Badlands Journal
Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice
7-7-07
Sacramento Bee
Rancho Cordova stymied
Worried about vernal pools, judge overturns OK of the Preserve housing project.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/260784.html
A Sacramento judge Friday overturned Rancho Cordova's approval of a proposed development that has put the city at odds with federal environmental agencies.
“We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics.” So declared F.D.R. in 1937 ... Paul Krugman, New York Times, July 9, 2007
The public of the north San Joaquin Valley remembers being told by its elected officials, planning staff with advanced degrees in urban planning, lending institutions, insurance companies and realtors (even those not elected to local land-use authorities), that our growth boom was all planned, it would pay for itself, and prosperity was right around the corner.
Although drainage flows to Kesterson were halted in 1985 following intense media exposure of the problem, selenium-contaminated farm drainage continues to flow to many wildlife refuges in more than a dozen western states, and food chain levels of selenium in those refuges reveal a continuing threat to bird populations. -- Lloyd Carter, Fresno Bee, July 5, 2007
UC Merced Now Home To The Only Animal Research Facility In The Valley
...Roy Hoglund, lab animal resource center director, says "after 4 weeks, the animals are sent to U.C. Davis, the comparative pathology for rodent health diagnostic testing."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has replaced the former chairman of the California Air Resources Board with Mary Nichols, secretary of the Resources Agency during the Gov. Gray Davis administration. The occasion for the switch according to the Hun's flaks was CARB's approval of the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District's decision to forestall the cleanup of Valley air for another 11 years, thereby, in the infinite legerdemain of air pollution regulations, also forestalling a possible cessation of federal highway funds.
When one looks seriously at the probable extinction of the Delta Smelt, the only thread in the history is the one most denied in the San Joaquin Valley: the systematic, long-range, politically rigged destruction of Public Trust law and natural resources by agribusiness lords and by the aggressions of water agencies led by Wetlands Water District.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger probably didn't fire California Air Resources Board Chairman Robert F. Sawyer because Valley citizens spent the last several months looking for win-win, public-private solutions to air pollution in the Valley while the regional board voted to extend the deadline for air cleanup 11 more years.
Mr. Carter will give us the BIG picture on the Merced River - where it comes from and where it goes - as well as the importance of the river to our communities. Lloyd Carter is very knowledgeable about water issues and will also be speaking at the later in the day...Lloyd Carter continues his exploration of water and river issues in the San Joaquin Valley context. 1.5 hour talk at Heartland Festival/River Fair, Riverdance Farm, 2007.
The California Rangeland Conservation Coalition recently sent a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, urging him to terminate his opposition to the Williamson Act. The text of the letter appears below.
On a related note: despite claims from state officials that Delta smelt are no longer in the vicinity of the export pumps, DWR acknowledged it collected 327 smelt at the salvage facilities yesterday. The actual number of smelt killed is likely 30 times that number. -- Bill Jennings, CSPA Executive Director, June 29, 2007
Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced, continues to deny he is a Nancy Boy and fiddles with the controls on his home solar system while the Delta Smelt goes extinct for subsidized cotton.