The struggle by Tribes, environmental organizations, fishing groups and the people of California to stop the construction of the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), AKA Delta Tunnel, heated up today with the submission of a formal statement with the State Water Resources Control Board that highlights the “fundamental flaws” with the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) hearings. […]
On Friday, Sept. 20, a California appellate court upheld an earlier trial court ruling and found the controversial Sites Reservoir Project environmental impact report (EIR) to be legally adequate, disappointing environmental advocates and fish groups. By Dan Bacher Judge Ronald B. Robie, Presiding Judge of the Third Appellate District Court in Yolo County, concluded that “the environmental impact […]
The struggle against the fish-killing Delta Tunnel, the zombie water boondoggle that keeps getting resurrected by state officials and the state and federal water contractors, continues. In the latest battle in the California water wars, the Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, on behalf of the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (DTEC), submitted a formal letter to the […]
At a press event to celebrate the above average snowpack survey in the Sierra Nevada on April 2, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled the state’s controversial updated California Water Plan to supposedly “protect California’s water supplies from the climate crisis” while boosting the state’s ability to capture and store water for when dry conditions return. By Dan Bacher Among the key […]
Scott Artis, the Golden State Salmon Association’s executive director, responded to the latest California salmon return numbers reported in the Pacific Fishery Management Council report released on February 16, 2024. By Dan Bacher “Under Governor Newsom, the upper Sacramento River, formerly the most important salmon producing river south of the Columbia, has been killed off,” […]
For the sixth year in a row, no Delta Smelt were collected in the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) Survey in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from September through December 2023. By Dan Bacher Once the most abundant species in the entire estuary, the Delta Smelt has declined to the […]
California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for the ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay estuary and its Central Valley watershed, and vowed to provide relief in the form of increased freshwater flows and other benefits for the endangered species and habitats of the vast area covered by the estuary and watershed, […]
Commercial and recreational fishing for salmon will be banned this year in marine waters off California and most of Oregon due to historically low fall run Chinook salmon returns to the Sacramento and Klamath watersheds last year. On Thursday, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) unanimously voted to recommend a full closure of the recreational and commercial fishing season, […]
The following is my short testimony during the the State Water Resources Control Board workshop Monday on the Big Ag-promoted voluntary agreements being pushed by the Newsom Administration: By Dan Bacher My name is Dan Bacher, independent journalist. I strongly oppose the voluntary agreements. These agreements are at their essence an incestuous backroom deal negotiated […]
The leadership of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Golden Gate Fisherman’s Association, and the Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association are calling for an immediate closure of the 2023 salmon season and are requesting that Governor Newsom, the State Legislature, and state agencies seek Federal and State disaster assistance funding for affected ocean […]
The leadership of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Golden Gate Fisherman’s Association, and the Northern California Guides and Sportsmen’s Association are calling for an immediate closure of the 2023 salmon season and are requesting that Governor Newsom, the State Legislature, and state agencies seek Federal and State disaster assistance funding for affected ocean […]
This is the press release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reporting on the CDFW’’s Salmon Information Webinar that took place yesterday. Not mentioned in the press release is that the vast majority of participants showed their vocal support for an ocean and river salmon fishing closure like that one in 2008-2009 when salmon stocks declined to […]
To inform the “Adapting Water Rights to our 21st Century Climate” hearing at the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife on Tuesday 2/28/23, Restore the Delta today released the results of a California water rights analysis by race, completed by employees with the Department of Water Resources, but deleted from the agency’s website soon after […]
On Feb. 9, Representative Josh Harder (D CA-9) reintroduced his Stop the Delta Tunnel Act, a bill that prohibits the Army Corps of Engineers from issuing a federal permit necessary for the State of California to build the Delta Conveyance Project. By Dan Bacher “The Delta Tunnel is a zombie project,” said Rep. Harder in a […]
Stanford, CA – As Central Valley salmon populations plummet and the Bay-Delta ecosystem continues to collapse, a coalition of California Tribes and Bay-Delta Environmental Justice groups submitted comments on Feb. 8 regarding the Draft Scientific Basis Report for proposed Voluntary Agreements (VAs) for the Sacramento River, Delta, and Tributaries Update to the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Water Quality Control Plan. By […]