Hundreds rally at the Capitol to “Stop the Water Grab”
Last Monday, a rally at the Capitol steps led by Assembly Member Adam Gray, led the opposition to the state plan to divert 40 percent of flows from the Tuolumne, Merced, and Stanislaus rivers despite dozens of scientific studies showing there are alternatives that would do more to help fish populations
Assembly Member Adam Gray
The “Stop the State Water Grab” rally, attended by several hundred people from all parts of California, including from Mountain Counties, heard from several congressional representatives, state legislators, mayors, county supervisors and others all protesting the direction of the State Water Resources Control Board.
Congressman Doug LaMalfa
Congressman Tom McClintock
Congressman Jim Costa
Senator Jim Nielsen
Assembly Member James Gallagher
More pictures in the gallery
Modesto Bee:
Water plan will ‘decimate’ economy; hundreds converge at Capitol for protest
A boisterous rally Monday sent a message to the state to keep its hands off the water rights of communities in the Central Valley and reconsider a new water allocation plan that won’t be effective in restoring salmon in rivers.
About 1,500 attended the gathering outside the state Capitol Building organized by leaders from Stanislaus and Merced counties. People held signs and chanted “stop the water grab” in an outpouring of passion against an appointed state water board that proposes to take double the amount of water from the Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced rivers and use it for salmon restoration.
August 15, 2018
By John Kingsbury, Executive Director, Mountain Counties Water Resources Association
The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Bay-Delta Water Quality Release would mandate a minimum of 40% of “unimpaired flow” along the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced Rivers each year from February 1 to June 30 for fish. Look for the same percentage or more on the Sacramento system and tributaries. “Unimpaired flow” is a hydrology term for natural runoff of a watershed or waterbody that would have occurred prior to anthropogenic or human influences on the watershed. This proposed application is fantasy, as not only do we have a highly altered watershed with dams and diversions, we have a highly altered Delta waterway that includes dozens of islands and over one-thousand miles of levees and diversions that will never return to pre-anthropogenic or human influenced conditions.
That said, a critical element missing from this “flow” discussion is the science developed by the Delta Independent Science Board (Delta ISB), created by the Delta Stewardship Council, a State agency established by the 2009 Delta Reform Act.
Thanks to the Calaveras Enterprise, Mavens Notebook, Mountain Democrat, MyMotherLode.com, and the Union Democrat for printing the opinion.
