MCWRA Provides Comments on Bay-Delta Framework
On July 27, 2018, the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association (MCWRA) sent a comment letter to the State Water Resources Control Board and expressed significant concerns related to the their staff’s development and public release of the Framework on July 9, 2018.
John Kingsbury, Executive Director, MCWRA
I write on behalf of Mountain Counties Water Resources Association (MCWRA) which represents the headwaters, forests and water supplies so critically important to the counties, cities and water districts/agencies that have long depended upon the water resources of the Sierra Nevada….
…The unimpaired flows would impose unique hardships and significant impacts on foothills and mountain communities. This is not understood by many of those who do not live or work in the foothills and the headwaters of California. The adoption of this Framework will penalize rural disadvantaged communities in the Mountain Counties, increase fire-prone vegetation, exacerbate tree mortality and the risk of catastrophic fire in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), degrade air quality, and increase ground temperature. As presently constituted, this Framework will harm the residents, wildlife, aquatic plants and fish species, endangered species, and the overall health of the Sierra Nevada environment. A wrong decision that results in curtailing rural water usage that is inextricably integrated within the natural environment, is a failure to understand the value of this water being kept in circulation, its role in decreasing the risk of catastrophic fire, and the potential long-term costs to the state for impairing its water sources.
The letter discusses several examples of significant concerns with the proposed Framework and calls for Water Board leadership to retract the proposed Framework.
- Increased Risk of Catastrophic Wildfires
- Impacts to Hydroelectric Generation and the Energy Grid
- Lack of Groundwater or other Readily Available Alternative Water Supplies
- Impacts to Recreational Facilities and Opportunities
- The Human Right to Water
- The Mountain Counties ARE the Area of Origin
Addressing the SWRCB…Your leadership is requested to retract this staff Framework and reset the path we are on. While instream fishery needs are certainly important and worthy of reasonable protection, so too are all other beneficial uses in the mountain counties region.
Click link for letter to the SWRCB:July 27 Comment Letter – SWRCB
