9-12-09

 
9-12-09
Badlands Journal
End the charade...Badlands Journal editorial board
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-09-12/007405
Three-quarters of likely California voters disapprove of their state Legislature this month and think it is run by a few special interests. This is the worst rating the Legislature has received in the 11 years of Public Policy Institute of California polling, the institute reported this week. The names of those interests are FIRE – Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate.  
Why would FIRE be interested in California water?
Badlands Journal editorial board
Indybay
Senator Lois Wolk Withdraws Authorship of Delta Conservancy Bill...Dan Bacher...9-10-09
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/09/18621433.php
In a strongly worded statement, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) today withdrew her authorship of Senate Bill 458, legislation that would establish a Delta Conservancy, because of her concern than the bill's amended version would serve as a "tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Senator Wolk withdraws authorship of Delta bill in protest
Groups slam water bill package...Dan Bacher
In a strongly worded statement, Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis) today withdrew her authorship of Senate Bill 458, legislation that would establish a Delta Conservancy, because of her concern that the bill's amended version would serve as a "tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Wolk took this unusual action after being notified by Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) that her legislation would be amended in a Water Conference Committee with provisions Senator Wolk and the five Delta counties opposed. Wolk has been replaced with Senators Steinberg and Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) as the authors of SB 458.
"When I learned that the Conference Committee intended to alter key provisions of the bill, as well as other pieces of the water package, it was clear I could no longer carry this legislation," said Senator Wolk. "What began as a sincere effort to create a state and local partnership to restore the Delta and sustain the Delta communities and economy is becoming, day by day, amendment by amendment, a tool to assist water exporters who are primarily responsible for the Delta's decline."
Wolk's withdrawal of the legislation authorship comes as a huge, diverse coalition of northern California water agencies, Delta farmers, fishermen, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, California Indian Tribes and others are opposing Steinberg's mad rush to push water legislation through the Capitol by Friday, the last day of the legislative session. They are asking Steinberg and the Committee to delay the legislation, a thinly-veiled road road map to the peripheral canal that greatly undermines the public trust and California water rights law, until next session.
Steinberg, in an effort to push a peripheral canal and water bond that would result in increased water exports out of the imperiled Delta, excluded Wolk, Assemblymember Mariko Yamada (D-Davis) and other Delta Legislators from the politically-stacked 14 member Water Conference Committee.
"It is regrettable," said Wolk of the amendments to her bill and the exclusion of Delta legislators and residents from the water bill process. "Without the Delta communities as working partners in this effort it is unlikely to succeed."
The California Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, encompasses five counties, 27 cities and two ports. It provides world class birding, fishing, wind-surfing and hiking—and is home to 500,000 acres of small family farms that produce world class pears, asparagus, wine grapes, and contribute $2 billion to California's economy, according to Wolk.
It provides habitat for 90 percent of California’s chinook salmon, which not only support the West Coast’s $1 billion salmon fishery but are also a critical food source for the southern resident population of killer whales. Unfortunately, record water exports to corporate agribusiness and southern California in recent years have resulted in the collapse of Central Valley salmon, green sturgeon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass and other fish populations.
On the same day Wolk withdrew her authorship of SB 458, representatives from Restore the Delta, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the California Water Impact Network, Friends of the River, Heal the Bay, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe, and the Environmental Water Caucus issued a joint statement slamming the "closed-door negotiations masquerading as Joint Water Conference Committee hearings" in the California State Legislature.
“Today’s release of the water bill package just reaffirms what so many of us have become accustomed to when the State Legislature rushes to solve a complex problem," the groups stated. "It was clear from the day Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Speaker Karen Bass appointed the members to the Water Conference committee without including a single member of the State Legislature who represents the heart of the Delta or is committed to protecting the Delta that this committee was just a façade with the sole purpose of producing a public relations ‘win’ for the legislature and the chance to help build the Schwarzenegger legacy, not necessarily to address the real water policy issues that impact all Californians."
The following is the joint statement:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 9, 2009
Contact: Roger Salazar (for Restore the Delta) (916) 444-8897
Statement from Delta Community, Environment and Fishing Groups on Results of Joint Water Conference Committee Closed-Door Negotiations
Sacramento - Today, representatives from Restore the Delta; the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance; the California Water Impact Network; Friends of the River; Heal the Bay; Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations; the Winnemem Wintu Tribe; and the Environmental Water Caucus issued the following joint statement regarding the closed-door negotiations masquerading as Joint Water Conference Committee hearings in the California State Legislature:
“Today’s release of the water bill package just reaffirms what so many of us have become accustomed to when the State Legislature rushes to solve a complex problem.
“It was clear from the day Senate President Darrell Steinberg and Speaker Karen Bass appointed the members to the Water Conference committee without including a single member of the State Legislature who represents the heart of the Delta or is committed to protecting the Delta that this committee was just a façade with the sole purpose of producing a public relations ‘win’ for the legislature and the chance to help build the Schwarzenegger legacy, not necessarily to address the real water policy issues that impact all Californians.
“Instead of bringing groups together to find common ground on these complex issues the California Legislature has decided to fall back into an all too familiar pattern that includes:
· Making up the rules as they go along without regard to legislative deadlines.
· Writing the legislation in the dark of night without any public input or review.
· Proposing to abdicate their own oversight authority by allowing an unelected body of gubernatorial appointees to make key decisions regarding tens of billions of dollars on water projects, statewide water fees and management of the Delta.
“We agree that water is one of the highest priority issues for our state, but it must be done right and not just right away.
“The last time the Legislature rushed and put water politics over good water policy, the voters responded by overturning the Peripheral Canal via referendum in 1982.
“In the face of recent surveys showing the public would still overwhelmingly reject the legislative water package should it appear before them in 2010 either directly in the form of a bond or indirectly as the result of another referendum, it is astonishing that the Legislature would continue with this charade.” #####
Contra Costa Times
Last-ditchgambit made for Delta fix
Capitol to mulldeal before break...Mike Taugher
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_13310701
Lawmakers who have had few successes this year are expected to decide before midnight Friday whether to go forward with a far-reaching and potentially very expensive plan to revamp the state's water laws and the future of the Delta.
Two of the biggest pieces of the legislative puzzle were released early Thursday morning, and perhaps the biggest piece -- how to pay for it -- had not yet been made public late Thursday. If negotiations on financing fall through, it is possible that the bills might not reach the full Legislature.
Nevertheless, legislative leaders anxious to make progress on something important are hopeful of getting the package approved Friday, the last day of the 2009 session.
At the center of debate is a controversial canal that would take Sacramento River water around the Delta to as far away as Southern California -- an aqueduct that many of the state's biggest water agencies want and that some environmental groups say is worthy of consideration, but that many Delta representatives adamantly oppose.
The legislation sets conditions on the canal -- namely that it not be approved until it is assured that adequate water flows remain for the Delta ecosystem, and that approval be granted if it meets the standards of the state's Natural Community Conservation Planning law, which is meant to go further than endangered species laws and actually lead to full recovery of degraded ecosystems.
The latest drafts, however, leave open the possibility for the canal to be approved even if plans fall short of that standard.
"It's the most complex water deal we have dealt with in a half-century," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
Quinn said his group, which represents most of the state's water agencies, was opposed to the package as written but hoped it could be substantially improved Friday.
Particularly troubling for water agencies, who could be on the hook for billions in new infrastructure costs, was the policy embedded in the bills that the state would reduce its reliance on the Delta for water and find other ways to meet the growing state's thirst.
A scientific finding of such a necessity might be acceptable, Quinn said, but a policy determination that less water would be available from the Delta was unacceptable to water districts that could be spending billions.
"We're going to make it worse," he said. "That's bad policy."
Some environmental groups support the package, with the caveat that could change if the financing plan is too expensive or promised dams might be environmentally destructive.
Delta and local environmental groups, many of whom are dead set against a peripheral canal, are largely opposed.
Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, pulled out as author of one of the five policy bills in the package -- a bill to create a Delta conservancy -- saying backroom negotiations among legislative leaders and some of the biggest water districts had watered down the bill.
In particular, she was angered by a change that relieved water districts from the cost of compensating Delta counties for economic damage they might cause. Construction of a canal, which could have a right-of-way as wide as 1,000 feet, and the wetlands restoration that would accompany it would take Delta land out of economic production and off tax rolls. Wolk said those who divert water should contribute to offsetting the economic damage that would result.
"What they did in the middle of the night was remove the language that would allow economic sustainability to be part of the calculus," Wolk said. "The partnerships between the counties and the state have been ruptured."
It was unknown late Thursday how the package would be paid for, but lawmakers were in talks for a bond package.
Delta package
Lawmakers on Friday will consider a five-part package plus a finance plan that had not been released late Thursday. The bills would:
· Allow a controversial canal to be built under certain conditions and reform much of the way California's water is governed.
· Require a Delta plan be created to implement a "Delta Vision" plan adopted by an independent task force last year.
· Require urban water agencies to reduce water use by 20 percent per capita statewide, though the bill contains loopholes for parts of the state.
· Establish a Delta Conservancy.
· Stiffen enforcement of water rights and regulate use of groundwater. 
Merced Sun-Star
Arvin Sango closing facility
55 manufacturing jobs lost, fallout from closing of Fremont car plant...SCOTT JASON
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167
Arvin Sango announced Friday that it would close its Merced plant, which manufactures engine exhaust components and employs 55 workers.
The decision to close the plant, a blow to Merced's already ailing economy, didn't come as a surprise.
The plant supplies parts to the Fremont-based New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), which was a joint venture between Toyota and General Motors that ended this summer. It is the only West Coast auto manufacturing plant.
California has lost 580,000 manufacturing jobs -- a quarter of its total -- since 2001. NUMMI's closure could eliminate about 40,000 more.
Merced County's manufacturing sector peaked in 1998, employing 12,100 people. Last year, it was down to 9,400.
The NUMMI closure could have a widespread effect on the struggling San Joaquin Valley economy. About 1,150 people work in north Valley plants, mostly in San Joaquin County, that supply parts to NUMMI.
Arvin Sango Vice President Dan Baughman said the closure is purely a business decision to stay competitive in the manufacturing industry.
"These actions do not reflect on the performance of the Merced facility or its members," Baughman said in a statement. "Our members are highly skilled and have worked hard to support our customer demands."
Arvin Sango opened its Merced plant in November 1995. Its work force grew to about 70 workers. Two years ago, it doubled the size of its plant to 63,000 square feet.
Signs of trouble sprang up this summer when a bankrupt General Motors withdrew from the NUMMI partnership. Toyota soon followed suit. Officials said last month they would end NUMMI production of the Tacoma and Corolla lines by March 31.
Arvin Sango said its plant will be closed by March.
Merced Economic Development Manager Frank Quintero said every manufacturing or industrial job supports two or three additional jobs in other industries, such as food service or retail.
Using that estimate, at least 60 other jobs may be affected.
Besides jobs, Quintero said Arvin Sango was an active member in the community, giving the city money for the youth sports complex on Wardrobe Avenue and donating to help restore the Merced Theatre building's tower.
"It's a sad loss. We've had a great relationship," Quintero said. "Its absence in the community will definitely be felt."
Arvin Sango's building and equipment, appraised at $7 million, is in the redevelopment zone, so roughly 70 percent of its property tax goes to the city's Redevelopment Agency. That money is spent revitalizing other parts of central Merced.
The closure will mean another vacancy in the beleaguered industrial park, which was also once home to the tomato processing plant, 84 Lumber and Modine Western, which made auto parts as well.
The city has been marketing the slots, though no solid tenants have come forward. Quintero said Arvin Sango's plant may be attractive to businesses because it's one large building rather than several small ones. It also sits on nine acres and has access to the railroad.
Sacramento Bee
U.S. official fears new California logging rules may hurt salmon...Matt Weiser
http://www.sacbee.com/378/v-print/story/2177232.html
New logging rules intended to protect California salmon may do just the opposite, according to federal officials who are considering additional industry monitoring to prevent extinction.
The California Board of Forestry on Wednesday granted initial approval to the new rules governing logging near streams in coastal and mountain forests.
The unanimous vote by the nine-member board came after a decade of pressure from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which had warned repeatedly that state logging rules didn't do enough to protect salmon habitat from erosion and high temperatures.
The forestry board, however, rejected protections sought by the service and by the state Department of Fish and Game.
Charlotte Ambrose, California salmon recovery coordinator for the federal fisheries service, called the rules approved Wednesday an "overall weakening" of those in place before. She said they likely would push the state's already imperiled salmon and steelhead closer toward extinction. "There is a likelihood of harm to salmon or steelhead should forest practices proceed under these rules," Ambrose said.
The national fisheries service may impose its own regulations on logging plans in some areas of California if state rules gain final approval at the forestry board's October meeting, Ambrose said.
The decision comes amid an unprecedented California salmon crisis. Commercial harvest of Central Valley chinook has been suspended for a second year due to a record-low population.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has pressed the Obama administration for economic aid in response to the salmon crisis. Yet he also has urged federal officials to weaken salmon protections that govern reservoir operations.
Schwarzenegger's appointments have tilted the forestry board in favor of logging interests. By law, three board members must come from industry and five from the public at large. The governor named industry-leaning members to two of the public seats.
At issue are protective buffers around streams and how so-called "Class 2" streams are defined.
Class 2 streams are those that hold water year-round and have important spawning habitat. They are fed by Class 3 waterways – small tributaries that dry up in summer.
The state Department of Fish and Game urged the Board of Forestry to assume that wherever two seasonal waterways meet to form a water-bearing stream, it should be considered a Class 2. Buffers then would be required around that Class 2 zone to limit or prevent logging.
Tractors and other heavy logging equipment can cause erosion that clogs gravel where salmon could spawn. Excessive tree removal along streams reduces shade and can cause water to become too hot for fish.
Instead, the forestry board approved its own process for defining Class 2 waterways: Foresters working for logging companies will determine in the field whether a stream merits Class 2 status and its buffer zones.
State officials would determine later whether the forester's decision was valid.
"It was a piece of rule language that, in my personal opinion, wasn't as well written," said Mark Stopher, an environmental program manager with state Fish and Game. "I'm a little disappointed. But we can make this work."
The forestry board also shrank the buffer zone from 150 to 100 feet for Class 1 streams – larger waterways that hold fish year-round. It banned logging within 30 feet of those waterways, and will restrict the number of trees that can be cut between 30 and 100 feet.
Industry officials say the new rules don't allow enough logging near streams.
"The concern is that we're going to re-create an environment that's going to foster severe wildfire," said Bob Mion, spokesman for the California Forestry Association. "When fire burns severely in those areas, the effect on watershed health is devastating."
Editorial: County should come clean on pensions
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/v-print/story/2176905.html
California's Public Records Act is not just a tool for journalists. The law, as its name implies, is meant to empower the public.
Among other things, the act gives citizens the right to know how the government is spending their taxes. This includes retirement payments for public employees – a large and growing part of nearly every government's budget.
When private citizens reccently filed a Public Records Act request seeking the names and former positions of public employees earning more than $100,000 annually in pensions, administrators at the California Public Employees' Retirement System complied.
But when The Sacramento Bee's Robert Lewis filed a request for the same information with Sacramento County, retirement officials refused. Citing state law, the attorney for the Sacramento County Employees Retirement System claimed that the information was confidential. The Bee disagrees and has sued.
Citizens should be outraged that this case may end up in court.
Sacramento County's retirement fund lost close to 20 percent of its value in the recent stock market crash, dropping nearly $1 billion. To keep the fund healthy – able to pay the pensions promised – the county has borrowed money.
More than $270 million will be needed this fiscal year to service this debt and contribute to the retirement fund, according to the county. That's $80 million more than the county paid in 2007.
The stock market is a big factor in this budding financial crisis, but so are overly generous pensions. Over the strong objections of this page, county supervisors raised retirement benefits in 2003. Under the richer formulas, some county employees – the county is refusing to reveal how many – will earn more the day they retire than when they worked.
To pay those big pensions, the county has had to lay off some workers, furlough others and cut vital services to the public. In seeking details of pension payouts, The Bee is attempting to shine a light on pension excesses that have put county employees and the public at risk.
San Francisco Chronicle
UC president recommends huge tuition increases, Sept. 11, front page...Correction
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/12/MN1819LR35.DTL&type=printable
The introduction to a chart accompanying a story about proposed tuition increases at the University of California mischaracterized the data. It should have said that the figures reflected basic tuition with mandatory fees and surcharges.
Take a mulligan at Sharp Park...Brent Plater. Brent Plater is the director of Restore Sharp Park (restoresharppark.org).
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/10/EDFF19K1GH.DTL&type=printable
It's time for San Francisco to take a mulligan at Sharp Park: Let's take another shot and build a better public park, a park that will protect the environment and create a recreational space that everyone can enjoy.
Sharp Park golf course is beset by numerous problems. It is losing money, it needs millions of dollars in capital improvements and the golfers who play there give it failing grades in nearly every category the National Golf Foundation measures.
It is also killing two of the Bay Area's most wondrous and imperiled animals: the endangered San Francisco garter snake - arguably the most beautiful and imperiled serpent in North America - and the threatened California red-legged frog - the largest frog native to the West, made famous by Mark Twain's short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."
Most of these problems can be directly traced to golf architect Alister MacKenzie's original design. The design required dredging and filling the coastal landscape for 14 months, and it destroyed a natural barrier that provided Sharp Park with protection from the Pacific Ocean. Thus, a huge coastal storm permanently damaged the links. Eventually a levee was constructed along the coastal edge of Sharp Park, and several links were moved into an upland canyon. But rather than solving the flooding problem, the levee and redesign exacerbated it. The new design blocked the natural water seeps and outflows through Sharp Park to the ocean, and the course now floods during normal winter rains.
The commonsense thing to do at Sharp Park now is to close the golf course and turn management of the property over to the adjacent Golden Gate National Recreation Area. San Franciscans' No. 1 recreational demand is for more hiking and biking trails: golf comes 16th out of 19 activities in the same study. We can meet this demand by building trails connecting Sharp Park to Mori Point and Sweeny Ridge, while giving diverse user groups access to the property.
But golf advocacy groups have categorically rejected anything but 18 holes of golf at Sharp Park, and instead have proposed reducing costs by getting rid of the unionized workforce, privatizing course management, and creating an elite golf course that charges $80 to $120 per round to play, as compared to the $19 to $31 now charged. And they want to do this by re-creating MacKenzie's original design, the design that created the problems in the first place.
But if this proposal is adopted, even golfers will be worse off. Golf is overbuilt in the Bay Area, causing greens fees to drop and courses to close. If we continue to throw good money after bad on Sharp Park's poor design, other, better courses will be forced to shut down, and the game as a whole will suffer because of it.
By closing Sharp Park, San Francisco will realize a net savings of thousands of dollars annually in the money-losing golf program, and can reinvest this money to improve other municipal courses, increasing access to affordable golf throughout the city.
With San Francisco, Pacifica and the National Park Service working in partnership, Sharp Park can become a community-centered model for outdoor recreation, natural flood control and endangered species recovery, and our municipal golf courses can be improved. That's why nothing could be more prudent than turning Sharp Park into a national park: It protects the environment, it improves access to our open spaces and it's good for the game.
This article has been corrected since it appeared in print editions.
EPA limits pesticide use near salmon waters...Associated Press
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/09/12/MNGG19LQN2.DTL&type=printable
Seattle - -- The Environmental Protection Agency announced new measures to protect endangered and threatened Pacific salmon on Friday, limiting three pesticides commonly used on farms.
The restrictions apply to the use of chlorpyrifos, diazinon and malathion near salmon waters in California, Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
The chemicals interfere with salmon's sense of smell, making it harder for them to find food, avoid predators and return to native waters to spawn, according to federal biologists.
The new regulations come after anti-pesticide groups and salmon fishermen sued the federal government in 2001 for not considering the impact of pesticides on federally protected salmon and steelhead.
The new rules prohibit the use of the pesticides within a range of 100 feet and 1,000 feet of salmon waters, depending on size of the river or stream and other criteria.
It's a major step forward, but "we're concerned that EPA's alternative won't be enough to keep these poisons out of salmon waters," said Joshua Osborne-Klein, an attorney for Earthjustice, the public-interest law firm in Seattle that brought the case.
The three chemicals are banned from household use, but tens of millions of pounds are still applied on many fruits, vegetables, cotton and livestock to control termites, mosquitoes, flies and other pests.
Heather Hansen, executive director of Washington Friends of Farms and Forests, said the new rules will make it tougher for farmers and growers to control damaging pests.
Tribe prevails in air quality fight with Mich....JOHN FLESHER, AP Environmental Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/11/financial/f160358D13.DTL&type=printable
Traverse City, Mich. (AP) -- A federal appeals court has ruled against Michigan in a nearly 15-year dispute with a Wisconsin-based Indian tribe over air quality standards.
Michigan challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's decision in 2008 to give the Forest County Potawatomi Community's reservation the highest level of protection against air pollution.
The EPA's action followed years of fruitless negotiations between Michigan and the tribe, although the tribe reached a separate deal with Wisconsin.
Michigan officials say the EPA used a flawed process of making the air quality designation, which they contend will create complications for the state's air quality control programs.
But the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Michigan's complaint Wednesday, saying the state lacked standing to contest the case.
Good day for mountains...The Thin Green Line
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/green/detail?entry_id=47371
The EPA opted this morning to review 90 percent all requested mountaintop removal mining permits because they violate the Clean Water Act. Moutaintop removal involves blowing up a mountain to get to the coal, then dumping the rubble in streams.
The Army Corps of Engineers now has 60 days to revise the permits and address EPA's concerns.
In a statement, EPA head Lisa Jackson said:
The administration pledged earlier this year to improve review of mining projects that risked harming water quality. Release of this preliminary list is the first step in a process to assure that the environmental concerns raised by the 79 permit applications are addressed and that permits issued are protective of water quality and affected ecosystems.
Environmentalists are pleased, but insist that the practice should be banned outright. A statement from Michael Brune, the executive director of S.F.-based Rainforest Action Network, read:
Hopefully the Administration sees that the risks to health and environment from blowing up mountains are not worth the 7 percent of coal we get from mountaintop removal mining. While the EPA took an important step today by holding dozens of mountaintop mining permits, this is only a temporary step. Congress has the power to stop this tragic practice by a swift passage of the Appalachian Restoration Act.
If you want to see mountaintop removal mining outlawed, use this template to write to Lisa Jackson and Nancy Sutley, of the Council on Environmental Quality.
Indybay
Sierra Club Urges Legislators to Vote No on the Delta Water Package...Dan Bacher
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/11/18621627.php
The Sierra Club California today sent out an urgent action alert asking its members and others to call and email their Legislators to oppose the Delta Water Package and and $12 Million Water Bond that Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg is trying to push through the Capitol by this evening.
Sierra Club Urges Legislators to Vote No on the Delta Water Package!...Dan Bacher
The Sierra Club California today sent out an urgent action alert asking its members and others to call and email their Legislators to oppose the Delta Water Package and and $12 Million Water Bond that Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg is trying to push through the Capitol by this evening.
"With less than 24 hours to go before their scheduled adjournment, the California Legislature will consider a complex Delta water package, along with a budget-busting water bond," according to Jim Metropolous of the Sierra Club. "Unfortunately, the details of the package and the bond are changing by the minute," a "Whatever gets passed by the Legislature in the next 48 hours will have very little consideration by the Legislators themselves and virtually no public input."
The Sierra Club urges people to call their legislators today and tell them not to "rush through a bad policy." The Club has joined an amazing array of fishing groups, environmental organizations, Delta farmers, California Indian Tribes, northern California water agencies and Delta cities and counties in opposition to legislation that serves as a road map to the peripheral canal.
"Legislative leaders have joined five separate bills into a package that will supposedly help restore the Delta and improve water supply reliability," said Metropolous. "The bills are SB 12 (Simitian), AB 39 (Huffman), AB 49 (Feuer), SB 229 (Pavley), and SB 458 (Wolk). Senator Steinberg’s intent is to finalize the bills and have full Senate and Assembly floor votes on the entire package before the Legislature is scheduled to adjourn on September 11 yet many key provisions of the bills have yet to be fully fleshed out."
"While we desperately need a solution, we cannot sacrifice getting the solution 'right' for getting it 'done.' Please call your legislators NOW and ask them to not rush water policy that will do more harm than good. The vote on these crucially important matters is hours away!" Metropolous stated.
The organization lists six major reasons why Legislators should vote now on the water package:
1. The current Delta package puts Californians on the hook for a lot of money without any guarantee that the policy will make conditions in the Delta and its estuaries from declining further.
2. The current Delta package does not fix the fundamental issues with existing law that compromises and continues to endanger Delta fisheries.
3. The current Delta package adds another layer of bureaucracy with poorly defined authority to implement needed solutions.
4. The Delta package currently lacks any way to fund what it hopes to achieve. There is no financing piece currently included. This package may include a bond costing over $10 billion in a time when the State struggles to balance the budget and issues IOU's to pay its bills.
5. To meet the Governor's demands, any financing piece will include taxpayer dollars to build dams or a peripheral canal without any oversight by the Legislature. Meaning unnecessary dams will take money away from education and health care services or other environmental needs.
6. This is not a statewide solution for California's water problems. This package only provides water reliability for corporate agriculture in the San Joaquin and for State Water Contractors like Metropolitan Water District and Westlands.
"Please call your Senator and Assemblymember right now and tell them to vote NO on a package that costs a lot of money and does nothing for the environment or for communities without safe drinking water," added Metropolous. "The vote on these crucially important matters is hours away!"
To call your Legislator through the Sierra Club website, go to: https://secure2.convio.net/sierra/site/Advocacy?alertId=2893&pg=makeACall&autologin=true To send emails to your Senators and Assemblymembers, go to: http://www.calsport.org
Oppose Delta Water Package and $12 Billion Water Bond..Dan Bacher
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/09/11/18621614.php
Below is an ultra-urgent action alert from Robert Johnson of Californians Against the Canal that I urge you to participate in RIGHT NOW to stop the Delta water package, a road map to the peripheral canal, from going through the Legislature today. Below that is a link to my article on alternet.org about the Grassroots Uprising against Senator Darrell Steinberg's mad rush to push the water bill package through the Legislature. The peripheral canal would be approximately the width and length of the Panama Canal. We don't need a Panama Canal North! Please circulate this alert widely!
This $12.4 billion bond bill - yes - General Obligation Bond bill -- is just not what California needs now. Not only does the bill provide no explicit protections for the estuary, this give the Governor power to appoint ALL 7 Delta Stewardship Council Members! This group has the power of Kings. The bill will elevate junior water rights holders in the desert - the west side of the San Joaquin Valley from Los Banos all the way to Bakersfield -- to equal those of people and farms proximate to the SF Bay Delta!
This is a rushed bond package that was heavily influenced by lobbyists for the BILLIONAIRE water districts, Westlands Water District, Delta Mendota Water Authority, and the Kern County Water Authority, who just booked a $77 million water sale and profited from most of the money. Please take 3 minutes and follow instructions below email ALL assembly and senate members. Thanks!
Oppose Delta Water Package and $12 Billion Water Bond
Send letters to all legislators with 6 easy clicks
Restore the Delta, CSPA, Californians against the Canal and others are asking you to take special action on behalf of protecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.
Dear Friends,
Whether you are a concerned citizen, environmentalist, Delta farmer, member of the SF Bay Delta business community, commercial/recreational fisherman-gal or outdoor sports enthusiast, the current water policy and bond package if implemented will deal the final death blow to the our beloved Delta, the largest estuary in the western hemisphere.
The vote on these crucially important matters is hours away. That is why we are asking each and every one of you to send the following letter drafted by the Environmental Water Caucus to our California Assembly and Senate members.
The text of the letter can be found at the following clicks. You need to fill it out six times to send to all of California's legislators. Please do this!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1750
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1751
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1752
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1753
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1754
http://citizenspeak.org/node/1755
Sincerely,
Robert Johnson, Jr.
Californians against the Canal
http://www.StopCanal.org
Push for Peripheral Canal in California Ignites Grassroots Uprising
http://www.alternet.org/water/142537/push_for_peripheral_canal_
in_california_ignites_grassroots_uprising_/
CNN Money
3 more down: Bank failure tally hits 92
Regulators close banks in Illinois, Minnesota and Washington at a cost of more than $2 billion to the FDIC...Ben Rooney
http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/11/news/economy/bank_failure/
index.htm?postversion=2009091207
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Regulators closed one large bank in Illinois on Friday in one of the biggest collapses of the year, while two other smaller failures pushed the 2009 total to 92.
Customers of the banks, however, are protected. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which has insured bank deposits since the Great Depression, covers customer accounts up to $250,000.
In Illinois, 16 banks have failed so far this year, including Chicago-based Corus Bank, which was closed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday.
Corus, which operated 11 branches, had deposits of about $7 billion and total assets of around $7 billion assets, the FDIC said.
MB Financial Bank, which is also based in Chicago, will acquire all of the failed bank's deposits and agreed to buy $3 billion of its assets. Much of Corus' assets are condo loans backed by developments, and the FDIC is expected to sell them off within the next 30 days.
"This is our third FDIC transaction this year and we are pleased to provide a safe and secure home at MB for Corus customers," said Mitchell Feiger, chief executive of MB Financial, in a statement.
Two smaller banks were also shuttered on Friday night.
In Minnesota, Brickwell Community Bank, which operated one branch in Woodbury, was closed by state officials.
Mitchell, S.D.-based CorTrust Bank will take over Brickwell's $63 million in deposits and will purchase "essentially all" of its $72 million in assets, the FDIC said.
And in Washington state, Venture Bank of Lacy was closed by state regulators.
First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company in Raleigh, N.C., took over all of the deposits of Venture Bank.
Venture Bank had 18 branches that will reopen Saturday as branches of First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company. As of July 28, Venture Bank had assets of $970 million and deposits of about $903 million. First-Citizens Bank agreed to purchase some $874 million of the assets.
So far this year, the number of banks closed by regulators is nearly four times the number of banks that failed in 2008, and it's the highest tally since 1992, when 181 banks failed.
The majority of this year's failures have been small, regional banks that fell victim to losses on real estate and consumer loans as unemployment surged to a 25-year high.
The wave of failures is expected to continue, raising concerns about the size of the FDIC's fund.
The cost of Friday's bank failures to the FDIC is an estimated $2 billion.
Over the next five years, the FDIC expects roughly $70 billion in losses due to the failure of insured institutions.