to nearby migrating salmon” Or: “Storm opens water supply window as few fish conflicts detected” Why? Our rules, cobbled over time from various state water right decisions or federal biological opinions, are too rigid. Pumping rules in the Delta on Nov. 30, for example, are very different than those 24 hours later, regardless of the weather.

 

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California Has A Giant Surplus—Of Ideas For New Taxes. What’s Up With That?

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Judy Lin

California is enjoying a projected $21.4 billion surplus. Three-quarters of the state believes any new revenue increase should be for voters to decide. By population and percentage of personal income, this state already has the nation’s 10th highest tax burden. And the leader of the California Senate, Pro Tem Toni Atkins, has pointedly cautioned against any more levies that take cash out of the pockets of working families. In short, California lawmakers needn’t look far for an excuse to avoid raising taxes. Whether Atkins’ fellow Democrats got the memo, however, isn’t clear.

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OPINION: Delta Interests Should Seize The Opportunity To Cease Water Fights

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Ellen Hanak and Jeffrey Mount

The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is a major source of water for cities and farms across the state, and a major source of water conflict. In a Sacramento Bee commentary two years ago, we and our colleague Brian Gray promoted a grand compromise for the Delta. We suggested that the three broad interests fighting about its future—water users, environmental groups, and Delta residents—give up something in order to reduce conflict and make progress. During his first state of the state address, Gov. Gavin Newsom opened the door to just such a compromise.

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OPINION: The Delta is California’s heart. Gavin Newsom must save it

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla

The confluence of California’s two great rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, creates the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas. Those of us who live here call it, simply, the Delta. It is part of my very fiber, and it is essential to California’s future. That’s why we must save it. In the early 1800s this estuary teemed with salmon migrating to and from the rivers of the Sierra Nevada. Salmon were, as documented in photographs, so plentiful that you could harvest them from the river with a pitchfork.

 

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OPINION: What New Water Deals Mean And What Work Is Left To Be Done

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Karla Nemeth

California’s State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project span several northern watersheds, converging in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where their pumping stations operate a stone’s throw away from one another. They coordinate their operations on a daily basis and have done so for decades. Earlier this month, the California Department of Water Resources signed three agreements updating how the state and federal projects share  environmental and financial obligations associated with their operations.

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OPINION: Peace In California’s Water Wars Is Within Grasp

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Jeffrey Mount and Ellen Hanak

Dare we say it? The outlines of a truce in California’s unending water battles began to come into focus last week, though not everyone is willing to sign the treaty. The State Water Board adopted the first phase of a far-reaching revision to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento‒San Joaquin Delta and its watershed. This first phase, which has been many years in the making, focuses on the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, and would allocate a greater share of water to the environment.

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