Open Letter -Ron Ringen – Oct 27, 2017 MCWRA Symposium
November 7, 2017
Open Letter to the MCWRA Board of Directors, Executive Director John Kingsbury and Ginny Borkowski
Ron W. Ringen, Director, Tuolumne Utilities District, Sonora, CA
First, I want to thank you, John, and Ginny whole heartedly for all the work and planning to make the October 27, 2017 Symposium be the huge success that it was. And, I want to thank the MCWRA Board of Directors for supporting the Symposium and giving all of the attending members and associates the opportunity to hear firsthand the many various issues (‘stressors’) and viewpoints of the Sierra Nevada and the Delta connection surrounding the fish and water flow dilemma. With such a large number of high caliber speakers/presenters with such different, and, in some cases divergent views on a subject that is so politicized, complex, and convoluted, I feel that you were able to give all of them (the presenters) ample and equal time to provide us with their views and knowledge of the multitude of issues at hand.
The feeling I got was there is just no honest, straight forward plan that will permanently ‘fix’ the multitude of issues that plague the Delta and the Sierra Nevada tributaries. Jim Branham, Executive Officer of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and Doug Demko, President of FISHBIO, laid out the most comprehensive “fix” issues and “fixes”, but all of the speakers were good. There are a cluster of, as I said, divergent view points and narrow agendas, but little done to ascertain real hard facts and find reasonable middle-ground, common-sense solutions that will correct the problems at hand. The fact that the entities that are attempting to undertake bona fide river/stream/fish/water studies/evaluations to provide accurate and adequate information to allow good decisions to be made are being thwarted by overbearing, unreasonable and outrageously expensive permits from numerous government entities just adds salt to the open wound!
Yes, as the program moved into the afternoon panel discussion, the conversation became more about the fish (salmon and steelhead) depletion, but let’s face it, they are the indicators driving all of the conversation for more water from the Sierra Nevada tributaries for ‘fish flows’ and ‘pulse’ flows that are so egregious and harmful to the area-of-origin, and, have proven to be ineffectual if not harmful to the fish!
So, again, a big thank you for putting on a superb learning event!
