Water

Winnemem Wintu Tribe Urges Feinstein to Withdraw Salmon Killer Legislation

by Dan Bacher

The Winnemem Wintu (McCloud River) Tribe of northern California today joined environmental organizations and fishing groups in strongly opposing legislation sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein to waive Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for imperiled Central Valley Chinook salmon.

Feinstein has attached an amendment to a jobs stimulus bill that would increase pumping to subsidized corporate agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley. The amendment would convert the “jobs bill” into a “job killer bill” that would result in the destruction of California and Oregon’s once vibrant salmon fishing industry.

Sacramento River Fall Salmon Run Reaches New Record Low

Water Exports Are Killing California Jobs and Salmon

by Dan Bacher

The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC), a quasi-governmental body that manages West Coast fisheries, on February 11 released alarming numbers showing that California’s once most abundant salmon run collapsed to an all-time record low in 2009.

The Council reported that an estimated total of only 39,530 natural and hatchery Sacramento River Fall Chinook (SRFC) adults returned to the Sacramento River basin to spawn in 2009.

"The 2009 adult escapement estimate is the lowest on record and continues the declining trend in SRFC escapement despite the 2008 and 2009 closures of nearly all ocean Chinook fisheries south of Cape Falcon," according to the PFMC report.

"My warden colleagues have a different meaning for 'MPA' – we call them Marine Poaching Areas," said Jerry Karnow, Legislative Liason for the California Fish and Game Wardens Association

Jerry Karnow Exposes The Insanity Behind Schwarzenegger's MLPA

Are MPAs "Marine Poaching Areas?"

by Dan Bacher

In a superb opinion piece in the Sacramento Bee on January 31, Jerry Karnow, Legislative Liason for the California Fish and Game Wardens Association, exposes the insanity behind Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's fast-track Marine Life Protection (MLPA) process.

Karnow emphasizes that the MLPA process is proceeding forward at a time when California has the "lowest ratio of wardens to population of any state or province in North America (http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/2500939.html).

The lack of wardens has made California into a virtual paradise for poachers of fish and wildlife, as revealed in James Swan's ground breaking documentary, Endangered Species: California Fish and Game Wardens (2009). The movie is an expose of the extreme shortage of game wardens in California and its impact on fish, wildlife and wild lands.

Fresno Judge Halts Protection Plan For Winter Run Chinook

by Dan Bacher

(Fresno) Federal Judge Oliver Wanger on Friday afternoon put a temporary hold on a federal plan (biological opinion) protecting salmon from the fish-killing California Delta pumps that deliver water to corporate agribusiness and southern California.

The ruling, in place for 14 days, allows for unlimited pumping, at least unless the projects hit "take" limits for salmon killed at the pumps or until Delta smelt protections are triggered in the Delta. The ruling can be extended by the judge for 14 more days.

Westlands Water District, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and other water districts requested the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) so that water exports from the Delta could be increased. The pumping restrictions are designed to protect migrating juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon from being killed in the massive federal and state project pumps.

Westlands Water District, the "Darth Vader of California water politics, is requesting a federal judge to order lifting restrictions on the operation of huge delta water pumps and canals from February through May, according to a news release from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations and Water4Fish.

The move takes place as Westlands Water District, southern Calfornia water agencies, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature are pushing for the construction of a peripheral canal and new dams to export more water from the California Delta. If the peripheral canal is built, it is likely to result in pushing Central Valley salmon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon and other fish into the abyss of extinction.

Salmon Water Now Exposes Big Ag's Manipulation of Delta Water Policy

by Dan Bacher

Salmon Water Now, a collaboration between fishermen and media professionals, has released a superb new video, “The Water Pirates,” describing how agribusiness maintains a dangerous stranglehold on water management policy in California, according to Larry Collins, commercial salmon fisherman. Anybody who is interested in seeing how Democratic and Republican Party politicians have both manipulated California water politics to benefit big agriculture's corporate welfare recipients should watch this video, produced by Bruce Tokars, and urge their friends and co-workers to do so also.

You can watch the Video at: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqVc8Hbmqk&fmt=18 or Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/8521134.

"The video focuses on the controversial California water bond as well as U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s (D-CA) continued efforts to benefit her friend, campaign contributor, and agribusiness billionaire Stuart Resnick by attempting to expand the practice of private interests selling subsidized public water for huge profits to non-farm users - all while undermining efforts to restore vital Sacramento River salmon runs,"

I am disgusted that Senator Dianne Feinstein, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and the Obama administration have agreed to conduct a political farce under the guise of "science." The irony is that the biological opinion that is being "reviewed" by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a plan that a federal judge ordered rewritten under the Bush administration. Now the Obama administration, under pressure from big water interests, is doing a review of a court-ordered biological opinion that was begun under the Bush administration!

Doesn't that put the Obama administration to the environmental right of the Bush administration, since it was the re-written biological opinion begun under the Bush administration that "limousine liberal" Stewart Resnick and southern California water interests are challenging because it is "too protective" of salmon, smelt and other fish?

Big Water Interests Hijack Obama Delta Science Team

Another evacuation ordered in Pacifica

Henry K. Lee,Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 21, 2010
(01-21) 11:13 PST Pacifica --

Several residents at a seaside Pacifica apartment building were ordered to evacuate this morning because of an eroding bluff that has already forced the red-tagging of the structure next door.

I'm glad that Schwarzenegger is directing state agencies to prepare for possible flooding this week. However, you can bet that if the next couple of months result in the filling of the state's reservoirs and some regional flooding, Schwarzenegger, just as he used the "drought" to campaign for the legislative path to a peripheral canal and more dams that passed through the legislature in November, will use the threat of catastrophic flooding of Biblical proportions to promote the $11.1 water bond on the November ballot.

Is Schwarzenegger's Big Drought Over?

Governor Directs State Agencies to Prepare for Winter Storms

Salmon Returns Down At Coleman, Up at Other Central Valley Hatcheries

by Dan Bacher

In the coming weeks, biologists will be compiling the statistics on the 2009 fall-run Chinook salmon returns on Central Valley rivers as the state and federal fishery agencies prepare to develop the fishing regulations for the 2010 salmon season.

Based on preliminary estimates, Sacramento River Chinook salmon counts for the fall of 2009 are down and could be headed to another all time low, according to Dick Pool, administrator of Water for Fish.

The numbers of fish that returned to Coleman National Fish Hatchery, the Central Valley’s largest salmon producer, were down considerably from even last year's dismal run, while salmon numbers were up from 2008 at the Nimbus, Feather River and Mokelumne River fish hatcheries. The complete numbers of salmon that spawned naturally in the rivers, based on carcass surveys, are not available yet.

“State water mismanagement continues to spiral the populations downward," said Pool. “It is clear that the over pumping of water from the California Delta and the failure to protect fish in the state's water policies are to blame. A 2010 salmon fishing season is in question again."

Building a Progressive California Democratic Party Platform

The Wellstone Progressive Democrats of Sacramento (PDA) held a meeting on Saturday, Jan. 9th to discuss improvements to the CA Democratic Party (CDP) Platform. All area Progressive Democrats were invited by Wellstone President Tamie Dramer and Political Affairs Chair Chris Niehaus to help shape the Party's Platform. CDP Platform Committee member Christine Thomas started off with a brief overview of the committee. CDP Progressive Caucus Chair (and PDA NorCal co-coordinator) Karen Bernal spoke about the need for Progressives in California to change the Party and how we can use our numbers to improve our platform. The room overflowed with attendees that took on issues such as Health Care, the Environment, Energy, Labor, Economic Justice, Poverty Elimination, Education & Criminal Justice.

Thank You Sen. Wolk for speaking truth to power and opposing the water package!

January 11, 2010
Wolk, Wiggins lose big in committee shake-up

Sen. Lois Wolk, wasn't shy about her disdain for the water package passed last fall -- or Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's role in crafting the agreement.

The Davis Democrat emerged from last week's reorganization of Senate committee rosters with just two of the seven committee assignments she previously held.

Coincidence?

Governor Can Really Help North Coast by Suspending MLPA Process

by Dan Bacher

On January 10, Melissa Miller-Henson from the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative sent a message to the "north coast community" regarding the magnitude 6.5 earthquake that struck the Eureka area Saturday. The quake damaged homes and businesses, toppled chimneys, knocked out traffic signals, snapped power lines and left a trail of broken windows, dishes and bottles.

"The MLPA Initiative staff would like to extend our deepest and most heartfelt wishes to those living in the Eureka area," the MLPA I-Team stated. "It has been a relief to hear from news reports that there were no fatalities and, overall, the region fared relatively well given the magnitude of the earthquake. May you and yours be safe and out of harms way."

The article, "USDA Data Dispels Myth that West Side Growers Feed the Nation," http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/01/01/1863, elicited both cheers and jeers, including these two completely different responses from Mike Fitzgerald of the Stockton Record and and Mike Wade of the Farm Water Coalition.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, to kick off the New Year, submitted his proposed budget for 2010-11 on January 8. Schwarzenegger claimed that the eviscerated budget "closes a $19.9 billion gap over the next 18 months between revenues and projected state expenditures by streamlining government, reducing costs and reforming our relationship with the federal government." Schwarzenegger also declared a fiscal emergency and immediately called the legislature into a focused special session to prevent the shortfall from growing and to avoid further cuts.