Were you curious about seeing the public comments made during the public scoping period for the controversial Delta Tunnel to divert water from the Sacramento River before it flows through the Delta? If you made a comment, did you want to check to see if your comment was included? Well, here’s your chance. By Dan Bacher […]
The Sites Reservoir is a potential large new reservoir on 14,000 acres approx. 80 miles northwest of Sacramento. As currently proposed, the $4.7 billion project would create new water diversions from the Sacramento River and would increase pressure to divert water from the Trinity River, in order to store and transport water for industrial agriculture […]
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) today took another key action in its plan to build the Delta Tunnel, a massive public works project that a coalition of fishermen, Tribal leaders, environmentalists, family farmers, Delta residents, elected officials and other Californians considers to be potentially the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history. By Dan […]
In a press release, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today announced the introduction of her Restoration of Essential Conveyance Act, a bill to authorize $800 million in federal funding “to repair critical canals in the San Joaquin Valley damaged by land sinking from overpumping of groundwater, known as subsidence, and for environmental restoration.” By Dan Bacher As I […]
On April 30 during the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the negotiators for the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Contractors finalized an Agreement In Principle (AIP) for the State Contract Amendment for Delta Conveyance, according to a notice sent out yesterday by the Kearns and West Facilitation Team. By Dan Bacher This is a significant […]
It’s seems that nobody is happy with the California Department of Resources (DWR) over its water policies this week. Just after the state and federal water contractors sued DWR and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife over their incidental take permit for endangered species, four environmental groups on Wednesday, April 29, sued DWR in the San Francisco Superior […]
The California water wars amped up today when the State Water Contractors (SWC) today filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) over the March 31 Incidental Take Permit (ITP) for the long-term operation of the State Water Project (SWP). By Dan Bacher The Incidental Take Permit allows the […]
I tried to join yesterday’s on-line emergency teleconference of the California Fish and Game Commission, but this reporter, along with many others, wasn’t able to get on the call or webinar. By Dan Bacher The Commission was scheduled remotely to meet at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, April 9, to discuss delegating temporary authority to the California Department of […]
The state of California is continuing ahead with plans for the Delta Tunnel, a project to divert more water from Northern California for San Joaquin Valley agribusiness and Southern California water agencies, in spite of the COVID 19 global pandemic. Fishermen, Tribal leaders, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, scientists, many elected leaders, family farmers, Delta business owners and […]
There is a little bit of good news amidst all the bad news about the Coronavirus global pandemic — the Department of Water Resources has extended its new deadline for public comment on the scoping period for the Delta Tunnel to 5 p.m. on Friday, April 17, 2020 and cancelled the Stakeholder Engagement Committee meeting […]
Rejecting the recommendations of the top three striped bass scientific experts on striped bass and Delta fisheries in the state, the California Fish and Game Commission voted unanimously on Friday, February 21, to adopt its first Delta Fisheries Management Policy and an amended Striped Bass Policy that has no numerical goal for the restoration of […]
This great map graphic shows how the “new” Single Tunnel Plan that would be constructed under the Delta “is the same as the old plan. And what is different (not much),” according to Jan McCleery, past president of the Save the California Delta Alliance (STCDA). By Dan Bacher “The only difference is a possible new Eastern […]
Yesterday, I received an announcement from the Kearns and West Facilitation Team that the public meeting for contract amendments for the Governor Gavin Newsom’s Delta Tunnel scheduled for Wednesday, February 5, 2020 has been cancelled and rescheduled for Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 10 a.m. By Dan Bacher Kerns and West is the same facilitation […]
The Bureau of Reclamation issued an order on January 10 to reduce water releases on the American River below Nimbus Dam, the crown jewel of the Sacramento Region, from 2,500 cfs to 2,000 pubic feet per second (cfs) on January 15. Yet after issuing that order, the Bureau dropped the flows even lower, down to 1800 […]
On Friday, January 10, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued an order to reduce water releases on the American River below Nimbus Dam from 2,500 cfs to 2,000 cfs at a time when fall Chinook salmon eggs are incubating in the redds (nests). By Dan Bacher Peggy L. Manza, Reclamation spokesperson, cited “storage conservation” (in […]