Northern California Congressional Leaders Send Letter Urging More Analysis of Bay Delta Conservation Plan Process
WASHINGTON, DC – On July 16, Congressman John Garamendi (D-Fairfield, CA), a Member of the House Natural Resources Committee and former Deputy Secretary of the Interior, sent a letter to Interior Secretary Salazar, Acting Commerce Secretary Blank, California Governor Brown, and California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Laird encouraging them to undertake a more thorough statewide cost-benefit analysis in the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) process.
Congressman Garamendi was joined in the letter by Representatives George Miller, Jerry McNerney, Mike Thompson, Doris Matsui, Lynn Woolsey, Pete Stark, Barbara Lee, Sam Farr, Jackie Speier, and Anna Eshoo.
The letter points out serious deficiencies in a recent benefit analysis conducted by Dr. David Sunding for state officials on whether a planned conveyance facility would be large enough for water exporters. This analysis and the present course of BDCP policy have failed to look at the catastrophic costs that would occur with a facility of the scale currently being considered. As the letter states, the project “threatens water districts, fishermen, agriculture, landowners, and other stakeholders in Northern California by assuming massive increases in water exports and regulatory assurances that would shift the mitigation burden to other water rights holders.” Even the smallest conveyance facility considered in Dr. Sunding’s analysis would present an unacceptable danger to the ecologically vulnerable Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Delta and northern California water users, and the regional economy that the Delta supports………..read more (click here)
